The Very Best Time to Post on Your Blog
image credit: abless
Although there are no specific rules for blog post timing, and we could post theories and theories of why “X” time of day is or isn’t the perfect hour, we’re not going to. What we ARE going to do is post what we know to be 100% true and accurate, and absolutely NON-debatable from our own personal blogging experience:
1. Post in specific increments throughout the day. Several blog platforms make this super easy, as you can schedule your posts throughout the day periodically, without even being at your computer [LOVE that!]. However/whenever you choose to do it, make your times specific and spread them evenly throughout the day. You may choose to post at 8AM, 12PM and 4PM, depending on your time zone and desired target audience. Whatever times you choose, be sure to post them evenly and whatever you do, don’t schedule three within an hour. It’s a lot to keep up and frankly, ridiculous. An exception is if you are posting breaking or timely news that will become stale within hours.
2. Post something in the AM. This is my number one rule. I have no idea which time zone you want to work with, but choose one and post before 9AM. Get to your readers before they’re swamped at work, starting their to do list, or running to a meeting. Trust me— you’ll thank us later.
3. Forget nighttime posting. Insomniacs will disagree, but honestly, posting at 3AM is rarely a lucrative idea. Time zone aside, you want to hit your peak time [which is usually noon on Mon-Thurs], and your 3AM RSS feed will be so far at the bottom of the list the next morning, readers will probably not even get there. Believe it or not, even though we’re both on US Eastern Time many of our readers are international and we still see the best traffic in the beginning of our day. Depending on where you’re located, this may differ slightly for you and your audience.
Other than that, fair game. Check out a few of our favorite “timely” bloggers and find out when they post:
i am such a blogging whore..i blog so much! i totally dont stick to these rules oops!
Another incredibly informative post. I heard someone speak at a blogging workshop once and they swore by scheduling their posts for midnight so I’ve been going with that, but maybe I’ll switch it up a bit and see what happens.
Melanie– the person who “swore by scheduling their posts for midnight”– was their readership largely based in another country? It is possible that time differences are the reason many people post at specific times.
Kat– On Design Milk, I post whenever I want (sometimes it can be back-to-back), but I try to stick to the hours of 9-4.
Great post! I agree with the early morning postings. Those are always my most popular. The rest of my posts I spread throughout the day.
I like this post. But how do you post at specific times without being at your computer? Can you set an automatic posting time?
I have been wondering this 4 so long. There are so many factors: where you live-time zone issues-target group-etc now I just randomly post or use twitter to market as well-who knows. Thanx internet for giving us more info than we can possibly handle
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