People have been saying for generations that a picture is worth a thousand words. In this respect, your blog posts should be worth less. Even though it's hard to give a definitive answer to this question because there are many unknowns, as far as blogs go, bigger isn't always better. You need to understand this – you aren't writing a novel. You are publishing online content, and when they're online, people don't want to spend too much time reading something. Even if your content is interesting, very few will likely dedicate their time to reading a really long blog post.
In fact, in many cases the length of a post might put people off which means they won't even begin to read your blog post, let alone read the entire thing. That being said, there are certain topics you can afford to write a lot about. Highly specialized subjects like science can get away with long posts because then people are looking for a certain information and are willing to spend more time trying to find it. With this in mind, I have decided to group blog posts in three categories – short, medium and long. Like I said, there is no definitive answer, but there are certain rules and principles you have to follow if you want to be successful.
Short Blog Posts (500-1000 words)
Short blog posts are what you should generally aim for. When I write about something that doesn't require elaborate explanations or complicated qualifications, I usually try to keep it within the 500 words. I don't always manage, but I believe this is the optimum length for most blog posts.
You need to ask yourself, “Why am I writing this? What kind of message I want to convey?” Usually when you're writing a blog, you are presenting with your opinion on certain topics or you're writing about something new or hot. This is all well and good, but people on the Web get easily bored so if you spend 2000 words on something that could've easily been explained in 500, you are going to lose readers. Try to be as informative and brief as possible. Like I said, most blog posts should fall into this category.
Medium Blog Posts (1000-2000 words)
You are already using way too many words, but you can get away with it in certain cases. If your content is interesting, shocking and informative, people might forgive the length. If you insert a joke here and there (and no, knock-knock jokes don't count) and keep your audience entertained, 2000 words might not bore them that much. Still, here you need to tread carefully. This length is usually reserved for stories people can get involved in or lists people would like to read about in order to be entertained.
If a person starts to read your 2000 blog post on how you hate Mondays and you spend 500 words on how your colleague, Steve, really loves Monday morning and how strange you find that, you can be sure that many people won't get to the end. Preferably, here you want to talk about things people are interested in in your niche. As a bit of a nerd, for example, I like comic books, so I wouldn't mind reading a 2000 word blog post on why making a Batman/Superman movie at this point is a bad idea, or Top 10 most powerful beings in the DC Universe. But I don't care about your Monday, and neither do most people.
Long Blog Posts (2000+ words)
Unless you're writing about science or your content is highly entertaining (and I do mean highly, like, hilarious), or you're writing a really good story, steer clear of posts of such length. This will be an absolute disaster if you pour so much time and effort into writing something 5 pages long that no one would ever read. We don't care about your coworker's ugly neck tie, so don't bother telling us about it. If you don't have anything interesting to say, but since this is the Internet you want to say something anyway, keep it short.
About the Author:
Rose Finchley works as an technician for http://www.tidycleaning.co.uk/deep-cleaning-nw4-hendon/ and has a lot of experience to share with her readers.
In fact, in many cases the length of a post might put people off which means they won't even begin to read your blog post, let alone read the entire thing. That being said, there are certain topics you can afford to write a lot about. Highly specialized subjects like science can get away with long posts because then people are looking for a certain information and are willing to spend more time trying to find it. With this in mind, I have decided to group blog posts in three categories – short, medium and long. Like I said, there is no definitive answer, but there are certain rules and principles you have to follow if you want to be successful.
Short Blog Posts (500-1000 words)
Short blog posts are what you should generally aim for. When I write about something that doesn't require elaborate explanations or complicated qualifications, I usually try to keep it within the 500 words. I don't always manage, but I believe this is the optimum length for most blog posts.
You need to ask yourself, “Why am I writing this? What kind of message I want to convey?” Usually when you're writing a blog, you are presenting with your opinion on certain topics or you're writing about something new or hot. This is all well and good, but people on the Web get easily bored so if you spend 2000 words on something that could've easily been explained in 500, you are going to lose readers. Try to be as informative and brief as possible. Like I said, most blog posts should fall into this category.
Medium Blog Posts (1000-2000 words)
You are already using way too many words, but you can get away with it in certain cases. If your content is interesting, shocking and informative, people might forgive the length. If you insert a joke here and there (and no, knock-knock jokes don't count) and keep your audience entertained, 2000 words might not bore them that much. Still, here you need to tread carefully. This length is usually reserved for stories people can get involved in or lists people would like to read about in order to be entertained.
If a person starts to read your 2000 blog post on how you hate Mondays and you spend 500 words on how your colleague, Steve, really loves Monday morning and how strange you find that, you can be sure that many people won't get to the end. Preferably, here you want to talk about things people are interested in in your niche. As a bit of a nerd, for example, I like comic books, so I wouldn't mind reading a 2000 word blog post on why making a Batman/Superman movie at this point is a bad idea, or Top 10 most powerful beings in the DC Universe. But I don't care about your Monday, and neither do most people.
Long Blog Posts (2000+ words)
Unless you're writing about science or your content is highly entertaining (and I do mean highly, like, hilarious), or you're writing a really good story, steer clear of posts of such length. This will be an absolute disaster if you pour so much time and effort into writing something 5 pages long that no one would ever read. We don't care about your coworker's ugly neck tie, so don't bother telling us about it. If you don't have anything interesting to say, but since this is the Internet you want to say something anyway, keep it short.
About the Author:
Rose Finchley works as an technician for http://www.tidycleaning.co.uk/deep-cleaning-nw4-hendon/ and has a lot of experience to share with her readers.
1 comment:
Hi,
Great Post, but one thing we always need to follow is that it doesn't matters how many words you are writing, always write useful and meaningful content for your blog post with the relevant pictures (A picture is worth thousand words)
Post a Comment