LeftTheBox asks “Hey Darren I know you post daily but do you try to post at a certain time each day?”
I certainly do! I not only set myself minimum post numbers each day but I’ve taken it a little further and narrowed down some daily posting windows that I aim for.
Really it comes down to a bit of research and experimentation to work out when the best time to post is (and I suspect it’ll vary from blog to blog depending upon where their audience is situation and even depending upon topic).
For me I attempt to have a fresh post go up on my blog in the morning US time. Here at ProBlogger my audience is fairly global but the majority of readers are in the Americas so I attempt to have something fresh for them for when they get to work, check their feeds over a morning coffee etc. I then also attempt to post something for the end of the day (US time). Then on days that I post a 3rd post per day (it’s usually more of a ‘newsy’ post) I attempt to put that up about 8 hours after the 2nd one just so that posts are evenly spread through the day.
This the frequency that seems to work best for ProBlogger in my testing however it wouldn’t work for everyone. For example I have one friend who runs a sporting blog who posts once per day (around midday for his main audience) during the week but up to 5-6 times a day over the weekend as that’s a time his readers are thinking sports.
I find that posts that go up on weekdays during the day in the US get more traffic and comments than other posts…. however….
Disclaimer – let me finish by saying that while I have obviously given this a little thought (or a little too much thought) that it’s not one of those major things that I’d suggest you invest a lot of time into thinking through. It can have an impact but in a time where a lot of blog readers are accessing blogs via RSS or email subscriptions the time you post may have less impact than you think.
That’s my posting schedule – what’s yours? Do you find that the time you post impacts traffic and comment levels?
I really don’t set a time of day when I post. Usually it’s tied to when I write my post. For the following day, I write my posts the night before. Being in the US on the east coast, it usually ends up being past midnight when I get fone, so I just post them after I am done. I never thought to tie my traffic with the time of day. May have to give that some thought.
I usually post on Sunday. I work full time and only get time to write my post on a Sunday evening. But I will try to set up the post for monday morning on my blog !
Darren,
I just want to let you know that I am liking the new speed posting that you are doing. It is informative and a quick read. Just what I like.
One thing I’ve noticed is that many feed readers are sluggish in displaying a notice of a new post. I take this into account and post a little earlier than I would expect someone to read it. For instance, the morning posts to be read with the morning cup of coffee go up at 6:00am E.T. because the half-hour to hour delay in the feed reader means most subscribers see it by around 7:00am E.T.
It’s also worth reminding bloggers that scheduled posts often run based on server time, which could differ for your current time assuming you use a 3rd party host.
I am now trying to write my blog posts in advance like you showed me in your workflow video and then I might try to publish my posts around the same time everyday (once I have enough posts done for the week that I can do this).
Thanks for the tips
p.s. How do you know what US time is?
Question Darren:
How long does it take you to write a post
I’m much more comfortable blogging late at night, primarily because of the time difference factor.
I think knowing when the bulk of your readers usually visit will help a lot .
You can then plan to blog just before that time.
Great post Darren! I’ve actually been thinking a lot about posting times lately, so I’m glad you wrote this.
So far, I have only discovered that if I get a post up around 4am Chicago time, it tends to give my blog a slight boost in traffic during the morning (which is typically pretty slow for my blog). Then I try to get a more “newsy” post up during the evening hours.
Of course, I don’t actually wake up and write my post at 4am. Rather, I write a post the night before and set it to automatically publish at 4am the next morning. I don’t know what I’d do without the “delayed posting” feature on Typepad. :-)
I post at 11:30 Mountain time, mostly to be consistent with when readers can expect content. The only real promotion I use for my blog is Twitter and Twitterfeed and I’ve found that seems to be the time that most of the people following me are active.
I will probably review the times that people view my sites again in a month and make some changes if I find that people are looking earlier or later in the day.
yeah I wondered how long it takes for him to comment on his own posts myself.
I write most of my post at night time since this is the best time for me to actually sit down and relax and have some thinking time. During the day I will write a list of things (on paper) that I want to write about so I can get straight to it when the time comes.
Posting is first thing in the morning for me, before 9:30 am EST.
I’ll either start writing the content at 6:45 am, right after shoving my honey out of the house to make the other piece of the money pie, or I’ll set up the content the night before for publishing the next morning.
I see in my stats that most people begin looking at the post just after 1:00 pm EST, but by then I’m deep into other projects, and my readers can enjoy the post and visit links I’ve added to extend their knowledge.
I try to post at least once a day – whenever I can fit it in! I give more thought to my email subscribers. I know what time the email goes out from feedburner – so I try to adjust my post time so that my email subscribers get 1 email each day from my site.
I’ve found that the best time to post (for me) is in the morning, usually I have post go up once every hour between 8am and 11am, this way they are spread out nicely and I have always felt that the morning is good for most blogs to post.
I post when I post (when I’m finished writing/editing a post), but I tend to notice that posts get more comments when they’re at the top of the page for a bit longer, i.e. a day or two. I guess for those who post a few times a day, that’s not really an option and timing your posts would be a good tactic.
Has anyone had trouble with WordPress’s supposed timed publishing feature. Maybe I’m just not using it correctly, but when I’ve tried the post says it’s published, but it doesn’t show up on the homepage even after the designated time.
The Masked Millionaire gets posted at 12:01 a.m. Las Vegas time.
If I have a second post then it goes up at 12:01p.m. Las Vegas time.
I have never had three posts in one day.
Live From Las Vegas
The Masked Millionaire
in the morning, after reading newspaper with coffee next to me would be a great time :). Usually after read rss feed on my netvibes page.
Dareen, do you read people’s rss feed to ?
I just try and post up every day at some point. Often I get on a roll and post up to 5 a day. Very cool.
I find that posting very late at night/early in the morning U.S. time really gives my blog a boost, rather than posting in the afternoon. Generally, posts can go up at 1AM… this helps even out traffic, since I am based on Pacific Standard time, and most people in the world are hours ahead of my time.
While it certainly may be a result of being a (Classic) Blogger-based blog, but I’ve noticed that my new posts hit my Google Reader list within a minute or two – sometimes quite a bit less.
My site stats usually show a shallow, almost-flattened bell curve of activity through the day with the upswing in traffic from about 13:00-16:00 E.S.T. with the peak of this gentle surge during the 15:00 E.S.T. hour. Aside from pure curiosity, however, these stats don’t affect the time of day that I publish posts – I’m much more concerned about just getting new stuff published a couple or 3 times a week.
I generally try to reserve new blog entries for weekdays since daily traffic stats typically shows to be slowest through the weekend. But there are even some weeks when Saturday and/or Sunday will spike unexpectedly, so if the inspiration for a post comes my way over the weekend and I have time to hack it out, it’s gonna get published!
I post twice a day, fitting the two around my day job. First posts at 7 am on the East Coast of Australia focus on content relating to Australia and NZ. Posts 7 pm or later have content relevant to other parts of the world – in time for RSS feeds in the USA.
Never really thought about that (which I know I should) but I try to post in the morning.
Gosh I am not nearly this organized yet but it sure is a brilliant thought! And kudos to you people that are!!!
Ryan – depends on the post. This post took 3 minutes (I’m doing only 3 minute posts this weekend) but it really depends a lot on the post. Some can take hours to write, other minutes.
Trey – I think if you’re promoting your posts on twitter that the timing of posts become even more critical as if you post while someone is asleep they’ll often be off their radar by morning
Blog – depends on when the comment is left and what it is.
Supermance – yes I mainly read blogs via RSS.
I usually get hyper and post a gazillion times per day…..sometimes you get the urge, and sometimes you don’t.
What if I said that whatever time we post, is the right time, and the reader will find the post, at the right time? :-)
Funny though, how weekends are usually less readership and comments, (and sales overall on the www) and people somehow find time to read all our words during their “work” day. :-)
I agree with the earlier comment, that the speed posting is pretty cool. Very quick and informative, with the loose conversation feel that keeps everyone connected.
After a bit of experimentation I’ve found the best time for me to post is 12pm GMT. This usually ensures my post is published ready for readers in the US (my biggest audience so far) to catch this as they check their feeds in the morning.
I’ve really noticed a difference in comments/page views if I post later in the day. Now I’m very thankful Blogger have finally implemented scheduled posts (use Blogger in Draft for this at the present time). Before this I was waiting by the computer for the right time to post!
Thank you for posting about this Darren. I’m glad I’m not the only one who considers the best time of day to post!
Its nice to get some of the inside of problogger and how you post. I usually post one in the morning U.S EST, and one at some random time in a day.
For me it really depends on which blog it is. 3 of my 4 don’t have much in the way of non US/Canadian readership simply because that is what most of the content applies to. I have to time those if I want to make an impact with posts for the day. If I don’t make a post by 1:00 pm on the east coast I have lost my best chance of influence readers with relevant news stories for the day. I prefer to have posts made by 7 or 8 in the morning east coast, even if I rarely drag my tired ass out of bed extra early to do it.
My other blog is a blog about blogging and I have plenty of regular visitors from Singapore, India, and Eastern Europe, so anytime of day I post there will have it fresh in the morning or the last thing they see before they go to bed for someone.
If you have the space for it, I recommend the feedjit tracking widget which will show you at a glance in real time where your blog readers are coming from. Just remember to tell it to ignore your browser.
I have a “day job” – a career, actually. So posting tends to revolve around my work committments. I try to have at least one queued up and set to auto-post the following day, in case life happens and I can’t post. I usually set an auto-post for 1:00 am Eastern.
Tink *~*~*
I think it is important what time of the day you post. Being new at this I been watching it very close. Since I have a political news blog I try to post late at night to hit around the nightly news. 11pm est. I also found out, Saturday, is the worst day to post.
I think it is important what time of the day you post. Being new at this, I been watching it very close. Since I have a political news blog I try to post late at night to hit around the nightly news. 11pm est. I also found out, Saturday, is the worst day to post. I have been surprised that Sunday has been a good post day.
I haven’t really looked at posting times any. Most of the time, I post in advance. My usual thing is to write posts on Sunday and forward date them for some time in the morning in the week ahead. Why the morning? You got me. Instinct said morning is best.
I also aim for the early morning US traffic. Luckily it matches late evening blogging time in India and works for me.
By the way, I get my hourly data from my web hosting provider’s Webalizer stats.
I generally use Google Analytics for statistical info, but I haven’t discovered a way to view hourly figures. Is there a feature that I’ve missed or it that type of data simply not available via GA?
It’d be interesting to hear when other people in the U.S. are seeing their peak site traffic during the day…
I find it useful to post most news as it happens. Of course sometime for editing and error checking. We post as the information becomes available to us. But I think running some tests to see when the most traffic hit our blog is a good idea as well.
By the way, thanks for the great information you guys post each day!
My advice is to post in the morning, so as many people as possible will see it over the course of a day.
I use the time stamp to schedule posts to be published from 7-9 AM generally, and I make sure I have at *least* two ready at all times.
You’re right Darren, timing is very important if marketing to Twitterers is the main focus. The timing will probably be different for different people, of course depending on when their friends are on.
By the way, I meant to enter 11:30 AM when I entered the time I post. (I operate on a 24 hour clock for the most part)
I didn’t really pay attention to the time of day on which I post, but maybe you’re right and it makes a difference!
I’m not shure about it, I might experimenting with different moments…
I think that trends can change. I see it anyhow, so I kind of go with what seems to be working at the time. I do follow this though, and give the subject a little attention. There is definitely something to be said for consistency, as one is not so easily forgotten by readers. Especially, if a writer has serious intentions for the future of their blogging. Nice to read about your schedule.
I was a paper journalist for a long time and there is nothing like a deadline, real or imagined to get the creative/writing process flowing. So I guess if you can invent an “11 o’clock deadline” mentality where you have to get something out and its got to be pretty good then that could help drive content.
Usually i’m posting in every morning, that if i don’t have a lot of work on my home, so when i can’t post in morning, i’l try post it on midday on above 11 o’clock.
Most of the time I’m posting after work at home. I’ve found out that I can’t “squeeze” in postings during worktime, even if there is some time left. I also post on weekends, due to the fact that I’ve got more free time then.
I don’t post my blog at a regular time.I always post it in the midnight ，because it is the most tranquil time in a day.So I have to stay up at times.
time is very important in posting blogs, thanks a lot. that was quite informative.
I try to write and post in the morning, but it depends on my schedule (and my tea consumption). It can be really difficult to write in the morning on some days–but I always feel better after I’ve updated my blog with a post (even if I have to go back and edit it after publication). I post daily as much as possible.