Today I had this question from a reader about their struggle with posting daily on their blog:
“Darren I am a new blogger and I really want to be posting every day, but I just can’t keep up. I find it takes me so long to put each post together that to do 7 a week would take me 7-10 hours (I am writing ‘how to’ type posts). While I’d love to dedicate that much time to blogging each week I have a full time job, family and social life to keep up. Do you have any tips?”
This is a great question and one that I know a lot of bloggers struggle with – particularly in their early days.
Finding a posting rhythm is important to do – but it doesn’t just happen. In this post (and the next one tomorrow) I want to make a few comments that may assist in the finding of your posting stride.
1. There is no Right Posting Level
One of the common misconceptions that new bloggers have is that they are somehow failing as a blogger if they don’t get a post up every single day.
The reality is that there is no posting schedule that is right for all blogs. For some blogs a post a day is just right, for others posting 20 times a day is ideal, for others it is one or two posts a week. The ideal post frequency for your blog will depend upon many factors including:
- Your topic (how wide the niche is, how much news there is on the topic etc)
- Your post style (for example posting tutorials can take longer than posting short ‘news’ posts)
- Blogger time (how much time you have available for blogging)
- Your audience (some blogs readers seem to love lots of short posts each day while others are after something more meaty)
- How Many Bloggers You have (a blog with multiple authors can sustain a higher number of posts)
There is no optimal posting level for all blogs. Last time I surveyed ProBlogger readers on how many posts they published a week I found that on average they were doing 8.9. However, as you’ll see from the chart below (showing the spread of results from the poll) the most common answer was actually 5 posts a week.
2. Start out Slow and Work Your Way Up
My advice to new bloggers is to start out slower than what you’re aiming for, to work hard on quality of posts and then over time increase your posting frequency as you’re able.
This was the approach that I had with my photography blog. My initial goal was to post 3 quality posts per week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Once I had consistently met this goal for a month or so I added a 4th post into the schedule and then a month or so later a 5th.
At 5 posts per week (each weekday) I stopped increasing my posting frequency (I couldn’t sustain any more) until a reader actually came to me and offered to post a summary of the activity on the forums every Sunday. I then decided to make Saturday a ‘reader question’ type day where I simply started a discussion (a fairly easy post to write) and suddenly I was at 7 posts a week.
This process of getting up to daily posts took me over a year to achieve. In more recent times I’ve hired writers to take on 4 of the posts per week and have weaned myself off writing them all. This will enable me to concentrate on expanding other areas of the site in coming months.
The beauty of this gradual increase of posts was that I was able to work up to daily posting and not over stretch myself (or have quality of work suffer). The analogy I use to describe this is that when you’re training as an athlete for a long distance event, you don’t suddenly go out and start running the eventual distance you’ll run. You need to work up to that distance over time, get yourself in condition and get your body used to the distance. Too much too quickly can mean you burn out.
It also meant that there was no sudden change in posting frequency for my readers to have to deal with. I doubt any of them would really even notice the changes.
3. Monitor Your Readerships Response to Your Posting Levels
As you increase your posting levels pay careful attention to how your readership are responding.
What I’ve found is that there is generally a ‘sweet spot’ where a blogs audience is most content. This sweet spot will vary from blog to blog.
Watch what your readers say about your posting level – but also look for other signals and signs that you might be posting too much (or not enough).
For example watch what happens to your traffic levels on days when you post more as opposed to days that you don’t post (or post less).
Another thing to watch is comment numbers. I find that if I post too much the numbers of comments on a post will decrease while if I only post once a day the comment numbers go up (conversely if I don’t post for a couple of days comment numbers slow on a post after a day or two signaling that my readership are done with the topic and want more).
4. Consistency is Important
What is probably more important than ‘how many’ posts you do a week is that you establish some kind of consistent posting rhythm that readers can expect to get from your blog. The only time I’ve ever had readers complain about how many posts I do on my blog is when I’ve suddenly changed things in one way or another.
For example there was a week a couple of years ago where I simply found myself with a lot to say and where there was a lot of breaking news on the niche of blogging. As a result my posting frequency here at ProBlogger leapt up from twice a day to 4-5 times a day. Readers pushed back because I’d been consistently producing 2 posts a day and suddenly they were needing to find time to digest double that.
The same thing can happen when you suddenly decrease your posting frequency – readers come to expect a certain level of posts and suddenly it is gone.
If you do make changes to your posting frequency consider doing them gradually and/or explaining what is going on to your readers.
4 More Tips Tomorrow – Have Your Say Now
This is just the first part in a two part series on finding your posting rhythm as a blogger. As I began to write this post I realized that there was a lot to cover so wanted to hold the second half of this post (with 4 more tips on finding your blogging rhythm) until tomorrow.
In the mean time – I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on a couple of things.
- Firstly – how many posts do you do a week? Is this your goal or do you struggle to meet your goal?
- Secondly – what advice would you give to bloggers on posting frequency and finding your blogging rhythm?
I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts and sharing more of my own tomorrow.
Update – See the second post in this series at Finding Your Posting Rhythm Part 2.
I post twice a week on Thursdays and on Tuesdays that keeps me pumping out enough content yet not burning myself out.
I post between 7 and 12 times each week. I find that by frequently posting I maintain much better traffic consistency. The thing that helps me most is keeping a list of ideas to choose from. This helps keep me from getting frustrated thinking of a post idea. So I keep a little list going all the time, I write down ideas when they come to mind and use that list to pick topics from.
Hi Dareen Rowse,
Really helpful tutorial.As you say that Slow to fast.
I mean every blogger should be post rhythmically.So user can stay and stick with particular time.
This is great basic advice. New bloggers think they have to kill themselves writing a huge number of posts. Start slow and work up, like Darren says.
You should be spending two-thirds of your time networking and building up relationships with other bloggers and readers, and one-third of your time on your blog. Building strong relationships is far more important when you’re knew than frequent posting. If I had learned this earlier in my own blogging career, I would have many more readers than I do currently.
What works well for me is to write the upcoming week’s posts in advance during the weekend. Having an editorial calendar helps keep me on rhythm as well.
I do a solid three post a week no matter what. I usually have three ready before the week even starts and I schedule them to autopost.
This is nice for me because I’m never pressured during the week to come up with something new (I don’t want to be worrying about posting a blog when I’m seeing patients). I usually end up adding around 2-4 more post during the week if something strikes me as interesting.
Having three in the bag before the week even starts takes all of the stress out of it. I don’t think you could pull this off with every blog, but it seems to work nicely for mine so far.
We’re under a month in and I’m pretty psyched with our growth so far.
Great Post Darren!
Dr. Ben
I, as a regular reader of several blogs, don’t have time to keep up with reading 7 significant posts a week. I am happy to get a couple of bigger articles spaced out by smaller articles that pose a question, ask for feedback, show me a great video, point me to a resource (offline or online), tease me about what I’m learning, challenge me to think creatively, etc.
As a teacher, sometimes the best teaching tool is the question that inspires a student to think. Give your readers a chance to let the significant lessons soak in.
I post five times a week. I love the tip about monitoring stats based on posting. I have discovered, by and large, if I’ll post at any time during a day, I’ll see pretty solid traffic numbers; if I don’t post on a certain day, I’ll see low traffic numbers. This clues me in on my audience. They are not first time visitors for the most part; instead, they are loyal followers who only want to visit when I have something to say.
One thing that readers need to keep in mind is that the more posts you have on your blog, assuming your WordPress has proper SEO, the more “long-tail” traffic you’ll see in subsequent months.
Posting 2-4 times a week might be great for your established readership, but posting 5-7 times a week could double or triple your search engine traffic 3 months from now.
Something to think about.
I post from 3 to 4 times a week — usually 3 times unless I have a series. My posts are on weighty subjects in mental health and generally run to about 1500 words.
I have actually seen my readership increase with fewer posts. It seems that too many posts per week turns readers away, while 3 to 4 gives them the time to digest and comment on them before wanting more.
And, I have to admit it, I like not having to come up with the equivalent of a college paper every day! I have more time for research, drafting and polishing each post.
First of all, I just want to say THANK YOU! I’m a new blogger and have been thinking a lot lately about what should be my posting frequency. Currently I post 5 days of the week (M-F), mostly because I want to build up a good base of content to help my blog grow. As I gain more readership, however, I want to take your tips into account and establish a plan that will lead to a more permanent and comfortable posting rhythm.
I try to post 5 to 6 days a week-but for the last 2 years in the summer when the kids are home I have made an announcement to my audience that I am going to a summer posting schedule of MWF, sometimes Sat to spend time w. kids.
I think especially starting out your advice to go slow and write quality is wise (as your advice usually is) it’s better to have a lot of quality content for readers to browse through when they DO start visiting your site rather than lots and lots of mediocre posts.
Unfortunately I started off fast and have tailed off. Initially I fired out 10 or good posts and now I am posting just once a week. This is primarily because I am learning all about the subject of my blog, designing ‘Freebies’ to give away on my blog or answering questions on forums realting to my blogs topics The posting (wrongly or not) has dropped to that frequency.
Thankfully my visitors stats are still increasing and one of the first posts I wrote is still my most popular.
I do find it a struggle sometimes and I think you hit the nail on its head when you mentioned ‘how much news is there on your topic’. It can be very ‘fits and starts’. but I feel that initially a blog needs a few good posts to kick it off. I have settled into my 1 post per week routine and once I have amassed enough freebies, I will increase the tempo once more.
Right now I also have same problems. Infact I have dumped social life aside and still not able to get enough time.
So just trying to keep up with 1 post per week.
Hi Darren,
I do one main post of teh week on a tuesday, a tutorial, and I usually spent the whole weekend writing it, then I post a regular fun post on fridays which is quite short. If I find something interesting that my readers should know about, I’ll post it just as a short post. I would love to find the time to write 3 quality tutorials a week but I, like the question have a full time job and kids, with the blog in the mix ther’s not much time for socialising off the net, but I love my blog.
With regards to the traffic, it usually drops right down if I don’t post for a day or too. But if I post too many topics in a week I get very few comments, bear in mind that mine is still a very young blog so I don’t expect an awfull lot…oh god, I’m rambling, sorry.
Thanks for the post:)
I recommend to our clients to try to post to their blog 2 or 3 times a week initial to see how their audience reacts. Watch their traffic stats to see what the traffic is like after a post too.
Most of the clients we work with are wanting to be a source for information in their particular field. And to do so, they need to post.
I would also echo that how often you post really depends on the niche you are blogging about. I blog more on Blog For Profit then I do on my other blog.
It is also important as Michael said for new bloggers to not kill themselves trying to keep to a certain blogging schedule. The worse thing a new blogger can do is be so excited in the beginning and try to post too often. Pace yourself. And as you have pointed out before Darren, and I tell people I talk to. Just because you write the post, doesn’t mean it has to go up the day you wrote it. Set it to be published down the road. Post date it as I tell them.
Thanks again for a great post Darren.
Darren,
#1 – I post 1 post/day for Noobpreneur.com, 2 posts/day for KnolToday.com and GEArtBlog.com, and 2-3 posts/week for MoneyAndMinds.com
#2 – I agree with Darren – try a different posting frequency, and you’ll see your readers’ response. Typically, as Darren also already mentioned before in his post, more posts generally more traffic to your blog. Of course, there are some anomalies here and there, but you can always get the big picture from surveys and stats on blog frequency vs. traffic.
Cheers!
I actually spend whole saturday to create articles for the week. And the rest of the week is marketing the articles. Blogspot offers qeue of post so i use it well. Even though my internet will be lost for a week. My blog will still be running.
I’m having trouble posting as much as I’d like to as well. I wanted to post at least 5 times a week, but I’m down at about 3 times a week.
Work and other obligations have really eaten into my blogging time. Most of my posts require a number of hours of research to put together.
The plan now is to keep it at 3 a week and work my way up from there as I get more blogging experience.
1) I probably ‘average’ about 1 post a week, sometimes less, sometimes more. I am not all that hard on myself if I don’t post for a while. I write when I have something to write about but if I feel absolutely void of ideas, nothing gets posted. In the future I may hire a writer to help with consistency however.
2) Now I’ll contradict what I just said: there really isn’t any excuse not to post with some regularity and once/week is very doable for just about any type of business I can think of. The key is to habituate your blogging activities much like you habituate checking email or doing your books or any other fundamental task required to push business forward.
Part of habituating blogging is to always keep one ear to the ground (digitally speaking). Stay tuned in to what’s happening in your industry. Write down interesting tidbits that occur throughout your work day whether it be in emails, forums, blogging, on Twitter, or WHATever. There is so much more blogging fodder out there than we realize; it’s simply a matter of noticing it and then talking about it.
PS: You don’t need to be Hemingway and this is where too many business owners get stuck in their marketing. You just have to have something to say. Then say it!
Cheers.
Karri
As a new blogger, I’m enjoying this conversation and looking forward to the follow-up post and comments. My long-term goal is 5 to 7 posts per week. Because my blog is in my area of expertise (writing), I have plenty of material. The real stumbling block is time management: I’ve yet to work out a schedule that allows me to post even three times a week, let alone every day. Drafting at least some of the next week’s posts over the weekend sounds like a sensible plan.
I am trying to post once a day :)
I focus completely on the content and not at all on the rhythm. If I have something to say, I will say it — if not, I will wait for weeks. This, oddly enough, doesn’t impact my subscribers at all.
One of the main reasons, actually, that I will unsubscribe from a blog, is if they obviously try to force content. I can’t stand reading forced writing.
Great post!
I found this article really useful as well:
http://www.skelliewag.org/how-to-develop-an-efficient-post-frequency-532.htm
I usually post 3 to 4 time’s a week. I would love to do more thou but due to my lack of time I am afraid that is not about to happen in the near future!
Thanks for the yet another great post Darren.
I try to post 5 times a week, M-F. However, like the new blogger that asked, I sometimes get tied up with family, with work, or even lack of sleep (read: bad time management). So there are weeks that I will post every other day. There is a huge difference in my comments on days that I post and when I miss a day. I almost feel like a failure, but then I remind myself that I am not blogging for an income, but for a creative portal to pass my thoughts. Then missing a day doesn’t seem so bad, besides, the next time I post, the readership jumps way up again.
I run a tutorials site using wordpress. I started in July, (my first site) writing posts as often as possible to build up the content and as Nathan said, get google noticing it down the line!
A few months later and i now post a couple of times a week, plus extra ones when specific tutorials are requested, my traffic is building nicely, i rank well, and i still have social time!
The problem with that is now i want to start another blog… it’s addictive!
Great ideas Darren.
I too write “how to” posts. Mine are on career and life success. When I started my http://www.SuccessCommonSense.com blog, I spent some time figuring out five general categories for it. This helped me organize my thinking around blogging. I post on one of these categories every day, five days a week. Today is Friday, so I posted on the fifth category, “Interpersonal Competence. You can see it here: http://bbilanich.typepad.com/success_common_sense/2008/10/the-lady-in-the-lexus.html.
Creating categories about which I blog every day has made it easier for me to organize my thinking about blogging. It also has made it easier for me to write posts. When I see something on line or in the media about one of my categories, or when something happens to me that relates to one of my categories, I take 30 minutes or so that night to write a post. I wrote this post Monday evening, the same day that the event I describe happened.
In this way, I usually have a back log of posts.
As a reader of many blogs and somewhat of a newbie to the online world I like it when blogs make very clear what their posting plan is going to be. If it is daily, say daily commit and do it. If it is once a week, make it somewhat meaty and do it. It drives me crazy when I am waiting for my favorite writer to post somethng and it just doesnt get there.
just my two cents
Wayne
First – just want to say thanks toPro Blogger for a great resource. Hopethis tipis helpfulfor others…
We have good success with “banking” draft posts that are relevant and useful/interesting (we hope) but not time sensistive. That way – ifthe time or motivation is not available to realize our goal of 7 posts per week – we can easily dive into the library of “banked” posts.
On my Israel blog, I try to post 3 times per day weekdays and 2 times per day on weekends. This is due to my readership levels thoughout the week (few Israeli/Jewish readers on Saturday). The schedule often adapts to news and what is going on in the reasons. 5 was too hard to sustain without a second blogger, and fewer than 3 I am not doing my job for my readers.
I just started a personal finance blog and have been good about posting once per day there. My readership is slowly growing.
Glad you posted this Darren, I’ve been struggling with this situation for the better half of this month. My website is a How-to website and in order to provide good How-to’s much time is required, so I’ve been struggling to post 7 how-to’s a week. I’m thinking about switching to 4 so that I can provide meatier how-to’s all the while providing fresh content with enough frequency.
I think that if we communicate with our readers via a blog post, announcements, whichever works best, that the change whether it is increasing or decreasing the frequency of posts to their benefit should be welcome.
I believe that the key is communication. Thanks for the timely post. This is the third in a row that’s really hit home this past week.
I think posting every day is too much and as one author you can’t produce that much QUALITY content unless you are really working it full time.
I think one solid quality post per week is fine, with maybe a few update or link out shorter posts thrown in.
People don’t unsubscribe from lack of posting. They unsubscribe because of bad posts!
Brian
Darren,
Say, like the person whom the article is based upon, you have a tutorial site. Would you say it is better to spend say… a few months writing a few dozen articles, and then posting them on the blog, or to simply start the blog, create your first tutorial, and go from there?
Good article, I too am a new blogger and trying to find my rhythm. Is two days enough or should I try for five? At this point, two or perhaps three seems more realistic.
Thanks again!
I’m currently posting once per week but I’d really like to be able to post twice a week. At first I wasn’t sure about my frequency but I started writing posts without publishing them and I found I could sustain one per week without much difficulty.
There have been weeks when I’ve written two posts a week but I’ve saved one of the posts for another week for when I’m feeling less productive.
When I decide to make the push for two posts a week I think that I’ll write two posts a week and only publish one of them for a month. If I can keep it up then I’ll move to the two per week. So far I haven’t been able to pull that off.
Hi Darren: I now have two blogs that I post to 5-7 days a week. I post to my Detroit-focused blog M through F; and to my political blog almost every day.
For my Detroit-focused blog, I use an editorial calendar because I have a regular theme for each day. (I probably learned from you about the benefits of using an editorial calendar.) The calendar is extremely helpful because I might think of an idea that is great for my “Thursday theme” for example and I can put it on the calendar even weeks ahead.
My political blog doesn’t have a calendar; with politics, there is always something happening and I have to “work” to keep to just one post a day! Sometimes I’ll write two or three posts and future date them.
I generally write 2-3 days of posts at a time and future date them. I’ve already written my posts for Thanksgiving week when I’ll be at our annual family reunion for the whole week.
I have a full-time writing business in addition to my blogs, so “project management” is always a challenge.
Thanks to you for all of your help.
Clarification: for my Detroit-focused blog, http://thedspotredeux.blogspot.com, I’ve already future-posted for Thanksgiving week.
My political blog, http://blackliberalboomer.today.com, has posts “banked” for Thanksgiving week because it focuses on politics for “boomers” and since that will be after the Presidential elections, I’ve written posts that address issues for boomers based on who I am 93% sure will be the next U.S. president–especially financial/health issues, etc.
I am working on keeping everything tied to my writing business website: http://www.writingitrightforyou.com; as well as just writing articles or starting another blog specifically on writing.
Thanks for the great tips. I have been subscribed to your blog newsletter for several months now, and I’ve learned so much from you. Thank you for taking time to help beginners like me learn about the online world. :)
We post once or twice a week. We’d like to post more, but don’t have the time. We’ve had our blog for almost a year now, and it has worked for us to do it this way. We also have a newsletter that is sent when we post something new. This has been really helpful to keep our readers coming back each week.
My goal is to post once per day with the occasional 2nd or 3rd post in a day. I have been able to maintain this rhythm consistently since 2006, averaging about 40 posts per month.
My advice would be just what you’ve said here – start slow (but set some sort of volume goal) and produce the best content you can. Build up commenting readers, then subscribers. Then, if you think you have enough to say to maintain the rhythm, increase your posting volume slowly with emphasis on regularity and quality.
Whew! you really took the pressure off of me.
“Blogger time (how much time you have available for blogging) ”
I don’t have a lot of time and yet I have been pressuring myself to write a whole bunch. Now I am feeling burnt out and uninspired. Steady wins the race I guess.
I’m trying to post every other day – one day to this blog which is focused on my craft and creative living, and the other day to my other blog(http://wouldlovetoknow.blogspot.com/ ) which is lighter stuff. With both I’m working on finding my voice and honing writing skills. I tend not to post if I’m traveling.
Great question. I’ve been doing just one week for several months now, but they are usually detailed, how-to posts with lots of useful information/advice. I am striving for high-quality with every post I write. And I am sensitive to the time people have in their lives to do things like read blogs.
I have noticed, though, that readers drop off dramatically from Monday, when I usually post, to Friday. I’m going to add a second post starting next week and see what happens.
Depends which blog we are talking about. My news related blogs can be anywhere from 1 to 2 posts a week to 10 or 12 posts, just depends on whats happening in its niche. This can make it difficult to sustain readership as its very up and down, but its not normally news that can be held back to even out the spread.
Other more ‘how-to’ sites and non-blogs get updated twice a week, in a relatively even pattern. This helps sustain that readership as they know what to expect.
My personal/informal blog is updated whenever, but at least once a week.
I guess it comes down to being willing to put the hours in and sacrifice the odd night out (like I did last night) to write content, update designs, follow up on emails and interact on other websites. If I was to work out how many hours it takes a week to generate the content and deal with the day to day running of websites, it would frigten me (given the returns). A full time job (40+ hours a week), blogging (40+ hours a week), family (the rest of the time) sleep (yeah, right, 5 hours or so if I’m lucky).
I’m in the habit of posting three complex posts a week (features etc) but a series of dozens of smaller informational posts throughout the week.
This is good for me, it lets me post small tutorials and things but then focus on larger items over weekends etc.
When I decided to do this consistently, my goal was to post at least once a day (Mon. – Fri., except on holidays). However, I’ve been posting more frequently (around 10+ posts a week), simply because there’s so much information out there that I want to share with my audience (parents of preschoolers).
My advice? Set a minimum goal for yourself that you can be consistent with (remember that consistency is the most “radical” thing that you can do!). Then, take if from there. Good luck!
I really like #1. I was feeling bad because I am not a daily poster. But if I don’t post, I don’t get many hists or comments to my blog. I post on average twice a week though lately, its been once. I need to set a goal to post at least twice during the week.
Thanks for the tips! I am a beginner blogger as well and I post 7-10 a week. Once a day is comfortable for me. With time stamps I am actually staying 5 days ahead.
I also have a Blog Schedule that I follow. I found that its easier to stay on a “category schedule” than just trying to pumping out content.
This topic of “Post frequency” is actually my next post for this coming Monday October 27.
as others have said, this is a wonderful post, darren. thank you for putting it together — i enjoyed it immensely.
i have a goal of writing at least 3 substantive posts a week at my main (personal finance, debt reduction) blog. my ideal target is 5 a week, where 1 may be a ’roundup’. my style tends to lean towards more a hybrid of story-like lessons how-to such that the articles tend to be on average 1000 words.
i write when i feel like it, which is practically every day. i don’t usually finish an article immediately — it might take me a few hours one day, and then another several hours another day. i have many, many rough drafts waiting to be completed. i post when i feel satisfied with my work.
for a few of my series, i do plan, think, and write for them in advance, to ensure that i do have a post on particular days.
i also have a separate crafts blog, where i only post once or twice a month, due to the nature/purpose of that blog.
my third blog is relatively new, for my freelancing/professional/technical side, and i hope to post at least 1 substantive article there, and a few shorter posts in-between a week.
sometimes i get anxious too if i miss a day, but i remind myself that that may happen at times, and that some things just take time for thinking, drafting, polishing.
it does indeed take a lot of my time to write, but i enjoy it immensely!
I’m a brand new blogger myself. Only started this month. Looking at my posts it seems that I am posting, on average, two a week. Today I am working on another post which would make it three for this week.
Since I haven’t found my rhythm I don’t know what I would say to new bloggers, other than it will come to you.
We have been trying to post 3x a week, but lately it has been more like 1 or 2.