|
The reason that short, frequent publishing is so pervasive on the web is that you have to compete with everything else on the internet that is shiny, flashing, and begging for your attention. I think that we, as humans, have a predilection to focus on real-time updates, on what's happening NOW. It is the only reason that I can possibly understand the success of things like Twitter or Facebook status updates. Furthermore, there are so many benefits to publishing frequently that it's hard to argue against it. For instance, if you publish frequently, you will have a better Google ranking, be seen as an "active" member of the community, get more links on social news sites that link submissions to URLs, constantly show up in peoples' RSS readers, etc. Also, if you write a long, substantive article, many people will not take the time to read it. Most will just skim to see if there's anything interesting, and if they don't find anything, they will leave. Also, if you want to make money on the Internet, it's something that you need to do daily, or at least very regularly. Dollars follows peoples' eyeballs, and peoples' eyeballs follow constantly updated content. I can't think of an example off the top of my head of a blogger, videoblogger, etc. making a living by posting infrequent posts but I can list a couple dozen people that make very good money with either gawker-like blogs on certain topics, a regularly updated promotional (video)blog, or through advertising dollars on popular YouTube channels. I know in my rational mind that it is probably better to read content-rich articles on the web, but my reptilian mind is constantly drawn to the new, the hot, the now. Until somebody finds a solution, there will always be a short battle with myself every time I fire up Google reader or think of checking HN. |