“Thou shall post every day” is the most fundamental and most well known principle of blogging….
Every new blogger is warned about “the” ultimate rule and is confronted with the pressure of a day going by with no new post. Every one has in mind the examples of successful bloggers, like Robert Scoble at Microsoft, who post several times a day. Daily posting shows that you are serious about blogging, generates traffic and drives reader loyalty, as readers come back daily to check your new posts. You cannot be successful if you do not go by the rule, right? RIGHT?
Wrong. Daily posts are a legacy of a Web 1.0 mindset and early Web 2.0 days (meaning 12 months ago!). The pressure around posting frequency will ultimately become a significant barrier to the maturity of blogging. Here are 10 reasons why.
#1- Traffic is generated by participating in the community; not daily posting …. The blogosphere doubles in size every 6 months and cutting through the clutter will become ever more difficult with a new blog emerging every second. Daily posting deals with the clutter by adding more clutter.
Although this strategy made sense 12 months ago and still makes sense for the top bloggers, its effectiveness diminishes with every new blog created. Traffic is generated by successful bloggers linking to you either in their posts or in their blogroll. Mack at Viral Garden has a series of great posts on the importance of joining the community.
#2 …. Traffic is irrelevant to your blog’s success anyway …. Unless you specifically target bloggers like Bruce, are a blogging consultant or blog about your latest book, traffic is irrelevant to you. What matters most is whether you are reaching your target audience (which may be narrow and focused), not necessarily how many people read your posts. Engaging with the audience you want to have a relationship with is a much smarter strategy than posting frequently
#3- Loyal readers coming back daily to check your posts is so Web 1.0 …. As the blogosphere matures, the number of new readers and bloggers will decrease and loyal readers are going to matter more. I have heard many bloggers tell me that they will lose reader loyalty if these readers come back daily and do not see any new posts. This perception is still very strong although irrelevant. Loyal readers subscribe to your blog via RSS feeds and have new content pushed to them. They will remain loyal because they have subscribed, not because you post frequently.
#4 – Frequent posting is actually starting to have a negative impact on loyalty: Seth Godin (a frequent blogger) has a very interesting theory. According to him, RSS fatigue is already setting in. With too many posts, you run the risk of losing loyal readers, overwhelmed by the clutter you generate. Readers will start to tune off if your blog takes up too much of their time
#5: Frequent posting keeps key senior executives and thought leaders out of the blogosphere …. My colleagues and industry peers cite bandwidth constraints as the number one reason for not blogging. They are absolutely right: frequent posting is not very compatible with a high pressure job. As an example, not one single blog is authored by a senior corporate marketing blogger in the top 25 marketing blogs listed by Mack. Not only does the blogosphere lose valuable thought leadership, it runs the risk of being overlooked by these very same marketers.
A recent study by Forrester found a reluctance among marketers to shift from more tried-and-true online channels like search and e-mail marketing. Just 13 percent reported using blogs or social networks in marketing, and 49 percent said they had no plans to do so in the next year. If the blogosphere wants to become more mainstream (vs. being the latest hype), frequent posting and required bandwidth are undoubtedly a major barrier to adoption.
#6: Frequent posting drives poor content quality …. The pressure of daily posting drives many bloggers to re-purpose other bloggers’ content or give quick un-insightful comments on the news. Few bloggers have enough time (or expertise) to write daily thought leadership pieces, thus adding to the clutter. Ben at the Church of the Customer Blog explores the 1% rule and cites the Wikipedia example: 25 million readers visit Wikipedia every month, but the number of people who actually contribute content to Wikipedia is about 1-2 percent of total site visitors. I would argue that the same is valid for the blogosphere as a whole where most of the original high value content is driven by 1% of the bloggers. Some of the most insightful … and most quoted- marketing thought blogging leaders are actually infrequent posters, from Sam Decker to Charlene Li or Randi Baseler.
#7: Frequent posting threatens the credibility of the blogosphere …. as many bloggers re-purpose existing content under the pressure of daily posting, they do not take the time to do any sort of due diligence and conduct effective research. Errors snowball in the blogosphere as they spread from one blogger to the other. The collective wisdom of user generated content was supposed to provide an alternative to biased traditional media content …. it is instead echoing the thoughts and biases of a few.
#8 – Frequent posting will push corporate bloggers into the hands of PR agencies …. As they struggle with bandwidth constraints as well as peer pressure to join the blogosphere, more and more companies will resort to partnering with their PR agencies to create blogs. The blogosphere will in turn lose some of its effectiveness and value.
#9 – Frequent posting creates the equivalent of a blogging landfill …. According to Technorati, only 55% of bloggers post after 3 months of existence. The pressure of the first months to write frequently certainly contributes to people abandoning their blogs. Is that in the blogosphere’s best interest to have a third of its participants frustrated by their initial efforts?
#10 – I love my family too much - Ann pointed out to me this cool blog that highlights the challenges of blogging addiction …. Bloggers Anonymous. Very funny–..
If you want to be a top 50 Technorati blogger, you will most probably still need to post several times a day. But for the rest of us, we should think seriously about the added value of frequent blogging. Actually, according to Technorati, only 11% of all blogs update weekly or more. What will matter more and more is what you write and how you engage, not how often you write.
As the blogosphere matures, the measure of success will shift from traffic to reader loyalty. As Seth Godin says in his post, “blogging with restraint, selectivity, cogency and brevity (okay, that’s a long way of saying “making every word count”) will use attention more efficiently and ought to win.”
As for me, I will continue to post only when I have something to say.
Eric Kintz is VP Global Marketing Strategy & Excellence for Hewlett-Packard. Read his blog here.
I hope my competitors read this and listen to it. Truth is posting more, as long as you can keep quality up, will really boost your traffic.
The way to develop a following is to get people to return to your site each and every day. The only way to motivate them to this is by adding new content all the time. For the average blogger, posting every day might be a bad idea, but if you want to build a powerhouse site I think it can really help.
5-Star Post!
I will continue to post on a daily basis as long as I can maintain the quality.
Content is king. And the bloggers who make a “living” by recycling the same ‘ol crap will eventually be weeded out. If not, blogging won’t stand the test of time.
VERY interesting. As a blogger I fell into this trap and tried to create “daily” themes (Web Wednesdays, Freebie Fridays, etc) to separate the posts a bit. While I post 3-4 times per week, keeping the posts relative to the theme keeps me from burning out too quickly. But the point is well taken.
As a Podcast subscriber I’ve fallen into this same trap where some of the Daily Podcasts become too much and I unsubscribe. Lesson can be learned I guess.
Wow, very good article.
If you allow me, I’ll translate it to portuguese, and put – with yours credits – on my blog, ok?
http://tradutorium.wordpress.com
If you want Google to give you better serps you should blog every day.
This article hits the nail so squarely on the head. I know myself I’ve posted total filler posts just because I didn’t actually have anything to say. The imagined pressure of regular content can get the better of you sometimes. I find the traffic to my blog doesn’t drastically fluctuate if I post every day or once a week. It all depends on how topical what you’re talking about is. If it’s just filler then no one really cares.
A quick look at Technorati’s top 100 blogs reveals that, most of the top blogs belong to specialized networks (such as Weblogs Inc.).These blogs are not written by only one person, but perhaps an entire staff of editors.
They have the needed resource (both human and financial) to maintain their pole position, generate (not always, true) quality content and so attract readers. For ex. Techcrunch has more than 500.000 readers (Feedburner stats).
Try to compete with them.
Writing zillions of post/day is useless unless the content’s quality is good, and you gathered a community around your blog/site.
Of course, if you intend no more than writing a few random thoughts which will be read by a small and close circle of friends, a blogger account and some spare time is enough. But to appear mainstream and to maintain this way, nowadays it’s pretty hard, and definitely not cheap.
There is a time and a place for a blog/blogger to gain attention of the crowds. The ones who sawed the potential of blogging a few years ago are now on Technorati top 100.Not all of them, true.
PS.Forget my spell & grammar, wall was written in hurry.
Best regards,
Catalin , AXT Magazine
*all was written.. ^^
Great article!
I never accept very well the idea of “post everyday” and, finally I have a really good article to confirm what I think.
I’m owner of a small blog and I only post when I have something to say related with my blog’s theme… In my case… about movies and audio…
It’s non sense to think that I have to post everyday! Like you said, the content start to decrease in quality very fast… and I’m not the type of blog what someone have blog too.
OK, so let’s all just stop blogging. How’s that?
I play the role of blogging coach, and I don’t agree with not posting every day. Blogs are considered news by most people and search engines, and not posting every day is bad move for professional marketers.
I do agree with you about business blogging and building community. We at http://MyTypes.com have been working on building community blogs, not just by adding comments. I think we have to provide better community blogging tools. I only know of one community blog tool, and it’s not MySpace. Good idea and well written post. I wonder what people like of my blogging coach section?
Hi everyone not trying to Spam, there was/is a technical issue with your comment software. I was waiting for it to give me confirmation that the Preview to post worked, but it never did. Thought I would let someone know?
Nice post, Eric. This makes me feel better. Now I can go drink a beer and watch some TV.
Finally I was given enlightenment. I thought blogs sucks if no post on regular schedule.
Great insight but I still enjoy blogging daily.
I noticed that if I post every day that I slip off page one and 2 down to page 5, but if I do what is called a “push and pull”
in the weight lifting world, my blog goes to middle of page 2 or 1. then I’ll do 3 posts in one day then 1 every day for a wekk ,then let it go for a week and it climbs!
#4 has struck me a lot lately, especially since my favorite feed is Lifehacker’s which has a tendencey to drop 7-10 posts at a time.
I’m hooked on LH, but I think some other feeds would not be left in my reader long were they to do the same.
Darn good post. Two thumbs up!
What is your explanation for blogs like TechCrunch, Problogger, GigaOM and the like?
Actually almost all of the top blogs in the world post more often than daily.
Hi Eric. This is a wonderful article that you have written with lots of detailed insights into blogging. I have never accepted the theory of posting “rubbish” on my website/blog. However, I must admit there are quite a few frequent bloggers who end up posting fine articles almost always on a regular basis. Cheers!
There is a particular comment regarding not making posts everyday. I have to disagree with this – CoolestGadgets.com have been very successful with making posts every day, and it is probably one of the main thing that make the blog successful.
Great points. I hear you on the RSS burnout. My reader is clogged from posts by the big guys who blog 10+ times a day (Gizmodo, The Crunch network, Lifehacker). It’s almost enough to make me unsubscribe…
almost.
Really good post – I only post on my blog once a week and for ages people have been telling me to post more often to make it more popular.
I find having good well thought out content is better than frequent junk.
Thanks for posting this one..^^
Smiffy’s Corollary: Quality rather than quantity.
I have found that posting quality content as little as 4 – 5 times a month is sufficient to keep my reader loyalty and increase my subscriber base. If you have something worthwhile to say you will be read regardless of the frequency of your posts. I enjoyed your article. Great work.
Smiffy’s Corollary: Quality rather than quantity.
Your article is very informative and helped me further.
Thanks, David
hey, realy nice site, thanks for very interesting articles
Wow one of the best articles ive read in a long time.
So true and while I post weekdays I am beginning to think that maybe it could be time to post a little less and make sure my content is better quality.
Some good food for thought
Wow one of the best articles ive read in a long time.
So true and while I post weekdays I am beginning to think that maybe it could be time to post a little less and make sure my content is better quality.
Some good food for thought
Great Article. Yes I love to post daily. But the problem is sometimes posting you are searching for new exciting information to offer readers. I can see where you can lose quality. Which I beleive, is as important maybe more then quantity.
Fantastic Article
http://www.PassportMentors.com
It certainly is a balance between quantity and quality but to make a high quality content post it does take a lot of time, not something that everyone can always do every single day. Thanks for the post. Scott
As a new blogger, I was believing the hype of needing to post on a daily basis to develop readers. With RSS feeds, this never really made much sense to me. My own reader serves me 15 to 30 articles a day. I rarely track if every blog I subscribe to is posting that day. Why should anyone else?
Shawn.
The Bavarian Forrest on its best Side. We stayed in Bodenmais by Family Maier in the Ferienwohnung Drosselweg. Bodenmais is a very good place for Walking, Hiking and go skiing in the Winter. We stay by Ferienwohnungsvermittlung Maier next year once more.
exactly right!
Eric
thanks so much for this post
I was starting to panic and wanted to start posting like mad on my BLOG to increase traffic. But then I found that my content wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be.
Thanks again
Eric
I think these blog is really useful for new comers and Excellent resource list.
It´s a very interesting Blog and simple answer of many questions.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks it helps me a lot–
What’s even less important is posting comments on a posting like this. I mean seriously, who’s really going to get this far down the page and read what I write. This is such a waste of time…
Or is it?
Yes, it’s a waste of time for me but if I post something profound here, you, the reader, will beenefit. If I even post one good thing, for just one person, this could make a huge difference in the future. It’s so hard to tell.
So, if you don’t blog everyday, do you post comments on others’ blog everyday? How much time do you burn to generate content — any content? Add it up and you might be shocked.
This Article is really informative for me as i am new to blogging but it doesn’t mean that i won’t search for “why to blog daily?”
Thank you for this post. I am in the process of rebooting my blog which I have let go a bit. Frequency may help in the beginning as I build my credibility again, but I will add commenting on other blogs now that I have seen your post. Also, I think that I need to be much more targeted in my content and focus on a much narrower range of topics. I appreciate your insight!
Great post. I would agree that posting daily is not a requirement. I try to post new material about four times a week on my website, http://www.tailgatingideas.com. I have found that those that want good information regarding tailgating do not want a bunch of fluff just so I can pad my post count. Quality vs. quantity is the key.
Your article does take a lot of stress off me and what I was taught about being a good blogger.
Better to have quality articles rather than a bunch of garbage.
I have been reading about how to improve mt article writing, but it would be nice if I actually had some visitors which left some input. I think that could help me to improve my blog..
This Article is really informative for me as i am new to blogging but it doesn’t mean that i won’t search fo
I agree this article is very helpful. I have been reading about how to improve mt article writing, but it would be nice if I actually had some visitors which left some input. I think that could help me to improve my blog..
Earlier today I published a post on the amount of words a blog post should contain.
Conventional wisdom is all over the map.
My next topic, which I am about to begin addresses ‘blog post frequency’.
But thanks to your excellent article, I think all I need do is a brief preamble and include a link to you post.
You are right on target.
I am curious to know you thoughts on the length of a blog posting.
Martin Diano
As someone who recently lost a lot of traffic due to updating less (and the focus of my blog changing), your post gives me HOPE. Thanks
Thanks for clearing this thing up. We used to think that it’s important to post everyday so as to exhaust all possible juice of backlinks and all. I have one question though. If for example you have more than two blogs. How often and at what speed or rate should you post on these blogs? You see, we were once told that posting on blogs should be done for at most 20 in a day; otherwise you’re already spamming. Is this right?
Excellent article! I was having my doubts about posting everyday and running out of topics.
I agree that posting say 2 times a a week with great content is better than posting every day with any content.
Interesting thoughts on posting. I think it is difficult for many bloggers to post every day. Far better to add quality news once or twice a week.