To Blog or To Clog, That is THE Question

Recently, I've hit a blogging dry spell and haven't been posting as often as I would like. It's not that I am on vacation like Ed Silverman (Pharmalot) who hasn't posted anything since last Friday.

It's just very slow this time of year. There are not that many news stories and not many people at work reading blogs when they should be working. So, the effort hardly seems worth it!

Many bloggers post at least once per day and more frequently, even during the last week of summer and even if they have nothing to say!

Other bloggers prefer to post only when they have something to say. At least that's what Scot Donaton, Publisher of AdAdge would like to see.

What I don't get is why bloggers seem so hell-bent on establishing a clear set of rules around what does and does not constitute acceptable blogging practices. One of those being the idea that you need to update your blog at least once a day, preferably more.

Says who? Posting for the sake of posting is absurd. I read many blogs, and too often the daily update boils down to something like, "Had a cup of coffee this morning, and it was good," or, "Did you see that piece on the 'Today' show? What was that about?" or "Hey, I've been asked to keynote such and such conference; come see me there and tell all your friends, and by the way I wrote a book and you should buy it." I'm exaggerating, but not by much.

There's a lot of sharp, intelligent insightful commentary on blogs that offer a unique perspective. But the pressure to update them constantly (or face disapproving tsk-tsks) means there's also a lot of meaningless crap and babble, not to mention endless, empty interpretations of news stories that have already received saturation coverage elsewhere.

David Langan, a commenter from NYC, had this to say about that:

Blogs have taught me that my mother was quite right about people who talk all the time... they almost always have nothing important to say. I'm sooo tired of blogs and self-important bloggers. Kudos to you, and long live the clog. Hopefully you're on the front edge of a welcome trend.

Hmmm...sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Read Scot's entire rant here ("Welcome to My Clog").