Don’t Post in the Weekend

Yesterday, I talked about the fact that you don’t really need to be a planner to be successful at blogging. Schedules? Totally optional. But… If I was going to make one caveat or amendment to that line of thinking it would be in regard to weekend posting.

The title might’ve already given away the conclusion here a little.

But yes… This is an exquisite sort of pain that I still afflict upon myself on occasion. Even though I know better from past experience it’s a bad idea, I still can’t help myself. When I finish writing a post, I want it published ASAP!

Overall, I’m not too worried about the best time to publish. (Although if you’re curious: The best time is typically to align to the morning of either the US or UK, depending on where most of your readers are. For most of us — even those blogging from the UK, this will mean the US morning. So if in doubt, start there.)

Weekends though, I’ve found to be significantly worse than any other time.

Specifically, this is true for posts you care about and want engagement on.

By which I mean posts you put particular effort into, be it research, by inserting real emotion into, or even simply going to pains to make a nice layout — hold those for another day. If the weekends are all you have to write — don’t despair; that’s fine! You can write whenever you have the opportunity and publish later, or even use the scheduled post feature.

You’ll give yourself the best possible chance of the engagement you’re after if you do.

Other types of content though can work just fine published in the weekend. Although I’m sure there are more, here are two examples:

• If the post is mostly for yourself anyway
  Which honestly, particularly if you’re starting out, is a good mindset to have about all your posts. It’s going to take a little time to really get going with regular readers. If you launch out of the gate expecting conversation on everything that matters to you — I won’t lie, this way lies madness. … Or at least the increased likelihood of an abandoned blog, gone before its prime.
  
  For me, my journal posts still fit this category. They’re mostly for me. One of my major motivations for blogging is to keep record of my own time as a gamer. And I think that somewhat internalised motivation (as opposed to say, ‘All the clicks!!!1!’) is what has made the difference in my longevity with this blog vs. my earlier attempts.
  
• If it’s content people will refer to regardless
  An example of this here would be the Humble Choice posts. People will refer to these for months after the fact regardless of when I post them. I suspect Belghast and team’s AggroChat gets views week around (at least) as well, being a podcast sitting in a different content cadence to the posts of the blog.
  
  I would still caution to expect lower engagement with these types of posts, even if views are coming in. Certainly in the case of the Humble Choice posts at least, it’s a very dry transaction of information for view and that’s it — then they’re gone into the nether again.

This has certainly been my experience in any case.

I’m pretty curious to hear if anyone else has an opposing viewpoint, though.

This was posted during Blaugust 2021, the annual blogging event hosted by Belghast. Blaugust is an event aiming to welcome new blogger blood into the fold and revitalise those who’ve been at it a little longer.

The Blaugust Discord is still available to join in, year-round!