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I’m so excited to introduce Olga from You + Me = Fit. Her blog is inspiring, stylish, informative and fun and she found some very important information to share with our community on the best times to publish your blog posts. That’s enough from me – here’s Olga!!
Have you every posted an amazing workout you knew would get thousands of shares and pins, but they never came?
How about that seemingly irrelevant post about your latest coffee concoction that surprisingly generated dozens of comments?
Could it be that people don’t care about scoring six-pack abs anymore? What if they’re just really interested in what you ordered at Starbucks this morning?
Maybe.
But probably not.
The culprit causing the confusion is most likely timing.
I recently came across several infographics from Kissmetrics that I thought would be useful to my fellow health and fitness bloggers.
According to the data, you can optimize the effectiveness of your posts by blogging and promoting new entries during peak traffic times. Where your readers are in the country, what time they wake up, and what time they get off work are all timing factors that affect the success of your blog.
Takeaways
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Since our blog niche is heavily female-dominated and women are reading posts during the day, avoid posting at night, or schedule your entries to post in the morning.
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Almost 50% of the population is located in the Eastern Time Zone, and it’s likely that many of your readers are, too. It may be a good idea to schedule your posts to air during peak traffic times on the east coast to maximize your potential views.
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Posting on Facebook once every other day will generate the most likes. Save your best content for your Facebook promotions and write a description with a call to action to get your blog noticed.
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Monday is the best day of the week for blog traffic, while weekends have the lowest traffic. I tend to not have time to post on weekends, and I assume readers may not have time to visit my page. On Mondays, I post my weekend wrap-up, along with the best photos, taking advantage of the Monday morning traffic.
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Take this data with a grain of salt. We’re in the fitness business, and lots of folks like to exercise after work, so 5pm tweeting may not be prime time for us. Many of your readers wake up early, so morning promotions may work best for you.
Regardless of when you post, there are pros and cons to consider. But no matter when you post, do it frequently! Kissmetrics points out that more posts mean more monthly views.
Question of the day:
Do you schedule your posts? If so, what times do you typically schedule them for? If not, when do you typically write new posts and when do you promote them?
This is a fantastic post! Such great info. I’ve always suspected morning posts do better (I write mine at night and try to schedule for the morning but don’t always get around to it) and I suspected the east coast readers but it’s great to have some validation. Thanks!!!
Great info! Seems to match my blog’s trends, except for Fridays… I also seem to get a lot of hits Friday mornings and early afternoon.
Hi Olga,
This is really great information. I had a hunch that the morning was the best time to post and that’s what I generally do.
I was surprised by the statistics indicating you’ll get more “likes” by posting on Facebook every other day, as opposed to every day. This is tricky since my posts upload to Twitter and my Twitter account feeds my Facebook page. Hmmm… Maybe I need to un-link those, but it’s such a time-saver.
You’ve given me good things to think about.
Thanks!
Marya
PartTimeHealthNut.com
Love this post. I suspected most of it, and had a few surprises, too – like the FB posting.
I’m new to the community and appreciate the great information!
Winks & Smiles,
Wifey
Glad I stumbled upon this! I’ve been trying to figure out the fluctuations in viewership on different days and times; this is a helpful explanation.
Thanks so much for this post! I just started my family blog, http://www.SeeThatDad.com, and am already getting some good traffic, but the infographics you’ve provided are making me realize I need to tweak my posting days/times. I’ll definitely be bookmarking this site.