Since as long as I can remember I’ve loved numbers and stats. Yep, geek alert!
With 35hunter though, I’ve realised very recently I’ve been focusing on the wrong numbers.
Visits and page views are far less important to my aims here than your comments. Even with these, numbers are less relevant than content.
Quality trumps quantity every time.
In past years my publishing here was inconsistent, as you can see from the posts per month in the archives below. In 2016 I never wrote enough to get any momentum. For most of 2017 it was still too little, and too erratic.
The last six months I’ve got my act together and posted far more consistently – a new post every three days or so – and enjoyed the increase in activity and interaction.
In recent weeks I’ve experimented with publishing every two days.
Whist I’ve noticed a further rise in the number of comments overall, I don’t think I’m going to continue publishing this often, even though I have plenty of material – currently five scheduled posts, over 50 in draft and maybe another dozen in note form in Google Keep.
What I greatly appreciate about the comments here are the depth and thought that goes into them, and how they help me think further, and continue my own evolution as photographer and blogger.
The quality of the comments reflects how I like to write here, and how I like to comment on other blogs.
So for each comment on 35hunter I try to reply with equal thought, attention and appreciation.
But for the last few weeks, at times I’ve struggled to “keep up”.
I recently spoke with Frank about “keeping up” with other blogs, comments etc online, and suggested adopting the perspective of “checking in” every now and then so see where things were at that moment, rather than feeling the need to “keep up” with every last post, comment and like that’s flowed by since you last visited.
Whilst I can let the rivers flow without watching every last fish on other people’s blogs, I feel on 35hunter that if someone has taken the time and effort to write, I want to give them the same in response, to show I value their input.
So rather than risk being overwhelmed with comments and/or not answering some as fully as I would like, I’m going to slow the posting a little again.
This will give me more space and time to commit to the comment conversation that’s ultimately my yardstick for the “success” and enjoyment of this blog.
The ideal frequency I’ve calculated to be precisely one new post every 2.79 days.
Just kidding, I’m not THAT geeky with stats!
But every two days feels too often, and just under three feels about right, so I’m rounding up to three!
Also, as you may have seen, I’ve started a series called One Frame.
These posts, with a single photograph and very few words, also give us all a little extra breathing space, in between my far more wordy and analytical espousals.
I will continue to experiment with posting patterns here, but for now, a new post every three days is the intention.
I hope that’s a frequency you’ll enjoy too.
Thanks for your support, and every word you share here. Please continue, it matters.
How do you measure your aims with your blog? How do you decide how often to post? How often do you like to see new posts from blogs you follow?
Please let us know in the comments below (and remember to tick the “Notify me of new comments via email” box to follow the conversation).
Thanks for looking. Please share this post with others you feel will enjoy it too. If you’re interested, this is what my photography life looks like right now.
35hunter 
About one post every 3 days seems reasonable to me. That would be my frequency too if only I was more consistent.
But the posts come sporadically, as my mind wanders and suddenly fixes on a subject. So I will not be able to stick to a schedule as you do.
I noticed that you eliminated the LIKE button from your posts! That’s a sensible move I think as in my opinion LIKES don’t do anything for me. The proof of the pudding is in the number of people visiting, giving me a clue if my posts are somewhat meaningfull. And of course the comments, which ever welcome!
Anyways, I’ll be waiting breathlessly for new posts on your blog every 2.79 days! 😉
Frank, my mind wanders too, but when it becomes clear for a moment and an idea for a blog post presents itself, I jot down, either as a note or a new draft. Then I never run out of stuff to write about.
I had to laugh at your likes comment. You said “in my opinion LIKES don’t do anything for me”. Yet when I look at my likes under notifications, 11 of the last 20 likes I’ve received have come from you! I wouldn’t be offended if you stopped… : )
Thanks for your thoughts and comments and ongoing support.
Haha, ok I promise I won’t like you any more ! 😉
That’s great Frank, because I don’t like you either! 😉
Anyone reading this out of context will get worried now!
I try to follow the blogs of anyone who regularly comments or Likes my posts. It has become unwieldy. I’m about to thin out the list of blogs I follow, with an apology to anyone who follows mine who won’t see me around theirs anymore.
The criterion I’m going to use: are you saying something interesting, either with your words or your photos? That bar won’t be very high, really. It won’t need to be: so many blogs are not saying or showing anything *remotely* interesting.
I don’t mean to be harsh. But I have found my blog-following to be less fun, because I spend more time flipping through posts than I do interacting with them. And that won’t change until I shrink the number of blogs I follow. Call it Operation Increase the Signal, if you will.
Anyway, to answer your question: I don’t much care how often any blog posts as long as it usually has something interesting to say or show. The magic of RSS is such that even if a blog I follow updates only every six months, I’m not going to miss it.
Jim, I like the sound of Operation Increase The Signal, and really value your honesty. (What’s that blog that’s called something like Signal Over Noise?)
I tend to want to add a new blog here and there if it looks promising, but many soon get unfollowed again, due to pretty much the same criteria as you list. This is why as recently stated I’ve all but abandoned social media – it’s not offering anything, I’m not offering it anything.
You reminded me, I used to use Google Reader extensively maybe four or five years ago (or more?) then they axed it and I never replaced it. I just started subscribing by email to blogs, which is mostly how I follow now, with occasional dips into WordPress Reader to see new recommendations etc. What RSS reader do you use?
I use Feedly. The challenge with any reader is that it is so easy to let them get cluttered with low value feeds.
Absolutely. That’s what happened a couple of times with me when I used Google Reader, I’d end up following 50 blogs when 45 of them were not really essential.
I also found (and I’m writing about this in a draft post) that at times I was almost just following stuff so I had something new to follow and my Reader wasn’t empty. If that makes sense. It’s part of the whole addictive constantly checking for updates thing.
3 days seems like a good frequency, that would be my target though of late I have to admit I am struggling to say much at all on my own blog; I fear with you and Jim both thinning your feed i may fall into obscurity.
I use Feedly too BTW mostly for non-Wordpress sites.
SF, what is your main intention with your blog? Or put more simply, why did you start a blog? Is that need/desire/interest still relevant today? They don’t have to go on for years, it might be time for a change of direction, a relaunch, or a break entirely.
I’m not saying this might be you, but I think some people maybe prefer to comment and converse on other people’s blogs as it’s more free and there’s less pressure publish to a schedule and to come up with new stuff, as you’re responding to what others have already put out there.
Some of the insights and comments you’ve contributed here are as valuable regardless of whether you have your own blog or not.
Interested to hear your thoughts on your own blog.
Oh thanks for the +1 for Feedly, I think i’ll check it out. I mostly use email notifications to follow WordPress blogs, and sometimes the Reader but don’t love it. Maybe I could follow everything through Feedly.
I started my blog as a platform for sharing images and general thoughts and that is still mostly relevant. I changed up the blog and did a sort of a relaunch at the beginning of this year making it more photography focused and also laying out some specific things i wanted to do this year. So far those things haven’t progressed as much as I had hoped; life has got in the way somewhat and I just haven’t been able to focus on prepping some good posts. I hear what you are saying and perhaps I should just not worry and not post (remove any pressure). I have been writing a couple of posts for another blog as a guest and that is nice and as you say commenting here and elsewhere.
Dan, thinking about this some more, I think you are right and I suspect my earlier statement is, for me, right now, incorrect; every three days is not ideal (again for me, now). At least not with appropriate quality and interesting subject matter. I think I am trying too hard at the moment and I have lost my previous Zen or Taoist mentality when it comes to my photography and blogging. I need to take a step back and probably read and take advice from my own post https://carrotroom.wordpress.com/2018/01/03/5-golden-rules-for-photography/ and apply it not only to the photography itself but also the posting (or not) that follows. I think I am in danger of having a blog full of mediocre posts that don’t really help, entertain or add to the discussion and that is the last thing I want. A hiatus (or slowdown) maybe in order whilst I get back to what really interests me (and hopefully what might interest others)
SF, I think quality has to be above quality. One great post a fortnight would, for me, make a blog worth following. Three mediocre posts a week with an occasional better one, I likely wouldn’t bother following.
The key I guess for all of us is finding the sweet spot where quality and quantity meet – frequent posts of good quality that people enjoy and respond to. Both as writers and readers of blogs.
One thing I think people always appreciate is sharing struggles. We don’t have to be infallible experts as bloggers (in my view) and writing a post called something like “Why I’ve Struggled To Post More Often This Year” and an honest explanation would likely be something plenty of us would relate to!
yes, I have a number of bits of posts that I may put together to sum up my thoughts
Dan, like others say 3 days seems about right, it’s not that long that the reader forgets who and what your about and also many folk who post daily etc just seem to post for the post of it… if that makes sense… one thing though that really bugs me is when folk seem to ” run out of steam” and rehash a previous posting, it’s bad enough if you get magazines dragging up articles from 12 months ago, then they go and rejig them and expect the reader to be enthused…. this is the main reason why I’ve stopped buying magazines on photography …. oh and the other little thing that’s binds with me is when the author says something on the lines of ” after visiting ******* blog here’s my take on the subject” it feels like the author is floundering looking for inspiration…. in my view…. find your own subjects… copying/linking etc sucks…. and don’t always think that “every” post has to relate to photography…. it doesn’t….
Yes, I fully understand that finding new ” issues, subjects, and routes to take” may well be trying, hard, stressful…. trying to hold the readers attention is an art forms in itself….
BR
Lynd
Lynd, thank you, lots of juicy food for thought here!
In response, what I find annoying, dare I say lazy, with some blogs is much the same as you –
Reposting old articles. I do this myself in that I will realise I’ve written a new post that is similar in subject to an older post, but gives my current view on it. Just reposting and saying “here’s a revisit to a post from 2014” without any new material (or very little) I do find a bit frustrating. But some people appreciate this if they didn’t see the post first time around.
There are different outlooks on the whole nature of blogs. Some think that it’s all about always having something new and fresh, I see it more as building a body of work and writing and photos. I know from my own stats that the top six posts viewed this year were all written in previous years, and seven out of the top 10! I wouldn’t have believed this if it wasn’t for the stats, but it’s great to see that posts that are months and years old are still finding and building an audience.
Posting daily for the sake of it. With you on this too! Somehow I think this seems to set an example for the comments too. I follow a blogger who posts a lovely picture every day and usually very few words. I’ve noticed they seem to get lots of likes and comments, but all very brief, like “love this!” or “beautiful work!”, and nearly always with a smile or heart emoticon. It reads and looks like Instagram.
I think if the writer commits more deeply in their posting, then the commenters take that lead and run with it further. Initially with this blog I mentioned, I was a bit envious of the number of comments, but then after a few weeks realised they were very brief and surface-y. I’d rather have three thoughtful, in depth comments, than 30 that just say “nice photo”. Again this is more what blogging is about for me – building those conversations and exchanges, not just getting likes and brief praise.
Responses to other blog posts. Yeh, I’m not keen on this really, unless it’s done in a subtle way and the new post has just taken as aspect of a post elsewhere and riffed off it in a new direction. I do the latter all the time, get a little snippet of an idea from another blog then jot down as a draft on mine to expand later. It’s not really my take on the same original topic, but a little tangent.
For me the worst thing is guest posts. Especially when the main blogger writes well and is worth reading, but the guest posters aren’t. There’s a pretty widely known UK photo blog I’ve followed for a few years but just about a week ago I stopped following because nine of out 10 posts are guest posts, with mediocre photos and uninspired writing. When the blog owner posts it’s usually interesting still, but I can’t be bothered anymore to sift through nine dull posts to get to the one good one. For me it’s a major mistake to let guest bloggers dilute your blog with inferior content.
About not always needing to be about photography, yeh I’ve tried to do this, and will do more. The master at this is Jim Grey. With his Down The Road blog – https://blog.jimgrey.net/ – I think nearly all of us found it via a camera review, but stayed for the mix of camera stuff, photos, histories of roads and buildings, recommendations of other blogs and articles, and personal, thoughtful content.
You feel like you get to know Jim to some extent through what and how he writes, he lays himself down on paper, or rather on screen, and whilst obviously as with any writing we will prefer some posts to others, I really appreciate what he does with Down The Road.
My blogging goal is one post a week, on Friday or Saturday, concerning equipment, materials or process and one post in between with a single photograph that might, or might not, be related to the other posts. I’ll have to see how that last part works out.
A year ago I was regularly following three busy forums and at least 20 blogs. Needless to say, I had little time for taking pictures or making prints, and no time at all for working on a blog of my own.
Now I am down to just one forum that I seldom visit more than once a week, and even then I only look at a couple of topics related my hybrid workflow and one continuing photo thread.
Concerning the blogs, I’ve kept them all in my Safari bookmarks but I prioritized them and literally drew a line between the top six which I follow regularly and those below the line, which I find myself looking at less and less.
It’s early days still so I’m not sure how my blog is going to work out, but I can say with certainty I am getting a lot more out of the few blogs I still follow regularly. Less is definitely more.
Doug, thanks for your thoughts, yes once again how many of us are finding that less is more in all these connected parts of our lives. Cameras we have/use, blogs we follow, social media we use, how we blog ourselves…
Diving into a favourite swimming pool and having an enjoyable swim is surely more preferable that walking past a dozen puddles and dipping just a toe or two briefly in each…
I think your balance of one “tech”/process post alternated with one photograph only post sounds a good approach, and something that’s maintainable over time.
Dan, had yet another lovely laugh with this post and your mentioning your love of numbers. If someone asked me who is my friend who loves numbers the most you would be it. I was always amazed the way you counted the number of days that you did your yoga. I love numbers too but in different ways. I threw out my bathroom scales as I got so obsessed with my weight and the numbers. I am aware of how many photos I take xoxo susanJOY
Yes Susan I’ve been doing yoga every day since October 2010, and on average miss a couple of days each year through sickness or injury. Must have done well over 2500 sessions by now!
[…] spoke the other day about the frequency of publishing new blog posts, and how I’ve settled on 2.79 days. Well, rounded up to 3 […]
[…] a week streak), and have since settled back down a little again. My precise calculation of a post every 2.79 days back in April being the optimum for me, still seems spot on with the other commitments and […]