Why and How to Publish Stories As Frequently as Possible

Becoming a top writer depends entirely on how many stories you publish

If you think you can not publish more stories, then you may not be the person who wins the online writing game.

Tim Denning published seven stories in one day — when I counted. One post in every one of the top seven publications. He publishes his articles as frequently as he can, and so should you.

Publishing a story — the pressure you feel about putting yourself out there in front of all those people — pushes you to be more creative. It becomes a challenge to write something people may want to read.

But when you publish a story, you have doubts about its quality. If you think you cannot post high-quality stories — on an almost daily basis — then the blogging game does not care.

In case you publish more frequently, when you send a second story — your reader has not forgotten your name yet — there is a greater chance they will read again. But if you publish one piece after a week — and you are a new writer — the readers will forget your name and your writing style.

Write before your readers forget your name.

How to publish more

If you want to be prolific, here are some suggestions, inspired by the work of Jacob Y. Stein of Tel Aviv University:

Positive aspects

1. Write about more than one topic. If you want to write only about psychology, you will get fewer views. But if you apply your knowledge of psychology — to relationships, sexuality, cognition, self-improvement, and emotional intelligence — you will be able to write about many topics and become prolific in the process.

2. Persistence and commitment — the writers who are prolific feel enthusiastic about what they have to say. They work hard and develop routines to publish frequently.

3. Practice — you improve your writing skills with practice. As you develop your writing habit, you learn from your mistakes. The more you practice, the better you become at publishing frequently.

4. Some people, who publish frequently, have research teams — or friends and family members — who help them in collecting and presenting the most relevant research material. Others hire editing services of professional editors to make their writing shine.

5. Your interests and knowledge matter. If you have digested a considerable amount of insights during your lifetime — and you are thinking all the time, in a good way — you will have an abundant supply of ideas and tips to share with your readers.

6. Creativity matters. Insanely creative people are bombarded with brilliant ideas all the time. Expressing those ideas — trying to explain those ideas to others — makes them prolific.

Negative aspects

Some people publish more using the negative techniques — you should avoid them:

1. Low-quality content. Some people start pushing their journal entries. They say silly things, they swear, they bitch about their life, and their work — endlessly. They become prolific — but their readers ultimately stop reading their rambling narratives.

2. To be prolific, some people start stealing ideas from other people. It is plagiarism, and it is the worst way to publish more.

3. Using the same research material to create slightly different articles that essentially convey the same idea in more than one story.

In a practical world, you have to choose. The methods you select will reward you or haunt you for the rest of your writing life.

Is there an optimal number of posts per month

John Rampton wrote an article in the Forbes magazine, a few years back, discussing the optimality issue:

A study from HubSpot showed that if you publish more than 16 blog posts per month, you can receive more than 3.5 times views than if you send one article every week.

But you should not just think in terms of how many views you get. Another Hubspot study said 70 percent of reads come from your older and more successful posts. This study suggests you should choose your topics wisely and focus on evergreen content that is more likely to stay relevant for a long time.

The timing of your content

Avoid posting on the weekends.

If you have to publish four articles every week, choose Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Once you decide the days, the next challenge is to choose an exact time. It will depend on the geographical area of your audience. If you want to focus on the US, evening time around 5 p.m. is a good choice. However, the exact hour of the day largely remains a matter of your personal preference.

Final Thoughts

According to John Rampton, once you publish your 401st story, your views show a spike — the number of your views doubles as compared with your last month.

Considering the above numbers, you should publish at least 16 stories every month and keep doing it until you publish your 401st article. If you divide 400 by 16, you get 25 — it will take around two years before your views jump to double. But if you write every day, you will have to wait for one year only.

I respect these numbers — and I hope you do too — because Forbes published the article and Hubspot conducted the research studies.

As Ayodeji Awosika wrote in one of his articles, if you do not look at your stats and keep writing for six months, you will start earning a disproportionate amount of money. Initially, you work more and get little money. But later you work less, and get more money.

Most of the writers don’t understand or appreciate that we are living in changing times. The publishing industry is changing — the reader is evolving into a more aware and opinionated person. We, as writers, have to understand and adapt our work and habits to the changing times.

Publishing more frequently not only improves your views, but it makes you think more, read more, and become more creative.

To improve your chances of success as a writer, read these highly recommended curation guidelines:

You can read my curated stories here.