The blog is the epicentre of the any good online content marketing strategy, so ensuring it is well-stocked and regularly updated is essential in creating a thriving reader-base which, in time, will become your customer base.
The debate rages online about the frequency of blog posts, and how regularly your blog should be updated. And today, we’re going to wade into that debate up to the eyeballs, and settle the issue once and for all. How often should you blog?
Before we can answer definitively, we have to of course point out that the frequency of posting will differ according to what kind of blog you’re running.
So here’s my answer to this question, and sure enough, it’s not a direct answer: don’t post every day, but write every day.
By putting time aside every day to write, you get the benefit of habit and discipline, and these are indispensable tools when it comes to improving your craft. It doesn’t even need to be blog posts – your sales pages and emails all require writing, and in the digital age these are never finished. You can always update, improve, tweak and A/B test your campaigns to maximize your conversions.
So, let’s look and some of the pro’s and cons of posting every day that will help you evaluate whether or not it will be worth your time and investment going forward.
Practice is the foundation of athletic success. So is writing.
One major advantage to blogging every day is the immersion it requires you to have in your topic area. Spending time every day creating content for your blog means you will necessarily have to go deeper, broader and more frequent in your research in order to generate content. This immersion is a major advantage, not just in terms of your website content, but also in keeping on the cutting edge of your industry. This can help you innovate and stay ahead of the competition.
Aim to be the forefront of your industry!
Knowledge is power, and demonstrating your knowledge on a daily basis will do wonders for your reputation, not only among your readers but also among your peers. The immersion daily blogging gives you will allow you to comment on every development, provide insights from the forefront of your industry, and as such, engage in thought leadership.
Thought leadership is a major emerging trend from 2017 that is going to become essential in 2018. It allows you to define the future of your industry, which is why people will choose your company over competitors.
As you share your expert insights and add value to people’s understanding of the latest developments, your blog will transform from ‘a random blog’ into a powerful centre of knowledge in your field.
Be a relationship builder, and your blog will prosper.
Robert Kiyosaki said, “The richest people in the world build networks: Everyone else looks for work.”
We can invert this from a consumer focused to a business focus by instead saying “everyone else looks for readers”.
Influence is the currency of the realm in 2018, and creating interesting, high quality blog posts will attract a higher calibre of readers, who will begin to comment and engage with your content. This vital first point of contact is essential in building your network and demonstrating your influence.
What’s more, connecting with other thought leaders through interviews, guest posts and curated content allows you to become a “host” for the discussions around your industry, connecting with individuals who may be able to create opportunities for you in future.
Every blog content you publish is a golden opportunity to improve your SEO.
This one might seem obvious – it’s the first reason people typically get into blogging. But hey, it works, so it earns its place on this list. Google loves fresh content, and posting regular updates will allow you to rank more highly in SERPs for the keywords you’re targeting. This in turn will enable you to attract more organic traffic.
Every piece of high-quality blog content you publish is an opportunity to increase your rank and reputation, and this back catalogue is available forever, allowing people to explore your blog and spend more time on the site – another important ranking factor. Simply put, the greater volume of content you have on your website, the better your rankings can become.
Writing everyday builds your discipline, makes you smarter, gives you a sense of accomplishment and most importantly a better writer.
And so we arrive back at the start. The biggest reason to blog every day is that it makes you a better writer. I write anything up to 4,000 words a day on various projects, and that means I’m always sharp and ready to produce great content. Page by page, day by day, getting better at your craft. Just like fitness regimes require daily commitment to see results, you won’t improve in the blogging game without regular practice.
Doing something every day creates a kind of paradox. You at once take it more seriously, and less seriously. The boredom of repetition can force you to seek out new creative avenues that might engender a whole new kind of response from your audience. You can find your voice and your format as you develop your platform.
Convinced? Not so fast! First, let’s look at some of the cautionary tales commonly encountered when trying to blog every day.
If you’re frustrated, worn out, hating writing, and questioning whether you’re a writer, you may be burnt out.
The first item in this list is the direct opposite of the last item on the PRO’s list. Far from becoming a better writer, blogging every day can place undue pressure on people, causing them to cut corners, miss things and lower your standards.
The pressure of creating new, engaging, high quality blog content on a daily basis may be too much to handle, especially if you’re the sole proprietor of a small business or entrepreneurial venture.
Another commonly encountered symptom of burnout is writer’s block. This can occur as a result of both failure and success – if you have a more successful post, the pressure to repeat that success can make you too critical when examining your ideas for blog posts. Equally, an unpopular post can make you paranoid that your ideas aren’t good enough, and overnight isn’t enough time to learn the lessons.
I’ve seen this happen to great writers, not just beginners. If it happens to you, take a break. Post about taking a break. Keep your readers engaged as you work through it and make time for reflection.
In due time, your readers will become selective, forcing your best posts to become needles in a haystack if you post regularly.
Posting too regularly can overwhelm your readers, leaving them with too much to sort through and forcing them to be more selective. This means that you effectively begin to segment your audience, and while most of them may have engaged with each piece of writing, most will now only engage with one out of three.
A related problem with this disengagement is certain important information being lost in the shuffle, ESPECIALLY if you use your blog to update on major news, events and developments within your business.
Finally, if you are churning content just to hit targets, the quality will inevitably decline, and your best posts will become needles in a haystack. No one in 2018 will trawl a blog looking for diamonds in the rough, so the disengagement can become permanent.
The more you post, the lesser social sharing you’ll get.
Posting regularly means your latest post is constantly being replaced. People discovering your company for the first time will often look to the latest post as their first introduction to your brand. If they are impressed, they will often share this post with their networks. Similarly, your established audience may check your website once a week, and tweet or share what they find.
Too many posts, and your social shares will begin to decline rapidly. The number of people discovering your writing as the ‘latest post’ will decrease as the window it fills that top spot decreases.
Therefore, if you know you have big news coming, it could be a bad idea to shunt this flagship post off the top spot too soon. Leaving it there for a week will guarantee higher exposure and higher interaction.
Back to the most fundamental question….
What is the ideal blog post frequency?
It’s clear that daily posting has its disadvantages, but if you remember, my argument was always for daily writing. There, one of the biggest cons – burnout – still applies. So, to help you go forward with a consistent plan to improve your content marketing, here is my advice on the best way to maximize the pros will minimizing the cons.
NaNoWriMo succeeds precisely because it tells you to write 50,000 words in 30 days, or 1,200 words a day. That’s an achievable amount for most people, and at the end, you’ll have around 2/3rds of your book written. Daily effort in small, manageable chunks.
Consistency is essential in blogging, and we’ll talk about that more in this list. For now, I’d say the most important thing you can do is take a little and often approach, but protect that time each day and make sure you use it wisely.
Consistency in writing is good. Consistency in posting is great. While the TV’s golden age may be winding down, one thing flagships like Game of Thrones still rely on is the “event” – the specific time the show is aired to prompt a flurry of discussion, reactions and speculation.
Posting at set times will allow your audience to know when to expect new content, and train them to keep coming back to your site, knowing what they’re going to get. This allows you to take off the pressure of daily posting, while still actively developing your audience.
The other major advantage of consistency outside either your own discipline or your existing audience is the SEO benefit. Regularly updated websites are ranked above those that update sporadically.
By prioritizing your blogs and providing quality content on a schedule, your will climb the rankings and gain exposure to more readers. This upward spiral will continue as long as you maintain your commitment.
Strategy is essential to sustaining this in the long term. A content calendar allows you to separate the planning and execution of your content into discrete chunks. Some time spent up front creating your article outlines will make it much easier to chip away at them with regularity and keep to your posting schedule.
This way, you know in advance what are you going to be writing about, and you can even use a content calendar to maximize variety for yourself as a writer. Let’s say you decide to post three times a week – Monday can be an industry round up, Wednesday can be a popular topic in your field and Friday can be your day to post original insights. This way, you don’t end up grinding out articles that feel the same day by day – the variety will be good for you and your readers.
At the end of the day, choose a posting frequency that suits you best.
I leave you with this: regularity is superior to daily posting. RankReveal’s blog has set expectations around when to expect new content and has kept to that expectation, ensuring audiences know when to tune in. At the same time, commitment to quality has ensured that the audience has grown from post to post, as each is shared on social among readers’ social networks.
Ultimately, there is no “one size fits all” method. You have to experiment and optimize if you’d like to be blogging everyday so it can be rewarding for both your readers and you. If it’s a chore, the results will reflect that. Every site has a sweet spot where the frequency of posts, and the length of the posts, is balanced for optimal engagement and repeat visits. Through experimentation, you can find yours, and by then, you won’t be needing my advice!
Have you had success with a regular posting schedule? Support our community with your recommendations in the comments section below.
Updated: 23/2/18
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