I am constantly amazed by bloggers who regularly churn out quality material every week.
Quality posts take time, as well as a considerable amount of effort.
Every post represents its author's motivation to express an opinion on a specific subject, or a piece of breaking news, as is the case with the articles found in most magazines and newspapers. Blogs also have regular readers who expect consistent content. And captivating an audience is key - reader's expectations must and should be met.
In the blog universe, periodicity can also vary.
Paul Krugman posts almost every day. He contributes his opinions regularly to the New York Times blogosphere. Greg Mankiw isn't as prolific, but his bio clearly mentions that his reason for blogging is to "keep in touch with his current and former students".
And then there are cases where the blog meets its final purpose, and thus end, as happened with the Becker-Posner blog, a fascinating source for economic opinion and theory that was terminated after economist Gary Becker passed away earlier this year.
In the case of this blog - it has functioned as an independent entity which focuses on opinion pieces. The blog clearly lacks an audience. This means that no pre-defined expectations have to be met. While this can seem liberating, in practice, it usually lends itself to an unorganized pursuit. When no one expects a weekly post, it's hard to keep an editorial schedule.
So, what is the goal here?
It is not to have an audience. That lofty goal will hopefully have to be reckoned with in the future.
The goal here is to learn, and to share a thoughtful exchange in doing so.
Barry Ritholtz summarizes this line of thinking perfectly in his recent blog post "What I learned after 30,000 blog posts".
So, here's to learning.
Who knows? Maybe an interested economics buff or curious reader will drop by one day and share a thought or idea.
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