Keeping a blog up to date is one of the most important
aspects of blogging. This is so important because regular blog visitors expect
new postings on a regular basis. Not all visitors expect to see a new post as
often as once a day but most blog readers expect the content on the blog to be
updated on a regular basis. In most cases visitors expect new content on at
least a weekly basis. However, depending on the subject matter the visitors may
expect updates on a basis which is either more frequent. Similarly visitors may
not be interested in receiving this type of information more than a few times a
year. Blog owners should be aware of the frequency of which readers expect new
posts and should make an effort to oblige the readers with updates this often.
This article will discuss methods for keeping a blog up to date including
scheduling a regular time to post blogs, using publishing tools wisely and
hiring guest bloggers when necessary.
Finding Time to Post Daily
One way to help to ensure a blog remains up to date is to
schedule time to post blogs on a daily basis. This is especially important when
blog readers expect new posts on a daily basis or at least several times per
week. Bloggers who allot a specific block of time each day to researching,
writing and publishing blogs are more likely to have a blog which is up to date
than bloggers who plan on accomplishing tasks when they find time to do so.
There may still be days in which the blogger is unable to publish a new post on
the blog but these days will be less frequent than if the blogger does not have
a block of time strictly dedicated to keeping the blog up to date.
On days in which the blog is unable to devote time to
blogging, the blogger may wish to at least publish a short message explaining
why it was not possible to post a new blog entry. This will let readers know
you are aware of their desire to read more information but are simply unable to
publish a new blog post. As long as this does not become a regular occurrence,
blog visitors are not likely to stop viewing a blog simply because the blogger
skips a day or two.
Taking Advantage of Publishing Tools
Some blog publishing tools enable bloggers to write blog
posts ahead of time and specify when each post should be published. This is an
excellent feature for bloggers who want to publish new posts daily but are
unable to dedicate time each day to writing blog posts. This way the blogger
can dedicate a block of time each week to write blog posts and have the posts
published throughout the week. This is often an easier method for many bloggers
because they are able to be more efficient this way.
Hiring Guest Bloggers
Bloggers may also want to consider hiring guest bloggers to
assist them in keeping a blog up to date. This can be a worthwhile method for
bloggers who are not only having difficulty keeping their blog up to date but
are also interested in providing readers with a little variety. However, blog
owners who opt for this message of keeping their blog up to date should
carefully consider how the dedicated blog readers will react to this change. This
is important because some readers may not be interested in reading blogs
written by a guest blogger. Therefore the use of a guest blogger can actually
be more detrimental to the blog than not updating the blog regularly. Bloggers
can gauge reader reaction to the use of guest bloggers in a couple of different
ways. The simplest and most straight forward method is to poll the readers
about the use of guest bloggers. This can be done by asking readers to comment
on the issue and tabulating the comments received. Another method to gauge
reader reaction is to introduce a guest blogger and compare the traffic the
guest blogger receives to the traffic the blog owner receives.