Pros and cons of long and short posts – The age old debate

So it’s not really an age old debate, it just sounded kind of catchy.

There is no limit as to how long you can write a blog post. You can write them as long as you want, or as short as you want. From the ridiculously long posts of Patrice Karst to the short, under 30 words posts from the Unwritten Rules of the Internet blog. You can see how bloggers feel about expressing themselves online. Some can do it in a lot of words, and some in a few.

In this post, I want to highlight the differences between long posts and short posts, and why one could be better than the other.

Shorts Posts: Pros and Cons

Shorts posts are a great way to quickly reveal your thoughts to other people. However, they often leave some things unsaid that really should have been noted in the post.

Pro: Easy to write, saves a bunch of time

Time is something everyone wants these days, but most people can’t seem to find free time. You could be busy with a job, your personal life, and of course taking care of your blog. The idea of writing a short post on your blog is the best thought in the world.

Con: Users wanting more information that you haven’t delivered

I see short posts look like rushed posts, and rushed posts lead to spelling and grammar mistakes, incorrect information, and some other gruesome things. While your time may be important, you should realize that your blog is important and handing out bad information to your loyal readers is not a good thing. It can especially be bad depending on the niche you’re in!

Pro: Short posts have a better chance of being read than long posts

It’s true, posts with shorter length will definitely be read more than a long post. What’s better than quick, informative read? Besides, there will be the group of your readers who are lazy and are just looking for those short posts. Why not feed their lazy little appetites?

Con: Did I forget to mention…?

This is a common question you will be asking yourself after a fairly short post I’m sure. It is pretty likely that you may forget a key point of idea in your post if it’s really short. Beforehand, you should map out your key ideas and summarize them really intelligently for your readers.

Long Posts: Pros and Cons

Long posts are packed full of information. While some things can get repeated, there are plenty of lengthy articles that cover tons of great points in them.

Pro: Your post will be full of thorough explanations, and will cover plenty of key points

The purpose of your blog is to inform your readers about the niche you’re in right? What better way to do that then have a long post chopped full of great information? You have no boundaries as to how many words it takes to describe something, and you probably have plenty of time to cover every single point of the topic.

Con: It’s easy to get lost in your writing, and start babbling about something unrelated. You can even start repeating yourself

You could be on paragraph 154, and say to yourself “I forgot to mention something!”. The unfortunate fact however is you already talked about it in paragraph 68, but you probably forgot.

It wouldn’t be too hard to stray off topic in the post either. You can go from talking about cats, to talking about how to change the oil in your car in one sentence I bet. It just takes one measly little comparison to get you started. Be careful of that.

Pro: Leaves plenty for readers to think about, and then some

A good blog post is a blog post that gets readers to think about what you have said. If you leave them with questions, and provide in depth information, it will cause them to want to find things wrong with what you have said and make their own opinions about it.

Con: Your post will probably take more than one time to read

While this is not always a bad thing, it’s an annoying thing. Short posts will probable just require one read, but longer ones will require more. If someone is reading your posts, things that will cause them to reread could be:

• Contradicting yourself
• Pieces of information being in wrong place
• Information not explained well enough

Just remember to always keep your post organized, watch what you say, and go into tons of detail whenever possible.

What I think

I think a post that explains the subject perfectly is a good enough post. Whether it is in 500 words, or 50 words, as long as I learn something I think the post is just right.

While this post is on the long side, I hope you have thought about how you write your posts. If you have any other pros and cons of long posts vs. short posts, let me hear it in the comments section! I will be happy to add it to the list.

Suggestions by you

• One of the important things you can do to make longer posts more readable is to break up the daunting wall of text. This can be done with pictures, dot points, bold heading etc, like this post has done. It makes a big post look smaller.