Comments on: Does Length Matter?

By: John Sullivan

John Sullivan — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 23:56:25 +0000

Hi that is a cool article so I stumbled ya
Look me up if you get a chance Thanks

By: Shane

Shane — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 06:43:20 +0000

Jason I had the same thoughts about using the read more function. (I.E.a cheap way to get more page views) but the concept of giving readers easier access to more varied content from the front page is intriguing to me. The way it was explained to me is that the traffic generated by search engines are not affected as they would be directed to the permalink and wouldn’t have to click to read more. The same would apply to those clicking through from a feed reader. The only people that would actually click would be those that start on the front page…

As far as software to create a summary I’m not sure I want to bother (too lazy) but billywest’s site uses a magazine style template for the front page that I think is effective and I don’t mind the extra click.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:46:48 +0000

I agree with you here, Mr. West. If a person can put the words into a coherent form to bring the reader into the text, then it’s all good. However, if the word count is high just for the sake of word count, then the whole thing fails.

Many of my favourite bloggers write long-winded articles two or three times a week, and I genuinely enjoy reading what they have to say while on the train to work (thank you Egress).

When it comes to earning readers, this is hardly an easy thing and, unless it’s the author’s primary focus, should be a secondary consideration. Language can be art, and as such, people should be free to express themselves regardless of length.

My reason for this post was in part due to the rather long post I had written on Long Distance Only Relationships. That post is quite wordy (almost 1,700 words), and it’s not the first post to break 1,500 words on here. There has been a steady decline in the number of RSS subscribers, and I had thought that perhaps this was one of the reasons.

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:37:51 +0000

Hmm … I hadn’t thought of using the –more– function as I often view this as being a cheap way of gaining more clicks and impressions (well … on a site with this style of theme, anyway). It might be worthwhile for some of the more involved posts, though.

A few months back I had actually considered creating a plugin that would allow me to write a quick summary post of the longer article. However, after finishing the first version of the code, I asked myself if I really want to write a synopsis of every longer post that I make. I already do this with the All in one SEO pack, as well as every time I submit to JapanSoc or BloggingZoom, so the thought of doing it yet again didn’t appeal to me. It does make me wonder if such a thing would be worthwhile for others, though.

What do you think?

By: Jason

Jason — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 05:34:11 +0000

Done and done. Thanks for commenting

By: Shane

Shane — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:31:04 +0000

Oops Jason can you corect my url in the last comment and then delete this one…The url should be http://www.atypicallife.com... duh!

By: Shane

Shane — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:29:46 +0000

Interesting subject Jason. I struggle with this too as I can be quite long winded n my posts. On my personal blog I had a bit of an epiphany the other day about blog focus and I’m currently testing it out. I like to post about a number of different things too and the subject areas run the gamut so I took a cue from my blog title and decided that whatever I write about needs to be able to be grouped into one of two categories (typical or atypical). Since most things in life will fall into one category or another my new found focus allows me the freedom to cover almost everything from what I ate for breakfast to a big news story.

Another thing that I struggle with is when I do write a long winded post (or comment :roll:) is whether I should use the read more function to keep the front page clean and allow readers to scroll down more easily if they are not interested in the first post. Any thoughts on that?

By: billywest

billywest — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:48:06 +0000

I’m focusing most of my efforts on one site now. Compared to other stuff posted on other blogs with the same themes as mine, I might be a word or two too heavy, but I like what goes up on my site, for the most part. I try not to force to much for the sake of gaining readers.

I’m still new to the whole SEO thing and trying to get my head around that, so when it comes to content, I just put up what I think will attract a few readers. Some days are better than others, but it’s pretty consistent.

I do think most posts on a blog shouldn’t be too long-winded, but a good wordy post that expresses exactly what the author is feeling, once in a while, is ok.

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:44:42 +0000

I’m glad I’m not alone with this “problem”
I’ve always found it hard to have a single focus on this site, as it’s a rare day indeed when I’m focused on only one thing.

Luckily, web space is cheap, and WordPress installations cost even less

By: Nick

Nick — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 13:37:16 +0000

I’ve never really given much thought to a post being too long, but I must confess that I do generally use the word count feature of whatever word processor I am typing my post in before I copy it into the WordPress dashboard. I don’t think length makes too huge of a difference in readership (unless your posts are consistantly under 100 words) and that it’s more important what you have to say and how many topics you blog about. Unfortunately, my site suffers from the same issue you have in that I talk about too many different subjects and have no desire to change that.