This is one of the most irritating questions I get asked. “How often should I blog?” Really? If you’re asking that question, you’re one of two things:
- You’re a new blogger who really doesn’t know and you’re already trying to put limitations on the amount of work you have to do
- You’re an experienced blogger who doesn’t know your audience
So, in answer to your question, let me just start off by saying:
Blogging is W.O.R.K. You should blog as often as is necessary to reach the level of income you want to reach. Once you’re independently wealthy you can blog whenever you feel like it. Until then, just keep blogging.
Now, with that in mind, let me give you a few guidelines:
If You Blog About It They Will Come
In other words, the more you blog, the greater your traffic. Each blog post has its own URL, which is one of the cool things about blogging. Every little blog post gets its own place on the search engine index and it’s another path searchers can follow to find your blog.
As people start following your RSS and email alerts, every time you publish a new blog post they’ll come back to your blog to read it. They’ll also share each of those blog posts with their friends in the social networks, spreading your links all over the world.
Be Consistent
That said, it’s also important to be consistent. Getting followers is important but the majority of the people who visit your blog are going to absolutely refuse to sign up for your RSS or email alerts. They’ll come to your blog every day if you’re posting every day, but they’ll get there of their own accord.
For those people, it’s important that you develop a consistent blogging schedule. If you blog five days a week for a whole month running, they’re going to get used to seeing something new on your blog every day. Then, if you miss a week, or even 2 or 3 days, they’re going to think you gave up and disappeared. It doesn’t take long these days for people to find the next shiny object. If you want to keep them coming back for more you have to be consistent and predictable in your posting.
Seriously, though, how much SHOULD you blog?
The answer depends on your niche and your time constraints. If you’re blogging in the Celebrity niche, you might need to publish a dozen posts a day to keep up with all the gossip. They don’t have to be long posts, but they do need to be informative and have your own unique twist.
If you’re blogging about nuclear physics, obviously your posts are going to be longer and more involved, and well researched. You may only be able to post once a week. I’ve even seen bloggers who only post once a month and they’re very successful.
The key is to establish a frequency and stick with it. So, in the beginning, if you know up front you won’t have time to blog every hour of every day, then just don’t. But the more you post, the faster you’ll build a following. So the choice is yours. Just be consistent.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments below!