There is no doubt that posting frequency is a huge contributor to traffic growth for your blog. Most hobby-bloggers tend to have the problem of not posting enough. And it shows in their traffic.
Not posting enough harms your growth because you are not in front of your potential readers often enough. You get forgotten and essentially need to recreate the relationship with each and every post. You are also not providing Google with enough “juice” for good indexing.
It would be easy to assume, then, that the more you post, the better. After all, if not posting much is bad, then posting a lot is good, right? Is it really true?
Yes And No
From a pure traffic standpoint, high post frequency undoubtedly works. In other words, take the human being out of the equation and it works. When you look at large-scale blogs like TechCrunch, Mashable or Gizmodo, it is clear that high post frequency works.
But, these blogs have something very important in common: Multiple Authors.
They also have a second thing in common: they talk about technology.
And here is my point:
- The work load is split up.
- These blogs are in markets with a lot of news, thereby justifying a high post frequency because there is always plenty to talk about.
Not all blogging markets can sustain a post frequency like that. Quite simply, you’ll run out of stuff to say! Either that, or your drive for quantity over quality will make your content less useful and more like filler.
The Human Factor
You also need to consider the reader and your market. Again, a market like technology can sustain higher post volume. Tech readers are out to consume the latest news. That’s often why people bother coming to a tech blog. In a niche where people are there to learn things, however, high post volume can actually BACKFIRE. What you’ll end up doing is contributing to information overload. Human nature is such that, when the volume becomes too great, they’ll often just flee.
One must also consider the human cost of pounding out high post frequency for a single-author blog. It is time consuming. You can end up posting shallow content because you don’t take the time to write something worth reading. You can lose sight of your goals for the short term gratification of knowing you reached your post quota. In the long run, it does not lead itself to REAL growth. It leads to burnout. It leads to misplaced priorities.
It also can lead to failing to monetize properly. There is a reach/withdraw to any market. The more you reach, the more some withdraw. It comes into play with your content, too. There IS a point where, if you provide too much, you cannot monetize the blog by offering anything.
So, can you post too much? Yes.
I think once per day is just fine. I think it is more important to be regular and predictable for your audience than it is to throw sheer volume at them. If your audience comes to expect only 3 posts per week, then just stick to it.
But, if you just decide to take the “balls to the wall” strategy to grow your blog, realize that the strategy can backfire on you if you don’t play it right. Working smart is more important than working hard.
So, what do you think?
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