Jelle Druyts

I'm a little late to the game (as always), but I don't agree with Robert Scoble that you "need" more than two posts a month if you want visitors to come back. While this would likely be true in normal web-scenarios (you really don't want to check a site a few times a week to find that there's still nothing new), I totally disagree when syndication comes into play: the whole point is to get notified if there is something new. If I know the content will be good (which is the ultimate blogging premise Scoble also points out in a more recent entry), I really don't care if that person didn't post anything the last 3 months. Hell, I've even subscribed to people who've hardly posted anything just because I'd be interested to hear what they had to say if they finally did If they start posting bad content though, I'll unsubscribe. Simple as that.

That's the power of the reader, and it truly matches the power of the good old remote control. If people don't like your shows, they'll zap off onto another channel, your ratings will go down, your advertising will go down, and eventually you'll be spending your hard earned bucks on a show you're only watching yourself - the ultimate narcist declaration of self-love and probably the reason you started your blog in the first place

Furthermore, Scoble failed to mention the other extreme: posting too much will turn people off as well. I'm actually not as interested in his blog anymore as before, and it mainly has to do with his linkblog. While it's a real good idea and I'm sure the content over there is good, I simply don't have the time to follow up on his link dumps there because of content overflow. And since most of his traffic gets redirected into his link blog, his main content is going down - which is a bad thing.

I also tend to steer clear from "linking out". Sure I read a lot, and I come across interesting stuff on the web. Take the Channel 9 video of C-Omega for example (wicked cool language, I really want to give it a go), or Jonathan de Halleux' Introduction to Autonomous Agents for .NET (whow, I want to start modelling traffic jams now), or Roy Dictus' excellent post on Namespace Hierarchies (I'm with you on those guidelines brother), or Sven Cipido's post on the Data Access Application Block (it's great to see you sharing your knowledge as you learn). Really good stuff, truly, but nothing I have an explicit opinion about which adds to any discussion.

I wish I had the time to try it all and chime in to the discussion, but I simply don't - so why bother you with it? I fear the echo chamber and the implicit viral link permeation it brings. I want my readers (both of them) to come back because of what I have to say, not because of how well I can read and advertise other people's thoughts. So unless I can add my personal opinion about something, I won't simply provide you with a link to something I found interesting. While I agree that linking out can be a great way to discover new bloggers through "trusted sources", I made a clear choice not to follow along with the trend because of this.

So am I a blog ho'? I guess not. But I still hope you'll stay subscribed...