BT: Answer me this: Time spent on WP + Posting frequency.

Brainstorming questions and ideas

THANK YOU to all of you who come here every month and share your perspective. It is so helpful to me, and hopefully to everyone who comes around and reads the responses.

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If there is something about blogging or the community that you are wondering about, feel free to reach out via my Contact page and your question might be featured next month. Everyone would be answering YOUR question. Take advantage of it. If you do not feel comfortable shooting me an email, you can also leave your question at the bottom of your comment here today.

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If you have missed the previous installment of the Blogging Tips, or just want to refresh your memory, feel free to check out:

JANUARY – rules; an introduction.

FEBRUARY – tells you how to get the most comments.

MARCH – gives you tips on how to promote your content.

APRIL – gives great advice to newbies and reminds us of the basics.

MAY – reveals what to do to gain a following and what not to do if you do not want to lose the audience you already have.

JUNE – showcases the most popular niches if you are trying to pick one for yourself, or if you are looking to re-brand.

JULY – presents some surprising trends related to WP usage. See if you can relate.

I hope you find some things there that will help you make your blogging world a better place.

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JULY’S question:

On average, how much time do you spend on WordPress every day? (If you do not visit WP daily, please specify what time period your time spent relates to. Example: 3h/ week; mainly on the weekends.)

OUR answers:

  • revealed that on average we spend 1-2 hours a day on WordPress.

What does that tell us? Quite a few things, actually. The most important one is that we are not on WP only when we post. Sure, there are some people who read and catch up on other people’s posts only around the time they publish their own post, but most of us come here routinely no matter if we are writing or not. This is a place to write, but it is also an enormous library, in which you can read without having to wait for others to return your desired book (i.e. post).

Quite honestly, I am a little bit surprised by this 1-2 hours figure. I expected it to be a little bit higher since I have been told multiple times by multiple people that they check WP all day long. Perhaps it is like with any other social media platform – you open it up, scroll a little bit, maybe read a thing or two and then close it, only to repeat the cycle in a little bit. It was my impression that people spend more time on here than me. I am not sure why I thought that. Maybe because they post more often? Maybe because they have A LOT more comments on their posts than me?

Weekends are probably when I spend the least amount of time on WP. When I am bored enough or just need an intelligent break, I will come here on a Saturday, but chances are I will not stay for more than a few minutes. What I do is scroll down the feed to see how many things I am missing out on and then read a few of them that catch my eye. On Sundays, I do sometimes write my Monday posts, but I do not really read. It is the end of the weekend, Monday is approaching, and my post needs writing – hardly a mood to read.

On Mondays, I catch up on the things that were posted over the weekend. Yes, I do scroll down until I see a post I am familiar with. There is a reason why I generally do not follow people who post multiple times a day, and why I do not follow a million people. It is all so that I CAN go back and catch up on the things I have missed. My time spent here does depend on the amount of work I have. A year or so ago, it was the evenings that I spent on reading and writing. Nowadays, it is the mornings. (Not early mornings, but after 8am mornings.) I like to start my day that way. And then at lunch, and sometimes before I leave work and then again in the evening.

There are days when I think I spend around 4 hours on WP easily. Writing my own posts, reading your posts and searching for new, interesting people. I think an hour is my minimum on a weekday.

Knowing that you generally spend 1-2 hours on here makes me wonder about the length of my posts… With such a limited time, we can only read so many posts that are a thousand words long.

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AUGUST’S question:

Do you have a blogging schedule? How often do you post?

Leave your answers in the comment section and come back in a month to see what other people said. (Or just check back routinely. Just an idea.)

Stay golden,

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79 thoughts on “BT: Answer me this: Time spent on WP + Posting frequency.”

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  3. One day a week I give every room in my home a thorough clean and I wash towels, bed linen and clothes. In between cleaning each room I will sit down and write a post. So that day I usually write enough posts to schedule them to be published one a day for the rest of the week.

    Every other day of the week, I am out and about with work and socialising, so the time I spend on WordPress is just reading and commenting on other blogger’s posts. But I must admit, my WP Reader is really hard to keep on top of.

    Liked by 1 person

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      1. Yes I think I have managed that consistently for quite a long time now. At the moment my site is a bit confusing because I have been republishing some posts from last year. I did that because I was in Australia for a while this summer, and I was doubtful I would be able to write while I was out there.

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      1. I don’t think so because my posts are pretty thorough–edited multiple times, pictures throughout, featured photo edited on Canva, etc. It’s enough of a time stretch to do all that every week for one post. I’m more of the “quality over quantity” type.

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  5. I don’t really have a schedule for posting frequency — I at least try to post once a week, though sometimes its several times a week. I do tend to post at the same time of day though — 11 p.m. Arizona time. Kind of a weird time, huh? I don’t have tons of followers and the most consistent commentators tend to be from Europe and India, so I started posting when it would be early for them. Then I post the link to Facebook first thing the following morning because a lot of my American readers are people I know on Facebook. I’ve been getting more random U.S. readers lately, so I may change the time I post.

    I probably spend more time on WP than the average person.

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    1. I used to post in the evenings, too. 9-10pm. However, I kept hearing that people most often read in the mornings. So it depends how many people they follow. If you post at 11pm, but some people post at 7am and they read at 8am, chances are they might not scroll to see your post. I’ve been doing mostly morning posts for a while now, and I think it works OK. Some gurus suggest that you repost multiple times a day so you hit people from different time zones, but I don’t want to copy my content.

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  6. I had a posting schedule before I got sick. My stats definitely looked better when I was consistent. Now, I post when I feel like it, or when I have the time. Hopefully can get back to the regular schedule soon.

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    1. I’m sorry to hear you haven’t been feeling your best. I hope you heal and recover swiftly.

      What was your schedule before?

      Currently, does it mean that you post multiple times a day sometimes and then nothing for weeks?

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      1. Thank you. I’m definitely on the up side. Still not normal, but better. My schedule before was one post daily. When my health started waning I went to every other day. Now I post when I can. Definitely not multiple posts in a day, always one and usually on weekends.

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  7. I use a calendar where I indicate what post goes up on what days but it’s not something that I fully respect. I give myself some wiggle room so that I can push some posts to another day, especially when things in life make me unavailable for my usual WP time after work/university.

    I think WP is where I spend most of my time, maybe 3-4 hours a day, including the occasional sneak peeks I do to see what kind of activity is going on, on my posts. I do like how you view your time and how you use throughout the week though.

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    1. I used to do the same, but the wiggle room soon became a huge ballroom with terrible acoustics. I would just keep on postponing things, because it didn’t matter. Not that it’s bad, but it just pulled me away from blogging and writing, which I did not like.

      So how often is a blog post featured on your calendar?

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      1. I… actually live that occasionally too hahah But then I overcompensate to catch up when time allows me just so I can be back to a “steady” rhythm.

        It’s usually programmed for 4-5 posts a week when it’s calm and it can drop to 2-3 posts a week if I have assignments for my thesis or something going on.

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  8. Originally, my blogging schedule was one post per day scheduled for 10:30 AM Pacific time, but I only managed that for a few months. Now I generally have 3-4 posts per week, and sometimes 5. Still all scheduled for the same time – always Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. The other day (or two) I post each week varies greatly.

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    1. I marvel at people who can manage a post a day. I recently came across a blogger, who was taking a break after 3 years (or something like that) of daily blogging. Insanity. Even 3 posts per week is a lot. And then you have all of your social media.

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      1. It is a lot, but I enjoy it. I usually take Sundays to prep and schedule all my posts (blog and social media) for the coming week, except for the ones that I can’t anticipate or prep in advance. It works for me. 🙂

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        1. Yes, I remember you mentioning that in your interview with Coffee. That used to be my plan as well. But then I decided to have my weekends for me. I’m working on the balance and I think I will go back to doing a bit more of blogging prep over the weekend.

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          1. You just need to figure out what works for you. I used to take 1-2 hours each evening to prep my posts for the following day, but that was way too difficult for me to continue with a full time job, Avon deliveries/commitments, and my social life to contend with. Plus, I found it was easier for me to bang out a lot more posts in one go than in little spurts here and there – I was already in the creative mindset. Except for unusual circumstances, I don’t make Avon deliveries/commitments on my weekends. Saturdays are usually reserved for the hubs and/or social events. And you already know about Sundays. Of course, there are weeks that I am unable to dedicate an entire day to marketing, in which case I try to get more done in advance or in chunks as time allows.

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            1. Life changes. Maybe not always majorly, but even half an hour of extra commute can shake your routine. And it’s then easy to be thrown off. I’m re-examining my time utilization and assigning more time for blogging (vs. things I don’t enjoy as much at this time). I hope that I get to move closer to work in a couple of months and I will have even more time.

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  9. I wouldn’t say I have a schedule… Just a determination. Since starting my blog (and a bit before, actually), it’s been sort of a challenge to myself to try writing almost every day. Obviously, haven’t always done that. But I’m pretty proud of how (relatively) well I’ve managed, and writing/posting (at least) one poem every day is my ideal.

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. I hope that one day when you become a super famous poet I will be able to obtain your collection with a personalized note and an autograph. Your work is amazing. AND you post so often. I have no idea how you are able to combine both. Keep doing whatever you’re doing. It’s definitely working.

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  10. I have a blogging schedule (publish one blog post every week), but, as you know, I don’t stick to it. And now that I’m planning on starting this blog series that would make me publish two blog posts every week, I wonder if I can manage.

    As regards last month’s question, I spend 3 hours on WP every day. I read other people’s blog posts between the hours of 12pm and 1pm, 6pm and 7pm, and finally, 10pm and 11pm. Sometimes when I’ve got the time, I spend more time on WordPress. But I also share your concerns. If most people spend 1 hour on WordPress, I’m worried about my posts’ length. People have the attention span of a goldfish these days.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. 2 posts every week? I’m interested. Like with anything, it can go one of 2 ways: You will either be motivated to stick a new plan and the 2 posts a week will become second nature, or… you will realize that you need to ease yourself back into writing/ blogging and it will take a while for you to figure out an optimal solution. Hopefully it’s the first one, but don’t panic if it’s the second one.

      I think I remember you telling me about when you read a while back. So that hasn’t changed? Good for you. It has for me. Sometimes it’s for the better, but not always.

      Poor fishies.

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  11. As you may have noticed, my posting schedule is inconsistent. That kind of reflects on my personal life. I don’t have a current routine, and the closest thing to one would be when my daughter is back in school. Aside from that, I’m caught in a rough current that’s been battering me around. Right now, my posting is about once a month. I’d like to bump that to twice, and eventually 1 per week. Hopefully I can find some stability in this current, and make some progress.

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    1. I kept checking your site, because I thought you mentioned you were going to post “the next day” or something like that, but nothing appeared.
      You know I can relate to not having the proper motivation. And routines aren’t easy to enforce. Hopefully, once your daughter goes back to school (soon?) you will be able to figure out your time better.
      I might be repeating myself, but – stop fighting the current and let the water just carry you. Sure, it might be away from shore, but at least you’ll survive and won’t be as tired.
      Here’s to figuring things out, stability and progress.

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      1. Thank you. I did mention something about a next post, you’re right. However, I scrapped it the day after I finished it. It just didn’t feel right. The title itself had more behind it than what I had written – The Heavy Haze of Endless Days.

        It’ll be very soon. I agree, and need to let myself just be taken to where I’m meant to be. Perhaps I’ll find what I’m looking for. Everything will come in its time.

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  12. I missed July’s question. I also spend 1-2 hours a day on WordPress, but not every day though, and mostly on weekends. Do you draft your posts on WordPress or elsewhere like a Google Doc or Word? I started writing them elsewhere because having WordPress open while I’m writing became distracting. So I don’t usually count my time writing/drafting part of the WordPress time. I can spend anywhere from 2-3 hours drafting/writing posts, but also not everyday.

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  13. I’m always taking a poke around here. My issue is because I follow so many blogs, some just as a courtesy because they are not active or a gesture because they follow mine. But, sometimes I miss my fav blogs because of the huge reader list. Hence, my catching up on yours today.

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    1. That’s quite alright. I understand.
      It happens to me, too. It’s not intentional, of course. Sometimes there is just so much to read, or sometimes I miss things without knowing I did so. And that’s when I rely on comments even more. Whenever I get one, I go to that person’s blog to make sure I didn’t miss anything new. Just like I did now with yours, since I had no Internet yesterday and missed your newest entry.

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      1. That’s a good question. I have filler posts like the journal entries and Bike Writer quotes and such. But, I’m more about substance. Like yours for example. You have regime and it seems to work well for you. My creativity gets the best of me which makes me inconsistent at times. That said, i am trying to revamp my writing process to allow myself actual real quality time to write. My thing is distractions..life, fall out, realtionships, my anxiety…list goes on. I have long way to go but I’ll get there. To answer your question, about three to four times a week as a whole.

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        1. I kept reading your comment wondering if you were going to answer the question. Thanks for keeping me on pins and needles to the very end.

          I understand too well. There is time and place for everything. Sometimes you just can’t do what you want for whatever reason. That’s alright. This is NOT work. I mean, it requires a lot of effort, but for most of us, blogging is not a priority. So don’t fret. HOWEVER, remember that this is what you like. That this is what makes you feel better, etc.

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          1. Lol, I did smile at the end realizing the same. I have been doing some reading on planning a writing schedule, which as become my focus of sorts. I take a step back and look at my blog from time the time. You know, as we bloggers do to keep evolving or trying to get better. So, lately I have been considering deadlines as a way to keep the fire lite under me. I have some things in the pipe line but ultimately I would like my readers to anticipate my work and not always be in limbo as to when something else will post. Always a work in progress!!!

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            1. I’ve had a “soft schedule” for about 1.5 years. “Soft” meaning I didn’t announce my schedule and I posted at different times of that chosen day. Or sometimes the next day, or not at all. Only this year have I committed to making it official. Does it put pressure on you? Yes. Do you sometimes with to just disregard it? Yes. People have told me to just let it go, because no one really cares. And I’m aware of that. But I do care. It helps me in so many different ways and if I was to break that… all hell would break loose.

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              1. Awesome, I like this. It makes sense too. Ok, see, this is what I need. Any tips, by all means, shooting to me. We’ve yet to connect any other way, if that’s an option, would love to bounce things off you from time to time.

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    1. WP is messing us up and posting your replies separate from our previous conversations. Luckily, I like puzzles, so I was able to figure it out quickly.

      I have to disconnect, just so you know I didn’t disappear in mid convo.

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