If you’re like many business owners, just making the decision to add a blog to your website, getting it set up properly, and then coming up with blog topics are pretty big challenges on their own. Now you have to write those blogs, too! So, how do you know how often you should publish on a business blog?

There is no doubt that the more you blog, the more your website (and your business) will benefit. But how much is “just right?” That depends on a number of factors, but the biggest one is the time constraints of the person who’s in charge of the blog. and most likely that’s you.

Blog As Often As You Can

So, the best answer I can offer is this: blog as often as you can. I usually recommend at least twice per month. Less than that and your website becomes static. Of course, if you can write more often…that’s great. But you don’t want to blog to become a burden to you, because it will go right to the bottom of your to-do list. So be realistic about what you can accomplish.

Be Realistic

Blogging is one of the most powerful marketing tools you have and for all intents and purposes it’s free! Of course you want to do it. But it can be very difficult to stay on track when you have so many other things vying for your attention. So in order to keep you on a schedule, I have some advice…

Stay On A Schedule

Create a simple blog calendar (I use Google Docs but an excel spreadsheet works, too. Create the following columns:

• Review Date: Have your blog ready to be reviewed (by you or someone on your staff to check for typos, etc.) a day, or up to a week before the date you want to publish.
• Publish Date: The date you want your blog post to be added to the site.
• Category: The category the blog will be posted under. This helps you to see if you’re writing too under one category.
• Topic: Not necessarily the same as category. For example, this post is about blogging frequency, but will live in the “Blogging” category on my blog.
• Social Media: Create a column for each Social platform you use and check them off when you’ve shared your post on each platform. It’s easy to get distracted…this keeps you on track. You will want to share each blog post more than once on some platforms, such as Twitter, but this column will ensure that you share at least once.

 

Create a “Blog Vault”

When you have a block of time where you can focus on writing, try to create at least two blog posts at a time. It’s such a great feeling to know that you have some blogs written and ready to go, instead of having to scramble at the last minute to stay on schedule.

Care About Your Subscribers And They’ll Care About You

When you think about your blog, try to visualize your subscribers’ email inboxes. When they don’t hear from you for many weeks or months, they may lose interest. Keep in mind that if they took the time to subscribe, they want to know in what you have to say.

If you’re realistic about your workload, do some simple planning, and don’t forget about your subscribers, your blog should work hard for you.