Producing original blog content is a proven way to build brand awareness, boost your website traffic, create leads, and increase conversions.

Which makes “how often you should blog?” a common question in content marketing and a highly debated one at that.

Some bloggers say more content is better, and they’re not wrong, while others swear by posting less often. And they’re not wrong either.

Truly, many agree that blogging on a regular basis (2-4 times a week) offers you the greatest return. Between 11-16 posts a month is the goal according to several studies with some indicating 11 being the sweet spot.

Then again, Neil Patel provides evidence of those benefiting from organic traffic and touting strong search engine optimization results despite producing blog content well below the monthly average.

So, where does that leave you?

Reading between the lines, it can be interpreted as finding the balance between maintaining quantity without sacrificing quality – posting multiple times a week only effective with great content.

Easier said than done.

Determining your editorial calendar comes with experience, a byproduct of trial-by-fire, and blogging takes careful planning.

It requires experimenting with different tactics to learn what works and what can be sustained, and it demands a deep understanding of your target audience and how they consume your content.

And don’t forget, the benefits of blogging are gained by aligning your content strategy with your marketing objectives and business goals.

When looking for direction to how often you should post, ask yourself these 5 questions:

Let’s examine these questions and how they impact the amount of blog content you produce.

Why posting every day might work for you

Some bloggers do best when they’re in a steady routine—and you might be one of them. If you find that posting once or twice a week quickly ends up as posting once or twice a month, then you might actually find it easier to post every day. That way, you can build a strong writing habit.

Another reason for posting daily is if you’re writing a news-focused blog in a fast-moving niche. One weekly post just isn’t going to work if you want to be on the cutting edge of what’s happening.

There are also some SEO benefits to quickly building up a lot of posts on your site: all else being equal, the more pages you have, the more opportunities a reader has to find you through search engines. (Of course, it’s not quite as simple as that in practice—one high-ranking post will generally bring you much more traffic than five so-so ones.)

If you’re going to post every day:

• Keep your posts short and to the point.
• Plan ahead, so you don’t end up publishing sub-standard content when you’re in a rush.
• Vary your post types: try video posts, or image-heavy ones, for instance.

Why one, two or three posts per week is usually better

Over the past couple of years, there’s been a shift in the blogging world. More and more prominent bloggers-on-blogging are moving away from daily posting—and reassuring their readers that you don’t have to post every day in order to be successful.

Five years ago, there weren’t so many “pro”-style blogs around, and readers were eager for content. Today, with a wealth of blogs to choose from, readers quickly get burnt out.

I once surveyed readers here on ProBlogger about the reasons they unsubscribed from RSS feeds, and the number one answer was “posting too much.” Respondents expressed that they developed “burnout” and would unsubscribe if a blog became too “noisy.” —Darren Rowse, You MUST Post Every Day on Your Blog [Misconceptions New Bloggers Have #2]

As a reader, I much prefer blogs that post once a week or even once every two weeks—but always say something genuinely useful—than blogs that post every day just for the sake of it. If you look at the blogs you read in depth versus the ones you skim, you’ll probably realize that you feel the same way.

As a blogger, posting once or twice a week lets me write in-depth, carefully constructed posts—ones that are more likely to get links and tweets. I also get more comments per post this way, and have the time to engage with readers over several days of commenting.

If you’re only going to post twice a week:

• Look at which content on your blog is most popular, so you can make every single post a successful one.
• Experiment with longer posts, perhaps 1,000+ words.
• Focus on evergreen content, so that each post will stay relevant for years.

Finding your perfect blogging routine

As bloggers, we all have different skills, personalities, and constraints on our time and energy. Don’t force yourself to stick to someone else’s blogging routine—it won’t necessarily work well for you.

Your perfect blogging routine might be one post a week, or one post a day. It might involve writing posts when you’re feeling inspired, or writing posts to a set schedule. You might use a content calendar to help you plan ahead with all or some of your content—or you might have differently themed posts on certain days of the week or month.

There’s no “one size fits all” approach to blogging, and what’s important is that you find a routine that you can stick to over the long term—not one that leaves you burnt out after a few weeks.

Don’t worry that readers will get upset if you change your posting frequency. I’ve chopped and changed on different blogs—and I’ve never had a reader complain that they wanted five posts a week, not three, or that they wanted my posts to be on Mondays and Thursdays, not Tuesdays and Fridays.

When you’re experimenting with your blogging routine:

• Don’t change things too abruptly: try going from five posts per week to three posts per week, for instance.
• Consider surveying your readers to find out whether they’d like more or fewer posts.
• Experiment with writing posts ahead of time, or with creating a content calendar.

Blogging shouldn’t be a chore: if posting daily isn’t working out for you, it’s probably not working well for your readers either. Today, take a look at your blogging routine and see whether you want to make any changes—and leave a comment below to let us know what you decide.

Ali Luke will be leading day-long blogging courses in London from September 2012. If you’d like to learn more about blogging, with hands-on exercises and one-to-one support as part of a small group, book your place today. (Numbers limited to 8 people per session.)

6 IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO OFTEN TO PUBLISH A BLOG POST

1. Your Starting Strategy

Your strategy is the foundation of your inbound program. But too often we see businesses start without a plan. They’re full of energy and excitement and jump into inbound marketing with both feet. The first 45 days are exciting as the content is flowing but something happens between day 45 and day 60. Page views start to taper, and even though the numbers look good, visitors aren’t turning into customers. The next thing that happens is that “this whole inbound marketing thing” gets pushed aside to handle later—but later never happens.

2. Defining Your Audience

Identify whom you are writing to. In other words who is the target persona? Who exactly are you trying to reach with your blog posts? You need to have a clear picture of the person who you are trying to reach if you are going to effectively reach them, right? For this to truly be effective write down all the characteristics of this target persona and make sure to share it with everyone on your team.

• Are you researching keyword and key phrases relevant to your industry and topics?
• Do you know your target persona’s buyer’s journey? Read more about creating content for the buyer’s journey here.
• Do you have a plan in place to create content that speaks to your target persona’s buyer’s journey?

Start with a plan, then channel your energy into creating the kind of content your target persona wants to read.

3. Getting in Their Heads

Determine the types of questions that your target persona has that you are qualified to answer. Think about the conversations you have when you are meeting with new prospects.

• What is it that they often ask you about?
• What concerns do they have?
• What do they want to know about?

The answers to all of these questions are all perfect blog posts for you to write. By focusing your articles around the questions they have you get to show thought leadershipand expertise in your responses and you become more easily found when someone does an internet search.

4. Focusing on Quality, Not Quantity

Never publish anything you don’t want your name on. If the quality is not to your internal standards, do not publish it. Focus on creating the highest-quality content possible. That means content that will resonate with your audience, not necessarily Pulitzer Prize-winning material. Mediocre content will get a mediocre response.

5. Aiming to Publish 1 to 3 Times a Week

Try to publish one to three blog posts per week minimum, as long as you can hit your quality standards. You would be better publishing just one really valuable blog instead of three mediocre ones.However, as we mentioned before, blogging frequency depends greatly on the goals you hope to accomplish with your blog.

For example, if your goal is to increase trafficand bring clicks to your website through content, you want to post frequently. If you’re more focused on brand awareness, the aim is to diversify content. You want to build a voice for your company, which means one or two smaller blog posts a week on useful information will attract your target audience.

6. Sharing Your Valuable Content

Your blog is a big opportunity to drive traffic to your website and promote your business as well as your products and services, but it needs strategic guidance to be successful in driving traffic and converting leads.

When people ask us, “Where should I share my blog?” we suggest these eight free ways to distribute blog content. There are additional distribution channels that include paid promotion and advertising, but this list focuses on eight ways you can share you B2B blog content immediately, and to places that your target audience is hanging out. Fish where the fish are!

For businesses, blogging does much more than let followers know about recent news and events. When done right, it establishes your organization as an authority in your industry, gives followers an insider look at your company culture, boosts SEO, and generates qualified leads.  How often should you blog? Now you know!