How Often Should You Post
TweetA frequently asked question for people just starting out with blogging is how often should you post new articles? The easy answer is you should publish whenever you have something valuable to say. Of course, ideas won't always just come to you so you are going to have to search out topics to right about. There are a number of factors that should go into your decision on how often you should write new posts for you blog. Let's take a look at some of the things you should consider.
Posting Frequency Varies From Blog to Blog
If you are invovled in a news niche or cover a wide range of topics on your blog then you are going to need to post more often. If you write long, quality, in-depth posts then you can post less frequently. Other people like to write short, sharp posts that cover their information quickly and these bloggers can get away with posting more often. Also, if you have a lot of different writers then you can increase your output a lot easier than if you are doing everything by yourself.
You should also consider who your readers are. You don't want people to unsubscribe from your blog because you are posting too often. You have to figure out what your audience prefers and cater to them.
Why You Should Post More Often
Think about going to CNN.com or DrudgeReport.com. Would you keep returning to their sites every day if they rarely changed the stories listed? The answer is no. The same applies to your blog, if you want people to keep coming back you have to give them something new to look forward to.
If you look at the most popular blogs on the web and their posting frequency, the sites that post more than once per day do significantly better than sites that post fewer than once per day. That means that while knowing the best time to post might be important for your very best stuff, but posting more often will help you gain more readers and links than posting fewer items at the right time will.
The more pages you have the more pages the search engines have to index. This means that you will get more traffic. Also, your existing RSS readers will have more opportunities to see your stuff.
Why You Should Post Less
If you post too often then your readers might feel bombarded and unsubscribe. You might also start running out of ideas if you are posting five times per day. You want to make sure you balance you content out on a consistent basis. If you write fewer posts you will also increase reader engagement so you'll see more comments on each post, generating an in-depth discussion.
Conclusion
The most important thing is to find a posting frequency that works for you and your readers and then stick with it. The number one problem that I find with blogs in trouble is inconsistency in posting.
People get excited when they are starting out and post often, but after failing to generate a solid reader base they start tailing off and their blog ultimately fails. Your readers will grow accustomed to your schedule, but it has to be maintained. If you start publishing every day and then take a week off, your readers will get worried. They might start emailing you to see if you are still alive, or worse, forget about your site and be gone forever.
If you can post once every 2-3 days to start, try that. If you feel like you are getting a backlog of ideas, increase that number to 4-5 times per week and keep building up until you find the right amount that works for you. It's much easier to increase the amount of posts than it is to scale back, readers don't find that as easy to adjust to.
How often do you post? Let me know in the comments.