Why your website requires a publishing schedule: July 22, 2002 issue of New Thinking

July 22, 2002 New Thinking:
Why your website requires a publishing schedule

Website content management

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Gerry McGovern

Content Critical

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July 22, 2002

Why your website requires a publishing schedule

By Gerry McGovern

Every website, whether it is an intranet or public website, requires a publishing schedule. Such a schedule defines how much content you will publish and at what regularity. This gives your publishing processes discipline. For the reader it provides consistency, letting them know when to expect new content.

One of the best and worst developments that the Web introduced was a 24-hour publishing capability. It's great that you can update your website at any time of the day. However, this can often create a laziness and lack of professionalism in how content is published.

The consistent publishing of quality content requires a publishing schedule. You need to say: 'We publish new content at 10 a.m. every weekday and we stick to it.' It doesn't have to be every day. It can be once a week, once a month. The important thing is that you establish a schedule and stick to it.

This is my seventh year of publication for New Thinking. Holidays excepted, I have published it every week over those seven years. There have been good weeks and bad weeks for me. But the show must go on. I made a commitment to my readers to publish weekly.

I have a schedule as a writer. Practically all professional writers that I know have a schedule. They approach their work in a disciplined and consistent manner. Otherwise, things begin to drift. When you don't have that drop-dead date, the publication date begins to drift and drift. Before you know it, you haven't published anything in ages, and your website is looking stale.

Today is Saturday, and I'm in the process of writing the first draft of next week's New Thinking. This is what I always do. It's a habit I've got into. Tomorrow, I will revise the draft several times. Then, I'll lay it out on the website. By Sunday night latest, I'll publish it by email.

Sometimes, there will be technical problems. I hate to see these happen because I know that at least some of my readers will be expecting to see New Thinking arrive on its regular schedule. You see, many people are habitual in relation to how they read content. They like to read the morning newspaper with their morning coffee.

If you publish new content on your website every weekday at 9 a.m., something strange will happen. If you check your website logs, you will begin to see a spike in traffic between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. At least some of your readers will get into the habit of checking up your website just after 9 a.m. to see what new content is there.

Most websites lack publishing discipline. There's a mad rush to get lots of content published for launch. Then there's all these mini-panics as people realize that they haven't published anything new in ages.

A publishing schedule solves this ad-hoc, amateurish approach to publishing. It helps everybody. Authors can plan their time better because they know when new content is expected of them. Editors can plan their resources better. And, most importantly, readers can plan when they should check the website again, and/or when to expect that email newsletter they subscribed to.

Gerry McGovern

Next issue: Information overload: too much information, too little time
Previous issue: The lifecycle of intranets

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Most websites lack publishing discipline.

Gerry McGovern's books are recommended reading at the following universities

Augustana College, United States
Brandeis University, United States
Drury University, United States
Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland
Indiana University, United States
Monash University, Australia
Northeastern University, United States
University of Applied Sciences, Germany
University of Regina, Canada
University of Teesside, UK
Manchester Metropolitan University

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