Don’t kid yourself, SIZE MATTERS, but we’re not talking about sex here
Ha, what did you think I was talking about when I said size matters? Wow, you have dirty minds! We’re talking about blogging here, not sex.
I’ve heard a laundry list of recommendations regarding the length and girth of a good blog post. Most suggest keeping it under 500 under words while some guides say 300 words is a good marker. 700 has also popped up as the line in the sand that you should never exceed.
The first question I had is what do these people have against even hundred numbers? Are 400, 600, or 800 so much more inferior? Yeah, that really popped into my head. Back to the land of the normal, I did come to a painful conclusion. Shorter likely is Better for maximum pleasure.
By The Numbers
There was no official survey done with previous posts published here, but I’m willing to bet that not a single one of them was less than 500 words. Even worse, there’s a very high probability that say 30% of them breached the 700 word point of no return. Fooey.
I set out with a mission here to make this my shortest blog post but it’s already 200 words for crying out loud. If you have the wordsmithing skills to deliver something tangible and impactful in 300 words, you are freakin awesome. I can’t do it. I’m a story teller. I like to paint a picture and then deliver the message. I think it’s working, but this blog will be taking more of a simplicity is genius approach. Here are a few suggestions why your blog should be a lean, mean, sexing, err I mean writing… machine.
People Scan, They Don’t Read
As much as I’d love to think you all read every word I write, I stopped lying to myself. People read the beginning, the bullets, and the end. Give them something to scan and do your best to draw them in
Avoid Looooong Paragraphs
The only thing worse than a 1500 word post is a 1500 word post broken up into 3 paragraphs. How dreadful would that be? It’s a touch tricky when you like hearing yourself talk and think you have to keep those 7 sentences together to prove your point, but do your readers a favor and break it up.
The Net is caffeine fueled and ADD Riddled
I have ADHD, so I’m allowed to make fun of it, right? Look there’s a flower. People are busier than ever, whether it’s by choice or by necessity. Fact of the matter is that takes half the time to read 500 words than it does 1000… and that’s if they actually read it. They want to finish what they start so they can move on to something else, like the butterfly that just fluttered by.
Screw it, hard-wired rules are for the birds. This post was supposed to be under 500 words but I want to do a conclusion. Hope you’ll be able to survive an extra 30 words! And don’t worry, I’ll still be able to live with myself despite the fact I’ve never written a post under 500 words. Are we in agreement that shorter is better? What length structure do you approach in your writing? Thanks for stopping by!
