Update: we’ve compiled your answers on your weekend blogging strategy and have posted them here.
What is your weekend blogging strategy?
- Do you post less because people are not online as much?
- Do you post more to try to keep traffic levels up?
- Do you just take a couple of days off and just take a break?
- Do you write posts in advance and schedule them to go off automatically?
- Do you use the weekend to write posts for the next week because you’ve got extra time on my hands?
Interested to hear your strategy.
PS: I’ve written a little more about what I do on the weekends here and here.
PS2: the weekend’s the perfect time to kick start your blog. Why not start the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog challenge!
I tend to do most of my posting on weekends as I work T,W, & Thurs. I don’t seem to suffer from it. Most of my followers tend to play catchup on Monday anyway and go back to read the posts they’ve missed.
Hi Darren! Nice post :)
I really don’t have a strategy yet. However, I have some thoughts around the subject:
Up until now, I’ve spent the weekends thinking about how to develop the blog further, scribbling down blog post ideas and doing a bit of reading to be inspired. I don’t feel like working too much on the blog itself and longer posts during the weekend. Weekends are time off, right? ;)
I don’t see more traffic during the weekends – but I might try posting some to test it out.
Thanks a million for doing this blog, by the way. I learn a lot and try out your advice as often as I can.
I usually post my blogs on fridays! checkout this site
http://www.earnmoreonline.webs.com
My weekend strategy has been to fire off many short posts highlighting cool T-Shirt designs. I am attempting to grow a consistent readership. I save longer posts, what I call verbal weightloss for weekly posting but often work on them during the weekend.
I blog a little more over the weekends – 2 posts a day instead of my usual one. On Saturdays I have a weekly round-up of the things we have been doing in our week with link backs, and a Saturday Spot: a place in our lives – either a review of a tourist spot in Cape Town or just a “place” around our home… On Sunday’s I have a Sunday Snippet: Which is usually a Sunday School idea or a book review on a missionary or a Christian parenting book of some kind… and from the first week of blogging these were my “highest traffic posts” I think the lull in other blogs around the world means people are browsing around and coming through… I never would have expected my Sunday posts to be looked at let alone big traffic posts (hardly controversial!) – but I am surprised every week.
Great question it just raises the diversity of the different types of blog out there!
Running a Blog about financial markets and instruments meens that a major part of my readers visit my Blog during business hours and when financial markets are open. Therefore I use the weekends to write posts but i publish them during weekdays.
I just write an article so that I won’t have to worry If I can’t think of anything ahead of time.
Before I used to use the weekends to write as much as I could because I had all of that extra time, now though, I use the rest of my free time on the weekends to promote my sites.
I usually blog less, trying to enjoy life more. Sometimes completely off if I need to refresh my mind, sometimes just less, sometimes still full if I feel like it. I try to blog without killing myself and follow my passion :D
Really don’t have a weekend blogging strategy. Since, I am a newbie to blogging, my strategy is to diligently blog everyday.
I am already seeing progress.
I’m now telling myself that your writing skills will get better with practice instead of screaming “you can’t write”.
Big progress. Huge! Obviously, the thought came from God; He’s must be a problogger too.
I’m still working on the 1st step of your previous blog, 9 first step goals for new bloggers. Stay tune.
Thank you.
gb
In the past, I took the weekends off or spent the time doing the blogging for the week. Now, I will occasionally do a post just to get a few readers who are online for the weekend.
I also find the weekends a good time to get new readers through Twitter.
My last ditch effort is canvasing the streets with a sandwich board that reads “Will work for more readers–possible drop pants”. Hasn’t had the reaction I’d hoped.
Well, since my day job is selling real estate, and my blog is where I pontificate, and occasionally rant about the real estate market, as well as provide some sort of value to my local community, hopefully, blogging on the weekend is no different than blogging during the week.
It’s 115 degrees today in Scottsdale, so the first thing on my mind is {find water, stay cool, hydrate}. The second thing on my mind is, {find water, stay cool, hydrate.}
In Real estate, weekends are when people go hunting for homes, so I will typically find myself sitting at an open house with my broadband card, commenting on other people’s articles and implementing technologies on my websites.
I post 7 days a week. To give my writing schedule some breathing room, Saturdays are reserved for a photo/quote and Sundays showcase a favorite link of the week.
I post Sunday through Thursday. I’m new to blogging and trying to establish a routine.
I tend to keep the same writing routine all 7 days, but weekends I tend to spend a lot more time focusing heavily on overhauling traffic to posts from Monday – Friday. I also spend weekends really focusing on building up my Facebook/Twitter/etc.
During the day I take a break to spend time with family but once the little ones have gone to bed I’m researching and writing as much as I can so I can free up some of my blogging time during the week. Having a couple of posts ready before the week starts takes the pressure off (especially if I have a couple of language podcasts and lessons as they tend to take a long time.)
At the weekend I spend most of the time editing the blog pages on my blogs rather than publishing post.
At the weekend I spend most of the time playing games
In winter i take a lot of my photos for the week since lighting isn’t so good during the week when only nights are available to me. And I’ll often do longer, more time-intensive posts on the weekend because I don’t need to rush.
I usually go with the “relaxation” approach, while also trying to catch up on blog “maintenance” tasks like updating plugins.
I will also take my time and catch up on my RSS feeds, leave comments on many blogs, check in on forums, etc. – everything I’m usually too busy to do during the week.
I also try to write a few posts for the upcoming week, and if I come across an interesting tidbit, I’ll post it (“blog light”).
In general, I found that blogging full blast through the week and having to continue the pace through the weekend was just too much.
It depends on whether I’m working or not…I treat the weekend like every other day, if there’s something to write about I’ll write it.
This week for example I’m working both yesterday and today, so I won’t have much time for it this time.
I don’t post on the weekends. I keep them free for having fun, catching up with people and relaxing.
I post Monday to Friday but because I’m based in Australia and we’re ahead of the US (where many of my readers are from), I have a light (humorous) post on Mondays (ie Sunday US time) and I finish the week with a question post. Readers seem to like the interaction and they have more time to answer it over the weekend.
Based on the analytic stats, I found out that my blog’s traffic is slightly getting more compare to the weekdays. Hence, I prefer to put more posts during weekend. But, sometime I need work alternatively on Saturday and Sunday.
The iPhone Blogging
When I first started blogging (not too long ago) I did just as much on the weekends as I did during the week.
I homeschool my four kids and have lots to do around the house and found that I was really stressing out since adding the part-time job of blogging.
I decided to quit blogging on the weekends to give myself a break. I have found that I get just as many visits on weekends that I don’t publish anything as I did when articles were going out.
So, now I write up all my articles on Monday and publish one each day, Monday through Friday. I use Saturday and Sunday to do other things!
First I try to write more post but nothing happen so actually I take a rest on sundays or maybe I publish only one post
I don’t know if this is a strategy per se, but I don’t generally post on the weekends unless I am reposting a column I’ve written on another blog. I write a weekly music column on another dad blog, so usually on Sundays I’ll repost it on my blog. I’m also in the process of doing a guest spot on another blog and when those go live I will be reposting them on the weekends until the 5 post series is over. I do four different memes each week and Mondays I save for some link love for my fellow bloggers, so my schedule is pretty busy to do much more for the weekends.
On Sundays I post a weekly reading list with links to other articles and posts I thought were worth sharing that week. They are mostly related to the main topic of my blog at the moment, international adoption and the issue of race in the US. I collect the links all week, so it’s pretty easy to add some commentary and whip up a post at some point on Sunday. I’ve been doing this for about two months now, and I find it interesting that these posts usually get fewer comments than my other posts but just as many (if not more) page views. I guess everyone is so busy reading what I recommend that they don’t have time to comment!
My strategy on weekends is to stay away from the desktop in the morning and do the following:
1. Wash clothes
2. Clean the room.
3. Iron clothes
4. Pick up a book and read.
It’s hard to be reflective in front of the computer. So many distractions. I find it useful to do physical, repetitive tasks at home to mull over my plan for the coming week. Yes, I don’t have an editorial calendar yet – you can shoot me now. lol
Great ideas swirl in my head when I wash my clothes for example. It’s the darndest thing having to dry your hands to jot down a useful idea – otherwise it might be lost. So I have index cards and pen ready whatever household chores I do at the moment.
So that’s it. I get to straighten my room and restore some order in my little universe and I’ve got to plan for the coming week.
We do not post on the weekends because we don’t have that many readers visiting on the weekends.
We try to write new posts for the upcoming week on the weekend and then schedule them to post to the blog automatically. Note, I said we try. So some weekends we get some posts written and scheduled, but not all the time.
It is our goal to use at least one of the weekend days to either write posts for the week or to brainstorm for new post ideas.
GossipSecretaries
For the start up bloggers, post more often seems to be more important to show the readers that you are serious with blogging.
After series of trials and errors, updating post everday worked out the best for me. I will feel bad for my readers if I miss one day of update.
I post my new articles during weekends because I have more time to do this. I look forward to weekends because this is the time that I am able to concentrate on blogging. lol..
I could only blog after work during weekdays that’s why.
Even then, there are times that work would still occupy my weekends as well.
I would resort to multi-tasking then: writing a new post, emailing, sometimes twittering, and accomplishing the paperwork I have brought home.
Happy weekend!
Saturday is an awesome time to post and get good activity going on. I personally don’t write (although I obviously still read and comment other blogs!) over the weekend, but I do typically write in advance and schedule to post throughout the weekend.
I schedule new posts to go up automatically for the weekend. If I have some extra time and feel like writing, I’ll begin next week’s posts.
For the most part though, I take time off to relax.
If I’m inspired to write, I write. If I find something interesting to post, I’ll post it (video, etc). I generally don’t worry too much about keeping a specific schedule as long as I get a few posts in every week.
since this is officially my first weekend as a blogger, i’ve yet to adopt an actual strategy. however being that i’m making a comment here means that i am committed to creating back links whenever i get the chance–weekday or weekend. but i’ll have to come up with a real strategy someday. while for today, i just went out and enjoyed the beach on sunny malibu!
In general, I focus my efforts on weekend. for two reasons: 1) I have more time on the weekend and 2) many other blogs seem to go on a break on weekends (to spend time with family etc.).
The minimum I do, is post my “big article” of the week on friday – but usually I also schedule a post for saturday or sunday.
Then I focus on marketing and driving traffic to the post, I’ve noticed this is easier on the weekend, but maybe it’s just me as like said, I’m more active on the weekend. Sometimes it pays off, like my post for this weekend picked up over 120 clicks through twitter already = personal best so far :)
I usually post on the weekdays, and spend the weekends editing or improving my posts, gaining traffic, reviewing my weekly stats, and pre-writing.
I post sometimes on Saturdays. I used to post 6 days a week but since the summer is usually busy here for us I’ve cut it down to about four and have a contributor. On the weekends I catch up withh my emails and write a few posts for the next week or two. Unless the post is time sensitive I write them well in advance. I also do some admin stuff and do some social networking on the weekends. I try not to post anything on Sundays.
Due to commitments at work during the week, I find that the weekends are the only time I really get a chance to write for my blog.
I prioritize my posts for during the week, but I will also post on the weekend. I don’t really have a good feeling which people prefer. I just know posting regularly is important.
I post on Mondays and Thursdays only, so the weekend is days off for me. Well, they’re supposed to be days off! I have so much else to do on weekends that it’s nice not to have to worry about the blog.
I relax and contemplate on what my blog is for. I think more than doing the writeup job. I mainly think about the posts I’ve written and those that I must write next.
When I’m not focused on writing more and keep away from the routine job, I can better think and plan for the coming week.
Since I blog mostly about local politics, weekend readership is light and I usually put up cultural events, entertainment or lighter stuff, including photo galleries. Much of this is prepped ahead of time, giving a little much-appreciated free time on the weekend. I’ve considered not posting at all, but noticed that tho traffic drops off, about 40% check in on the weekend, so they should find something fresh waiting there.
During weekends I normally rest. The idea is to let the brains to “clear the water” for the upcoming week. But sometimes, like to-day, I just want to blog or to write blogcomments.
I post less because I’m away from the computer more.
GoGoMamaGo.com publishes four or five days a week and complements my main business. I usually try to get my posts done during the week, but my core business and other activities like Twitter usually dominate my weekdays. So weekdays tend to be spent on coming up with ideas, reading other people’s blogs, and knocking them off on the weekend. I’ve been queuing them up for release during the week.
However, I’m wondering if it would be better to publish during the weekend since people’s RSS readers would be less crowded during the weekend and maybe a article published on the weekend would garner more attention. Hmmm….
I write posts in advance and schedule them to go off automatically basically, but…. I write four or five ( mainly four ) strong content posts weekly, in the days between, write comments or tips about the blog improvements ( see that the public is new in blogging and so many 50 or 55 years old and begginners in internet communications ).
In the past months the readings drops down in the week ends, now it performs the same views as in the weeks days, I suposse – statistics confirms it – that the views have an increasing pattern.
I normally take a rest on the weekend. I think everyone needs a break from everything sometimes :)
During the week, I’m usually too occupied with research activities or school work. The weekend is a good time for me to just pump out drafts and ideas for blogging content that typically manifest over the week. I’ve only managed to successfully write an entire week’s worth of scheduled content in one weekend once though. There was a really good feeling when I pulled it off, but I haven’t done it since. I’d like to do it more often.
Sometimes I have to post on Weekends if I didn’t have enough time to post in the week, but I agree with those that say they don’t do much on weekends cause traffic is down.
I like to spend time preparing for the next week, getting some blogs prepared and getting some Tweets scheduled up so that during the week, when I actually do want to get out some content, I won’t have to battle the busy days as badly :)
I tend to post less as the weekends are filled with lots of jobs that need to get done!! They are over way too quickly!!