Get to the Point
How many blogs do you read every day?
I read about 12 blogs on a daily basis. (None of them via RSS.)
If a blog I regularly read hasn't been updated in a day -- unless it's the weekend -- I'm irritated. I miss that daily dose of wisdom or humor.
Conversely, if one of those blogs has been updated 5 times since I last checked in (BuzzMachine and Seth Godin are notorious for that), I'm also irritated.
Why?
Because now I have to catch up!
And now I can't spend 100% of my time on that blog processing their key issue of the day.
Length Matters
Some blog posts are meant to be digested over a period of time. They cover a lot of ground to make their point, and abbreviating them wouldn't do the concept justice.
Other posts are short by necessity. Here's a link. Here's a news item. Here's a three sentence observation.
I wouldn't want to be robbed of lengthy posts because they're fulfilling (when well-written). I also wouldn't want to be burdened with nonstop encyclicals because life -- and my day -- is short and I need my time for action.
So what's the appropriate updating procedure?
- One long post per day?
- One short post per day?
- A mix of long and short posts as required?
What do you, as a reader -- or a blogger -- prefer?
I read about 12 blogs on a daily basis. (None of them via RSS.)
If a blog I regularly read hasn't been updated in a day -- unless it's the weekend -- I'm irritated. I miss that daily dose of wisdom or humor.
Conversely, if one of those blogs has been updated 5 times since I last checked in (BuzzMachine and Seth Godin are notorious for that), I'm also irritated.
Why?
Because now I have to catch up!
And now I can't spend 100% of my time on that blog processing their key issue of the day.
Length Matters
Some blog posts are meant to be digested over a period of time. They cover a lot of ground to make their point, and abbreviating them wouldn't do the concept justice.
Other posts are short by necessity. Here's a link. Here's a news item. Here's a three sentence observation.
I wouldn't want to be robbed of lengthy posts because they're fulfilling (when well-written). I also wouldn't want to be burdened with nonstop encyclicals because life -- and my day -- is short and I need my time for action.
So what's the appropriate updating procedure?
- One long post per day?
- One short post per day?
- A mix of long and short posts as required?
What do you, as a reader -- or a blogger -- prefer?
Labels: blogging, marketing, time management, workday
posted by Justin Kownacki at
3:57 PM
4 Comments:
I've impressed by how regularly you've been posting and the quality of the posts since you became a "new media" pundit. It'll be interesting to see how long you can keep this trend going before writer's block or fatigue sets in.
As for me, I prefer the long, meaty posts, but you have been venturing into almost manifesto length in your earlier entries. How long did it actually take you to write that "Who Do You Know?" entry?
By
Jia, at 5:45 PM
Jia: Thanks for the compliments. I know I tend to ramble, so most of my writing time is actually spent cutting posts down in length, not padding them.
The "Who Do You Know?" entry took me roughly two hours, I think.
By
Justin Kownacki, at 7:24 PM
Oh, god... thank you for not being able to bang something like that out in twenty-five minutes. Reading the incredible volume of material that comes from you, which is always pertinant and insightful, was leaving me with serious inadequacy issues:) As for legnth and frequency, I hold each blogger to a different standard based on their past behavior. If someone is regularly posting one medium legnth piece daily, I imagine I'd become impatient if days were to pass with nothing. However, if said blogger has a reputation for fits and starts in their postings, I tend to acclimate.
This blog, as far as legnth is concerned is one of the giants, though I never feel any of the content is superflous or fluff. You're a good writer, so I'd say that you should use as much space as is necessary to make a point you consider worthy of your reader's time; three lines and a link, or a manifesto. Keep up the good work.
By
Anonymous, at 10:33 PM
I prefer medium length blog posts with FULL text in the feeds so that I can cruise through them in Google Reader, starring and sharing the ones that either I like or I need to go back and digest after a quick scan.
By
Christopher, at 10:41 PM
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