Software Engineering in WordPress and Musings on the Deep Life

Introducing Shorter Blog Posts

In a previous post, I began talking about how one of the things I wanted to begin doing this year is to introduce shorter blog posts.

Notes

Because the truth is with the amount of information coming from other blogs, Twitter, and whatever other social networks and news sources you read, odds are that this site is one that can also be easily marked as read or thrown into Pocket oblivion never to be read again.

And I’m perfectly okay with that! But if I can make any changes on my end to help mitigate that, then why not?

Shorter Blog Posts

When it comes to writing shorter blog posts, what does this mean in terms of actual content?

Generally speaking, not much. I tend to continue writing on the same topics I’ve always written about; however, I’ll likely be doing so without so much information setting up the content and then following-up with it later.

Secondly, it’ll aim to be more to the point than anything else. The idea being that you can load up the article, read through it quickly, save whatever information you’d like (or not), and then move on to whatever’s in your queue.

Finally, this leads me to opportunities to write shorter blog posts that are still related to the things that I usually write about, but I’m able to share a few thoughts about it, perhaps some links, maybe a snippet of code or something similar, without having to commit up to a thousand words going into excessive detail about it.

Ultimately, I think everyone will win.

On top of that, short blog posts will also make it possible to add a second area to this site that I’ve been considering adding for some time now. The shorter blog posts will continue to be free, the longer blog posts will continue to be free, but I’m considering also offering a few articles every now and again that comes at premium-level of information.

But talking about that is fodder for a much longer post, right? So in order to keep this post on shorter blog posts on the short side, I’ll go ahead and draw a line for that right here.

11 Comments

  1. Ahmad Awais

    Hey, Tom!

    I am all for the short posts but don’t you think it will drop the quality of posts. I mean I have a lot that I could write about on my blog, though, I only choose to write whenever I can carve out like 4 to 6 hours to write something useful.

    I’ve been able to grow my mailing list up to 3,000+ people and I feel like they expect something good whenever they open the newsletter.

    How would you suggest, I could move to short and sweet without losing my audience and the quality of blog posts?

    • Tom

      I am all for the short posts but don’t you think it will drop the quality of posts.

      Not at all. First, length doesn’t necessitate quality. Secondly, the responsibility is on me to make sure I’m communicating ideas effectively in shorter bursts.

      It’s a challenge that I want to hold myself to doing :).

      I mean I have a lot that I could write about on my blog, though, I only choose to write whenever I can carve out like 4 to 6 hours to write something useful.

      I generally write no more than 30 – 60 minute at a time and 60 minutes is really on the long end. 45 minutes from writing, to adding images, to re-reading, to preparing an excerpt, and queing the social media is about all I take.

      I’ve been able to grow my mailing list up to 3,000+ people and I feel like they expect something good whenever they open the newsletter.

      Impressive! And that makes total sense given your particular situation.

      It just seems like we’re in different camps.

      How would you suggest, I could move to short and sweet without losing my audience and the quality of blog posts?

      I think you’d need to announce it on the blog and in the email and then you’d need to work to see if you need to segment your list. I can’t really provide a lot of insight on that.

      • Ahmad Awais

        Guess, I’ll have to experiment with it at the cost of losing subscribers. I like the idea of short posts.

        Short posts = more content = more ideas get covered = hard to NOT read.

        Let’s see.

        • Tom

          Guess, I’ll have to experiment with it at the cost of losing subscribers. I like the idea of short posts.

          Remember that your blog is completely up to you guys how you wanna run it, so don’t do it unless you want :).

          Short posts = more content = more ideas get covered = hard to NOT read.

          More content, in a sense, but remember “quality over quantity” can hold true, too. There’s always that line to walk!.

          Let’s see.

          I’m eager to see how it performs.

  2. Peter Suhm

    “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.”

  3. Jessica

    Hey Ahmad,

    As someone who gets a lot of email each day, I appreciate shorter posts. I have no problem with posts that divide the subject matter up over several days. But, please, keep it clear and concise so I can decide to archive, save to Pocket or whatever.

    • Tom

      But, please, keep it clear and concise so I can decide to archive, save to Pocket or whatever.

      Knowing that people use these services (Instapaper, Pocket, etc.) is one thing that’s helped me to try to work to keep my word count lower and lower. It’s still higher than I’d like it to be but, as you can tell, I’m working on it.

    • Ahmad Awais

      Hey, Jessica!

      That actually helps. I am going to give it a shot. I have a lot of stuff that I want to share but writing on it for three hours makes me wonder if it should be today or 10 days from now.

      • Jessica

        Glad I was able give you a little insight. I hope it goes a little easier for you : )

  4. Scott Wyden Kivowitz

    I find shorter blog posts often the better ones, because so many people feel the need to do long posts that they add filler. So much filler that it dilutes value. I’ve always done shorter posts and get emails, weekly, thanking me for not having fluff.

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