While perusing various social media news sites, I often come across the question of how often to post blogs and how can blogging help develop your website/bring in an audience. And not just any random audience, but how can blogging attract a loyal audience while developing your niche? Blogging has come a long way from teenagers ranting on

Xanga to business professionals updating their WordPress sites and bloggers being considered journalists. Some great benefits of blogging include an increase in traffic, awareness and credibility. With this you’re also gaining repeat visitors who are more likely to share your content and spread the message even further. It doesn’t hurt, right?

As a consumer, if I’m interested in your product or services enough to visit your blog, I would like to see a blog post 2-3 times per week minimum, if not every day. A consumer doesn’t want to visit your website on Monday, love the blog post and then have to wait another two weeks for a post. Chances are you will lose that customer if they become unsatisfied with the inconsistent posting. Blogging essentially can be lumped with customer service, so it’s best to treat each visitor, each comment like a potential customer. Consistency and value are two very important aspects to customer service and blogging. If you really want to drive more traffic to your blog then try to blog once a day. I know that coming up with content on a daily basis can be challenging and time consuming, but do your research and catalog blog ideas for a rainy day. If there is a day when it comes down to not blogging or blogging with bad content, don’t blog. Readers revisit your site for value and consistent good content, so if you are sacrificing your credibility, take the day to research tomorrow’s blog. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or research what other people are talking about. Just because your competitor covered that topic, doesn’t mean you have to cover it in the same way. Take the idea, twist it to fit with your opinions and make it work for your company as well.

Another obstacle people tend to use as an excuse when it comes to blogging every day is time. Time, yes, is money, and you’re probably “too busy” running your home or a business, working, or taking care of the kids, right? Well, something everyone will eventually learn and come to respect is the art of delegating. Don’t feel as though you have to be personally responsible for posting and promoting every blog post. There are many ways to delegate, aside from giving blogging responsibilities to another employee or consulting company, you can experiment with guest posting. The process of guest posting can be beneficial in so many ways. When you guest post on other websites and blogs, it drives even more traffic to your website and when you allow other bloggers to guest post on your site, it’s alleviates the stress of not having the time to blog that day. Try having a guest poster once a week/bi-weekly. This process brings a lot of benefits like an increase in popularity and exposure online, better relationships with other bloggers, increase your backlinking, increase your ranking in search engines, increase authority in your niche and reach new audiences. If this is something you’re comfortable with, start reaching out to people. A blog I follow from the UK (sociable.co.uk) has a few tips on how to get started with guest blogging.

  1. Guest blog on sites in your niche. Carefully choose your sites. How do you find these sites? Useful resources include Google search and Google Blog Search, as well as top sites in your niche. You may also contact authors directly (consider who you already know, and how to find new people).
  2. Reply to everyone that has left comments on your guest blog.
  3. Fully engage with your readers – visit and comment on their blog; connect with them on other social media channels i.e. follow them on Twitter, Tweet their latest blogs.
  4. Blogging is reciprocal – If you help others out, they will often reward you.
  5. Guest blogging is a chance to show your capabilities to write great content. So ensure you deliver content that is high quality.
  6. Guest blog for lots of different posts – Don’t just stick to the same few. Consider guest blogging for both small and large sites.
  7. Join a blog community such as MyGuestBlog
  8. Provide content that has a lot of value to readers i.e. tips, etc.
  9. Write unique content. Don’t copy a post that is already on your website
  10. Leave an optimized Link in your bio – Don’t just leave a normal link to your site, make the most of your link by changing the anchor text to something you want to rank for in Google.

More and more consumers are researching companies before they decide to use their products or services, so presenting valuable and consistent website content is very important these days. Blogging is more than just brain dumping, it’s a way to effectively connect with consumers when done right. Encourage readers to comment, comment on other blogs to draw more readers to your site and remember to have fun with it. Yes, content needs to be relevant to your niche, but find your blogging voice and liven up your site with exciting ideas and research. Let us know how it works out! How often do you blog on your site? Do you think blogging more often than not draws in more visitors?