how often should I post on my blog?

Do you ever feel like just when you understand how blogging works and start to feel confident, everything changes? Yeah, me too. Between Facebook’s ever-changing algorithms, Google updates, and the ongoing introduction of new social media avenues, this business of blogging is much more complicated than it was when I started my first blog on MySpace in 2004. {Yes, that is the truth.}

In the past year, I’ve written a few times about blog strategy covering topics such as developing and using editorial calendars, building a strong call to action, improving your about page, and creating a great blog series. Today, we’ll be considering another vital component to an effective blog strategy:

How often should I post on my blog?

As with most blogging-related issues, there is no one right answer. However, there are several factors to consider as you develop your posting schedule. 

Quality content

The primary consideration is developing excellent content: How long does it take you to write a great post? Not a perfect post but one with meaningful content relevant to your audience. The answer to this question will likely vary depending on the type of posts you write, some may come together more quickly than others. Posts I write for the Design by Insight blog typically take me two hours to research, compose, edit, and format {including identifying and building SEO}. I do not develop the images for these posts, Erin does. On my personal blog, posts typically take me between an hour a half and three hours to research, compose, edit, format, and create an image.

Because of the time it takes me to write a quality post, I typically post two or three times a week on my blog. When I do a series, like the one I am writing now, I begin writing posts ahead of time and allocate chunks of time to do multiple images at once.

Be realistic with yourself about the time it takes you to write a great post, in fact, estimate high.  Don’t settle for more mediocre posts — the best strategy is creating less but better content.

Post Promotion

Another major issue in determining how often you post is the time it takes to promote your posts. Promotion is a fact of life for most bloggers and even more so for blogs connected to businesses and non-profits. Most of us don’t sit down and figure out how much time it takes to promote our posts. I never had until I started thinking about writing this post.

For the past two weeks I have been keeping track of how much time I spend promoting my posts on my personal blog. And, before I go any further, I should admit I am not a huge self-marketer and probably spend far less time on promotion than most other bloggers.  That said, I spent about 45 minutes per post on promotion over the course of day of publication and the three days following.

My posts automatically go to Twitter and I typically do not spend any additional time promoting there. I schedule the post for Facebook page, including uploading the image, at the time I schedule it for publication.  I also share the posts on my personal Facebook profile {even more important now that Facebook has changed the algorithms AGAIN and even fewer people see what you post on your page}. In addition, I pin my post the day it releases on whatever board it best fits. Then over the next three or four days, I pin it to a board just for my blog posts and any other shared boards where it is appropriate.

Because Facebook and Pinterest have been my top referral sources for the past 17 months, I invest the majority of my time promoting there. I make sure to like or comment when anyone shares my posts on Facebook and when people pin them as well.

The strategy we use for Design by Insight focuses on Twitter and Pinterest. Erin manages the social media for DBI and she manually shares our posts on Twitter as well as pinning the images on Pinterest.  We’ve found Twitter and Pinterest to be the best social media referral sources for DBI and actually have quit posting to Facebook altogether.

I offer both those examples to show you there is no “one size fits all” strategy. You will need to spend some time developing a promotion plan. It may take you a few weeks to sort out exactly the best plan for you and how it will work; but, knowing how much time you need to spend on promotion needs to be an important part of the determination for how often you will post.

Community Interaction

Responding to comments on your blog posts, responding when people share your post, and interacting with your community on Facebook or Twitter or Google+ take time. It is important to consider this time investment when you are deciding how often you will post on your blog.  This factor, more than any other, is why I landed on two to three posts per week on my personal blog. I like being able to respond to comments and interact with my community. In order to do so, I knew I needed to write less and devote more time to interacting.

Other Considerations

While the three factors I have listed above are the biggest, there are other areas of consideration when you are evaluating how many often you should post on your blog.  Some of these include:

• Other writing obligations. In addition to my personal blog and writing for Design by Insight, I also write a weekly column for our local newspaper and contribute monthly to three websites. It is important to keep in mind the time it will take you to complete your other obligations when you are developing your posting strategy.
• Personal commitments. Let’s be honest, I doubt anyone reading has the freedom to just write. We have other responsibilities and commitments in our lives as well … and those take time.
• Time management. How you use the time you have is a huge factor in how much you can write. Learning to allocate your time effectively is absolutely necessary to creating great content while building a full life offline as well.

This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list, but it is a good start for those who are trying to figure out the best answer to how often to post.

How often do you post on your blog?