Posting Schedule - How Often Is Good?

Aim: Explaining the benefits of having a posting schedule and how you can implement schedules into your Blogspot blog

When I first started blogging, I never really knew anything about having a post schedule or plan where I would dedicate certain times in the week to research, write up and promote a particular article. Instead, I would spend hours on end wasting time and being unproductive; sometimes sacrificing other commitments and responsibilities because of it. The idea of having some sort of posting schedule means you are able to focus time and resources into areas that yield the most return. I don't know if you have ever heard of the Pareto principle (also known as the 80/20 rule)? Even though it is usually applies to business, I've been able to make use of it whilst blogging. 

If you're successful, you might have already applied this principle, with or without actually realising it. For the rest of us, the 80% refers to areas we're doing too much of (content creation, editing blog design and time wasting for instance) and the 20% refers to areas we don't do enough of but would benefit from greatly (such as link building or other commitments, responsibilities and hobbies that we're otherwise to busy or wrapped up in to undertake). If you feel like your spending too much time on blogging, but the productivity isn't there, you really need to consider the 80/20 rule; what's the time hog, what's important to the success of the blog that's being neglected, why is this happening and a solution to the problem. Your own personal posting schedule will not only lead to better consistency from one post to another, but will also act as a means of direction to keep you focused on one task.

The problem I see many people having is creating a schedule that's realistic and they are able to commit too not only on a weekly basis, but also monthly and yearly. It's crucial that your posting schedule is not only realistic, but sustainable and easily molded around other commitments, responsibilities and hobbies. So we can safely say the best type of posting schedule is one that allows you to post your best possible content, as frequently as possible, whilst being able to sustain the various other activities associated with running a blog, but also running your life.

There is no right and wrong answer to a posting schedule, as everyone is different. For example, the posting schedule below takes up an hour Monday, Tuesday and Thursday but leaves gaps in the week to commit to other things, blog related or unrelated. 

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Research Article (1 hour)	Create Article (1 hour)		Promote Article (1 hour)

How frequently should you post? Posting on a frequent (possibly daily) basis is something you might have to think about doing if you want a successful blog(s). In simple terms, the more quality posts you have can lead to more areas of people's searches your blog is popping up in. It can also lead to more backlinks and better off-page SEO which in turn will rank your blog higher (in theory, it's not that simple though as we all know). On the other end of the scale, it requires you to research and create content on a daily basis which maintains quality and is still interesting to the reader; which is very hard. Many writers become fatigued and idea sapped and it just doesn't end up working.

I tend to write once or twice a week (like the above posting schedule table) as it allows me to produce better quality content and focus more time on university work and other things. Posting only a couple of times a week does mean that your blog is going to take longer to grow, but if you make sure your articles are of a high enough quality, you shouldn't have too much problem getting them seen by others.

How to schedule Blogspot blog post...

1) When you have completed a post, navigate to post options (do not click publish!)

2) Under the 'Post date and time' option, change the button from 'Automatic' to Scheduled at'. Edit the date and time to your desired settings.

3) Press the 'Publish' button and you have now successfully created a scheduled article. Congratulations!

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