Do you schedule your blog for peak times?

[StephenT]

When I first started blogging, I was posting 7 days a week. I really wanted a day off and so I started thinking about letting one day slide. Then I noticed that my stats for the weekend were about half what they were M-F. I started posting on Saturday stuff that really wasn't trying to market anything or really even being that good of content. I figured, when try on days when nobody is reading.

Then the holidays came and I thought I wouldn't post on those days either, for the same reason.

I have noticed that lots of those who are farther advanced in this biz than I, read Lynn and the like, did post o weekends and holidays.

What do you think? Am I being foolish for not posting on weekends and holidays? Should I be thinking more in terms of what the search engines are doing during those days than people? I will do what is best, I just am not sure about this.

[GinaParris]

Great question, Steve! If you enjoy the weekends off, but you still enjoy twitter or Facebook, it might be a good time to tweet "highlights from this week," or something to that effect, to get more mileage from what you've already done. I'll be interested to see what the others say as I still feel brand new to this world of blogging on purpose!
Gina

[AlexNewell]

"I really wanted a day off "

Yeah and you deserve a day off Steve! And if you really want to publish daily then queue some posts up to auto publish.

If you push yourself too hard you'll lose enthusiasm and it will show in the blog...

Why not have 2 day off - one for reading and researching and planning and one for...goofing off?

My 2 cents!

Alex

[KarenMcG]

"I really wanted a day off "

Yeah and you deserve a day off Steve! And if you really want to publish daily then queue some posts up to auto publish.

If you push yourself too hard you'll lose enthusiasm and it will show in the blog...

Why not have 2 day off - one for reading and researching and planning and one for...goofing off?

My 2 cents!

Alex

Steve,

I agree with Alex; you (any of us, for that matter) deserve a day (maybe 2) off.

And all you need to do is set up several blogs at a time and then have them publish on the days you choose. They can be daily, every-other-day, etc.

I also like CoachGina's suggestion to do a trade, so to speak, and Twitter or Facebook instead.

We're really lucky; there's so much variety available to us.

Mainly, just be consistent with what you choose. :)

[mommyenterprises]

I keep a log of each of my blogs and try to publish as often as I can. I never thought about peak time though. When I create blog posts that are scheduled, I usually schedule them for the early am so the early birds get access to my posts as early as possible.

[NicoleDean]

Hmm... posting 7 days/week. When are you marketing this blog? ;)

OH YEAH! You knew that was coming! lol!

[StephenT]

thanks everyone for all the responses.

Nicole, I am not quite sure I understand the question. Could you elaborate? Remember you are talking to a newbie. What I think you are asking is part of what I want to understand.

[NicoleDean]

Oh, I was just teasing. :) I mean, if you're blogging 7 days/week, when are you finding time to market it to get traffic?

[StephenT]

Nicole, that's sort of part of my problem. Between writing the posts, trying for backlink and writing articles, I get a little lost in the Doing until I can no longer see the what the heck!

I know you and others have several sites and I don't know for the life of me how you do it. I have three and can't keep up. Maybe once I can afford to outsource!

anyway, just wondering if it is worth posting on days when the stats are so down. Should I take that time and as Gina said, work on marketing on FB and Twitter.

[NicoleDean]

It's supposed to be fun. :)

If you're feeling bogged by your 7 day/week commitment, I'd reduce it until you're having fun - and get some guest bloggers to fill in to help you out, post some YouTube videos that others have created, or grab a mic and record some audios that you can whip up there.

I certainly don't post 7 days/week, but then again, I don't earn as much from my blogging as Lynn does, I'm quite sure. :)

[AlexNewell]

"grab a mic and record some audios that you can whip up there."

Stephen - Nicole left you a gem there...

You sound good - ie you have a nice microphone voice and podcasting would give your blog a variety and reach you don't have now and do some marketing too.

Even if you did a weekly round up podcast - you might really enjoy it and it would build a different kind of relationship with your followers

[deniseoberry]

Stephen --

Here's a thought for you to try on. Take one day a week to write five to seven posts for that week. Take one day to schedule the posts to release daily and schedule any related tweets. Take the rest of the week to actively market your website.

[StephenT]

"grab a mic and record some audios that you can whip up there."

You sound good - ie you have a nice microphone voice and podcasting would give your blog a variety and reach you don't have now and do some marketing too.

Even if you did a weekly round up podcast - you might really enjoy it and it would build a different kind of relationship with your followers

Thanks Alex. My podcast will be starting the end of this month. I already had it in the works!

Thanks everybody for your help! I fear this thread has gone a bit off center from where I was going.

Yeah, I sometimes do feel a bit over-loaded, and the suggestions you have given are going to be implemented, but what I really was curious about was posting blogs for days that statistically has low traffic.

I wonder if I should post anyway, knowing that even if someone doesn't see it, say on Sunday, the search engines do and if the post ranks well, people will see it when they search. Or, should I save that really good post of the days I get good traffic!

How do I get the most bang for my buck, so to speak?

[NicoleDean]

Let me see if I can answer your question better this time. (No coffee yet, so I apologize if I'm missing the mark.) :)

I'll post on my blog any time, but my automatic "blog updates" Aweber list goes out at 6am daily. And, anything important, I'll mail to my lists, so that's where I get the immediate income boost. But, I don't avoid the weekend if I get Jonesing about something and want to post. I'm much too impatient for that. lol!

For instance, I posted about my affiliate contest (http://www.nicoleonthenet.com/3985/free-flip-minos/) this weekend and mailed about it, but I didn't mind doing it on the weekend, since I'll mail several more times this month.

Also this particular discussion has spanned Saturday and Sunday, so it's certainly proof that people are online on the weekends. :)

[StephenT]

Nicole, I agree that this forum is proof that "some" people are on the net on the weekend, but would you call us normal? :eek:

Seriously, this is where I get to wondering. I'm on here on the weekend, but I am not "normal" compared to most people I know offline. I would work 24/7 at this, hence some of the frustration of earlier posts to this thread, but will my reader response be worth the post for my off times. Remember, I am not you with bunches of followers, but just starting out with less than a hundred! :o

If posting on the weekends and holidays is what I should do, then great, let me at it! I just don't want to waste a post worthy of Hemingway is no one will read it! :D

[NicoleDean]

Well, that's easy enough. Look at your webstats and see. :)

[AlexNewell]

"but would you call us normal? "

YES!!

Seems to me Steve that you are following the first rule of marketing, "Go where the people are".

And that's good...

So if you are convinced that people are not on your blog on the weekends then maybe you should not be either.

So you get a rest!

And if you want to do something for your blog, 2 suggestions

(1) take this time to update facebook, Stumbleupon - whatever suits you rather than blog, or,

(2) your blog is a lifestyle and self development blog so...do you need to be doing something on the weekend so that you have stuff to share during the week?

Yoga lessons? seminars, voluntary work? Church? Long walks?

I don't think there is a right answer here - there's just an answer that you will decide on and which will work for you.

My own angle on this is that I look at my daily stats and what I care about is are the numbers going up?

My posting has to fit my schedule and I'll post when I've written something and that's it. That's my take and all bloggers come to their own arrangement.

Last point - people care much more about quality than quantity so if you focus on planning and writing great posts that's more important than posting a certain number of times or at certain times of day.

Again, that's my take on this.

Way back when I was in Uni I co-edited our student magazine. The other editor focused on getting an issue out on a fixed day and would fill the issue with crap provided he had a required number of pages. All I cared about was quality and I would take stuff out of the folder that was meant for the printer and bin it and would happily decline offers of work that I thought were not "good enough". And I cared not one fig for publication dates!!

Neither of these 2 extremes is right although my co editor was probably closer to commercial reality!

I suspect that just pleasing yourself is best here.

:-)

Sorry if I rambled!

[StephenT]

Thanks Alex, I appreciate your input.

[NicoleDean]

First of all, ditto Alex. :)

Also, Stephen, I know you know this already, but your blog post isn't a one-time thing. You'll be interlinking it and SEOing it and traffic will continue to find it forever.

I think you're overthinking this. Take a peek at your stats and see if you get enough traffic on the weekends to post them. If not, schedule those posts for during the week. And, spend your weekends writing and submiting articles - or having fun. Like Alex said, go have adventures to write about. :) I normally don't work this much on the weekends, but I'm getting ready for a weeklong trip so I'm on overdrive right now or I'd be off playing, too.

Anyway, I don't know if that helps at all, but I worry and would hate to see you burn out.

[NicoleDean]

Here you go, my stats for 2009 -
http://www.busymarketerscoach.com/images/mydailytraffic.JPG

Just for comparison's sake when you look at yours. :)

[StephenT]

They look like mine except that my weekends are lower than what your show.

Yep, I think it is just what I decide to do and the heck with what the "right" thing is. I've never been much into the "right thing" anyway!