When was the last time you posted an item inspired by the news or another web site? By the end of the week, how many people had reported on the same topic?
The Scoop
Most people want to be first, it’s ingrained into us from childhood. “Second place is first loser” is a favorite of mine. We all want the scoop, the lead, the exclusive. It’s bragging rights – I found it first.
Late – Maybe Last – May Be Better
I subscribe to a ton of sites in my feed reader. Everyone who blogs encourages subscribers, which requires educating some users on what RSS is and how to use it, which then starts that persons addiction and before long, they subscribe to a ton of feeds as well. The thing with many feed readers, Google Reader included, is that the newest items are at the top by default.
A while back, Inman News posted an article that was genuinely new and unique, no one else had mentioned the topic yet. However, by the time I got to my reader, there had been about 10 other people who wrote articles commenting about the original with their own insight. I can tell you I was completely bored by the third or fourth and definitely didn’t even look at the original Inman article.
I’ve also been playing around with Google Trends and have come to see that if I write a piece featuring a keyword that is nearing its peak, I get a ton of site traffic. If I jump in at the very beginning, not as much traffic comes through.
Don’t Go Too Far
Obviously, you wouldn’t want to spend too much time reporting election results in January (unless you’re talking about the Minnesota senate race). So at some point, timely information becomes not-so-timely. But maybe give it a day? Maybe two? Don’t become an RSS addict just so you can rush in to repeat content right away, but let the topic and discussion mature a bit.
What are your thoughts and experience with being fashionably late posting on a hot topic?
