Blogging Insights # 20 — Long form VS Short form Content

The blogosphere remains in constant flux, changing shape and form according to the needs and desires of readers and writers. Hence any rules or norms that govern it are pretty flexible too.

This is true of the length of posts or content. Post length is arbitrarily divided into short form and long form content.

Short form posts are approximately 300 to 400 words, can be read in about two minutes and do not usually require a lot of critical thinking to assimilate.

Long form content is, loosely defined , a piece of writing more than 1000 words, some say not less than 2000 but again the criteria are arbitrary. It is a popular notion that the search engines prefer longer posts.

 

My Questions

1. Do you prefer writing long form or short form content?

2. How long, in your opinion, is the ideal blog post?

3. What do you prefer reading, shorter or longer posts?

4. What are the topics on which you would like to read longer posts (say, more than 1000 words)?

 

My Answers

1. Do you prefer writing long form or short form content?

When I first launched my blog, I used to write at least 500 words. Some of my posts exceeded 1000 words. I liked to introduce my topic, write three or four paragraphs about it and end with a proper conclusion. I worked really hard on these initial posts, adding appropriate images too.But hardly anyone was reading them (well only my mother and a few close friends). A blogger friend advised me to write shorter posts and my traffic increased.

 

2. How long, in your opinion, is the ideal blog post?

Before you or I determine the length of the ideal blog post ,we need to determine what the ideal blog post is. Is it prose or poetry? Is it a piece of fiction or non fiction. Since the ideal blog post is difficult to define it follows that its length must be ambiguous too.

 

3. What do you prefer reading, shorter or longer posts?

Like the rest of the world in the 21st century, I suffer from “too many things to do and too little time “. Hence I mostly prefer to read shorter posts. I read blog posts usually when I am on the go,commuting, queuing or otherwise waiting. It is natural therefore that I prefer shorter posts. But hardly anyone was reading them (well only my mother and a few close friends).

 

4. What are the topics on which you would like to read longer posts (say, more than a 1000 words)?

I like to read longer posts when I am looking for information or ideas about a particular topic. These days my main topics of interest are blogging and personal development.

I usually don’t like to read long pieces of fiction. When I want to read a story I pick up a book.

 

Okay! That was my bit.

Now I am really looking forward to reading YOUR answers.

Please remember to tag your post

# blogginginsights,

and leave a link in my comments section too.