As I started writing blogs, just the other day in fact, I found that one of the first things to work out, is how long the posts should be. I found several articles online. Two of the most helpful ones, were this one at Forbes and this one at thewritepractice.com . Both of these articles point out that “it depends” and that there are plenty of advantages and disadvantages of each, which they mostly agree upon, but not entirely.
Everyone will agree that no piece of writing should be longer than it needs to be. It should contain just as many words as necessary to get get the point across, or describe the subject at hand. This brings to mind the scene from the movie, Amadeus where Emperor Joseph II says that Mozart’s new opera contained “too many notes”, that he should “cut a few”, and Mozart’s smug reply.
From the point of view of the reader, if they want a quick answer to something, or are just surfing the web, they will prefer a short blurb. If they want a full rundown on some subject, especially one that they are specifically and intentionally researching, they want the whole story or the whole rundown. Once they start reading a long blog entry, they will likely continue to read as long as it seems to be answering their questions. In other words, it does depend on what the reader wants.
When it comes to improving your page rankings through Search Engine Optimization (SEO), longer articles generally work better than short posts, but SEO is a large and complex subject that I’m not an expert on, so I won’t try to cover it here. Suffice it to say that there is a time and place for long blog entries too.
From the point of view of the writer, he/she would do best to write what he “feels like writing”. A writer who has any sense for his/her audience and knows the subject matter will more than likely fill some need for the readers almost automatically; it’s just natural that they would. Write what you feel like writing, when you feel like writing it, and make it as long or as short as you like. You can always split a large post into smaller posts, or combine smaller posts into larger posts, based on feedback or your own whim, whenever you like. But the important thing is to write. Also, pay attention to the response.
This is the approach I will be taking on this blog. Please let me know how I’m doing!