How frequently you should you post blogs or send emails to your lists?

Is it better to be frequent and show up in the inbox every day, or to write less frequently, in more depth?

How do you remain memorable without being annoying?

When I first started blogging, the standard advice was to blog at least weekly—ideally three times or more a week.

That was then, this is now. Our emails boxes are overflowing. Who needs to hear from us on a daily basis?

Sure, Seth Godin publishes a valuable and thought-provoking post on a daily basis. I’m not Seth. Most of us aren’t.

I’d suggest that you find a consistent cadence frequent enough that people remember who you are, but not so frequent that you drive them nuts. Also, make sure it fits into your life.

My Every-Other-Week Experiment: Results are In

For years I sent a writing-related post it to my email list once a week. Two years ago, I dialed back to every-other-week. (I’d say “bi-weekly, but I’m never sure if that means every two weeks or twice a week.)

Here’s the post I wrote about my decision at the time: Balancing Frequency, Length, and Substance in Writing

Two years in, it’s time to report on how that’s going:

Great!

From the audience perspective: No one has complained. My email open rates remain high, people read and comment on the posts.

It’s possible that the readers didn’t really notice that I’d cut the emails in half. (The spotlight effect is a common cognitive bias in which we think people notice us much more than they do. That may apply here.)

From my perspective, switching to every other week gives me more breathing room and the opportunity to explore ideas and spend time polishing the posts. Not every post is polished, but that’s another story.

I feel better about my blogging—more inspired—on this schedule.

Instead of scrounging around for topics under deadline pressure, I accumulate a list of ideas and  can be selective about the ones I develop. I feel that the quality of the posts has increased, and that they are more substantive.

This schedule also leaves me more time for other writing, including:

• New books
• Guest blogs on other sites
• Book reviews and other posts I don’t include in my Writing Practices emails

Every-other-week is frequent enough to keep me focused on expanding my ideas about writing.

So, two years in and I’m happy with the experiment.

If you’re a regular reader of this blog or on my email list, how does this frequency feel to you? Do you want more? Or still less?

And if you blog yourself, what kind of frequency do you use? Let me know in the comments.