At Apollo’s Blog, we are contemplating some changes and revisions to our content, design and general focus, as we try to draw in a more specific target market that is familiar to or at least interested in social media. One of the things we are debating is the issue of post frequency: are we going to be posting on a daily basis? What are the benefits and pitfalls of such an approach?

For both our own blog, and yours, we thought we would go over some of the pros and cons of frequent posting as a way to come to some sort of conclusion, giving our blog a new sense of direction.

Pros:

• Posting daily or several times a week means your site will get more notice from search engine spiders looking for updates, so your ranking for keywords will go up.
  
• Only the most popular blogs update on a consistent, daily basis. Following suit establishes your authority and dedication in regards to your subject matter.

• You never know for sure what content is going to get people coming to your blog, so having a lot of material posted is the scattershot approach to getting noticed.

• Consistently updating your blog will give newcomers a rich and populated archive to sift through, establishing your blog as a comprehensive resource that should be referenced on a regular basis.

Cons:

• Forcing yourself to post all the time may water down your content, and leave you with rushed or unpolished work. Quality trumps quantity and a strict posting regimen can cloud this principle.

• You risk repeating yourself or exhausting your ideas if you post everyday.

• If you concentrate too heavily on the creation of daily content, you risk neglecting other areas of blog development, such as commenting on other blogs, link building, researching, brainstorming, syndicating your posts, working with social media and improving your blog’s design. You need to have time allotted to all these tasks to truly make your blog effective and accessible for your readers. Leaving any of these things out could seriously weaken your efforts, even if you have new content everyday.

Some concluding thoughts:

We feel that the key to building a success blog is recognizing your strengths and focusing on them in hopes of reaching your niche and core readership. In order to move forward and have an action plan, you have to be in tune with your own blogging abilities and come up with a posting schedule that is realistic and appropriate for your content. A news blog needs to be updated frequently, while a photography blog can be successful for just having several detailed and useful how-to articles.

The organization of your content is just as important as the content itself. You may want to divide your post ideas into separate categories or types so you can allot them the time they need to develop. You may want some space between detailed, meaty posts, like interviews, essays etc., while shorter posts like news bits and videos can meet your weekly requirements. Having a variety of post types can help resolve some of the tension between quality and quantity. While you want people to be excited about seeing updates in order to keep them coming back, you don’t want to overwhelm them or risk burning yourself out.

At Apollo, we are considering post variation as an effective strategy for blog development. While we are currently posting everyday, we feel that we have one or two really strong pieces every week. These ‘must reads’ are most likely going to always have front page treatment for the week, either as a ‘featured’ article or as part of a ongoing series. Shorter posts that don’t require as much attention to detail will come in between to keep our dedicated readers happy, without distracting anyone from our prime material.

What do you think of this strategy? How often do you post on your blog? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!