When it comes to writing blog posts, you can choose to write timely contents or go for timeless contents. The third option will be to write a combination of both categories of posts. If your blog is not a news channel, writing timeless posts will be more helpful to your blog than writing timely posts.
What are timely contents?
Timely posts can be referred to as the contents you write about trending events, people, places or things. They are the posts you write to lend your voice to current conversations.
They are good sources of short-term traffic to your blog. But they soon fizzle out in relevance.
Examples of the timely contents I have written on this blog are:
- Blogging Milestone: One Hundred Thousand Views And Still Counting. This was a timely piece to me because I wrote it to announce to my readers that the blog’s viewership has surpassed the one hundred thousand milestone.
- Lessons From Bill And Melinda Gates’ Divorce Announcement. The divorce of Bill and Melinda gates was a trending tissue in 2021. The referenced post was my attempt at drawing some lessons from what happened to the marriage of the billionaire couple.
- Covid 19 Lockdown: Maximising Your Personal Time And Curing Boredom. This was a timely post because it was written during the covid-19 global lockdown of 2020 to suggest ways to people on how to cope with the boredom created by the lockdown.
What are timeless contents?
These are also known as evergreen articles. They are written to be relevant at all times – either now or in the future.
As they were not based on trending topics, timeless contents continue to be useful to your readers year after year. And that’s one of the most important reasons you should write more timeless pieces than timely ones.
Examples of timeless contents on this blog
- Bartimaeus: 9 Inspirational Lessons From A Blind Man. Written in 2018, this post has continued to draw readers to the blog because it qualifies as a timeless content.
- 16 Powerful Benefits of Asking Questions You Should Know. This is another evergreen content I Have on the blog because even after six years since it was first published, the posts has continued to attract readers to the blog.
- Dear New Blogger: 7 Things I Would Like You To Know. These pieces of advice I gave in 2019 to new bloggers is still valid today.
Timely vs timeless contents, which is better?
Most of the articles on this blog are largely timeless pieces. But I do have timely pieces in between, which were written as the need arose.
Timely contents serve their purpose but in the long run, good timeless contents will prove to be more helpful to your blog’s performance. So as a contents creator, aim to write more of timeless pieces than timely ones.
Am I saying you should not write timely contents at all? Definitely not!
If your blog is a news channel, you can’t but write plenty of timely contents, because they will constitute the bulk of your stock-in-trade. But if your are not a news media, I will advise you to write more of timeless contents. That way, your articles will continue to be relevant at all times and continued to be discovered by internet searchers.
Why timeless contents are more helpful to your blog
If you have read the post till this point, you will have seen some of the reasons it will be more beneficial for you to focus on writing timeless contents than timely ones.
Let’s add to the list here.
Why is timeless content important?
- Unlike timely pieces which have very short life, evergreen contents usually have very long lifespan. Therefore, timeless contents offer a value of a lifetime.
- Timely posts can spike up the traffic to your blog but in the long run, timeless contents will bring you more cumulative traffic over time.
- Timeless contents are not targeted at only current trends, so they tend to remain relevant at all times. This is unlike timely posts that have value only in the present conversations.
- Unlike timely contents, timeless contents usually are a product of in-depth research. So the information they provide, will prove to be more reliable and authentic.
- Timeless contents could also encourage internal linking building on your blog. When you have built a library of timeless contents, you can link to them from your newer posts because of the inherent value in them.
Combining both timely and timeless contents
Having read up till this point, you will have observed that I would prefer you post more of timeless pieces on your blog than the timely ones. As the name suggests, timeless posts will continue to be relevant well into the future whereas timely posts usually have a short life span as they are easily overtaken by current events.
However, you can adopt a strategy of posting both timely and timeless posts, provided they are what your readers want.
More so, timeless articles take more time to create than the timely ones. So instead not posting at all because you are taking much time to come up with a timeless piece, you can throw relevant timely pieces in the mix.
That way, you would have to keep your readers waiting for your that master piece you hope would break the internet. After all, little contents on your blog is better than no content at all.
I will not go as far as suggesting that you write 60% timeless posts and 40% timely posts. Depending on the nature of your blog, you can choose the combination that works for you.
But as far as this blog is concerned, I’m sure the articles I would consider as timeless ones would constitute at least 80% of what I have ever written and published here.
Conclusion
Timely posts are important because they affords you the avenue to lend your voice to currently happening events around you. Talk about keeping up with current trends!
However, if you are thinking of writing articles that will continue to be immensely useful to your readers and which will benefit your blog over the long term span, you should definitely go for writing timeless pieces.
Depending on what your blog objectives are, the contents you create and publish could either be timely or timeless pieces. However, there is always room for you to adopt a strategy that mixes both types of contents in the best ways possible and beneficial to your blog readers.
Timely or timeless contents, which do you prefer? Leave me a comment.
