Most people have heard of the 7 minute lull. It is the idea that conversations tend to have a lull in them at regular intervals (theoretically 7 minutes). I have come to the conclusion that blogging has a similar phenomenon. This is based not only on my own blogging, but the blogging of many other bloggers I have read over the years. Everybody takes breaks from posting occasionally.
After 12 days of posting every day I discovered that I had not posted for two days in a row. That doesn’t worry me, but it got me thinking about the phenomenon. I have ready many times about the large number of blogs that get started and then die in their infancy. This is why. Many people, once they hit that first lull, never get back to blogging. The experiment ends and their voice goes silent.
I will not argue that everyone should get past that first lull, I know that blogging does not suit all people, but it is interesting to see the pattern. I suspect that most blogs that die do so on the first lull. Put another way, most blogs that survive the first lull will survive long term.
I would submit that the “blogging pause” is a follow-on to the web page update pause that can be readily observed. How many web pages exist which for the first part of their existence, were enthusiastically and frequently updated by the owners, but now have been sitting stagnant for months or perhaps even years?
Is the comment pause a follow on to the blogging pause? This is the second post I have had this week where I got new comments after more than a year since the last comment.