Frequent blog posting or consistent blog posting?
When I first stumble upon a blog, I usually read the first lines of the newest post. If the lines intrigue me or make me want to read more, I will read the rest of the post. From that point on, I can pretty much tell if the content on the blog is relevant or worthwhile to me and I only check one more thing before subscribing: the number of posts in the past few days.
I have sort of psychoanalyzed myself on numerous occasions to determine what it is exactly that causes me to subscribe to a blog. A primary factor is always the frequency of posts. The truth is, I don’t want to be bothered with a blog that is not updated frequently. Visiting the address of a blog which remains not updated is like opening up the morning newspaper to find yesterday’s articles printed again. If I am going to be committing as a subscriber, I at least want to know that I will be fed something on a consistent basis.
Think consistency not quantity
All of the blog marketing gurus like Darren Rowse and Brian Clark will tell you that frequent posting is a necessity. Not only will it keep your readers happy but it will also keep search engines happy because Google favors sites that are frequently updated. The common understanding is, as far as frequency of posts goes: the more the better. I don’t necessarily agree with that assumption.
I have found that the key to being a successful blogger is to not worry about quantity or productiveness. The key is consistency. Even if you only write one post per week, as long as you continue at that rate consistently, you will succeed.
Here are a few of the benefits of blogging on a consistent basis, whether that be once a day, week or every other week:
- Search engines will not penalize you. As long as your site content is not static for a very long period of time (several months), search engines like Google will not reduce your site ranking. As long as you have something new on your site on a consistent basis, search engine crawlers are incentivized to come back to index more.
- Readers will appreciate your blog more. Have you ever heard of a magazine that doesn’t send issues on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis but on a whenever-we-feel-like-it basis? The same standards should apply to the world of digital content. Your readers should know when they will be able to access new content. That way, they don’t have to build their life around checking your blog for new posts.
- It will build motivation. Reaching your goals for content productivity will greatly increase your motivation for blogging. It’s no secret that completed goals in general act as ego boosters. But making the translation from an increase in ego to an increase in productivity (or better yet, consistency) needs to occur if you are going to build from your own success.
If content is king then consistency is queen. If you want to successfully market your blog, you need to make blogging a habit. Kind of like peeing: it doesn’t matter so much when you do it but as long as you do do it.
Don’t get yourself in a tizzy if you find yourself too bogged down with IRL (in real life) things to write a post. I have found myself suffering from a condition known as blogger’s guilt that greatly impairs my ability to get back on track after I missed a day of blogging. Look out for hitter slumps. Replace the words of Dory from Finding Nemo, “just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming,” with “just keep blogging, just keep blogging, just keep blogging.”
Just keep blogging!
[...] Blogging Consistency. I agree with this Blogtap post on the importance of blogging consistently. “Visiting the address of a blog which remains not updated is like opening up the morning [...]
When started blogging I used to post everyday but the brought me stress and no returns. What I do is now posting a quality article per week and spend rest of the time promoting that article.