When it comes to writing blog posts and your readers you want an equal, fair balance. You want to be able to get to the point and at the same time make it easy for your readers to read each of your posts. This is why writing short posts can benefit you. Lets’s look a some of the advantages…
“If money is your hope for independence you will never have it. The only real security that a man will have in this world is a reserve of knowledge, experience, and ability.” ~ Henry Ford
When you write blog posts you want to convey a message thats going to resonate with your readers. You may have heard many of the myths the surround writing good content as well as made some up. I’m guilty of making some up like:
You have to be this really great exceptional writer
You have to have an extensive vocabulary so your readers know how intelligent you are
You have to write long blog posts to impress your readers
You have to use a lot of SEO in order to get ranked well with search engines
and so on and so forth….
But it really have nothing to do with this. What works best are straight to the point, concise blog posts that ignites something within your readers for them to come back for more of your content. You don’t want to be all over the place with your blog, but want to be as direct as possible.
Now don’t get me wrong, in some of my posts, I’m just here and there and everywhere, but have been make a lot of efforts to be more direct. I’m sure my readers appreciate this as well as yours.
Statistics About Your Readers And Blog Posts
A couple of blog posts ago I wrote a post entitled How Scannable And Valuable Are Your Blog Posts? In this blog post I talked about when it come to your blog posts you want to make them as easy as possible to read and at the same time deliver the value that your target market of readers are looking for.
Statistics show that your average person that comes to read your blog post spend around 97 seconds on it. Now that’s not too long isn’t it? Now imagine if you write long posts that aren’t easy to read and doesn’t give the answers your readers are looking for? You’re more than likely not going to get the traffic you want.
Another thing you want to take in account is that for each blog post you write, your readers are just going to retain about 60% of it. This makes sense since we don’t retain a lot of what we learn when we were in grade school. I surely don’t remember how the pythagorean theorem works and what we need it for.
The Perfect Length Of Your Posts And The Benefits 
As far as the length goes, you want your posts to be between 300-500 words. You want to make a point and stick with it. You want to keep your readers in mind when you write your posts. Remember if they’re really serious about blogging as well as writing blogs, they’re more likely reading a bunch of other blogs as well.
Sometimes it can be a little hard to add another subject to your blog, but you want to keep in mind that you want your readers to learn something. When you really learn something it’s interesting to you, you retain it a lot better, and more than likely you’ll implement it.
Your readers like blogs that just gives them the answers and not BS through out the blog in order to get that answer. It’s almost like calling customer service and you have to go through all these different prompts in order for you to get to the person you want to help you solve your problem. Its very frustrating!!!!
So what are the benefits?
- It makes it easier for your readers and they can learn something
- It looks good to search engine because they can quickly scan your posts
- You’ll get more unique visitors to your blog, both new and repeat
- And of course it’s going to improve your alexa and google page ranking.
Now how can you beat that?
Now It’s Your Turn?
Do you write long blog posts or short blog posts? Do you see the advantage of writing a bunch of short posts as opposed to long posts? Please share your comments below and share this post with your friends. I look forward to reading them!
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Hey Sherman,
Hope you are well,
This is something you have brought to my attention, as I have never counted the amount of words in my posts. I can tell Sherman, that you write for the reader as I do too and provided we give them the answer they were looking for and the message is clear and easy to read then we have achieved our goal.
I would like to know what other people think of this subject
Gary
Hey Gary,
Thanks for the compliment and you just summed up this topic quite well! Thanks for your input!
Hey Sherman,
I’ve had debated for a few with how often should I blog? How many words I should type and should I try to SEO every time.
Here is the conclusion that I have.
1) I decided that I was going to blog at a minimim 5 days a week.
2) 500 words minimum
3) Have keyword density of about 2-3%
So far with this formula it has helped me out a great deal and I’ve been getting alot of traffic and opt-ins.
Reading your blog posts confirms that I’m on the right track.
Nate Leung recently posted…MLM Blog: Mike Dillard’s – Magnetic Sponsoring Review
Hey Nate,
It’s funny how we can simply the process more and get even better results. The formula that you have really works quite well with blogging and can be duplicated.
Thanks for your feedback!
Hi Sherman
I can write 400 words with less problem than trying to write 800 words. Although at times I have wrote a wee bit more. Long posts unless the subject strikes my interest I usually leave. If they are shorter I might actually take the time to read them not knowing if I would be interested in it or not. So the value for writing shorter is a plus, you might actually capture an audience you might not have otherwise. Good point.
Mary
Mary Stephenson recently posted…Are You Fretting Over Your Purpose?
Hey Mary,
I believe we all can get really get caught up into writing a really interesting topic resulting in writing longer posts. I’ve done that sometimes myself and I believe I still will.
But for the most post, short posts is a plus. It gets straight to the point, keeps your readers focused, more for you to promote, and takes less tedious work.
Thanks Mary!
Hey Sherman,
I have actually set out to write short blog posts – and so far, haven’t…lol
Once I get going, the content flows and before I know it – it’s like ‘so much for the 300 word blurb’.
All I can say is that I hope my content is easy and entertaining enough for my readers to want to read all the way through.
Shorter posts do mean less editing and proofreading – and this is a plus, especially since those are my least favorite things to do.
I’ve also seen posts that consist of nothing more than a video or an infographic and they worked just fine. So I guess it just depends.
You bring up some great points as usual and this will definitely be on my agenda.
Great – on point post Sherman!
Hey Dana,
I really like reading your posts. They are longer, but you stick with the point and expand on it. You can definitely go back to your old posts and see if you can create more posts out the points you’ve made which will look great to search engines like Google.
Thanks Dana!
Damn, that’s a REALLY good idea.
I’ll have to try that. Thanks!
No Problem Dana!
Love your post Sherman!!!! Thank you for sharing this awesome info about writing shorter posts….sometimes shorter is better as long as you get your point across 🙂 Love this..”Your readers like blogs that just gives them the answers and not BS through out the blog in order to get that answer”.
So many DO NOT do this…..
Thanks my friend,
Joan
Hey Joan,
I’ve read so many long blogs that just don’t get to the point, it pretty much irritated me. I don’t mind reading longer blogs, but I just like for the author to get to the point and I know many readers think like me. Thanks for your comment!
Hi Sherman,
1. What’s the purpose of a blog post? To be a little blurb about something? Then yes, you can write 200-300 words and you’re ok.
2. If you want to solve a problem, it is difficult to do it in 300-500 words. Why? a normal blog posts has an introduction of about 100 words and a Conclusion of about 100 words.
If you write a 300 word post, all that remains is .. 100 words. You need to solve that problem in about 100 words. If it is about a site and all you need is provide a link and a short explanation, then yes, it works.
So, in most cases 300 word posts are out of the question. Let’s see 500 word posts.
When your post has about 500 words you have 300 words to get to the point and solve the problem. In my opinion this is not an easy thing to do. You need to ability to write dense and concise posts. This needs talent and experience.
For most beginners it is difficult to do. Yes, you can write something in those 300 words but what about the quality?
Maybe it works for people like you, experienced writers with hundreds and hundreds of blog posts under their belt. But when you are a beginner … it is almost impossible to write little and provide substance and quality.
OK Sherman. You recommend the perfect length of a post to be between 300-500 words. Why then you wrote this post that has 820 words? Maybe because you wasn’t able to “make the point” in just 500 words or less. 🙂
If you (an experienced writer) wasn’t able to make the point in 500 words and felt the need to write 800 words, what can we expect from a normal, common blogger ?
There are a lot of things that can be said but no time and space. I have presented my opinion about this topic in a special post that I attache here.
Have a nice day Sherman
Hey Silviu,
I do admit that I have written blog posts that were over 500 words, and this is a prime example of one. But the point that I was getting across is focus on keeping it short, sweet and to the point. Using 300-500 words is a great focal point and I believe it will help both beginners and more advance to become better writers. But everyone has their own preference. If you’re more finicky and meticulous with the amount of words you put on your post, then I respect that.
Thanks for your input!
admin recently posted…How Writing Short Blog Posts Benefits You
Hi Sherman,
I admit that I was a little bit ironical or even worse in my comment. I was expecting a tough reaction from you. I thought you will initiate a fight and was prepared for this.
However, your answer was short, sweet and to the point. It shows a mature, harmonious person who knows when and how to react and accepts critique. It was an elegant way to respond to a kind of attack. I like that.
My conclusion is that you are a serious person, a real professional and a have a good heart. I like the way you think, write and act. Now my whole sympathy goes with you.
Have a nice day
Hey Sherman,
I’m not sure where the notion of having long blog posts was better came from. Being longer doesn’t mean better if you’re going to lose your reader within the first few paragraphs.
Personally I like reading short blog posts. I like them even better when they get to the point quickly and provide content that is useful.
Writing short posts is about making your point with as few words as possible and that can take some extensive thought. It’s not always easy to reduce a complete, comprehensive thought to just a few words. But as with anything, practice makes perfect 🙂
Blessings,
Liz
Hey Liz,
I have read some really good long blog posts that had my wheels turning. And as a result I left a long comment 🙂
I agree that it’s not that easy to write short blog posts, especially for beginners, but in due time after being consistent, once can get really good at it!
Thanks Liz!
Sherman Smith recently posted…The Difference Between Alexa Ranking And Google Page Ranking
Hi Sherman,
As a reader, I don’t mind if the post is a long or short one as long as it adds some value, even if it’s bit boring. So as a blogger, I’m not intending to write long or short posts too 🙂 But make sure it has a purpose.
Usually I finish writing a post when I feel I covered everything I wanted in there. I do start by indicating key points so I can follow through them easily. I like the freedom of blogging, so tend not to think about text count or how many keywords being used in there too. Few times I deleted whole post and started from scratch. Just writing with no restrictions until I feel satisfied 😉
I know that some bloggers really think about having keywords and all that for ’em to be SEO optimized. They work well too. Different bloggers have vivid ways of doing things. Whether it’s optimized or not, I’d take it if it’s interesting 😉
You have a successful day Sherman 🙂
Cheers…
hey Mayura,
Different bloggers have different ways to go about blogging. In the end, you have to do what’s best for you. From some of my longer blog posts I use the different points in order to create shorter blog posts. I also think of the reader because I’m sure they read a lot of other posts which is another reason why I make an effort to keep it short.
Thanks Mayura for stopping by!
admin recently posted…4 Types Of Prospects You’ll Encounter
Make your point and get the heck off the stage buddy lol 😉
Love your posts and point here; my videos are 60 to 120 seconds, more being 60 these days….and most posts are 300 to 400 words tops.
Why? Saying much with a few words makes you memorable.
Thanks for sharing!
Ryan
Hey Smith,
I think all this just depends on what you want to share. There are some posts it will be very difficult to go below 1k words. That’s because of the amount of valuable information involved. I won’t chop this down because I want to be short. If you are writing tutorials and some ‘how-tos’, you understand what it means. For instance, a post on ‘how to reduce bounce rate’ or something like that cannot be short except you want to just mention points and write for the experts but if you want to break it down to the understanding of everyone, I’m sure you’ll be hitting 1k and more
I love short posts and hate incomplete post 😉
Thanks for this post today and hope you are enjoying your week bro
Enstine Muki recently posted…AWeber Alternative For Bloggers!
I know what you mean by short posts and incomplete posts LOL… I have been guilty of going over 500 words and even over 1k, but one option I gave myself is to go back to those long posts and start writing a blog post from each point, with some expansion of course 😉 .. any how-to’s or any other tutorials you can also turn into a PDF or a page that your more interested readers can go to. Thanks Enstine for your feedback!
admin recently posted…4 Types Of Prospects You’ll Encounter
As my personal experience a blog post must be about 400-500 words . And this may cover all the topics you want to tell to your readers .As a blog reader no one reads every words of your blog post . We all only focus on the main topic of the post
Hey Amrish,
You’re definitely right. The majority of us are guilty of not reading every single word of a blog post. We look at the main points that interest us and focus on that.
Thanks for your input Amrish!
sherman smith recently posted…Do You Use The Word “Must” More Or The Word “Should” ?
Hi Sherman! I certainly see your point about short, engaging posts. I mean, look what Seth Godin is able to communicate in just a few short words. He’s figured out the art of the short post for sure. 500 words is usually a good target for me and I have found that organizing a post around 3-5 main points can help keep me focused as I write and keep my readers focused as they read.
Hey Brian,
This is my target before and plus this is who I am. I’m not what you call a “talker” and this is how I align myself to my blog. But in all you have to do what works best for you as long as it has quality content that your readers can learn from. So it sounds like I’m like you when it comes to blogging 😉
Thanks for your comment!
admin recently posted…How To Choose Your Next Topic
It’s my pleasure your blog is really awesome! I enjoy blogging as much as the next guy but I’m always enjoying the smaller posts more! It’s easy to read and give feedback. I look forward to visiting your blog again soon.
Thanks Brian! I look forward to reading yours too!
sherman smith recently posted…How To Choose Your Next Topic