BUT even in saying that I like having a wide range, as it keeps life interesting posting about different topics.

@Patricia – Consistency is very important, agreed, but consistency of quality rather than schedule.

@George – Yes traffic drops, but post filler just so you can say you posted and you will get unsubscribes. Many times I haven’t posted but the visitors come right back when I do. Post a clunker and they leave and DON’T come back. I would rather not post than force myself to post something rubbish. My photography blog is very ad hoc, there can be over a week between posts, but my feed subscribers are growing. There are some super successful blogs that post very irregularly.

@Jason – I post week days too, only occasionally will I post on the weekend.

@Guilherme – You are exactly right, people anticipate your next post but won’t drop you because you miss a day, just like I am looking forward to the next seasons of Heroes and BSG which is months away for us in the UK but will only stop watching if they are rubbish

@Rob – Yes definitely, in fact start thinking about halloween, thanks giving, Christmas, hanukkah, etc

@LA – It works for me but see what works for you, as I always say I can only give advice based on my experience but your audience is unique to you. Monitor your unsubscribes and you will see if I am right

@Jan – Excellent

@D’Tanga – It is important to keep up a posting schedule but not at the expense of quality just as a good speaker will not keep talking just to break the silence.

@Garrett – Yes people do not subscribe to see filler and padding, although I do post lots of crap on my personal blog because that is what they expect over there

@Eve – Oh yeah, I need those organisation tips too

@Skellie – Exactly! If you think a blog is dead then of course through normal housekeeping you will remove it, but not because a couple of days has gone by without posts

@Community – I think most readers appreciate a great post more than regularity so I think you have hit on the right idea

@Carolyn – Same here, I very nearly didn’t post yesterday because of hangover but I had a thought I just needed to share

@Maria – Yup, the last thing the blogosphere needs is more noise

@Jerry – It’s a good idea to sit on posts and let them stew. I need to start posting as draft so I can do that

I’m glad I read this because just today I was thinking that I “needed” to post something…

There is so much noise in the blogosphere nowadays and as a blog reader reading 100+ feeds a day, it can become pretty overwhelming. I tend to stick to blogs that provide good content.

Now I aim to post at least five articles a week; this is far more sustainable and my readers now no longer expect articles over the weekend.

- Martin Ree

When a blog doesn’t update your feed reader experience isn’t interrupted. It just sits there, waiting for content the next day, or the day after. I don’t see how this would compel someone to unsubscribe.

I think people have a tendency to say the reason a chunk of people unsubscribed was because ‘I didn’t post enough’, or ‘I posted too much’, but looking at my own behavior, I tend to only unsubscribe to feeds for two reasons: I’m overwhelmed by too much content (5+ posts a day, and not many blogs do this), or the content is no longer what I’m interested in. To be honest, I expect the same behavior from my readers. If people were unsubscribing I’d look to the quality of the content first.

Can anyone share their organizational methods for the confused?

I agree wholeheartedly about only commenting when you have something to say as well. In fact I also wrote about that just a few days ago in 10 Tips That Will Make Anyone a Better Commenter.

With a total of two links I hope this doesn’t end up in the spam folder as I really believe it adds to the conversation and sheds more light on the matter. Come to think of it my latest post (as I am typing this) is about how to structure how you deal with comments, but I better stop before this gets out of hand

There’s loads of conflicting opinions to confuse newbies like me but what you say is totally sensible and I agree, if you’ve got nothing of interest to say you should just keep quiet.

And sometimes I have content that’s best suited for a later specific day or date – like I have a “Back to School” post already stashed away just waiting for mid-August to arrive…

Feeds stats, being a pull method are much harder to track than a push method like newsletters.

Say a reader, for any reason has certain delays in fetching info for the server based on previous posting frequency or any other variable. The feed stats _assume_ you have lost a reader, but it might be that it just haven’t been seen lately.

I try to write on my blog about once a week, and I see my feedburner stats falling all week long, then after I post something they increase again.

On the other hand I keep a newsletter since the blog started and I had seen only one person signing out in its whole existence.

I don’t believe that people drop a blog because 48h of non-publishing or even a week for that matter .

You can’t annoy people by non-writing in a way they want to drop it. The worst thing I can see happening is that they’ll be anxious for the next post, and this is not a reason for dropping a blog, is it?

Would you drop a blog you’d like to read more, just because the author doesn’t write as much as you’d like? I wouldn’t.

I am no expert on the subject, but I guess much of the readers we see going away from our blogs ,when we don’t write for some time is just because is hard to track a pull method.

Again, I’m no expert on this particular field of feed stats and I can be completely wrong.

Not everything a writer writes goes public. This is well known to traditional media and I see no reason to be different to blog and new media.

Additionally, you must read every day, for the same reasons it works for traditional media writers as well.

And, by reading, I don’t mean only other blogs, of course, but reading proper literature certain helps a lot. I have already mentioned about my vision on narrative.

I can understand what you are saying and I kind of agree, but when I post less frequently I see a drop off in traffic.

I try to post 3-4 posts per week, but write something almost everyday. 3-4 posts per week seems well through out the week. Readers have sufficient time to read posts.

Rajesh Shakya
helping technopreneurs to excel and lead their life!