I posted a poll earlier this week asking readers how often they blog and I was surprised to see that (at the time of writing this article) the two most popular answers were 3-4 days a week (37%) and 1-2 days a week (22%). It's kind of funny how bloggers as a whole are transitioning from the "post every day" to the "post and promote" mindset as time progresses.
Not all bloggers should leave behind the frequent posting mentality though, because as the times change, so do the number of promotional techniques. Not everyone is going to benefit from the newer ideas, just like a lot of the newer web 2.0 bloggers cannot find success with the tricks some of the 'senior' bloggers use, post frequency included.
So how often do you post? Are you comfortable with your blogging schedule, and does it work well for you and your blog? More often than not, bloggers either aren't posting often enough or taking enough time to promote their new material.
You may want to keep the following in mind when developing your blogging habits and schedule:
What type of blog do you have?
Do you publish time-sensitive news content or articles that will hold the same value a few months down the road? This will give you your first clue.
Blogs with time-sensitive content should be published frequently or the blog will not be seen as a valuable source of information, no matter how great the articles are. People who are looking for fresh news are going to go where it is readily available. New content for blogs like these should generally be published at least once a day.
If you're publishing content that will retain its value over a period of several months, it is not necessary to write more than one (or occasionally two) article(s) a day. Sometimes it's best to wait a day or two between posts to allow some time for each one to 'catch on' in the blogosphere.
How long are your posts?
Do you usually publish lengthy articles or short, pithy posts?
Publishing long, in-depth articles every day can be hard on a blogger, and for many, it can lead to "blogger burnout". If you write content that takes several hours to compose, it's probably best not to stress over publishing each day and allow yourself some time to advertise your latest post and plan your next. Spread out the workload.
Shorter posts usually take less time to write and give the blogger more time and opportunity to write more. Some bloggers may want to take advantage of this and write another short article. If you can manage it, why not?
What are your blogging goals?
Are you trying to drive lots of traffic to your blog or build an interactive community?
As a general rule, frequently updated blogs get more traffic than those that aren't. If you have goals that rely on heavy traffic (usually financial goals), you may want to post at least once a day in order to constantly provide visitors with fresh content and encourage them to return often.
If you have more community-based goals (comments, forums, etc.), it may be better to post only a couple times a week in order to encourage discussion and give each post some time to gain a little popularity.
Of course, these are tips and not rules to abide by. Don't be afraid to experiment- if you post only twice a week, try posting a week-long series once in a while and see what it does for your blog. If you post numerous short articles a day to no avail, try posting one, but put in twice the effort. It takes a little experimentation to determine what's right for you and develop a blogging schedule that works.
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Like you say, posting frequency is a very discussed subject with all sorts of ideas. I know people who swear that you should post every day or several times a day. I know others that say they get complaints from readers if they post more than twice a week.
As you point out the complaint there is also that with too frequent posts, comments are too thin and discussion does not happen. Also, because some people don't go online everyday the frequent posts build up a backlog in their readers. Even though I am online most days, it happens to me also. I subscribe to a couple of sites that put up several posts per day and if I skip reading those for a few days, I don't have the time to catch up.
Posted by: Will | February 16, 2008 at 12:59 PM
Nice write-up, Raivyn.
I agree with each point you have made. If I am unwell or too tired to write for a day or two, I work on promoting the previous posts I have made.
www.InspiritBlog.com
Posted by: Abhinav Sood | February 16, 2008 at 01:10 PM
Thanks for sharing this one Raivyn:) So, the frequent of how many posts depend a lot on what's the blogging goal all about. Short and simple is a must, because I believe many people are searching for abundant information everyday, and one tips from another blogger is keep it between 300-500 words per post (article).
Kindly have your vote and opinions in my new site http://felinesophy.blogspot.com
Warmly,
-eri-
Posted by: eri | February 17, 2008 at 03:25 AM
:) I wish I could speed up my article updates, especialy about graphic design tutorials. Finally, I came out with lighter topic such as design blog review, resources listing, etc. in between those tutorial articles...this is important to me since I want to maintain better tutorial quality even if it would takes time to create one. I think I need to put two or four hi-lite posts each month beside regular posts and feelling comfortable with this schedule.
Great discussion Raivyn! Looking forward for another great post of yours!
Posted by: A u d e e | February 17, 2008 at 09:45 AM
Very good post and so very true. Blogs are very different than your average site. the power is in it's constant updating of in. sometimes this can be very hard.
Posted by: seo-tactics | February 17, 2008 at 12:07 PM