www.andrewmackay.net:

We Canadians don’t just have prettier money than you Americans. Sometimes we have good ideas, too. Evidence of this fact can be found in butter tarts, the CANADARM, Tim Hortons, the AVRO Arrow, and ice hockey.

Tim Challies, one of the most widely read Christian bloggers on the internet is also a Canadian. He’s just hit on a great idea, and is in the midst of executing. He’s started a project called 10 Million Words over at the Gospel Coalition. He’s going to read all the non fiction books that hit the New York Times Bestseller list over the next year.

It seems like an interesting project. I’ve recounted my attempts to read various “top novels of the x decade” lists in the past. I haven’t done so great. Part of the challenge there is, in my experience, a lot of “popular books” are just garbage.

But, there’s something to be learned from the garbage — it says something about pop culture when they celebrate garbage. Tim speaks well to this over at his blog. You should read it. Go now. Say G’day, eh, while you’re there.

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.