How Often Should You Post On A New Blog?

1. Free time

How much free time you have in a day dictates the maximum hours you can spend on your blog.

If you work 8 hours per day, plus 8 hours you need for sleep, then you have 8 free hours per day. And that’s the free hours you have including the time you need to eat, see your friends and relax for a while.

If you work part-time, let’s say 4 hours per day, then you have 12 free hours per day.

Of course, you don’t need to work on your blog every minute you have. But depending on the free time you have available, there’s a difference in the maximum amount of time you can spend on it.

2. Level of expertise at blogging

Someone who’s been blogging for years can write, edit and promote faster than someone who has just begun. And it’s not a matter of ability, it’s a matter of experience. They’ve found the routine that works the best for them and they can take advantage of every minute of their time.

This experience is something you’ll obtain after a while, so don’t worry too much over this. Just remember that the more you practise, the better you’ll get.

So if you read your favourite blog and you see they publish 7 posts a week, don’t get disappointed and say: “I can’t do this, so I’m not good enough”. Neither could they when they started. But as I said, by practising, it gets easier. Plus, they may have 5-10 writers working for them…

3. Level of expertise in your niche

If you’re an expert in what you’re blogging about, it’ll make writing easier than someone who has no idea about the niche, no matter how much they want to learn.

They have to do a lot more research to try and figure out what people want and how to understand their readers. Meanwhile, someone who knows the niche has done already most of the job.

They understand the people in it.

4. Your niche

Depending on the niche you’ve chosen, you may need more time to write each post. For example, if you review books, you have to read the books to review them. If you review electronics, you may have to test them out. Movies, you have to watch them.

You don’t have to get disappointed though. That happens to everyone who works in this niche. So if you have to spend x amount of time for research, so do your competitors.

5. Other obligations

Besides your job, you may have other obligations. Hobbies, courses or kids – that I may or may not categorise as obligations – that you need time for. Maybe a second part-time job or a partner you want to spend time with.

Of course, I’m not saying that your blog must be your #1 priority. I’m just highlighting that no matter how much essential, fun or cute it is, anything that takes you away from your blog, reduces the time you have available for blogging.

6. How much YOU want it

There are many reasons why people start a blog. Some people see it as a hobby, others as a business. Some people want it, others just want the money that comes with it.

As with everything, doing something half-hearted doesn’t deliver the same results as doing it because you LOVE it! And if you see blogging as a chore, then it’ll be extremely difficult to work on your blog.

What to take into account

When you start blogging, you have to decide how often you’ll publish a post. I’d recommend you to start with once a week. Or if it’s too hard, go for once every two weeks.

If you think you can do more, try it. But no matter how often you write, you need to make sure that you:

1. Write quality posts

Don’t try to make your posts perfect. You won’t be able to do it, because there’s no such thing as perfection.

But you should try to have good – great, actually – posts. In-depth posts that truly help people and provide all the information you have about a topic, in a way easily understandable by your readers.

Don’t forget that quality beats quantity every time!

2. Promote your posts

You need free time to promote your posts. Use social media, forums, other blogs, FB groups or anything else you can imagine to promote your posts.

Just be careful and don’t spam with links because you’ll get banned from most forums and groups. Read the rules and follow them.

• Maybe you’re allowed to have a link to your site on your profile. Do it!
• Maybe you’re allowed to link once in a while as long as you’re helpful. Do that, too!

With your social media accounts, it’s easier because you’re allowed to post links to your site. So every time you publish a new article, inform your followers.

3. Engage with your audience

Social media are a great way to engage with your readers.

Everyone loves engaging in social media. We listen to a song we like and we share it, we see an image on Instagram and we “like” it, we see a status update and we comment on it. We are social beings; we love talking with others.

Therefore, you should find the time to engage with your readers. Ask their opinion on your next topic, tell them what happened to you today, share your best tips with them. This way, they’ll feel closer to you.

Also, engage with them in the comment section of your blog. It doesn’t have to be a long reply – if you don’t feel you have something to say. Even a simple “thank you” is nice. After all, they took the time to comment on your post, right?

Let your readers engage with you

Even your regular readers, they probably won’t read your posts as soon as you hit publish. They have other things to do. Jobs, families, friends, etc.

If, by the time they read the post, you’ve already published three more, they’ll probably hesitate to comment, considering this an “old” post.

4. Don’t burn out

It might seem useful to blog every day. You have free time, you feel like writing, and writing is good, right? More content for your readers. So why not write a post every day? It seems easy enough to do.

But are you sure that you can keep this schedule for months without burning out? I can tell you this happened twice to me already. And it’s not a nice thing to happen.

Oh, and when I’m talking about burning out, I don’t mean not feeling like writing today. I’m talking about not feeling like writing for weeks or even months.

If you feel inspired to write a lot right now, do it. But you don’t need to publish all the posts immediately. Don’t mess with your content publishing frequency until you have enough posts to last for the next month. So even if you do burn out, at least you’ll have posts to publish without messing up your schedule.

5. Publish consistently

Publishing 30 posts this month and 4 the next one is bad. Not only your readers don’t know when to expect your posts, not only it seems – and it is – unprofessional, but it also looks bad from an SEO perspective. Search engines don’t like inconsistency.

If you feel like changing your content publishing frequency, make sure you can stick to it.

But I do have free time, shouldn’t I write?

You can do a lot of things during your free time. For example:

1. Improve your posts

First of all, you can improve your posts. Again, I’m not saying they have to be perfect, but rushing through them just to publish a post every day, it doesn’t do anyone any favours.

Make sure they are quality posts before you get them out. And checking them out a couple more times before you publish, it’ll also give you more things to add.

A little tip: Leave a few days between the first editing and the last one. You’ll notice easier any mistakes you might have missed.

2. Plan ahead

Always be a couple of posts ahead. If an emergency strikes out, you should be prepared in case you can’t write for a week or even more.

I know bloggers who are prepared for a month ahead or so. If your posts aren’t time-sensitive, and I guess a lot of them aren’t, make sure to stay ahead of schedule.

3. Don’t get exhausted

It may seem easy in the beginning, but after some months, the first enthusiasm goes away. It’s not that you won’t be happy working on your blog, but you won’t be able to work all day, especially if you don’t have a lot of returning visitors to motivate you to write more.

After starting to have people coming back to your site because they really like it – and you, too! – that adds to your motivation. Knowing you help people is always a great incentive!

4. Check out your old posts

Check out your old posts for any mistakes, outdated content, or missing information. You’re not the same person you’ll be a year from now. You’ll be a better blogger. Make sure your blog posts reflect this change.

Also, you can repurpose old posts. If you have a nice how-to post, consider making an infographic, or a video. And of course, after every big change, promote the updated posts all over again.

Final Verdict

I can’t tell you the perfect number that works for you, but I can tell you that once a week is a nice place to start from. Take into consideration what I’ve told you and see how it works for you. Don’t forget to:

• Publish consistently
• Write high-quality posts
• Promote your posts
• Engage with your readers

Final Thoughts

So… how often do YOU post on your blog? How does it work for you? Go ahead and let me know in the comments below!

If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer! Any suggestions are always welcome, so tell me about topics you’d like me to write. And if you liked this, check out productivity tips for bloggers. I think you’ll love them!

See you next time!

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