Patrick Says

An interviewer once commented to me that I write short posts. It was not meant to be insulting, but more of an observation. There is a reason why I write short posts. Really, it’s twofold.

Firstly, a blog post should, in my opinion, convey one idea or thought. With the possible exception of bulleted lists, you should really keep focus on one concept in a post. Besides being on point, you get the added benefit of having more subject matter to spread across multiple posts. And a blog that posts two to three short posts per day seems more busy and content-rich than a blog that has one long post per day.

Secondly, readers have a very short attention span. That’s just the nature of the beast. When I’m clicking through my feed-reader, I’m way more likely to stop and read your one to two paragraph short post. I shudder when I see a post that goes longer than five paragraphs.

On those occasions, you’d better hook the reader fast or you’re going to bore him or her. It has be really interesting to keep them that long. Or it has to be specific. A small percentage of your readers may be interested in wrinkle filler-type posts, but not all of them.

So, choose your subject matter carefully for your readers.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 31st, 2010 at 1:12 pm and is filed under Randomness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.