Do You Skip the Weekends?
It has been well documented that many blogs see their traffic dip on weekends. Why is that? Wouldn’t more people at home translate into more traffic. I’m not saying it doesn’t for some people, but the consensus is that it does.
So if you are one of these blogs that see a decrease in readers on weekends, should you post? The theory behind leaving the two best days of the week blank is that you will have more participation during the week and posts will be read more widely.
You Still get Readers on Weekends…
Traffic may dip, but it’s not depleted. There are still people coming to read, and who’s to say the dip isn’t because you aren’t posting on weekends anyways?
Some think you save something… Productivity? Time? By not posting on the weekends, due to less readers being around. If you subscribe to this theory, why not just back log some posts for the week? Otherwise I would make the effort to get a post out for the weekend crowd.
Not up to it?
If you like to take weekends off, why not just write something entertaining, post a link to something interesting or a YouTube video. Sometimes the simplest, shortest posts can get the most attention. Of course, social bookmarking sites tend to mellow out during this time, so you could take advantage of that by putting your best linkbait tactics to work.
Posting something fun for you will likely be a nice change for your readers, and a quick post like that frees some time for you to prepare for the week.
Skip the Weekend to Get Ready
You could really take advantage of the weekend by finding a nice empty space of free time to write your posts for the week. This way, if you’re like 99.99% of the population and don’t blog full time, it takes that much stress out of your day.
Doing this also washes away the feeling of obligation to write an article. Writing something for the sake of having a new article out there so readers don’t get mad is always a bad idea.
In the end, whatever you do, you should try to take advantage of the weekends. There may be football to be watched and (god forbid) things to be done, but you can use the time to take stress off the week or keep content fresh.
Leave a comment
Henry
November 24th, 2007 at 2:50 PM
Oddly i get far more hits on Saturday than any other day, with Sunday in second. In the middle of the week is when my hits dip but this is probably due to the fact that i don’t post as much on weekdays because i have homework. I plan to combat that by writing posts on Saturday and Sunday when i am free then releasing them throughout the week.
Also i like how your using images a lot more, when ever i try using images it doesn’t ever look as good as yours.
Connor Wilson
November 24th, 2007 at 2:59 PM
I’m trying to make the effort to have an image at least once in every post. The title images are pretty easy and take less than a few minutes, so it’s no problem for me. I just find a good stock image and throw some sort of text on it.
Henry
November 24th, 2007 at 7:23 PM
Lol, just with mine there’s something about my blog where images look ugly most of the time. Occasionally i pull it off, but i don’t know yours just look so much better.
Mike
November 24th, 2007 at 10:39 PM
This layout looks great with images I love seeing them!
I usually dont post on weekends because I do like to take the time to think of things, I will make a post and future date it to sunday or monday because those 2 days seem to bring in the most traffic for me for whatever reason.
You made some very good points and have opened my eyes to a few things! Thanks for the post!
Adam M
November 25th, 2007 at 1:30 AM
I generally don’t post on the weekends because I take the time for my girlfriend and family. The odd time I’ll post about something I enjoyed during the week. I was thinking of posting a comic every sunday but I’m not sure yet. I always see a dip in my weekend traffic. Sundays are my worst and they’re generally 20% lower.
Deron Sizemore
November 25th, 2007 at 8:54 PM
I don’t publish posts on weekends, but I don’t take weekends off usually (well, except for this weekend because I was traveling). I usually write a couple articles on the weekend that will be published during the week. Like everyone else, my traffic drops on the weekends, so I figure I will just save the posts for early in the next weekend people tend to visit.
May be a good idea to start posting on the weekend, even if it’s just a “fun” post. Could boost readership, because even though numbers are down on weekends, they are not dead totally.
Rob Schultz
November 26th, 2007 at 3:01 PM
I see a large dip in traffic on the weekends and as a result used to use that time to post and set the publish date for various times throughout the week. Now that I’m working independently full time (visit my site to read more) I’ll probably be blogging more on the weekdays.
MiLan
November 27th, 2007 at 11:55 AM
Even though I have not read your post, I’ve got decent good impression for your blog. Don’t wonder if I copy some of your ‘Blog Categories’ topics (Don’t worry I wont copy your content.)
Ryan
November 28th, 2007 at 5:45 PM
I generally post whenever I have a few minutes and enough quiet to concentrate lately. Keeping a schedule is virtually impossible for me the last few weeks due to my recent move ad now having my PC in the living room its easy to get distracted by my roommate’s antics.
Andre Ward
November 29th, 2007 at 9:16 PM
The short post technique is very true.
Freebies
December 1st, 2007 at 11:43 PM
I have the most traffic on Monday, by far, and then it slowly tapers off all the way through Sunday before repeating the process over and over again. I think it has something to do with people going back into the office and getting bored quickly
But I agree, even just a stupid YouTube video or a simple linkdump post is easy to whip up and gets your readers more fodder to chew on, even if they don’t see it until Monday or Tuesday. It’s still new to them.
Jalaj
December 3rd, 2007 at 1:53 AM
I do get very low traffic during weekends and one of my important posted on friday evening received least readers. So I think important posts should not happen on weekends
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