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All You Can Eat Blogging and Social Media Posts Posted: 10 Jun 2008 06:43 PM CDT If you’ve got a little spare time today and are in the mood for learning about how to blog - you might want to check out Alltop’s Blogging Page. It lists the latest posts of 44 great blogs about blogging. Only thing I’d add to the page is the RSS feed of each blog (so people can subscribe directly) and perhaps even a mega feed that pipes all of the feeds on the category into one. Also at Alltop on a related topic is their Social Media page. Share This

Win 12 Months of Professional Podcasting for Your Blog [COMPETITION] Posted: 10 Jun 2008 02:56 PM CDT Today I’m pleased to announce a giveaway/competition here on ProBlogger where you have the chance to win one of three prizes - a year’s worth of free podcasts for your blog from First Blog Media. All you have to do to win is answer a question in the comments of this post (see below for the question). The sponsor of this competition is First Blog Media - a marketing company with the goal of helping bloggers transition from text-only sites to multi-faceted conduits of rich media. Their medium of choice is the podcast and they offer a twice a month service where radio professionals work to create high quality shows from your blog’s text. Everything — recording, editing, hosting — is managed on their end. They then upload your production to their servers and let your blog’s readers stream the content straight from your site. Getting started is as simple as installing a widget and letting the team at First Blog Media get working. $100 Discount Offer First Blog Media is offering $100 for all ProBlogger readers on this service - all you have to do is to sign up from this link (not an affiliate link). They are also offering 3 readers 12 months of the service for free as a prize today. How to Win This Competition All you have to do put yourself in the running to win is answer this question: Why would you like to have a podcast on your blog? Please note - to be included please include the word ‘podcast’ in your entry - this will help us ensure we catch all entries in our comment spam filter. The team at First Blog Media will choose 3 winners at the end of the week. Share This

What is the Ideal Post Frequency for a Blog? Posted: 10 Jun 2008 09:02 AM CDT In our current reader poll I’m asking readers to tell us how many posts they made on their main blog over the month of May. It’s only been 12 hours since I posted the poll so it’s early days - however so far category with the most responses so far is 1-10 posts (currently with 30% of the responses). A number of readers have asked me about ideal posting frequency today so I thought I’d put together a few ‘random’ thoughts (and they are random): 1. The ideal post frequency will vary considerably from blog to blog Some blogs need a lot more posts than others in order to satisfy their readership. This depends upon a number of factors including: The topic you’re covering - for example a blog with a wide niche with lots of breaking news each day will need a lot more posts to cover it all The style of writing - short sharp posts mean you can get away with posting more in a day than if your blog is one that is all about producing longer and more in depth ones. Demographics of Readers - the type of reader that you have can impact posting frequency. For example I interact with one blogger who has a very young audience who just love lots of short posts. The same blogger has a blog targeting a much older demographic and he finds that if he posts more than once a day with them that they feedback that it’s too much. I don’t think that it is always as simple as this - but it can be a factor Blogger Numbers - if you have multiple bloggers you will obviously be able to increase the output that they can produce. 2. Increasing Posting Frequency CAN help grow your blog More many blogs there is a relationship between posting levels and readership levels. This happens on a number of levels: posting more creates more pages for Search Engines to index - every new post is a new doorway into your blog when it comes to search engines posting more increases the frequency that your blog appears in front of subscribers - this increases the chances that they’ll read something you write (to a point - see point #3) infrequent posting can cause readers to become frustrated - it can also hurt the momentum on a blog and give readers a sense of you becoming disengaged It isn’t as simple as saying the more posts you write the more readers you’ll have - but increasing your post frequency can definitely add life to a blog that is struggling. 3. Posting too much can hurt your blog’s growth On the flip side of point #2 is the fact that sometimes if you post too much you can frustrate readers and cause them to stop following your blog. I surveyed readers last year on the reasons that they unsubscribed from blogs and two of the top reasons were ‘posting too much’ and ‘not posting enough’. Obviously there’s a balance that needs to be struck here - but do keep in mind that your readership will have a certain level of tolerance for consuming content - exceed it and they’ll begin to disengage and either unsubscribe or stop ‘reading’ everything you write. 4. Sometimes Less is More One trend that I’ve noticed in talking to bloggers who have been around for a while (after their blogs become established) is that they find that ‘less can be more’. I’ve lost count of the number of bloggers who tell me that scaling back their posting frequency a little brings a new life to their blog. In almost every case that I am thinking about the blogger is a more established blogger who has worked hard to build up an audience. They say that scaling back a little means that they are able to develop better quality posts, that they get more comments per post (the posts remain on the front page of the blog longer) and readers say that they appreciate it. Perhaps this is part of the life-cycle of a blog when it reaches a stage of ‘maturity’. 5. Regularity and Rhythm Is Important More important in my mind than actual numbers is that a blogger find a rhythm and stick to it. This is important as it helps their readers to know what to expect and to align themselves with your rhythm. If you decide to post once a day then that’s great - stick to that wherever possible. If your rhythm is one post per week, then that can work too, but don’t suddenly put in days where you do 10 in a day (unless there’s some special reason). If your posting frequency is 5 posts a day, then keep to that rhythm. There will always be days that you break your rhythm - that’s ok, but try to keep the majority of your days at a similar level. For example - on my two blogs I’ve established two quite different rhythms: ProBlogger - I try to post 2-3 times per day here at ProBlogger. I post one longer post per day (this would be that one for today) and one ‘lighter’ post. The first post usually explores a question, is a how to post or a deeper exploration of a topic. The second one is usually either a newsy post, a shorter post or something that is discussion oriented. The first post is designed to go deeper and the 2nd is more easily consumed quickly. I also throw in additional posts if news breaks on a topic relevant to the blog. Digital Photography School - at DPS I only post once a day unless there’s something important that I need to get out about the site or some really massive news (very rare). On weekends we usually feature a reader question type post and a forum highlights post and on week days it’s usually more of a ‘how to’ type post. A Suggestion If You are Starting Out as a New Blogger I am aware that many ProBlogger readers are just starting out with blogging and that the question of ‘how much should I post’ is one that many grapple with. Here’s what I usually suggest to a new blogger: Start out posting slightly less than you think you’ll end up posting. I suggest this because it helps you ease into posting and can help you not to burn out in your first few weeks. For example - if your goal is 7 posts a week I generally would say to a new blogger to post around 3 quality posts in their first weeks, aim for 4-5 in the weeks after and then to ramp it up to 6-7 after a month or so. In this way you’re giving yourself room to get used to having to come up with an idea every day and you also give yourself a little more time to do other things that are important in the early days of a blog (networking, getting your design right, learning how to use your tools etc). Further Reading on Posting Frequency: I’ve previously covered this topic at How Often Should a Blogger Post? It picks up some of the same themes as well as a few other thoughts. Frequent Short Posts - A Secret of A-List Bloggers Success - this post was written back in 2005 but still holds true to some extent. It does depend upon the type of blog you’re writing - but sometimes ‘More means More’. I guess it all comes down to style. Share This

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