At the risk of starting the week with a phoning-it-in post, I’m going to return to a question as ancient as the blogosphere itself:
How often should a blogger blog?
As a rule of thumb, I try to post a few times a week. A lot of bloggers tend to fall into that same pattern.
But some, like Scott Stratten (aka @unmarketing), think frequent blogging isn’t as important as valuable, albeit infrequent, content. In a recent post on this topic, Stratten writes: “Daily, weekly, monthly, blogging is not dependent on how frequent, but more on how impactful.” Read the full post for his supporting arguments.
It’s hard to disagree with Stratten, because impact and content are the reasons people read blogs. (And, I hope, the reason all of us who blog do what we do.) And while I do agree with Stratten’s point that “It’s only a freaking blog, people,” and that there are many more important things in life than blogging, I’m more likely to check in on blogs that are updated frequently (at least weekly). That’s because the frequently updated blogs show up in my RSS and Twitter streams more often, and therefore they’re on my radar.
The bloggers who post regularly may not hit the grand slams every time out, but at least they’re stepping up to the plate and getting their at-bats. (Bear with me; it’s baseball season.) That’s not to say the less frequent bloggers aren’t honing their writing craft in other venues — writing for other sites or publications — but if they are, you might not know it by visiting their blogs. (Back when I was writing more for other publications, I’d usually drop a post on my personal blog redirecting readers to my latest column or entry elsewhere, because that’s just good self-promotion.)
But back to Stratten. If it weren’t for his Twitter persona and this status update, I wouldn’t even know about his blog. Now that I am, I’ll be sure to check in once in a while, because he writes good stuff there. Just not very frequently.
So. Is frequency important? I think so. Is good content important? Most definitely. How a blogger balances frequency and content is a personal choice. No one size fits all.
Higher Ed Marketing 
The other side of the coin, which I feel happens often with me, is that I may be more likely to gravitate to a blog I haven’t seen update in a while — if it has set a precedent of quality content (or if I have a particularly vested interest in it, such as if it is a blog by a personal friend of mine).
I keep close tabs on my Google Reader, so unless I’m on vacation it tends to be fairly up-to-date and well-groomed. Still, when I see a blog pop up that I don’t typically see too often, internally I go “ooh.” I get a little excited.
Of course, like you, I too try to update at least 2-3 times a week. So what do I know? :-) I agree, no one size fits all. It all depends on the blogger and the reader.
I agree with the frequency argument a bit. While all us bloggers try as hard as possible to write something inspiring and impactful as well as high quality, having continuous content helps draw people in. I kind of like a blog that has a frequent schedule, almost like a favorite TV show – you know when and where to find a new episode. All the episodes may not be Emmy award winners, but it is at the same bat-channel at the same bat-time.
The other thing I find helps is to have content and audience follow the same flow. Continuing the TV example, all of the characters are the same, the storyline flows, the audience is roughly the same, and the pieces fit together (with the occasional digression). Nobody would follow a TV show that constantly threw your mind about with new story lines, new characters, and made you confused (with the occasional exception – LOST).
Andy,
You asked so I’m going to give you the professional, HubSpot answer on this one. ;)
You want to blog a minimum of once a week. If you blog any fewer than that then you loose readers. Also nothing is worse than a site that hasn’t been updated in months.
On the flip side I can absolutely confirm that posting more grows your following faster. Personally I feel like our HubSpot inbound marketing blog is too busy with multiple posts a day now (instead of three times a week in the past) but as they have increased the content the following has gone up exponentially. Of course you must have quality content on a regular basis and who knows where the ceiling is on this relationship. Also as you get to the point of posting too frequently then people will just skip some of your content as they can’t keep up with everything that you write. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing though… or is it?
So there you go… and Look at this below… you finally have a subscribe to comments by email on this blog. It’s about time bud!
Once a week is good for me as long as you publish a good post and preferably on Sundays/Mondays, so I can include it in my Tuesday newsletter ;-)
As far as collegewebeditor.com is concerned, I try to post at least once a week – sometimes more (if I stumbled on something I ABSOLUTELY need to share), sometimes less (If I’m swamped by other stuff).
Kyle – I added the subscribe to comments function just for you!
Karine – I always try to post something that is worthy of consideration on your e-newsletter. Can’t wait to see whether I made the cut tomorrow. ;)
I’d take quality over quantity anytime. But of course, as Kyle James has pointed out. You stop posting new blogs, people would eventually stop coming. I agree with most of them, weekly is a good enough compromise. But I don’t think you should feel pressured or compelled to give yourself deadlines or so, especially if you’re not used to stress under pressure. It could ruin the quality of your work.
PS. I’m leaving you with an inspirational article http://budurl.com/7jdf that has totally nothing to do with blogging or frequency of blogging. But it is truly an inspirational story that I hope you all will like and eventually inspire you all.