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How Often Should You Post?
I have been posting every day during the week on this blog, and I find it hard to give up that idea.
This is my first week without a job to go to, and I am still adjusting. I have so many things on my to-do list that I neglected while I was working. Now I want to get them all done at once, and it’s frustrating when I can’t do that.
Lately a lot of bloggers have been posting about how often you should post on your blog. I would link to them here, but I forgot what blogs they were. Anyway, there seem to be two schools of thought. One says you should blog every day. The other says you should post less frequently, and you will have time to do more quality posts.
Since I was just starting this blog, I felt that I needed to post every day to hold people’s attention. And I did not have any trouble coming up with things to post about.
Now things are a little different, though. I have some other projects that I need to catch up on, so I am not always thinking about this blog as much as I was.
So, I have decided to relax my rule about posting every week day. At least for the next few weeks, I will be posting a little less often. I will only post when I have something to post about.
I hope I will not lose any readers by doing this. I urge you to subscribe to my RSS feed or my email list, so that you will be able to find out when I make a new post. In a few weeks, I should be caught up on my other projects and will be able to post more often again.
How do you feel about this? How often do you post on your blog?
- Pat Doyle
Pat – My posting rhythm goes in cycles. I only post when I have something to say. Some weeks that is almost every day. Other weeks it is only two or three times.
I find my traffic levels drop when I’m not posting as often. But… it seems I get more inbound links and comments when I’m posting less frequently.
Maybe it’s just my imagination–I don’t know.
My “rule” about posting is this: Post at least twice a week, and more often than that if possible, but only when you have something valuable or important to say.
Ryan, that sounds like a good rule. It makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the feedback.
Pat… There is one answer to that question, your own test results.
Try a month of one posting style and see what happens. No doubt that posts every day are great but if your writing every post yourself your going to hit burnout.
-Jim
Hey, Jim – thanks. That’s a good idea.
Hi Pat ,
I have also read so many blogs who say to do a limited postings but i dont think anybody who term himself a good bloggers ( of course the readership will say that) then he/she should post atleast once a day. The people who follow this blogging world they should remember your name to spread the word across everyday they open their google reader( or any other such tool) . You may not loose a reader a reader if you dont post but you might got low down on their pririry list because every now and then people see so many interesting blogs which they want to read , so if you already created a interest in people’s mind who are your feed subscribers.
Thanks
Sanjay
Thanks, Sanjay. You have a good point.
Hi Pat! You wrote earlier that you like to do many projects at the same time. I’d actually wanted to post about multi-tasking, project management and common misinterpretations of Pareto’s 80:20 rule. As you see. I did not get into pace to write it. I currently post twice a week. Some say that one gets more traffic, ranking, … from posting less frequently. Maybe, because you and your readers have more time to bookmark and promote this article, as when posting daily or even more often. Not each posts gets the same effort of promotion, then. Just a thought. However the quality should be right each way.
By the way: Wouldn’t this be a good opportunity for having guest authors on your blog once in a while? Chris Garrett writes great guest posts this month. Get in the line. He might do one for you. (more on my blog)
–John
Hi John, I will be curious to read your post about multi-tasking and 80/20 rule – sounds very interesting!
Yes, I would love to have some guest posts. I did request a guest post from Chris, so I hope he has time to do one. I will also be exchanging guest posts with Fred Peters from http://newestonthenet.com/ soon.
I (used to) aim to post daily, but I’m coming round to the opinion that it isn’t necessary. Well…more like it’s not actually possible at the moment with my day job taking up so much of my time (did I say ‘day’ job… that should read ‘day and most of the evening’ job!!;))
I think the key thing is quality over quantity. My readers get enough in their RSS reader without me filling it up with non-relevant content…so I’m now happy not to post every day.
How’s that for post-rationalisation!!!
Mcrilf, I think you are right. I would like to post daily, but I have decided that I will only post if it is something worthwhile.
I kicked off a blog experiment on rapid posting 14 days ago. As of right now I have 104 posts. Will I be able to keep up that kind of pace and keep up quality? I don’t know but it’s been exciting so far.
On my software development blog I post just about every weekday but I miss a few here and there.
The bottom line is to have a goal for your posting schedule, whether it’s once a week or 10 times a day, and stick with it.
Frank, your rapid posting experiment sounds very interesting. Good luck with it. I would never be able to keep up that kind of pace.
Hey, I’ve recently been trying to find a formula for posting; it’s proving to me there really is no formula. Consistency seems to work well. That doesn’t necessarily mean everyday. One could post consistently twice a week every week.
I try to post at least every two days. I took a couple weeks off because of school projects, and traffic fell off the deep end, but I didn’t lose any subscribers.
It definitely depends on the content of the blog; Personal Journal or Current events…
Style war: Muser vs. Reporter.
That makes sense to me, Mat. Thanks for your comments.
I post if I have something to say, which lately has been every day. Blogging is a great creative release and I find it fun to see which blogs bring the most traffic.
Diva, that’s great! I’m going back to the idea of posting every day (if I can). But if I miss a day, I won’t sweat it.
I totally agree that posting when you have something to say is a good idea, as just rambling on about nothing wouldn’t be too clever. I take the strategy of producing a couple of posts and having them on the back burner, just in case I don’t have anything to blog about, but I generally don’t get this as I find inspiration in most things.