Decrease Your Posting Frequency
September 18, 2008
One of the main decisions bloggers have to debate over is their posting frequency - how much is too much, and how little is too little.
You have to find the perfect balance for yourself and for your readers, which isn’t always easy. Posting too often can get annoying because it means you won’t have as much time to put more quality into what you write, you’ll run out of topics faster, and your readers won’t be able to keep up. However, if you don’t post enough it will leave your readers always wanting more information, and eventually they’ll leave your blog and go seek it somewhere else.
Usually blogs will tell you both sides of the situation and the pros and cons of each, and delve more into the basics that I listed above. However, they’re not often going to give you a solution. But my solution for you is simple - try decreasing your posting frequency.
This might be the opposite of what you were thinking. How does decreasing your posting frequency help? Well believe it or not, readers aren’t always expecting new content from you every single day. In fact, most of them don’t even check their subscriptions or favorite blogs on a daily basis. The more you post, the more it burdens them with. And if it’s not necessary to churn out new content as often, then why waste your valuable ideas when you could space them out more and only post every couple of days, or even less depending on your blog?
And if you don’t have to spend so much time writing, you won’t burn out as easily. Always worrying about updating your blog, coming up with new ideas, and fitting even more into your already busy schedule leads to a lot of undue stress. With a couple extra days of relaxation you’ll feel even more motivated and inspired, as well as having more time to write better quality articles that your readers will appreciate even more.
If you’re unsure, just try it out. Gradually decrease your posting frequency little by little - no sudden changes! - and closely monitor your statistics. More than likely you will find that your traffic levels and subscriber count don’t drop, and they might in fact even start to increase. Of course, it depends on the niche of your blog and the specific requirements of your readers and yourself, but maybe by decreasing your posting frequency you’ll be a little closer to achieving that balance all bloggers strive for.
Have you ever decreased your posting frequency? Let us know, and tell us how it worked out for you. I’d love to hear from you, and at some point might even compose an article about reader experiences. Thanks!
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14 Responses to “Decrease Your Posting Frequency”
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At one point, I was trying to post on Sciencebase every day Monday to Friday, was getting good traffic and had decent subscribers (2000-ish), then I dropped to Mon-Wed-Fri schedule, it’s easier to handle and traffic has gone up, RSS count is at a peak today of 3502.
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I actually tried increasing my post frequency, quite dramatically, and just noticed a drop in readership.
I don know about one thing….If i have a high posting freq…..How will it help me for posting fewer articles on the web….. :)
[...] Superbloggingtips.com ran a post that I found very interesting, regarding how often one should post on your blog. I see many people saying that you should post something every day. However this post argues that posting less can actually increase your membership and traffic. I have to say I find some sense in this article, I personally would much rather see a thoughtful and useful post every few days or even once a week than see a blogger struggle to upload something every day. In fact I see some blogs that update several times a day and I find them almost impossible to keep up with. [...]
I’d like to post everyday if I can, but I haven’t experimented with it yet. Will keep you posted.
I’ve cut back from daily to every other day for about 3 months now and I’ve had an increase in readership. I think one of the big things is GOOD content. I thought my posts were good, but now that I have some time to think about them, I think a lot more of them are better.
hanks last blog post..Hanks Weekly Hangouts #50 (September 20, 2008)
Hi,
I came across your blog today for the first time: Thanks - very intersting!
And by the way,I like the images a lot. Did you take the pictures by yourself?
Ellen
Ellens last blog post..Mein schoenstes – mein schlimmstes Urlaubserlebnis
[...] I’m crazy with the advice I’ve been giving because just the other day I told you to DECREASE your posting frequency, which is usually the opposite of what you’re used to hearing. And today, I’m telling [...]
Thanks for sharing your input and past experiences, everyone. I really appreciate it and it’s nice hearing what’s worked for you.
Ellen, no, I haven’t taken the pictures myself although that’s something I’d love to do. I use the photos from Flickr with a Creative Commons license and credit the photographer with a link at the bottom of each post, or below the image. Thank you very much!
I definitely agree. I have reduced my blog posts to about 3 or 4 a week and I think it shows in the quality of the posts. I also enjoy the blog a lot more because I’m not stressed about what I have to write about next.
I post daily with my blog. But sometimes I ran out of things to say… Or there are times that I am just too busy at work. I have started my blog out of fun, but now I would also want to follow the footsteps of others who earn money from their blog. I am still in the process of learning the ropes of it. Thanks for a great advice.
Superbloggingtips.com ran a post that I found very interesting, regarding how often one should post on your blog. I see many people saying that you should post something every day. However this post argues that posting less can actually increase your membership and traffic.
healthy living tipss last blog post..Lowes or Home Depot?
[...] dwindling and new content has not been churned out as often as hoped. Of course, I am not a fan of posting too often, but there are still so many topics we could cover here and there are new things to be learned all [...]
There might be some truth to this, but I don’t think its a matter of whether or not you put a burden on your reader. The reader can check the site whenever they please…that’s the whole point of a blog after all. I just think that post frequency and traffic don’t correlate directly.
On my blog a sudden dramatic change in my work schedule has caused me to not post for 3 months. Traffic has gone up steadily the entire time. I don’t think its because I’ve stopped posting, just that search engines and finding posts that hadn’t previously been indexed, and I’m getting links on some older posts from authority sites.
I’m convinced though that if I had been posting regularly my hits would be increasing much faster. I guess what I’m trying to say is that there is no concrete way to test how your post frequency affects your hits because there are too many other factors affecting you already.
Matthew Champagnes last blog post..Four reasons its easier to succeed in internet media than film