Slow and steady – that’s what you need to build a good foundation for your site if you’re relying on blogging as a main drive for your business. People who brag about being able to post more than 1 a day will usually run into a lull and have to eat their words.
Even I can’t maintain that rate of blogging. It would take up a lot of time dedicated to blogging where I could be networking with people about needing web site design or consulting about their small online business.
You’re welcome to test the theory, but it will come back to haunt you. I’ve even had to eat my own words at one point for trying this… a very novice mistake when it’s solely my site and rarely allow guest blogging.
If you’re going to try to become a blogging machine, you’re going to have to find some type of balance and you might think about bringing on people to write. I don’t mean guest bloggers in particular. I mean people you may have to pay or do some revenue sharing, or perhaps as a business, hire interns for periods of 3 to 6 months.
If your trying to stay on top of trends and new information in your niche, bringing on more writers may be your best bet. Otherwise, you can get away with a 1 post per day or maybe 3-5 posts published per week.
Yes, you want to rise to the top by pumping content out like a machine, but it’s not always the best as you have to maintain or increase that work ethic to keep pushing forward. You can easily lose rank just as fast for not maintaining or increasing your rate, and if you get too focused on broadcasting, you lose the vital engagement your website needs to succeed.
If you’re doing this to gain rank, remember that it can easily change with the thousands of new sites that are being created each day.
If you’re running your blog by yourself, and you want to write and publish multiple posts per day, and can handle it, go for it, but in the time you can’t publish, you may want to seek a better blog plan for your website. Don’t burn yourself out just to get to success.
How often do you blog? Do you have a blog plan? Have you contemplated bring other writers to your site to keep on top of trends in your niche?
Nice post Nile, I totally agree with you, it’s much better to blog just once per week writing really in-depth and informative posts than writing every day just to get a post published. For me it’s not even content king to tell the truth , the king is networking and building relations with other bloggers. In my experience it’s much more efficient to write just once or twice a week and then spend most of your time networking with like minded people…
hi Nile,
yes i am agree with you that if you want increase ranking and traffic then you should post atleast 3-5 post daily. But i am totally disagree with you in hiring any other writer. In my opinion you should blog on the topic you love and maintain its quality it is very important and believe me it you stick to that you will get traffic and ranking both like labnol.org but this will take time and patience too.
I completely agree with you on the slow and steady Nile. I find way too many people trying to keep up with the content machine, only to find that what they’re giving up is quality and eventually traffic and subscribers.
I have always posted once per week. That was my commitment up until a month ago when I stepped it up to two. That’s it for me until I see how significant the benefits and rewards of additional content are.
I’m happy to see people doing it right, Rebekah. I’m such a hard nose about certain things and I think while people hear from people like you and I, others have to learn the hard way. Of course, we wouldn’t wish it on anyone, but it happens. I’ll be reciprocating your link back to your article shortly as well. 😀
Hi Nile,
I agree that trying to keep up a pace of blogging 3-5 per day is unrealistic and you or anyone would burn out quickly. I would rather go slow and steady, even if it takes me a little longer. I blog definitely and lately once per week and sometimes twice per week.
I believe this is my first time to visit your blog. I enjoyed reading your post very much. Have a Happy New Year.
Hi Nile,
Slow and Steady is the way I roll. I don’t have the time to be a blogging machine. I do have enough visitors on my blog and answer comments plus engage with them. I also have been doing it for quite some time now and made good connections with others.
The reason for a blog is credibility. It is our own “real estate” to depend on and when offering a product and/or service, I do consider it a good way for someone to check me out.
As for trying to climb the ladder to appease Google, I just don’t focus on that. I rather have people come on over and engage with them.
If I have something to sell, it is usually via a campaign.
-Donna
I agree, it’s nearly impossible to write that much content without running into a lull, particularly meaningful content, and even if you can produce that much content I would be surprised by any single person operation that can produce, edit and publish that much content and still do all the work around it to get posts indexed, build social media engagement and do all the other stuff involved in SEO to keep the posts near the top of the SERP. It seems like you could write a fraction of that amount of content and spend the rest of the time building a following and working on SEO.
Hi Nile,
great suggestions.
‘Slow and steady’ makes sense.
The thought of doing one blog post a day sounds crazy to me.
I managed to comment on three posts every day for quite some time, but even that, for me has sent me into overwhelm and now I find it difficult to get one a day. (it may be related to CFS for me)
Thank you so much for sharing this!
Cheers,
Yorinda
2 things spring to mind – 1 being it is a marathon not a race and if you have nothing to say then don’t force it… that said… I have a 2-3 post plan for my site, and have been using video more recently,,,and I have a couple of residency’s else where, where it is 1 a week..I do think writing is however like a muscle the more you exercise it the easier it gets – as I can go from idea to publication in 30 minutes – think of how the journalists had to do it – whatever approach – it has to be the right one for the individual, their business and the purpose for their blogging…but never does one size fit all….
Great post! I can only managed 2-3 posts per week the maximum. Seems I need to adjust my blog plan in order to grow my blog! Keep up the good work!
Hi Nile. To blog or not to blog – that is the question. 🙂 I’ve struggled with the ‘how often’ issue, and it doesn’t help that there is so much conflicting advice. However, I saw a video by Derek Halpern, and he says that there should be less posting and more sharing. That made a lot of sense to me. I had been shooting for 3 times a week, but I think I’m going to start writing two articles on Monday and then post them on Tuesday and Friday. I seem to do a lot better when I block out large chunks of time for writing, so that seems like a plan to me.
I always enjoy your blog and learning from you.
All the best,
Leslie
Good article Nile! When I started out I personally updated daily but now I have gone the route of having others contribute to my blog. I think of my place more like a magazine. Each week we (all of the writers and me) explore a topic and I get different perspectives from my regular and guest writers. It keeps things fresh and the pressure is off me. Of course the key is finding people who’s work you want to share!
I don’t consider myself to be primarily a blogger.
I only blog several times a month on average, not for page ranking, but just to maintain engagement within my niche, and as an opportunity to introduce myself to the steady flow of newcomers that happen by.
So, I think how often you blog, and how much effort you put into it are dependent on your overall online game plan.
Hi Nile,
When I first started out I thought that I would post a new blog post each and everyday. However, I now just post one post once per week.
I don’t consider myself a true blogger. Instead I choose to use my blog to talk about my online journey to a full-time income. It’s a great way to communicate and keep track of my progress.
Thanks for sharing and I hope you have a great day.
Bringing on paid writers is impossible for newbies like me. Revenue sharing can’t even think of it Once i become established i would certainly do it and try to be a blogging machine. Thanks for sharing this information with us.
Hello Nile! I have taken blogging challenges in the past where I had to publish a new blog post each day and I did get burnt out as you have stated above. I think we all have our own goals and need to find what works best for each of us. Right? Thanks for sharing. Chery :))
My head hurts at the very thought of posting daily, let alone multiple times each day. I know some people do it – in fact Seth Godin does it really well – but I don’t think it works for most people. And I do agree with the steady approach to building a blog, but my rude awakening last year was that increased traffic can become a major nightmare when your site is hosted on a shared server. That makes sense when you’re starting out – but once traffic builds to a certain point and usage increases the hosting company gets testy. I’m working on a new blog and this is a lesson I plan to take to heart when it comes to selecting a host for the new site.
If you are an individual blogging 3-5 times a day then it is to the detriment of quality. Some short term gains may be made but they will will not last. Even social networking will not help as your posts will end up not being shared.
Daily posting of quality content would take a huge effort and a great deal of knowledge of your topic. There would be little time for any substantial research. I think only short bursts of this would be sustainable, with planning in advance.
I now blog weekly at the most but my rankings have been built up over years so infrequency has not had an effect which is probably due to social networking.
Nice post Nile, I totally agree with you, it’s much better to blog just once per week writing really in-depth and informative posts than writing every day just to get a post published. For me it’s not even content king to tell the truth , the king is networking and building relations with other bloggers. In my experience it’s much more efficient to write just once or twice a week and then spend most of your time networking with like minded people…
Hi Nile,
Slow and steady is ideal for me also. My goal is to create a post at least once a week. I entered a couple of 30-day blogging challenges in 2013 but even that was too much blogging for me since it is just me writing the posts. I value quality over quantity.
If you are an individual blogging 3-5 times a day then it is to the detriment of quality. Some short term gains may be made but they will will not last Even social networking will not help as your posts will end up not being shared.
Daily posting of quality content would take a huge effort and a great deal of knowledge of your topic. There would be little time for any substantial research. I think only short bursts of this would be sustainable, with planning in advance.
I now blog weekly at the most but my rankings have been built up over years so infrequency has not had an effect which is probably due to social networking.
hello Nile,
I’m new blogger for me this line is work “slow and steady” I believe building community its take time and smart working acquire. Working alone weeks and no result gain it always hurts. For some time social media marketing helpful but not for long term.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful post with us,i totally agree with you write the article but write in depth and must be informative which means if some one reads it do get benefits and that article force him to come back again to read your next article.so keep working and posting hope to learn more from you. And definitely i would love to recommend others.
Thanks
Updating blogs on a regular interval is tough. We can hire someone if we don’t have enough time for it. This is the best way for running blogs systematically. We an hire virtual assistant.
Thanks for sharing this great post. I am agree with you. I think if we regularly update our blog once or twice in a week rather than update it everyday or like doing spam. It will not give you the real benefit. I think everyone should be stick to Slow and steady .
It is really important to update your blog in mean time. It is also better for SEO factor. I agree with you on some points. Keep up blogging. 🙂
Wise words I must say. Yes, we keep working our blog steadily no matter output looks smaller at first. With the time, we hit milestones. But meanwhile, Balancing works all together sounds like a pretty bigger challenge for people who are so ambitious and at the same time they started from scratch.
Nicely written. You have practiced what your article preached. Now I just need to write that perfectly original article that offers its readers the inspiration. Keep it up!
For me it is impossible to blog anywhere close to once a day. I am able to only do once a month. I guess it depends on your goals. As a practicing tax and estates attorney I am not able to do more than that. Every three weeks is the best I have been able to do. It takes a lot of work for me to produce one blog post so I am stuck with my production of one a month. That is what suits me.
thanx a lot for these type of articles .. THese are really very helpful for new bloggers like me.. i gues slow and steady is the key concept of blogging/
Hello, Nile
I just carefully complete your post. i agree with u. thanks for your helpful idea. i will definitely try to write a weekly article for get more traffic to my site. Keep writing informative and useful post like these one.
Thanks…
Yes, these type articles are very helpful – they help put things back in perspective when you get a little burnt out and unmotivated. Slow and steady wins the race 🙂
Thanks for the post… I started my blog 8 month before… Really help ful post….
Well I have a full time job, so blogging is just side thing. I write posts whenever I can. Sometimes more often and sometimes not. Everything depends on how much time I have and how motivated I am. Sometimes I have posted even 1 or 2 posts a day and sometimes nothing for a week…
Writers block is a major issue in blogging but it can be overcome by reading other blogs. The moment I stopped reading other blogs, I realized that I have nothing to share with my readers.
I want to start a blog and this post will help me , thanks a lot :*
This is a great help – thanks!
Nothing worse than a blog that goes dark – and it’s easy to burn yourself out – especially as your business grows. It’s true that businesses like HubSpot write/post several blogs a day and it does help their ranking and authority. But they have a very deep bench of writers and not all of them are writing each and every day. For most small business owners who are trying to combine running a business, building a business and family life – writing a blog -especially if writing isn’t your favorite thing to do
Hi Nile, I agree totally with you I think you should pace yourself and be committed to blogging quality content in a way that works for your business goals and audience. I am currently updating my blog with new content once per week and it works great for me since I do spend quite a bit of time on recipe development, recipe testing, photographing the recipe and then writing the post for it. This year I am starting to allow more guest bloggers do posts on my site and I will see how well my readers respond to their posts. Thanks for taking the time to discuss this topic.
Hello Nile. My focus has always been on quality and relevant content, so I tend to blog about 1 – 3 times per week. This works best for me because that way I also have time to focus on networking and marketing my brand.
Great post Nile! There are many bloggers who share this sentiment in that by committing yourself to a very high post rate you are likely to burn yourself out and also devalue the content that you want to get a bit of an ember from.
Take Commentluv for example, when commenting on other people’s comments if you were to post at a very high rate, you’d end up losing the advantage of that link. By committing yourself to a large number of posts within a short space of time, you create a rod for your own back. Your high value posts get lost in the wash, proverbially speaking.
I have also read and observe that bloggers who do well spend almost as long (if not longer) publicizing their posts. With a high rate of publication, any blogger is going to feel the pressure if that is true.
Hi Nile,
this post is excellent and i have bookmark your site.
Thanks a lot for sharing art of blogging with us.
Hi Nile,
I like your idea of slow and steady. While I do blog about 5 days a week I do spend a lot of time ensuring my content is quality. I can easily see how long term this may be hard to sustain. I am banking on the fact that I can keep up. I have a strong passion for personal finance so as of now I am able to easily find things to blog about.
You make some very good points here and I appreciate you sharing.
Nile,
I found that just keeping up with one article per week, has enough content. Most people will find that interaction will make best use of time. Looking at meeting the people who comment and then learning about them. That is a method I have been using for years.
It is about quality of the sharing, I found key. Not the production of massive information. Sooner or later it sounds all the same as others. It looses it’s unique style, for some reason.
Thanks again for a inspirational share!
This is some really sound advice Nile!
But more than likely, the vast majority of newbie bloggers (98%) or more, have absolutely nothing to worry about, with regards to this matter!
Because they’re way too busy struggling with trying to consistently come up with fresh content ideas, once or twice per week!
Let alone trying to publish fresh content multiple times per day!LOL!
But your points are extremely well taken! And thanks so much for sharing them!
Updating blogs on a regular interval is tough. We can hire someone if we don’t have enough time for it. This is the best way for running blogs systematically. We an hire virtual assistant.
I agree that trying to keep up a pace of blogging 3-5 per day is unrealistic and you or anyone would burn out quickly. I would rather go slow and steady, even if it takes me a little longer. I blog definitely and lately once per week and sometimes twice per week.