The rate at which you publish blog posts is a very important factor towards building a solid readership. Believe it or not, adding a post a random day of the week and not sticking to a consistent schedule can really have an impact on the reaction it gets from your community.

Just recently, we changed our post schedule here. That would be the third time in under a year we did that, and we have found new benefits each time we switched.

We realized that our content may not always be getting maximum visibility if we continued with our former posting frequencies, so after some analyzing and discussion – we came to the conclusion that we could achieve best results with our posts if we switched.

For new bloggers especially, determining how many times a week they want to post on their blog can be tricky as there isn’t much statistical information to work off of. But even those of us who have been publishing for months – are we on the right track when it comes to getting our posts out to the public? Could our blog be performing better if we made a simple adjustment to our post schedule?

Ever since we changed our post schedule for the third time, we have seen great results. It really got me thinking too: it took us ten months to come up with the smartest post frequency for our blog, what about others? So I want to help you guys out and share with you my ideas about choosing the ideal posting schedule for your blog.

The 3 Most Common Frequencies

I read about 20-30 blogs and I can pretty much tell when a blog is going to update because of how frequent they post. On all of the blogs I read, these are the three most common ones I see:

1. Every day publishers - People who update their blog at least one time a day.
2. Second day publishers - People who update their blog every other (second) day.
3. Day Schedulers - People who update their blog on set days (not the most creative name for them!)

So which is the best? Unfortunately there is no straight answer because there are just too many factors to consider. However, the one factor the remains the same in each of the frequencies above is consistency.

The frequency that has more posts published isn’t necessarily the most useful if it’s not consistent. So does that mean that only posting on your blog on Monday and Wednesday is bad? Not at all! As long as you can post every single Monday and Wednesday, then you have a consistent, working posting frequency.

So that brings me to my next point: is posting more times a week better than posting less? Posting more isn’t necessarily better than posting less (and vice-versa) just because you put more content out onto your blog. And maybe in some niches, quality isn’t better than quantity.

It’s up to you to decide what sounds best for your blog – posting more or posting less. Of course, you can figure things out by experimenting like we have here. But, there are even more crucial variables that you should analyze. The thing that is extremely important in measuring your success – numbers.

There are four very important numbers you need to be aware of at all times when you publish an article. Just remember to embrace these numbers and do not let them harm you.

1. Traffic sent to your blog

Use a web app like Google Analytics or a plugin like WordPress.com Stats (or just use both) to track the amount of traffic coming in to your blog from these posts.

It’s really important to track the number of pageviews a single post brings in, because if you track posts for a few weeks you can determine quite a few things that will aid you in picking a posting frequency:

• You can find out your busiest day(s) of the week: If you find out your busiest day of the week is Monday, publish your best article for the entire week on that day. More people will see it as more people are visiting your blog that day, and may be encouraged to stick around since you wrote such a great article.
• Learn what topics are the most well received by visitors: Maybe posts about SEO do better than posts about your newborn kittens. Compare a few posts in one category to a few posts in another category and see which brought more traffic.
• Discover traffic trends: For example, maybe on some days Twitter traffic is greater than other days. This is very valuable information to know, and if you can take advantage of any kind of traffic source by just knowing when it’s at its highest, you can really bring in some high numbers.

As I mentioned above, there is a great tool for tracking traffic sent to your blog. Google Analytics provides many detailed graphs and charts about your sites and it’s a tool that every blogger should use.

More on Analytics:

• Google Analytics Reveals the Importance of Branding and Content
• Google Analytics: Metrics Worth Tracking

2. Comment averages per post

The amount of comments your posts get shows how your community reacts to what you wrote. Your rate of posting really can have a big impact on how many comments your posts get.

We have found here that if you post at least once a day, you may not get as many comments as you could if you published every second day, or took a break for the weekend. This is because when you post more there is more content for a reader to analyze that there is less of a chance you will get consistent comment averages on your posts.

If you want to encourage more discussion within your community, then break down the following things about your post schedule:

• Number of posts per week - Consider the age of your blog and how many times a week you are publishing. If you are starting out, I always recommended posting about three good articles a week, then over time expanding to 5 or more.
• Length of posts - Do you write massive 1,000+ word posts like this one, or shorter, maybe 500-700 words? Compare the comment averages of short and long posts and see which has more.
• Comments per post - I would make a chart of some kind and take all of the posts in a week and find the average of comments per post. This can be a great way to look back and see how you are improving the discussion in your community.
• Quality of discussion - Do your posts get comments like “nice post” or “good work,” or do you see debates forming and questions being asked? If the discussion in your comments section isn’t anything special, you may need to make your posts more user friendly.

More on Engaging Conversation

• How to connect with your community
• 16 Plugins to Start more conversations
• How to increase commenting productivity on your blog
• Addressing those who comment: the right ways
• Addressing those who comment: the wrong ways

3. Social Media Reactions

Sharing content on sites like Twitter, Digg, or Delicious is one of the best ways to get new information. Every blogger should be active on at least two of the three links I just mentioned, not just to get new information but to share your own.

If you use a plugin like the Tweetmeme button, you can track how many times an article is shared on Twitter by other people. Learning how many times an article has been shared on a site like Twitter is important because it shows how a community outside your blog likes your post.

From the Tweetmeme button alone, we really have learned some important things that helped us improve the posts we schedule each week here.

• We learned that the best posts to get retweeted are articles about Twitter.
• We discovered that the shorter and catchier your headline is, the better it spreads on Twitter.
• If we tweet about a recent post, it will always get tweeted again if we ask people to do it.
• The more tweets a post gets, the more appealing it looks to retweet and even read.

So with this information in mind, we really do our best to make the best of Twitter. As a result, Twitter is one of our highest sources of traffic.

What’s your rate?

So, there is really a lot of information here about picking your rate of posting. I hope you guys understand the importance of how often you publish and have learned enough from this post to discover the best way of figuring it out.

Tell me – how often do you post?

I really wish our poll worked, but I am curious as to how many times a week you update your blog? And, what is your frequency of posting?

Here at Blogussion, we post five times a week Monday-Friday and skip Saturday and Sunday. Previously, we published seven times a week with a post every day, then we changed it to posting every second day with 3-4 posts a week.

Photo by CgDesign

Related posts:

1. 10 ways to find post inspiration without even leaving your blog

2. 5 quick and clever ways to publicize a blog post by commenting on other blogs

3. Debate: Posting by Obligation or Free Will? 10 Arguments

Has it ever puzzled you when a blog post you put a lot less time into gains more popularity than a post that you put less effort into? I know I am, and I always wonder why that is. But more importantly, is it a good thing or a bad thing?

From nearly any perspective, there is always going to be a reason that will shoot down your opinion. In this post, I’m going to list some of these arguments and show you how there can always be a better argument for the opposite side.

But before I start, think about this on your blog. Look at posts that you have put a long time into. Maybe they took you hours to write up and plan. Then look at your other posts that may be more successful and think about why that might be. How do you feel about that. Do you think that post with more effort was just a swing and miss opposed to that shorter post which was a home run (I’m trying to add more analogies into my posts)?

Progress: If I write shorter posts all of the time, there’s no need to write long posts

If you write long posts on your blog that are less popular than short posts, what kind of posts will you want to write more often? If you can build a strong foundation on your blog with really good short posts, than you are definitely making your way as a blogger.

Problem: Laziness

Every blog needs their “pillar articles.” Pillar articles are the best blog post on your blog, and you HAVE to have some. Even if they don’t do as well as you think they should, pillar articles are the posts that you must have. But when you make a career on short posts, how many pillar articles will you have?

I can tell you from experience, good pillar articles are usually around 900 to 1000+ words. Those numbers aren’t what I would consider a short post. But it may be possible you will be more determined to keep pumping out those short posts, but try throwing out a few long articles every now and then.

Progress: If I write less in one post, I can write more about it in another post

It sounds like a good deal to cut posts in half and only write about a certain point about one topic on one post, then do the same in the next. It’s a great way to create a theme for your blog, and having a theme to revolve your posts around on a blog is ideal.

Like a building, your pillar articles will support your blog until the very end.

Problem: Inside Thinking

The one problem with establishing a common theme on your blog is how to diversify your posts more. While you should put a lot of focus on one thing, you should also pay attention to other topics you can be covering.

That just leads to the point of “inside the box” thinking (you know, the opposite of thinking outside the box). When you write about the same thing over and over again, it may get overwhelming and your idea train can stop.

Progress: I save time

Posts can consume a lot of time out of your day. Short posts that are usually about 300-700 words are easy to write and can be knocked out in under 30 minutes. Why take time to write a post for 45-60+ minutes when you can build a blog on posts that are short? It just seems like the smart thing to do.

Problem: Possible Less Quality

This may be stereotyping, but I think that many posts that are on the short side prove to be of lesser quality than those on the longer side. Short posts usually do so well because of how quick of a read they are, but if they can be read quick you’re either a damn fine writer, or you just cut out some information.

Always work to provide the reader with the most content in an easily digestible way. I read a great post recently entitled “Are you Brain-Dumping?,” and it talks about the differences between writing with education, or just writing what’s on your mind with no real point. It got me thinking, and I think I may be doing that here on Blogussion.

Progress: Writing Improvement

If you can write your post and cover your topic perfectly in a short term, then your writing style must be amazing. It would definitely have improved since you started your blog, and you figured out what kind of stuff works and what doesn’t work on your blog.

Problem: For How Long?

Even if you only come up with a couple of great, short posts – how long do you think that success will last? Maybe you will realize that you can’t rely on short posts and you have to put more effort into your next posts.

That’s Just the Gist of it

There are plenty more arguments here, and for every one of those arguments there is a counter argument. I personally think this is an interesting thing to debate about, and I would love to see some more “progresses vs. problems” in the comments. See if you can come up with one that has no counter argument! Good luck. :p

Photo by Dawn M. Armfield

Related posts:

1. Pros and cons of long and short posts – The age old debate

2. Having A Good Writing “Personality”

3. 5 Experimental Writing Habits you may want to try

So it’s not really an age old debate, it just sounded kind of catchy.

There is no limit as to how long you can write a blog post. You can write them as long as you want, or as short as you want. From the ridiculously long posts of Patrice Karst to the short, under 30 words posts from the Unwritten Rules of the Internet blog. You can see how bloggers feel about expressing themselves online. Some can do it in a lot of words, and some in a few.

In this post, I want to highlight the differences between long posts and short posts, and why one could be better than the other.

Shorts Posts: Pros and Cons

Shorts posts are a great way to quickly reveal your thoughts to other people. However, they often leave some things unsaid that really should have been noted in the post.

Pro: Easy to write, saves a bunch of time

Time is something everyone wants these days, but most people can’t seem to find free time. You could be busy with a job, your personal life, and of course taking care of your blog. The idea of writing a short post on your blog is the best thought in the world.

Con: Users wanting more information that you haven’t delivered

I see short posts look like rushed posts, and rushed posts lead to spelling and grammar mistakes, incorrect information, and some other gruesome things. While your time may be important, you should realize that your blog is important and handing out bad information to your loyal readers is not a good thing. It can especially be bad depending on the niche you’re in!

Pro: Short posts have a better chance of being read than long posts

It’s true, posts with shorter length will definitely be read more than a long post. What’s better than quick, informative read? Besides, there will be the group of your readers who are lazy and are just looking for those short posts. Why not feed their lazy little appetites?

Con: Did I forget to mention…?

This is a common question you will be asking yourself after a fairly short post I’m sure. It is pretty likely that you may forget a key point of idea in your post if it’s really short. Beforehand, you should map out your key ideas and summarize them really intelligently for your readers.

Long Posts: Pros and Cons

Long posts are packed full of information. While some things can get repeated, there are plenty of lengthy articles that cover tons of great points in them.

Pro: Your post will be full of thorough explanations, and will cover plenty of key points

The purpose of your blog is to inform your readers about the niche you’re in right? What better way to do that then have a long post chopped full of great information? You have no boundaries as to how many words it takes to describe something, and you probably have plenty of time to cover every single point of the topic.

Con: It’s easy to get lost in your writing, and start babbling about something unrelated. You can even start repeating yourself

You could be on paragraph 154, and say to yourself “I forgot to mention something!”. The unfortunate fact however is you already talked about it in paragraph 68, but you probably forgot.

It wouldn’t be too hard to stray off topic in the post either. You can go from talking about cats, to talking about how to change the oil in your car in one sentence I bet. It just takes one measly little comparison to get you started. Be careful of that.

Pro: Leaves plenty for readers to think about, and then some

A good blog post is a blog post that gets readers to think about what you have said. If you leave them with questions, and provide in depth information, it will cause them to want to find things wrong with what you have said and make their own opinions about it.

Con: Your post will probably take more than one time to read

While this is not always a bad thing, it’s an annoying thing. Short posts will probable just require one read, but longer ones will require more. If someone is reading your posts, things that will cause them to reread could be:

• Contradicting yourself
• Pieces of information being in wrong place
• Information not explained well enough

Just remember to always keep your post organized, watch what you say, and go into tons of detail whenever possible.

What I think

I think a post that explains the subject perfectly is a good enough post. Whether it is in 500 words, or 50 words, as long as I learn something I think the post is just right.

While this post is on the long side, I hope you have thought about how you write your posts. If you have any other pros and cons of long posts vs. short posts, let me hear it in the comments section! I will be happy to add it to the list.

Suggestions by you

• One of the important things you can do to make longer posts more readable is to break up the daunting wall of text. This can be done with pictures, dot points, bold heading etc, like this post has done. It makes a big post look smaller.

No related posts.