How Often Should I Post On My Blog?

[soos_mite_ah]

Title says it all. I'm going back and forth from once a week to twice a week. What's a good number when it comes to getting a blog off the ground and what kind of time frame am I looking at? A lot of sources have mentioned that doing something everday or 2-4 times a week is a good number to aim for but I want to do something that is sustainable since I have a life outside of this and it isn't a full on job lol. I know I can't get exact numbers to plan things out regarding when things will take off but a general idea would be nice. 

If anyone else has done something similar, I would love your input and your experince.  

Edited February 28, 2022 by soos_mite_ah

[Preety_India]

12 minutes ago, soos_mite_ah said:

Title says it all. I'm going back and forth from once a week to twice a week.

I have a blog that I do once a week. Not more. 

[Yarco]

You're not going to like the truth.

Blogging as you're probably thinking about it died more than 10 years ago.

Do you have a favorite "blogger"? People have favorite Youtubers, TikTokers(?), and most other platforms. But not bloggers.

Do you have multiple blogs bookmarked that you check multiple times a week for updates? It's not really a thing any more.

If you aren't doing keyword research, your blog is never getting off the ground. It doesn't matter how many posts you make per week, or how many total blog posts you make. You're dead in the water before you even start.

People don't follow blogs for personalities any more. People do Google searches for specific information, and then go to the websites that have the most relevant information. There's no attachment to the person writing in 99% of cases, it's just a commodity. 

You need to reframe it as writing articles, moreso than writing blogs. If you're doing this to build an audience or to earn money and you aren't willing to do that instead of being a "blogger personality", don't even bother starting.

Assuming you've done proper keyword research and identified topics that people are actually searching for, that are neither so competitive that you can't beat the top Google results that already exist, nor so niche/obscure that it doesn't get enough monthly searches...

Post frequency still doesn't matter.

On Youtube, when and how often you post is an extremely important part of the algorithm. It prioritizes people who post regularly, and even specific days of the week and times.

Blogging isn't like that. You just put your content up and it starts ranking.

Blogging is like planting a tree. The best time to write a blog post was yesterday and the next-best time is today. So you just want to write as many as you can, as soon as you can. Or at least get a schedule where you can consistently post to amass a big catalogue of posts for the long term.

It takes 3 - 6 months for a new blog post to reach the peak of how many monthly views it'll get for the rest of it's life.

Most sources on blogging are 5+ years out of date. Even Neil Patel is way out of date and has no idea what he's talking about any more. Backlinking and all the stuff people talk about isn't a thing any more. Posting about your blog on social media is wasting time that you could be using to write more blog posts that'll rank themselves. There are no more tricks or shortcuts. All you can do is post genuinely helpful and unique useful information.

The only people I would listen to about blogging in 2022 are Income School: https://www.youtube.com/c/IncomeSchool/featured

At least watch their videos. If you're really serious about turning blogging into a full-time business then pay $449 for their Project 24 course. It's by far the best blogging resource I've come across, but I realize that pricetag is too steep for the vast majority of people: https://incomeschool.com/project24/

(I'm not affiliated with them, aside from buying the course and paying to be a member for the past several years, and getting great success with my own 4 blogs from following their instructions.)

If I absolutely have to give a number... you need to be banging out at least 15 blog posts a month for the first year if you want to have any chance of turning it into a full-time job. I wouldn't bother blogging if you aren't going to write at least 2 posts a week, at least for the first 6 - 12 months.

Most people should write 30 blog posts in Word documents on their desktop before they ever create a blog. If you can't do that, don't bother starting it.

Of course if you're just doing it as a hobby, then do whatever you want.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Yarco

[soos_mite_ah]

2 hours ago, Yarco said:

Most people should write 30 blog posts in Word documents on their desktop before they ever create a blog. If you can't do that, don't bother starting it.

I have a really good bank of things written down so this isn't really much of a problem. I just didn't know about the whole frequency aspect of things since I'm so familiar with how YouTube typically works given the algorithm. I think at most I could do 4 posts a week but that's pushing it. I guess in that case 3 would be a better number? 

2 hours ago, Yarco said:

Blogging as you're probably thinking about it died more than 10 years ago.

Do you have a favorite "blogger"? People have favorite Youtubers, TikTokers(?), and most other platforms. But not bloggers.

Do you have multiple blogs bookmarked that you check multiple times a week for updates? It's not really a thing any more.

Yeah I thought about that. I originally started out with youtube only to realize that being on camera and editing videos wasn't my thing and I genuinely enjoyed the writing aspect so much more to where I can be pretty consistent with it. This is a medium I find myself really working well with and finding fulfillment in. 

2 hours ago, Yarco said:

People don't follow blogs for personalities any more. People do Google searches for specific information, and then go to the websites that have the most relevant information. There's no attachment to the person writing in 99% of cases, it's just a commodity. 

That's actually part of the reason why I want to do this. Even though I like how my personality come out in my writing, I don't want the way I deliver my message cloud the message. Sure, the voice needs to be engaging and relatable, but things like parasocial relationships are becoming more and more of a problem as people start getting access to every bit of a creator's life and personality. Engaged not attached, that's kind of what I'm going for. 

2 hours ago, Yarco said:

You need to reframe it as writing articles, moreso than writing blogs. If you're doing this to build an audience or to earn money and you aren't willing to do that instead of being a "blogger personality", don't even bother starting.

This is part hobby, part long term thinking. I'm not expecting this to give me much money or hell support me, at least anytime soon. A little extra income would be nice but I'm not expecting too much. I'm mainly trying to envision what it would be if I were to be consistent for the next +5 years. 

Edited February 28, 2022 by soos_mite_ah

[Spence94]

@soos_mite_ah What kind of blog is it？ Who is your target reader?

[soos_mite_ah]

@Spence94 It's basically going to be like my journal posts on here but in place of my own. My target reader consists of people in their late teens and twenties who are into sustainable forms of self development by learning through reflection life experiences. They care about collect social/systemic issues and how they affect themselves and the people around them in a persona and individual level 

I know it's kind of vague but honestly, rather than targetting an audience and putting all of my focus and efforts towards them, I'm trying to write about my experiences as authentically as possible and have my audience find me. 

[Preety_India]

40 minutes ago, soos_mite_ah said:

@Spence94 It's basically going to be like my journal posts on here but in place of my own. My target reader consists of people in their late teens and twenties who are into sustainable forms of self development by learning through reflection life experiences. They care about collect social/systemic issues and how they affect themselves and the people around them in a persona and individual level 

I know it's kind of vague but honestly, rather than targetting an audience and putting all of my focus and efforts towards them, I'm trying to write about my experiences as authentically as possible and have my audience find me. 

Why would updating too frequently on your blog make a huge difference? And how exactly do you define parasocial relationships in your context? 

 

Edited February 28, 2022 by Preety_India

[soos_mite_ah]

53 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

Why would updating too frequently on your blog make a huge difference?

Some say it can help get it off the ground and generate more traffic. 

54 minutes ago, Preety_India said:

And how exactly do you define parasocial relationships in your context? 

Parasocial relationships in a nutshell is when creators engage in a one sided relationship with their audience which creates a false sense of intimacy. It's often the result of lacking personal boundaries and oversharing and can lead to issues with personal mental health as well as impact the audience negatively. 

[Spence94]

@soos_mite_ah  If i were you, i wouldn't start a blog. I would use other social media like instagram. Document your experiences, perspectives and insights. It will be easier to find, connect, share and communicate with people on your wavelength and gain a following. It sounds like it's just a passion project right now. You could use social media and share in a more raw off the bat way, especially as it's new. You don't have to over think the posts too much and can post mini blogs. Blogs are becoming more of a dead medium these days. I heard someone say the captions and words on instagram are more important than the actual pictures if what you care about is gaining a following of people who are actually engaged in your content and perspectives.

 

You could have a blog too as a link on your social media for those followers who want to engage with your writings more deeply.

Social media platfroms would help you attract people who don't even know they're looking for you or the things you're sharing and discusing, but they stumble on you randomly and resonate with you and your content. Hard to do that on a blog. People don't really search for blogs that much these days.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Spence94

[Kksd74628]

@soos_mite_ah

You pretty much answered to yourself on your first post. As much as you feel like doing that does not interrupt other parts of your life, but I would still mention that you should see writing your blog as your life, because your life is that which you do. Also one side tip is to write something that is important for you and what you are thinking, because your blog is only for you. Point of having blog is to organize your thoughts and that is the very reason you don't even need anyone to read your blog.

They say that you should be constant or something, but NOW take this message and stop caring about the people who are supposedly going to read it. Write whenever you like. Eat whenever you like. Party whenever you like. It's your life so you decide how you want it to unfold. Remember that only point of life is to be happy which just means to accept present moment as it is.

Learn to generate happiness within you and not from outside of you and by that I mean that you should be happy just by writing the post and publishing it. If you are only happy when you have high traffic on your blog then I would say that your thinking needs to change in order you to be as happy as possible.

I believe that the best way to have great success in anything is just to love doing the damn thing so much that the great outcome that you have always wanted comes as bonus for you and at this point you don't even need it, because you are happy whatever the case is : )

Love and happiness to you <3

-joNi-

[Yarco]

8 hours ago, soos_mite_ah said:

Yeah I thought about that. I originally started out with youtube only to realize that being on camera and editing videos wasn't my thing and I genuinely enjoyed the writing aspect so much more to where I can be pretty consistent with it. This is a medium I find myself really working well with and finding fulfillment in. 

Yeah, writing is my ideal medium as well so I get that. I would still challenge yourself to try branching out into other mediums.

If you can only make 1 blog post per week, you can repurpose it and easily turn it into content for other platforms and make the most of your limited time.

You can literally just read your blog post into a microphone and upload it as a Youtube video. Almost everybody feels awkward being on camera at first. But if you really hate it, you can just read your blog post with a static image on the screen, be a Vtuber, or make one of those animated writing videos.

It might feel cheap and like you're cheating to repurpose content. But the people listening don't know that. There's no real difference between people getting your blog in written or audio format.

I also think editing sucks and wastes too much time, so I just don't do it. You might be surprised how receptive most people are to raw, unedited content.

You can take quotes from your article and make them into Instagram posts, and all kinds of other stuff. See:

https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/how-to-create-64-pieces-of-content-in-a-day/

You might be surprised which platforms you blow up on, that you wouldn't have even tried.

Get extreme about it and even livestream yourself writing the blog posts if you want . I've literally done that before. Livestream myself working on short stories, upload the finished written short stories to my site, and also upload videos of me reading the stories to multiple video sites.

[Barbara]

What's your goal? Do you want to reach and engage more people, or do you just like writing and want to exteriorize that? 

Are you aiming to help people by providing methods or teachings on how to solve problems or are you just sharing your vision with the internet? Both are fine! I'm just asking to understand a little further what's your goal. 

I think that how often is not so important as the topics you touch on because of SEO. People will find your content on google if they search and your blog ranks on the same keywords they searched. Meaning if I search "How to make apple pie" the blogs that first appear are the ones that best rank on Google for these keywords. Providing useful and how-to content in blog format is crucial because people don't often read blogs as entertainment nowadays. They can watch yt videos of "A day in my life" but not so much blogs. You can use tools like Moz to see what questions and problems people are facing in the topics you touch.

Although, your goal might not be so focused on the reader and that's all right too! 

Anyway, here are some best practices to drive traffic

• Use SEO keyword research (i.e Moz or Google Keyword planner) as a guide to identifying topics to write about
• Note the importance of specific questions as a means for searching online.
• Optimize page titles, page headings, and body content for SEO.
• Create longer form evergreen content, that is, content that isn't time-dependent and won't get old
• Write short-form pieces about current trends and topics.
• Choose themes that are useful to people to help you become an authority and resource.
• Look at the performance of existing content to gauge what audience responds to and see if you can look at it from a different angle.
• Comment and engage with other people's blogs to generate awareness of your blog and goodwill from the other bloggers and their communities who may check out your blog or share your social posts.
• Create the best piece of content by far to answer the question you've identified (in keyword researchers) in as being in the mind of your target audience.

Hope it helps!

[soos_mite_ah]

On 3/5/2022 at 0:13 PM, Barbara said:

What's your goal? Do you want to reach and engage more people, or do you just like writing and want to exteriorize that? 

Are you aiming to help people by providing methods or teachings on how to solve problems or are you just sharing your vision with the internet? Both are fine! I'm just asking to understand a little further what's your goal. 

I like writing and I want to exteriorize it. I'm just sharing my vision and ideas on the internet. 

I can see on how the SEO would likely be more important than frequency of posts. I suppose it was rather idealistic and impractical to assume that if you post enough on what you like to write about that things will get off the ground in that way. 

Oh well, I'm having fun with this. It is something that gives me a lot of purpose and that means a lot to me but I'm not super attached to it to where I expect income and attention. Those are a nice plus but just getting my writing out there is more of my priority. 

Edited March 8, 2022 by soos_mite_ah

[Barbara]

3 hours ago, soos_mite_ah said:

Oh well, I'm having fun with this. It is something that gives me a lot of purpose and that means a lot to me but I'm not super attached to it to where I expect income and attention. Those are a nice plus but just getting my writing out there is more of my priority. 

That's awesome, really! 

[mojsterr]

If your blog ever takes off (I hope it does), you can also make a transition to youtube by other people sketching together videos of what you wrote in text and share it like that.

That way you won't have to be on camera and perhaps get money from views there, too. 

But I don't know how much they charge for this. Just a random thought.