How Many Posts Do You Need To Start A Blog

Jenny Marsden • Oct 21, 2019

Exactly how many posts should you have to start your blog?

A blog is by far the best way to help maintain or improve your website standing. Google loves fresh content and a blog is the best and easiest way to achieve that. I have more than a few clients who are always going to start a blog and then panic sets in and they never start.

Why the panic?

On more than one occasion I've heard people comment that they don't want their blog to look dumb (yes they've used that word) or less than professional because what if someone finds it and they don't have heaps of content. I can understand the fear, however as long as you address why your blog doesn't have heaps of posts, you can easily get away with it.

All blogs start with one post!

This is not in doubt. Yes I'm sure some businesses don't publish their blog until they have multiple posts, but why not? Anyone who has ever written or read a blog realises that you all start with that first post.

Don't fall into the trap of thinking you have to have multiple posts to start. One post is a start, and you have to start somewhere so get out there and publish that first one while you are working on the rest.

You only need one post to start, HOWEVER - its a great idea to at least write 5 articles to begin with.

Write 5 posts, publish the first one and then come back and publish the following 4 on the schedule you've developed for yourself. I always try and tell clients to just start. Start the first one, publish the first post and then keep going. Whatever you do though, if you've announced when visitors can expect to see new blog posts, stick to it. Don't tell someone it will be every Wednesday at 9am and then miss the first three weeks. Building an audience is dependent on consistency.

How often should I post?

Ideally at least weekly, however even if you start with a monthly schedule, you can build up from there. There are websites that blog daily, however that is very hard to maintain. You will find though as you start writing posts, you see possible articles everywhere. Use the notes app on your phone (I use Google Keep because then its everywhere for me), and just add a quick note whenever you think about a great blog article. Then when you sit down to write, you have a few idea's already.

Making your posts the best they can be can help you to gain traction with your visitors from the start of your blogging journey. If a visitor finds your blog, believe me you will want to grab them and hang on tight so here are a few ways to address a blog with not too many posts.

1. Announce Your Blog

Launch your blog like an event.

On your very first blog post, be proud that it is the start of great things to come. Introduce yourself and tell your visitors what you will be blogging about, how regularly you will be doing it, what to expect and then offer them a chance to sign up to be notified about new posts.

Consider things like:

adding a sign up form or at least a link to one
show your RSS feed (for blog readers)
make a suggestion as to how they can follow your posts (via Feedly etc)
ask for comments on how your first blog post was received

2. Ask for help

This does seem a little strange, however bear with me.

As part of your first few posts, ask your new readers if the content is what they'd like to see and ask for suggestions as to "themed" posts you might create. Make the most of the fact that you are new to this. Tell them you are, be proud of the fact that you're really starting to get the hang of it and ask for their feedback.

3. Recommend something outside your own business

Oh No I hear you scream!! I'm not sending them away!

Again, bear with me....

I'm not suggesting you send them to a competitor, however recommending an app, website, article or book helps your visitors to feel that they aren't just targets in your marketing game. Give them value. Value doesn't always have to come from your business. Recommending a business book you read might be the one thing that keeps them coming back to you.

Maybe recommend a cafe in your area, or a printer you've used. It's pretty easy to find something that isn't a direct competitor that will help impart openness and enforce with your readers that you aren't just always going to be selling to them. You will be helping them too.

Remember the "Know, Like and Trust" principle. If they read the book and love it they are probably going to like where they got the suggestion and knowing you recommended something with no financial upside for yourself will help them to trust that you aren't just going to be selling to them. Free content is everywhere, don't be scared to use it.

How to ramp up

Once you have been blogging for a while and are starting to get a good list of pre-prepared posts written you will want to increase your regularity. Again - just announce to your readership thats what you are doing. Make a song and dance out of how you now will be blogging weekly with all the news, tips and info they will love.

What if you can't do weekly?

Consider adding in a different type of post that add's to your schedule but isn't in the usual output.

For example, you might blog once a week about general topics for your blog visitors, however maybe the last Friday of every month might be the monthly round up of everything that has happened that month. In your monthly roundup you might list the blog posts you've written and a link to each (inner linking also helps with Google ranking), a general overview of what you've achieved that month and even something that you found elsewhere that helped you. This way you can add an extra post per month that isn't necessarily tied to your usual schedule.

In Summary

You only need one blog post to start! Just get started!

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About Jenny

I started my IT career in Database Administration and .Net coding. While I LOVED that work, I realised very quickly that I also wanted a life. To be a top end coder or DB Admin, you have to comit your downtime to constantly learning and evolving and while that is also something I love, I wanted it to be my work and not my life. So I morphed my love of design with my knowledge of all things SEO and moved into building small business websites.

Why small business websites? I'm a small business myself and I know how hard it can be so I wanted to give my clients a great service, with an approachable point of contact where no question was a "stupid question".

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