For a while I’ve been considering the 48 hourly publishing schedule of 35hunter.
Previously I’d experimented for some months with a new post every 36 hours, and found that dropping back to every 48 made little discernible difference to any of the viewing and interacting stats over a monthly period.
In recent months I haven’t quite found a steady rhythm in writing and publishing.
There’s no lack of interest in writing, or ideas to expand upon (currently 188 draft posts await my further attention), it’s been more about finding a regular time, and balancing this with everything else, including photography.
I’ve managed to still maintain the 48 hour schedule, but as I came to write today, I realised that the most recent draft I finished, I hadn’t scheduled to publish.
So now, at 4pm, it should have gone out at 6am.
No big deal, I can just publish now, I thought, and keep on track with a post every two days.
But then I wondered again if I might leave it until tomorrow morning, three days since the last post.
As I’m also still catching up with comments on the previous two or three posts, this made sense on a number of levels.
Going forward, I’m going to stick with a new post every three days, and see how that goes.
Perhaps come the end of October I’ll have a look at the stats and see if anything has radically changed. I suspect it won’t have.
There must be a frequency tipping point, where if you post too little, readers start to lose interest and drift away.
And conversely, at the other end, a regularity that leads to most readers feeling overwhelmed. Perhaps a new post every day, or more than one post a day?
It depends on many factors of course – some relating to the blog itself, others to the reader(s).
But either way, I suspect every two days and every three days both fall in the same safe lands in between the extremes, and most readers I’m sure don’t monitor the posting frequency of their favourite blogs as much as the authors do!
So we’ll see how this accidental experiment of publishing a new post every three days pans out.
How about you? How often would be too often for you, with your favourite blogs? How little would be too little, and cause you to drift away?
As always, please let us know in the comments below (and don’t forget to tick the “Notify me of new comments via email” box to follow the conversation).
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I think consistency has more of an impact then necessarily too much or too little. If only once a week but your readers know then it isn’t that they are expecting more and drift away.
Yes I think your’e right Rob. For me, I need a number to work to, to achieve consistency. I can’t just say I’ll post every few days, because before I know it a week or two weeks would be gone. I like to have a target, like every three days at 6am.
Kind of agree with the comment above. I do find that I can’t keep up with every day posts and if I have to scroll down my Reader to find previous posts – something I do less often now. When I know the blogger is active, I’m happy to read a new post once or twice a week.
Thanks Yuri. I think the only every day blogger I still follow, and have for years, is Seth Godin. He manages incredible consistency and it’s rare that I don’t enjoy or learn or benefit from one of his posts. But mostly every day is too often for me as reader too.
Seth Godin is a master in consistency for sure even though some posts are just one phrase ideas or opinions. You have to be totally dedicated to that…
Yes, sometimes, in fact often, half a dozen words of wisdom from Seth beats hundreds of words written by others!
Perhaps its the change in season. Cold, wet days with grey skies usually leave me in a funk. The last several days have been challenging. I have not felt any motivation to write or make a photograph. I have several 35mm film projects on hold, and a few draft posts waiting for when I can organise my thoughts.
I mentioned it to my wife, and she suggested I step back and take a break. For now, I’m following her advice.
I am publishing my pithy thoughts and iPhone 11 Pro snapshots on my microblog. Of course, my engagement with readers on the microblog has increased while engagement on the main blog is falling off.
Sounds like good advice Khürt. I haven’t photographed anything like as much the last couple of months as I did in June and July, despite the autumn being my favourite season. I haven’t quite figured it out yet, but I don’t think we can force these things.
I like the idea and the look of your “microblog”. Looks very much like Tumblr when it started out. I used Tumblrs for single photos, haiku and short stories, and loved the simple, short form format.