One of my friends brought up a situation to me the other day which kind of got me thinking and the reason for this post. He basically stated my posts are too long and do not even bother reading the rest of the post. Personally, I didn't think my posts were that long. I thought I should give a basic introduction to all my posts just in case a new reader comes a long and do not understand the basis of the posts.
So I asked myself if I should do series short post or stick to my 'so called' long posts. I remembered a post on Problogger about lengthy posts. That specific post was not long; it was simple, short and to the point. Thinking out loud again, but what if there is no explanation in the first couple sentences? I thought with writing you need to have an introduction, anticipating the reader what to expect in the coming paragraphs? Is blogging contradicting on how we should write? I know I do not write that well but I seem to get my point across.
The problem with long posts is that unless you’re an incredibly gifted writer - many of your readers won’t get to the end of a long post. Studies into how people read online have shown that they respond better to short sharp pieces (although I do find readers respond well when I write long pieces too).
Not a lot of readers go to the end of the post, damn that sucks. What about paid reviews, sometimes they are lengthy so does that mean those readers will not read all the way through? Does that mean users who purchase paid reviews are not getting the full potential from the blogger or not getting their money's worth?
Another blogger I read on self improvement is Steve Pavlina. Some of his post are very long and yet I tend to read to the end or skip and browse a long his post. BUT Steve does not post on a daily basis, which maybe a good benefit to post lengthy posts. I post daily, except weekend, and I think I do a good job keeping the post rich with information. Again, are my posts really that long? I have a writing style where I want to write X amount of words per post. I want the last sentence to reach the end of the Amazon Widget on the side bar, if I did I think I did a good job writing without really always thinking to make it my limit.
There are also short posts out there such as Shoemoney and Marketing Pilgrim. Their posts are straight to the point and is assumed that the reader should know the basics prior to the first paragraph. Their readers are assumed to have some intelligence by just reading the blog title and expecting them to know the rest of the post. This really makes sense if your reader base is non-noobs, but what if someone searches your website to find an answer and does not understand the 'language' within the blog post? This blog is put in the assumption - there are and will always be newbies who will stumble on a blog post and may not know what it is being talked about.
I personally think most of my posts are not that lengthy, but I want to know what would be better to get my readers attention. I am thinking maybe to write shorter posts on a daily basis or stick to my 'lengthy' post and do it X amount per week.
I mean I post daily so that may mean yesterday's post may have not been read by other readers or maybe missed by potential readers. Another option came to me is maybe do both on sporadic days. Do a short series post per day and maybe do 1 lengthy post 2 times per week? Not too sure.
I want to see how I should tackle this. For example, this post I would consider to be a short post. Do you think my posts are lengthy? Too short? Not enough details? What do you think about my posts? I am looking for feedback to better my current and future readers.
