How Often Should You Post?

From: D. Keith Robinson

Knowing (or trying to figure out) how often to post to your blog is one of the most common questions many bloggers have. It’s a hard question to answer and it really depends on the kind of blog you’re writing and who your audience is. There are as many answers to the question as there are bloggers out there.

Basically what you need to do is figure out what works best for your own situation. And there are lots of factors that go into finding that optimum frequency of posting. I’m afraid I don’t have a “one-size fits all” answer for you, but I’d like to discuss some of the options and the pros and cons of those options. As well, I’d love to get your take on this age-old blogging question.

Post as much as you can! A common response.

In general I think most feel that the more you can post—the better. And, in general, I agree with that notion. But it really depends on the kind of blog you’re writing. For example, if you’re a link or news blogger, you might want to post several times a day at least. During my stint as guest editor for Lifehacker we had a posting quota of 12 posts a day!

Needless to say we didn’t make it everyday. But then again, I’m not that kind of blogger. My posts tend to be more like articles and so I feel that more than one a day is usually overkill. But again, it’s dependent on the blog, the audience and your own writing style.

If you’;re like me, and post more original content, and you’re able to come up with something good to talk about for you blog every day than good on you! Post away. However, I’ve found this to be very challenging for the kind of blogs I write for. In fact my goal is 2-4 posts a week and I usually don’t make that. Then again, I’ve got a few sites and together I average about a post a day.

One could easily argue I’m spreading myself too thin when it comes to posting frequency. But then again, there is the opposite argument.

Infrequent posting and success

I realize this stuff also depends on your definition of success, but I know many bloggers who’ve found success by posting as infrequently as twice a month. No joke. The theory here is that you’re posts are of a higher quality and when you do take the time to say something, you really mean it.

You can have success, again depending on what kind of blog you run, with infrequent posting, but it’s a rare situation.

A recommendation and a caveat

My recommendation for most bloggers trying to build and keep and audience is to try and post at least three times a week. However, this should be a goal and not a requirement. Again, there are exceptions. I run a product/recommendation blog and it might seem that my goal there should be to post several times a day. I’m no where near that. In fact I’ve not posted there in quite awhile. But then again, my goals for that site aren’t what you’d normally expect for that kind of blog.

As well, there are times of year, holidays and summer, where I find my posting naturally slows down. This usually doesn’t seem to have a large effect on my success. In the summer months I tend to have less time and less energy, so I post less. But my audience seems to read less as well. I notice a dip in traffic across all my sites that doesn’t appear to have anything to do with how often I post.

Consistency is more important

I think what’s more important is that you post on a semi-regular basis. One thing I recommend to new bloggers is they start with a weekly wrap-up of their chosen topic. This gives them something to post about every week, and something their readers can come to expect. Over at Asterisk I started a weekly music post. I’ve been doing that for over two years now, with only a few breaks, and it’s something that helped draw people to my site early on.

Do what works for you

There is no absolute formula for how often you should post. I’m of the opinion that quality content is more important and if you can write well and write often, you should. If not, don’t let the stress of getting something out overwhelm you. Experiment, talk to your readers and try to find a frequency that you can work with and that will meet your goals.

If you falter, don’t worry too much, just get back to writing and do your best. It is possible to bring a dead blog back to life and sometimes you’ll need to choose between blogging and something more important.

Related articles:
Audience is Your Destination
Blogging and Perseverance
10 Ways to Become a Miserable Blogger