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Just like the saying goes: Your blog post is like a skirt, it should be short enough to keep your reader’s attention but long enough to cover the subject with proper explanations.
A short post is like a snack while a long post is like the meal and potatoes of the blogging world. We eat meals only a few times a day, but we also love to take snacks in between meals. Isn’t that so?
So whether you are writing a long or short post, it doesn’t matter how lengthy your post is and the truth is none of it is a crime as everyone will love to read the both of them, and did I mention that the length of any post has nothing to do with how good or bad it is and the originality of the post content? Though it isn’t a crime but you must however make sure your long posts are interesting, captivating and tickle the fancy of your readers, else you will scare them away when they see you are leading them nowhere.
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“It’s not your long posts that scare away readers but your sloppy writing does.” – Sam Adeyinka (a quote from a Nigerian blogger).
I recently heard a blogger make a strong accusation against another fellow blogger about writing short posts, so I decided to write this article to compare long posts and short posts. I hope you find it useful.
Long Posts Vs Short Posts
Short Posts: A lot of gurus and Pro bloggers might disagree with me but after going through a lot of contents from other blogs, I found out that most short posts really do have valuable and interesting points laden in them. A short post no matter how short it is can carry a lot of information.Creativity in the post and the kind of information it carries along is very important.
If a post is short but gives you the guidelines to solving a particular problem with positive result then I guess post length shouldn’t count but what should count is its content especially when it carries and passes a life transforming message or achieved the purpose which it was written.
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The fact that we wrote about the same thing, you decided to make your post longer and filled it with both necessary and unnecessary information doesn’t make it more understandable or explanatory.
A good short post might give you step by step procedures on how to go about a particular problem and still achieve it.
When should you write a short post?
Sometimes it always makes sense to write short post as it helps for better engagement with your readers, especially when it’s your primary goal or perhaps in the case whereby your audience has short spans. Some readers hate long post, no matter how interesting that post may be they just get bored and click the cancel button. Short posts are also easier to write and saves time so you might want to consider writing a short post to save time.
Long Posts: Writing a long post with about 1000k words and above is nice but it also depends on what you are trying to achieve. I have recently found out that some writers resolve to writing long posts not because they necessarily need to give people guidelines but because they feel that writing a long post is more engaging and would make readers spend longer time on their blog forgetting that when a post becomes unnecessarily too long, it becomes boring and might make the reader lose interest.
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So it is very important to pass your message in the shortest way possible. As long as your post have given your readers what they need, they will definitely come back but when it is unnecessarily long, it becomes time consuming then it kills the fire the post carries.
When should you write a long post?
Most often, my posts are always short and not always more than 1k words but I sometimes write more when I have a lot to say or perhaps I needed to explain and expatiate more to my audience about my post. I call this detailed information or what some would like to call case studies.
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This therefore boils down to the fact that you need to know your readers in and out to be able to give them what they want, whether it’s a long post or a short post. This makes me come back to my first sentence about the accused blogger’s method of blog posting. I guess he studied his readers and decided to please them the best way possible by giving them short powerful posts.
Brian Clack vs. Ramsay Taplin
CopyBlogger is owned and managed by Brian Clark. He did a post which in fact was the shortest have seen so far throughout my travel around the blogosphere. He called it “Ten Steps to Becoming a Better Writer”.
I’m sure some of us might have stumbled upon this one post. Perhaps you haven’t, now is your best chance. See the analysis of the post here:
Word count: 47
Comment Count: 505
Shares: 1200+
Notes: In this post, Brian kept repeating just one word and got himself famous. You will now see that writing a post has nothing to do with the word count but rather it is about the idea.
Ramsay Taplin is the owner of Blog Tyrant and very popular in the blogosphere. He did a post titled “How to Blog”, which teaches about starting a blog. It’s indeed a great guide.You should check it out. Wouldn’t you want to see the analysis of the post?
You want to, okay here you have it:
Word count: 7, 809
Comment count: 45
Shares: 165
Notes: This was his longest post but it literally didn’t meet his expectation as to the feedback it got.
I think it’s not about the length of the posts but the value it actually conveys that matters. You can write a very long post like Ramsay and not get positive feedbacks, and vice versa. (I didn’t say Ramsay’s post wasn’t valuable, it sure is). I’m sure you know what I mean, right?
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Hence, I would say successful posts are the ones that produce a huge amount of value and for you to provide such values you will need to write a lot of words and cover a lot of points. The length however is a by-product while the value is the key product.
Bob’s final thought
Generally speaking, I think people want more meat these days, not less, despite short attention spans. If you make your long post very valuable, interesting and formatted for easy reading, people will stick with you. Trust me it’s a no brainer. Always harness the power of your thoughts when writing a post and know what your brain can carry.
Ponder on this quote, from my Friend Sam Adeyinka “There’s no such thing as a good blog post that’s too long, and a bad blog post is never short enough”.
Thanks for your time.
Over to you…….
Short posts or long posts: Which do you prefer? Why? And what effect does it have on your blog? Which one works better for you on social networks or perhaps Google? Please do share your thoughts (experience with post length) here with us in the comment box below. I’d be so glad to hear your opinions.