4 Reasons Why You Should Set A Posting Schedule

As a blogger, you should set a posting schedule. TYhis may be one of the hardest tasks for someone that is just starting out blogging.

A posting schedule is just a plan on when you will be postingto your blog. You need to determine how often you want to update your site with a new post. If you are the only one writting for/on your blog, it is best to keep it limited to at most, one post a day. Anything more than that, and you will likely burn yourself out!

Personally, my plan is to post once a day. I  usually do a good job at writing and publishing this frequently…

• Until I get too busy and run out of time.
• Until I get too busy and forget!
• Until I get caught up in the research that I want to do for the post
• Until I fell the final post is not good enough to post.
• Until I am on the road travelling

You can see that I can come up with lots of ‘Untils’! This is a great reason why a posting schedule is needed!

Rather than leave it to happenstance, you should come up with a realistic posting schedule of when you plan (and will) post to your site. The good news is that with WordPress it is easy to create a blog post. Unfortunately, the bad news is that with WordPress it is also easy NOT to create a blog post. I sometimes think that if it were more involved to publish a post that I would be more inclined to set a specific time to write my posts; It  would be a ‘big deal’ so I would have to plan better.

I asked my friend and mentor, Brian Edmondson, about what a good posting schedule would be. He tells me,

“You should post to your blog 7 times a week. If you can’t post 7 times, post 6 times. If you can’t post 6 times a week, post 5 times. And if you can’t post 5 times a week, you should post 4 times a week…”

You get the picture!

Let me give you a few reasons WHY you want to have a posting schedule:

1. People will know when you are posting. When people are aware of when you are posting, they will learn when to come to your site. They will not ‘waste’ time coming to a site that has not been updated.  You will help them avoid being disappointed if they do come to the site and there has been no updates recently!

 2. Setting a posting schedule makes you more consistent. This goes hand-in-hand with #1 above. It also demonstrates the importance you place on the blog. You are committing to a specific time frame and not only will you be happier with a schedule, your readers will be as well!

3. Regular blog posting can position you as an expert. The more you write about a topic, the more people will respect you (Disclaimer: You have to be putting out good, quality content that is content-rich and helpful!) The more you can help others, the more will will become their “Go-To” person as the expert.

4. Having a regular posting schedule builds trust in your readers. Again, this piggybacks on the other 3 reasons stated above. When you become consistent, when you have a posting schedule, when people know when to expect content, they will trust you. It seems like a silly thing, but it has a lot to do with psychology. Think about the people you trust in your life – are they consistent or hap-hazard in the things they do?

Determine how often you will write your blog posts will be and stick to it! The benefits will soon be realized. Having a posting schedule will help you out in the long run!