Since the first websites came into being, one thing that we have been told time and again is that if we want people to visit our sites regularly, we must update them regularly. We didn't necessarily need to update them daily, just as long as we did do regularly (and ideally as often as possible). And nowhere was this taken more to heart than in blogging circles.

Indeed, it is deemed so important by bloggers to update often that many will find the least substantial of reasons to write, just so they can add an entry for a particular day.

The reasoning behind this school of thought was that a user who liked a site and returned to it, and saw nothing new, may not return again. If a user knew a site was updated weekly, they would return once a week, and if one week there was no update they may then decide to focus their attentions elsewhere.

Recently, the trend has started to slowly shift. More and more people are advocating only writing when you have something to say. The advent of news feeds and syndication has not only made this possible, but mandatory.

Now, the average user can watch all of their favourite sites from afar. They need not go out of their way to visit your front page to see if you have updated recently. Instead, they are quietly notified, with no effort on their part or yours, every time something new is created on one of their favourite sites.

At the same time, there are millions of sites clamouring for the reader's attention. Making sure you are top of the pile, and on as many people's "watched" lists as possible, is as ever a matter of content, content, content.

Today, though, more so than yesterday, this content must be top notch. It no longer matters if you fail to update regularly. Far more important is that when you do update, you have something to say. Better to be a quiet blog in someone's news aggregator, speaking up only when offering something new the user will love, than a loud and obnoxious effort who is constantly demanding attention but regularly disappoints.
 

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