Blogging Discussion: How Often Should You Post?

January 31st, 2008

No matter how much you read about blogging, there are some things that can only be learned from experience. One of these things that seems to vary by niche is how often you need to post to retain an audience.

In my experience, content is always king and if your content is good enough, people will keep coming back for more. With that said, I’ve found that if you write a lot of long and detailed posts, you can get away with only a couple posts a week, while blogs that write a lot of short posts will probably need to post more often to keep the readers attention. This is especially true for news-type sites that don’t write much original content.

Darren at ProBlogger recently did a single question interview with several high profile blogging to try to figure out how long posts need to be. In looking for the responses, it seems that many of these bloggers have felt that “Less is More” and writing detailed posts less often seems to be the optimal way to post.

Most of my readers are bloggers, so I figured this would be a great opportunity to get a discussion going. In your experience, does less equal more? Or have you had more success with a lot of small posts?

Llama Money says:

Different blogs / different needs. I have blogs where I post 2-3 times per week, and are very successful. I also have a blog that requires 7-10 posts per week ( less and I notice a dropoff in traffic / revenue ). Just depends on your topics / audience I guess. Like most things, experiment and test.

January 31st, 2008 at 9:42 am

Mike says:

I think the real key is not in how often you post or necessarily in how large your post are but how informative it is. If you are breaking news, you may only need a sentence.

I think that as long as you are passionate and knowledgeable about your subject(s) you will be ok. Try to write your own content as much as possible and stay away from re-posting other people’s blog posts or articles more than necessary. It’s ok in moderation, but also be sure to add your own take on it.

Most importantly have fun with your blog!

Mike
Dropthemike.com

January 31st, 2008 at 9:54 am

James Mann says:

I currently have a dozen blogs that make money online and a few that are just in the starting phase.

I have noticed that if I drop below 5 posts a week my traffic drops but…

… I should also point out that if I don’t blog on a specific day I am usually doing something else important like fishing or playing guitar with friends.

I think the fact that I don’t do social networking on those day is the major reason I see traffic drop.

But what is the sense of making a lot of money online if you can’t take off and go fishing?

January 31st, 2008 at 9:55 am

K-IntheHouse says:

I have always posted 4-5 posts a week since I started blogging and it works for my schedule. I never could just sit down and crunch out posts and probably why I would never be a full time blogger! I like to write one post a day and try to go into detail with that topic depending on how much time I have that particular day or what the opic warrants. As Llama & James said, I do see a slight drop when I stop spreading the word by social networking.

January 31st, 2008 at 10:52 am

Madhur Kapoor says:

Basically i try to post once a day but sometimes i post once in 2 days. I think it also depends on the type of blog you have.

January 31st, 2008 at 12:56 pm

Josh Spaulding says:

I’ve been an online marketer for several years, but I’ve been blogging for less than a year so I don’t have years of analysis, but my audience seems to be much more interactive when I post frequently.

I’ve noticed on several occasions that after skipping a couple days of posting, the next post doesn’t get nearly as much attention.

I do think it has alot to do with the experience level of your readers, your niche and etc. though.

The same discussion has been started thousands of times with newsletters. The outcome is always the same. The more the better. But once again, there are tons of variables with that as well.

January 31st, 2008 at 4:29 pm

I wouldn’t always say the more the better. I’ve unsubscribed from a dozen or so popular blogs, for no other reason than too many posts. If I don’t log in one day, and the next day there are 48 posts waiting for me from just one blog, that’s absurd! Great for search engines, sure. Bad for RSS subscribers.

January 31st, 2008 at 5:41 pm

Kyle Eslick says:

Thanks for providing your input everyone!

I try to post once a day, but I don’t worry about it if I miss a day. It definitely varies somewhat depending on the type of blog.

Most of those “popular” sites do write specifically for search engines. Readers read it once, but search engines provide constant income over time.

January 31st, 2008 at 6:47 pm

Mark says:

I think no more than one post a day is optimal, but if they’re two short posts in one day, then that’s okay, too. More than that and it becomes overwhelming to readers.

My feedreader is bursting with reads that I haven’t even looked at yet. When you couple that with your favorite blogs that continuously pump out content in a day, it just gets to be too much.

Personally, I try to do one post a day, but I don’t accomplish that. Though I do like the idea of longer, but fewer posts.

February 1st, 2008 at 12:14 am