This question hadn’t crossed my path for a while. Then like a herd of buses, “How often should I blog?” crops up in several conversations with small business clients and fellow writers.
On one end of the scale is the new copywriter and micro start-up business owner. They’ve both found blogging once a week and twice a month, too much to handle.
At the other end of the scale is the small biz owner who planned to blog once a month, but she’s found she’s got loads of ideas so can do more than one a month. But should she? Or should she stick to her original plan?
I’m not sure where this…pressure and uncertainty about blogging frequency originated? Where the idea that small businesses should have blogs coming out of their ears? Or, if posting more than planned will muck up the content strategy? Or the shame that if you’re not churning out heaps of blogs, you’re not doing blog content marketing right?
And I say “shame” because in these conversations most suggested feelings of failure about either not blogging enough or possibly blogging too much.
IMHO…
Blogs are a form of entertainment. They should be created for the pleasure and enjoyment of the reader, but the person writing the article should enjoy the experience, too.
Yes, OK, I’m biased because writing blog articles is my job and I love what I do. But I believe the best articles and content are created when the author has a genuine interest in the subject. Creating content you’re passionate about, that’s well-researched, and on-point takes time.
So, when I have conversations with business owners and fellow writers who feel they’ve failed or the joy of blogging has been sucked-up due to unrealistic expectations, it really narks me.
Mini rant over. Let’s get into the fix…
How often should you blog and post?
My advice is this: be realistic about how long research, writing and posting a quality blog takes you. Next, look at your other business tasks. How can you fit the time you need for blogging amongst this? What can you realistically manage?
If you’re a freelancer or small business, posting a blog once a month is realistic. Especially if you also have to do the research, sort out the links, find images and upload it to your site.
If you’re a medium-sized business (with 20 or more employees), you might aim to post twice a month.
A couple of things to remember about blog posts that affect frequency:
- Google rewards quality over quantity. Aim for one well-crafted piece, rather than lots of random crap no one cares about.
- Blogs don’t have to be 1,000+ words every time. You can write shorter blogs (500 words minimum), that are quick to put together.
Note: shorter doesn’t mean cutting quality. Refer to point one.
The official line on blog frequency
The content marketing big guns recommend blogging 16 times per week.
Yes, OK, posting this often will have a positive impact on your website traffic. But that’s just not possible for a micro, small or even medium business like yours.
When you see articles telling you to post multiple times per week and you’re a band of one, please don’t think it applies to you. I mean, the 16 posts-a-week thing is geared towards big media agencies or online magazine publications. Then it makes sense, because there’s the staffing to back it up.
Planning when to post on your business blog
Spend a little time addressing the questions I’ve asked above.
- How long does it actually take you to find a blog idea, research it, write it AND upload it? (You can use a time-tracking tool like Toggl to work this out.)
- Look at your other business tasks and schedule. Where does your time for blogging fit within this?
- Based on your answers to the above two questions, how many blogs can you really turn around in a week, month, year?
For me, I know I can only afford the time needed to turn out one blog a month for my own site. Anything extra is a bonus.
If you find you’re the same set 12 deadline dates so you make a commitment to post. Physically enter the time you need to complete this each month into your diary.
I block out 30-60 minutes a day, depending on what other work’s going on. But I write that time into my weekly schedule and it’s time aside that makes sure I get the blog researched, written and uploaded.
More blogging advice
Researching, writing and editing blogs is one of my favourite content marketing tasks. But I get that not everyone feels that way.
If you’re nodding and it’s more like, “Bloody 🤬 blog,” then shoot me a message explaining your struggles. I’m happy to offer advice and help.
Alternatively, here is a couple of other useful blog writing articles:
2 Rules for choosing blog categories
Use the Barstool Test for conversational copy
Keep your darlings when editing content
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