Tuesday, March 19, 2024
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Back from a Blogging Break

I’ve been authoring this blog for a couple of years now.  The first 6 months I was just learning and didn’t post regularly but when I started consulting I saw this blog as a way for me to build an online resume and for the past year and a half I’ve been cranking out an average of 2 posts per week.

I recently gave up my consulting business to work for a company (more on that in another post) and decided to give myself a break from blogging for a few weeks to see how it felt and decide whether or not I should continue to invest in it now that it isn’t an integral part of my day to day work.

Here’s what I’ve learned after a month-long blogging break:

Blogging takes up a lot of my time – I never thought I spent that much time blogging until I stopped. About 3 times a week I found myself jotting down notes for potential blog posts but frankly the work involved in getting up to speed in a new job meant I didn’t have the time to craft a post that seemed meaty enough to publish.

Blogging helps me clarify things – Like talking to a friend about something you’ve been thinking about, the act of putting together a post, forces me to take things I’ve been working on and lay them together in a more structured way than I do at work.  It’s helped me clarify my own thinking around complicated topics like positioning and messaging. That in turn, makes it easier for me to explain those concepts to folks that don’t have a marketing background (which as any marketer knows, is a big part of the job).

I’ve learned a lot from the folks that comment here – When you talk to your friend about something that you’ve been thinking about, sometimes she agrees with you and sometimes she says “What are you nuts!?”  Similarly, I’ve learned a lot from the reactions and comments in this blog.  Heck, even the lack of comments is instructional.  I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t work when you are trying to describe certain marketing concepts and that has made me a better communicator.

So I’ve decided to keep going on this blog.  I’ll likely do 1 post a week instead of 2 but will make those a bit meatier and more practical now that I’m back to being a hands-on VP Marketing rather than a marketer doling out advice.  I’ve got a good post on metrics that I will publish tomorrow so please come back and read it and let me know what you think.    And as always, if you have any other feedback, feel free to be yourself in the comments  🙂

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24 COMMENTS

  1. Welcome back, April.
    I´m one of your readers in Spain (maybe the most avid) and repeatedly recommended your blog to my own customers/readers.
    I agree with you about the reasons why one should continue blogging even when working for a company. I’d only add that in my case committing to regular posting forces me to learn new things
    I’m glad that you are back.
    Antonio.

  2. April,

    Great to hear you are going to keep at it! Keeping a blog running while managing a full time gig is no trivial task but I do think has a lot of long term benefits.

    Really appreciate all the knowledge you are sharing.

    Josh

  3. April – Welcome back and congratulations on the new opportunity from the product management and marketing professionals that enjoy your content, originality and honesty.

    For those who’ve met or talked to you, we’ll miss the occasional calls and the laughs and topics that make you think.

    We look forward to your weekly posts and insight on the new role.

  4. Echoing your points: writing’s a great way to clarify my thinking, since putting ideas to (virtual) paper uncovers muddy logic.
    Twice per week is an impressive pace: I’ve kept a slower pace with one Product Byte per month for the last ten years (where 1000 words/mo is less bloggish and more article-like). It’s thrilling to see the explosion of community and great ideas since then.

  5. I’m glad that you’re going to keep it going April. I know first hand how tough it is to keep going after moving into a new role. When I went to Dell, enough people knew me and my blog that making situational posts was very tough while keeping the politics smooth. For the first 18 months of PB, I was on FIRE, with a few posts per week. Now I’m lucky to do one per month. I’m starting to get more inspiration with my new role at Pragmatic Marketing since I have wider exposure to more people and their problems.

    TL;DR summary: great job, I feel your pain. Keep up the good work.

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