When starting a new blog one of the most common questions is “How often should I publish?” It’s a reasonable question and I will give you the answer.
First, you must understand when you start a new blog nobody will read it and, besides you, nobody will care; especially Google. Google will not care one iota that your articles are vastly superior than the ones showing in the first few positions.
Writing Into The Void
Your blog will be sitting in time-out, in a “sandbox” phase in which Google will send you zero traffic for months.
They used to say three months was standard, but I’m seeing it’s more 6-12 months before Google trusts you enough with higher volume search results, and you must keep blogging into the void until you break through. I have the theory Google tries to dishearten you to get you to quit, and when you don’t quit they know they can trust to send you volume.
I want you to understand the no-traffic thing about Google before we get to the question of frequency of posting because most people quit their blogs when no traffic comes, and I want to make sure you understand traffic will come, but you gotta grind for it.
How Often Should A New Blogger Publish?
The answer is a minimum weekly and there is no maximum.
There must be a minimum of one post per week, that’s the rule.
The reason this is the rule is because you must maintain consistency. Without consistency your blog will die. It is very easy for a month to pass by without posting anything, time flies.
We all know this. And if your blog sits stagnant, statistically, you will quit and it will die and you will be wondering what happened to your dreams of being a full time blogger, and then you will be grinding in the human zoo (your job) for another few years before you maybe decide to take another shot at your freedom. That is why you must post a minimum weekly.
That’s the minimum. But as you suspected, 52 posts in a year isn’t gonna earn your freedom via blogging.
But that’s okay, it’s gonna take more than a year to earn freedom from blogging. It’s gonna take 3-5 years, which sucks, but what else are you gonna do in the meantime? There are no shortcuts. There is only the work, work, work.
Why No Maximum?
If you can blog daily, great. If you can only do weekly, okay.
The more you post the more feedback you are going to have on what works and what doesn’t work. You will know quicker how to use WordPress. You will know quicker how to use H1, H2, and H3 tags. You will learn the game at a much quicker rate.
When Google turns on the traffic, you will have much more articles to give you feedback for what the searchers are looking for.
Every single blogger can tell you a story of a meticulously researched, time-consuming post doing no numbers, while a mediocre, slapped-together post did big numbers! You just don’t know what will hit!
So, the odds of success increase if you put more targets out there. Then when you see what works you make more posts like the one that hit hard!
That’s why there is no maximum. You should be posting more than once a week if you can. Who do you think is gonna have success first?
The blogger with 52 posts a year or the blogger with 300 posts a year?
We all know the answer already! It’s the blogger with 300 posts, even if the blogger with 52 posts is objectively a better writer.
Make A Game Plan And Stick To It
The name of the blogging game is consistency over the course of years. That’s the formula for winning.
Unless you write some amazing posts like Wait But Why I don’t think weekly blogging is gonna get you to the goal of full-time blogging, but weekly posting is a good goal for a new blogger because writing is hard. And you don’t know just how hard it is until you try to post articles consistently. It’s hard to write when you can’t think of what else to say!
Personally, I think a commitment to 3x per week blogging for 3 years is the sweet spot for anybody that wants to make a full-time living from the blogging game. There are no overnight successes here, just a hard grind that eventually pays off.
Keep Your Vision Of Success In Your Mind
The beginning is the hardest and it’s where most give up.
This is why it’s very, very important to have a Vision of what success looks like to you for your blogging. Is it living in Thailand or Belize on the cheap while making a living from your laptop? Or maybe buying a townhouse in Orlando, getting Disney World annual passes, and spending your weekdays exploring the parks without the massive crowds? Or maybe getting a popup camper trailer, starlink internet, and camping across the country?
Whatever it is, keep that Vision in your mind.
Oh, what’s my Vision? Oh, I don’t wanna bore you with the details…oh fine okay, I’ll give you the bullet points. Might as well, maybe it will inspire other people’s Vision.
Austin’s Blogging Freedom Vision
- Pay Off My House: I have a wonderful little townhouse for me and my family in a location I like. I think I’ll probably stay here forever. Instead of playing the upgrade to a bigger house game, I’d rather live mortgage free in this beautiful little house and lower my housing expenses to almost zero, and then my little beautiful house will be my “home base.”
- Travel: I do love traveling, but I don’t want to be a digital nomad. I’d like to do frequent trips from my home base to new places around the world, at the top of my list is: Jamaica, Hawaii, Alaska, Thailand, Australia, and much more, deeper travel in my Home State Of Florida. I’m currently 106 out of 175 into my quest to visit all 175 Florida State Parks. I also want to go to all 433 USA National Parks. I’m in the very beginning stages of that quest.
- Set My Kids Up For Success: I want to have the freedom and flexibility full-time blogging will bring so I can spend a lot of time with my kids and have the resources to let them pursue their interests. I don’t want to be the barrier! I want to give them a superior education and access to opportunity!
- Hiking: I want to hike the entire Florida Trail and Appalachian Trail, probably something I’ll tackle after all the kids are out of the house, so I gotta keep in good shape!
- Continue To Write A Lot: Once writing sets me free I’ll be able to write even more! What else would I wanna do with my time? More blogs, more books, more articles, more, more, more.
Okay, enough dreaming. Let’s get to work and write, write, write! Let’s all get free by blogging and writing and then we’ll all collaborate and hang out and have adventures!
I’ll see you on the other side, friend!