Write Articles, Not Blog Postings – From Jakob Nielsen:

You should also focus on material that lower-ranked content contributors can’t easily create in their spare time.

I can split hairs over the details of this article and whether I agree with all of Nielsen’s points, but I agree with his overall message. Regardless of whether you are a true business or just someone who blogs, it’s important to follow this advice and post quality content. This doesn’t mean that when a new product comes out you shouldn’t follow the bandwagon and blog about it – but if you do decide to, make sure you’re saying something meaningful. This might mean pointing out ideas that all the other bloggers have missed on a particular topic.
I have recently pulled back on a lot of the Apple-related news I post on this site because I realized that posts and articles at Daring Fireball said what I wanted to say – but did it more clearly and intelligently. So why should I waste my time? Instead, I should focus on creating my own meaningful content.
Jon Gruber at Daring Fireball understands the importance of quality writing because that is his job. He is a fulltime blogger. This might sound funny to some people (like my parents) but he’s very careful when he writes and what he writes about. He also does not have comments enabled on his site – this is one of the keys to his site’s success.
In the end though, if you do have a blog, you use it because you like to write. I started this site because I’m a web designer, and writing on this site is my daily exercise for my brain. I don’t get paid for this site, but that doesn’t mean I should post shitty entries.