A person can only do so much to change their nature. After that, you have to figure out how to be in the world as who you are.
My name is Elisabeth and I am an introvert. Today I want to talk to you for a moment about blogging as an introvert. I often look at my Twitter and Facebook feeds and the frequency of posts by other bloggers and wonder if anyone will even hear me in this tree-filled forest of posting maniacs. Does that happen to you, too?
I have pondered and struggled with this topic ever since I started blogging.
How often should I publish new posts on my blog? Inability to keep up with frequency of posting is one of the main reasons that new bloggers drop out of the cyber-community, sadly, usually before they ever begin to discover its real benefits. I've found (and researched to be true) a few points about blogging frequency that I'd like to share, though, that will hopefully encourage those of you other blogging introverts to keep at it.
Firstly, you may be tempted to set yourself a rigid and ambitious goal for posting based on the "Well, everyone else is doing it" principle. If you're a machine of discipline, this can be beneficial, and it's likely how you approach most aspects of your life. Good for you! For the rest of us, let's set a goal of posting at a schedule that is realistic and attainable.
Don't start out at seven posts a week! Even you extroverts may find out that (shockingly) you don't have that much to say after the first week or so! Consistency is important, so shoot for something you can achieve at first (a couple of times a week to start) and then ratchet it up from there based on reader engagement and consistent content creation.
Consistency does not necessarily mean regularity. We writers are artists, after all. We needn't always post at the exact same time on the exact same day every week. Give yourself a break! Blogging should be fun! If it's not, you're missing the point. (Same goes for writing, actually. Huh... that's nice to hear from myself today.)
Now, more posting means more traffic on your blog, and that's a good thing. Search engines love new content and your place in the SEO indexes will rise. But you have to consider your goals. If your goal is for your blog to show up on the first page of a Google search for "zombie apocalypse", then get cracking and make sure you mention the zombie apocalypse no fewer than 2 times and no more than 5 in each post (too many times and your posts will drop off because of key word stuffing... interesting, huh?).
For those of you who are interested in QUALITY of post content... less means more. The better your content, the more likely you are to hook new readership and engage your current readers. This is good news for introverts! We can be thoughtful and move at a slightly more slow pace and still have an active, engaging blog. You'll have slightly less, but infinitely more meaningful, traffic on your posts. Yay!
Thing is, just posting on your blog isn't going to get you the traffic and engagement you want. If you want people to connect with what you're saying in the blogging world you have to engage with them, too. (This is where the introverts out there cringe.)
Here's the good news. Especially in this community of amazing and inspirational fellow writers, everyone is super awesome and supportive! When you see an interesting post, comment on that post. Don't be shy. If your response is thoughtful and polite, the author will be ever so grateful and will likely return the favor! And when you run up against the inevitable trolls (those that are neither thoughtful nor polite), the amazing community that's out there will come to your rescue. I've seen it happen.
Blogging can be an introvert's dream. It's a great way to engage in the dialogue relevant to your interests, and can be as high- or low-impact as you want it to be. So dive in! And don't stress about "doing it right." Just be yourself!
