Modern Life - Comments on 'How Long is the Ideal Blog Post?'

jf.sellsius wrote:

Sat, 26 May 2007 14:58:59 +0100

Of course, we all agree, there can be no right answer about optimal word length. Perhaps it is the voice people come to hear.
http://tinyurl.com/35h348

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Cornwall SEO wrote:

Sat, 26 May 2007 10:37:43 +0100

Screw page length.

I write until I feel I have got the point-idea-concept across using the minimum amount of words in the most readable fashion.

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Alexander Radich wrote:

Mon, 21 May 2007 11:16:57 +0100

Good research. I occasionally dive into reading long articles of Steve Pavlina, for example, but mostly I have patience enough to read only 200-700 words articles. Ability to write as much as needed is the key. If one has a lot to say about his theme, and his article is entertaining and informative, the readers will enjoy it. Otherwise concise articles are the best.

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Shaun Anderson wrote:

Sun, 20 May 2007 21:37:20 +0100

Very interesting article. In the end though, I suppose, it's what you're writing about that really counts.

Love the site design and the blur-like name!

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Mike Malone wrote:

Sat, 19 May 2007 17:53:47 +0100

I just wrote a tool that can crawl your blog (or someone else's) and calculate average word count and a bunch of other readability stats like syllables per word, words per sentence, Flesch-Kincaid readability, etc.

You can read my post about it at http://immike.net/blog/2007/05/19/how-readable-is-your-blog/ or go straight to the tool at http://immike.net/charlotte/

I'd love to hear feedback from people. And thanks for this post, which motivated me to actually get this done!

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Arjun Muralidharan wrote:

Sat, 19 May 2007 16:55:33 +0100

I myself struggle quite often with post length. Just wanted to say that the amount of research you present on your blog is stunning, and really original. Keep it up!

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Stuart Brown wrote:

Sat, 19 May 2007 01:15:21 +0100

@Arjun - Of course, you're absolutely right. I've read posts that were thousands of words long - and been thoroughly engaged throughout.

I've read posts that are but a few words and -even then - lost interest. Good copywriting/narrative skills are important when committing anything to written form.

Breaking up longer posts into 'blog serials' is a great idea, and does provide a bitesize approach to something which could otherwise be a wall of text.

Perhaps I'll try writing a set of posts like that :-)

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Arjun Muralidharan wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 21:39:33 +0100

Stuart, I absolutely agree with you that a 1000-word post will not get read. That's simple marketing.

But I can also tell you that I've seen 40-word posts that were a waste of time and some 300-word reads that were worth it.

What I'm trying to get at is that you can engage readers and get away with a lengthy text, but only if you do it very well.

A 1000-word post is probably not going to be "on the point" all the time, and it hardly ever takes more than 250 words to get a good point across.

Besides that, more than one concise point or idea is too much for a single blog post, anyway. If you explroe too much, write a book.

Blog posts should be like subsections of a book.

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Stuart Brown wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 21:36:15 +0100

@BooTCaT - Manually, for the most part. I used the word count feature of Microsoft Word, taking the word count of a known number of posts and calculating the average.

If I was going to do a larger number, I'd probably write a PHP script or similar to parse out the content from the site or via RSS feeds.

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BooTCaT wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 21:26:48 +0100

Please tell me the technique , or the tool , you used to analyze .
how did you take the word counts and make those graphs ???

did you do them , manually ??? then no need for replys .

if you had used some tools , then please specify them .

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Stuart Brown wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 15:34:33 +0100

@Oli - A smidge under 500 words ain't bad, right?

As long as folk read most of it, I'm happy, anyway!

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Stuart Brown wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 15:33:33 +0100

@Suzel - Of course, you're right - it's better to judge a post on its merit than on a wordcount.

If you're blogging for the purpose of entertainment a large audience, though, it's probably wise to work with a post length of around 250 words to ensure reader engagement - although there's nothing stopping you from linking those 250 words to a more in-depth article :-)

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Suzel wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 14:58:55 +0100

I don't believe that we should be so worried about the lenght of each post. What keeps the reader is really the quality of the content. I have read some short rubbish as well. The focus is "what we write and who are the readers."

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karenlim wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 13:59:50 +0100

My blog is dedicated to sharing the visualization techniques and real life experiences to illustrate how Law of Attraction works in my life.

Usually my post is > 250 words as I have to illustrate the point with a personal story
But I try to keep each paragraph short.

I also use interesting videos from Youtube to spice up my blog and to add value to my readers.
I think quality of the blog is still more important than length of blog. If I want to bring across a point on Law of Attraction, I do can mention the key points in my blog and refer my readers to get their Free Attraction Report at www.secretofunlimitedprosperity.com/rights/freereport.php

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Oli wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 12:54:50 +0100

That post was far too long Stuart. Far too long...

=D

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Stuart Brown wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 10:54:30 +0100

True, quality is more of a determining factor than differences in length - but having said that, a blog that averages 1,000 words or more per post would probably not see the same level of subscribership or engagement than a blog that averages 250 words.

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Sam wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 10:28:30 +0100

Best policy for life and blogging is don't speak unless you've got something to say!

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James Oppenheim wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 10:11:11 +0100

I don't think the length matters that much, surely it is more to do with the quality of content. If there is quality content the user will be enticed to read other posts even if the original post was only 10 words.

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Arjun Muralidharan wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 07:49:33 +0100

The actual length of a post doesn't matter. Keeping a reader engaged is about bringing enough diversity in your text, be it with jokes, images or questions.

As long as you bring your point across quickly and without much "side plate vegetables", your post can be any length.

The important point is to see that every sentence you write is of entertainment or informational value to the reader, which I try to employ t my blog, because I know students have neough other reading to do.

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Martial Development wrote:

Fri, 18 May 2007 01:51:55 +0100

<i>should a blog post be written to fill a specific length to be considered 'ideal'? Absolutely not. </i>

Sounds great, then again it is apparently contrary to both your own data and Aaron Wall's advice. Here are my observations on the topic...
http://digg.com/business_finance/Could_Lao_Tzu_Make_Money_With_AdSense

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Stuart Brown wrote:

Thu, 17 May 2007 13:11:51 +0100

@Mike - Yep, 500 words is probably better for the search engines - there's a bit more 'meat' to the content then, and more chance to get your keywords in.

Doesn't mean people will read all of it, of course :-)

Also: self promotion ahoy! In the absence of any 'Digg It' buttons, I'll do this manually:
http://digg.com/tech_news/How_Long_is_the_Ideal_Blog_Post

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Mike wrote:

Thu, 17 May 2007 12:55:17 +0100

Aaron Wall wrote about this earlier this year from a search engine perspective and suggested that around 500 words was a good figure to aim for. As you say, though, it all depends on the content matter and the most important thing to aim for is reader satisfaction.

Thanks for doing the research.

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Stuart Brown wrote:

Thu, 17 May 2007 09:09:50 +0100

Aye, the topic of the blog in question is a major factor regarding post length, no doubt - tech-oriented blogs (myself included) tend to have longer, more in-depth posts - and rightly so, in most cases.

I think if you're writing for entertainment, though - as most of the Technorati Top 100 are - then cutting the excess verbiage is critical to engaging readers. 250 words (or thereabouts) seems to be the ideal length - a quick read, but not too insubstantial.

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pelf wrote:

Thu, 17 May 2007 07:56:43 +0100

I've never counted the number of words on my posts, but my general rule of thumb is to keep it short, and is possible, throw an image or two in.

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John wrote:

Thu, 17 May 2007 04:45:02 +0100

As Edrei said, it depends on what kind of blog you have. Most of the top internet marketing blogs usually have 400 words ~ 1500 words long posts and I think there are blogs with more than that. Michel Fortin blog, Brian Clark Copyblogger blog, all have their wordy posts but some are just over hundred words.

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Edrei wrote:

Thu, 17 May 2007 03:15:32 +0100

It depends on what kind of blog you have as well. Blogs that deliver information need to go straight to the point. Shorter posts that don't beat around the bush gives just that.

Personal blogs that rely on the style of writing to deliver the story tends to take time in describing the point. Unless it's meant to be that way. Telling people how <em>"you ate some good noodles in the afternoon"</em> is hardly a good way to go about a personal blog.

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