Ever wondered why some bloggers write blog posts every day? Well, I did too – So I tried a 14 day experiment, and I am going to share my results with you.
Usually, my blogging schedule is erratic; often just a handful of posts in a month. However, as regular readers will have noticed, I have been updating this blog with fresh posts every day, for the past 2 weeks.
Why?
I wanted to measure for myself, just what the value to a blogger is, of updating their blog every day with new posts. I assumed (rightly as it turned out) that 2 weeks would be a long enough period, for me to get some worthwhile data for you. The results have been VERY interesting!
In brief, here’s what I have found:
RSS Subscribers
One of the biggest differences (in percentage points) has been the increase in new RSS subscribers to the blog. New subscriber numbers are up an amazing 400% on the 2 weeks previous! I was expecting to see some increase, but this was far, far higher than I imagined.
Blog Comments
The number of comments per post varies all the time, literally from post to post, making it very hard to measure over such a short period. Equally, comments are often added to blog posts weeks, months and even years after a post is written.
Comments in total during the past 14 days are up by around 300%. This is less impressive than it may sound, as there were many more posts for people to read and thus comment on than usual. Also, regular readers have been visiting the blog more often and sharing posts with their friends more often, which increases comment numbers.
This leads me on to the biggest difference I have noticed with the comments, over the past 2 weeks. The biggest (and most interesting development for me), has been the number of new people commenting here. I have seen a lot of new commenters, many of whom have said that they have only just discovered the blog.
Blog traffic
The number of unique visitors here increased by just under 30% during the 2 weeks. That’s a significant increase, especially as most of it came over the past 5 days.
Interestingly, the number of page views here increased massively. This seems to be from new visitors having a look around and established readers visiting more often, in line with the number of new posts.
There’s no doubt whatsoever that daily blogging, even for a relatively short period of time, has significantly increased ‘traffic’ into the blog.
Conclusion
The biggest revelation for me has been how much fun I’ve had! I have REALLY enjoyed putting the posts together. More than this, the increased activity on the blog from commenters and those discussing posts on Twitter, has been amazing. The whole ‘atmosphere’ of the blog has been improved in every way.
However, it is very clear from the significant increases across the board, why so many bloggers post fresh content every day. Daily blogging has improved literally every metric I have measured – not just those mentioned in this brief post. It’s also improved areas that are far harder to measure, like making the blog a lot more ‘alive’ and vivid. These things are harder to plot on a chart than RSS subscribers or traffic, but they are massively valuable to anyone who genuinely cares about their blog and it’s community of readers.
My dilemma
I strongly believe that the only time to write a blog post is when the writer has something VALUABLE to say, which is worth sharing. I don’t believe in having a blogging schedule. As a professional writer, I have found it relatively easy to publish fresh content each day – but what about the quality of that content?
I see zero point in posting dross occasionally, just so that I don’t miss a day! That material will live on the Internet forever, with my name attached to it. My 4 year old son will see it when he’s older – I don’t want him thinking his daddy writes pedestrian, generic bullshit occasionally, because I’m a slave to some self-imposed, daily blogging schedule.
I occasionally read posts by people considered to be GREAT bloggers, which seem ‘pretty average’ at best. The thing is, these guys are NOT average writers; they are the top of the blogging pile. I always wonder if the reason I find those posts average, is just that the subject is not of interest to me, or if it’s because the blogger wrote an average post, just to maintain his or her daily blogging schedule.
The bottom line for me, is that by blogging here each day, the value of this blog has improved in every way. So, I’ve decided to aim for blogging here on a more regular basis than before, but only when I have something I believe is worth sharing with you. If that’s daily, then fine. If not, then I assure you, you will be missing nothing worth reading.
What do you think?
Did you find any of that data useful or interesting? What has your experience been?
Photo credit: UnSung