Do you have a blog posting schedule? You shouldn’t.
You know, if you read enough blogs about the same subject, you start to hear the same few things over and over again. Case in point…
It’s best to come up with some sort of blog posting schedule, and then stick to it.
What people mean by this is, decide early on that you’ll blog once per day, or 3 times per week, or every Tuesday and Thursday, or something similar. Basically, come up with both a frequency (how often you’ll post) and a schedule (when you’ll post) early in the life of your blog, and then stick to it consistently.
If you’ve been reading about blogging for longer than 15 minutes, you’ve probably already come across this recommendation quite a few times before.
Well, despite all of its popularity, I’m here to tell you that I purposely don’t do any of this, and a lot of people (and their blogs) would be better off if they didn’t either.
Come to think of it, I’ve actually never had anything close to a set blog posting schedule of any kind in my life. This doesn’t mean you should immediately break from your schedule and start doing this because it’s the “best” way to do it, I’m just saying that despite all of the conventional wisdom to the contrary… not having a blog posting schedule can work just fine.
And hey, get this. In some cases, this is actually the key to the success of your blog. That statement may take some explaining. Ok, here goes.
Having a blog posting schedule pretty much forces you to write at certain times on certain days. In most cases, being forced to write like this eventually leads to some really shitty content.
Content that has been created because it was time to create it, not because it had real value.
Content that was written because of what day it is, and not because you had a great idea for a post.
Content that is a lot more for your schedule, and a lot less for your readers.
This is bad, and when this starts happening, it will quickly turn your blog into complete and utter crap. And as you can imagine, it’s pretty tough to make your blog a success when it’s mostly comprised of crap.
This isn’t true for everyone, of course. In fact, some people need to have some sort of set blogging schedule to stick to or else they’ll end up rarely (if ever) posting. This would be equally as bad as posting shitty content often.
But even still, if you ask me, I think most people would be much better off if they had no set posting schedule at all, or at least greatly lowered the strictness of their current posting schedule. For example, instead of forcing yourself to blog once per week on Wednesdays only, just blog once per week… period. What day? The day you come up with the most high quality content to post.
Me personally, I don’t even do that. I completely avoid blogging schedules altogether. I’m a big boy, so I trust myself enough to know that I won’t let it reach the point where weeks/months/years go by without posting. Therefore, the only thing dictating when I post is me having a damn good reason to post. And that’s how it should be.
Meaning, when I have an awesome idea, or I’ve written something great, or I’ve in some way created something that my readers will love. That’s it. That’s when I post. Not a second before that. I don’t check my calendar. I don’t look at my watch.
If I have something that is truly of value to post, I post it. If I don’t, I just wait until I do. However often that happens… that’s my posting schedule.
The result? My readers get very high quality content 100% of the time. And they love me for it.
What’s that you say? Subscribers want consistency? They want to know when to expect your posts? They want your posts on the same days, at the same times, at the same frequency every week?
Bullshit.
There’s only one thing your readers/subscribers actually want, and that’s great content that provides them with some sort of value. If they get it on Tuesday one week and then Friday the next and then Wednesday the week after that, they won’t care at all as long as the content is good.
If they got 3 posts last week and 1 post this week, it will be perfectly fine with them as long as these posts were high quality and useful. As long as that’s happening, your posting schedule and frequency is the last thing your readers will give a crap about it.
So, here’s my very simple question to you. You know that blog post you’re working on now? Or that post you’re going to be working on next? Are you writing it because you came up with a great idea that will provide a ton of value to your readers, or because it’s Thursday (or whatever day), and it’s time for your next post?
If it’s the latter, you’re doing it wrong.
Haha..
A damn good reason not to schedule the posting.
That’s why we need to subscribe you.. right?
If we want to know when is your next quality post.
Haha..
I must admit that I schedule my post in my blog before. But you have some points that made me now think otherwise .
Cheers!
Good points. I subscribe to LOTS of “blog tips” blogs. So, I don’t care much how often “Create. Market. Profit.” posts content. However, when you do, I know I’ll always love it. That is also true for another blog I subscribe to (I bet he has a similar philosophy).
The content on this site is f’n amazing, and thats what really counts.
Regarding the ’subscribers are expecting it on X day” bullshit.. I couldn’t agree more. When I look in my feed reader I don’t give a flying fuck how often you are posting, I just want to read really good shit. It doesn’t matter if you post once a week or 7 times per week. If your shit sucks, I am unsubscribing and telling all my friends not to go to your site.
the Designer: All part of my evil plan.
Developerholic: Then my job here is done.
Ben: Nice, thanks for the compliments. And that’s really what every blogger should be shooting for. To have their readers feel like that. Oddly enough, my real goal is to actually make you care how often I post. Not in terms of schedule/consistency related nonsense, but in terms of making you actually feel unhappy when you don’t see a new post from this blog in your feed reader. When you reach the point where your readers get some combination of unhappy, pissed off, let down, or annoyed when they see your feed hasn’t being updated, you’re doing it right.
Crazy Ass Redneck: Exactly. Which is why the many bloggers catering to a false belief that their readers actually give a shit how consistently they post are just being dumb at best, and hurting the quality of their blog/driving themselves insane with posting pressure at worst.
I agree that people should write great content and not put themselves in a position where they must post to keep a schedule going.
For my blog I publish 1 or 2 posts a day everyday. All with great content but B.S. coming from me. I write all my posts on Sunday or Monday and then set them to publish 1 or 2 times a day everyday til Sunday. Because Monday is my weekly post series which need to be put together nicely.
I think my readers would be unhappy or be like WTF if they didn’t see a new post on my blog.