Blog Post Frequency, Learning and Relevance

I have been struggling with what to post lately. Not due to lack of thought, but lack of time and selecting the most interesting topic area.

On one hand I have 5 different topics I think are interesting, but not necessarily in line with my typical topics. On the other hand every time I invest time exploring the blogging world, I find so many interesting postings to read I run out of time to create my own.

The interesting dilemma for a new blogger is that these two areas can create "writers block". I have two questions to pose to the more experienced bloggers:

1. Does your blog need to stay on topic?
2. How do you balance your time between listening and talking?

On question #2 above, I find a great deal of value in participating on other people's blogs. How do you share your collective thought process on your blog? Here are three recent examples of areas I have participated in:

A discussion with Shel regarding blogging adoption in other parts of the world, specifically Hawaii
A NYC VC's posting on the debate of the Long Tail
A suggestion to Scoble to do a video on "how to blog".

I have also invested many hours in reading blogs and listening to podcast to learn more about the collective conversation. It's diverse, and there is so much out there you could spend days/weeks/months absorbing information. Some of my recent favorites include:

The call to action for all marketing professionals written by Peter Blackshaw, Leading Change - Now!
A posting by Ann Handley on What's the Biggest Lie About Blogging?
And a podcast on Internet business mastery that begins with an education on the issue of net neutrality. (Anyone interested in keeping the Internet as an open platform available to everyone should learn more about this).

My point is that there is so much great content that many times I would rather listen than type. This leads to less frequent postings, but more value to me.

The other area I outlined in my opening paragraph is relevance. Given that my postings are mostly about the changing marketing world, I hesitate to share my thoughts on wine tasting, child rearing, team dynamics or consumer experiences. While I've seen some of the masters do it well such as this extremely random posting by Max Kalhoff regarding dry ice, I haven't reached the comfort level of putting these thoughts on the Internet and intermingling it with the otherwise marketing and blogging centric conversation. I suspect this comes with time.

I know some of my friends and colleagues that read my blog haven't ventured into blogging yet. Hopefully my journey gives you a glimpse at what's available and encourages you to get involved in the conversation!