The best blogging schedule for your business

blogging schedule

This page may contain links to Amazon.com or other sites from which I may receive commission on purchases you make after clicking on such links. Read my full Disclosure Policy

Blogging is a great way to drive traffic to your website, demonstrate your expertise, and grow a following for your business. It can be a lot of work though, so you may be wondering how often you need to publish new content in order to get results.

There’s a ton of advice out there on this topic, but when it comes to blogging, one-size-fits-all does not apply.

You might read that every time you publish a new blog post, it alerts the search engine robots to visit your site and add the new content to their index. Although it’s true, unless your blog IS your business or you have a whole team of bloggers, posting daily or even several times a week is simply not practical. After all, you have clients to serve and a business to run, and there are only so many hours in the day!

Furthermore, if you blog too frequently, your readers may not have time to read everything you post. Even worse, if they’ve signed up to get your new posts by email, they may decide to unsubscribe if they receive too many messages from you – so much for growing your audience!

And if they’re not reading your latest posts, they’re not sharing them either. Without that “social proof” to validate your authority, your content may not rank very high in the search engines.

So, how often should you blog then?

When I answered this question a few years ago, I suggested that once a week or once every two weeks was ideal for most solo entrepreneurs, but if you’ve been reluctant to start a blog because you couldn’t commit to posting that often, I’ve got great news for you.

Recent research by Content Champion suggests that a solopreneur running their own business only needs to publish one definitive blog post per month, with promotion and backlinks.

In other words, spend the time it would take you to write several short posts to instead write one high-quality, keyword-rich, in-depth, actionable post – what Yoast refers to as cornerstone content – and to promote it like crazy, not just the day or the week that it’s published, but for weeks or even months afterwards.

Think about it! If you’re going to all the trouble to write something, don’t you want its impact to last longer than a few days?

Take advantage of automation to maximize your time when you can – but be smart about it! I’ve recently clicked on tweets from a couple of high profile bloggers only to find the post they were promoting was completely out-of-date. Maybe they can get away with it, but most of us can’t afford to make such mistakes. If you’re going to use a tool like Hiplay or Recurpost to keep resharing your blog posts on social media, make sure you only include your evergreen posts.

(I’m as guilty as the next person when it comes to ongoing promotion of my content, so please don’t look at me as a prime example! That is something I intend to work on in the coming months.)

If you’re concerned that your audience won’t be willing to read something that takes more than a couple of minutes, don’t hesitate to include some quick tips or other short posts in between your cornerstone content.

Summary

  1. Commit to publishing one piece of “cornerstone content” every month.
  2. Create a plan for promoting your cornerstone content on an ongoing basis.
  3. Post timely announcements, quick tips, or other short posts for the benefit of readers with short attention spans and to keep them coming back to your blog more often.

Please share your thoughts and comments!

How often do you currently blog?

How could you benefit by blogging more frequently – or less frequently?

Photo © konejota / Depositphotos

blogging schedule
Casual Photo of Janet Barclay

Janet Barclay

I eliminate stress for my clients by hosting, monitoring, and maintaining their WordPress sites so they don’t have to worry about security, downtime or performance issues. When I’m away from my desk, I enjoy reading, photography, cooking, watching movies, drinking tea, and spending time with my family.

Join the Conversation!

10 Comments

  1. Jamie Steele on April 29, 2019 at 8:38 am

    Great post! Took some of the pressure off! I’m trying to get back to blogging on a consistent basis and I think I can handle one piece of cornerstone content a month. Thanks!

    • Janet Barclay on April 29, 2019 at 12:29 pm

      That’s great, Jamie! I’m sure you can handle that.

  2. Andi Willis on April 29, 2019 at 9:03 am

    I’m trying to revitalize my blog and and am shooting for 1-2 posts a month. Then I focus on keeping my social media posts relevant and recurring using automation.

    • Janet Barclay on April 29, 2019 at 12:30 pm

      Good for you, Andi! I’ve noticed that you’re pretty consistent about sharing your content over time.

  3. Seana Turner on April 29, 2019 at 9:13 am

    Well I find this freeing, in a way. I find that some of my posts are more in depth, while others are a briefer tip or thought. I have found your advice helpful in regards to trying to “get more out of” a good post… going back and promoting it more. I think I could do still better, though. I find that my energy and focus shift – my own short attention span! Keep this wonderful advice coming, Janet. I have tried to move to creating longer, more detailed posts than I used to write for sure!

  4. Janet Barclay on April 29, 2019 at 12:38 pm

    Thanks, Seana – I’m thrilled you found this helpful! I was surprised and pleased to read about this shift as well.

  5. Sabrina Quairoli on April 29, 2019 at 3:04 pm

    Great advice, Janet. I find that as my blog, revisiting older posts gives the posts more exposure to my newer followers. They haven’t seen the content before so it allows them a peek of older content. And, if I am lucky, they will share the content on their social media sites.

    • Janet Barclay on April 30, 2019 at 1:27 pm

      Good point! And in addition to new followers, there’s so much information out there that even long time readers may discover posts that they missed, or be glad of a refresher. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read some good advice and then forgotten about it.

  6. Nancy Haworth on April 30, 2019 at 4:43 pm

    Great advice Janet! I blog once a week, but I am often so busy working with organizing clients that I batch write several blogs at once and slowly release them. It is good to know that creating cornerstone content less frequently is another option. Thanks for the tips about automation, I definitely have evergreen older content that I should share on social media more often.

Leave a Comment





You might also enjoy...

Fabulous free and inexpensive photos for your blog

free stock photos

Writing a Powerful Call to Action

call-to-action

How to organize your blogging process with Todoist

organizing your blogging process