This morning I glanced down at the Alexa traffic indicator for ProBlogger in my Firefox browser and noticed that in the last week I’ve had a noticeable upswing in traffic to ProBlogger.
At first I couldn’t think of why this might have been. In the last 7 days none of my posts have gone viral around the web – no big site has linked up – nothing much has changed.
I clicked through to Aweber to see if the chart there was any different. It similarly showed an upswing in traffic.
Perhaps it is just one of those Aweber ‘glitches’ that happens every now and again – so I checked my site metrics and the same upswing was reflected there. Traffic was up a bit over 30% on normal over the week.
I dug down further to see which post drew in all the traffic thinking that perhaps one went viral while I slept one night and then returned to normal – but there was nothing abnormal. All of the posts in the last week had normal kind of traffic – hmmmm.
As I continued to ponder I realised that the upswing wasn’t due to any one post – it was simply due to the fact that last week I posted 13 posts instead of my normal 7-8. The increased number of posts wasn’t a strategic move – it was just that there were more stories to cover during the week with a few breaking news stories.
I guess the take home lesson is that an increase in posting frequency can lead to an increase in traffic.
Of course it isn’t quite as simple as just doubling your posts and seeing an automatic increase in traffic. A few things to keep in mind are:
- This will be more the case for a site with existing subscribers than a new one – increased numbers of posts means your subscribers are being presented with more options for things to read – increasing their chance of finding something that fits their needs.
- Of course increasing your post frequency too much and too quickly can annoy some of your subscribers. Keep in mind that when I surveyed readers on why they unsubscribe to blogs that the #1 reason given was too many posts.
- The key is to keep your posts relevant, on topic and useful. If you do want to increase your post levels you probably should also do it a little gradually. I got away with 13 posts last week instead of 8 like the week before but if I’d posted much more than that in the week I’m sure I would have got some push back from readers. Don’t suddenly decide to be like some of the big tech blogs and push out 20 posts in a day unexpectedly!
I agree Darren, this happened to me as well. I’ve increased the frequency of posting, and has had greatly effect on my blog traffic.
“Don’t suddenly decide to be like some of the big tech blogs and push out 20 posts in a day unexpectedly!” <– Ooo techcrunch BURN.
There’s definitely a link between the amount of content you produce and the amount of visits you get, even if only because of the rule of numbers: the more you produce, the more likely someone will search for it or it will be picked up and run with.
My problem is that I just don’t have enough time to write more than 1 article a day :( I have no idea how people do it…
This is the main reason I have done so well in my first 7 weeks.
Darren as you know my site is getting great feedback and I post 2-3 times a day, I think if you provide quality content in quantity (my latest post) you will reep the rewards.
Good post
Re-Tweeting now
I’ve seen this kind of thing happen to my site as well. You’d think that would be the motivation I need to keep ploughing out the articles, but no!
I used to post everyday before but now I only wrote once a week or more lesser…..
Very good advice that I need to keep reminding myself of. Two things have increased my readership over time: posting more and a-list linkage. The second one can’t be counted on, though a fancy link will make you feel like Scrooge McDuck when your stats go up 3,000% in a day.
But posting more is always the best way to get more readers, they’re simply engaged. I find posting once a day and spending the rest of the day managing traffic on FB and twitter and things is a really happy medium for me. Of course, I have a full time job besides my blogging, and I’m not a news site, I’m a film criticism and theory site. So to each his/her own.
Nice post as usual. Thanks
http://www.technobuzz.net
Of course post frequency results in higher traffic. google caches your site more frequently, and also the points you raised. this is one area though where their is no one right way however. guys like you and shoemony and smashing mag post once a day. mashable post 15 times a day. steve pavlina whenever the hell he feels like. looking at that, the one constant is quality and consistency. pick a post scheduel and stick to it, and focus on your quality and your keywords. then get backlinks for your posts so they rank for whatever your targeting. I dont have to tell you that of course, your the godfather of blogging.
YOUR BUMP CAME FROM A LINK TO YOUR SITE FROM ANOTHER BLOGGER SITE, WRITER UNBOXED. THAT IS HOW I JUST FOUND THIS SITE. YES, YOU WENT VIRAL AND DIDN’T NOTICED IT.
Good advice and important for all blog writers to consider. I think readers are looking for consistency. While you might see an initial bump doing two posts a day it is all about staying focused on the topics your readers are looking for.
Good advice and important for all blog writers to consider.
I think readers are looking for consistency.
While you might see an initial bump doing two posts a day it is all about staying focused on the topics your readers are looking for.
If you write on a blog you have to give away a feeling of personality so the readers came back. Nice post!
Definitely awesome..
Unbelievable that 13 posts can do that much I think.
But yeah, It’s nice when it happens. But well I think even though your traffic rose, you should still only post like 7-9 posts each week. More than that could be annoying, well not annoying, but just be hard to keep track of everything you write!
Anyway, keep up the good work!
Like the Gala Darling interview, so awesome! The energy she has? Unbelievable!
Too many posts can in fact cause people to drop the blog feed. I’m glad you mentioned this. Quality over quantity looks to be the golden rule. This is true for so many things! Thanks Darren-
P.S. I was expecting a post from you on that blogger that copied your post almost word for word! What a jerk!
My blog at forty2fifty.com is only 2 weeks old and last week I decided to write a post every day Monday through Friday.
Traffic to my blog is up. However, I work my butt off and posting every day for those five days gave people fresh relevant content to see daily. I think posting daily is highly necessary to mark your spot.
I was thinking in a wrong way to make posts once every 3 days,according to your theory I posting 5 days through a week can get some more traffic
Thanks for the insight Darren.
Our traffic is also dependent on outbound email traffic like our newsletter which brings in all the people who are not diligent enough to read our blog every day.
Once a month we gather up the best of the posts and send out an email. There’s always a noticeable increase in traffic.
Good post. I keep reading that a good blogger should be posting once per day, but some of my favorite blogs only post 1-3 times per week. What gives? Is it that they are so incredibly gifted?
Thanks again.
I’ve found this to absolutely be true.
I have a relatively new blog, but for one month I posted every day (sometimes twice a day) and saw a ridiculous (for me) increase in traffic. The next month, as my posting slowed, so did my traffic.
While my blog doesn’t see an amazing amount of traffic in any given month, I was up over 30,000 pageviews simply by posting more frequently.
I love reading your blog tips, but this is the one time (so far) I’ve been able to say, “Yes, that is true actually.”
It made me feel like a blogger, even if only for a moment.
yes. i have this too for my blog Blogger Template Place.
But, yesterday i doesn’t know what the reason is. Until you make this post
Thanks
Thanks for the in graet info ,
i really havent done it yet but will defintely try your strategy
hmmm, I think if you aim to post 100 blog posts in a week, you die of fatigue and we die from boredom
yea it actually is true i know the same thing with one of my other blogs. i noticed that if i took a break for about 3 days and put no new posts up and then i come back and put up twice as many as a i normally would my traffic does see big increases just not 30% yet
I do notice day-to-day variations in traffic that often have nothing to do with anything. Perhaps your traffic change is just a fluke… maybe more people are on vacation… maybe it was a slow news day… Probably could be anything.
I am not sure that I completely understand the Alexa data but I’m sure I will learn more as time goes by.
Yes you’re correct,updating contents in a blog regularly is good for both subscribers & search engines,but if it’ll cross a limit,then that would not be welcomed by them.
Too many posts can bring headache for visitors as well.. but I think if you have useful and relevant contents people will always come back
I’ve tried so many methods to increase my traffic, and all seem to fail miserably :/
New blog posts last a few days, and then die down in the rankings.
I guess good quality content really is where it’s at.
very nice dude……..it all works a bit,but i need more help in order to get more and more traffic to my blog…..nd
*********MARRY XMAS**********
I’ve also had good luck increasing my traffic by posting more often during the week. My slowest day is Sunday, which I use to come up with a few of the ideas I will write about the following week.
I’m also considering using my Sunday posts to be a recap of the most popular posts this week. Everyone loves a clip show.
It really works!
last week i started post every day one article on my blog. and at the end of this week i see that more people coming to my site.
it’s about 15-22% per day