Right after publishing daily, there is no single change I’ve made to increase readership more, than to publish at the same time every day. The consistency of being able to set your clock by Jim Raffel’s blog post at 4:30am central time every day leads to a reliability people like.
Reader gains as measured by Google Analytics and Feedburner subscriptions are up 50% on this blog in the last thirty days. Both intentionally and unintentionally I’ve tried many tactics to increase readership here. Combined with the other “tricks” I’m writing about this week, the consistency and reliability of a daily post each morning seems to be the silver bullet I’ve been looking for.
It makes sense when you think about it. Think of your favorite restaurant. Now think about your favorite meal there. Did your mouth just water a little and could you taste the burger? (oops, now you know what I was thinking about.) You return to that restaurant because the food and the service have a level of consistency and reliability you find acceptable.
Successful brands know this. Starbucks filters the water in their cafes with a closely guarded reverse osmosis process. They have figured out that one of the biggest enemies of consistency and reliability in coffee is the quality of the water it’s made with. When I travel I seek out Starbucks because I know what the drinks will taste like. It’s comforting.
A-List bloggers know this too. Take a peek at Chris Brogan or Seth Godin’s blog each morning. Yes, every day of every week those two will have a new post for you to read. It’s cool that sometimes they sneak extra posts in throughout the day but I go back each morning because I know I’ll have the comfort of a new post to read.
I suggest picking a publishing schedule that works for you and then sticking to it like glue. What do you think?
Spot on.
I publish M-F at 8 AM. And I've had readers email me if they don't get a new article precisely on time.
It's very easy for a reader to remember to check your site everyday and expect something new. If one publishes less frequently, readers forget to check in and drift away. Daily publishing also creates a LOT of fresh content. Over a year, almost 300 fresh posts. And fresh content makes connections, deepens the ones you have, and acts as the best possible SEO.
Great points, Jim!
Lately I’ve been trying to publish posts at the same times, but I’m not quite doing it daily… Of course, I just don’t have the readership I had 10 years ago. 🙁
Glad to see consistency and reliability works for you as well…of course I knew that as you have been a big influence on me developing those skills as the relate to the blog.
I know plenty of successful blogs that are not daily. I’m already considering cutting back to 5 days a week. I think it’s knowing when the articles will be there that resonates with the readers.