Recently someone asked how often a medical blogger should post.  True-to-form there was the suggestion that you post daily.

This is a timeless question.  But I’d be careful believing that there’s a firm answer.

What you do with your blog and how often you do it depends upon what you seek to gain from your presence.  If you are dependent upon advertising you must continually feed the beast.  If, on the other hand, you are a general surgeon interested in showcasing some of your thinking before potential patients, you might get the job done posting a couple of times a month.  If you are a serious writer I suspect that you’re better off honoring quality over quantity.

But the point here is that your mileage may vary.

My problem with all these rules is that it often keeps good doctors quiet.  And for better or worse, our best examples of physician bloggers are those most focused on blogging.  Most examples are unsustainable.  But most physicians do not want to be focused on blogging.  There’s lots to be gained from voices of the everyday physician – even if just once every week or two.

Then there’s the tendency are to get wrapped up in metrics.  We want more but typically we don’t know why.  We all learn pretty quickly that more we post the more traffic we see.  Ultimately it’s important to think about why you’re here and what you want to get out of your presence.

And that’s what should determine how often you post.