Making A Long-Term Commitment To Blogging… Don’t Break The Chain

October 4, 2007 | By Jason Kaneshiro | Filed Under Features, How I Blog

As a result of writing for the Blog Herald, I’ve become a regular reader. Last week, Lorelle wrote the article “What Does it Really Take To Blog?” that had me thinking. So this week, I thought I’d offer my own, personal answer to Lorelle’s question.

Q: What does it really take to blog?

A: The ability to make a long-term commitment.

Much blogging advice contains an over-arching theme of preparing for the “long haul.”

Now, what do I mean and what does this have to do with a chain?  Read on.

The “long haul” is something you might refer to as persistence, perseverance, tenacity, or stick-to-it-ness. Everybody’s favorite ProBlogger Darren Rowse writes:

“I see many bloggers start blogs with dollar signs in their eyes, thinking that they’ll be earning big dollars very quickly, only to find that it takes many months (or years) to get a blog running to its potential.”

To give you an idea of the time commitment:

It’s not until a thousand plus posts are indexed by search engines that the “long tail” really starts kicking in. But the difference between five and a thousand posts - in my experience - is merely a commitment to blogging over a long period of time. It’s not unlike dieting, saving for retirement, or training for a marathon.

Here’s a good tip towards making the commitment easier. Brad Isaac wrote a post for Lifehacker divulging Jerry Seinfeld’s “productivity secret” that holds a key:

[Seinfeld] said the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way… was to write every day. But his advice was better than that. He had a gem of a leverage technique he used on himself and you can use it to motivate yourself - even when you don’t feel like it.

He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker.

He said for each day that I do my task of writing, I get to put a big red X over that day. “After a few days you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job next is to not break the chain.”

“Don’t break the chain,” he said again for emphasis.

Writing every day? Hey, that sounds familiar. Instead of writing jokes, we’re writing posts.

If you can make a long-term commitment, and can find inspiration in the “don’t break the chain” challenge to write, write, write - I think the odds are in your favor.


About the author: Jason Kaneshiro is a relative "newbie" blogger and the author of Webomatica, covering technology, movies, and music. He lives in the Bay Area and works in web / instructional design in San Francisco.

© Copyright 2007 The Blog Herald | Submit post to Blogosphere News | More articles by Jason Kaneshiro


Comments

6 Responses to “Making A Long-Term Commitment To Blogging… Don’t Break The Chain”

  1. menjil on October 4th, 2007 8:19 am

    how to make my own website…and how to make it very familiar to everyone.???

  2. Lorelle VanFossen on October 4th, 2007 9:24 pm

    Menjil: I’m sure Jason will answer, but I tell my students and clients that when a visitor arrives on your blog or site, it needs to be recognizable - the visitor needs to know in an instant that this is the place that has the answer they are looking for.

    What that looks like depends upon what answer you provide.

    Jason: Well done. This is wonderful. Thank you taking the conversation in the right direction with the best answer. And welcome to the club!

  3. David Kierznowski on October 4th, 2007 9:53 pm

    I totally agree Jay. The challenge I find is getting the balance right between part-time blogging and the rest of life :)

    Nice one.

  4. Jack @ The Tech Teapot on October 6th, 2007 12:28 pm

    1000 posts…Oh well, only 836 to go :)

  5. Improve Your Blog and Web Site - Need to Read Posts #5 | The Fatty Talks by Adam Hirsch on October 9th, 2007 10:31 pm

    [...] Making A Long-Term Commitment To Blogging… Don’t Break The Chain (Blog Herald) [...]

  6. Blog changes « In a Minute Ago on October 19th, 2007 8:42 pm

    [...] task when Lorelle VanFossen in Blogging for the long haul pointed to Jason Kaneshiro’s post Making A Long-Term Commitment To Blogging… Don’t Break The Chain. Jason argues that successful blogging is about [...]

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