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:
- Every day publishers - People who update their blog at least one time a day.
- Second day publishers - People who update their blog every other (second) day.
- 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.
Benefits of Posting More
- More content is published to the blog, more content gets indexed in search engines.
- Your readers will have plenty of information at their fingertips.
- Your traffic will remain consistent through readers sharing more content.
- Your blog will look good with more posts coming out in shorter periods of time.
- Writing more helps keep you in the same momentum to keep posting.
Benefits of Posting Less
- You can put more quality into a single post since you write blog entries less.
- Gives your community more time to digest and react to past articles.
- Posts often get higher pageviews and are talked about longer since they remain at the top of your blog longer.
- Less of a burden on you and gives you more relax time to focus on other things.
- Posting less keeps more of your older articles on the page for a longer time which can help driving traffic back to older posts.
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.
58 Discussions
I started my blog posting every day just to build the content to a good size. Now that i am going I am considering slowing it down to 2-3 days a week and building links the other days. That is the hard part of posting every day, you never have time to build enough links to get a post ranking well. If you are lucky and got a good linkbait peice, you will get natural links once you have a readership built up, but it takes time to get there with a new blog.
James Pruitt´s last blog ..Create a Good Customer Experience: If They Want Drugs, Sell Them Drugs
Its true. Starting is hard to balance content build up with link building. I believe though that a very powerful post every week and then a few smaller ones is a great way to build up your links and also get more search engine traffic coming in.
Seth´s last blog ..Does Your Post Frequency Bring in the Best Results?
I post each other day for my current blog. But, i have experience that daily posting give a better search engine traffic for my old blog. It seems that google like daily posting.
Dana @ Online Knowledge´s last blog ..Keyword Optimizing
Google does like fresh content. I think the biggest reason is because they have more to choose from. Your probability of getting found is much better the more content you have.
Seth´s last blog ..Does Your Post Frequency Bring in the Best Results?
I started out initially posting almost everyday which got me my initial traffic but right now I have reduced my postings to 3-4 times a week instead. Less pressure and more time to do quality posts! However as mine is predominantly a hobby blog so its mainly down to the number of pictures I put up. I did find that I got much better quality comments (though its not much lol…) and traffic as my old post had gotten a longer exposure like what you mentioned.
No doubt this is a great post ^^. I didn’t really reflect on my posting frequency till I read this! Will keep this in mind on my future postings. Cheers
chubbybots´s last blog ..Gundam Exia VS Shin Musha Gundam! SRW Style
We did the same exact thing here. Now, we just post five times a week. We think we’re at that point where we have a larger community that can take a couple of days off, but also does like plenty of content!
But with our breaks, we write our posts over the weekend so we can have more free time in the weekdays to promote and do other web work. It all works out great, and our traffic is at its highest ever all because we studied traffic patterns and changed up our post frequency. Seriously, it’s something that not many people think about but it had such a huge impact here I had to reflect on it.
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
Awesome article, Alex. Personally my system is a little sketchy at the moment, but then I have just come back from an absense and gone straight in to a commenting contest :p Personally, I like to have 20 comments per post before I move on, and I always achieve that if I post every second day, however I might do posts two days in a row if the previous post already has 20 comments, if you get what I mean?
Simon | Teenius´s last blog ..Teenius Contest: The Results
That’s an interesting way to do it Simon, I never heard of someone basing their posting frequency off of their comments. Why exactly 20 comments though?
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
Well, generally speaking I like to keep my blog looking professional and active, and I feel 20 comments (inc my own) per post is a good figure. The posting frequency isn’t entirely based on the comment count, here’s my system:
Post every 2 days. Well, that’s basically it. :p
The way the comment count comes in to it is that, lets say I need to do a post today. If I have 15 comments on the last post, I won’t post today’s post until later on, probably the evening. However, if the last post has already got 30 comments, I’ll probably post today’s post in the morning. I hope that made sense, lol.
Simon | Teenius´s last blog ..Blogging Product #1: Thesis Theme
I post every other day, find it gives me time to judge reaction to my posts and allows me time for some good research.
I did a good post about Twitter but no-one ReTweeted it!! – How Rude!
David Shaw´s last blog ..270 Twitter Resources For Bloggers
That was our old frequency here, and it did give people more time to react to the previous post. Our comment averages per post were definitely at their highest!
That’s odd David, I hope you tweeted it at least? We’ll help you out…http://twitter.com/Blogussion/status/5636406731
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
And me!
http://twitter.com/teenius/status/5707075781
I think I tweeted it when I first read it, but I changed the ‘RT @tweetmeme’ to ‘RT @davidshawblog’, so that may be why it wasn’t counted.
Simon | Teenius´s last blog ..Blogging Product #1: Thesis Theme
On my newest blog, I post at least twice per day because I’m trying to launch big, and it’s working well, but I realize I won’t be able to keep that pace forever. On my personal blog, I post an average of once per day, but that’s an average. On my web design blog, it might be once per week. I find all work well, it just depends on the goal.
Brandon Cox´s last blog ..The Very Best Niche for Blogging
Wow, twice a day? Props to the commitment there Brandon, I’m sure that’s a lot of work.
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
Posting frequency is going to be different for everyone. Finding the best option for you really just comes down to feeling out your audience and seeing where they are most comfortable.
The key is finding that optimal frequency and then actually posting consistently using that frequency.
Adam Baird´s last blog ..Win 1k for Tweeting!
I’m with Adam Baird here about feeling out your audience and seeing where they are most comfortable, which to me does not exclude asking.. You can’t please everyone but you will get a good idea all the same. I post Mondays to Fridays and use the weekend to do some tweaking and build links. I have found this to be the best frequency for me after lots of experimenting. If you keep trying then you will find that perfect balance.
Good point Adam, it depends on the person, the niche, the audience and many other things of course!
@David: We have similar stories then. This is our third frequency change in under a year and so far our most beneficial. A lot of factors lead to changing things up, but I think at our current state the way we have setup our schedule (Monday-Friday, off on weekends) is ideal.
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
When I first started my blog I updated it whenever I thought I might have something to say that people would read, that was a mistake.
Then I started posted a few times per week, which initially led to everyday posting. Once the every day posting kicked in so did my addiction to blogging, especially about Wordpress, Thesis and blogging related stuff. Not sure why, but I am an addict.
Now I rarely schedule posts out and release them at various times of the day based on when I write them, some days I write way more than others. I have seen the benifits from posting at least one time daily, in a big way.
Extreme John´s last blog ..5 Reasons I Suck at Entrecard
That’s how I started my second blog, Asnio. I wanted it to be more of a personal blog then anything else and I wanted to update whenever I wanted. But, it took off rather well and if I updated whenever I wanted to then it would delay growth a lot. I did keep up a good schedule for a while, but unfortunately I haven’t updated it in about a month…
I guess being an addict helps selecting your post frequency! I was so excited to get blogging that I wanted to do it every day. So I did…for about six months! But, the addict in me couldn’t hold me back from doing the smart thing and posting less for the time being.
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
I post every weekday and my traffic has been pretty steady during those days. However, some of my visitors comment every other day, which leads me to believe they’re only reading every other article.
I may switch to a Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule in the near term to monitor how that goes.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com´s last blog ..I’ll do anything for you (except visit your blog)
Our traffic has been steady on the weekdays here as well because we post back to back, the traffic comes in consistently. It does slow a little bit on the weekends since we take two days off, but it does pick back up again when we start publishing in the week days!
Let me know if you do decide to switch schedules and how it works out for you!
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
Obviously weekends are slow because I’d like to think most folks are enjoying themselves. Last thing I want to do is have people read three articles on Monday!
I might start my switch to M-W-F next week. I’ll keep you posted.
Gabe | freebloghelp.com´s last blog ..Twitter won’t let you be a total sheep
I don’t post nearly as much as I want to, only about once a week. I really need to set aside time each day to work on posts, and hopefully get the frequency up to 3x a week.
This is another great post, you clearly have a grasp on the topic.
Chad´s last blog ..My Secret to Beating the Flu
Ah, that’s a bummer Chad! I find that if you set goals for yourself every day, such as “write five paragraphs” for one day, then another six the next day – you get stuff done.
You may want to check out a past article here: The Secrets to More Effective Blogging. It may help you get into gears and start writing more!
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
I post three times a week. I try to stick to the same days though, but sometimes miss a day so it throws off my schedule. I find that I need a day in between to keep up with blog maintenance and reading other blogs as I average about 40-50 blogs per day. Fortunately to the 75 subscription I have thus far don’t update their blogs daily either..phew:)
Ms. Freeman´s last blog ..Do you write for your readers?
That was my only problem posting every other day – if you miss one day then your schedule is completely messed up!
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
I personally try to post once a day, but it is very time consuming. After reading the benefits of posting less, I might start doing just that. Thanks for the article.
Design Informer´s last blog ..20 Extraordinary Blogs With Unique Post Designs
It takes a lot of thinking, researching and self-analysis. Do what’s best for your blog, not what you only feel like doing.
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
I post every monday, weds and fri. Sometimes we have guest posts on thurs. Our key is we have a widget that tells readers when articles are coming up, because we aren’t based around the news.
Here is one benefit of posting less: Average people aren’t internet junkies. People want to keep up with a website, but if it posts two or three or more times a day, they will feel left behind. I’ve learned this from promoting my blog to friends and family. They tell me I post too frequently!
I like that idea of letting people know when the blog updates. It should make your blog more memorable, and maybe even peak more people’s interest in visiting your blog on those set days!
That’s a great benefit Eric, the one thing I can say I hate about following blogs like Mashable is that they update so many times a day I miss out on some of their content when I don’t check up on them for even a few hours.
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
Great Post.
I think this is very importent as if you need to find the best posting frequency for your blog. I think you need to find out what works well for youself. I actually post every 2 days and sometimes 3, but my priority is to post every 2 days.
One thing I dont like are blogs that post multiply times per day. I think it’s a bad decision as their content doesn’t get enough exposure and it’s just too much to read for every day readers.
Anyway I think posting every 2 days is the best posting frequency in my opinion as it allows enough exposure and gives enough time to build comments to the particuler post.
Teen Blogger´s last blog ..How To Keep A Effective Posting Frequency Combined With Brilliant Consistency- Part 1
It’s funny, you say posting every two days is better, but I say posting on the weekdays and taking off on the weekends is the best. These are all opinions that were formed from blogging, and it’s an opinion that is different for each blogger as every blog is significantly different than another one.
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
I post an average of 1.5 posts a week, but I would love to switch my frequency to 3 posts. Step by step
. My plan is to post: Monday, Thursday and Saturday.
David | ilcantone.com´s last blog ..CREATIVE THINKING: 10 WAYS TO BOOST YOUR CREATIVITY (Part II)
Haha, how exactly is is you post 1.5 posts a week? Do you write a full article and write half of one and keep us anticipating for the next week to finish it?
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
He writes an intro and 2 supporting paragraphs one day. It’s the same way he spams comments on Site Sketch 101…..
… Then he writes the third supporting paragraph and a conclusion the next week! Talk about cliffhanger!
Just kidding Dave!
I do the same thing too. Some weeks I do 5 and some weeks I only do 4. I really think just picking one and sticking with it will help my readers know what to expect.
Being a one man show makes consistent posting so much trickier. Especially if you have more than one venture going on (or wife and kid(s)).
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews´s last blog ..New Newsletter, New House, And One Year Of Marriage
Very true. Adding life to your blogging time makes it tough
but when it pays off its even better.
Seth´s last blog ..How to Keep an Organized Inbox and Keep Everybody Happy
Post frequency depends on the niche of your blog. However If you want to get good traffic from search engines I would suggest you to update your blog on daily basis.
imran´s last blog ..Analytics360: Integrate Google Analytics Into Wordpress Blog !
Great thoughts on the topic, thanks for sharing!
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
Updating blog on daily basisIt is great, but it’s hard to stick to this updating frequency, especially when you are a part-time blogger and are busy doing something else.
David Wei@Your Money Online´s last blog ..Attractive Offers for Domains and Web Hosting Plans
I blogged every day for about six months and it’s not easy! But, I think if I didn’t keep that up for so long then this blog wouldn’t be as powerful as it is today.
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
I aim to publish two main article per week. I wanted to do daily updates, but it didn’t take me long to realise that is difficult to achieve by yourself. However, I am trying something new. Although I am still posting new articles twice a week, I also added some sections on my blog.
Mondays are questions and answers: We discuss on certain issues with fellow bloggers
Tuesdays: Publish article (That is new article written by me)
Wednesday: Competition Update (I announce winners and updates about competition)
Thursdays: Off day
Fridays: New article as Tuesday
Saturday: I publish my favourite blog posts, which I read through out the week
Sundays: My own weekly review
It seems as it is working fine, but still too early too tell.
Internethow Blog´s last blog ..Top Commentator Competition: This Week’s Winners
I should really take to this method of scheduling posts as well. I think having a consistent pattern makes it easier for visitors to know what to expect. My blog fails at being consistent, and I think it really has caused major fluctuation in my traffic.
I think I’ll try giving this a try (or at least get something semi consistent)
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews´s last blog ..New Newsletter, New House, And One Year Of Marriage
That sounds like a great lineup there! I like the sound of the Monday questions & answers segment. I’m actually going to go over to your blog now and check out how that works.
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
This was really really really good article.. Loved reading !
Really effective, many thanks !
Thanks Enk, glad you enjoyed it!
Probably as the blog aged, the frequency of posting can be adjusted downwards. For new blog, daily posting to attract the attention of search engines to index daily is better
scheng1´s last blog ..Reflection: Buy Shoe
I think a well established blog (Alexa top 10,000 is pretty well established imo) has more freedom regarding post schedule in general because it won’t need to focus on building/retaining readers as much.
I think where you plan to generate traffic has a lot to do with how often you should post (a point I think was mentioned in this post). If you’re going to use comments, guest posts, and social media to drive traffic, I think posting less frequently is okay for a new blog so you have more time to promote.
If you plan on driving most of your traffic through a search engine, then daily posting is probably more important.
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews´s last blog ..New Newsletter, New House, And One Year Of Marriage
I agree, the more you post the more there is for a search engine to index! Thanks for stopping by!
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
This is a topic I’ve been thinking about a lot for my blog lately. I’ve been having a hard time figuring out a good posting schedule. For about 4 weeks, I’ve been trying to post Mon-Fri.
It seems like the time the post goes live also has an effect on how much traffic it gets. I’ve noticed I tend to get a lot more page views consistently when I schedule posts to go live live at 12:01 midnight.
I’m probably going to switch to an every other day posting schedule to free up more time to promote and write guest posts.
Blake @ Props Blog Reviews´s last blog ..New Newsletter, New House, And One Year Of Marriage
I schedule my posts for 12:01AM as well on the days I am assigned to post. I write everything on the weekends and then autopublish them, and I find that the articles do get more exposure when they are up longer (go figure).
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
I’ve always found staying consistent with topic and quality to be more important then frequency. If someone is into your stuff, they wil read it whenever it gets to them.
Hmm, what niches might it not matter if its quality?
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..He/She Has Unsubscribed – Should You Ask Why?
I was talking about blogs maybe like TechCrunch or Mashable. I mean, a lot of the stuff I read there are just mini posts that talk about articles from other websites. And they do it quite a bit, so I was kind of referring to blogs in that niche since they don’t always write highly detailed information, they just share links and offer some opinion on a mass scale.
Alex´s last blog ..8 Funny Things I Learned From Designing That I Apply to Life
That’s what ‘news blogs’ do.
Dennis Edell´s last blog ..He/She Has Unsubscribed – Should You Ask Why?
@ Alex/Seth and anyone else who works with a “bogging partner” – when giving advice on such matters as this (and anything else that takes a considerable amount of time), a “we” over an “I” makes a BIG difference.
Excellent advice Alex. My post frequency has changed over time. Currently I post 3-4 times a day. I cover varying topic so this makes the most sense for me. I’ve also received more feedback with frequent positings.
It all depends on how frequently you want to post. A long, in-depth post may draw more comments but 4 small posts focusing on self-help can be as useful and could draw more readers.
Ryan´s last blog ..How To Promote Cash Gifting With Free Methods
Impressive list! I’ve heard that 4 posts every week can give a healthy result to site owners. I must agree that of unscheduled posting can be very beneficial to a site owner since readers will visit your site from time to time to check if you have new post for the day.
I think, that will work depending on your niche and on what type of readers do you have.I guess most prefer to do scheduled blog posting so readers won’t guess if there’re new post already or not
Blog Tips´s last blog ..Blogging Tips and Techniques
This is what I have always struggled with the most in terms of posting in my blog: keeping to a consistent schedule. I think that the key, for me, is going to be to sit down and plot out future posts: List the subjects I want to cover and then set about writing the posts, THEN set a schedule on which to publish the written posts.
During the time that I was blogging, I was aiming for three or four posts a week, but I wasnt’ consistent with the days on which the posts were published. At this point I am of the school of “less is more” in terms of post frequency though.
Rebecca Rizzuti´s last blog ..Does Your Husband Feel Appreciated?
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