How often should you blog? The more, the better, I’m told. Some marketing consultants I spoke to pounded out, “As often as it takes. Blog the snot out of it.”
Why? Frequent posting improves search engine ranking. The more fresh content you have, the more search-engine spiders come crawling. The more opportunities you have to inject keywords into posts, the more people searching with those keywords find you.
We don’t really use keywords in our blog. We know how the concept works (and it does, believe me), we know why we should do it, and we don’t do it, period. We prefer to be ourselves and write organic posts that come naturally.
If our blog is popular, it’s because people like it. ‘Nuff said.
The situation reminds me of the movie Field of Dreams. The voice in the cornfield whispered, “If you build it, he will come.” Well, we’re building, people. Come on over.
(Of course, Ray Kinsella pointed out later in the movie, “This is my corn. You people are guests in my corn.” But that’s a different story for another day.)
But I digress. The point was, blog the snot out of it.
My morning read today included a post about time-saving tips for bloggers.
Tim Ferris, author of The 4-Hour work Week, had this to say on posting frequency:
“Post less to be read more. ”
No matter how good your content is, too much of it causes overwhelm. People unsubscribe. That’s a problem.
Also, based on input from close to a dozen top bloggers I’ve interviewed, it takes an average of three days for a new post to propagate well in the blogosphere. By posting too often, you push down previous posts and decrease their visibility, thus decreasing the potential reach of each post.
All the while, you run the risk of increasing unsubscribes and creating more work for yourself.
Test posting two to four times per week — my preference is two — and don’t feel compelled to keep up with others who blog the snot out of their blogs.
Quality, not quantity, is what spreads. And Tim just blew the “blog the snot” theory out of the water.
How often do you like to read your favorite blog? Do you go looking for updates when there hasn’t been a new post for a couple of days? Do you miss having something fresh to read? Do you like posts daily, a few times a week or once a week?
I’ve actually reduced my posting frequency, James, because I find more people read a post when it has a chance to sit there for a day or so. I’m aiming for 3 to 4 times a week, but I’m flexible. If something comes up that I need to post about immediately, I won’t let a schedule stop me.
In terms of reading, although I love my favourite blogs, sometimes the amount I need to read can be overwhelming and I end up skimming.
I agree with Sharon and Tim Ferris. I aim for between 3 to 5 times a week on my personal blogs. Of course, as she says, if I feel particularly inspired on a certain day, I don’t hesitate to post more than once on that day.
As far as how I read blogs, I think I’ve changed my methodology. I used to skim a whole lot of blogs every single day. Now, I stop by my favorite blogs once or twice a week. I skim posts that like dull or light, but I really study and attempt to learn from the meatier articles. I’ve learned a lot this way.
There was an interesting post from the CopyWriter’s Crucible last summer about how he got his blog to a page rank of 5 (over the course of a few years), even though he only posts one high-quality post a week.
Yeah, if you’re aiming for a high rating fast, then posting frequency and keywording is going to have a lot to do with your success. I’ll read the article though.
I tend not to have a particular methodology for reading blogs. I skim some, I read others, and there isn’t any rhyme or reason to it. Whatever catches my eye with a great headline does the trick. If I can use it, relate to it, or learn from it, then I’m reading it.
Needless to say, I don’t get a lot of work done…
Laura’s comment begs the question, if you only visit blogs a few times a week, how long do you stay and click around? Do you read everything since your last visit? Only a few?
I agree with both Tim and James. But aspiring towards minimalism, I tend to lean towards Tim’s side – despite doing the complete opposite in practice, with my blog. That’s because I’m posting for therapy, and necessity, at this stage.
Less is more.
Matt’s last blog post..away with the Pixies