Blogging Brevity
Since last November, I have come across about a dozen blogs that I have chosen to read consistently. Every day or two I read the posts their authors contribute on the topics of marketing or technology focused towards small businesses or churches/ministries. It has been an enjoyable journey reading the insights of these men and women. For your interest and benefit, I have linked a few of my favorites in the left margin of this blog.
In this process, I have discovered something about myself. I tend gravitate to articles that have been concisely written. When I see a post that is roughly 3-4 paragraphs or less, I read it with anticipation. When I come across a post that scrolls on and on, I quickly skim the article and often just move on. I can’t be bothered to invest my time in the longer articles (most of the time). Why do you think this is? Is it my attention span? Is it the effort of reading a long manuscript online? Am I shallow? I welcome your comments and insights from your own blog surfing.
For me personally, I think it is about focus. I like a focused article based on one key point. A compilation of information or wisdom on one topic that I can reflect on in the midst of a busy day and attempt to apply. For me a blog is not like reading a book. I am not checking in for long and I just want a moment to focus on one particular thing. I have no idea if any studies have been done on how people connect with blogs - long vs. short, but I sense that the best blogs are those that balance focus, brevity, and creativity. So that said…my point is made. When you blog, be focused and help your reader connect quickly so they can click away refreshed and enlightened…and wanting to come back tomorrow to continue the journey with you.
After-Thought (April 13th): After writing this post, I came across an article today written by Maki titled: Want Your Ideas to Spread Easily? Try Narrowing Your Message Focus. It ties in well with my thoughts above.
Filed under: Blogging, Marketing, Ministry | Tagged: Blogging, Ministry, small business
what was the most difficult thing you experienced starting your own business?
@ Bigfloridasteve: Thanks for asking! The most difficult thing I experienced starting my own business has been having the courage to take the step off the cliff and just do it. There is a “safety” in working for someone else. The security of knowing your weekly paycheck and benefits. Starting off on your own has a lot of unknowns…and for me personally that comes with a lot of fear.
Now, that said, I am still in the very early stages of the launch of Marketing Integrity. I am continuing to work in my corporate day job (the same industry, 3 different companies over the past 18 years), and serving my first few customers by working on their projects in my evenings and weekends. So the security factor has not yet been an issue…now it is just trying to balance my time and trying to to burn out! I will be making the complete leap into entrepreneurship in July.
I agree with you completely. If posts are short and to the point, I’ll read them. If they’re long, I skim. Blog reading isn’t the same as book/article reading, and we, as authors, need to write for our audience.
[...] Marketing Integrity has written a post entitled “Blogging Brevity” that captures a point that many bloggers miss — getting to the point! From a marketing [...]
@ Josh: Thanks, I appreciate your agreement! Writing for our audience is indeed an important consideration. If our posts are all over the map, we do not provide any consistency to our writing and people will give up and go somewhere else where the writer is focused.
I agree in keeping them short and to the point! No one has THAT MUCH time to sit in front of a computer that long. I know sometimes people feel they should write long content on their blogs b/c it acts as a back door to boost results, but you can achieve better search engine results by breaking up the articles into various posts!
@ internetmarketingandprstrategies: You make an excellent point. One of the struggles many bloggers have is coming up with new and unique topics to write on. Rather than writing long and detailed posts, breaking the topic up into shorter posts in a series increases the interest level of your readership and may improve your search results priority. The biggest win though is keeping your readers coming back for the next installment.