In my experience
I’m going to posit a couple of points about increasing a blog’s readership numbers:
- It is important to blog consistently. In other words, if you want to increase your readership, you should regularly be producing content.
- The less subscribers one has, the less one should focus on creating blog content. In other words, for new bloggers concerned with gaining readership, it is worth spending significant time interacting with other bloggers on their blogs, rather than producing lots of content for their own blogs.
- As one’s readership grows, increasing numbers of people will comment on their blog, and this, in and of itself, well draw additional readers to interact with their blog.
Obviously, these points are only relevant for people who are concerned with gaining readers.
How often I post
Nowadays, I tend to post two or three times daily.
In part, my work and parenting schedule doesn’t allow me to create quality content any more often than that, which is primarily why I’ve settled into this routine. However, this also came about because more than one year ago, I spent a couple months posting five or six times a day, and I noticed my readership numbers taking a dip.
How often others post
Regardless of my own posting schedule, I have noticed that some of my favorite bloggers publish content twice as often as I do – and this has led me to wonder how this affects their readership numbers. Do they get more comments, likes, and subscribes as a result of posting five or six times a day? Or do they get less interactions per blog post?
Varied content?
In thinking about this, I am fairly certain that diversifying one’s content makes posting quite often more appealing to potential readers. You see, back when I was posting five or six times daily, I was only posting poems… So, perhaps my readers felt that my constant posting was too tedious?
After all, WordPress (or any blogging platform, really) is not designed to be used like Twitter or Facebook – I’m certain that readers would get annoyed if a blogger posted dozens of times a day, as one would quite readily and naturally do on Twitter.
Crowdsourcing: What’s your take?
I’m putting all of this out there because I’d love to know what you guys think –
Do you care how often other bloggers post? If so, does it matter what kind of content they are producing? Or the range of subjects they write on?
The Skeptic's Kaddish 🇮🇱 
Where do You get topics for You post?
well, Fer, it’s a combination of life moments that inspire me to write and various writing (mostly poetry) prompts that I respond to, which feed my creativity 😀
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David
Because of all my other hobbies/interests, I’m content to post once or twice a week. Besides, it takes me a while to write verse and/or create artwork that I’ll be satisfied with. I have dropped followers who would flood my gmail with 20 to 30 daily posts– even if they were only photos. To receive responses and posts from my blogger regulars keeps me busy enough and adds to my enjoyment in having a blogsite. Have a wonderful day.
Art
💓 Art 💓 ~ thank you; you too!
So if you’re posting 2 to 3 times a day. What’s the word count for each blog?
I’m asking because I have read 1000 minimum
Lamar, well, I’m primarily a poetry blogger – and poems are obviously much shorter than most prose.
I do happen to know that an op-ed for most English language newspapers should be about 800 words, but I don’t think a blog is equivalent to a newspaper – it’s more about interacting on a personal level with the blogger… And a lot of readers I know won’t bother reading blog posts that are too long – they prefer posts that are easier to digest.
~David
Thank you for the reply.
That totally makes sense.
I will have to keep that in mind.
Good luck with your poetry
I began in 2017 by only posting once a day, then two posts, and then in 2021, I could sometimes post three or more, but it became too much for me to keep up that pace. Between posting, trying to read up to 400 other blogs (some who posted as much as I did), and running The Short of It, things had to change. I only post once a day again, so it gives me more time to keep up with others’ blogs even though I don’t read as much as I used to. But I feel like I’ve found some balance.
🧡 Susi 🧡 ~ how on earth do you manage to read 400 blogs?
~David
I “read” them by only being able to read “some” of them. I wish I could read every single piece posted but then I would never be able to create my own!
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I am a beginner and facing all issues with collecting traffic. But the thing that encourages me regularly is “”””” TRY “. and i am doing so
💖 Aana 💖 ~ absolutely! That’s how I started too 😁
~David
I routinely follow, then re-assess, sometimes unfollow other bloggers – I spend time reading the blogs of others, commenting, and/or visiting blogs and ‘surfing’ in their work, if they like/comment on one of my blogs – just a like? Once? I visit – no about page and home page is full of stuff I’m not particularly passionate about? Full of nothing but re-blogs or trending news? meh – I don’t go back – or follow –
I post when I have time/feel called to – I read/comment/like when I have time to – feel called to – I sometimes follow ‘groups’ that put out challenges – but if they do daily, or multiple times a day? I can’t keep up with – have nothing to contribute, but usually find gems to read regularly/connect with via comments –
I’m not blogging here for biz – it was always more about community, learning more from folks across the globe that I may/may not have much of anything in common with – AND to learn more about how ‘daily working folks’ across many spectrums and places/traditions are feeling about various things – or to get better insight to the ‘behind the scenes’of the daily headlines in ‘news media’ I also follow –
Thus, from perspective of broadening my horizons via who I follow read/who follows/reads, comments on my work? I’m just not that hard pressed to ‘grow my numbers’ for any reason other than – it just organically happens as I go – but then, to, even though I have gotten some small ‘jobs/paid’ work from connections made here – possible jobs in the future – that’s NOT why I’m here, primarily – so that’s just my two cents on why I’m here and why, I stay – and yes, I’ve purchased many things for sale from folks here, who I first met/learned of simply because they were ‘blogging’ about their passion/their perspective/their journey – 😀
You’ve gotten some jobs via WP connections? That’s pretty cool 😎 👍🏻
small ones – offered advice – and could, here and there do some DIY instructions/guidance or purchase tools for hand offs – not my intent, just happened when commented on something folks were struggling with – as I said – this is my ‘social’ circle, so I don’t run here for business, which I think makes very different scenario on posting and how often – 😀
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Great post and always intrigued how your snow balled so fast David. Your great writing and interaction is a testament to that. My once to 3 times a week is truly all I can muster up. I love my friends and reading but honestly too much reading for me stunts creativity since I like interaction and then I can’t hear my own voice.
Secretly, when I go to check if someones written or not I say “whew”, one less to read.
I HATE when people are advertising and post on and on and I want to like what they do but taking time to scroll through 10 to like 1 irritates me too. The computer thinks your a bot if you like too much and shuts you out so I’m selective now. People can do what they want of course but it’s irritating to me. xo 💕
Cindy, I agree with you – that is actually the greatest challenge for me too, especially since I started running a prompt – because I try to make sure that I leave comments for all W3 participants, on top of the regular commenting that I do!
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David
Oh interesting to hear and it’s really glad to know you find the same issue David. Somehow i don’t feel so alone by hearing it💗
Hi David! I’m always sandwiched between my content and my connection with fellow bloggers. I think both are important. A good piece of writing is always appreciated and the answer might lie n the remarks and not the likes.
The best compliment is when readers reach out to you and ask what you’re writing next? Then you feel inspired. Or why haven’t you written anything lately? It’s good to be noticed.
Numbers to me is a game of illusion.
I really like your point about consistently writing and being read. 🙂
Harshi – for me personally, it’s not about the number per se… rather, it’s the understanding that greater “numbers” increase the likelihood that I’ll meet some more interesting people and make more friends 😀
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David
I saw this yesterday, had to think about it….
Only occasionally I’ll post twice . . . I’m doing well to get one post done per day, and it’s never a long one, ha 🙂 Rarely, I’ll have fun posting 3 haiku or short poems at each third of a day–very rare, because I don’t want to risk over-posting on this forum. If I post anywhere 3 or more times, it’s Twitter, and I hardly ever do that for myself.
The main challenge with my poetry site here is to be active on a regular-enough basis, primarily for camaraderie and fun but with regularity in mind for the audience that entertains my creative side. Yet, posting several times per day to keep numbers up is not a thing that ever ends, and the most important thing is keeping a roof overhead, food in the pantry. Guess you could say I’m somewhat torn, still figuring it out!
That is definitely an important hurdle to overcome, Angela… But, ultimately, if you don’t find a posting schedule that works for you emotionally and spiritually, it won’t be sustainable anyway!
~David
Yes! So, I remain open to experimentation at this point, not quite a year into this personal endeavor, with a simple mind to regularity and participation. It’s this interactive magazine, in my view . . . a great way to exercise my interests in a fairly casual way, broaden horizons, and banter. A pretty positive result thus far, so I’m hopeful to remain in tune for sure.
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great discussion, David. i’m just happy to post and share. but i do wonder, how you guys do it, reading others’ post, commenting, and answering comments on your own posts from so many people.
is it advisable to focus on only one writing platform?
It does take up a lot of time, Audrine, that’s for sure.
As for other platforms, I thought I’d try out Twitter (and technically I still use it) but I’ve realized that I cannot possibly commit to more than one platform because I’m much too invested in my beloved WP blog 🙂
https://skepticskaddish.com/2022/08/22/im-choosing-to-fail-at-twitter/
ooh that’s a great tip. you are focused on this one and it has grew a lot and still keeps on growing. i’ll omit some of my engagements. 😆😊
there are plenty of people who manage more than one platform… I don’t know how, but they do! I just can’t seem to handle it myself…
they must have hired people to do that for them 😆 i have 4 other platforms. so i think i’ll focus on where the love is. thanks, David.
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I don’t like when someone posts 6 or more times a day it either clogs my email or notifications. It becomes annoying. While I agree with your points on developing readership that you must engage to gain, I’m not thrilled on higher numbers of followers that either only lurk or aren’t real. Three times in blogging I did spring cleaning in regards to having active followers, now I just don’t care.
Matt, I feel you. My general feeling is that while only, say, 1-2% of my followers interact with me meaningfully, I still need to attract attention from greater numbers in order to connect with that 1-2%.
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David
Gotcha
If the content is good they may post as often as they like.
Hmnn… do you think that may be because you’ve come to WP from Instagram? How often do people post over there? I’m not very familiar with it…
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David