I Want Your Feedback
I have setup a poll to find out how often you, the reader, would like me to post articles to this Blog. I have done some research in this area and some people advocate the “Quality Over Quantity” theory of just writing a few quality articles per week because that’s all that people have time to read anyways, while others say “No way, write 2-5 per day or even more! The more the better.” basically saying that people aren’t going to read everything anyways, but if you write five shorter posts per day they can pick the ones that apply to them and skip the others.
After some extensive research and watching what others do out there, I’m really no closer to figuring this out then I was when I started, so instead I’m asking you - my readers- what do YOU want?
Would you prefer that I write less articles, but make them meaty and full of valuable content which may take you a few days to even digest so writing 3-5 per week will keep you busy, or would you prefer that I write as often as possible keeping the articles to about 200-400 words?
Just as a reference point, my current posting frequency for the last 30 days or so has been 1 article per day and the average length of my articles is just over 1,000 words. This puts me at a higher posting frequency than Steve Pavlina for example who seems to have slowed down to a posting frequency of 1-2 per week but keeping his articles in the +1,000 words range, but not as high as someone like John Chow who seems to be sticking to a 2-3 articles per day posting frequency but his articles are much shorter, in the 200-400 words range.
Let me know what you think. The poll is located in the left hand side-bar.
Thanks!!!
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| 11 Comments
I don’t think you can put a deadline on a blog of this nature. I’m sure there will be times when the Ideas and thoughts hit you like a hurricane and then the “drought” comes. I’d rather read 1 good blog a week rather than 4-5 pontifications. But I’m sure you’re capable of 2-3 decent articles a week.
A
Hi Paul,
Personally I like big meaty posts that really get me thinking. I tend to write pretty long posts myself a lot of the time. However there’s only so many reading (and writing!) hours in a day/week. I reckon as Ace said about 2 - 3 posts a week is plenty.
I think in the end it’s down to what feels right to you
As a blog reader, I think one a day is the limit. The suggestions of 2-3 a week seems about right. Otherwise I start to do more scanning and less reading. If you are bursting with more ideas then save them for later or bundle them into a series. Whenever I see a new post from Steve Pavlina I know it is going to take me a while to read and digest (and read and digest and read…) and so I leave it till later with a cup of tea etc.
Thanks for your feedback. I’ll be taking your opinions into consideration as I grow my Blog and look for ways to be more valuable to my readers.
You should write when your head and heart tell you to Paul, thats when your writing is best. Trying to write one or more a day is futile and perhaps will dilute the quality of your work.
I read about 50 posts a day, and I try not to spend too much time doing it. I don’t understand all the people who say bloggers need to post multiple times per day. If you posted that frequently I suppose I’d keep reading and just be very annoyed. But I’ve unsubscribed from many blogs simply because they posted too much. If you’re going to subscribe to a blog then you should read every post. 2-3 a week is plenty! Posting more would help with SEO, but I think you’re mainly writing for the benefit of your readers.
2-3 per week is more than enough. Most people subscribe to many different Sites so they get dozens of articles a week anyway. More than this and I just stop reading.
2-3 times a week seems to be the popular vote from anyone who responded, but let me ask you guys a question. Obviously I’m a Blog reader as well, and I’m subscribed to about a dozen Blogs myself and my schedule is very busy so I don’t have time to read everything.
However, what I have found was that generally when I go into my RSS reader, lets say every few days I’ll refresh all the latest articles from the Blogs I subscribe to. I’ll click on a Blog and lets say that it has 5 articles written in the last few days. I’ll just quickly look at the titles and I’ll find that typically only one out of the 5 articles might relate to what I’m really interested in and so I’ll read that one. Then the other 4 I might just click on each one and read the first few sentences to see if they peak an interest.
So basically what I’m saying is that out of those 5 articles, I’ll get one good article to read. If, however, the Blogger was only writing one article every few days, and lets say 4 out of 5 articles weren’t exactly on the specific topic I was interested in, then it could be weeks before a new article comes out that I’m interested in.
Does that make sense?
I guess what it really comes down to is that there is “PILLAR CONTENT” which is solid article material that needs to be read and studied as it contains “gold” in it. I could write 2-3 articles like this each week for example. Then there are also “Other Posts” which aren’t exactly super value providing articles that you’ll want to bookmark, but they do offer some small value to my readers such as a book review I do, a Blog Carnival, some Interesting Links, a Video I find that relates to Inspired Money Making, or things of that nature. These types of posts can be easily ignored by those that don’t have the time to read them, but also easily read by those who have the time to tune in.
Personally I have found this combination of PILLAR CONTENT and OTHER CONTENT to work best for me as a reader of other Blogs. One example is John Chow’s Blog. He’s got like 2-3 posts a day on average, and typically there are 2-3 valuable content articles in there each week in between a bunch of other stuff that I can easily ignore if I’m busy but also totally tune into if I have time. For example, video coverage of him attending the Zune party or his latest Dot Com Pho lunch are not super valuable content, but they are fun to watch if I have some spare time to kill.
I have found that with some of the Blogs that I read which ONLY post super long, super valuable articles once a week or even a few times a month I’m slowly losing interest in because the content is always so heavy and there isn’t as much of a personal connection with the blogger as with Blogs that post more regularly.
What do you guys think?
I’d say that if only 1 in 5 posts on a particular blog interest you, then you should unsubscribe. There are plenty of blogs out there where every post is generally good…in fact, far more blogs than you have time to read.
I understand what you mean about blogs that only post pillar articles and don’t give as much of a personal connection. I don’t see it happening very much, but I have seen it. I don’t think every post needs to be a groundbreaking unmissable pillar article, and I don’t mind reading some posts that are less intense. When I write a light post then I leave less time before posting again, because I know it’s less demanding on my readers’ attention. But I still don’t think this should increase your posting frequency that much–daily is too much for me in any case.
@Hunter Nuttall: What I meant about 1 out of 5 is that I actually read 1 or 2 out of 5 and just skim the rest of leave them for later. For example, ProBlogger is one Blogger I do that with. There is a lot of good content there but not everything applies to me all the time exactly at the time he writes the article, so some of them I flag for further reading later on when I’m ready.
For example if he writes a post on “How to Properly Setup a Blog Contest”, and I’m not interested in doing a contest at that time I just flag it for later reading when I DO want to do a contest. Do you know what I mean? It doesn’t mean that 1 out of 5 articles are good and the rest are crap, it just means they don’t necessarily relate to my life situation in that given moment.
As such I don’t really mind if he writes 10 Blog Posts per day…I can always just read what I want by scanning through the titles.
Then again I’m kind of weird that way too, because when I read books I also read many books in parallel, while most people I know can’t read more then one book at one time. Maybe I’m just weird that way.
Anyone out there on the “The More the Better” side of things? I’d like to hear some more opinions.