I’ve been surprised to see this idea debated or argued against by some. The reason given has been that if you don’t write to a schedule it looks more natural. Of course it also makes it more difficult for readers to know when you’ll have new content out. So perhaps I’m a bit old fashioned in this (though I don’t think so) but I’m going to suggest that when possible you should try to blog to a consistent schedule. Now to break this down a bit. Blogging to a regular schedule doesn’t mean your blog always needs to be posted at the same time every day. Or even that it needs to be updated every day. But the more regular your updates and the more consistent your posting schedule, the more likely readers are to return to read the blog. Why? Because they’ll soon come to know when you’re most likely to have fresh content up. And well, the truth of it is that you’re not going to get daily readers unless you have daily content.
So, does that mean the blog needs to be updated every day? Not necessarily. Consider your topic. Now if you are a journalist writing about news stories, you have to keep pace with the news. If you don’t, other journalists out there will outpace you. Sometimes this means writing a blog that’s updated hourly during high news periods. And perhaps less often during slower periods. Consider a blog on reporting on the US presidential race. Obviously there would be cycles with that blog. Heavy reporting periods when candidates are running and setting up campaigns. Fewer posts in the slow periods between elections. But even in those slow periods, the blog should be allowed to go completely silent. The writer would still need to make posts frequently enough to the blog fresh in the readers’ minds so they’ll come back during the busy times.