One of the most commonly quoted facts about blogging, is that it’s essential for you to blog every day or at least 4/5 times a week if you want to ’succeed.’ My experience assures me that this is not always the case.
Here’s why.
The primary benefits of blogging daily?
I’m no SEO expert, but I do know that search engines like to see regularly updated content. It’s a way for them to identify a site as being actively managed and thus, can help you attract more search engine traffic.
By default, blogs that are more regularly updated will also have more content, meaning there’s more for the search engines to index and more for people to find. In addition, people are more likely to revisit a blog (or subscribe to the RSS feed), if there’s a strong possibility that it has been updated.
So, there are some really good reasons to offer very regularly updated content.
However, there’s a BIG caveat here: This fresh, daily content needs to be of a standard that makes it worth reading and sharing!
It’s easy to write regular posts in order that will keep the search bots happy, it’s far harder to write something every day that’s actually high quality and worth reading. If you want people to contribute to your blog’s community, see you as an expert or buy from your blog, you will need to engage them.
Do you really need to post something every day to have a successful blog?
The short answer here is no! I own and write 2 blogs in addition to this one and none of them are posted to daily. However, based on what I want to achieve, I would consider all 3 of them to be successful.
My marketing blog is just over a year old and is often only updated just once or twice a week. However, it’s ranked in the highly respected AdAge Power 150 list and is listed by technorati.com, as one of the world’s top 100 small business blogs. It’s also attracted the attention of the top people in marketing, including Seth Godin.
That blog also has a large, targeted readership and has attracted thousands of comments in it’s first year. One post alone has almost 700 comments! It currently has almost 16,000 links pointing to it from around the web. For those of you who blog for business, you might like to know that it has generated over £100,000 (so far) for my marketing business in the past 14 months.
I also write a tech news blog, which is updated even less often! However, it’s been listed as a news resource by just about every major technology site on the web, including; The BBC, CNN, CNET, RWW, TWiT and (literally) dozens more. It’s readers include the best known people in technology news and just about all of them have commented or contributed to the blog. It also has a Twitter account, with over 18,000 followers.
When should you blog?
I have a rule with my blogs, which is simple and has worked extremely well for me:
I only blog when I genuinely believe I have something worth sharing AND the time to write about it.
The regularity of our blogging is going to be governed by many different factors; which is why I think it’s incorrect to adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. You need to do what’s right for YOU and your blogging goals.
For example, some people have lifestyles or jobs that make it very easy to find time to blog. Others have far less time. Some people, like myself, are professional writers and find it easy to get our thoughts written down. Other people can spend hours writing a single post. Some people blog about topics, which require a lot of research. That again means their posts take a lot more time to compose.
Of course, we can all improve our writing skills and get great content out there more often. A blogger, who posts great content 8 times a month will develop their blog faster and more successfully, than if he or she posted equally good content half as often.
What do you think?
If you are a blogger, how often do you publish new posts? Have you noticed any trends, when you increase or decrease the regularity of your posts? I’d love to read about your feedback and experiences.
Thanks for confirming what I thought. It’s not about daily blogging, or meeting a fictitious quota that others think is the optimal rate. It’s about establishing a realistic schedule you can meet, and then keeping to that schedule so readers know what to expect.
For us, we’ve found that 2 posts per week (with an extra here or there as the situation dictates) has worked out well for keeping it updated, making it manageable in our busy work day, and keeping readers engaged and returning.
Rob – LexiConn
Glad you found the post useful Rob. You use a great word in your comment – ‘manageable’. I get email from bloggers who simply cannot manage their OTT blogging commitments and see it as a chore. Blogging should be enjoyable. Thanks for the feedback.
The important thing is only to blog when you have something worthwhile to say. Too many make the mistake of posting every other day when they have nothing of value to add. If you have nothing to say then it won’t be read.
Ditto Ian!
I’m with you Jim/Ian/Rob.
I’ve been thinking about this one for a while – and I’ve a writing goal for good writing that’s achievable. No less than two – no more than three. That way each blog is as consistent and considered as the last.
Hello Eva – Thanks for stopping by. Sounds like you have a manageable plan for posting to your new blog. Let us know how you get on!
A sobering sanity check, Jim. Thanks.
Interestingly, the people I know who blog 5-7 times per week look exhausted every time I see them. How sustainable is that?
We want you around for the long haul, Jim – so don’t you go over doing it.
Best, Robin
I try to divide my time up between my three blogs, I always make a post everyday but I alternate between the three of them, so one post per three days. I’m still in the process of building them up but this strategy seems to be working for me at the moment. Good post by the way!