Blogging Food For Thought
I first thought of covering this topic in the Questions area. However, I wonder if other members have pondered this question. Therefore I decided to write a blog post about it here.
One Long Post OR Five Short Posts A Week
Is it more effective to drive traffic to your website by writing five posts a week, each at an average of 1000 words, or one post a week at 5000 words? Of course the approach is to be consistent no matter which direction one chooses.
The ideal is to write 5 posts a week, each at 5000 words. In this discussion, this is not an option.
The Traffic Game
In my humble opinion it appears that members who get more traffic are those who publish more posts a week. When I think about this logically, it makes sense to write more posts, even though they are brief. It is possible to write valuable posts at only 1000 words depending on how you structure it.
On the other hand, if you provide value with only 1000 words, doesn't 5000 words well composed hypothetically provide 5 times the value?
How Many Posts A Week Do You Publish?
It is much more easy for me to write long posts. This means that I do not have the time to write as many. One or two a week seems to be my limit. If I push it, maybe three. I have never been able to write 5 posts a week yet.
I am keeping this post short as I would like to hear what other members think about the merits of one over the other.
Please comment below. Looking forward to what you have to say.
Cheers.
Edwin
Recent Comments
21
Hey Edwin
I have learned that the bots are happiest when you post consistently. I have been aiming for 4 articles a week at an average word length of 1500 words. I have a partner with me and I am enlisting help of guest bloggers to increase the frequency with the intent of achieving 240 blogs by year end. I have never been long on words so a 5000 word post regularly would be challenging for me so shorter more frequent would be my approach.
Hugh
Hi Edwin,
Nice to hear from you!
I think consistency is the key. If you can post 5 x @ week, 500 words each, then you will get noticed.
One option you might not have considered is to combine a couple of your 500-word articles (if relative enough to make sense, grin). Then you have 1000 words....twice a week. Just a thought!
Personally, if I don't find what I am looking for, I go on to the next. The longer a post, chances are, I'm skimming through and reading the subheadings/paragraph titles.
I think the length of a blog is relative to the topic. Writing fluff to fill words to reach a certain number is worse, only because the quality of your blog suffers...
Write what you can. If you spend too much time worrying about how many words, you won't write any at all!
What I have learned is to write a story, like you're telling someone else. It is amazing how many words will appear on the page.
Rudy
Hello Hugh,
I agree that fluff gets you no where. I have no problem writing quality posts. It’s consistency I have to improve.
Thanks for commenting.
Edwin
Hey Edwin,
Hugh is the other guy...I'm Rudy...grin..
And yes, consistency is something I am working on...
Hey Edwin, lovely to hear from you.
My strategy has been to aim for 5 posts per week sometimes this can be 4 and the range goes from 1200 words to 2800 depending on the topic.
I generally find frequency works for me but its still early days as I am not yet a year in. I think it is niche dependent very often.
I have certainly found that I can only focus on 1 niche which was a mistake I made early on and my site suffered for that.
My niche is now expanding to books and a podcast and that feels more brand focussed. Good luck with your answers. Great question. All the best, Phil
Hi Phil,
Thanks for commenting. My niche is to help people discover opportunities to make money online. And the best training for that is available on WA. Hence I can cover quite a range of niches. My issue is being consistent. It’s up to me to sort that out.
All the best.
Edwin
No matter what your writing schedule is, stick to it. That's what your readers expect. Consistency is the keyword here.
I rather have 5 posts of 1000 words.then one of 5000 words.
I agree with Geoffrey, no one reads that one unless you are a professor, doing a study case (or whatever) and then you will have probably more than 5000 words ,lol
How long should your post be?
The main industry says between 600 and 2500 words.
Coppyblogger says, it should be as long till you brought the message to your reader.
See more comments
Here's another way to look at it.
If your content is great, you'll get a better conversion rate. Better conversions means more commissions.
Having more traffic doesn't mean you have more engaged traffic. Having better content is much more likely to engage your visitors.
I'd rather have a great, long post or two than slam out a bunch of short posts which do nothing.
Hi Jeannine,
The responses are all over the map. Three points stand out. Quality. Focus. Consistency.
Thanks for your advice.
Edwin