Okay, I failed! I didn’t manage to blog for all 26 letters of the alphabet for the #AtoZChallenge. I managed about 23. It was a useful experiment though in a way. Many clients ask me how often should they post and my reply, depending on their circumstances, is usually either once to three times a week. Some find even once a week too much, others see bigger businesses blogging every weekday and feel they should be emulating it. Consistency is the key and to be consistent, you need to set yourself a goal of blogging once, twice or five times a week. Which number is best?
Quantity over Quantity
Did the increase in blog posts mean that the quality of my posts suffered? I have to admit that there were a few I felt could have been better if I’d had more time to spend on them. I felt the quality was still reasonably good but the length of the post was definitely shorter. Recent research suggests that posts of over 1500 words get more traffic and shares so that would be a flaw if that’s the case. I deliberately discounted topics that I knew would require lots of screenshots, for example, as that would be time consuming therefore blogging every day did influence my choice of content.
As a small one-person business with lots of other things going on (children on Easter holidays, writing a book, ghost-writing and delivering training), I do feel that blogging every day is too much. The pleasure in blogging was diminishing and it was starting to feel like a chore. I enjoy blogging two or three times a week. I enjoy knowing that I’m going to tackle a ‘meaty’ tutorial and it will take me two hours to complete. I didn’t necessarily spend that much more time blogging but that requirement to write one every day was starting to grate. As I have another business blog too, I was conscious I wasn’t blogging on it as much as I normally would either.
What about other blogs doing the challenge? I didn’t get to analyse that many but the best content seemed to be well planned which of course, is the secret of any good blog. Using a content schedule keeps you focused and ensures that you make the most of your planning.
More Traffic?
Traffic wise, I will do a more indepth analysis in a couple of weeks as I’m interested to see if the extra posts during the month of April have a long term positive effect. Traffic was up slightly during April but not significantly so. However, I am conscious that I didn’t do as much social sharing per post as I would normally do which may have led to each post getting less traffic yet the traffic each week was more or less the same.
How often do you blog? Do you feel it is sufficient?
photo credit: Drew Coffman via photopin cc
