This week, I am concentrating on learning how to gain readership.
I have been asking myself several questions.
1) How do people search online
2) How can I gain loyal readership
3) How long should your posts be?
Today’s Lesson
I have already shared my results on the first two questions, in previous posts. Today, I am going to address #3.
How long should your posts be?
Some say:
1) Write a short, concise post, and give your readers the answer they are looking for.
This makes sense, as earlier, I wrote that most online searchers have ADD (Attention Deficient Disorder)
When I search, I scan a post and look for my answer. If I don’t find it within +/-30 seconds, I’m off to the next search result. Usually I am in a hurry, and don’t have time to read a whole page…leading up to the answer.
And it really burns me, when I have to click on “continued on next page”.
Keep in mind, your post needs to be long enough to give the search engines, something to “grab onto”.
Some use this method to create a “series”, and post on the same subject for a number of days. It’s suggested that readers will come back to read “the rest of the story”.
Another variation of posting, is to:
2) Write in list form.
List your points by using numbers or letters. Keep the description of the listed items short.
Now, I like this method. Being a list maker, I will often take time to read lists.
Some will use the list method, and then elaborate on each item. If the header for the items are “catchy”, I may even read past the list title.
And finally, to go completely against the first two points, some bloggers will:
3) Write a long, wordy post
This method of posting can be risky due to the fact that many readers are not taking time to sit and read, however, this is a method that has worked well for a favorite blogger of mine, Steve Pavlina. His, is also a blog, that gets hundreds of thousands of visitors.
He has gone against what others say you should do, and uses as many words as it takes to complete his posts.
Steve’s is a blog, I have visited many times, however, when I do, I make sure I have time to read his writings. His blog is filled with tons of information, and his podcasts are also very informative.
Today’s Assignment
Does one method of posting work better for you?
If you write long posts, can you keep the reader’s attention?
Which types of posts, do your prefer to read?
Do you use a word counter for your posts?
Hi Barbara – list posts seem to work well for me. And I have noticed that I get fewer comments on some of my longer posts. But brevity has never been one of my greatest strengths.
As for reading, I suppose it depends upon what the subject is. I some of Steve Pavlina’s posts too.
Some bloggers don’t use paragraphs with breaks between each one and I find those hard to read.
I love reading list posts. But, I’m not keen on posts with too many links because if I have to go back and forth too much, I forget where I started out at.
I like the type of posts you do where you ask questions, as it really makes me think.
Hello Catherine,
Thank you for the compliment. To mirror what you said, that is also one of the reasons I like to visit your site as well. You write such thought provoking posts concerning business, I find myself analyzing our daily operations more often…which is a good thing.
As for including links, I try to have the links open in a new window, so my readers end up back on my site when they start closing windows. Even though we can “center click” to open another window, I often forget as I’m in too much of a hurry.
I agree, posts that don’t have any paragraph breaks are harder to read, as it seems like all of the sentences blend together. I find myself creating more breaks, because when I edit my posts, even I have a hard time “keeping up” with the sentences. I try to look at my posts from a readers standpoint….hmmmm, I think I will do a post about that. 🙂
Hi Barbara – Thank you. I will have to figure out whether I’m sending people to a new page or not. I’m still not really getting the hang of windows vista though.
It is so difficult to post what everyone wants all the time though isn’t it? A good while ago it seemed like there was quite a bit of demand for inspirational posts, featuring famous entrepreneurs on the site. But, it’s not easy to write those everyday.
Did you read Ian Denny’s post about the Matrix on his Phoenix blog today? I found it v motivational.
Hello Catherine,
I just read Ian’s “matrix” post…very interesting.
Blogging can get difficult when we get away from that which we believe. Although one subject may be popular to post about, like fashion, that becomes a passing “fad”.
I think if we can concentrate on posting timeless information, our blogs will be successful.
Re: providing a new window for a link, check out a previous post of mine, How-to-create-a-link-in-a-new-browser as I share the code that has to be added, so that the link opens in a new window/browser.