Bloggers Everywhere: If you can do one thing today, please do NOT write a ‘short’ and ‘to the point’ post.
Just don’t. You’re probably doing it wrong (there’s nothing unique / interesting / useful / powerful / likeable / discussable about your post) and not only is it adding to the noise, it’s also turning potential readers away from your blog once they find you talking about the same thing you’re reading elsewhere.
In other cases, there’s no meat on the bones – instead of raising a question and leaving it fashionably open-ended to allow for interesting conversation, the blogger leaves the slate blank with only a few scribblings that pique interest but leave the reader disappointed and feeling empty.
Exceptions
In some situations, short posts work. If you’re a leading news blog, then short posts work wonders because you are the news breakers, not the ones regurgitating it. However, to reach this level requires a certain level of audience, which you’re not going to build by regurgitating news from other sources (who do you hit first in the day for your sports news – ESPN or a blogger you’ve never read before?).
Build Your Audience Through Quality
Quality does not mean quantity, so don’t think that I’m advocating 2400-word blog posts (those work, for sure, but there are less painful ways too).
Instead, quality means two things:
One, sending your readers away with something to remember and talk about later in the day (and if you’re lucky, tomorrow). In the sea of noise you must stand out and stick in the reader’s mind – your job’s a bit easier because they’re already reading what you’re writing, but you will be forgotten if you cannot produce something that they will remember.
Two, consistently pushing yourself to improve. Let’s face it, we’re not the best bloggers in the world, you and I. But we have the opportunity to observe those around us who ARE ‘great’, and push ourselves not only to match them but eventually to be better than them. It’s not a question of whether it’s possible or not (you can’t actually be Steve Pavlina) but it’s definitely a question of how much you want it and how hard (and smart) you’re willing to work on it.
So, please – if you’re going to blog today, don’t do the usual short post. Think of how you can best serve your readers, and give them something to remember for the weekend.