Blogging as a Timesink
Bob Ambrogi estimates how long on average it takes to write a blog post. His conclusion? Approximately 45 minutes. He makes a good point that is not often discussed by law bloggers, and one that's worth thinking about for anyone looking to join the blogging revolution.
He also provides a helpful summary of the steps that everyone goes through before hitting the publish button:
Blogging brings many many benefits, but most law bloggers that I've struck up a connection with blog because they see it as a fulfilling activity in itself. (At the very least, they start out this way.) I certainly fall in this category. Chances are, if I'm a regular reader of your blog, you do too.
[For the record, I think this post took about 15 minutes, not counting the interruption it caused in my schedule, which is another thing I'd add to my list.] [I added a few edits which took me another five minutes!]
He also provides a helpful summary of the steps that everyone goes through before hitting the publish button:
* Review your usual news sources, blogs, RSS feeds, court opinions or whatever.I'll add a few to the list:
* Read some or all of the items that strike your fancy.
* Choose an item or theme to write about.
* Mentally compose your thoughts.
* Put those thoughts in writing.
* Give it a second read to see if it makes any sense.
* Hit that “publish” button.
* Check PACER to see if there's been any activity in cases you've blogged about.I don't begrudge those who blog for profit, but never once have I stopped to sit down and think about how much time I've spent blogging. Easily a couple of vacations worth. And I take my vacations seriously, so if there's anything that would get me to think twice about blogging it would be sitting down and actually calculating the amount of time spent in terms of vacation days. You'll also notice I didn't include "collect seven figure Google Adwords check" in the list, but that's neither here nor there.
* Take a quick look at the pleadings or briefs if you are writing about a case.
* Upload the pleadings or case documents to scribd or a similar service.
* Research/confirm any peripheral legal or factual points that may be relevant to your post.
* Double check grammar/word usage rules to make sure you're not making an obvious mistake.
(I'm no grammar whiz, so I have to do things like google "timesink" to make sure it's actually a word.)
Blogging brings many many benefits, but most law bloggers that I've struck up a connection with blog because they see it as a fulfilling activity in itself. (At the very least, they start out this way.) I certainly fall in this category. Chances are, if I'm a regular reader of your blog, you do too.
[For the record, I think this post took about 15 minutes, not counting the interruption it caused in my schedule, which is another thing I'd add to my list.] [I added a few edits which took me another five minutes!]
That is a very fine post for 15 mins. investment, Venkat! I struggle that long with disqus comments sometimes, it seems! --Bill
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It takes me 2-3 hours to write a blog, which is most of the reason I haven't written one since about February.
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Thanks Bill!
Jay, I'm with you, my usual time spent is about an hour. I think it's really tough to find a balance between trying to write the perfect post and writing something that reflects poorly on me.
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A "knock-out" post takes me at least 45 minutes. Many posts are 2+ hours, ignoring the overall monitoring of activities. Eric.
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Venkat, you provide an excellent service with this blog. Thank you for the time you invest in your work here.
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Great post. Blogging definitely takes up a lot of time. But I just do it instead of watching television. And I am not too sad about that.
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15 minutes? Seriously?
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I was multi-tasking. That probably explains 5 of those 15 minutes.
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