Confession: I am not going to provide you with 365 reasons why you should try to publish year round because sometimes less is more and this is one of those times.
The point and purpose of using “365” is that it is a familiar number and numbers catch a reader’s eye making it more likely they will point and click their way into my corner of cyberspace and getting them through the front door is half the battle.
One of the best ways to do that is to continue to provide new content when others are not.
Publishing Year Round
Many bloggers shut down for the holidays and that presents a golden opportunity for you to find and secure new readers.
When readers are searching for content you want to position yourself as the answer to the “Who Ya Gonna Call” line from Ghostbusters. It is part of how you build trust and credibility.
While it is critical to provide useful and factually accurate content it is also critical to make sure your readers know the shop is manned and and not abandoned. When you are competing with millions of other bloggers and thousands of distractions you need to leverage the tools and resources you have at your disposal.
There is no doubt that many people go on vacation around the holidays and that the climate changes. If you review your analytics it is possible you will see that your traffic slows down a bit.
Notice we used the word slow and not stop.
Can You Take A Vacation?
Don’t misunderstand this to mean that you cannot take a vacation because you can. One of the best parts about your blog is that you if you plan ahead you can continue to supply a steady stream of fresh content for your readers.
There are a lot of ways to do that such as scheduling posts in advance or asking people to guest blog for you. The hardest part is planning ahead and then making sure that someone can check on things while you are out.
In an ideal situation you have an established community that you can rely upon to help you keep things going. The nature of that relationship will vary but for the sake of the example community members might be the people that guest post and perhaps respond to comments.
There Is No Single Way To Success
There is no single path to social media success which means part of your task is trying to figure out what methods work best for you and your particular situation. However we are going to take a risk and assume that you one of the reasons you are blogging is because you want a bigger platform for your writing than the diary under your bed or bathroom wall will provide.
If that is the case then I can guarantee that publishing new content when others go dark can be a very effective tool.
What about you? What do you think?
Hey Josh good post, I tend to up my work when I know others are not, just because in competitive markets it can help you climb the ranks. That being said,
I have to say that when the title of the blog isn’t what the post is, I tend to lose trust for the blog. You said, “It is part of how you build trust and credibility.” But earlier you confess you tricked people with the title. This is always a horrible tactic for building readership as people stop trusting your titles. I would suggest against it in the future. Other than that good post.
Hi Ross,
I think we disagree on this one. I don’t feel like like I “tricked” anyone by not providing 365 ‘reasons’ why people should blog daily because ultimately I answered the question.
Some people might disagree and I would invite them to do as you have done here and leave a comment saying so.
After almost nine years of blogging the one thing I know for certain is that we are never going to please everyone. Some people will love our work, some will hate it and some will be ambivalent.
One of the “tricks” is determining what system works for you. Part of that process involves figuring out what your goals are, but that is a separate post entirely.
Appreciate your coming by and hope to see you again.
I like posting 365 days a year. You are right, though, I did see my traffic drop by about half over the last week. It is okay, though, because I found out that a cousin of my father’s has been reading my blog. They’ve never left a comment, but it was nice to know they were giving it a read. That is the beauty of blogging, you never know who might stop in to check out the posts.
Hi Brian,
I always find it interesting how time of year impacts the blog. There is always a change during Summer and around the Winter holidays. I like looking at keywords that drive traffic to because it is the kind of trivia that is just fun for me.
Lurkers are a lot of fun too. You really don’t know who is reading and sometimes you don’t even know why.
That is cool that your father’s cousin is reading. It is always nice to see we are appreciated.
Hi Josh,
Agree with you, what ever the holiday it may be your business can`t take holiday. But, as you mentioned it doesn`t mean you have to work all the time.
For that you can schedule things, like in WordPress you can do it to your posts.
~@Khajamoin1
Hi Khaja,
We are on the same page here. Sometimes you have to take a break which is why the schedule feature on WordPress can be so valuable. It is a very useful tool that you can use to keep your content fresh while providing you with time off.
Hi Josh
Great sound advice. Although this is where I should have had more planning in place. Too many things on my mind and company yesterday, leaves me with trying to figure out what to write. I did start something and maybe it is almost finished, but it lacks what I want to put out. Started the month on track, but somehow fizzled out a bit on the last week or so.
Planning next year for a more consistent process will keep the momentum going.
Hi Mary,
I understand. Life gets far too busy. It is why I have thought about using an editorial calendar to organize things here a little bit.
Beyond that I have plans to prepare more posts ahead of time so that I always have material to plug in.
I don’t stop writing during the holidays, but it slows down. I keep working for my clients and I keep hustling. What I’m missing is the creativity. During the holidays I keep doing the most important stuff, but not my best stuff.
Hi Jens,
I think about it all the time, how to maintain the creativity and output levels but I can’t say I have found one single way to make it work..
Just testing different methods to see what works best.
Hi Josh! Well, I’m only partly stepping away this Christmas. I’ll be back on NYE missing only one post – this coming Thursday.
I wanted to come by and with you (scrooge or no) a very Merry Christmas with your family!
See you on the other side – in 2013!
Lori
Hi Lori,
Hope you have a Merry Christmas. 😀
All I can say is that I get really ticked off (on the inside) when the library is closed and I have read all of the boks on my shelves and every writer is away on holiday. Pinterest only amuses for so long.
I appreciate year-round writing. I’m selfish that way. 🙂
So…thank you.
Hi Betsy,
I am a big fan of 24 hour libraries so I know exactly what you are talking about. When you want to read, you want to read.
Hi Josh
I really like this which brought a smile on my face
…readers know the shop is manned and and not abandoned”.
Key thought shared.
Thanks
Sapna
Hi Sapna,
Thanks. There are a lot of blogs out there that are abandoned or almost dead. That is not a great way to retain readers so I always advise people to try and avoid it.