I Figured Out the Best Time of Day to Publish and Get the Most Views!
Have you ever wondered does it really matter what time you publish your stories?
Not only have I figured out the best time of day to publish and get more story views; but the math and the logic actually confirm my theory.
For a while now, I’ve been testing my theory on numerous occasions, and so far, my observations show a definite affect on my views, and overall earnings. My strategy appears to work, because my earnings always showed an increase!
Allow me to share the simplicity of what I’ve been doing, because the whole thing comes down to nothing but basic math.
Keep your writing time but change your publishing schedule
In order for you to start benefiting from an increase in views, you’ll need to change your publishing schedule, but not necessarily your writing routine.
Let me explain.
Many writers, myself included, often write a story, and are quick to hit the publish button directly afterwards. Does that sound like you?
That means, typically, whatever time of day that you normally do your writing, is also the usual time you publish your stories (this refers to stories you self publish, not those submitted to publications).
Let’s consider this further…
What time do you normally publish stories? We all have some type of publishing routine that for the most part, we try to stick to. So what is yours?
Early morning, around 9:00 am? Maybe you like to get started in the early or late afternoon, say 3:00 pm. Perhaps you have a secular job in the “real” world, and you can only publish later in the evening, possibly as late as 9:00 pm, when the household is quiet.
The point is, whatever time you finally hit the publish button on a story, starts the clock for the life of that story. And as we all know, our stories have a short life span when it comes to what’s referred to as their “new” status.
Technically speaking, all stories are only new on the date that the story is first published. After that, stories instantly begin to lose their freshness on the platform, that’s why most publications don’t want previously published stories.
NOTE: As Jaja Requa brought to our attention recently, one well-known publication accepts older stories, but Illumination is the exception, not the rule.
So freshly published stories are like newly baked donuts. Even when they still taste good the next day, you can’t continue to sell them as freshly baked. At the very least, they’re now considered “Day Old”, and not as appealing.
Isn’t that reason enough for us to want to benefit as much as we can from the newness of our stories?
Let’s break down exactly how to do that…
With only 24 hours in a day; it makes a big difference what time of day you decide to publish a story.
For instance, if you publish at 10:00 am on January 20th (in your own time zone), that gives your story a total of 14 hours (from 10 am to midnight) to be considered new.
Just after midnight — when it turns January 21st, your story’s new status is over and it only lasted 14 out of a potential 24 hours.
If you happen to publish even later in the day, say at 4:00 pm, now your story has only 8 hours until midnight, and the “newness” wears off.
These figures clearly show that this practice of publishing without any forethought is counterproductive, yet it’s more common than you think. We’re all creatures of habit, but just because we’re conditioned to do something a certain way, doesn’t mean it’s the most advantageous.
In fact, by now, you can probably figure out the absolute best time of day that you should be publishing your stories, so you can take full advantage of the story’s newness.
If you guessed: Just after midnight, you guessed completely right!
Get the maximum time from your story’s “new” status
When you publish your story just after midnight, it provides an opportunity for your story to get the maximum amount of time in the limelight.
Readers get a chance to view the story as newly published on that day, for almost an entire 24 hour period!
Notice what I mean. Take the same example mentioned above. If I want to publish a story on Thursday, January 20th, I should publish it on Wednesday night, just after midnight.
By doing it just after midnight, that makes the story publication date automatically fall on Thursday’s date, because technically, it’s already Thursday.
That means the story has from the moment it’s first published, until Thursday at midnight, to still be considered new. That’s practically the entire 24 hours!
This is true for wherever you live in the world, so when I say publish it just after midnight, that means midnight for WHATEVER time zone you happen to live in.
As you can see, by having your story stay “new” for 23 hours or more, that gives it a chance to be viewed as new in all the different time zones.
Your freshly published story’s “new” status only lasts for so long. The trick is to try and hold onto the story’s new status for as long as you can.
In case you’re worrying that this means having to stay up until midnight every night, just to publish your stories, it doesn’t.
It’s totally understandable that changing your writing habits is not always the best solution, at least not entirely. Establishing a regular writing pattern was probably hard enough for many writers, so the last thing you want to do is something that throws you off your routine.
But don’t worry, you don’t have to switch your writing time. All you have to do is just get used to scheduling your stories, so they’re set to automatically publish just after midnight.
It’s easy to do. Here’s how:
Simply go through the same writing and processing steps as you normally do. Only this time, when you click the button for the second time, to activate the publishing process, notice the section where it gives you the option to schedule. It‘s located next to the green button below:
I used the story you’re currently reading as an example of how I scheduled it to automatically publish at 12:10 am (just after midnight).
No doubt, the more you think about the things we’ve just discussed, the more you see how much sense it makes. So put it to the test, and try scheduling a few stories for the coming days ahead.
If you get used to using this procedure on a regular basis, you might discover some of the same positive results that I did.
By selecting a scheduled time some time past midnight, you are creating an opportunity for your stories to gain more views, get more reads, and earn you more money.
JOIN AND START EARNING:
