Let's All Publish Less Often
Cool? Cool.
Oh, hey. It’s been awhile. I feel like there tend to be two extremes when somebody hasn’t published in awhile. They’re either not doing well at all, or they’re doing really well. I’m grateful to say I’m in the latter camp. I’ve been busy with my family (had a baby who is awesome), work (I wrote about email marketing not too long ago), and local travel (Disneyland is very fun when you have a little kid who can enjoy it).
I’d been beating myself up over not publishing. And then sometime this weekend, maybe it was in between feedings and fielding the tantrum du jour set to the soundtrack of my email that doesn’t stop pinging*, I had decided enough was enough. There’s too much content, too many posts, too many newsletters, so much noise, and I now reject the feeling of guilt associated with not filling your inbox, dear reader. I unsubscribed from all my email newsletters except for two (Social Media Detox in which Nicole Tabak consistently curates interesting marketing-related links that I never stumble upon elsewhere, and Parent Data by Emily Oster so that I can keep up with child and parenting-related content that’s both backed by evidence and doesn’t make me feel like a shitty mom). To friends who noticed this, I’m sorry; it’s not you, it’s me… or maybe it is a little bit you but it’s not your “fault.” To friends who did not notice I unsubscribed, well, great, what a stupid way for me to highlight something you weren’t even paying attention to.
The thing is… I think just about all of us are posting too much. We’re oversharing too much, we’re (probably) not thinking enough before we hit that Publish button, and no, this has nothing to do with imposter syndrome. It’s just… there’s so. Much. Noise.
I think a lot of y’all are running on the hamster wheel of content. “70% good is better than 0% publishing! Feed the content beast. Consistency is key. Showing up every week doesn’t mean 100% every week. You’ve got to write to find your great ideas, not wait for your great ideas to come to your writing.”
And here’s where I’ll contradict myself. I agree with all of that. I agree that you can’t just wait for the lighting of a novel idea to strike you. You have to find it — and you find it through some combination of input and output. Taking in information and putting out other, smaller ideas.
But maybe… that output doesn’t need to be force fed into people’s inboxes. It can be written in your journal. You can come back to it later and reflect on it again. You can refine the thought and then publish it.
Fewer hot takes. More thoughtful thoughts. Say something when you’ve really got something to say.
(But you know, the real “answer” is to do what makes you happy. I am honestly so sick of internet fighting and I don’t intend to trigger anyone here, I’m just stating my opinion.)
As for me, that’s exactly what I’m going to do moving forward without feeling guilty about it. I really want this newsletter to be interesting, enjoyable, and worth your time. I’ll try to be more predictable about publishing, which will likely be once per month. And it might be more of a true “newsletter” format where I’ll share what I’m working on.
*I am aware of silencing notifications. This is just for rhetorical effect.
👩🏻💻 What I’m Working On
In the spirit of “what I’m working on,” here’s what I’ve been doing, where I’ve been,and where I’ll be.
MarketingProfs webinar: “Beyond SEO: How Modern Content Marketing Powers Growth.” You can sign up here to watch the recording.
Original research: Well, it’s not my research. But it’s research that my colleague Rand Fishkin worked on with our data partners, Datos. We (hey, we as a team!) did a deep dive into how traffic flow on the American web. No surprise, Google sends a lot of traffic. SEO still matters. But wait! There’s more! There’s a big difference between traffic sent, and where users actually hang out.
Interview: Storybook Conversations with Graceanne MacDonald and Liam Moroney. We had a breezy chat about content strategy. I think I came up with a quadrant on the fly. I remember being proud in the moment, but I’m not sure it holds up. I hope it does. Watch the interview here.
Upcoming podcasts, if you care: The Proof Point with Mark Huber; Content, Briefly with Jimmy Daly; and How To Sell More with Mark Drager.
Upcoming talk: SaaStock in Austin, May 13-15. This one’s kind of a biggie! At least, for me. I’ll be on the main stage presenting the latest on zero-click content. I really need to work on this presentation. Eek. (I am excited and a little bit nervous.) I hope to see you there! I can probably get a comped ticket. If cost is an issue for you and you really want to attend SaaStock, reach out to me and I’ll see what I can do.
🤓 Things I’m Reading or Consuming
These are pretty random and not all marketing related.
The Real Lessons of the Alabama IVF Ruling [gift link!]: When the Alabama Supreme Court decided to classify embryos as children, I saw a lot of “This is horrific to IVF patients,” and I struggled to understand why — as in, I didn’t know what the practical implications were. This Atlantic article was helpful to me because it helped me understand exactly why. Short of it is, there aren’t legal standards for how embryos should be handled and the real problem is that this ruling — while it was done to favor the IVF patients who were the plaintiffs in this case — doesn’t do anything to support IVF or improve safety and protocols. I think I have about 10 days left with that gift link, so if you’re interested, read it soon!
Did YouTuber MKBHD take down EV maker Fisker? Nah, he pointed out the major flaws of their car. Marques Brownlee recently posted about the “worst car [he’s] ever reviewed,” and afterward, Fisker’s stock tanked. An incredible saga to watch. And sort of funny to point out to people who say YouTubers don’t have real jobs or don’t have true influence. Arguably, it’s Brownlee’s tech reviews that matter the most.
People took the NorCal/SoCal rivalry to the next level and are now saying that the Bay Area is not part of NorCal: It is amusing to me that I have 130k+ followers on Twitter/X, 40k+ followers on LinkedIn, and under 3k followers on Threads, yet the confused, unhinged and rude replies I receive on Threads are absolutely unmatched. It actually made me hesitant about posting there, but maybe I’ll lean into annoying people and… I dunno, come what may. You’ll see what I mean in this Threads post.
That’s all for now! See ya in a month or so. Feel free to reply or leave a comment and tell me your conspiracy theory for why Kate Middleton is MIA.
Such a necessary, thoughtful post, Amanda.
I think the "publish less" applies to anything and everything under the "content sun."
It sounds so obvious, but when it's your brand, your publication, your personal voice, the feeling. is usually, "I'm not doing enough. If I kept sending out more words, more videos, more podcasts, more stuff, that would naturally translate to more readers, more viewers, more listeners, more revenue/leads/likes/shares."
But that just confuses the value that consistency produces with constancy.
Unless you have an audience of millions spread across the globe and an dozens of interests, they can absorb the flurry of 200 (maybe more) articles the NYT publishes daily. I'm sure if they thought it would increase revenues (relative to costs), they'd have the wherewith to publish a thousand-plus items a day. But even their roughly 10 million digital subscribers (and the 2 billion "uniques" they reported in 2022) have their limits.
When I started a digital news site within a software company focused on the ultra-niche area of location-based marketing and IoT devices years ago, I thought we had to have at least 6 to 10 items a day. But staff (including me!) forced me to cut that to one or two articles a day. Surprisingly (to me and the marketing team that oversaw it), traffic more than doubled.
But it shouldn't have been. A few years ago, The Guardian cut its weekly story production by *one third*... and traffic soared. Even local news outlets, The Post and Courier grew digital subscriptions by 250% when they cut the volume of output.
There's always a complaint that content is "commodified." It is if you churn it out like cans of beans. But if you view it as unique, smartly crafted articles, videos, podcasts, whathaveyou... the audience will recognize it as something worth their attention as well as their sign-up info.
Anyway, you're such an incisive, insightful writer, Amanda, as a devoted audience member of yours, I would say, "Publish more!" But I won't fault you for not changing your pace. Your dispatches aere worth waiting for, always.
100% this. I also just came back to my newsletter last week after a (happy!) 2-month break... and promptly changed its frequency from fortnightly to sporadic. there is, indeed, too much of everything---I don't need to add more to the pile :) but I look forward to your next one... whenever that might be!