How often should I blog?

[PURPLE BUBBLE]

Hi, I have a blog and have tried to post on it every day or every other. Is this too much? Much of the content is relevant to copywriting/ case studies/marketing/ SEO/ blogs etc etc so in line with what I do but I also post personal highlights/things I enjoy and anything and everything I have an interest in! Is this a bit OCD??? I have also added my location as blogger.com allows this and by doing this I am hoping it will help me get found. I also post the blogs via Google+. The blog is going to be linked through from my website too (managed to forget my login and currently have my older blog on there!) Something must be working as I score on page one for my local area and copywriter and also top of page 2 for Dorset as a whole.....I should hope so too being a copywriter...but I have more and more fresh new content to add to my website (although I am conscious not to wedge the site full of content as I don't want to make the navigation harder!) sooooooo...anymore tips anyone can provide or at least answer my question? Am I going over board with my blogging?

Thanks
Hannah x

 

[Mystro]

I don't think there is no real answer here, personally i would write when i have something to write about on your blog, personal highlights should go on your company facebook page this will help with social signals to your site.

Also your blog should be on your site, your kind of doubling the workload to have it hosted on blogspot as the blog on your own site would increase the content but now all you are doing is adding duplicate content to your site by posting on blogspot first, and google don't like duplicate content and this could harm your chances of ranking higher than you should

http://www.purplebubblewriting.co.uk/blog

Will help you immensely, i just read some of your blog and you write well, and if people do link to your content it will be wasted as at the moment any link juice is going to blogspot and if you had those links it would help you rank a little better

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I don't think there is no real answer here, personally i would write when i have something to write about on your blog, personal highlights should go on your company facebook page this will help with social signals to your site.

Also your blog should be on your site, your kind of doubling the workload to have it hosted on blogspot as the blog on your own site would increase the content but now all you are doing is adding duplicate content to your site by posting on blogspot first, and google don't like duplicate content and this could harm your chances of ranking higher than you should

http://www.purplebubblewriting.co.uk/blog

Will help you immensely, i just read some of your blog and you write well, and if people do link to your content it will be wasted as at the moment any link juice is going to blogspot and if you had those links it would help you rank a little better

that is my mantra, I blog about things when I decide it is worth blogging about it as I have something to say.

 

[Andrew Baker]

If you've genuinely got something interesting to blog about, content that people will enjoy reading then I would blog at least once a week...

If it comes naturally to you and you can put together a good quality post quickly, I would blog 2 or 3 times a week...

Share and encourage engagement across your networks...

Also, have a style, make sure your personality is evident... far more enjoyable to read rather than a mundane run of the mill observational or informational post.

 

[Mark Walters]

If you really have a lot of worthwhile things to blog about, then as well as adding posts to your own site, consider contacting other blog owners and offering to write the occasional post for their site in return for them linking back to your site. As well putting your work in front of a new audience and building your brand, you should also see some positive movement in your Google rankings.

 

[davek17]

Hi Purple

I blog and to help you here's a few tips I picked up on the way.

1. You don't need to blog every day, but your blogs need to be consistent in terms of their posting andf there's loadfs of science behind this. Blogging when you feel like it will not get you as many followers etc than if you have a set pattern. Us humans like our Moan blog Monday, Whiteboard Wednesday and Funny Blog Friday's! Choose the days that work for you and then deliver without fail!

I used to blog every week-day. Go read about Gary Vaynerchuck in his early days. However blogging 3 times per week now seems to not impact the numbers too much so we blog elsewhere and do other stuff with the time.

Stick to a attern and be patient.

2. Mix it up and test new subjects. We blog mainly about Barcode scanners and PDA's etc (Very boring to most!!). However when we tested the water with a more "Android" focussed series our numbers increased by about 25% in a week and then sank back to about 15% when we went back to the normal stuff. We also do the odd Ipad thing that brings new people in, for instance we didn't realise just how string the bluetooth barcode scanner market was until the iPad crowd told us.

Keep it fresh and move it on.

3. Be opinionated, be edgy, be fascinating and entertaining! If I ever get a moment where someone talks to me about a blog I did, they always talk to me about the stupid moan I made or the partciularly edgy blog I made about a rubbish product, not the superbly written technical article that i'm, most proud of.

Jeremy Clarkson in favour of BBC News at 10 if you know what I mean!

4. Measure all the time. check your stats, see what works and what doesn't work.

5. Use social. We're almost thinking about moving the whole blog to Facebook right now, not sure yet though but the fact is we write the content, then use social to let people know about it.

6. Lastly. Video is really getting up speed now. People love video and the more of that you can do the better. Images are a must in every blog.

Hope to have helped!

DaveK

 

[Surminga]

It does not matter about how often or how long your articles are which you post to your blog - you could blog once a week with a great article or 5 times a week, what matters is how you pull visitors and readers in.

To be a good blogger you also need to be a good marketer and promoter,are you promoting every individual article you produce on social media sites, forums, etc and also creating backlinks to these articles. Alongside writing articles you should set a schedule for marketing once that article is live on your site.

If you are producing lots and lots or work at a high pace, people coming to your blog might not see it if in a week your site is full of brand new content.

I have a few blogs which I run and I would say I write 10 articles per week for a few blogs. This might not be a huge amount but I spend a lot of time being social on forums and my social networks building up a community and band of followers.

 

[shpangle]

I wouldn't worry about it, as long as you are enjoying it keep doing what you are doing. What is important is the longevity and keeping it going, blogs certainly mature with age and you will me amazed by the followers it attracts...I wrote a blog a while back and mentioned pressed flowers. Within a couple of days it was being followed by the president of the worldwide pressed flower club!

Going against what other people will probably say, but I would keep it separate from your website, especially if you are blogging about personal stuff.

Mick

 

[fisicx]

I blog once in a blue moon and google seems to leap on it within minutes. As suggested it's far better to take your time and post something useful and interesting every now and then than just bung any old thing up every day.

And don't forget the purpose of your site. You can blog about your cats or rant about the taxman but what you really want is people to buy your stuff or pick up the phone. Don't let the blog become a distraction from making money.

 

[mugatea]

Google used to leap on me...ahh memories!

I think they've fallen out with me!

it's far better to take your time and post something useful and interesting every now and then than just bung any old thing up every day

I'd like to know how google decides what is useful or not.

 

[fisicx]

I'd like to know how google decides what is useful or not.

Very often it's the style of your writing, the authorities you quote, the way you create your blog post title, the structure of the article and relevance to the things people search for.

In your case the blog post could be about how to take your dog for a walk - the length of the walk, places to go, allowing the dog freedon, the use of toys and treats and so on.

In other words, write about the stuff people are searching for in a wat that is engaging and keeps people interested. Make sure you keep going back to your article and tweak and update.

Spend time reading copyblogger.com for loads of great advice.

 

[DPOM]

As others have mentioned, blog when you have something to say, but you might find this interesting:

http://offers.hubspot.com/marketing-benchmarks-from-7000-businesses

Its a report Hubspot did over 7000 businesses showing the effects blogging had on their website (and how many blogs). Includes Social Media too. (you have to register using a very brief form, its a free report though). Good to use as a guide and to give insight.

Blog when you have something to say, make it as long as it needs to be.

 

[ILilja]

Being a copywriter myself, you made me curious, so I checked out your blog and find it intriguing and refreshing (it's so nice to read a blog by someone who actually knows how to write and set up online copy for a change ).

And it doesn't look like it's actually updated every day, but like 4-5 times a week, right? I think this is perfectly fine - you don't need to add content to it every day to have spiders come and crawl them, and as someone else said, it's more important that you have a somewhat regular scheme, so that you don't suddenly disappoint your readers with long pauses in between. Or the opposite - posting several times a day - which to some may seem as spam and could trigger deregistrations. And as you said, we're not writing for spiders, but for real people, right?

One thing I noticed though was that you don't link that much and that the links that you put in are to your homepage or email links (and I found one email link that wasn't active which you might want to go in and correct).

I think you should consider deep linking to your website with appropiate anchor texts (using your keywords, when relevant) and to related blog posts of your own as well. Relevant third party links are good too - for your readers as well as for SEO. Don't worry about taking your reader away from your posts - they will come back when they are ready (as long as you make sure links open in the same window so that they can use the back button).

Also, do you have a newsletter? A newsletter signup would be very relevant to have on your blog, and although you may feel that you would be adding more or less the same content here (rewritten to avoid duplicate content, of course), your blog and newsletter audience aren't necessarily the same people. I think the idea of giving away a little bit of information and tips for free combined with an invitation to contact you for more details is really the right way to go.

Oh, and finally: One more vote for Copyblogger! They update their blog almost every day now, and it's really quality content, so I can totally recommend that. The stuff and sessions in their "Third Tribe Marketing" (which requires membership) is really worth checking out too.

Good luck with your blogging

 

[pickaweb]

I would say blog quality rather than quantity.

 

[Deleted member 157854]

I would say blog quality rather than quantity.

Yes I'd agree with that. The blogs I mostly have in my rss are those that post less often, probably weeks between posts, but in that time they research a post which is substantial, researched and useful. I find more regular one paragraph blogs seem to be easier to overlook.

 

[centredog]

Depends, how long is a piece of string?

Blog as much as you feel your visitors would like. Remember more posts, the more chance of google indexing your pages.

 

[Ian J]

I blog once in a blue moon and google seems to leap on it within minutes. As suggested it's far better to take your time and post something useful and interesting every now and then than just bung any old thing up every day.

Me too. I blog about factoring which with the best will in the world is a pretty boring subject. Many of my competitors seem to regurgitate the same articles regularly which I guess is to appeal to Google whereas I want mine read by humans and is why I wait (sometimes weeks) until I have something worth writing about

 

[Anastasiya]

Posting every day is not a good idea, especially if your blog is new. One reason for posting daily is if you're writing a news-focused blog in a fast-moving niche. One weekly news post just isn't going to work if you want to be on the cutting edge of what's happening. Otherwise, posting once or twice a week lets you write in-depth, carefully constructed posts - ones that are more likely to get links and tweets. I also get more comments per post this way, and have the time to engage with readers over several days of commenting.


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