When you are writing an article for your blog, and you go to preview it, what do you look for? I bet it’s how long it is. Although an article with multiple paragraph looks good, it’s not what the readers will be looking at.
“Oh, that article is really short, I think I’m just going to skip it.”
They look at the content. They READ the content.
“An article about how I can increase my Pagerank? I need to read this!”
It’s no competition between word count and content. It’s always going to be quality over quantity with blogging. If you can produce a large quantity of good quality articles, than that’s of course better.
Don’t worry about how long the article is as long as your article:
1) Makes it’s point
2) Is clear and understandable
3) Goes as in depth as it needs to be/you want it to be
Remember this- people are going to have to read your article. Would you want to read a length, fluffy, article? It’s important to cover exactly what you want to cover, and exactly what’s needed to cover. Your readers want information, now. If you’re reviewing a site, cover all the aspects, pros, and cons, briefly but thoroughly. If you’re teaching someone how to do something- you better cover it step by step!
See how short this article is, but it still covers and explains my point, right? Please don’t worry about word count. For the reader’s sake!
Content trumps word count… I wont read an article unless it is relevant. But if it is only a few sentences, it is highly doubtful I will pull any value from it, so I usually skip.
very good principles to blog by…or live by for that matter
, at least on the internet…even for things like writing articles people focus on word count vs content. Just right something you’re passionate/knowledgeable about and the words will come. Good post
Nice blog, keep it up!
Brief and upto the point with small sentences. That will make an article a sure hit with the readers. Article content is important but a good title is very important.
Quality content tops the word count anyday, but I also think it’s important how the post is written. Posts with sub-titles, numbers, bulleting, important areas in bold, etc. all become a big hit with the readers (and often times, StumbleUpon too)! Keep up the great work.
Up to a point … if an article is made up of nothing but three and four word sentences, I tend to get irritated and leave before I finish. Like Casey said, people have to actually read the posts, so you don’t want to overdo it, but you also want to keep your people interested.
‘Subject matter helpful to the reader’ should be No. 1.