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Scoble Taking A Break

August 13th, 2007

Well, it looks like even the best bloggers deal with blogging fatigue, and Robert Scoble has said he’s taking some time off from his blog.

Scoble’s writes of my most-read blogs (so says the Google Reader stats) and I consider him a good example of an “honest” blogger. Meaning, whether or not I agree with his ideas is besides the point, as he’s always up front with his readers about what’s on his mind. I recall his opinions regarding disclosure for instance. He’s also super passionate about technology – he doesn’t pretend to care about the stuff he gets excited about.

But blog fatigue is something I’ve experienced myself. I wrote about it on the Blog Herald last week. I’ve even considered calling it quits before.

If I could put my finger on one tip to avoid blog fatigue this week, it’s that chasing traffic can be addicting and can lead to burn out. I have in the past employed a strategy I jokingly call “Techmaiming“: Watching TechMeme, noting the first few stories that are on top of the page, and trying to pump out a post in half an hour that links to them before said story falls off, in hopes that you get a link and a nice hit of traffic. Yeah, I’ve done this. And yeah, I don’t do it as often as I did before, because I was getting burnt out writing three posts a day… and the next day I’d feel I had to write another three.

This observation does kind of get back to “honest blogging” again. I find I’m less fatigued when I just write about crud I’m really interested and passionate about.

So to Robert, I appreciate your honesty and being up front with your readers about blog fatigue. Take a nice break – especially if it means a more passionate return to blogging later.

There are many, many things more important in life than what’s on Valleywag or who said what at Gnomedex. My Google Reader will patiently await the next update in your RSS feed.

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  • Techmaiming -- heh, heh, dude, that's *me* :)

    As for Scoble wanting to take a break, I'm not sure I'm entirely sympathetic. There's very little of we all do online that "makes a difference" -- not to say it doesn't exist, but for most of us its just fun. For someone in the business for so long its a bit surprising that Scoble hasn't had this epiphany yet. Or, perhaps, like most of us, he requires a bit of reminding every now and again.

    I know I blog to blow off steam and to have a laugh -- because I *know* I don't take it too *too* seriously. But imagine if it was your life? Yeah, I'd have angst too.

    Cheers
    t @ dji
  • Hmmm, great point. I obviously didn't even consider the fact that many of us don't blog full time as a profession as does Scoble.

    And the fact that many of us blog as a hobby has saved me more than once - if I were required to write only about technology to pay the bills, I'd have a given up a while ago. Whenever I want to blow off some steam and take a break I can write about Valley of the Dolls or Battlestar Galactica :)
  • As one who does treat this as a full time type of gig I threw in my two cents as well

    http://www.winextra.com/2007/08/13/gotta-hate-i...
  • "Techmaiming" lol! yep--guilty as charged!

    I've taken blogging breaks from time to time--because I'm busy with a project or something else. Breaks on the weekends are important for me too. It's nice to feel the sunshine on my face, go for a walk, remember what people look like ;-)
  • Scoble is notoriously thin-skinned. He takes one of these "breaks" every time he gets disillusioned about the blogosphere (most recently because Valleywag got up his nose). More evidence, if we needed it, that even the A-list bloggers aren't journalists and shouldn't be thought of as such. Can you imagine a reporter at the Wall Street Journal taking a "break" from his job because he was the target of nastiness?
  • Now that is a good point. I'm obviously forgetting that some bloggers actually do it as a full time profession. I would definitely be treating the blog thing much differently if doing it for a company vs. my own business, or a hobby. Taking it much more seriously, which means "taking a break" would be much harder to do or justify.
  • I like Robert Scoble. I wasn't a regular reader of his blog because his topic wasn't of much interest to me but I did respect the way he carried himself in the blogosphere.

    Unfortunately blogging hiatuses tend to differ from ordinary hiatuses in that they usually don't end with the person returning...
  • Well, everyone's different. If Scoble says he needs a break, then he needs one. I appreciate his honesty. It is better to tell your readership what is going on instead of letting them guess... or, maybe?
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