Keeping a blog up to date - and interesting

I spent a fair bit of time on New England New State Movement - consolidated posts linked to the fight for New England self government because I wanted to make the post as useful as possible. However, in doing so I became a more than a tad dissatisfied.

I found the posts that I had written too fragmentary to properly support the story I wanted to tell. I also became dissatisfied with the standard and variety of some of the posts that I had written.

I know that all bloggers struggle sometimes in keeping their posting up to date, especially where more than one blog is involved. There is then a temptation, one that becomes especially strong when posting is behind, to rush stories just to keep the posting up.

As is true of the web in general, content is king when it comes to a successful blog. I have found two things to be of importance here.

The first is momentum. When I am posting regularly I find it much easier to generate new ideas, to find things to say, because the posts themselves generate ideas.

The second important thing is depth. Where there are a number of posts on a topic that together tell a story or provide information in a linked way, then there is greater value for a reader. Depth also encourages further posts as a way of filling gaps.

Depth takes time and effort. At first the stories are fragmented, isolated. Only with time does the depth build so that past stories come to paint a picture rather than isolated blobs of colour.

Looking back, I can see a slow upward trend in traffic. That's good. But looking now, I can see the gaps. I think that I need to spend more time filling some of those gaps if I am to really achieve what I want.

Will this make the blog interesting? I don't know. Interest is always in the eye of the beholder. I suppose the only way that I can measure interest is through traffic.