Be interesting or be quiet

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13 Jun 2003

I’m removing lots of blogs from my news aggregator right now. Since I have over 200 sources in my aggregator, it’s becoming difficult to manage. So I’m deleting a bunch of feeds.

Most of the feeds I’m unsubscribing from have some interesting things to say. But they also have lots of uninteresting things to say. And most of the time, the uninteresting things are posted more often than the interesting things. The signal to noise ratio is very low.

I would rather subscribe to a blog that posts a brilliant thought once a month than a blog that posts inanities twice a day. In business, if you have nothing to say on your blog, don’t say anything. Don’t fill your blog with inane banter just because you can’t think of anything to say. Your audience won’t appreciate it. Of course, the same could be said for personal blogs, but the subscriber count for personal blogs isn’t as vital.

A common complaint in the workplace is the people that send emails with no redeeming value. It’s so easy to send an email or reply to a message that many people don’t put much thought into what they write. As weblogs make it easier to post your thoughts online, make sure that you don’t fall into the same trap.

Jesper
June 14, 2003 1:58 AM

I tend to post really woozy things now and then, but I don't go back and delete it except for in extreme cases. It's a way of dealing with my - granted, receding, but still present - shyness.

jon
June 14, 2003 2:05 PM

i'm new to blogging, and definitely there are those who post 50 dumb things...i'm the kind of guy, however, that is really interested in what some others may think is "mundane", so i actually spend time reading some things that seem trivial. as for my personal blog--it's a personal blog that may have some redeeming technical value from time to time, but yeah, for me blogging is a therapy of a sort, :) a way to get past my tendency to hold back details about different things. i've found that to an extent it's helped me in "real life". so for you, it may be inane (not saying you have even read my blog let alone consider it inane), but for me, very useful. :) j.

jon
June 14, 2003 2:07 PM

dangit. preview is your friend...."50 dumb things" should read "50 dumb things per day".

Adam Kalsey
June 14, 2003 2:07 PM

You are blogging for yourself, not for other people. So feel free to write whatever you want. But if you are writing for an audience, you want to make sure the audience gets what they are there for.

Trackback from Pseudo Design
June 14, 2003 5:28 PM

This guy is a genius...and why content is king

Excerpt: Kalsey is a genius. For anyone who doesn't have trackback capabilities on their server they can use this handy tool to help themselves get in the game. First it was the CSS Tabs now this...envy sucks :) Reading another one...

Trackback from Library Stuff
June 14, 2003 8:05 PM

Too Many Feeds?

Excerpt: Adam blogs about taking numerous feeds out of his aggregator due to the low "signal to noise" ratio as well as bloggers who blog just to blog and have nothing truly interesting to say.Its all relative I guess. The blogger may actually believe that the ...

Trackback from Dane Carlson's Weblog
June 15, 2003 2:51 PM

Be interested or unsubscribe

Excerpt: Adam Kalsey blogged, "Don’t fill your blog with inane banter just because you can’t think of anything to say." I disagree. The great thing about weblogs is that there is one for everyone. If you aren't interested, unsubscribe. Update: Adam...

tbit
June 17, 2003 8:51 PM

He has a valid point when dealing with non-personal blogs, and that does seem to be what he is talking about. If you build a blog pertaining to a certain subject (e.g. CSS and Web Development) then people are coming to you for your insights and finds pertaining to those topics. If you happen to post one CSS related post surrounded by 14 posts about your cat, your new car and how much The Matrix: Reloaded sucked then you are probably going to lose readers. It is also bound to lower interest in your personal blog but who really cares then...

Nicole Simon
June 20, 2003 3:13 PM

I just - again - had a discussion with someone "why I don't really blog but pretend to do so." I do blog - but only if I find something interessting and not because "oh it is already three days ago I posted my last entry." Thanks for this article. I will use it's url to 'these' kind of people to make it clear to them: It's about quality. Not quantity. Nicole

Janie
April 4, 2006 1:09 PM

What more can I say?

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