{Print available for purchase from The Black Apple on Etsy}
I love it when Scott Stratten {the author of Unmarketing} gives a talk and says, “Don’t phone it in.” He’s usually talking about blog posts. The best blogs don’t phone it in. They don’t publish something just to publish it—just to be consistent.
Consistency is important, but so is providing useful and relevant content in each post.
When I sat down to write my post yesterday, I knew I was going to have to phone it in if I wanted to publish something. My goal is to publish five posts per week, and in my mind, I thought I had to post something.
But, I wasn’t feeling well, my body was incredibly run down, and I knew I was running out of energy. I wanted to get my newsletter out—like I’d already promised my lovely subscribers, and I had to finalize a guest post. I knew that after I did those two things, I’d be spent and I’d have two options: (1) Run myself into the ground and make myself even sicker while producing crappy work. Or (2) Take a nap, take care of my body, and hopefully produce a good blog post the next day.
I choose number two. I indulged in a two hour nap, felt more refreshed when I woke up, finished the guest post, and allowed myself a little time to relax before Laura Roeder’s creating fame course.
I could have thrown something together for you to read. But, I don’t want to waste your time. I want you to know that I respect my readers enough to work hard to publish five times per week, but that I have to take care of myself before anything else.
I tell people all the time to listen to their bodies and take breaks when they need it. What kind of person would I be if I didn’t listen to my own advice? Well, a hypocrite.
The idea of not phoning it in doesn’t just apply to bloggers—it also applies to artists and crafters.
When you make something, you need to be proud of it, and you need to make your best art/crafts possible. If you listen to your gut {not your inner critic}, you’ll know when you’re phoning it in.
For our last craft show, I wanted to have a large inventory which we did, but I was working around the clock to make more and more items before the show. In my frenzy to make more products I produced a few pieces of mixed media art that my gut told me was not good work.
Thankfully, I listened to my heart, and I didn’t put them out. You always have the option of a do over with mixed media. I’m able to use those pieces to make better pieces of art that makes me proud.
Have you ever caught yourself doing this? It might happen when you want to get a new product out there, but you know in your gut that isn’t completely finished. Or, when you over-embellish a product description to get it to sell.
Don’t phone it in, because once customers see inferior work, they’ll twice about buying from you. But, if you always produce your best work, your customers will keep coming back for more.
great post april! and i couldn’t agree more! posting for posting sake is lame + readers can usually tell, when you’re doing a sloppy job. being happy comes first + it usually translate well with readers how appreciate our 100% percent!
Thanks Mayi. I really appreciate all of your support.
I totally agree. My blog is an alternative fashion and lifestyle blog, and from about February to late August, I was posting three times a week. At first I loved it – I was forcing myself to sit down and put my thoughts together, forcing myself to do work that I knew I could and act on my inspiration. But then, once summer hit, I found that, between summer classes and an elevated work schedule, plus working on my Etsy shop, blogging as well was running me into the ground. I started “phoning in,” and even though I knew the content wasn’t what I wanted it to be, I was afraid to break my schedule and disappoint my readers. In the end, once school started again, I decided to throw in the towel and take a hiatus. I knew it was a risk, but I didn’t have another choice – I was just starting a new school year with 5 classes, and I was already burnt out from all the work I did over the summer, and I knew that real life had to come first. Any followers or traffic I lost would be better than failing out a week into the fall semester. Of course my views plummetted, but to my surprise, I actually gained followers! People who had probably been reading my blog already now wanted to be alerted when I came back, so once I felt I’d settled back into dorm life and was ready to start blogging again, I received a warm welcome from those who’d been following me for months as well as newcomers to my blog. Now I only post once or twice a week, and though I want to be writing and creating more, I know that it’s not worth the risk of going back to phoning it in. Thank you for this reminder that I’ve been doing the right thing! 🙂
Hey Aly,
I’m glad you were able to do what was right for you. It’s never a good idea to kill yourself in order to post on your blog–and tons of great bloggers only post once a week. Thanks for sharing your story with me and my readers. I really appreciate it!
This is SO true. I learned my lesson about “phoning it in” after getting embarrassed at a show:
I make jewelry. The night before a big show, I worked like a dervish, getting as many pieces done as I could. The next day, a lady was checking out my necklace, and chose one out. She was looking at it closely, and then asked “How does this work?” Confused, I looked at the necklace – I had forgotten to put a clasp on it! I blushed and offered to quickly fix it, as I had the tools with me, but she declined and moved on to the next stall. There’s no doubt in my mind that if I would have taken the time to do some quality control, I would have made a sale, but since I didn’t, I not only lost the sale, but also my credibility with that particular customer.
Since then, I’ve always had the motto – QUALITY over QUANTITY!