Imagine you’re sitting there in your computer chair, starring at a blank screen. Not knowing what to type, what to do, or how often to do it. You feel lost in a sea of bloggers. How do you set YOUR own self apart from everyone else? How are people going to KNOW you even exist?
You google the question, “How often do I post on my blog?” and an array of blog posts come up all shouting different answers.
How do you know which is the RIGHT answer?
I did just that. I googled that question and found no legit help. Oh there’s help there for sure, it’s just not the right KIND of help.
Most bloggers say don’t post every day. That’s the general consensus for your search. But they are not taking into consideration what’s right for YOU.
They just blindly go into starting off…you shouldn’t post every day because…and give some reasons why they think it’s a bad idea. And that’s great. Maybe for THEIR audience, it’s NOT right to post every day on your blog. So, what’s right for YOU and how do you determine it?
I guess that really just depends on how long you’ve been blogging.
If you are a brand new blogger, just starting up, your first 100 posts SHOULD be daily. People argue about how blog posts need to be “quality over quantity” and to an extent, that is extremely true, but what the heck does it matter if you’re posting the absolute best 7,000 word perfectly SEO’d article on how to use chicken poop to fertilize your lawn. LOL.
Listen, no one cares! You just spent a week perfecting that book that NO ONE WILL EVER SEE!!!!
Google isn’t going to rank you, b/c you’re a new blog, and if you ARE ranked, it’s gonna be on a term that gets ZERO searches a month, so throw SEO out the window. Yeah, get the Yoast SEO plugin, yeah, do what you know, but don’t worry about all that right now. Your domain authority isn’t high enough and not enough people are telling Google your post rocks for it to even rank. So don’t worry about having all your blog posts 1,200 words or longer b/c you hear that’s what Google likes.
Listen, you’re NOT BLOGGING FOR GOOGLE (!!!!) and tomorrow, they’re gonna change their rules anyway. You can’t trick them. You can’t beat the system. EVER! Sorry not sorry, you’re not smarter than Google and neither am I.
So, if you are a new blogger, the best thing for you TO DO is to start posting every day. I posted every single day for 3 years straight when I first started blogging. My posts were around 500-700 words. They were not spell checked. Grammar sucked. Beginning of sentences were not capitalized.
Truly, my blog was a mess. Am I saying be sloppy like that? No. But what happened to my blog?
People loved my content. They were sharing the heck out of it with everyone. It grew and grew and grew. Within my first year, I was making $10k/month. My second year, $23k/month. I’m in year five now and I make $2.4M/year no joke.
Yes, this was 5 years ago and a lot has changed since then. It’s not as EASY to break into the blogging world, but one thing never, EVER will change guys…you ready?!
PEOPLE WANT TO CONNECT.
It’s that simple. If you’re all focused on SEO this and Pinterest images that, you can’t just WRITE…connect….engage with your audience. You can’t be real…you can’t be HUMAN. You’re a machine simply playing slot machine hoping for 3 cherries with Google. It doesn’t work that way.
FIRST, listen, FIRST, you have to figure out what it is people even WANT you to talk about.
I started my blog talking about ebay. After all, at that point I had been selling on ebay for 16 years. I knew a thing or two when it came to ecommerce and selling. I figured I’d start talking about it. I created a course. An audio course actually that still sits on my computer to this day. I posted posts on ebay. I had no competition. At that time, no one was teaching on it. I figured I was going to set up for life and do great..all about ebay.
WRONG.
Wrong…wrong…wrong.
I sold like 3 ebay courses for $17 each. I had to beg people to buy. It was PATH-e-tic! My ebay blog posts weren’t gaining traction. It wasn’t working.
A friend of mine asked me a simple question about how to save money, so I posted the answer on my blog. Figuring I’d get the same success as I did with my ebay content (dud), something very peculiar began to happen.
I noticed late at night, people were sitting on my blog for an hour at a time. They were active, I could see the pages they were on…they were reading, clicking.
More and more saving money articles were released, day by day, every single day, a new sloppy article.
More and more people came, read, and shared my content.
I’m NOT saying publish crappy stuff. Not at all.
But what I AM saying is that, if you’re new to blogging, you should not be going out there and posting 1,200 word articles on ANYTHING yet. You haven’t a CLUE what people want from you. Yeah, it’s all well and good you wanna talk about chicken poop, but no one’s listening….except for your mom, like that’s a given. 🙂
First find the topic or topics that people want to listen to you on. You may very well start your blog on ebay and end up in the saving money niche. You have no idea what people will respond to, not at first. So, please, for the love of all that is good and holy, don’t waste your time in the beginning on all that. JUST WRITE. EVERYDAY. Connect with people. Engage with them.
Now, I know what you’re saying…but Sarah, I am NOT a brand new blogger. I been blogging a year or two. Perfect. To you, I say, if you have at least 300 articles, you don’t have to post every day. No problem. You know what resonates with the world at that point. You know what is growing and what’s not. Do more of what IS growing, SEO your articles, make them fancy, etc. Go back and SEO your old articles that are popular, that’s a great thing to do too.
Your new content SHOULD BE SEO-friendly. Start posting 3-4 times a week now and really get the information out there.
And if you have at least 600-900 articles on your blog, you can now begin to post 1-2 times a week on your blog and relax a little. Focus on the high quality now. You’re a seasoned pro, you know exactly how to get traffic and where. You know exactly what to write, but even in that stage, keep it fun and speak from your heart. Remember that people read an article for the content, they come BACK for YOU.
Whether or not they connect to you, like you, feel like you’re their friend. You need to love on them in a real and genuine way.
Whatever stage you’re at in your blogging journey, how often you post is not a one-size-fits-all kinda answer. It’s unique and solely up to you. The more content you have out there, the more likely you are to getting seen.
And just in case you think I’m a total loon for saying post 500-700 word articles, think of it like this, when you DO hit on a topic that resonates, create 30 of those posts (500-700 words each) and create a series…a roundup post like this post here. This one post currently has 78,551 shares on it! BAM-babee!
Eventually I turned that puppy into a book, then into a bundle (you can see here) that sells for me all day and all night. So, it’s not a waste and it’s not stupid. It’s pretty smart, if you ask me. You kill two birds with one stone…create something you can sell later on AND find out what WILL BE popular!!!
*this post is NOT SEO’d and I didn’t pay attention to word count when writing it. Call me a rebel if you want to. I don’t blog for Google or Pinterest or anything else like that. I blog for God, YOU, and my family.
Moral of the story…do what’s right for YOU!!!! Don’t let anyone tell you what to do. This is YOUR life, YOUR blog, YOUR income. Period!
Oh, Sarah! You have just made my day. I actually prayed about this very thing this morning (among other things) and this post…well, prayer answered. It’s time for me to stop bull jiving around and do the darn thing. I’ve been too worried about word count, perfect images and all that jazz to just give my audience what they want. Thanks, Sarah, for the kick in the pants I needed today.
Oh, how cool is that Regina, for God to provide just what we need when we need it and to lead the way. I’m excited you found it!!!! <3
Sarah, these are the best comments I read about how often to post a blog. I thought I figured out before launching my blog 2 months ago, but nope. It does make a lot more sense when I read this. Thank you for sharing!
Absolutely. I’m SOOO glad I could help! This is the EXACT strategy I used to go from $0 to $10k/month blogging within a year of starting my blog!!! 🙂
Thanks, Sarah! You are awesome! I want to share this post on Pinterest, I think it would be so helpful for new bloggers like me. But, couldn’t find sharing buttons.
I don’t have social media buttons on the site, but there’s a pink heart “pin it” button that pops up when you hoover over the picture (it would be the tall vertical picture at the bottom of the post). 🙂
THANK YOU!!! This was exactly what I needed to hear today to help with some of the overwhelm I am feeling about starting this thing! What I love about coming here is that I know I am getting advice from your heart. I pray that I am able to help others some day in the way that you are helping me!
So glad you were able to find what you needed when you needed it. Isn’t that so amazing! 🙂 Absolutely from the heart. <3
Sarah, this was great to read! I’ve got a fairly new blog and have been struggling to put content out as I’ve been focused on making it the best I possibly can. One of my posts is almost 4,000 words! I’ve got an idea for a series that I want to write (12-ish articles) but I’ve been putting it off as the thought of writing all those words is a little daunting. After reading this I feel confident to just start writing and get my point across in each article without worrying about article length, keywords and readability scores – that can come later 🙂 I know what I’ll be doing today now! Thanks again, Sarah.
Absolutely Sarah. Just focus on what you’re doing. I skimmed through (speed-reader) a couple articles and they look great. 🙂 For your series, just take one article at a time and focus on that, not the whole thing. Just keep building. 🙂
I needed to read this. Currently have 90 posts up and they are all long, high-quality, SEO blah blah blah…but not tons of traffic! But I have a few people emailing me about how much they love my personal struggles and stories, so I’m reminded of exactly what you’re saying – it’s more important to connect! Thanks again Sarah!
So glad you found it Chantal. Yup, engagement is absolutely key. 🙂
YES! Oh my so refreshing, we blog for God first and that usually means we are loving on people first. I’ve been trying to grow my second blog for almost two years now and loved the point about how many posts you have. I’m just under 200 posts and really was keeping the blog going by Pinterest images, but now getting ready to go on with the blog I realize it’s not all about Pinterest, I do need to create more content. Thanks so much for your honest words!
Yes! Love on people first, just try to meet their needs and serve and the rest will come naturally. Love your thoughts, Tasia. <3
Thanks, Sarah! This was just what I needed to hear right now. I just need to share what is in my heart, and not worry about pleasing search engines right off the bat. I think that a lot of us know intuitively that this is the right approach, but we end up getting caught up in all of the “GURU” noise anyway.
Thanks for reminding us of what really matters, AGAIN. 🙂
Absolutely Julie. That’s very true.
Thank you. I have been blogging since the LiveJournal days, and even before that, (Xanga, anyone?) but I never really gain any traction. Maybe cuz I’m sporadic in posting and content. I’m gonna try posting everyday for the month of December with whatever comes to mind.
The next question is, which blogging platform do I use? I have no idea why WordPress isn’t loading properly on my computer. I’m not sure if it’s my slow internet connection or something else. (Living away from a city is the culprit, I say.) So now I moved to Tumblr, but I don’t know. Does it even matter? Let me know, okay? Thanks.
It really depends on what type of blog you want to have. If you want to have a hobby blog, those kinds of sites would be good (I’ve never tested those kinds of sites like Tumblr which is what it looks like your site is on, to give a proper credibility on them, so use your best judgement on the free blogs). If you want to have a money-making blog, it’s a business and yeah, no exceptions, you need to be on WordPress and be self-hosted with someone like BlueHost. You also need the Genesis theme and a child theme. I like Restored 316, but you can get them on places like Etsy, etc. Just be sure it works with Genesis. Google won’t even pay attention to you until you are on all that. That’s the START of it. You also need a newsletter, social media accounts, etc. Again, it’s a business. Those things are all standard, so it just depends on the way you want to go personally. 🙂
Thank you thank you thank you! Love your tips and honesty, Sarah. It’s refreshing and inspirational! I just started a traveling blog, and it seems so intimidating! You’ve simplified it and made me remember the real reason behind starting it vs the pressure. Thanks again!
That’s so great, Rakhi. Keep that reason forefront in your mind as you blog and you’ll be okay! 🙂 <3
I love this! My posts are naturally long but not SEO at all. I’ve been struggling, not sure about changing my style to fit google. This helps. My only question is, if you don’t do the stuff “they” say, how do people find you?
Social media, telling friends about your site, them telling THEIR friends, you can even do paid advertising (I don’t personally but many top bloggers do). There’s a lot of ways to get traffic to you. If your stuff is good, people will share it and do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. 🙂 Just be active, have a consistent post strategy, newsletter, etc. and promote your free stuff 🙂
Thank you for answering! I’m going to read more of your blogging about blogging posts. I just found your site (not on Google, by word of mouth which proves your point). You mention free stuff. Do you have a post or course you can point me to to help me understand how people make money giving away tons of printables? Some don’t seem to have any paid product they are funneling to or even affiliates. Is it just page views/ad revenue or am I missing something?
Everyone does things differently and some are in your face, some are more silent/soft sales. It really just depends on the blogger and what they do. I have a lot of the free philosophy in my course, Top 13 Things to Sell in Shopify (That Make the Most Money) here. I also talk about it on Instagram in a couple posts (here’s one). I think another thing is time in blogging. When you’re first starting out, you don’t HAVE products and you don’t wanna focus on affiliate links TOO soon b/c they’re just starting and wanting to establish trust. But basically for me, I’ve found that the more I give away, the more I make and it’s a thought as old as time…comes from the Bible. 🙂 It’s not to be manipulated or anything, don’t get me wrong, but as a Christian, my heart’s focus is on God and helping and serving others. Many people SAY they want to serve, but they don’t MEAN it. I truly mean it and people see it. But for me, it’s my spiritual gift (service), so it comes incredibly easy to me. It’s not always the right path for everyone, but the more you get to know YOURSELF and the things you excel in, use your gifts, what you’re good at, combined with what people respond to. 🙂
Thank you Sarah I was praying this morning and God really answered my prayer with this post. You really helped me understand how to blog the proper way. I am new to this site and the blogging world and I was wondering if you can do a post about emailing and everything new bloggers need to know. Thank you a lot!
So glad the post helped. 🙂 For the emailing post, what specific questions do you have? What things are you wanting to know? <3
Things like how to properly set up an email list, how to set up automated emails, how to add a popup to your site, and things like that 🙂
So for those things, it’s up to your choice of email service provider. Each one will be different based on what company you go with and each company will provide free help (usually by email) and has help guides, etc. Whoever you go through, you can also just google search for what you’re looking for with the specific email provider. For me, I teach more strategy, when to do things, why to do them, etc. 🙂 But my strong suit is definitely not technical stuff. haha. 🙂 After you get all that set up, if you want the strategy part of things, just lemme know your questions, etc. I’m more than happy to help. <3
This works!! I’m posting every single day on my blog and watching my views just go up up up! Had 227 NEW users in the past 7 days at only 1 month of blogging! Thank you for sharing this pearl of wisdom Sarah! You rock!
That’s so great! YAY!! Eventually you’ll start to patterns, what they like, what they respond to. Then it’s just a matter of posting more what they want. 🙂
The most legit advice I’ve read. And then when you said “I blog for God”!
I was just praying about this.
So often people invite God in on their plans instead of asking God how we can be apart of HIS plan. Thank you for being so honest and transparent Sarah.
That’s so true. Very sad, but true. Right now, He’s asking me to wait until He reveals the next “assignment” or step in His plan and I’m awaiting eagerly to see what He has in store for me (and in turn the blog) next. 🙂