The Myth (And Danger) Of Posting To Your Blog Every Day

You’ve probably heard this before…

They say that it is a good idea to post to your blog every single day. They say that the more you post, the more Google will like you and that your audience will grow faster.

Some people don’t even start blogging or doing content marketing because they think it will be too demanding. They don’t have time, or so they think.

ByDavid Risley Posted on
42 Comments

You’ve probably heard this before…

They say that it is a good idea to post to your blog every single day. They say that the more you post, the more Google will like you and that your audience will grow faster.

Some people don’t even start blogging or doing content marketing because they think it will be too demanding. They don’t have time, or so they think.

I’m going to bust the myth right now. I’m going to free you from that trap. It is blogging advice that others give that I think really misleads people and does a lot of harm.

You Create Your Own Rat Wheel

Blogging all too easily becomes this thankless rat wheel. You hop on it and start writing. And you write. And you write. Not necessarily because your audience is demanding it, but because you think you need to do it. You give yourself quotas.

It is inevitable… at some point, the fact that it is an endless rat wheel becomes apparent. You have one of those days when you struggle with what to write about. You’re just not feelin’ it. But, then, you try to force it so you can meet your quota.

And then…

Your Content Quality Suffers

Again, unless you are God’s gift to blogging, this is inevitable. Your posts will be shorter. They’ll repeat themselves. They’ll be only surface-level stuff.

You’re not creating “epic shit” (as my friend Corbett Barr likes to call it). You’re just creating shit.

But, also look at your audience and what you’re doing to them…

Your Audience Yawns It Off – Or Goes Cross-Eyed

If you’re publishing “blah” stuff, your audience will think it is “blah”. Sure, you might get a few loyal followers… but those people are probably there because of those few really killer posts you’ve put out there when you were REALLY compelled to write those killer posts. The stuff in between – the stuff you wrote just to feed the rat wheel – is stuff they probably don’t care too much about.

And so you get very few comments. You get little reaction and acknowledgement.

But, let’s assume, for a minute, that you’re one of these magic workers who can post incredible stuff every single day. Is that a good idea?

Well, you can also OVERRUN your audience. You can give them so much stuff that they can’t keep up. You become a source of noise to them – even if the stuff you’re producing is awesome.

So, instead of hanging on your every word, they look at your blog like a firehose and they’ll just check on it every now and then. When they’re in the mood. In terms of having an audience that ACTS when you want them do, that’s not a good idea.

You’re basically hypnotizing your audience through constant, unending inflow.

A Few Observations From Personal Experience

I’ve done both.

My tech site still has a 5-day posting schedule, and we post 2-3 posts per day over there. I can tell you that it is difficult to keep up with that. And I have to pay people to help keep up that volume. Now, that niche almost requires that kind of volume – so I keep rolling with it. But, honestly – I’m beginning to plan my exit. In fact, I’m probably going to put the plan into action fairly soon to sell that site. One of the many reasons for this is because I’m ready to step off that rat wheel that is the tech niche. The tech niche is awesome in a lot of ways, but I’m ready for something different.

Then we take this site. I used to post every day. Now, I post maybe once or twice per week. In fact, I’m seriously thinking of moving it down to a once weekly schedule, but just making sure each post has some serious meat to it.

Interestingly, as I’ve adjusted my volume on this site, I’ve had NO negative consequences in the site’s traffic. So, in my experience, posting every day was just a waste of time. I know friends of mine who saw their traffic steadily INCREASE as they posted LESS.

How could that happen?

Well, consider how SEO is changing. It used to be that you wanted as much fuel for the search spiders as you could. However, today things are changing. Google is looking for quality indicators. One of the indicators they use are social signals such as +1’s, retweets, shares, etc.

In order to get people to share things, you need to write epic stuff WORTH sharing.

Not only that, you want to have a volume that people can easily consume. You want them to see the release of a new post as an EVENT. Something worth paying attention to. Leave them wanting just a bit more from you at all times and they’ll be hungry to hear from you.

Here’s the other positive side effect of posting less…

It gives you more time to concentrate on what will REALLY build your business. Things like promotion, product creation, marketing.

If you’re so busy feeding the rat wheel, you’ll never have the time to build your assets and your business.

It is the 80/20 rule all over again. For most bloggers, they spend 80% of their time feeding the rat wheel and it only leads to 20% of their results. Time to flip that bad-boy on it’s head!

You Are Free!

So, I give you permission, as it were, to post less.

Post less, but make the stuff you publish really worth somebody’s time. Give them take-aways. Make sure your posts will help them achieve a result they want.

Blogging isn’t a business model. It is just a marketing vehicle for a business. (click to tweet that)

If you’re spending no time building the business behind the blog – and spending all your time just feeding the blog – then you’re completely wasting your freakin’ time.

.

Before I leave you, I’m super-excited to soon announce some big changes for this blog and my entire business. In fact, it has a lot to do with that quote I asked you to tweet out above. 🙂 Stay tuned for that. M’kay?

42 Comments

  1. Wow, is all I can say David! I am brand new to blogging and am in the process of setting one up. Until I read this informative post I was going to post as many times as humanly possible because I felt that would entertain my readers more. Now that I heard myself say it I realize that I was really going to post that much in order to get the search engines to recognize my blog and send traffic to it! After seeing what you have said and the comments from the rest of the community I will hold off on launching it to figure out what will truly benefit my readers, their schedules and in turn I will only post when I really need to (saving me time & will ensure that each post is top notch). Thanks everyone for the advice.

    Lori

  2. I agree, to maintain your blog on daily basis is really a tough work. Before starting blog, you should keep your plan in mind that how you will keep your blog update and what tactics you will use to make it attractive. If your blog is general and deals with all categories like wholesale, then you can update your blog daily. But if your blog is focusing on specific category then it becomes difficult to maintain your blog daily.

  3. Good tips. Actually everyone should know that only posting or updating your blog will not bring follower or visitor. You had to be genuine. Write good things, content should have proper meaning and reader should like it.

  4. Love it!!! You’re not creating “epic shit” (as my friend Corbett Barr likes to call it). You’re just creating shit.

    I think if you feel like you have to force yourself to write a piece that you know is gonna turn out half ass/fluffy/blahhh puke, then it’s what I call going against the flow = sucky 4 you & everyone else involved. But more sucky for the person who is trying to write something they don’t really want to at that very moment in time. 

    I think maybe people put this pressure on themselves… that if they don’t put x amount of posts on their blog by x amount of days that their blog will die. Kinda like a dead forum. Or something like that. Us humans are funny! We will live. No sweating the small stuff, right!?! 😉

    This post is a great reminder to stay in the flow. Glad I found you sir David Risley! You’ve got great energy!
    ~Lis

  6. Great post David.  I have found the same to be true.  Posting too much is problematic and your posts get buried.   For a newbie, like me, I think the best thing to do is to make a post and spend time promoting it.   Hopefully that will gain the traffic and the natural FB likes and +1s that you mentioned.

    Thanks for sharing your experience, it confirms what I was thinking too.   

  9. Interesting, David. I think it’s important for people to test things. They shouldn’t take anyone’s word as truth without testing it in their market.

    For example, I made a bunch of major changes to my business, and one of those was going from posting around 3 times per week to 5 times per week. Plus I email 5 times per week (same content).

    The result? Traffic hasn’t gone down, and income has gone up dramatically. 

    So…test things folks! And know what you’re testing for. Traffic or income? They’re not always the same thing.

  10. David, yes I think this is how all bloggers start with. They join the rat race to create content in and out everyday. But soon they are burned out and are forced to quit. 

    I totally agree with the thing you say about increase in traffic after starting to post less. It has happened to me.

  12. This is so good to hear. I just started a blog and it is almost exclusively a “how to” type blog.  I also work full time and it would be nearly impossible to do one a day. I have trouble keeping up with one a week sometimes. Thank you so much for this post. Makes me feel a whole lot better.

  13. This was, great! Just Great! 
    I blog for years, and my experiences also told me the same. We can blog better by take all the things slower. I often take a look on my stats, then find any keywords that can be used to improve my SEO related to the other posts already published. 

    Feeding what my reader want is a way better than feeding my own ego to write much more lame post. 
    Thanks Dave!

  15. Dave, 
    I feel like you wrote this post for me! Posting daily is one of my bad habits. I’m down to posting five days a week, instead of seven when the blog first started. However, I can tell the quality isn’t there in all of my posts, some days I feel like I’m just posting to post. My reasoning was that most traffic died when I didn’t post. 

    It does, however I noticed something last week. I was traveling last week and only had a couple of posts published that week. My traffic was slowing down, but then on Friday I had one of my high quality posts shared on Facebook and Twitter via one of the industry magazines. It ended up being one of my best traffic days ever and I spent most of the day nowhere near a computer.

    So, I’m trying it this week. I’m starting a new posting schedule of three times a week and focusing on higher quality posts and the projects outside of blogging that could make more income.

    1. Sweet.

      Yeah, it is the higher quality posts which resonate with people which will motivate the shares. The usual filler stuff just kinda rolls on by.

  16. Hey David,

    I don’t know if you conditioned me to post less with your blogging challenge because I’m your student there but that’s EXACTLY what I have been doing and saying for the last days.

    I really don’t see the point in rolling out post after post on a daily basis and people these days have less and less time available to be reading content everywhere so for me, it’s a no go.

    If a loyal reader comes back to my blog after 5 days and sees 5 published posts, I honestly doubt that person is going to read the five posts.

    With some luck, it may pick one of those, skim through it, leave a comment and leave (I have seen people pick even two posts but because they were on the same topic and were interested enough)

    I’m not 100% sure this is a good approach or not but I think it is and reading that you approve this as well, I think I will be just fine.

    Thanks for the affirmation on this!

    PS. I couldn’t avoid laughing at the “you’re just creating shit” instead of Epic Shit like Corbett says. LOL

  17. As you mention, it’s all dependant on the niche you’re in. If your content is evergreen than you can post a lot less frequently, but if it’s time sensitive than its a little harder. I’ve run into this problem and have decided to only continue blogs that can handle the lower amount of content and focus more on marketing them.

  18. I’m sorry David I can’t wait, you have to tell me now!!  😉

    I see myself on this wheel all the time, and the fact I can’t meet it always irritates me. I heard a good song while working out today, “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”…Kinda fits.

  19. This is is a refreshing view point to see.

    I can especially see it as refreshing to those who don’t have everyone and their mom submitting guest posts to them. You know, the mega sites where the owner gets to coast on the whole writing process and spend 3-4-5 days writing a premium piece vs. the solopreneur who’s wearing every hat  – content creator (paid and free), marketing manager, advertising manager, accountant, etc.

    The business owner who has survived being a solopreneur and has people that want something from them also has the added advantage as always showing up as fresh because your audience has seen 5 writers or more in between them last. 

    I’m with David on this one. If you see a site where the same person contributes all of the content and they’re truly kicking ass, you can rest assured they have a partner or partners or outsourced help handling some other the other busy work details.

    I know I’d be dead in the water without all the help I get from my partner and I can not recommend highly enough finding someone to tag team this whole business building process with.

  20. This is is a refreshing view point to see.

    I can especially see it as refreshing to those who don’t have everyone and their mom submitting guest posts to them. You know, the mega sites where the owner gets to coast on the whole writing process and spend 3-4-5 days writing a premium piece vs. the solopreneur who’s wearing every hat  – content creator (paid and free), marketing manager, advertising manager, accountant, etc.

    The business owner who has survived being a solopreneur and has people that want something from them also has the added advantage as always showing up as fresh because your audience has seen 5 writers or more in between them last. 

    I’m with David on this one. If you see a site where the same person contributes all of the content and they’re truly kicking ass, you can rest assured they have a partner or partners or outsourced help handling some other the other busy work details.

    I know I’d be dead in the water without all the help I get from my partner and I can not recommend highly enough finding someone to tag team this whole business building process with.

  22. Well said sir. Very sound advice. I think following this advice can help a lot of folks think more positively about part time blogging to start an income stream.

  23. Great points, David. I think it’s a double-sided sword to post everyday. Back in 2010, I wrote an article everyday for 83 days. The quality was to my own par, but they never received many comments. The views on my blog grew immensely, and they eventually converted into more comments and returning visitors  when I began writing less (Three days a week). For first-time bloggers, I think writing everyday is more of a show-toy. It’s something that you can say you do.

    It really does help bring in the traffic, though. It’ll get you started, but it won’t get you many readers. Google will index the articles and give you more chance for exposure – the people who find you through Google will stick for a bit. The overall quantity of content is almost as important as the quality in the beginning days. A-list bloggers won’t go far posting everyday without the quality, though – that’s the difference.

  24. I’m divided on this because of the nature of my blog, the purpose of which isn’t to produce long, super-meaty content, but rather “short and sweet” near-daily lessons for English as a Second Language students. 

    Currently I average 5-6 posts a week, but am thinking of knocking it down to 3, since I’ve found it hard to keep up with daily posting AND work on producing my paid content (to launch in a few months). Maybe I’ll try reducing and see what, if any, effect that has on traffic and subscribers.

      1. Good point, and to be honest my blog doesn’t emphasize the “daily” aspect. (If its name was “Daily English Tips” or something like that, then the everyday aspect would be part of its branding/appeal).

        So… only 3 posts this week 😉  Perhaps less frequency will also encourage readers to explore the site more, especially the “related lessons” at the bottom of each post, rather than being overwhelmed with all the new stuff pouring in!

  25. Please ignore previous comment, wasn’t logged in…

    So much good stuff in this post, David, I’ll only add to one aspect of it: technology blogging (which carries over to writing on technology in general). 

    The short answer for me is I’m out of that as well. At least, I’m no longer writing on technology which is rapidly changing. This rules out WordPress and SEO, both of which I had an interest and competence in, in the past.

    Going forward, I have to focus more on timeless topics. In the tech space, this would be more math, algorithms and fundamental platforms. iOS rather than iPhone or iPad. That sort of thing, and keeping the topic limited to the fundamental parts which don’t change.

    For what it’s worth, I was running a stealth Rails blog for a year, and I found myself dropping right into the same rathole as writing about WordPress: information going out of date too quickly. As a result, I’ve shifted focus to specific topics with long term staying power. 

    I’ve also started building “curated pages” which are tightly focused, single page sites covering one topic in extreme detail. These turn out to be rather more difficult than I anticipated. Will share results later.

  26. I used to listen to some of those “gotta post to the blog EVERY day” guys.   They were wrong about that and wrong about virtually everything else too.  Thanks David for pointing this out. 

    1. No problem. There’s a lot more some of those “blogging gurus” are wrong about, too. I’ll be shedding light on it in due time. 😉

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