www.andrewmackay.net:

I have an 18-month-old son. I love him. He’s a heck of a lot of fun to hang out with. He’s learning in leaps and bounds lately, and it seems like everything you say to him gets repeated back to you.

Repeating is a funny thing, isn’t it? Ask me to do one thing over and over again for even a half hour and you’ll hear complaints and whining. Yet, my little boy can sit and do the same thing over and over again and find it fresh and hilarious every time. Patch the Pirate’s Worry Wart song? Absolutely hilarious the first, fifteenth and fifty-second time. You can snort right along with the singers. We’re good at snorting.

I think there’s a lesson for me to learn there. If you can enjoy something and see it in a fresh way, you’ll be much more apt to do it again and again. This may hold true for various things… writing, exercise, music practice… the sky is the limit. So maybe we all need a little childlikeness… especially when it comes to repetitive tasks.

I’m beginning to think that you guys would be better served if I simply hooked my blog up to an RSS feed of Michael Hyatt’s blog.

If you haven’t bumped into Mr. Hyatt before, he’s the CEO of Thomas Nelson and he is a blogger. He takes it seriously, too. The other day, he blogged about blogging — 5 points centered around the idea that content must come before traffic. He’s SO right!

It reminds me of a line from How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, The managing editor shoots down a story idea from the protagonist, saying “Andy, once you make your column a must read, you can write whatever you want. Until then, you’ll write whatever I want.” We’re meant to not be crazy about that character, even though within the business she’s attempting to run, she’s entirely right.

I think the most important point on Michael’s list is number 1. You think he did that intentionally? Perhaps.

Commit to a specific number of posts per week. Frequency is more important than you think. In fact, it is second only to the quality of your content. If you are writing good stuff, most people want to hear from you. My goal is five posts per week.

It’s like a commitment to your readers: if you come here at x interval, you will always find new material. It’s what I love about Challies.com — I know Tim will have something new up every day. I get home from work, and there’s something to read.

So, I’d encourage you — think about your blog. Think about your writing as a long term part of your life. Think about content first. If you build it… they will come. And throw a baseball around.