Planning Your Blog Schedule: How Much is Too Much?

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We’ve spoken on this blog before about the importance of establishing an editorial calendar for your blog, but one topic that hasn’t been covered is how frequently you should publish new posts.

Personal blogs are just that – personal – so in a nutshell, there is no right or wrong answer to that age old question that newer bloggers in particular wonder. As a result, we’re not about to tell you, Ten Commandments style, that thou shalt blog four times a week to be considered a ‘proper’ blogger.

Blogging too frequently can cause hair-pulling moments for you and your readers, so here is a guide to working out a posting frequency is right for you.

You Know You’re Blogging Too Much When…

So how do you know when your blogging schedule is taking over? Well chances are you might feel unable to edit a simple post, have no idea what to write about next, or find yourself staying up to the wee hours to finish editing photos. The difference between simply being busy and feeling overwhelmed is that you’re not finding fun in what you’re doing.

Blogging as a hobby should be enjoyable and if you find yourself doubting yourself or feeling overly emotional at the thought of writing yet another post then it could be a sign that you’ve taken on too much.

Even if you feel on top of things, your readers might feel overwhelmed if they can’t keep up with you. If you post on consecutive days, take a look at your traffic on the first day and compare it to the last – is it fairly even or do visits start to trail off after the first couple of posts?

Set Goals

If you’re not using one already, start an editorial calendar so you can plan your time.  Pick days of the week to post when you know you’ll have some free time beforehand and try to stick to your schedule.  You can also use an editorial calendar to keep track of events that you’ve been invited to and personal day trips and holidays that could be turned into fantastic blogging opportunities.

Write down an ideal number of posts you’d like to write each week and set achievable goals – you wouldn’t start a fitness regime by running a marathon so don’t treat your blog in the same way.

Be Realistic

You’ve used your editorial calendar to plan out a blog schedule for the week, or month ahead and now it’s time to step away and go make a cup of tea. Of you go! Now come back and take a second look at your blogging schedule.

Can you really fit in that many posts when you have exam revision to do or the children are on their school holidays? Be realistic and if you want to increase the frequency of your posts, try adding one extra post per week, fortnight or month rather than five.

Comparison is The Thief of Joy

This saying is particularly apt in the blogging world. When you’re starting out it can be easy to look at your favourite blogger and try to emulate their blogging schedule, but this is almost never a good idea.

Why? Well take a deeper look at their schedule – are they posting daily, five times a week alongside a full-time job, or are they blogging full time? Pro bloggers work an average working day (and then some!) on their blogs, so don’t feel like you need to match this when you’re holding down two part-time jobs and a busy social life.

Frequency VS Consistency

Don’t confuse frequency with consistency – just because you don’t have time to post twice a day, five days in a row, it doesn’t mean you should forget about when you’re posting.

Whether it’s twice a week, once a fortnight or only on the weekends, try to stick to a schedule so that your readers know when to find your new posts. If you post on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday one week then crop up two weeks later on a Saturday after complete radio silence, your readers won’t be able to rely on you to get their fix of fashion/recipes/reviews.

Find a blogging schedule that works for you and before no time you’ll get into a rhythm so natural that you won’t think twice about when your next post is due.

How frequently do you post on your blog?