Quality over Quantity
I recently read Grace’s blog updates post over at a Texan in Tokyo. There was a lot of stuff that didn’t relate to my blog, as I don’t draw comics (I really can’t draw that well anyway), and I don’t have all the free time of the day to dedicate to my blog. and other stuff as I am in college, trying for the Dean’s List, and have a job I work 25 hours a week at.
Yes, I did draw this.
Now before you all jump down my throat about me saying she has all kinds of free time, let me explain why I phrased it that way. She is a real grown up with no school to worry about and a real job, which is her writing, comicing, blogging, YouTube-ing, and other stuff. That is her job. I really respect her for it too, because it takes a lot of work to create a job like that where you can actually earn money.
I’m a halfway grown up. I have three jobs to worry about (well four if you count blogging). I have school and I’m shooting for the Dean’s List. That requires a lot of work! I have to read approximately 75 pages of textbooks per night, revise and study notes, study Japanese, and take pictures of everything (photography class). I also am working around 25 hours per week. I started my own photography business and then throw blogging and all the social media-ness of it on top and I have no time compared to her.
A photo posted by Niki Gordon (@nikigordon) on
Back to my point.
One of the things she mentioned was quality over quantity.
As new bloggers, one of the pieces of advice that we read everywhere is quantity, quantity, quantity. People say that new bloggers should post at least three times a week to keep their traffic up.
I’ve always disagreed with that because I cannot write quality anything that frequently. I have to put a couple hours into it, at least, if I want it to turn out semi decent. That’s why I have always posted once a week.
What Grace said really hit home for me though.
I would rather spend six hours on a great post than two hours each on three mediocre posts.
As a person who has always strove to hone her writing skills I totally get it. I have posted, quite frankly, a ton of crappy posts that I’m not really that proud of because I was pushing myself to post something twice (it shows once a week, but it was really twice a week and then I went back to change the dates) a week to be “prolific.”
I didn’t put any time into those posts and, honestly, it shows.
Some of my favorite posts and the ones, like the one about Death Valley, I am most proud of took four to five hours from drafting, editing, revising, to publication.
So, from here on out, I am going to write when I feel inspired or need to share some life changing event. I am not going to write to fill some quota that I need to meet to be prolific. If I choose quality over quantity, eventually people will come and people will keep coming back because they know I write good shit.
A photo posted by Niki Gordon (@nikigordon) on
So with that, I bid you, my lovely readers, ado. (I’m not really sure what that means except for too-dah-loo!)
What are your thoughts on the subject? Would you go with quality over quantity or quantity over quality?
If you have never heard of Grace or a Texan in Tokyo before, you should definitely check her out! She is very inspirational at times, like in this video, which has to be the best video I have seen on YouTube.
I recently read a post recently by ‘Never Ending Footsteps’ where she posted every single day for the whole of October. She said it actually hurt her stats! People were getting fed up of the constant read my new post read my new post! I can see how as a newbie it may give a further stretch the more you write but I’m happy just publishing 2 new posts each week 🙂
That’s really interesting that posting every day hurt her stats. I wish I could post more frequently than one or two a month, but right now, it’s the balance I have with being a student, eventually my goal is to get to 1-2 posts per week, but with all the paper I am writing, it is just not possible. I love words, but I get so burnt out of seeing words sometimes.
Hope you had a fantastic weekend 🙂