This is the fourth post in a roughly 10-part series I'm calling The Most Haunting and Profound Blogging Advice Series. I'm sharing blogging advice I've picked up from more established bloggers, different bits of advice which have haunted me profoundly since I came upon them. Read the introduction to this series here.
Is it fame? To make money--lots of money? To become an influential voice for a particular cause? To find a better job? To bring visibility to your freelance business or small business or huge corporation?
To communicate with your customers and employees? To have a place to release your thoughts? To just enjoy writing? To meet other people (from potentially anywhere in the world) and have fun?
It's A Blog
I've noticed that a lot of bloggers really stress out about how frequently they should post, even if they don't have a clearly defined purpose for their blog.
It seems to me utterly ridiculous to let that type of "pressure" stress you out if your blog is basically a personal journal or a place where you write about whatever interests you'd like to share or use your blog to argue a point for a certain view you endorse.
Actually, it's pretty absurd to let "posting frequency" stress you out no matter what reason you blog.
It's a blog. You know?
That said, I've wrestled with it myself, and I'll find myself thinking, man, "I haven't posted in 5 days; it's time for another one."
Posting Frequency
I know there are plenty of "pro bloggers" who advocate daily (several times a day) posting and do so themselves. Some of them are very successful--some of them make a very healthy living primarily from their blogs, they have lots of subscribers and web traffic, and are generally known and respected in the blogging community as A-listers or at least B-listers. If it works for them, I'm all for it.
Then there are others, like Dosh Dosh (well over 15,000 subscribers), who might post twice a week, and still have a huge following and tons of respect. Success ultimately depends on the quality of your content, I think.
Once you get to a point where your blog starts to own you instead of vice versa, when you regularly feel that you have to post a certain amount, then it's beginning to veer into unnecessary stress.
Perhaps I have a more relaxed approach to posting frequency because I got a hold of some profound blogging advice from Tim Ferriss that has haunted me ever since I began blogging. It made sense back when I read it probably last summer and still does.
Work Smarter, Not Harder
Ferriss wrote on his blog:
"No matter how good your material is, too much of it can cause feed-overwhelm and unsubscribes. Based on input from close to a dozen top bloggers I've interviewed, it takes an average of three days for a new post to propagate well in the blogosphere. If you write too often, pushing down the previous post and its visibility, you decrease the reach of each post, run the risk of increasing unsubscribes, and create more work for yourself. Test posting 2-4 times per week — my preference is two — and don't feel compelled to keep up with the frequency 'you have to post three times before lunch' Joneses. Quality, not quantity, is what spreads." [Emphasis mine]
Ferriss told Problogger:
"I've been told I need to post everyday, but when I really looked at the facts, a different picture emerged.
I've found that if i post less often, my blog has a sine wave sign-up curve. In other words: If I post just infrequently enough (for me, once every 4-6 days), the comments add up on each post, making the site look very popular, and rss subscriptions spike. If I post too often, it doesn't look popular (since posts get pushed down and comment-count is low), so it is actually better for my site to post less often!" [Emphasis mine]
Relax Now
I've adapted Ferriss' approach so that I don't have a set schedule of posting every day or even once every 7 days. I just post when I want to, when I have something I'd like to share, a perspective (like this one) that I want to advocate for.
By rejecting the "feed the beast" mentality that can sometimes pervade the blogosphere, I've been able to enjoy my blog much more, and stay much more relaxed about the whole thing than I might have if I thought I had to adhere to some blogging industry standard on posting frequency.
I think it's clear that, as Ferriss and Dosh Dosh have shown, if you write quality content that connects with readers, you only have to post once or twice a week, or even less, and you can still have a widely read and respected blog.
Jesse Hines is a freelance writer. He has written company profiles, press releases, marketing copy, and investigative articles. If you have any writing needs, contact him at jessehines@hotmail.com
Related Posts
The Real Secret to Making Good Money From Your Blog
Speak TO Your Readers, Not AT Them: Good Bloggers Persuade Rather Than Simply Assert and Command
The First Rule of Blogging
The Most Haunting and Profound Blogging Advice Series: An Introduction
4 comments:
I started out with 2 posts a week but quickly realised that I wasn't giving each post time enough to breathe - and I was feeling stressed and stretched.
Now I post once a week and that's working well. I usually post on Friday evening or Saturday morning. I must admit I do get stressed when I can't get a post out in time! For example, right now I'm trying to iron out some gremlins in my new website design. One of the problems, the inability to divide text into paragraphs (yikes!) means that I can't get out my new post that I really like.
Of course I'm not stressed out by not getting my post out in time. Oh no. I am cool and collected - if you disregard my sobs, gnashing of teeth, eye rolling and general sudden decay.
Mary,
I've noticed that you post once a week and it seems to work well for you.
Your new design looks really good. I really like it.
I feel overwhelmed if someone posts several times a day. That's too much for me to keep up with; as a reader, I feel burdened. I like regular posts, be it every day, or once or twice a week. It's when a blog lies fallow for weeks that I start feeling I'm wasting my time even to click there and don't bother any more.
As a blogger, I post most days; if I'm going to be away or not blog, I usually post something about it on the site.
It's a balance between my commitment to my regular readers and not letting the blog time replaced other writing time.
Devon,
Yeah, several posts a day really is excess in most cases.
It's wise to give your posts time to penetrate the blogosphere.
You said:
"It's a balance between my commitment to my regular readers and not letting the blog time replaced other writing time."
That's the key, isn't it?
Sometimes striking that balance well is difficult.
Thanks for adding your perspective.
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