I often get asked the question “How often should I blog?” by my health practitioner clients. I think (like me!) that they are so busy that they forget to do it at least once a week. Some bloggers write a new post every single day. Some bloggers write even more than that. I think it’s better to write every few days, or at least once a week. Even if you only do it as part of your search engine optimisation strategy.

Here are 5 reasons why posting too frequently may not be such a good idea.

1. It lessens the impact of your best posts. If you’ve just spent ages perfecting a really great post, keeping it at the top of your front page will draw attention to it. But if you write another post too soon after the last, the impact of that really good post may decrease. Subscribers may read everything, but new readers will usually see the latest post first. Don’t be trigger-happy with your next post if you just put up something great. Leave it up for a bit.

2. Readers may feel overwhelmed. This is a biggie for me. I feel harassed if someone posts (or even worse – autoresponds) too often. Some blogs just post too much, too often (yes that’s you Duct Tape Marketing!). Even if the content is always really good, you may overwhelm your readers if you post too often.

3. A greater risk of writers cramp or blogger burnout (whichever comes first). If you’re not used to blogging and you start out by posting far too often, you may burn out before you even get to the end of your first month. You’ll end up hating/resenting it and that’ll be the end of your website venture. Boo hoo. If you are a health practitioner type that has staff, get them to write a guest post. Credit the post to them, they’ll love you for it.

4. Sometimes it’s better to keep a stock of posts. Bulk writing is a handy way to “stock up” on posts at times when you’re keen to write. You can then publish them over a few days or weeks, perhaps saving some for days when you “need” a post but you don’t particularly want to write on that day. I love saving posts like this and auto-publishing them (thank you WordPress). If you write lots of posts in quick succession, resist the urge to publish them too quickly – even if they’re really good! (Which, of course, they should be.) If you want to know how to auto-publish using WordPress just leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

5. Sleep on it, and you may get new ideas. I often find that if I write a great post and sleep on it I’ll come up with a number of new post ideas that link to the post I’ve already written. Nice for SEO. Spending that extra time could lead you to a great follow-up post, or a spin-off post based on what you last wrote. Don’t be impatient!

Health practitioners, save yourselves! Slow down, pace yourself, and you may find that things start to fall into place.