Mythbuster: How Often Should I Blog?

How often should you blog? That’s one of the most common questions I see asked on forums, social media, and Q&A sites. It’s something that a lot of people are curious about. Everyone wants to know the magic number of blog posts you should do each week. How much is enough?

Blogging frequency is such an important topic for many of you, and it was something I struggled with when I first started blogging and creating content. It’s a very important topic, because the fear of not being able to publish enough posts ends up stopping people from blogging altogether. And that’s a huge mistake. In this edition of Mythbuster, I’m going to finally answer the question, “how often should I blog?”

Blogging Frequently vs. Consistently

Blogging isn’t all about frequency, it’s mainly about consistency. This is where most people mess up. They aren’t consistent with their blogging. You see it all the time with corporate blogs in particular. One post will be from 2012, then the next one will be in 2013. It’s a mess. Despite the fact that 62% of companies have a blog of some sort, a whopping 80% of corporate blogs only have five posts or less. What’s with the discrepancy?

It’s very similar to the famous New Year’s Resolution to get fit. In January, you’re all in. You’ve committed to making fitness and health a part of your lifestyle. You sign up for the gym, go and buy fresh fruits and vegetables, looked up a bunch of healthy recipes, download MyFitnessPal, and you’re on your way to living better. The first few weeks of January, you go to the gym five days a week. You stop going to McDonalds and Taco Bell for lunch and dinner and you’re cooking all of your own meals at home.

Then in the beginning of February, things start to go downhill. You’re only going to the gym once or twice a week. You’re eating fast food after work for dinner, and buying unhealthy snacks because you no longer have the time to cook all your meals. And by March, you’ve completely reverted back to the way you were. All of the work you put in back in January completely went down the drain. This is the exact same thing that happens with blogging.

You might start off strong, publishing a few blog posts each week! But then after a month or two, things start to slow down a bit. Instead of doing two or three posts a week, you’re lucky if you publish two or three posts in the entire month. Eventually, you just stop blogging completely.

In both cases, the issue is with an inability to be consistent. The good news is I can show you how to fix it. Well for the blogging at least. Can’t really help you on the fitness side unfortunately. But one step at a time!

[Tweet “Blogging is about consistency, not just frequency”]

How To Blog More Consistently

Here’s the easiest way to deal with the problem of being inconsistent with your blog. Stop trying to focus on the maximum amount you think you should post. Start off with the lowest amount of blog posts that you can produce regularly. Whether that’s once a week, twice a week, or whatever you feel comfortable with. I’d recommend posting at least once a week. That’s a very doable goal.

Once you’ve decided on how often you’ll publish posts, the next step is to come up with your blogging topics. By having this planned out ahead of time, it’ll be much easier for you to stick to your schedule. If you’re struggling to come up with ideas, check out my guide on how to come up with blog topics quickly. Make a list of enough topics to last you at least one month. So if you’re going to be publishing a post every week, you need at least 4 topics to blog about.

Next, set aside some time during the week to focus on your blog. The reason a lot of people say they “don’t have time” to blog is simply because they don’t make time. Not having time is just an excuse to procrastinate. And with bloggers out there like Jennifer Barbin and Julia Romanow who juggle families, working, and blogging, you can definitely find a couple hours a week to focus on your blog.

Depending on the type of writer you are, you may be able to publish a couple, or all of your blog posts for the month in one day. For this site, I publish three blog posts a week, and generally write them all over the course of a day or two over the weekend. And don’t forget that every blog post doesn’t have to be a written article. You could do an infographic, video, or even photos from an industry event.

If you’re using WordPress (and why wouldn’t you be?), then you can easily schedule your posts to publish at a future date and BOOM, you’re good to go. That wasn’t so hard was it?

Blogging Isn’t A Chore

When you look at blogging as a chore, you’re less likely to want to do it. You’ll treat it as something that just has to get done. As a result, the quality of the content you put out will suffer. Blogging should be seen as a part of your business. If your business is blogging, then that’s just all the more reason to take it seriously. But for small businesses and corporations who are trying to blog as a part of your content marketing strategies, then changing your perspective on your blog is very important to your success.

Instead of trying to just get blogging out of the way, make it a focal point of your company. Aim to publish the highest quality content possible. Not only will it help you build an audience, but it will allow you to get creative and start having fun with your blog. Yes, blogging can be fun!

Don’t kill yourself trying to create a new post each day. That’s usually when you run into trouble and become overworked and stressed out because you can’t keep up.

Just Starting? Focus On Promoting Your Content!

A big misconception out there is that when you first start blogging, you need to publish a ton of content. But the reality is, all of that time you’re spending publishing blog posts during your blog’s infancy stage, could be better spent building up your readership.

Instead of stressing about how many blog posts you should publish each week, put more effort towards promoting each piece of content you DO publish. There’s so much information out there on the importance of publishing content, but not enough emphasis gets put on promoting that content once it’s done.

This is another reason why I suggest starting out with the minimum amount of posts you can publish each week. It’ll free up your time to focus on marketing the content. Otherwise, you’ll spend all of your time in the creation phase, until you eventually give up because nobody’s reading what you’re putting out.

What Happens When You Don’t Blog Consistently

Have you ever visited a blog, looked at the post dates, and wondered to yourself whether or not the site is still even active? That’s exactly what happens when you stop being consistent with your blog. Long gaps in between blog posts can make your audience think that your site is a ghost town, and never return.

Also, when you’re blogging sporadically, it makes it almost impossible to get on a roll. Building a successful blog takes time. It’s not going to happen over night. When you stop blogging because you’re not seeing immediate results, you’re potentially killing any momentum you started to gather.

Eventually, your blog will become more deserted than gyms in at the end of February.

Finding Your Sweet Spot

The answer to “how often should you blog” is…. it depends. Here are some good signs that you’ve found a good blogging schedule/frequency:

• You’re not rushing to put out a blog post every time
• You have time to market every blog post you publish
• You’re not sacrificing quality in order to meet a minimum number of blog posts
• You’re able to publish the same number of posts each week for at least 3 months straight

It could take you some time to find the right blogging schedule. But don’t make the mistake of forcing it. Start slow, and build your way up until you come up with a frequency that works best for you.

Struggling to come up with a consistent blogging schedule? Contact me to setup a consultation, and let’s see how we can take your blogging and content marketing to the next level!