How Long Should Your Blog Posts Be?
Reader Question
A reader recently asked my advice on the ideal length for a blog post. He said he typically likes to write 800 word posts.
My Response
When people ask me how long posts should be, I usually say, “As long as it needs to be.” It’s a bit like “How long is a piece of string?” What is more important, and more difficult, is to write consistently compelling or at least, useful content. If readers are interested, they’ll stick with it.
Tips For Longer Posts
If you are going to write longer posts, I would suggest using bullet points, sub headings and some bolding of key phrases to help the reader – maybe even a blockquote or two. Look at bloggers who write lengthy posts, and see what they do. Steve Pavlina makes $4 000 per day, so he must be doing something right. Yaro Starak, owner of Blog Mastermind, a mentoring program of which I’m a member, has quite a few longer posts of 750-1000 words at his business blog, Entrepreneur’s Journey.
Longer posts are often pillar articles or flagship content, as they go into issues in more depth, and have key “takeaway” information. I like to think of them as cornerstone content or foundation content. Personallly, I like to mix it up a bit - longer posts and shorter posts for variety, depending on the topic and depth of coverage. It will vary according to your blog’s focus and purpose too.
Engaging The Audience and Keeping Them Interested
When I tossed this around with Mary Emma Allen of b5 media’s Home Biz Notes, she made some astute observations about engaging your audience. She said “Your advice about the length of blog posts is about the same for speakers and ministers. When you’ve covered your topic, stop talking or you’ll lose your audience and they’ll simply remember sitting too long and being bored. Now you won’t hold everyone’s rapt attention because people are different. But there is a time limit to writing and speaking. Some speakers tend to drone on too long after making their points because they feel they have to fill up a certain amount of time.”
The speaker example is a great parallel for writers. The great Mark Twain quipped “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” If the post is long, check if it needs to be long. If it’s short, check if you have covered all your points. In both cases, edit for clarity and unecessary words.
Over To You - Please Add Your Thoughts On How Long a Blog Post Should Be
Do you have any suggestions? Do you prefer to write long or short blog posts? Do you prefer to mix it up? What helps you decide? Any tips? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Hi Yvonne
I’d agree with your first point - as long as it needs to be. Maybe adding the caveat - and not a word longer!
My own material is probably around 500 words. Sometimes it’s a bit longer, more like an article or think piece - these tend to be a bit more structured, less formal (and generate less comments)
I haven’t yet found the words or the confidence to blog one liners - I admire those who can and do!
Joanna
Hi Joanna - “And not a word longer.” Well said! There is definitely an art to brevity as you suggest, with the one liners.
I mix long and short posts, depending on the topic and my schedule. This week has been extremely hectic, so my posts have been short. I also tend to write series of posts on some topics rather than a single, very long post.
Yvonne - having never really been classified as a writer “formally”, I just don’t think in word counts. Some of my posts are long, some are short - it all depends on what I have to say. That is the beauty of what we do - there is no hard and fast rule as to what is right or wrong.
That is so true! Some people don’t know when to stop!
Hi Lillie - Thanks for your insights. I agree breaking a long post up into a series can be very effective. Being short on time is definitely a catalsyt for short posts.
Hi Char - The more I blog, the more I’m realizing there are no hard and fast rules. Everyone and every blog is different. As you say, it’s a plus.
Hi Calvin - LOL. Striking a balance is the key, I guess.
As long as it needs to be. While the Department of Defense spent $450,000 to find out that:
“Blog entries have a different structure,” Ulicny said. “They are typically short and are about something external to the blog posting itself , such as a news event. It’s not uncommon for a blogger to simply state, ‘I can’t believe this happened,’ and then link to a news story.”
I have found that the posts which generate the most comments, links and traffic are the ones where I actually say something. The short comment with a link may work with instapundit, but now really for ,e.
Hi Dana - You’re kidding! $45 000! They should have come to us. I’m sure we would have told them that for half the price.
As many bloggers say, you just never know which posts are going to strike a chord, so that’s great that you’ve been able to identify which posts work best for you.
Since my blog is about exploring the foundations of ideas and the outworkings thereof, a quip and a link would hardly suffice. : )
When I first started (and consequently had nothing much to say), posts were pretty short. Nowdays, I use MSWord to write the draft and limit it to two pages, max. So as a rough rule of thumb for me, it’s one to two pages, which usually translates to 500-1000 words. It somehow feels wrong to go over that.
For me, it’s like telling a story at a watercooler - if it’s too long, the listener won’t have time to hear the whole thing. Besides, self imposed limits help prevent the dreaded “waxing eloquent” disease!
Hi Dana - Absolutely! You tend to explore things in quite some depth. Also regular readers help the conversation too, and you seem to have a loyal following.
Robert - I love the analogy of telling a story at the watercooler Robert. Your stories are always interesting, so you have it down to a fine art.
Thank you, Yvonne, for mentioning me and Home Biz Notes. You have written a good post about this topic which seems to be of interest to bloggers. It’s also interesting how the Internet world and blogging have begun to affect what appears in print publications regarding topics, length and structure.
Mary Emma - That’s an interesting observation about the crossover between web and print media with length and structure. A lot of print media outlets, also have an online presence these days, to provide another communication channel and greater interactivity.
There’s also a blurring of the lines between journalists and bloggers now. I know it has caused some waves in the print world when bloggers not qualified as journalists have been given jobs at news corporations and newspapers.
I tend to like a shorter blog, about 500 words or fewer, if it’s just meant to be chatty or an update on recent events. Longer is needed, of course, if real information is being given, or answers to questions. Like many of us, I spend so much time looking at a computer that by the end of the day my eyeballs are about to fall out and I can’t stand the thought of looking at one more pages-long rant.
Hi Jean - Welcome to Grow Your Writing Business. I think you’ve summed it up beautifully. I tend to mix and match to suit too. You make a good point about many of us looking at computer screens all day too. Hope you’ll come back to visit.
Sep 13th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
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