This post was guest blogged by Alan Johnson, the author of The Online Business Handbook.
This is one of the most important decisions you will be facing as a blogger and it is definitely one of the things which can and will make a difference in the long run. Depending on the type of person you are and on the business model you have chosen to approach the market with, you will have to decide how often you will be posting, definitely an issue you cannot afford to neglect.
Less Is More?
It all boils down to answering the following question: how often do you want your visitors to drop by? If you want to be a part of their daily surfing routine, you have to give them a valid reason to follow your resource on a regular basis.
While limiting yourself to only posting once a week is a lot easier, you cannot expect readers to drop by daily if you have such an approach. Think about it: let’s assume that a certain blog you find useful is posting updates each Tuesday. Do you visit that blog each day or do you only drop by on Tuesdays? The answer is more than obvious and it’s only logical to assume that your readers will feel the same way.
Here is a list of pros and cons which you should definitely take into consideration if you are interested in limiting yourself to publishing updates once or twice per week or even per month.
Pros:
- You have more time at your disposal for other projects
- You have more time at your disposal for blog promotion activities
- You won’t feel the pressure of having to create content extremely often
Cons:
- You would only be giving your readers a valid reason to drop by once or twice per week/month
- You would be competing against resources which provide updates more often and, as a result, have an edge
- Your readers may feel that you are neglecting the blog
- If you are not working on other projects, you could end up becoming sloppy and realizing that your personal productivity level is not exactly worth bragging about
- On a subconscious level, you could end up believing that your blog is not all that important and, as a result, end up posting less and less until it will actually become abandoned
As you can see, the cons definitely outweigh the pros. All in all, if you are not extremely busy with other projects, you should try your best in order to post more often because, in the end, maximizing results will prove to be quite a challenge with such an approach.
Too Aggressive?
On the other hand, a lot of folks are extremely excited about being bloggers at the beginning and end up thinking that posting 4, 5 or even more updates per day is the way to go. Sure, things may be working out at the beginning, but what happens once the person in question ends up losing momentum? Also, what will the readers have to say about such a posting frequency?
Here is a list of pros and cons which paints a pretty clear picture.
Pros:
- You give your readers a valid reason to return each day
- You feel good about yourself for being quite productive at the beginning
- Your blog looks definitely doesn’t look like a neglected one
Cons:
- It’s very hard to keep up once you start losing momentum
- Your visitors may feel confused with so many daily updates
- Your posts aren’t receiving enough exposure, since you are publishing a lot of them on a regular basis and a few good ones may end up not being noticed
- You will feel disappointed when, for one reason or another, you won’t be able to keep up at a certain point
- If you are not able to keep up for a long time, you may end up feeling discouraged and may even choose to give up on the idea of running your blog altogether
I’m sure it’s clear that being too aggressive is not an option either. Once again, the cons outweigh the pros, so that the conclusion is more than clear:
Balance is Everything
While being lazy and limiting yourself to posting one update or two per week or even per month is not an option, since maximizing results would prove to be next to impossible, getting carried away and making commitments you are not able to keep is not the way to go either.
Why not choose a posting frequency you can handle, yet one which will also give your visitors a valid reason to return on a regular basis? Publishing one or two quality updates per day is quite manageable, as I’m sure you’ll agree. Your visitors will have a valid reason to return each day and won’t feel confused, you will be able to provide value on a daily basis yet also have time for other project, this is clearly a win-win situation for all parties involved and, as always, balance is everything.
What’s your posting frequency? Are you satisfied with the way things currently stand or do you think that you need to start implementing certain changes?