A when-to-post-it note for bloggers

Early-to-mid afternoon, never on Monday: So says one blogger/programmer, whose statistical analysis we'll get to in a moment, even though I'm not entirely on board with its conclusions.

The mere act of writing is enough for some bloggers; if anyone should read and appreciate the work, all the better. For others, attention matters, as it can put food on the table (as with yours truly) or simply nourish the ego.

If attention is a goal, the places to find it are on the front pages of news aggregation and social networking sites such as Digg, Slashdot, Reddit, Fark and Mixx. Land your blog item on one of those and you'll have all the attention your Web server can handle.

It's not easy, of course, because there are a brazilian bloggers trying to do the same thing. Which brings us back to the point: What's the best day and time to post if you'd like to have your words read by more than friends and family? What's best to avoid?

Blogger "Jake" at Third Rail has done some research and has a theory:

Thursday at noon (PST) is the best time post and be noticed. It's happened to me a few times; I stay up late working on a great post and finish at 1 a.m. EST. In a rush of excitement I decide to submit it to reddit or del.icio.us and go to bed fully expecting to see it on the front page of their sites the next morning. Of course this rarely happens... so being a programmer I figured I should do some analysis on the best time to post.

You can go Third Rail for the methodology and snappy graphics, but it boils down this: Early-to-mid-afternoon Tuesday through Friday is best. Mondays not so much.

The 3 p.m. Eastern/noon Pacific conclusion seems to merely confirm what common sense would tell us: West Coasters are surfing while eating their lunch; East Coasters are still at work and feeling entitled to some goof-off time.

But what makes Mondays so poisonous?

Let's trot out a few possibilities:

• You've just spent the weekend playing and recharging the batteries; that project you left unfinished on Friday is still unfinished (go figure). Monday's a nose-to-the-grindstone day, no? Time for reading blogs becomes limited accordingly.
• Competition for reader attention can be fierce on Mondays, as many publications -- in particular, technology mags such as Network World -- continue to publish their dead-tree editions on Mondays and post the bulk of that content concurrently.
• People are grumpy on Mondays and grumpy people have little patience for blogs.

Personally, I harbor no fear of posting on Mondays, in large part because my employer expects me to produce every day (those tyrants), but also because it has not proven to be a blogger's Bermuda Triangle to me. Just yesterday, for example, this post -- 'Bribe' or 'miswording': You make the call -- attracted enough attention to make the front page of Digg, albeit arriving there this morning, Tuesday.

Just goes to show that as with all such advice, your mileage may vary.

Have a when-to-post theory of your own? Please share.

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