The Weekly Debate is here again! Before I get started, I just want to mention two quick changes:
1) From now on, I'm going to be alternating between blogging-related and book-related questions.
2) I've seen a ton of awesome discussion posts around, so I've included a Mister Linky at the the bottom. (If you'd prefer I do a round-up instead, tell me!) Feel free to post your own discussion post, and it does not have to address the same problem as I do. Obviously, I would love if you joined in and did your own "The Weekly Debate" *shameless self-promoting* but it's definitely not necessary; any kind of discussion will do!
This week's question: Bloggers, when do you think is the best time to post: morning, noon, evening? Readers, when do you like to see a blogger post?
The topic of an optimum time for posting has been in my mind for a long time... or is there an optimum time for posting? My definition:
optimum posting time - noun. the time a blogger should post to get the most views and logically, though not necessarily, the most comments
Hm, is there such a thing? What I've been debating is between the morning, evening, and noon. In the evening, I usually post anywhere from 6-11pm because I assume: 1) people living in my time zone will either have just gotten home and will check their email or 2) later at night because they'll have some free time. On the other hand, if I post first thing in the morning, the post will be up there all day for people of all different time zones to comment on. And by "first thing in the morning," I mean scheduling a post so it'll be up around 6-7am. As for posting at noon, 12pm, both principles apply in that people can comment in the evening and some take lunch breaks.
From my experience: At first, I thought I'd post in the morning since most of my readers are in North America. Therefore, I would be able to get an increasing amount of views during the day, right? In a way, yes. I found that I usually received one or two comments per every hour or two. However, when I posted at night, I found that there were about the same number of comments, half between the time I posted and midnight and half the next day. My reasoning behind these comments are that there are simply more people are on in the evening, when the post pops up on a feed such as Google Reader. Somewhere between posting in the morning and the evening, I briefly tried posting around noon, and surprise! Around the same number of comments again.
My final stance: In the end, I think posting in the evening, at noon, and in the morning is about the same comment-wise. However, I don't know if readers have a preference between seeing a post from the day they check a blog versus reading a missed post from the night before. And I think that's what determines the "optimum posting time," though if there really is such a time is open to interpretation.
It's your turn to voice your opinions! What do you think?
Mister Linky:
· Your Name: Discussion topic (ie. Optimum Posting Time)
· URL: direct link to your discussion post (ie. http://blogname.com/discussion-post)
