Most Effective Content Length?

**Sneakyheathen** · 05-09-2008, 05:24 PM

When writing articles, do you find that short, more specific articles attract more readers and comments, or long, full feature articles?

Personally, I like smaller articles, but I sometimes lengthen my articles if I have enough ideas that relate and strengthen each other.

**Skinny1** · 05-09-2008, 05:45 PM

Hmm . . .I find that smaller ones work best. I used to write a gadget blog and used to write long posts and frankly people didn't hang around the page that long (i.e. they didn't read it).

So look at engadget.com (very quick summary type posts) those are often the best.

But . . .it depends what you are talking about. I will sometimes read long articles . . . it just matters if it's something I'm interested in and willing to read.

Skinny

**VirtuosiMedia** · 05-09-2008, 11:11 PM

It depends on your audience, your subject matter, and your writing style.

**vapourlock** · 03:18 AM

Research says that yes, smaller length articles work best, but then the minimum acceptable word limit is definitely more than 350 words and a 500 word article or write-up is reported to be the optimum size even for SEO requirements.

If you break your lengthy article into small readable 4 line and 5 line chunks, it will be a pleasure to read on the web. There are some excellent web readability reports on this at http://www.useit.com by Jakob Nielsen.

Another trick was to have your article points in lists, with a short intro and conclusion , although you don't have to mention what they are. If you are writing with SEO in mind, you will have to include keywords in the main title and a few sub headings -- but don't be too keyword dense

**sizzler_chetan** · 05-10-2008, 07:07 AM

I have never taken any number of words into consideration when am writing a blog post. It is the way of your writing and not quantity.

**jimmychen** · 05-15-2008, 03:17 PM

yes, shorter but not less then 200 for me works best. even i can't stand to read content that takes too long. even with little content, it gets the job done. i usually outsource content on 300 words each.

**vangogh** · 05-15-2008, 07:54 PM

Write until you're done saying what you have to say. For every article I've seen saying you need to keep posts short I've seen another saying you need to make them longer. There's no right answer here.

Write what you have to say. Edit it and eliminate the parts that don't need to be there, but don't try to force your content to be a specific length.

**File13** · 05-17-2008, 12:23 AM

I remember reading somewhere that the average attention span is 96 seconds when reading online. I don't know if that really matters--I just think it's a cool fact.

Quality of the words is supposed to matter over quantity of the words, but that isn't always the case. A longer article will hold a reader's interest if that's the article they came to read. It turns into a crap shoot when they move on to another of your articles. Really, really good articles will probably still hold their attention if it is longer. Unless it doesn't.

Think about the sites that you could spend hours on, reading and clicking links. They usually have a mix of shorter and longer articles, but most of them are probably somewhere around 500 words.

**wisdomtool** · 05-17-2008, 12:37 AM

I always see article submissions for blogs saying keep to 300 words. Wonder is that the magical figure? Any reasons for that?

**chrishirst** · 05-17-2008, 04:26 AM

To paraphrase the Reverend Ronald Knox,

Like a woman's skirt.

Short enough to raise interest, but long enough to cover the essentials.

**mg1313** · 05-19-2008, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrishirst

To paraphrase the Reverend Ronald Knox,

Like a woman's skirt.

Short enough to raise interest, but long enough to cover the essentials.

That was a good one

...

**jimmychen** · 05-22-2008, 09:21 AM

There is usually a trade off to that. i sometimes get the spot where i can cover almost all of the essentials is 500 words. Along the way, add bullets for easy digestion.

**Learning Newbie** · 05-22-2008, 07:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by vangogh

Write what you have to say. Edit it and eliminate the parts that don't need to be there, but don't try to force your content to be a specific length.

Nah, you should aim for 10 words per every article. I just read one that changed my life. The article said

I like databases, SQL's really great. You should use it.

You can see the expressive power of a short article right there.

</sarcasm>

There are a few people like Steve van Go and Virtuoso who posted the correct answer.

**vangogh** · 05-23-2008, 07:57 PM

Funny John. Maybe the SQL author was going after a haiku sort of thing, though I think the syllables are off.

**c4cyber** · 05-24-2008, 02:36 AM

I think it depends of the topic you are discussing, but generally it's some where between 250 words to 450 words.

**WriteForALiving** · 05-24-2008, 09:51 AM

Shorter ones are better because your readers won't lose their interest. Unless of course your article is really interesting

**chrishirst** · 05-24-2008, 05:26 PM

But how will you know it's really interesting so you can make it longer?

**jimmychen** · 05-27-2008, 05:09 AM

Its better to add subtopics to get better information digestion. I always put bullets on my articles regardless of length.

**willcode4beer** · 05-28-2008, 02:17 PM

I'd recommend following the style of Ernest Hemingway.
Basically, write your article, then start removing everything that's not needed. Distill your article to its essence.

The other piece of common advice, take that favorite, most beautiful paragraph that you are most proud of, and delete it.

**simple_lhady** · 05-29-2008, 01:51 PM

smaller ones are catchy since it is direct to the point and viewers dont like to read that much so its pretty obvious they go for smaller lengths. just be sure to write something interesting. goodluck!