This is the latest installment of Dear WordCount, an advice column that answers your questions about writing, blogging and running a freelance business.
Dear WordCount:
Someone sent me a great guest post but it’s way too long, close to 2,000 words. What length do you recommend for posts?
Signed,
Jan
Dear Jan:
2,000 words is really, really long for a blog post. In most cases, 1,000 is too long.
Having said that, when it comes to posts, there isn’t a perfect length. A lot depends on the subject, the person you’re interviewing (if it’s an interview), and the format. I’ve written posts that were less than 200 words – the haiku posts we do in the annual blogathon are good examples of that. On the other hand, I’ve written posts that were more than 1,000 words when I interviewed someone really interesting, like the CEO of Suite 101, a content farm. The posts I write as wrap ups of my monthly Twitter chats tend to be long because readers specifically request all the links, apps, tech tools and resources that people mention during the chats.
I recommend mixing up lengths so that some days your posts are longer and some days they’re shorter. But err on the side of shorter. For one, you won’t dread writing them, especially on days when you aren’t in the mood or are pressed for time. Besides, readers like variety, not only in what you write about, but in the formats and lengths you use.
As your blogging and writing skills improve you’ll be able to make your point in fewer words. And you can always save space by linking back to older posts or out to posts on other sites to define a word or elaborate on a point instead of writing it all over again.
What do you think is the right length for a blog post?
During much of my reading regarding branding, I have found that between 300-450 is the recommended length for blogs. This seems to be where most people start to get bored and stop reading.
Thanks for sharing that info Andrea.
Michelle
I do prefer the medium length posts (about 200-400). I like to keep up on quite a few blogs and if each one is too long it would take me forever to get through them all. If the subject is really interesting- I might be able to keep reading beyond the 500 word count.
200 words isn’t much at all, 2 paragraphs maybe, so it’s hard for me to imagine getting a lot of value out of a 200 word post. Unless you’re Seth Godin, the Zen master of blog post writing. But I agree 350 to 400 words seems to be the sweet spot. Unless you’re Penelope Trunk, then 1,000 words or more is par for the course. But she’s a fantastic writer and has a crazy life, innovative ideas and an enormous fan base who read and comment on everything she writes about so she can get away with it.
I normally try to keep it under 1,000 (I even mention that in my guest blogger guidelines). However – my last blog – by guest blogger and artist Duncan Long – has received a LOT of attention. I think word count is a hard thing to pin down.
I totally agree: if the information is good enough, people will read it.
Michelle
I think short blog entries of about 500 words are best because I think people use the web for short information-for more they would go to a book.
That said I think a few longer posts help make a blog some more substantial.
I think that the only person who got away with writing something less than 300 words and got to have one of the top blogs in his niche is – Seth Godin. People don’t like reading lengthy stuff, but if you have something valuable to offer, I think they really won’t mind reading to the last sentence ( or punctuation mark, to be more precise ). Cheers!
350-400 is great. If it’s over 700, consider revising and making it shorter. I’ve read that in numerous places like EZine articles trainings and such.
New trying to figure out where to start