Main Issue: What is the optimal posts per month. So I started a blog almost two years ago and have yet to be consistent. I went through a week last year that I wrote several posts and posted as soon as I was done writing. Now that the holidays are over I have had some more free time and started feeling like writing and managed to knock out a post yesterday. I am almost done with another little piece but I am thinking I should save it... maybe build up a folder of blogs and post once a week, so that if I have a week or two where I'm not motivated I can post something. But I would really love to get a following and get some feedback on these little bits I write. I think it would help with my writing and improve the bigger projects I'm working on... which was the point of the blog but doesn't work without people reading and critiquing... So how often does one need to post to attract a strong following?
My advice, based on my admittedly extremely amateurish blogging career , would be to post between one and three times a week. If you fade away for more than a week or two, some of your readers are likely to fade away too. If you post more than three times a week, I don't think there's anything remotely wrong with that, but I think that it also isn't necessary - one post a week will keep your blog looking alive, and two or three a week is a bonus. If for some reason you can't post at least once a week, I generally think that it's good to post extremely reliably, even if it's infrequent. If you can be relied on to post every other Friday, or the first Monday of every month, or some other clear pattern, I think that that predictability will keep readers from getting frustrated and deleting you from their readers/follow lists/whatever. I'd also recommend that you always respond to every non-spam comment, at least until your blog attracts so many comments that the commenters can talk to each other. People seem to like a two-way conversation. I keep slacking on this - every non-spam comment on my blog gets a response, but sometimes a week or more later, and that's just not good. I've tried to store posts so that I can rely on posting something during dry periods, but I've found that for me, that just doesn't work - I enjoy posting my thoughts while they're still fresh, and if I don't enjoy my blog I won't blog. So I may backlog a post or three just in case I go into major writer's block, but otherwise there are weeks when I post once, and weeks when I post every day, or even more, depending entirely on my mood.
It depends on your content, really. Look at Hyperbole and a Half. Allie Brosh has an absolutely huge readership because her content is amazingly hilarious. She usually posts once a month (but she's writing a book so she's been posting less often than that recently). You've got stuff like Scott's Tip of the Day, which is usually pretty great. As you can tell by the title, it's daily. It's also different, so you don't know whether to expect something smart, funny, both, or something entirely different and surprising. Those are on two different ends of the scale, obviously. If you're posting small bits of writing to get critiqued, it depends on how long they are and how much effort you're putting into them. If it's just a short piece, I'd suggest you update once a week, or at most twice. If you're working on, and editing, different pieces every day or two, you're unlikely to get the best possible work, and you may even grow to resent it. It's the same story with webcomics, really. Comics like xkcd only update three days a week, whereas Questionable Content updates every weekday. Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal updates every single day of the week. Then others only update one day a week, usually a Sunday or Monday. Really, attracting the readership comes from having quality posts. Most blog/comic readers don't care about how often you update (as long as they know when to expect it). They care about quality.
First: I LOVE Hyperbole and a Half! but she has the drawings to work on as well as the content! Secondly: My posts are 500 to 1000 words for the most part. In general, they are just writing exercises. But I do through in the occasional twist.
First: throw* Second: Just because it's a writing exercise, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't dedicate time to editing it. If you want people to give you responses on your writing, then you don't want them to waste time fixing things. You go through and fix it, which will mean they're critiquing your actual (essentially) finished work.
Oh i do edit them. and i'm sorry for the typo, i have actually completely stopped working on my blog posts for tonight because as i was reading through them i was finding really random things like "made" instead of "may" I guess my mind is getting too tired to communicate with my fingers. So I write these 500-1000 blurbs. I save them on my computer and leave them for an hour to a day before I go back and edit. But as soon as I am done editting I want to post it. But I think it would be better to post consistently rather than post 3 posts a day for a week and then not post anything for two...
I don't think you mean "blurbs". Blurbs are like teasers that go on the back of a novel, or inside the cover. Anyway, consistency is better. If you don't have many readers on your blog or anything, I suggest you try tumblr out. It'll give you the satisfaction of posting everything all at once, but you can queue posts and set it to post something at a certain time every day. I can't remember how complex you can be about when it posts, but you can set the time pretty well. That way, if you're not near your computer on a certain day when you're supposed to update, it'll still go up for you.
Well you are certainly great at correcting people. I wish I had people like you following my blog. And I thought about switching to tumblr but I really like my domain and set up so I think I am just going to stick with it. Thanks for the input, I think I am going to try to put together a few blogs every weekend and post them throughout the week and write when I have time in between. We will see how that works.
My blog is for me and those who know me so I don't really care how much I update...bad I know. However, my blog is about the historic home I just bought and am rennovating/redecorating. I will only have updates when I actually have funds or time to work on the joint. Though, it does include a few arguments between me and my husband. I'm told they make people laugh.
thanks for the feedback. When you follow a blog at what point do you get frustrated that the blogger has not posted? I am thinking 2 posts a week is mandatory to get a loyal following and anything else would be bonus for them. and for me!
