The Two Big Blog Questions

As I work with my blogging clients or present blogging topics at workshops I receive the same two questions without fail.

1. How long should a blog post be?
2. How often should you post?

Tough questions really, not unlike, what's the best marketing method or does yellow pages advertising work. To some extent, it depends. But, I've discovered that, it depends is not a very satisfying answer, so here's my opinion on both questions.

How Long
I think that for me the best strategy seems to be mixing it up a bit. And this may be because that's how I write and that's how people process info. I generally advocate short, 300-400 word posts on average, but I think your blog is well served (readerwise and search engine wise) by the occasional - Hey did you see this link, type post too. In addition, I think that, like good coversations, every once in a while you can get a long one in. The bottom line is to balance keeping it interesting with keeping it manageable.

How Often
I guess you need to make sure you know why you are blogging in order to answer that one, but on the whole, if one of your goals is to develop a following, to get quoted in blogland often, to get links back to your blog and subscribers tuning in via their MyYahoo account, be prepared to post 4-5 times a week. Now, most of the blogging software allows you to date when your post appears. It is not considered bad blogging form to post some material on Tuesday to show up, say, on Friday. Don't rely on this technique exclusively though as you will miss out on the opportunity to provide your reader with hot scoop.