How often do you hit publish?

When you first started blogging, how did you picture your work flow? Did you imagine yourself sitting down at your neatly organized desk every morning filled with inspiration as you sipped a cup of fresh brewed coffee? In your mind were you creating inspiring content every day that would be an undeniable magnet for new readers? Maybe you thought all your daily life lessons would be perfectly timed for your nightly laptop session. Or that your fingers would be feverishly typing away Carrie-Bradshaw-style as the perfect prose flowed effortlessly onto the screen for the day’s new blog. No, Carrie wasn’t technically a blogger, but I do think her glamorously effortless stream of thought typing has helped create some bloggy stereotypes. And I say that as true SITC fan – the tv show, not so much the movies. But I digress. What I mean is- when people think of bloggers or are starting to become a blogger, there’s this one random myth that always pops up. People believe that you have to post a blog every day. And they quickly accept that myth thinking it will be this dream scenario of late night cocktails, never-ending prompts, and brilliant idea after brilliant idea. The reality is, you just can’t blog everyday. Sure you could start out this way, posting and uploading every day with super blogger strength and your unbridled beginners passion to carry you. But do you know what will inevitably happen? You’ll start to notice the quality of your blogs fall beneath your standards and I promise you right now, you’ll burn out – quick. You just can’t maintain an everyday kind of schedule. Sure, there are exceptions to the rule. There will always be an actual super blogger with abnormally focused abilities that was born to be an everyday poster. If that’s you and you can consistently post high-quality content day after day and still have energy to put your pants on in the morning (she types as she sits in her pjs at 2:10pm) – more power to you. Also, on that exceptions list are bloggers who’ve made it to the point of scaling their marketing team. They obviously have the manpower to [fill up a content calendar]because they’re paying writers to contribute. If you haven’t reached that point yet and you also weren’t born with otherworldly content creating powers, don’t worry! You’re normal. Now let’s talk about how you can plan out your blog in a way that’s thoughtful, wise, and won’t make you go crazy. How often should you post blogs? Ok, so you’re not going to post every day now, right? But how often should you post? Great question! With everything we know about SEO, we know it’s important to be posting new content on a consistent basis if you want search engines to acknowledge your existence. And a report done by Hubspot found that companies that blog 15 or more times a month (that breaks down to a few posts a week)[get five times more traffic than companies that don’t]. But beyond on that, it’s one of those “you do you” situations. You might find that you’ve got a great routine posting on Mondays and Fridays or maybe you’re a three days a week kind blogger. However often you are posting, here’s a couple pieces of advice: Keep it consistent. You’re readers are creatures of habit. Once they’ve realized your patterns, they’ll start to rely on them. So unless something unforeseen comes up, stick to designated post days. But when the unforeseen does pop up (because it will- this is life), [this is when getting ahead in your content calendar really pays off.] Not to say you can never switch it up. If you want to add or take away a post or two a week, please do. Just don’t change up your habits every other month. Keep making high-quality content. One of the main reasons to stay away from posting every day is because it’s quite difficult to continually produce researched, well-written blogs. By spacing your blogs out a couple days, you’ll have more time to research your topics, sit with them for a bit, and edit, edit, edit. The more in-depth and knowledgeable blogs you write, the more you’ll come off as an expert to your audience. That means you’re gaining their trust and you’re doing your job quite well. Keep it in your niche. You might think having a broad topic would be an easy way to keep coming up with blog topic ideas. It is, but if you do that you’ll most likely end up going too wide and your audience won’t be able to connect with you. Keeping your topics in your niche will ensure that you’re creating value for your readers and will most likely keep you posting a wise amount of blogs a week. Blog your way The main takeaway from all this? Keep posting good, quality, content-filled blogs that provide value to your audience and don’t worry about posting every day. You just don’t need to. Those longer, more thought out posts that happen a couple times a week will have the same effect – probably a better effect- than posts that you’ve thrown together at the last second to fill a day’s spot. Find a routine that works for you, stick to it, and be the blogger boss that you are. The post [How often do you hit publish?] appeared first on [ConvertKit]. [Unsubscribe] | 750 W Bannock St #761, Boise, Idaho 83701