My most recent post was quite long actually and I've noticed the same trend rearing its ugly head.
People don't want to read long posts.
I used to be a very regular blogger about 3 years ago and what I noticed was, my short posts got comments and questions, but my long posts were often overlooked. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand why this is.
People don't want, to take time out, to read long posts.
Let's face it. We all have 100 things on our to do lists. Each of us has our own network of fellow bloggers that we want to keep up with and when we are faced with a post that takes us more than a couple minutes to read, we often simply move on.
My latest post was no different. While I did get some feedback, it took about 3 days of me keeping the post active to achieve the same number of comments that a much shorter post or quip would in just a few hours.
People don't want to read long posts.
This keeps popping up in my mind. I knew better, yet I posted a long post anyway. Seeing the lack of activity though, reinforces my desire to just keep it simple. So, my apologies for asking you to take extra time out for my recent long post. I'll do my best to keep it slim, yet entertaining in the future.
I better stop before this one becomes a long post, because let's face it: People don't want to read long posts!
9 comments:
Void,
Interesting. What do you consider short? And long?
I find myself reading any post length if I'm interested. Ironically what frustrates me is the very thing we strive for as bloggers. LONG COMMENT LISTS.
If there are less than 15 comments I tend to read them all. If there hoards of them, I read the first two or three then skip to the last few before adding my own to the list.
Those (like Nathan Bransford) with comments in the 100's, I rarely comment on.
Some of my favorite posts are the ficitonal pieces, which tend to be longer. I love reading what others write!
There's much truth to your words. Heck, some of my recent posts have been too long for me :).
I've found that shorter posts, writing posts, question ones trend the comments up. For example: Why do you write? Bam! Short, writing, question... okay, maybe a bit too simple, even for me :)
I try to write short posts... but I never quite pull it off!!
But I think you're very right. I know when I have a really busy day, sometimes I skim to the "meat" of what's written. Mostly I try to read the whole thing though :-)
I try to keep my posts from going too long, but you're right- online we all have the attention span of ADHD gnats.
I think I try to do this but I agree, it's difficult. Especially if you're doing a book review for a novel 500+ pages long. But, I love the daily short blogs. Especially the ones that ask the readers questions.
ann
Some days I have time to read a long post and others I don't. It's sad because I really love reading them no matter how long. It's just a time thing for me.
Winged Writer
I have to agree some posts get so long I have to stop reading simply because I don't have time. Even when I post an excerpt from an MS, I try to keep it under 1000 words. If I had time to read the really long posts, I certainly would. Life moves to quickly these days, sadly!
Great post!
xoxo -- Hilary
It always depends on the mood I'm in and how much time I wanna give and how much I'm interested in whatever is happening-but then I don't know what I'm doing half the time either.
SOOO TRUE! Some of my post the last month were RIDICULOUSLY long and so slowly but surely I'm trying to cut my down too. I don't have time to read long post either, except from a few favorites.
I'm going to try and cut mine down even more and save the long posts for something REALLY worth reading.
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