When starting the blog, there was not very particular pattern on writing posts. I just wrote them up as something happened.
I started about a week before my 40th birthday, and sometimes tended to publish multiple posts a day. Most of them having to do with software development.
The frequency was irregular, mostly because it took a bit of time to get the hang of writing, getting in a writing flow is not always easy, and while in flow, posts could come into bursts.
I decided to become more structured, and looked at how other people were doing it.
A good example is Raymond Chen who writes The Old New Thing. I have an article queue just like him:
His queue horizin of a year is way longer than mine. I try to keep a queue of around 2 months (which gives me some slack when in “crunch mode” – which I try to avoid – or holidays/marching band events) occasionally going to 3 months.
The pattern went from almost exclusively software development related to a scheme like this:
- Software development on tuesday, wednesday and thursday
- Power User/Lifehacker on monday and friday
- Personal stuff at semi-random intervals
- Only posts in weekends that are related to specific dates
A fun fact: post popularity is not in the order of the scheme (see the 2011 report). Actually I don’t write to get high page views. My main motivation is that this blog is indeed a blog: a web log where I can find back things I have done, or that interest me. I hope it benefits others too, and I do appreciate the views (thanks for reading <g>).
Most posts are posted at 0600 WordPress.com UTC+1 time (which somehow tends to vary depending on daylight savings). Occasional extra posts (usually with recent news) gets posted around noon or around 1800.
An average post takes me about 30 minutes of writing, but some takes several hours or even a day.
So: no, posts usually don’t coincide with real world events :)
–jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 