How many times do you upload new content on your blog in a week? Most bloggers set a weekly schedule and keep their content ready in advance. The amount of content you’ll need to upload depends on what kind of blog you own, how much traffic you get and your goals. So do you know how much content you need for your blog?
Why Content Frequency Is The Key
Content is key; it’s your content that drives in the traffic. What makes your content compelling? It’s a combination of your opinion, your blog type, your niche topic, your writing style and most of all, the freshness of your blog. Your blog’s freshness depends entirely on the frequency with which you upload content.
Most people buy newspapers every day. Would we bother to get a newspaper everyday if the same news and the same articles were printed each day? We wouldn’t. However, the reason you buy a newspaper everyday is that newspaper companies strive continually to bring you the latest every day. Apply the same theory to your blog content. If you don’t bother to upload new content, your visitors won’t bother to visit. If you upload content only periodically, your blog won’t be a newspaper to your blog readers. It will be a periodical magazine. That’s the key.
Determining Content Frequency
Determining content frequency rests on several factors. A great deal has to do with your blog’s goal, your personal goals, your growth plan and strategy and what people expect from your blog.
What’s Your Blog Topic?
Is your blog a personal blog or a news blog? People visit blogs to read news on a more regular basis, as they want to be on top of the current trends. People do take a more relaxed view of a personal blog; if they become fans, they’ll visit often, but they know the content won’t become outdated in a day or two. News will.
What Are Your GOALS And Growth Plan?
Revenue: If this is your main goal, then the more you post the better it’ll be for your purse. In this case, you want to aim for maximum growth. By industry standards, that means 3 to 5 times a day. You can figure out how much content you’ll need, to make that many posts a day.
Here’s what you can do if your goal is business revenue. Post 4 or 5 good quality posts and then upload a blatantly promotional post. This means, if you want to promote your business, you need to post content at least 5 times a week! If, however, you can only post once a week, you should post promotional content only once a month.
Steady growth: You need to upload minimum one post a day. You’re probably looking at a steady group of followers, not money.
Slower growth: If you want to take it slow and easy and build a steady fan following over time, keep enough content to upload at least 2 to 3 times a week. Bloggers who prefer slower growth are usually interested in conveying thought leadership or building brand loyalty.
Hobby blog growth: Hobby bloggers don’t worry about fast growth, since they don’t have a strategic plan for growth. In this case, keep enough content to make 1 or 2 posts a week.
What Does Your Audience Want?
Different blogs have different kinds of audiences. Each audience has a different set of expectations. These expectations are set by your blog type.
A news blog will have audiences expecting regular and very steady updates. That means short posts every now and then, to keep the adrenalin going.
A personal or motivational blog will make the audience expect quality long posts that stir them. One or two blogs a week will satisfy your readers. They’re looking for quality and emotion, not regularity.
A business blog makes audiences expect knowledge-base that shows you are a Subject Matter Expert. This means more frequent posts; your posts will be tied to your brand loyalty as well, so make sure you put up something at least once a day.
So analyze your blog’s audience to know what kind of content they expect, how much they expect and how often.
Keep An Eye On The Numbers As You Experiment
If you’re still not sure what level of frequency you should aim for, experiment with different formats, lengths and posting frequencies. For example, put up posts daily for a week. The next week, put up posts only twice. Keep this up for about four to six weeks. Study your web traffic results for each approach. You’ll know soon enough what your audience prefers and how often you should post content in order to serve your bottom line and your goals.
Hello David,
It has been a very interesting and informative post. I have started blogging recently. On that blog, I used to post maximum 3 posts per month and sometime 1 post in a month. It have got a very small number of readers but now I have understood after reading this post, if I want to get more readers for my blog, I have to update my blog with contents in daily basis.
Hi Jonah,
Thanks a lot for your feedback. You should always try to do as much content as possible but need to make sure that you don’t write posts just for the sake of updating your blog and getting more organic traffic.
I guess i would be labeled as a hobby blogger. I normally just post for buyer and seller resources and not really to gain followers. Although, now that i think about it, it would be cool to have a constantly updated blog that engaged readers and brought more site visits.
To true. My military life keeps me off line sometimes so I have dips, but I will keep pushing. Great post!
Dear A.Tatum,
You always have the option to accept guest posts. There are many good bloggers who would be interested in writing for you 🙂
Hi David, I play around with the numbers and, so far, it seems that a post every other day works well; with both my reader’s interaction and my personal schedule. As the blog grows I think that will increase. With that said, quality should come first. I see bloggers posting the same old rehashed posts we see everywhere, year after year, just to keep content flowing. All in all, it’s not that bad but it is noticeable.
I like your newspaper analogy, that’s a great way to look at it. We have all visited blogs and found the same post we read and commented on several days before that.
Really Your Comment Meaning IS Very Cool Hawkins.I Am Also Agree With You.
Thanks for your comment Brian. There should be a balance between quantity and quality. Do not over-focus on quality to the point that you can’t update your blog for 2-3 months. And, at the same time don’t make your blog a content farm with hundreds of low quality posts.
i am expecting that amount of content is based on regular readers count and website popularity.nice points 🙂
Great writing, content writing is really a very important part for the blogging n for running other business sites, thats why some blog n websites owner hire Professional Content Writer for Writing a great n Effective content,
btw this article is really having all that important tips, so while using these tips any blogger can write his/her own content!
I appreciate this Writing 🙂
Any blog popularity and success depends when it can satisfy thier regular readers, so it’s always essential to know when your readers are ready to read your post. Gap between each post is good but you should also know when maximum numbers of your visitors come to your blog like on day or night so that you can publish your post at right time when they actually want to read it.
Thanks Aanchal for adding new points to our list. Understanding traffic trends of your blog and updating content according to it is a good suggestion
I know some people will tell you to post something daily. That is alright if you have built up a decent following already. Besides being a lot of time and work I wouldn’t go on a daily posting spree until you have built up a decent amount of traffic and visitors first. Otherwise I think there is a lot of time wasted. Honestly I don’t know what the ideal amount of content would be. It probably varies from one site to the next, and how much traffic it has.
I feel that posting something useful is important. If you’re posting only useful content, it doesn’t matter a lot if you’re posting it daily or not. I have seen many bloggers who post only once or twice a week and still have large following
Definitely, a blog’s content upload requirements may vary depending on whether you are a hobbyist, a full-time blogger, a part-time blogger or an entrepreneur blogger. In any case, focusing on quality content is the key to achieving success in the blogosphere.
Some of the most explosive content for a blog will include –
1> How-to guides
2> Infographics
3> Start-up success stories
4> Blogger interviews
5> Videos
All these types of content will fuel your blog’s growth!
Thanks for your suggestions Obaidul
I find this post very motivational. You’re absolutely right about massive amounts of information bogging us down and too much time being wasted. Reading your description of what it takes to actually make progress is get things done is a good reminder of what I really should be doing with my time.
Yes I agree that someone should have the exact plan and according the contents should be available with the bloggar before he or she move ahaead. Thanks for the excellent post.
Thanks for sharing this. I never knew this about the content on a blog. It appears to be very good to know how much content you need and when you need it. Thanks and keep on the good work!
I used to be particular about 1-2 posts per day, but these days I focus on 4-5 properly researched and useful posts per week. I think quality is always better than quantity.
Thanks for joining the conversation Raj
I also did this strategy before but as of now, I maintain around 5 posts a week but sometimes I post everyday if there are guest posts..
Excellent post. Adding content can be problematic especially for those with more than one website (in my case 19) to maintain in a range of niches, however, it can be done. This is my first visit to your site so will make time tomorrow to come back and feast on other articles.
Updating 19 websites is really a tough task unless you’re outsourcing writing tasks. Publishing guest posts is also a good alternative
great blog… content writing is a very important part for blogging and running other business sites, thats why some blog n websites hire Professional Content Writers for a great effective contents
Well, If you’ve a new blog then it’s convenient to publish your post on each week as you get quite low traffic but always focus on quality so that those less traffic can become loyal readers.. and as your traffic start growing then speed up your article posting as well so that your readers won’t go back empty handed.
Some great points, It always important to understand your audience taste and amount of post they can digest. I think you should follow a schedule like one post every 2nd day so that your readers know exactly when to come back again.
I’ve tested the numbers and three times a week seems to work for me. What I’ve found is quality is more important than quantity. Great post with excellent tips.
Hi Lisa, As I said earlier you need to find a correct balance between quantity and quality of post
Great artcle David! This is something I definitely have to work on. I currently blog once a week and on the days I publish new content I see a huge traffic spike.
So if I publish a few times a week i know I can significantly increase traffic.
Hi Joshua, You Can also increase your posting frequency by using guest posts
Love the way you say content is key not king.
Also enjoy the different growth strategies. Nice a clear that different activities produce different results.
Hey David,
Really insightful post. I love the analogy with daily newspapers – there’s a lot bloggers can learn from traditional media on many levels.
I tend to think that any serious blogger need to post a minimum of 2-3 times a week. I’d love to post more (I manage 3 at the moment)
building enough of a backlog of posts to do any more than that is simply too time consuming for where I’m at right now in terms of time available for the job.
As with any aspect of successful blogging though, it comes down to – as you said – knowing your readership and understanding what they want and need, and delivering it in a way that they enjoy and can receive…
I agree David!
Content is really important especially when it comes to blogging. As bloggers always need to offer their audiences something interesting to read. And it’s even more important to be consistent with blogging effort. That will show the readers that the blog is still working.
Hey David,
Great post. I agree with most of it, but I put questionmarks next to your statement that for a blog that aims at revenue “By industry standards, that means 3 to 5 times a day”. Isn’t that a bit too much? I don’t know of any blog that I read (that is not a news site) that posts that often. I am not willing to read 3 posts of the same blog everyday.
What if I miss one or two days, then I am supposed to read 6 or 9 posts if I don’t want to miss anything, just on that one blog.
Thanks a lot Jim for your wonderful comment
Wonderful Post. Iam also having a blog i like to update my tips but there is no time to update iam having time only in weekends.
Posting frequency is an important decision. It actually should hinge on how often you can post while still maintaining quality writing. Generally, search engines and book marking sites are pinged whenever you put up a new post. That means that the more often you post, the more search engine traffic you stand to gain. However, the traffic will only stick if your content is worthwhile, so you need to find the right balance. Also, you’ll find over time that your writing will improve with practice and you can gradually increase your frequency without a loss in quality.
Hi Richard, with Google panda update , I don’t think that “More content attracts more traffic” strategy is as effective as it used to be. We need to find a proper balance and it varies from site to site
Hi David,
I agree about most of the points you made. But I just think many bloggers post just for the sake of posting. I mean, its good to have more content, but what kind of content. Are we just posting to have “fresh content” or are we posting because we actually have something useful that will help the reader.
I myself tend to post a few times a week, because I have lots of long tail keywords that I need to write a post for. But, sometimes I go days without writing a post simply because I just cant come up with anything worth writing.
At the end, I think balance is the best approach. Thanks.
The amount of content for a blog is not so important as the quality content you bring to your viewers. Of course you have to update your blogs regularly, but it doesn’t mean you write meaningless and useless things. You will loose your audiences.
“What Does Your Audience Want?” This will be the key to the succeed of any blog. Audiences are like customers, when they are satisfied, you will be benefited.
Nice comment Jake – “Audiences are like Customers” I liked this quote 🙂 Thanks for sharing
I think the most important things is to enjoy the thing and not feel pressured to come up with posts just to keep up the consistency. I think readers will value the occasional quality post rather than coming up with shallow often talked about topics everyday.
I do agree. I’ve only just started blogging properly, but I realised this weekend just how much traffic I was missing by not posting – it’s important to look at others in the niche to see how often they post and fashion your schedule on theirs.
I do have a question: would you recommend posting the same post type on the same day every week? For example I always have Techy stuff on Tuesdays, Food on Fridays (this is what I’m doing right now). I’ve started by doing this to balance my content out so I don’t end up heavily weighted in one area, but I’m not sure it’s the right thing to do long-term.
Yes Rosemary, In fact many good blogs are using this approach.
Hi David,
I was waiting to see if you would mention shorter posts to keep the momentum going. I do agree with Satrap, however, that quality content should always be at the forefront of the blogger’s mind. I do like how you outlined the various strategies for different types of blogs though, and I completely agree. I tried not to view my readers as numbers, but rather as real people with wants and needs. My job is to provide them with that; in which ever form that may take.
Hi Frank,
I don’t think you should make the posts short just to increase your posting frequency. The length of post should depend on the post topic , amount of information you want to share and the content/information your readers can digest in single time.
Don’t write incomplete ( short) posts to increase post count.
David
Hi David,
How often should people be blogging? The answer is – as often as you could. Three to five times a week is ideal according to several top bloggers. To keep up with regularly providing posts for your blog, you have to identify what time of the day or which days of the week can you allot for blog creation. Make sure to stick with your
Hi Easther, Almost all popular blogs are multi-authored so they are easier to update multiple times a day. It won’t be possible for individual or hobbyist bloggers. But I agree 2-3 times a week is fine if you update with quality content.
In my part, I always try to come up with something that my readers would surely love and will keep coming back to read for more. Sometimes, if I get a lot of time to write all the contents at once, I do schedule my posts 😀
Although I had a draft of a plan…kinda, I never thought of the growth plan. I know I have followers but I never thought of what happened next. Now, that I want to monetize my sites, I am more cognizant of numbers.
You made some great point here! Actually, I never cared about the amount of content that I publish in my blog until I finally found and read this post. 🙂
I agree that if you are serious about building a business then you do need to post every day if possible. I like your idea about thinking of a blog as a newspaper. It does take discipline to blog every day but the results are definitely worth it in the long term.
Couldn’t have said this better. I set goals for a whole calendar year and distribute posts accordingly.
Part of what determines frequency of posts (for me) is the priority level for that blog, since I have several; the topic; the ideas I have; and the income goal.
Posting once or twice a week is fine for hobby sites. But monetizing sites requires more work as you say.
Setting goal for whole year is really a great approach. I have seen many bloggers who fix a topic for each month in advance. thanks for your comment
Ya, David this is a great idea to keep subject of topics well in advance for the whole year but meanwhile fast moving technology area, you will need to put some new topics as well, as you might not be aware about these in the beginning.
For something like that I’d do an outline of your planned topics along with events you know are going to happen, for example on an Apple technology blog you know Apple will release an iPad, iPhone and also roughly when. Make sure you have back-up content for unexpected delays (iPhone 4S) and so on, but also almost all tech is updated at the same point throughout the year so it can be discounted for Christmas 🙂
wow, super interesting, thanks. I loved the way you categorised each blog type and then gave industry ‘bench marks’ to aim for according to the results you are aiming for from your strategy. V. interesting, thanks 🙂
Thanks for sharing. I have been struggling trying to figure out a great marketing plan for my blog. Now with your insight I know exactly what I need to do.
Jaden
Thanks, David. The question of how often to post is limited by one’s ability to generate quality content. Cranking out mediocre junk just to stick to a schedule makes no sense. There are bloggers I check back with no matter how often they post because I know the material is always interesting. But you’re right, slow production results in slower site growth. Google likes fresh material. I seem to be doing alright posting about 2-3 times a week, and spending my other time commenting and leaving links.
Hi AstroGremlin,
Thanks for your comment and I completely agree with you. Generating poor content just to stick to blogging schedule should be a big No-No
yes i do agree with you but content is king every one can know and your topic
The Amount of Content You Need For Your Blog is correct
I’m having trouble with my blogs due to a few visitors coming. It frustrating sometimes, but I have to experiment with titles and other things. Thanks for the share.
Thanks David for sharing your experinces regarding the content needed for a blog plus sharing it in a way that every reader can understand it by defining it into bullet points =)!