Yes, my friends, it is time for yet another (drumroll please) Ask David! Please hold your applause.
Here is the question of the week and, oh my, is it a good one. How often should I publish new content? Every day? Once a week? Once a month? Whenever I feel like it? 10 times a day? Help!!!
Great question. I mean, you are out there hustling, right? Creating a web show or podcast or video blogging. But, how often do you need to post your delicious content?
Don’t worry, my friends. I have an answer for ya in today’s video (which also features my wife randomly walking in the background and then almost turning on the garbage disposal).
Would love to hear your thoughts in the always entertaining comments section. Also, which of the three categories I discuss in the video do you fall into?
[wistia]
[emailform]
Hey David, great timing with this video for me as I have been struggling with this question lately. I have been in category three — maybe more like wavering between two and three, actually — and I am rethinking things as I would like to get better results for my site.
What I have decided is that, since we are a small company (I am not in it alone) and I have the luxury now of only having to be responsible for the website — I don’t have to answer phones, or ship orders, etc — I kind of don’t have a reason not to move into category one and see if that gets me closer to the results I am looking for.
Thanks again,
Greg
Very cool take advantage of that advantage 🙂
I fall into the random mindset. That is because I don’t post until I think I have great content. It may be an interview, a poem and cartoon. I write about project management and maybe I post randomly because this is not my business, I write because I love to. Creativity hits me in spurts and I post in spurts sometimes – like I posted four cartoons in a row.
One advantage of this is that I am not bogged down by a schedule, people are sometimes surprised when I post in a burst, and I do think that it can be a long term sustainable strategy. Seth Godin posts daily and he posts amazing content, if you can get there, go for it.
David – love your idea of sitting down and draping the sheet over your sofa, so coool..
Yah, I see what you are saying; however, I strongly believe consistency is one of the top 5 things that make people successful in the mediapreneur space. Period.
Whew! I’m so relieved. I heard you say you posted 5x per week when you started and I was getting stressed. I don’t think I can post more than 2x per week to keep the quality of content I’m preparing to provide. My show isn’t launched yet, but I can only muster 1 good interview and 1 really solid, informative blog post/training in addition to that.
I’m a mediapreneur fo’ sho.
Then that is exactly what you should do 🙂 1 good interview, 1 good blog post/training
Hey David, Thanks for the perspective! Although I know it has a limited lifespan and I am beginning the transition from # 1 to # 3 today, the “Media Mindset” has been working for me in the following way.
While authoring my new book on Nutrition for Athletes, I also publish small pieces of my book along the way as they apply to specific topics in the news and in general. Since I am already creating the content for my book I then look to see how many other areas I can plug it into using the create it once and use it often mindset. As the athletic development model I have created is relational and is supported by universal principles, I can easily mix and match content to publish on a wide range of topics.
I’m a toolbox mentality guy. 1 part is having the right tools and 1 part is knowing what tool to use for objective at hand. I think I have done a good job leveraging the “Media Mindset” tool lately, but now it is time for me to pull out the “MediaPreneur” tool. Thank You as I did not have that tool in my toolbox before today.
Same thoughts as Joe above. As David has reminded us, there isn’t one way to skin the cat. The data shows the more we post (assuming quality content) the more traffic we get. The more traffic we get, the more “quality feedback” we can get to determine the tweaking needed to nail “product mkt fit”. It’s hard to know if we’re on the right path to “product mkt fit” until there’s consistent traffic confirming our assumptions. Think it’s all about the life stage of a site…assuming quality content…more frequent posts give us higher probability to build relationships & get content into the world so people have ability to share (since we’ll never know “which” content actually resonates best with peeps until it’s out there). I guess this is the fun of it all…trying to figure these thing out with our respective audiences 🙂
I think having a consistent schedule is super-important. This is why TV-shows are always on the same day of the week. It allows to build anticipation!
A long time ago, I tried blogging 5 days a week plus send out another, email-only post on Sundays. Long story short, I burned out quickly.
Then I tried having the “random” schedule, and it turned out to be a procrastinator’s dream :).
With my new blog, I have a post coming out every Tuesday. I know that I don’t have time to write epic content more often than that, so I don’t bother trying. And although some may say that once a week isn’t often enough, I make up for that with quality.
Eventually I’m hoping to add another piece of content on Thursdays. It may be guest blogs or just me spending more time writing, but I don’t see the need to rush into it.
My point is that you need to find a schedule that works for you and stick to it. Be honest with how much time you can devote to the content side of things and make it happen!
David & Gang,
I’m with you. Once/Twice a week is best. Not only does #1 burn you out but it can burn out the audience as well. There’s no excitement, no anticipation. You go from an expert with special knowledge to share to a chatty neighbor. As you said about #2, randomness doesn’t allow for relationship; the friend who pops in randomly is not the friend we follow.
#3 hits all of the expert levers that a loyal/active audience craves. Like your favorite weekly TV show, it gives you time to get excited between episodes (not to mention time to use what you learn) and to gear up for what’s next. I doubt I would have watched Lost, for example, if it had aired every day; missing one show would have kicked me out of the loop and left me wondering if I should attempt to jump back in.
It also avoids the overwhelm that runs rampant online. I can watch/digest/use the content of a weekly show, but if I’m hit with something every day? My natural psychology will lead to stress because I know there is something useful to take in–but I don’t have the time to do it; it’s the reason why we, as consumers, look for reasons not to buy/believe/act…to release that stress. From a gifted expert you’ll soon become the source of stress.
#3 all the way…
Jason
Great points, Jason. Nail on the head.
I chose to go with the Mediapreneur mindset and post my show once a week.
Of course, you could always do a special series of interviews that you post one per day during a certain week or over a certain period of time (like I could do this during national savings week or something).
Might be fun to change things up (give your audience more than they expect) occasionally.
Absolutely, I’m all for changing it up/keeping it fresh, but doing too much ends up in the “Random” category 😉
Thanks for pointing this out! Crazy helpful! I’ve been aspiring towards Media Mindset but end up landing in the Random mindset because I don’t have the bandwidth do to daily (or more) content creation that is high quality and adds value to my audience. I’m on the cusp of refocusing and this is gives a phenomenal framework for thinking through how I should procede. Thanks David!
Solid info David, thanks. Sharing it with my Free Agent Academy crew now
I agree with the concept what ever you do you need to stay consistent. However you have to spend some time promoting your website right?
How do you feel about promotion or link building? Its one thing to post content but its another to get people to check it out right?
Exactly my point. Too many people just focus on becoming a content machine as opposed to a content + promotional + business generating machine 🙂
I tried posting a web show 3-4 times a week, which brought me a lot of traffic…The problem was I had nothing to sell them and spent a lot of time and money making the web show. Now I am about to launch a media product for my niche and will start up a web show that is geared towards that niche with some other fun stuff. So my efforts will actually have an ROI!
Love the application of “mindset” to content marketing! I totally agree on consistency and not stressing about daily content. I will say that I am very glad I put out more content early on to get the flywheel going. Now I can publish less (weekly) and focus more on the email list and creating new products.
P.S. Awesome use of your email list sending people to this older post.
I just heard Chris Brogan speak last night, he was super funny and had great points. Love this post of yours, this is exactly what I needed to hear. I also loved your email earlier this week about how much time should go into writing blog posts vs. promoting them – right on!