This is a guest post by Matthew.
Just like many other bloggers out there, I’ve often asked myself the question “how often should I post to keep my readers satisfied?”.
While I haven’t found a definitive answer to it yet, and honestly I don’t believe I ever will – blogging is dynamic, it requires adjustment all the time – I’ve sure learned quite a few important things about posting rhythm in the meanwhile.
No Definitive Rules
There are no clear cut rules regarding posting frequency. While many successful bloggers post every day, some even multiple times, others post less frequently – one or two times per week. It all depends on the type of blog you’re running, on your time, and of course, on your personal style.
The all important point here is to understand yourself and the scope of your blog and to find the posting rhythm that works best for you. Because doing so is not necessarily easy, I’m going to talk about some things you should look at.
Finding Your Pace
Many inexperienced bloggers think that if they fail to post every day they have no aptitude for blogging whatsoever.
This is not true. I’ve been through it myself, and I know really well how demoralizing it can be to fail to meet the posting goals you’ve set yourself. Fortunately, there simply isn’t any posting limit that guarantees your success – it’s all about testing and experimenting.
Consider carefully these factors when deciding how often you make updates:
- The popularity of your niche. The more activity there is on rival blogs the more posts you have to make.
- The average length of your posts.
- Your readership’s expectations.
- Your aspirations. If you plan to keep your blog personal and be the only one updating it you shouldn’t set a too ambitious posting limit you won’t be able to keep up with.
It’s Better to Start Slow
I remember when I started my diet blog of Medifast coupons and Diet to Go discounts, I determined I will post 3 times a week.
By setting an easily achievable posting norm in the beginning you’ll be able to reach your goals and, more importantly, you’ll avoid that which might kill your blogging aspirations altogether: failure to update your content frequently.
Making up your mind to post every day is not going to work if you’re not used to it. Not only will there be moments when you’ll struggle to write your posts, but also, in the instances when you manage to pull it off, the quality of your content will suffer. And quality content is the backbone of every successful blog
So start slow and gradually increase your posting frequency. Three posts per week is usually good to start with.
Be Constant and Pay Attention to Your Readers’ Response
When increasing or decreasing your posting frequency monitor your readers’ response. I’ve noticed that readers are particularly paying attention when there is an abundance of material.
However, if they find that the content they have to digest is becoming more than they can handle, then some will get a bit annoyed. Refrain from abruptly modifying your posting rhythm or you might lose a couple of readers.
Be constant when it comes to adding material to your blog and make sure you let your audience know when you’re making considerable modifications in this regard. They’ll appreciate it.
Determine What Is Affecting Your Posting Rate & Address It
Have you ever scrutinized your posting process to determine where blockages occur? If you haven’t then you definitely should. It will help you tremendously to increase your posting proficiency.
If coming up with ideas gives you the most trouble, then try to address this by assigning some time every week for brainstorming, and by getting into the habit of thinking about ideas way before deadlines.
Planning in advance will prevent pressure from building up, which always takes its toll on your efficiency.
On the other hand, if generating ideas is your strong point, but you find difficult finishing the articles you’ve started, then try to change the way you work, shifting the focus from quantity to quality.
Obstructions in the writing process can appear almost anywhere. It’s important to identify them and to come up with solutions.
When You Don’t Have Anything Good to Post Don’t Post
If you’re ever in doubt whether to post or not a modest piece it’s almost always safer not to. From what I’ve seen, the reaction of readers is worse when they read something second rate than when they have to wait a day or two more for new content.
If a post doesn’t provide information, inspiration, or entertainment for your reader, then think twice about submitting it.
Efficiency Improves With Time – Be Patient
With time it becomes easier to keep your blog updated, but you don’t need someone else to tell you this. Think of any activity you’ve been doing for a long time. Don’t you carry it out now much better than you did in the beginning? The same applies to blogging. The more effort you invest into posting and the more time you set aside for it the better you’ll become.
Remember that you must find your own posting rhythm, and don’t be easily discouraged when you’re not as productive as you would like. Just keep at it. Results will come.
This is what I had to say about posting frequency but I’m really curious to learn what you think. How many times do you post weekly? And what advice can you share with bloggers who would like to post more often?
Since starting his first blog in 2009, Matthew has been sharing his online experience with other fellow bloggers. In his blog, which offers coupon deals for weight management programs, such as a Diet to Go coupon code and a coupon code for Medifast meal replacement plan, Matthew reviews weight loss programs and diet plans.
Gloson’s comment:
You’ve listed down some great ideas. Some of your points captured my attention, especially where you said we should determine what’s affecting your posting rate and address it. I really agree with it—If we can break down our problems, we can overcome them with great ease.
I’ve certainly learned a lot from this post. Thank you very much Matthew. 🙂
Great post Mathew! It’s good to hear that other people go through the same frustrations as I do when coming up with things to blog about and failing to meet my own expectations.
Hi Josh,
This is true for most people, I belive. They will start with enthusiasm and momentum and later they have to re-evaluate their blogging strategy.
Hi Matthew & Gloson
This is a question many of us want the answer to when we first start blogging. However, after blogging for awhile, usually reach a decision depending on our audience and the type of blog we have. Also our own tiem availablility comes into it.
I have a small niche blog and started with 3 times a week. Now it’s mostly once a week. As a lot of the information I am bringing to my readers is completely new to them, don’t want them getting information overload lol
This works for me. Also gives me time to work on other projects, comment on other blogs and network.
Patricia Perth Australia
Hi Matthew and Gloson:
Wonderful topic that everyone debates about. It is well written. I agree with you. Freedom of choice for the writer is vry important and so is freedom of action for the reader.
Enjoy the weekend
Fran A
Thank you for stopping by Fran!
I used to try and keep a much more aggressive schedule and wasn’t able to keep it up and as each day passed without writing a post, I would just wonder what the point is.
On my current sites, I have a much more achievable writing schedule. I was only forced to miss it once and when I did, I just apologized and gave the honest reason. People come to expect content from you on a certain timeline and if you start changing it up, you owe it to your readers to let them know.
I relate to what you say Dave. I, too, keep a more achievable writing frequency in my blog now. Thank you for your comment.
Hi Patricia,
I have visited your beautiful blog many times and I have read your comments all around the web. I am certain your blog is the only place on the net that covers the topic of Everything Lavender so thoroughly.
I agree with you that some topics are such that posting more than 3 articles a week may get readers inundated with too much new information.
Thank you for you comment, Patricia.
And thank you Gloson for the opportunity to contribute to the content of your nice site.
Matthew
Hi Matthew,
You make a really good point, especially about the quality vs quantity. If all the material you have at the moment is mediocre, don’t post it! Why feed your readers, who value your opinion and come expecting quality content, deserve something that’s not your best and which you don’t feel 100% confident about?
At best, you’ll disappoint them. At worst, you’ll chase them away and they’ll warn all their friends to stay away, too.
Delena
Thanks a lot for covering this topic Gloson.. 🙂
really nice.. i was waiting for this one.. 😀
Personally I think 3/4 times a week is a good guideline. Some big blogs posts 3/4 times a day but if I did that most of my content would go unread by many. 😛
Hi Dean,
yes, I have come across bogs that post 5-10 articles a day! They mainly focus on getting traffic from organic search engine searches rather than from a group of loyal readers.
I definitely agree with quality over quantity. It’s your thoughts and ideas that you share with your readers, and you wouldn’t want to be giving off the wrong impression. We got to set our own pace to be able to identify what we want and don’t want, from our readers and ourselves as well, and eventually we’ll learn how to eliminate unnecessary distraction. Great post. Cheers!
when I first launched my blog I was religiously posting an high quality article per day in order to “train” Google’s bots to come at least daily to my blog and crawl for new content. Of course I blog not for a hobby but for a living, so I do get help from outsourcing in order to have better effects. The result was to rank 400K from 16million in Alexa in 10 weeks and thus attract affiliate partners for doing business with them. So I agree with you that it’s about what goal you have for your blog.
This is quite an achievement Steven! Keep it up. Thank you for your advice using your own site’s performance as an example.
I think it depends on the blog.. if it’s a news type of blog, you should try to publish daily. if it’s a personal blog, you can publish whenever you want. if it’s other type of blog, you should try to publish constantly.. twice a week maybe 🙂
I agree that there is no hard and fast rule for how often to post but if you don’t post at least once or twice a week you’d better be incredibly interesting for people to keep you top of mind.
I don’;t think there’s a “best interval” to post articles on the blog. it all depends on what you want to achieve with the blog. if your blog is about seo and internet marketing or social media, then you should post daily, because there are a lot of things that change from a day to another:)
lol… everybody has something to say about it:D some suggest daily, some weekly.. I think you should try to do it at least 3 times a week, and even up to daily posting, if you have time… of course, if you’re an employee and you work from 9 to 5, you won’t have time to post daily, but you can find an hour or two once two days to post a good article
Hi Matthew, and Gloson,
From one year blogging I notice something which is related to posting.
If we post articles regularly on a specific time, Google bot will crawl and index in the same time, it seems it knows when we usually post articles in our blogs LOL.
Also if we care about Alexa ranking, posting daily will really help, this is based on my own experience, don’t know with others though..
Thanks.
Hi Kimi,
your site is a living proof that Alexa rankings get better when one posts content regularly.
I noticed your blog has an Alexa of 17,000. Holy cow, Kimi! How did you get there?
Thank you for your comment.
Hello guyes,
I agree that you have to keep on updating content on your blog otherwise people will never revert back to you. Also put content related to your aspiration or achievement that produces interests in people to read your content regularly.
Hi Gloson, I have a blog and because of my hectic schedule I can no longer update its content, but before then I tend to create daily posts and for me yes you are right that we should find our own phase and there’s really no definite rules to follow in terms of blogging.
i always posted my article about 3 – 5 articles per day.
for 3 month..i have google index about 1500, 1000 Unique Visitor
I always post when I feel I have something completed and worthwhile to share. I know one real estate agent did a 365 things to do in Vancouver. He didn’t miss a day. I don’t think I could have that kind of commitment. While we like to believe readers are only reading our blog, it’s simply not true; they are most likely subscribed to many other blogs. I vary my posting, sometimes I’ll post 4 times a day, sometimes I’ll post once or twice a week. Sometimes it’s ok to make a short 1 paragraph post. It’s your blog, if you continue to post quality interesting content, you’ll continue to have readers.
good one, Jo! It reminds me of the movie Julie and Julia where Julie blogs daily about the Julie’s recipes she tries every day for one whole year (365 recipes). Commitment is a must, for sure. But, it’s all about what you want to achieve, what you blog for and of course, if you live from it.
Okay, I had to stop by and comment about the 365 Things To Do in Vancouver. That’s really amazing, and sounds like tons of fun to read. Was it Vancouver, BC, or Vancouver, WA?
Delena
hey Delena, nice post here in your blog..
Thanks for your great post. its very informative. I totally agree on your post. Thanks for sharing. Keep writing.
I try to post at least twice a week. I don’t always get to do so, but it helps keep things fresh and show some of my latest work.
I post only when I’ve think about of a nice topic. But it don’t mean that I do my posting once in a blue moon. Sometimes, I opt in for one post a week, or two at some time… my blog is quite new so that’s it.. I’m gonna have to wait for the time to come 🙂
Each time I get a good idea for a post I write it down, and I try to write the article in the next few days, because if not, my enthusiasm dashes away, I mus admit. I usually try to post every week, anyhow.
Definitely some good points here, especially about not posting if there’s not anything worth posting. Keeps the junk out. It’s like any habit, requiring your intense effort for at least 2 weeks before it becomes a routine. Then you’re rolling! Thanks Matthew!
Couldn’t agree more with the “don’t post for post’s sake” part. I’ve seen bloggers that do more bad than good to their blog with a dry post or even a boring one. If you don’t have something to say, better you don’t say it rather than risk losing precious readers.
If you are not updating frequently then it’s even more important that you clearly display ways that readers can subscribe to updates, whether it’s through rss or by email. Having the subscribe to comments plugin like this blog is great too for keeping the conversation going.
There’s one blog I subscribe to that only updates about twice a year. The content is so good though that I subscribe and come back every time he updates.
Thanks for the great tips friend. I agree with you that if a blogger doesnt have anything to post, he should not post any low quality post. And also, efficiency improves with time. No doubt, these two points are highlights of the article.
Hi Matthew,
This is a very good and informative article.The points were really very well pointed out and well explained too.This is a very useful article for any blogger.
Hi Matthew,
Thanks, for this interesting article, I think that there is no hard fast rule on when one can post to his blog. The most important thing that it is updated at least once every 10 to 14 days so that Google still knows that this is an updated blog so that it is still spidered frequently as well it is essential to keep high search engine rankings.
Steve
Hi Matthew! I definitely agree. Its really important that we don’t post just for the sake of having content. Quality & uniqueness of post will give us more benefits in the long run. Our readers will always appreciate the time & effort we gave to a great & useful article.
I agree with you guys that we should not post just for the sake of having content. Nice information sharing here.
I think there are a lot of factors. consistency is the important part. On my main blog, I try to post every day. but, on some of my other sites, I generally post 1/week. I think it is up to you and setting a schedule that you are comfortable with, and can maintain. you can always change the schedule if it isnt working for you as well. I have seen a lot of blogs do that.
Excellent guest post Matthew. Personally, I don’t force myself to publish content on my blogs, as it may put the quality of my posts at risk. It’s best to focus on providing high quality content to your followers, even if it takes you once or twice posting a week, as long as you are giving your best on each content, then I do believe that there will be no other problems, whatever niche you are in.
Great advice, Matthew! My favorite is When You Don’t Have Anything Good to Post Don’t Post – seems the most obvious, but as you say, some bloggers think this means they have no talent for this blogging thing, or that they have writer’s block, or some such nonsense. It’s like… if you’re at a party and you run out of things to say, embrace the silence. Don’t babble just to fill the space. Or, as my dad used to say, “When people are in doubt about your intelligence, do not open your mouth and remove all doubt.” It’s okay to have a quiet day. Use the time to think of a killer post for tomorrow – or next week. If you don’t have some down time, how are you going to read, experience, see, or do anything WORTH blogging about?
Hi Holly,
thank you for your nice comment. Indeed, as Matt Cutts says, it is better to publish a great article once a week than a crappy article every day!
Hi,
Indeed these are all great things to do to your blog. I have recently started my blog and have learnt a lot over the last couple of months
Hi Mathew,
Nice post.I feel it depend from individual to individual about the time between successive posts and the reaction of readers to previous posts.But on the whole its no good in rushing things.
Hi Mathew,
It is a very nice and informative post.Your post is very helpful for neophytes.You are right that at the start of blogging we should be slow and steady as it doesnot affect quality of content.
Some excellent points and as someone who s still learning all concepts of the blogging – I think this is something I can implement.
I guess I benefit from being able to do it right from the very begining.
I am running a tech news and Android news blog, then I need to update and publish the content daily to give readers latest news.
Cool blog Peter! Although a technology blog is usually supposed to be updated daily, it still really depends. You could choose to make your tech blog a little more unique by lowering the posting frequency and writing outstanding posts. It’s your choice. It depends on your style. Updated daily or weekly, a technology blog can still be successful if you do it right and creatively. =)
Best Regards,
Gloson
Really a great post. Many of the bloggers think that they will be successful if they will post on a daily basis or they should regularly post on their blog. But this is not true. They need to find the answer depending on many factors and this post tell them everything they need to think upon.
There is a saying that a gold is better than many stones. Whether you write daily or 3 times daily or once in 3 days do write substantially and not just a few common lines otherwise your blogging will have bad effect. Awesome tips Mathew. If you do not have idea better not to write.
I am running a tech blog ,but then I don’t need to update and publish the content daily.i posted 3 times in week which i think is good for a part time blogger like me.
I found out that posting more often i.e. daily, makes it better for SEO and increases your chances of going up in rankings. Stop posting for about a week and you’ll see what I mean. The more often you post new, relevant content, the more Google will crawl your site.
Well I think..you need to update content on your blog at least once every day, if it’s about news. But if’s about daily life, like love, travel or something else, once in a week isn’t bad.
For the success in blogging frequency and consistency in blogging is required.Quality of contents is the requirement for blogging as contents are the King. Response of reader’s comments is very essential and is way to encourage the readers.
Hi,
It’s very important to have interesting content and not to bore the readers. In my opinion, posting every 2 days a post is a very good thing, the articles should be at least 300 words length. It’s important to have interesting things to write about, great subjects and it’s even more important the way you write – the way you broadcast a message through the post.
George