Still, I believe, we should always be lead by endeavor to write more without giving up style.

1) When I have an idea, I start writing
2) When I’m done conveying the idea, I stop

Sometimes that’s 100 words. Sometimes it’s 500. It just depends on what I’m writing.

They are for me, anyway. But I’m not writing poetry or fiction, in which case I’d agree vehemently with you.

With a shorter post every word carries incredible weight — since the objective is to make everyone count. Every word is absolutely necessary, and tells something.

To lengthen a short post and maintain the same value would be easier.

I think blog posts should be as long as they need to be. The blogger’s thoughts will dictate the length. I write a lot of long posts and my readers do tend to spend quite a bii of time on individual pages, so I guess what I’m writing is valuable enough to keep them around for a while.

At the end of the day, however, I write for myself and if other people are interested, then great. If not, I don’t really care. For me, the writing process is a part of my thinking process. I can clarify my thoughts much better once I get them out of my head and am able to look at them objectively, as it were. So I’ve never really give a lot of thought to the length of my posts.

I will say this: short posts are faaaaaaaar easier!

One thing that I think contributes to long posts is that people are used to writing for print. In essays or reports, for example, people typically write a lot. So when someone who is not used to writing for the web starts a blog, they’d likely keep their former writing style.

If the subject matter demands a longer post — it can be justified.

But I think sometimes we bloggers are narcissistic and want to believe our readers want to sit around and spend extra time going over our writing. And so we get a little verbose when it’s completely unnecessary.

I’m a big believer in making an effort to keep posts short, and I think the majority of blog readers really appreciate it too.

@Web Design Bureau: I just checked out your website. That’s awesome. Those really are the two extremes. And you’ve presented it to your readers in an easily-digestible way. Great job.

@Emma: Yes, holding interest is important. If you find yourself rambling, then something definitely needs to be removed…

But yes, topic is also important as well as your readers’ expectations. I find that sometimes bloggers often change their writing style. Some who have regularly created longer posts have now opted for shorter ones. This leaves their readers disappointed and wanting more.

@Natural: I have noticed that. Some of the ‘greats’ have been taking the easy way out. Hopefully they will will start giving us the kind of posts that made us flock to their blogs in the first place.

some bloggers who used to write, throw up pictures and a caption and a few words. it is their blog so they can do it, but they have the talent to write but choose not to, i guess.

Additionally, in Seth Godin’s case… his posts are short for a reason. They’re good. Extremely good. However, most people can’t write like Seth.

Please my friends, let’s keep it simple, eh?

@Kim: Yeh, for some reason people have short attention spans. It’s because people are ‘spoiled’ by other blogs which present information in a very brief format. So people get used to seeing things without supporting material, background, or anything else that makes an article complete.

@Nihar: Time is definitely another factor. Blogging requires a lot of time, and for those who only blog parttime, writing long long posts is not really an option.

They want to read and get the gist of the post with minimum reading. May be this could be the reason.

In other articles, it can’t be short – there’s just no way to cover the topic.

It’s kind of sad that people can’t read a page of content even on a topic that they find interesting. I don’t know – I really like to read so maybe I have a different perspective.

I think some people can get bored by reading long post so I try to add some fun by adding some bizaar pics in there.

Well its a bit true however that people like shorter article which is to the point however I really like to write long ones where I can say what I want using as much words that I want.

@Ajith: Yes, I find that for comments, you need to go short. Many visitors will visit a blog and skip anything which is over a certain length. Or they won’t read it fully and present a comment which is obviously off topic.

@Wei: You deliver a lot of ‘lessons’. So the long format is ideal. When someone gets there, they know that they will be learning. And so the length is worthwhile.

@Ben: I hadn’t thought of that. Yes, something that no one else has mentioned would definitely necessitate a longer post. When ideas have been rehashed, then all you need to do is say something brief and link to some other article. :-/

@Brian: Well, the comments, I agree, were probably increased due to shorter length. However, as for traffic, there probably are other factors at play.

Wei Liang