Figuring Out Your Perfect Blogging Schedule

Hello everyone! ♥

Today we’ll be talking about blogging schedule. I know a lot of you must have had your own schedules, but when I talked about it on my wrap up post last month, a lot of bloggers said that they still haven’t figured out their own schedule and they really want to change that. So here I am, sharing what I learned so far about things to consider when you want to create a blogging schedule 😀 

Before we start, let me make it clear that there is no one right way to blog. You can post whenever you feel like it. Any schedule (or no schedule at all) could work, as long as you’re happy with it. But if you’re a super organized, perfectionist bean like me, here are some suggestions that might help ♥

Again, you are entitled to post however often you want. It’s your blog. But as a matter of fact, I noticed that most bloggers and most readers do have preference. When I first started, I hadno schedule whatsoever. I wrote a post when I felt inspired and posted it right away. Then I’d go a few weeks without posting at all because I had no idea on what to write. As you might have guessed, my stats were unstable and such a mess.

Up until January, I posted every other day. For several months it was going well. I had a lot of ideas and stats were high. But then I started to run out of original ideas and I got overwhelmed by the amount of comments I received. That’s when I knew I needed better schedule. I came up with 3 times a week : Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I can safely say that it’s going really well, both for me and my stats. At least for now 😛

Several polls had also been conducted on Twitter to answer this question. I also did a poll on this post a few months ago and the result was pretty similar. It seems like most people post and/or prefer 2-3 times a week. Why? Because most people, including me, think that it’s very manageable. ANYWAY, I created a list of pros and cons to compare the frequency of posting and I hope it helps 😀

Posting everyday

PROS

• More posts for your readers to read
• More page views and visitors on your blog
• Must mean that you have a lot of post ideas… keep it up 😛

CONS

• Readers could get bored of your posts (ouch but true)
• Forces you to come up with a lot of ideas
• Your posts would be rushed and of less quality
• It’s time consuming. I mean, imagine having to write, post, and reply to comments everyday. If you’re a student or working full time, this could be very stressful

Posting every other day

PROS

• A little more manageable than posting everyday
• You have at least a day to rest and draft your posts
• Still a lot of page views and visitors

CONS

• You still have to come up with a lot of ideas (I’ve been there)
• Probably still too many posts for your readers to keep up

Posting 2-3 times a week

PROS

• A lot more manageable
• Gives you time to come up with high quality ideas
• Lots of time to breathe
• Readers look forward to your posts
• Your stats will still be pretty stable

CONS

• Probably still too many posts if you’re working full time

Posting once a week

PROS

• Very manageable
• You don’t need to stress too much

CONS

• Less page views and visitors
• Your stats will probably be unstable, unless you know to promote

Posting whenever you feel like posting

PROS

• Very chill, no stress whatsoever 🙂
• You don’t have to constantly come up with ideas and/or write the posts

CONS

• Very likely, you’ll only get page views and visitors when you post
• Most readers prefer consistent posting
• If you don’t post for a while without any hiatus announcement, people might unfollow your blog

Alright! Now you know the pros and cons to each frequency. BUT please don’t let me dissuade you from your own working schedule! If you’re used to posting everyday and it works for you, then keep it up! If you’re used to post whenever you want yet still maintain a high stats, then don’t change anything! As long as they don’t affect you, ignore the cons 😀

There’s no ideal time to post.

I read a lot of advice on it and most of them suggests certain time of the day, but you know what? It’s the internet. It’s always on 24/7. I have readers from all over the world, and it doesn’t really matter when I publish my post. I could post at 7pm my time, but it’s still noon in Europe, morning in the US, and already almost midnight in Australia. Really, it doesn’t make any difference. Plus blog is a slow paced social media, unlike Twitter and instagram, so people would still see your post eventually.

Personally, I like to post at 7-8 in the evening but that’s because it’s my free time 🙂

Before you ask what in the ever loving hell did I mean by composition, let me explain. I mean it’s a ratio between types of posts. Ratio between book reviews, memes, discussions, etc. I can’t stress this enough but again, there’s no correct ratio between posts. You can post whatever you want, whenever you want, it’s your blog. I used to do just that.

I used to post like… 5 discussions in a row with no reviews. I used to post whenever I have an amazing ideas. And then I went through my 5-reviews-in-a-row-with-no-discussions phase. I hate it. I wanted my things to be… neat, and when I was posting like that, I felt like it was a mess. And then I tried to alternate between reviews and discussions, but very soon I ran out of topics for my discussion posts. It was frustrating, until I finally found the perfect schedule.

Like I said, there’s no right ratio between posts, but if you’re having the same problems as I did, here are some pointers :

1. I don’t post reviews in a row because as we already know, reviews tend to generate less page views. Which means if I post several reviews in a row, my stats would be low.
2. Don’t post discussion posts in a row because you’ll run out of ideas very quickly. It’s not easy to constantly come up with original ideas for discussions. I understand the urge to constantly post discussions when your brain is overflowing with idea, but I found it wiser to save them for later. There will be time when you run out of ideas and that’s when those ideas will come in handy 😛
3. I don’t post memes, tags, and awards in a row either because I’ve learned that most people don’t like it when a blog is full of ONLY memes. They want to see various kinds of posts.
4. Figure out how often could you come up with quality posts, how often could you read books and write the reviews? Having to post 2 discussions in a week was very overwhelming to me, and even once a week is still pretty hard. A lot of people post one discussion a month and it works well for them.
5. FIGURE OUT THE SCHEDULE THAT MAKES YOU HAPPY.

Now that I’ve shared the general guidelines, I want to show you how I came up with my schedule! 😀 Trust me, this isn’t random. Like I said above, I used to post every other day yet I still felt overwhelmed. I started to feel overwhelmed ever since I received more and more comments. I had to divide my time to write the posts, reply comments, and blog hop. And that many activities no longer allowed me to post every other day.

I resort to 3 times a week because I think it’s perfect for me. I could relax a little and come up with more quality posts without the stress of having to post every other day, yet my stats are still pretty high and stable. 

TUESDAY – Random posts
Every now and then I’m compelled to write posts that don’t belong to reviews nor discussions. Posts like memes, tags, award, random lists, personal posts, etc. That’s why I picked one day just for this kind of post. I picked Tuesday because I sometimes still do Top Ten Tuesday, my one and only favorite meme. So on the week I feel like doing TTT, I could fit it to my posting schedule 😀

THURSDAY – Book reviews
Even if reviews always receive less traffic, to me it’s still the heart of book blogging. I’m never getting rid of it because I actually love writing and sharing my reviews. However, I put it in the middle of the week so I could save my stats :’)

SATURDAY – Bookish & blogging discussions
Generally, page views are high the day you publish a post and then decline the next days, until you publish another post. Discussion posts always generate more traffic, that’s why I put it on Saturday because I have two days until the next post comes out. Also, people blog more during the weekend so I don’t worry my stats will plummet 😛

Alright everyone those are some things to consider when you’re trying to figure out your posting schedule aaaand a sneak peak to mine 😀 What about you? How many times do you post a week and do you think it’s the best schedule for you? Once again, this shouldn’t change the way you blog. If you’ve established your perfect schedule, stick to it. Don’t let me and others dissuade you. But if you’re still trying to figure out your schedule, I hope this helps ♥

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