Regular posting certainly helps | (photo by LarimdaME)
When I was learning blogging there was one tip which I heard almost everyday and that was to post regularly on your blog, if you really want to succeed in making your blog popular. However, my blogging friend Sumesh doesn’t believe in this statement and suggests that you should write blog post only when you really want to, in order to ensure that you don’t compromise with your blog posts’ quality.
Sumesh has highlighted following points -
- Schedules sacrifice quality of the posts.
- Subscribers really don’t care about the post frequency.
- Subscribers read other blogs too and don’t really care that which blog gets updated when.
- You’ll loose interest from blogging because of schedules.
- Quality posts matter and not the regular posting.
I agree to some of the points which are mentioned by Sumesh, however I’d like to mention that why many professional bloggers suggest you to post frequently and I’d also suggest Sumesh to do the same.
Why Probloggers suggest to post regularly ?
1. Regular posting improves search engine rankings - It’s a well known fact that search engines give preference to those blogs which are updated regularly. So, if you want to rank well in search engines then posting regularly is definitely a good idea.
2. Improves branding of the blog - Constant updates from your blog will ensure that your blog will come in front of the readers more often than the blog which gets updated less. So when ever someone will ask them to name a blog of your niche then the one which gets regular updates will strike their mind more than the one which gets updated once in a while.
3. Your interest will increase more - This is slightly tricky, if really depends on one thing and i.e. Passion! If you are passionate about your subject then you won’t feel the fatigue or boredom rather you’ll fall in love with the subject even more than ever before.
4. It improves blog engagement - When you post regularly but in a set pattern then the readers will start expecting regular posts from you and if you will highlight and give importance to what your readers have to say in comments by replying to their comments or featuring their statements in blog posts, then you can surely expect a better community around your blog.
So next time if Darren suggests you post frequently on your blog, or Skellie tells you that less but regular posts are good then listen to them and if you are worried about the amount of stress it will bring in your life then Daniel’s suggestion of Budgeting your time will help you remove stress from your blogging.
I’m not against what Sumesh said in his blog post but it really depends on what you want to achieve with your blog, if you see your blog as just a platform to express your ideas or if you want establish yourself as an authority on the subject. If latter is your idea then regular posting will certainly do wonders for you. However, whatever you do, don’t post rubbish material on your blog as even I agree to Sumesh that it’s really the quality of posts which matters. Post decent quality material everyday and you’ll surely have a much successful blog.
Is it a coincidence that you have used the same Flickr pic that I did? :D
I’d like to point out a few things that you took in a different way:
>>Schedules sacrifice quality of the posts.
I mean that schedules may hamper with quality, which is not always the case. I’ve pointed out Darren, Skellie, Leo etc as obvious exceptions to this.
>>Subscribers really don’t care about the post frequency.
Again, I mean that subscribers care less than what we perceive.
>>Subscribers read other blogs too and don’t really care that which blog gets updated when.
“Don’t care” isn’t what I meant, I believe I wrote “subscribers read other feeds too” or something similar.
>>You’ll loose interest from blogging because of schedules.
Not if you write news or rehash lists and resources ;) They’e easy to do, no burnouts – just have some time in hand.
>>Regular posting improves search engine rankings
You’ll find that well-crafted weekly posts with lots of content and resources will do better than shorter posts. Perhaps because, with shorter posts, a lot of static content (sidebar, footer etc.) is repeated.
>> Improves branding of the blog
Again, I’d have to disagree. Value-packed posts make better branding than shorter posts regularly. See Skelliewag or Dosh Dosh as an example.
>>It improves blog engagement
I guess this depends on the blog and audience. I’ve personally had more comments and emails when I write larger tutorials or resources (especially tutorials).
Overall, a good post from you – I enjoyed it thoroughly. And before I leave, thanks for the link and mention :)
Hey Sumesh,
No it’s not a coincidence as far as Flickr image is concerned :) I used it because you had used it in your post.
Well, I agree to you as far as most of your points are concerned. What you shared was really your perspective and what I tried to mention was that why posting frequency actually matters. As I said, that it really depends on your purpose of blogging.
>> Coming on the point of branding, DoshDosh & Skelliewag both post regularly and I’m sure if they’ll not post regularly then there subscribers will get disheartened. I’m sure one craves for content written by them. Chrisg.com is another example of similar blog. All these people have a fixed schedule about things and they don’t miss it. Also, these people built their reputation at a period of time and it wasn’t instant for them either, with regular quality posts only they got good brand. Imagine if any of these people would have posted once in a month, then do you think they would stand where they are now ?
>> As far as search engine preference is concerned : Do you agree that there are many spam blogs which rank better in SERPs ? Well, the reason is that they constantly throw content even though it’s spam. So frequency definitely matters.
I do post regularly and ritualistically at KalaaLog.com – since it is an art blog, it turns out to be an all together different ball game. The readers do ‘dig’ regularity. For the past year, I have missed a couple of posts and that does affect the momentum of growth.
I think though, the point of having it as a stress can be reduced by tweaking the frequency of posting. If you feel confident of cranking out 5 posts per week, make it 4 posts per week and keep that 5th one scheduled for next week (a nice way to build those ‘rainy day’ cache). For me, I think I can post around 3 or even 4 posts per week regularly at my art blog (it takes a bit more work in terms of research and study) – but for quite a long time I have stuck with 2 posts per week.
@ Vyoma : That’s what I was trying to explain in the whole post. Regularity matters although, it may not matter for few niches but it does matter once your blog starts to gain the popularity. Rather, it’s the regularity of good content which can help you in making the blog popular :).
That’s one good strategy, post less but post in a regular schedule as you do in your case.