It only takes a few days like that to start shedding readers. You have to be consistent and your readers will reward you for rewarding them.So, when should you post? It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that you post. What time of day? This will depend largely on your niche and location, but it does matter. It is one of the key elements that I feel is not tested enough when it comes to posting. While I tend to feel that timing has a bigger impact on social media posting, it matters as much for blog posts in many cases (especially if you bolster your readership with social media a lot of the time.
I recommend starting with one of the two “prime time” posting hours between 11am-12pm and between 3pm-5pm. These are the biggest “wasted hours” of the day when workers spend more time on Facebook and Twitter than on their jobs. It’s a great way to drive traffic through natural procrastination.
Remember, though, that the timing should relate to your audience not wherever you are.
A good question and one that will largely depend on your audience and the type of content they enjoy most. Some blogs thrive on long, detailed how-to articles between 1,000 and 3,000 words. Others get six figure reader counts with 250 and 300 word blog posts and others still use almost no text at all and focus heavily on video (mine in a combination of all three.
You’ll find that the most effective way to build an audience is to provide a little bit of everything. Don’t be afraid to write a really short blog post if you don’t have much to say about a particular topic. At the same time, occasionally, you should sit down and write something truly epic, filled with useful tips that your readers will eat up. They will appreciate it, I can guarantee you. And when you feel comfortable doing it, you should spend a few minutes recording videos even if it’s just you spitballing a little bit about what you think on a topic the less formal the better in many cases.
As your blog grows and ages, you will start to learn more about your audience, both from the comments you receive and the data you find in Google Analytics. Using that data, you can start adjusting your content calendar to reflect what people actually want to read/watch. Don’t assume you know what people want until you give them a little bit of everything and see how they respond.
Commenting within the Community
There are a number of different ways to build a following in the blogosphere, but few are as effective as going out there and showing what you know. Specifically, you should actively engage people in conversation.I like to think of it this way. Imagine you walk into a room filled with perfect strangers intent on telling a story you think is hilarious. You know for a fact that people will find it funny, but you don’t know anyone and don’t want to interrupt everyone to tell it.
So, instead of pulling out a bullhorn and announcing your story to the room, you introduce yourself to people, ask them their names, listen to their stories and build some rapport.
Your network
And networking is exactly what a blog needs to thrive in a world filled with millions of other blogs. Of course, you can’t hop on a plane and visit every blogger and blog reader in your niche personally, so instead you post a comment on posts from other bloggers. This is the single most effective way to generate return traffic to your blog, build your reputation and ensure people are interested in what you have to say.
For now, just make it part of your daily routine. Pick out 10 or 20 blogs in your niche (go to Technorati or Google Blog Search and make a list and start commenting on between 3 and 4 post per day. That’s all it will take.
Original post in http://idealtechblog.com
When To Post And How Long To Post