A common question I get is: “How often should I blog?”
Should you post something daily?
Three times per week?
What about weekly? Is weekly too little?
What people are really asking is: What should I do in order to succeed?
We reach for formulas. We want guarantees. I know, because I did this when I started in late 2009.
And I still do. I’m in no way immune.
But this isn’t the right focus if you want to live a satisfying life.
How Often to Blog (Video)
So what’s the answer then?
Is there a magic number, and if not, what do you do instead?
The answer can be found in the short video below.
And remember, if you want more juicy videos, make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel, because not every video makes it onto the blog.
If you prefer text, keep reading.
What is a Blogging Schedule?
A schedule is an expectation.
If you watch TV, and your favorite show comes on at 8PM on Tuesday nights, that’s an expectation.
But what happens if it doesn’t come on?
You’re disappointed, right? You sit there with your bowl of popcorn, anticipation dancing through your body, and then, nothing.
You want to avoid that with your audience.
So … Do You Need a Schedule?
The truth? No.
But you might still want one.
I have a weekly schedule on Wake Up Cloud, because it gives me a deadline to work with. It gets me moving and thinking creatively.
Sometimes I create a video. Sometimes a blog post. And sometimes I bring something from the archive and republish it.
What matters is that you set the right expectation. If you’re only going to post when you have something to say, tell your audience.
If you’re going to post weekly, let them know.
How to Find the Best Blogging Frequency
You find YOUR schedule by asking yourself: What am I capable of?
Not: How much can I push myself so I can succeed?
You relax. And you remember that there is no formula. Even if there was, the formula would be useless if you burned out within 6 months.
First and foremost, what matters is that you put your work out there, and that you keep putting your work out there.
It may take years before you gain traction. So start doing this for yourself. The more work you publish, the better you get, and the more you grow as a person.
This is the road forward.
Give yourself a break, and for once enjoy the ride.
Avoid This Mistake
If posting three times a week is too much for you, then forget about it.
Never do something just because someone told you to.
You may think you need to keep a certain posting schedule to succeed, but you don’t.
What you need is to follow what makes you come alive, and what is sustainable for you.
Some bloggers post daily. Some post weekly. Some post when they feel like it.
There is no formula. Sure, there are things that work better than others, but in the end, if you don’t blog, the schedule doesn’t matter.
Takeaway
If you only remember one thing from this article, remember this: Listen to yourself.
Nothing you do has to be perfect. And it probably won’t be, especially not if you’re starting out.
If you’re stressing out over finding the perfect blogging schedule, discard it.
Start blogging and see what happens.
Let it be messy. Let it all fall apart.
You’ll survive, learn, and thrive.
All the best 🙂
Henri
P.S. Do you want to learn how I write blog posts that my readers love? Then you may want to check out my book: Write Blog Posts Readers Love: A Step-By-Step Guide. (Read some of the reviews to discover why people love it).
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Awesome, Henri, thanks. Though i have a tiny audience, i keep my updates on a weekly basis. It made me prepare posts in advance for the next weeks. Since the beginning of the year, i didn’t miss a week. So, i think it’s working, though i’d really want to write daily, but it’s too much for me right now.
Weekly seems to work for me as well. Instead of posting daily, or more often, why not write for other blogs, and write on other platforms?
Use that extra energy to promote your blog. That way you can take breaks when you don’t have as much energy.
Awesome Henri, as always! 🙂
“Start with a posting schedule you can keep. Go easy on yourself.”
This is pure gold.
I love the advice that you gave in the video. For awhile I felt the pressure to be on a blog schedule, but now I normally blog when I feel I have something important or interesting to blog about.
This was a good post Henri!
I just can’t keep schedules. If I make a plan of when and what I would like to post I just don’t want to do it. But if I don’t plan anything I will do more things, and post more things. I think schedules are just keeping me back and I don’t enjoy the work I do that much because I feel restricted by the deadlines, and by the feeling that “I have to do this”.
What I am experimenting with right now is that I tell myself: I can do whatever I want: I can play games, watch TV shows, YouTube videos or anything, if I want to. And the result? I sit down to work on my business instead of watching videos.
I still try to avoid the idea of scheduling at the moment. I will just follow my instincts and post when it feels right to me.
It’s fascinating to me that when we don’t push ourselves to do something, we end up doing it anyway (if it’s correct for us). It’s all about perspective 😉
Thanks Henri,I had thoughts on this originally, but i decided early on that I would blog when I feel like it, although like you said, it would probably help to have a deadline to help push things along, however i wouldn’t like to risk letting the visitors down if missed a deadline.
Also if creativity and intuition take me or oif there is something that I feel I just HAVE to blog about, I have the freedom to do so.
But like you say, each to there own, different ways will get the best out of us … differently ! 🙂
And Im definitely taking the takeaway away! Im letting it be messy and fall apart! 🙂
Glad you brought this up, Lewis. Fear of letting your audience down can be something that keeps you from taking creative risks.
There will always be some fear there, and you don’t allow yourself to flex your creative muscles if you don’t take small risks like this.
Even if you let your audience down, it’s not a big deal, but don’t let fear hold you back.
This isn’t necessarily aimed at you, Lewis, but I wanted to mention it. Thanks for the inspiration 😉
You are right that we should find out what works best for us and follow that. If you try to find a formula you will find that you will burnout or it won’t work as well for you. Forge your own path. I post 3 times a week and I am just starting to guest blog. I just had my first guest post accepted on Tiny Buddha, but it won’t show up for two weeks haha!
I’ve tried to get rid of all my expectations for my blog. They never work out how I think and it just makes me stress. My life has become easier now that I consciously try to reframe expectations. Keep up the good fight.
Good insights, Sebastian!
I also like Derek Halpern’s advice that at the start, it much more important to promote what we have. For instance, if we spend half a day writing a stand-out article, but we only have 10 readers – we’d be better served getting that article in front of another 100 or 1000 people than we would be writing something new.
That said, I tend to take the other approach, partly becasue I DO write for myself first and foremost.
Yup, it all depends on what you’re after.
My blog will be 1 year old within a couple of weeks. At the beginning I tried to publish as much content as possible, but it wasn’t sustainable.
Since January 2013 I post when I feel like it, however I’m trying very hard to publish at least 3 posts a month.
I give myself a repeatable task – monthly income report and it helps too.
A tidbit: February 2013 was my “worst month, I published only 2 posts; however, they were full of substance and they brought the most traffic to the blog up to date.