Do You Like Short Articles or Long Articles?
I have always wondered what people prefer as far the the length of articles go. People have so many different personalities and preferences, I am sure it’s hard to compliment everyone’s preferences. For me, I try to fall right down the middle. My natural tendency is to create super long articles, yet I can’t stand reading them on other blogs.
Andy Beard is a blogger who I like reading, I don’t really agree with many of his views, but I think he is a great writer and blogger. His posts are longer than the King James Bible. I can’t stand reading his stuff, but some how I work through it and manage to. Does that make sense? I like to read his stuff, but can’t stand it. LOL!!!
So what do you like? Do you like short and sweet articles that you can breeze through in about a minute? Or, do you like long written novel style written posts that require you to schedule an appointment to read? I try to make my posts fall within 250 to 500 words. Whether that actually happens, I don’t know… I don’t really count my words in the posts. However, I kind of have a feel for when I should cut things off and get to the point.
A few months ago, I did a huge survey on my blog, asking my readers many questions. I learned quite a bit about my readers using this survey and I very well may do another. The majority of people that participated in this survey said that they prefer normal sized articles around 250 to 500 words. I wonder if that statistic still holds true today. Since that time, I have doubled my RSS subscribers.
What do you think? Are my posts too long, too short or just right?
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10 comments
honestly I think it depends on what the article is about. I tend to LOVE short stuff, but there are certain things that just need to be a bit longer. Explanations on tech stuff needs to be long, unless you can really explain it quickly. But that’s just my opinion. Oh and rants are great long. lol
You like long and drawn out rants… yuck! LOL!!!!
I don’t like rants style posts all that much let alone having to read 1000 words of one. I agree with you on the tech post part… it can be very difficult to do tech related posts with out being very detailed and involved.
You know though, one things about rant style posts is that they do capture quite a bit of attention.
I agree with Eliza that it all depends on the article. If the article is filled with tantilizing information from beginning to end, then I can read a longer post. Otherwise, I prefer shorter articles.
Actually, for me it all comes down to the first paragraph. If you don’t have my full attention by the end of the first paragraph, chances are I won’t be reading the rest of the post. The problem with longer posts is that most of them are just ramblings. They say in a thousand words what they could have said in a couple hundred.
I have a pretty short attention span as many already realize. I totally prefer shorter written articles. Very keen on that about the first paragraph, it seems you’re not the only one. For me, there are many times where I don’t get past the post title.
As a slow reader I personally prefer the short articles. I would rather read a three part article than one long one. It overwhelms me immediately and I tend to just leave it.
I have a web design client that writes novels for articles and it took me, probably more than, a year convincing him to break his novels into two or three parts.
I used the strategy of having more pages to get indexed and ranking and that finally convinced him to cut them a bit shorter.
I think 500 words is a great mark. It’s short enough to be a quick read but not short enough to look ridiculous.
I don’t recall reading any of your post that were too long, but then again if they were too long maybe I didn’t read them.
I much prefer short posts. I don’t mind short posts posted 2-3 times a day. What you have to understand is that some people are subscribed to zillions of blogs and it takes time to read them all. I find the shorter the post the more of them I read, even though it might take me longer than reading one long post. Hope that makes sense
Hi Garry
I don’t look on niches as purely being defined by topic, but also by writing style, depth of coverage, and many other factors.
I aimed for a more in depth style with quite a firm stance or opinion. Many more popular sites write a short article on a topic in a more conversational style, and just ask for opinions.
For tech topics the press releases I get sent often contain more information than the resulting “reviews” of the services on many tech blogs. I feel some readers are looking for more than a condensed press release plus a screenshot.
On any topic I am fully open to others disagreeing with me, it stimulates the conversation.
I agree with Eliza & Christine, the topic plays a large part in the length of the article.
I also agree with Andy, style is also a big factor. Andy does a good job of breaking down his posts into smaller sections that are clearly defined.
Overall I like shorter articles, and that goes way back to the days of reading magazines (before the Internet), and yes, there was a time before the Internet where 30 day old articles in Magazines was about the best you could hope for, especially on tech topics.
Garry, it seems I cant get anything done in 250-500 words, most of my stuff ends up in the 800-1000 word range and usually I have to cut it off. Blog articles are like books, if the first part is keeping my interest I usually finish it.
I have the same trouble too. When I write, I can tend to ramble quite a bit. I try to make an effort with re-reading my articles before I post them to try to remove excess baggage. You’d be amazed with what you can do to condense things.
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