If you’re an IGG fan, you understand the importance of blogging in indie game marketing and have included it in your own promotional calendar. But have you answered the question: “how much time does blogging take?” If not, you risk underestimating what you need to devote to this channel–a mistake that could (1) blow your launch date or (2) result in a not-so-active blog.

While blogging may seem easy enough, keeping an active blog is a serious time commitment–one you must fully understand to plan an accurate marketing calendar. To help you in this planning, I have provided what I spend blogging for Indie Game Girl below. My hope is that you can use this as a guide to more accurately budget your blogging time and achieve greater marketing success.

How Much Time Does Blogging Take?

So, how much time does blogging take to maintain Indie Game Girl? Below I have provided the steps I take weekly, as well as their corresponding hours. I hope this helps you better plan your marketing calendar!

Topic Generation: 1 Hour
One hour may seem like a lot to come up with a idea, but topic generation is so much more than that. Once I have a blog topic, I vet it to ensure that (1) my readers will be interested, (2) the wider indie community will be interested and (3) it is well defined. To accomplish this, I first reach out to followers and review my site’s analytics. This helps me verify interest among fans. If my fans are interested, I then visit Google’s Keyword Planner to make sure the topic is searched by the wider indie community. If both are true, I spend time refining the topic to ensure a succinct, yet comprehensive post.

Research: 1-? Hours
Depending on how in-depth I want to get and how well I know the material, research time varies. For example, blogs like this, where I’m very familiar with the material, require minimal research. Blogs, like Gaming the App Store: The Start of an Indie Ice Age, which was featured on Gamasutra, can take weeks to find statistics, quotes and so forth.

Execution: 4 Hours
On average, I spend four hours each week “executing” my posts. This includes writing the post; sourcing and/or creating images for it; and, finally, scheduling.

Promotion: 2 Hours
Once my post is scheduled, I set up my social media. On Sunday, I spend two hours scheduling the following week’s posts to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. This includes not only scheduling links to my upcoming blog, but finding relevant articles, Friday #FFs, etc. and scheduling links to them as well.

Answering Fans: 3 Hours
If your fans take the time to read your blog and reach out, it’s important you show your appreciation by responding in a timely fashion. Be sure to build this time into your promotional calendar. I spend about three hours per week responding to questions and/or comments I receive through social media, my blog and email.

GRAND TOTAL: 11 HOURS PER WEEK (more depending on research)

How much time does blogging take you?

If you have a moment, I would love to know how long your blogging takes. Post a comment.