One of the questions I get asked most often by beginning bloggers is when they should blog. The most important thing for any blogger to know is that there is a critical difference between when you sit down to write your blog and when you actually publish your blog. I’ve advised bloggers for several years on how to develop a routine that allows them — and this can mean you — to write the most effectively, utilizing available time (and perhaps peace and quiet) to write a blog post. For some, this may mean developing a habit of heading to your coffee shop every Saturday morning to write your blog post, or sitting down every evening if you’d like to write a post for your readers to enjoy every day. The difference, however, is that you may not want to actually publish your blog post immediately. Dan Zarrella, HubSpot’s Social Media Scientist, has devoted hours of research to looking at when it is the best time to publish a blog post to generate the most attention.

The Best Time to Blog

I had a chance to sit down and chat with Dan about the best time to blog and he said that, while he has gathered other data, and of course blogged about dozens of other topics, his research about timing is “what people are super interested in. Data about what hour to publish a blog post is what gets the most attention.” His research consistently finds that the average blog gets the most traffic in the morning, as defined by EST. In fact, the average blog gets the most traffic around 11 a.m. EST. However, there is much more to timing your blog post than just scheduling it to publish at 11 a.m. EST.

…May Not Apply to You

But knowing when to blog — and when to publish your blog — doesn’t stop there. Using data collected from 40,000 blogs from HubSpot customers from a variety of industries, Dan correlated links and comments with when blogs were published to determine how to use Twitter, Facebook, and email marketing to get the most of when a blog post is initially published. His latest infographic, below, summarizes these best practices, which are notably not hard and set guidelines. Dan says this “data comes from aggregates and [his] Twitter data comes from millions of pieces, multiple markets, times zones, and countries.” He advises that the “best way to think about timing is to compare [it] to medical research and come out with a general best course of action. But in individual cases, doctors look at specific cases. They might apply the best general course of action, then apply a specific solution if that doesn’t work.”

Experiment with Timing on Your Own Blog

For this reason, Dan advises bloggers to use this data as a stepping stone; consider other options if you find that using his research doesn’t work for you. For example, Dan actually lives in Las Vegas, so he finds that he needs to work around his own research, which references the fact the most Americans live in the EST time zone. (In fact, over 141,631,478 people live in the EST timezone, and another 85,385,031 live in CST, while only about 48,739,504 live in the PST timezone.) Dan finds publishing his blog posts shortly after midnight (PST) allows not only his global audience to see his posts during their days (such as in Europe), but also ensures that readers in the EST time zone see his blog first thing in their morning.

Whatever You Do, Publish Early

Dan explains that for those who publish blogs that may be used as a source — such as his and other researchers and thought leaders — these posts are now accessible by what Rand Fishkin has called the “linkerati.” Dan says that “by publishing earlier, these posts are accessible by the ‘linkerati’ on the West Coast” by the time they start blogging and using social media.

This lends to Dan’s other research, which shows that tweeting and sharing posts on Facebook and Twitter later in the day can help drive more traffic to your blog — which is why it is important to consider posting your blog in the morning (again, as defined by EST). Specifically, retweet activity on blog posts generally tends to peak around 4 p.m. EST. Dan also found “articles published in the morning, around 9 a.m. EST, tended to be shared more on Facebook than articles published at other times of the day.”

Don’t Forget About Weekends

If you publish every day of the week, you may only be concerned with the time of day to post. But what about if you publish sporadically throughout the week — or even month? For those looking for the best time to blog, first consider when the best time it is for you to actually write the blog. Then, consider some data Dan found about what he calls “contra-competitive timing, which is the idea that when social activity tends to slow down, the social media activity has a higher click-through rate and sharing is higher.” Dan told me to think about this as that awkward moment at a party when you’re talking loudly to someone next to you and, just as you say something private, the room quiets and your voice is amplified. Similarly, the Web gets noticeably quieter on weekends, and while social media activity does slow, this is a chance for your content to be seen and therefore read by more people. Dan has also noticed a “huge increase of click-through rate on email on weekends because there are so few emails in our inboxes, and so they’re much more likely to be read.” (On that note, Dan strongly suggests bloggers to consider using email newsletters, as he says they are “way more powerful than social media. [They have] a much stronger lever.”)

Do What’s Best for You

Again, Dan’s research does not conclude as a hard-and-fast rule that will apply to everyone. Specific individual cases may require you to adjust your publishing schedule and share specific content based on your own unique needs. Different content may mean you share that type of content at different times of the day — or even week. The best time to blog boils down to what’s best for you and your blog, though starting with research like Dan’s can be incredibly beneficial in making a step in the right direction.

How have you found the best time to blog? Do you follow any rules? Feel free to share your experiences in the comments.