Reprinted from a blog post of Phyllis Zimbler Miller as a National Internet Business Examiner.
It’s tempting to reply that a blog post should be as long as is needed to cover the subject of the post.
Yet this isn’t really an accurate answer because, in today’s world of very busy people, it’s important to make the post easy to read.
What does this mean? It means covering the subject in a few paragraphs rather than a thesis-length post. Thus this may mean that a series of related articles is written in order to cover a large subject. Each post is a small part of the larger subject.
Second, a blogger has to realize that this is not the only information on the subject a person will ever read. Every tiny bit of information does not have to be covered in one blog post or a series of blog posts.
In addition, here are some tips that can encourage blog post reading:
- Write a good headline that attracts people interested in the subject (and attracting people is more important than attracting the search engines)
- Use subheads that have substance so skimmers can get the main points
- Write short paragraphs to add more white space, which is easier on the eyes
- Use boldface if you want a particular sentence or phrase to stand out
- Do not write blog posts in white type on dark backgrounds – way too hard for the eyes
- Do not write long sentences that require people to follow a complicated thought – break long sentences into shorter sentences to increase ease of reading
- Do not use fancy words when common words will do – you want people to read the post, not admire your extensive vocabulary
If you are going to the effort to write a post, do take the additional few minutes to go back over your post. You want to check that you have made it as easy as possible for people to read what you’re written.
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