Mar 14, 2009
What Time of the Day do you Publish Your Blog Posts? – Poll! Posted by Jamie Harrop - 25 Comments
I was chatting with Darren from ProBlogger on Twitter a few days ago, and after noticing that posts on his ProBlogger blog and also his Twitip blog were posted at similar times of the day (1-2pm GMT/8-9am EST), I asked him what his motivation was behind posting at this time.
The nature of Twitter meant his response was short and sweet, but it boils down to him determining that to be the best time of the day to post to his blogs. The UK is arriving back to the office just after lunch, the US and Canada is just waking up and arriving in their offices, and Australia is settling down during the late evening. In a sense, the top three sources of traffic for (most) blogs are awake and more often than not, at their computers.
This short conversation with Darren got me wondering whether there were any trends as to what time of day bloggers publish articles, and actually whether many bloggers put any thought in to the time they write, or whether they just publish as and when they finish writing. That’s what this weeks poll is about. Please feel free to add your vote below.
Loading ...Personally, I tend to post between early and late evening GMT. I’ve found this to be the best time for my audience, but I’m sure it’s different for other bloggers.
What time do you publish posts? Have you put any thought in to your publish time, or do you publish as and when you finish writing? Please let us know in the comments!
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I'm a 23 year old blogger, community and customer service specialist with 10 years experience running and managing blogs and online communities.
I’ve been struggling with this, as I know you post at 1900GMT. I’ve tried various times and looked at traffic, and can’t find a pattern – for example I posted yesterday at 0700 as I was going out for the day, and the post had much bigger early traffic than normal.
I’m looking forward to reading other replies to get some kind of consensus on this subject.
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I used to try and get my posts out by 8 a.m. West Coast US time (California – high concentration of folks that are interested in my stuff and that visit me via Google, based on my Google Analytics stats – rough estimate of where my target “market” is)
However, recently I haven’t much cared and just publish when I feel like
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@Mike Hey Mike. I think it really does vary from blog to blog, depending on the location of the readers. My only advice is to play with different times and see which ones work best. Maybe even ask your readers what time of the day they read.
@Sid You’re a free spirit poster. Good for you!
Jamie
I honestly now post early to late evening because you once tweeted out that you found this to be the best time. I think you are right because then it seems to hit a few more time zones. Overall thou, I don’t think it matters because they will read your post – or not!
Quick comment- this blog looks really fantastic, great work Jamie!
Hey Christine,
Yep, maybe at the end of the day, people will read and respond whatever time of the day we publish.
Glad you like the blog, Christine. For once, I’m actually happy with how it looks.
Thanks!
Jamie
I have to say I never really pay much attention to the time. Maybe I could start trying to schedule them for the morning.
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I’m in the UK and I tend to post in the mornings as that’s when I’m at my best. I notice that readers tend to leave comments in the evenings often very late, so I guess that’s when mine is most read.
I never really thought about what time is the best. Perhaps I should!
It depends on which site for me.
The Betcritique site gets it’s post from Ben and myself “generally” in the morning as this is suited to the site itself giving betting advice.
The Emarketers site gets posts in the late evening or very early morning as this suits me (working around my day time job).
Toby’s last blog post..One From Each League-14-03-09
@Nick Another free spirit poster, eh?
Give a schedule a try and see what the results are. 
@Linda Hey Linda! Thanks for stopping by and writing. Give the evenings a try. You don’t have to write your posts then. Maybe you can write them in the mornings when you’re most productive, and schedule them to be posted in the evening.
@Toby I never even thought about the subject of the blog affecting the time of the day of posts, but it makes perfect sense. Thanks for the comment!
Hi Jamie,
It goes back to your audience and what suits them as far as I’m concerned. I can get away with the Emarketers site, posting whenever it suits me, as the info isn’t time critical. The Betcritique site however, usually has information relating to events that are happening that day and I find that the audience appreciates getting the info as early as possible, so they themselves can act on it. If I delivered the content at say lunch time, some people may miss out as they are themselves ties up with other things (like work) and this would in my opinion produce a site that wasn’t being useful to the readers.
If your content isn’t time critical, then I would still suggest posting at a particular time for a couple of reasons.
The 1st is – I find posting at a regular time creates a sense of routine for your readers. If they are used to getting their content at say lunch time – and it doesn’t arrive, they begin wondering where it is.
The 2nd is – I find it creates a routine for me. It’s all too easy to think “Oh I’ll do that later” after a hard days slog at the office and I think that quite often. So I find that if I get up at 5.45am and do my posting before I take the dog out at 6.15am then I create a routine that I can definately stick to – no excuses. This then allows me to post in the evening if I can, but I don’t feel too guilty if I miss my evening post.
Anyway enough of my ramblings and I like the new style blog – keep up the good work
Toby’s last blog post..One From Each League-14-03-09
I am in UK and my normal posting time it’s eather ealy morning or on busy mornings when i don’t get to do it than late evenings, however I am not really sure what time is actually the best for my audience. Perhaps I should try and figure this out!
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@Toby Excellent comment, Toby. Thanks for taking the time to write that.
@Salwa Hey Salwa. Thanks for writing your first comment. I think I may write a new blog post about ways to find the best time to write. It seems many people, like you, do have a set time of writing, but aren’t sure whether this is the best time for their blog.
Jamie
Actually, I don’t have an ideal time of posting. However, I tend to do it more on early evening since I am being distracted during daytime.
I try to avoid posting during late night because that’s the time I am reading other blog posts.
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Interesting poll.
I think I picked up this tip from Chris (Garrett) way back and ever since then I’ve published my posts around the 1pm to 2pm (GMT) mark.
I knew it fitted in with UK lunch times and East Coast mornings but didn’t realise it also fitted nicely with Australian times as well. Good to know I’m doing something right!
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@Rich Sounds like a plan, Rich.
@Marc Hey Marc! Thanks for stopping by. Yep, you’ll never go wrong listening to Chris’ advice. He was the one who, over a Starbucks, gave me the inspiration for Blogging Zest.
Jamie
Unless you’re posting about breaking news I suspect this isn’t nearly as important as some might assume. I know that many bloggers who stay really on top of everything only read posts practically as they’re published; however, the majority of your readers probably read your blog when THEY have time or come across your latest post and are likely to read it no matter what time of day you publish.
I see my blogs and those I most read as reference sites where most posts have lasting value far beyond the publication date. I almost never read only the most recent post and regularly share older but still relevant posts at Twitter, FriendFeed and cliKball. (The best content gets shared on all three.)
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Excellent comment, IS.
I tend to agree with you. Much of my decision to change the time I publish was my ego wanting to see comments and visitors straight after I’d published. And the evening also seemed to be the time when most people connected to my feed, hence my feed count was higher (again, ego).
Like you say, unless you’re sharing breaking news or have a site like Toby earlier in the comments, publish time probably isn’t going to make much difference.
Thanks for the comment!
Jamie
I post the night before so that it’s available for the folks on the East coast when they wake up. Right now I’m 3 hours ahead (Arizona) and there’s no way I’m posting at 4 AM.
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That makes sense to me, Dustin. Arizona is one of the few places without daylight savings, right? I guess that plays a part.
Jamie
I like to post in the early mornings (7:00 am to 10:00 am), so my blog is available for my readers first thing in the morning.
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I live in Berlin, Germany, but I blog in English, and a lot of my visitors come from the U.S., Canada. I also got some visitors from Scotland and England.
Whenever I schedule a post, and I do that quite frequently, I schedule it for 7am in the morning (my time). So European people will see it when they get up, and all the other ones will be able to read it whenever they want to.
I tweet my posts in the morning and the evening, so I get almost any timezone covered, although it might be difficult for Australians and people from new Zealand.
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I am in California, so I feel like the day is half over when I get up. Also, I am the most creative and thoughtful in the late evening. So I typically post then. I guess that means my posts await my U.S. readers the next morning so that’s okay. My daughter is Australia so I know that my posts will reach her in the afternoon, and will be waiting when people get home from work?
It’s hard being in the west U.S.. I feel a bit like a slacker getting up so late in the morning! And I’m always too late for Twitter, because I don’t approach it until the late afternoon or evening!
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A very interesting article. I post mainly between early morning and early afternoon. I found that if I post early morning, then I get way more interaction from my users. Early afternoon is still busy, but not that busy.
If I need to get something out ASAP, then I just post and do not worry about the time of day. I will however note your findings and try to remember when posting.
This is something that I had not even thought about. Darren’s point does make a lot of sense though, so I think that I will have to test this out for myself.
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@Tom Let us know the results of your testing, Tom. Hopefully you’ll see more blog comments and interaction as a result.