The Disadvantages of Using Too Many ‘Filler’ Posts

A few days ago, I wrote about the advantages of using ‘filler’ posts to fill up your blogging schedule, and to give you time to properly research your main posts.

Well, anything and everything practised in the extremities can be dangerous, and it’s the same with these ‘filler’ posts. After writing in favour of these ‘filler’ posts, I feel I must highlight the disadvantages too of using them too much:

1: You Rely On Them As The Main Source of Content

In other words, you stop or reduce producing quality, content filled posts and focus entirely on these ‘filler’ posts. As a result, the whole point of your blogging collapses. I mean, you were blogging about

You might end up spending more time on creating these posts than you intended on saving time using these filler posts!

a particular topic. Now you’re blogging ‘filler’ posts!

Given the relative ease of producing filler content, it can be easy falling into the trap that you could turn your whole blog into a ‘filler’ blog, instead of producing niche oriented, detailed, and value packed posts. All this can greatly reduce the value of your blog. In effect, the authoritativeness and credibility of your blog can go down. Scary, isn’t it?

2: They Reduce ‘Exposure Time’ For Your Main Content

As you already probably know, you must allow your main content or posts to have some decent exposure time, before publishing a new post. This exposure time ensures that the post remains at the top of the list on the homepage, for at least a few hours, so it gets noticed and shared and so on.

Say cheers! Image by: ssh

But these filler posts can drastically reduce the exposure time, if you use them often. For example, you publish a filler post every day. One day, you publish your main content. The same day, you publish your filler post, which takes the place of your main post. Where’s the exposure time gone now? Down the drain!

3: Even These Take Time To Produce

Time passes by… Image: FABIOLA MEDEIROS

One must admit that even ‘filler’ posts take time to create. For example, for a links roundup, you need to gather a sufficient amount of good content to link to. For a Top Ten list, you need a topic and the (top) ten applications or tools or services related to that topic. So you see, you cannot say ‘create!’ and expect these filler posts to be created. It’s not like magic, after all, is it?

What I mean is, that if you do such filler posts regularly (on a daily basis, for example), you need time and effort to create them, and you might end up spending more time on creating these posts than you intended on saving time using these filler posts.

The Point

I am still an advocate of ‘filler’ posts, but in moderation. The Thursday Links Roundups provide me and this blog’s readers with fresh, inspirational, and entertaining content, which in turn gives me ideas for my next blog posts. The Monday Questions give me insight into how readers think and feel, which helps me model my posts more towards the reader.

So, to sum it all up, use filler posts, but not religiously. You need to give time to your main content too. Don’t overdo it

What’s your point of view: Can you overdo filler posts? We’d love to hear your comments!