The Myth of the Perfect Post
By AndrewBoyd • Feb 24th, 2008 • Category: Blogging tips, Recent postsBlogging, like life, requires balance.
It is generally accepted that one pillar post is better than a hundred annoying one-liners.
I’m wondering if it is possible or even desirable to go beyond the pillar post and aim for absolute perfection. I know that there are people who hesitate to post something until they are perfectly happy with it - but there is a danger in this.
What is a pillar post?
I defined pillar posts by the effect they have:
A pillar post contributes something new that adds value to its niche.
Think of it as if you are a PhD candidate - you have to make some unique contribution to your chosen field. There is a time for me-too announcements, and a time for speedlinking, but sooner or later you need to create posts that contribute something of remarkable value within your niche.
How do you do this?
- Contributing something new to your niche is not as hard as it sounds - I use reframing to come up with something new, and you can too.
- Adding value to your niche is harder - I like the “what I wish I’d learnt before I got started” concept that Darren Rowse blogs about so well.
Is it better to write one perfect post than a thousand pillar posts? Or even ten?
Aiming for perfection
I’m making an assumption here that as a pillar post requires more effort than a quick paragraph, so a perfect post will require more effort than a pillar post.
In aiming for perfection, I believe that there is a danger in sitting on the idea for too long - constantly adding the results of research, refining arguments, multiple rewrites, peer review prior to release, polishing the sucker until your knuckles bleed.
Which is more sustainable?
What will get you more exposure in the long run? One perfect post or a dozen pillar posts? I believe that a dozen pillar posts, interspersed amongst a similar number of newsy notification posts over a couple of months, will bring you more readers than one perfect post. An RSS feed containing one perfect post is a very lonely thing - and as the perfect post ages, the blog will become a less attractive proposal.
Is it black and white?
…or can we aim for perfection while accepting that we will often fall short, and move on?
I believe that the only sane answer is to do your best as often as time allows, but above all keep writing. Breaking the writing habit is, in my opinion, the number one cause of blogging failure.
What do you think? If there was a Tao of Blogging, would it include words to the effect of “Be true to your highest ideal, by all means, but accept that you are human and sometimes you will not quite get it right?”.
AndrewBoyd is a consultant by day and blogger by night. He loves good food, good wine, and discussing faceted classification schemes with friends.
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Hi Andrew! Interesting and thought-provoking discussion, something I’ve asked myself on occasion so I appreciate your viewpoints on this.
Speaking for myself, I believe that not matter how many times we write and rewrite a post, we can always go back and look at it sometime later and wish we had said a little more, said it a little better etc.
No matter how well WE think we did on our posts, there’s going to be someone who will come along and decide it wasn’t worth one red cent. I just do my thing and people seem to enjoy it, ’cause my subscriber numbers keep going up so I must be doing something right.
It’s interesting, because the whole idea of perfection is rather subjective. What you might consider perfect, may not be my idea.
If I aimed for the perfect post I wouldn’t blog at all.
For me blogging needs to be spontaneous - I’m not writing a novel or a short story. For me it’s not so much about the writing as the communication.
I write as I speak - which might explain why sometimes I’m a little incoherent… but also could be my radio background - I’m used to the ephemeral.
Also I get distracted easily - attention span of a gen y - so to work and rework a post would drive me mental. I might re-edit it once it’s posted however.
You are quite right about don’t stop writing. A fatal move. If you stop you’ll never get to that ideal of the perfect post.
Hi Lin,
thank you for your comment. I think that “good enough for your current readers and keeps bringing in new ones” is the best that any of us can hope for - it depends on your idea of perfection, but to me that is as close as I could want.
Best regards, Andrew
Hi Bettina,
thank you for your comment - and I agree, perfection is subjective - to a news blog fan timeliness and accuracy is perfection, to a muse blog fan it may be something that makes them think - and in all things, relevance to the reader is everything. I can appreciate Donna’s love of interesting tapestry techniques without wanting to learn them myself, but we share many other interests.
Best regards, Andrew
Hi cellobella,
thank you for your comment
Your readers like your style, and this is the proof that there is absolutely nothing with jumping around between ideas
Best regards, Andrew
G’day Andrew
I agree with general concept although I agree with Bettina about ‘what is a perfect post’? - that is why I like the term “pillar post”. Used intelligently, whilst perhaps not ‘perfect’, it sets you up for ‘follow up’ posts. What I often find annoying are the filler posts. The kind of totally irrelevant off genre posts about the weather or last argument you had with the other half.
A good pillar post can be referenced for quite a while. Campaigns are a good example. Write a good pillar post to start the campaign and build on it from there.
les
Hi Les,
thank you for your comment.
I agree - more pillar and less filler would make the blogosphere a better place.
The “last argument with the other half” works for some people - these are the bloggers who get readers talking about the pimple that grew on their backsides overnight
It works for them, and some of them are regular reads of mine, but as a group I agree that they can be a bit tedious.
Cheers, Andrew
HEY! It wasn’t a pimple on my arse it was a weird red veiny thing on my leg…..
Trying to think of a pillar post, or even a perfect post of mine….. I got nothing.
Bugger it, I will just drop my card
and go back to talking about bodily functions and annoying people.
Hi Kel,
thank you for your comment
What can I say? The coffee bean insertion thing made me think about exactly why I found the prospect of you doing that interesting… I am not sure I have an answer for that one, and I am pretty sure I shouldn’t be writing about it on my own blog
Some of your posts have been pillar posts - these are the ones that people keep coming back to.
Biobloggers who aren’t prepared to take their life by the gonads and give it a good shake on their blogs can be really boring - you are not those people, Kel. You are worth reading, every single post.
Best regards, Andrew
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[…] The Myth of the Perfect Post by http://www.onblogging.com.au - It is generally accepted that one pillar post is better than a hundred annoying one-liners. I’m wondering if it is possible or even desirable to go beyond the pillar post and aim for absolute perfection. Read More… […]