10 reasons not to blog on a schedule
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Image by alistair_uk.
"Blog on a regular schedule". This blogging tip comes up over and over again, and while I see some reasons to do it, I also see plenty of reasons not to.
Despite the numerous drawbacks, I do post weekly at Top Ten Blog Tips, but every week I wonder how much longer I can keep it going. Maybe one day I will ditch the weekly updates and post as often as I do at benbarden.com, which is "when I have something to say". And yes, I do know about scheduling posts in advance, but I rarely do it.
Here are the reasons why I think blogging on a regular schedule is not all it's cracked up to be.
1. Sometimes, life gets in the way.
Whether you're working late, your train's been cancelled, you're unwell, it's a friend's birthday, or a family emergency (which some people use as an excuse for not bothering to post that week), there are always going to be days when you don't have time to blog.
If you blog for a living, then it may be a different story. For the rest of us, can you really say that you'll always be free at the same time on the same days, week in, week out? How long will you be able to keep up that routine before life gets in the way?
2. You may run out of new post ideas.
This is more of a problem if you leave your blog posts until the day you need to publish them. I'm always thinking of my next blog post well in advance of writing it, and I'm still short of ideas for Top Ten Blog Tips.
When it's Wednesday evening, I start to wonder if I'm actually going to come up with something this week. In the end, I usually bounce around some ideas with my wife, and between us we come up with 10 tips that I sit down and organise into a coherent post.
Even with a healthy stock of post titles in reserve, many of them don't have as many as 10 items for me to write about. I may start writing posts with 5 pros / 5 cons in the near future.
3. You may sacrifice quality just to get the posts written.
For the last few months, I've been running a pretty tight schedule at Top Ten Blog Tips. I have a few posts that may be "good enough" to post, but they don't really strike me as being all that interesting. So I set those posts aside for future consideration.
At some stage, I may run out of content and resort to publishing some of the lower quality posts just to get a post out every week. See why a schedule is bad? If not - we've still got 7 points to go!
4. Not all readers can commit every single week.
Whether you write daily, three times a week, or once a week, how many readers will be able to read every single one of your posts? I can see that some readers want a schedule they can rely on - but what if life gets in the way for them? They miss out, and you're none the wiser - you still think everyone wants you to keep to a schedule.
5. Some readers will only check in on the days you post.
If I only post on a Wednesday, why should anyone bother checking the blog for the rest of the week? They might read some of the older posts, but you're not exactly encouraging readers to check your site all that often.
6. You may be too late to comment on current events.
This really depends on the topic of your blog, but some stories will be time-sensitive. What if you only post once a week, but it's the day after your latest post and a huge story comes up? Should you post out of schedule? Or should you wait and be the last to cover it? Each approach has its pros and cons, but neither really works if you want to keep to a schedule.
7. Most of the blog may end up being badly themed.
If you decide to theme your posts, the blog may become far too rigid in structure with absolutely no opportunity for deviation. Writing a specific post on a specific day can help to set reader expectations, but it can also result in your blog getting stuck in a rut.
Also, beware of "lazy post days", such as Music Monday or Wordless Wednesday (assuming you're just posting someone else's content on these days). Do these posts add value for your readers? Though they may seem acceptable once in a while, is it really a good idea to knock out two of your posting days every single week for uninspired posts?
8. Changing or not keeping to your schedule could lose you some readers.
Here's the scoop: once you pick a schedule, it's very difficult to change it. Stick to an unrealistic schedule (e.g. posting daily) and you will quickly burn out. Keep changing your schedule and you'll confuse your readers. Not having a schedule could be confusing, but at least you can be consistently inconsistent...!
9. It's too easy to be over-ambitious.
If you have to pick a schedule, it's easier to post daily, every weekday, or every other day than it is to try and choose a few days for week 1, then different days for week 2.
As a result, it's all too easy to pick a schedule that will be simple to remember, but difficult to keep to, because of the sheer volume of posts you'll be writing from one week to the next. Daily is too much, weekly doesn't sound quite enough.
I've seen a lot of blogs that suggest writing daily. If your blog is on a topic that just doesn't have enough subject matter to enable you to write daily, following this advice could result in a lot of posts that are not focused enough to be compelling.
10. There are only so many days in the week.
There are seven days in the week. It's usually pretty quiet at the weekend, it's not a good idea to try and post every single day, and it's not wise to post too many consecutive posts. That leaves you with the following schedules:
- Monday, Wednesday, Friday
- Monday, Wednesday
- Monday, Thursday
- Monday, Friday
- Tuesday, Wednesday
- Tuesday, Thursday
- Tuesday, Friday
- Wednesday, Friday
Not very many is it? Also, seven of them include either Monday or Tuesday! How many other blogs will be posting on those days? What if every blog posts on a Monday? How many blogs can readers keep up with?
I guess you could say that no matter when you post, either with or without a schedule, the same problem occurs here. But the situation can be a lot worse if you force yourself to post on the same days every week, as it effectively tells your readers that you will always post on the same days as some of the other blogs that they read.
It's like having two TV shows on at the same time - you can't watch them both, but you could record one of them. Suddenly, it doesn't matter when the second show is on, as you can watch it at your leisure. Subscribing to blogs is a bit like recording a TV show - you consume the content when it suits you, not when the provider broadcasts it.
What do you think?
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Comments on 10 reasons not to blog on a schedule
2
Scheduling posts also has the benefit of enforcing discipline on the blogger. The problem with straying from a schedule is that is becomes easy to say, "Oh, I'll blog tomorrow."
That then leads to the, "I'm so sorry for not blogging in a while" post. Which is followed by the "Things have been so crazy lately, I'll post more next week" post.
And that can ultimately lead to the blog death spiral as posts become less and less frequent, to the point of comical.
Of course, that doesn't happen to every blog, but it is a risk, and it's a pattern many of us have seen repeated over the years.
3
I only blog when I think what I need to say may help someone to learn something. Or if something big happened.
4
I post every day to WordGrrls.com and whenever to my personal blog. It has to be what works for you. But, I do find sticking to a schedule is good for me. I don't run out of things to write as long as I am writing. If I stop I do run out of steam and go bleh.
I used to write weekly columns, newsletters and such. The weekly schedule was harder on me than daily posts. When it's every day I know I need something each day. When it's weekly I procrastinate, lose steam, or get sidetracked. Also, when I posted weekly I seldom stuck to a time or day it was pretty random but came out to once a week.
5
My friend Tiffany, who has a whole bunch of blogs has always says that she only posts something to one of her blogs when she feels she has something to say. None of her sites is updated regularly. OTOH, she is not worrying about her statistics of any kind whatsoever and only very occasionally uses her abundant social networking contacts to draw HUGE attention to a particular post she feels is Very important. This seems to work well for her, but would not work for most of the bloggers who read these posts.
I have cut back from a 5 day a week schedule to a 3 day a week schedule and I try as much as possible to get content "booked" or scheduled two weeks in advance and written and published the week before, so that I am always worrying about Next week's rather than This week's content.
My third thought about all this is that different types of sites will have varying success with drawing visitors to their archives. When I started the book review site I got almost no search engine traffic at first. I figured that when I had 100 posts up I would start to see search engine traffic and I did. And as my library of well tagged and spidered posts continues to expand I get more and more search engine traffic, so I am truly building a long term web site imho. Personal and gossip bloggers will probably never realize much benefit from their old content, by contrast. Sometimes the posts I put up are intended mostly for the search engine visitors rather than the people who will visit today just to see what is new.
6
Ben, a good post, that sums up a few of the dilemmas I have at the moment. I have tried to cut down from daily posts on my main blog and so far it doesn't seem to effect readership.
That said I notice that more readers are coming from search engines since I have been targetting some particular keywords.
I suppose the bottom line is if you have something to say and you want to say it-then post, but I would also apply some of your suggestions to that way of thinking.
7
I am very pro-schedule for myself (meaning I make no claim it's best strategy for everyone.
1. Schedule is not sacred. Skipping a post (day, week) doesn't mean you failed your schedule. It's perfectly normal.
2. If run out of ideas I think it's time to seriously consider why and about what do you blog. I have enough topics to go on for months even if I suddenly can't generate a single idea.
3. Some of my best received and most commented posts are those that I considered sub-par. I think chasing ultimate content (another highly hyped concept) is harmful. Post that is not perfect may still be viable and interesting to readers.
4. I got plenty of feedback about how well my schedule work for readers and none that they can't keep up.
5. What's wrong with that?
6. Again - schedule is not sacred. Nothing wrong with occasional post out of it.
7. Schedule and themed posts are two different issues. Themed posts may often be used as help to build schedule but they are not necessary for that.
8. Only true with drastically changing schedule. Readers don't even notice slow changes with schedule over time.
9. Failing to pick right schedule is blogger's fault, not schedule's.
10. I think if reader doesn't want to read my post only because of inconvenient day than he is hardly interested at all.
8
I think there is a perception that when a blog falls off it's established schedule that this is a death-knell for the blog itself.
In some cases this can be seen to be true but, in many other cases, it is just a sign of the blog further evolving.
9
I'm actually very glad to read this. I no longer need to feel quite so guilty about my erratic behaviour. I'm not good on schedules, they stress me out too much, but I do join in one of those weekly memes to give some structure, and to make me at least think about how time is passing. The meme, I hasten to add, is my own photography so I feel it has some merit.
10
Thanks everyone - great comments! I may be writing a follow-up post to explain some of the benefits of sticking to a schedule. One thing's for sure - not everyone feels the same. That's fine by me. Maybe I should write more posts that debunk common blogging tips and turn them on their head?
11
I've been working to a schedule of a blog post each Friday, and a tutorial each first Monday of the month. It works for me, but I am toying with moving to a post when I can schedule, for health reasons. I'm in two minds, and will probably keep it as it is!
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Excellent post Ben ! I try to update my blog on Friday evenings or Saturday mornings the latest. I can't find myself posting more than that except if I decide to participate in a photo meme - which I am going to move to a new photoblog later this September/October.
I thought I could post every weekend on atleast 4 different themes a month. But I ran out of ideas and burned out. These days, I am taking it slow and update if I really want to share something.