Is There an Optimal Blog Post Length?

Graywolf raised an interesting question in regards to the length of blog posts. Is there an optimal post length? Will shorter posts help to retain readers and even lead to more links?

From What makes you unsubscribe from a blog’s RSS feed?. It was less the post that caught my attention as it was comments. If you blog at all read the comments, every last one of them. They’ll give you some indication of what people do and don’t like about blogs.

Reading the comments at ProBlogger one thing becomes clear to me. If we try to please everyone with our writing we’ll ultimately please nobody. I didn’t do a count, but my general sense was there are just as many people saying they’ll unsubscribe from a feed if the posts are too long as there are if the posts are too short.

If you were to try to please every person who commented you’d need to write posts that aren’t too long, and aren’t too short. You’ll need to post often, but not too often. You’ll need to stay on topic, but also be different enough from the other blogs on the same topic. You won’t offend anyone and no one will unsubscribe, but there’s a good chance they’ll never subscribe in the first place.

The one thing most people do seem to agree on is in the preferences for blogging voice than consciously attempt to stifle it. I’m not arrogant enough to think everything I write is so good you have to read it, but ultimately that is my goal.

What do you think? Are shorter posts better? Would you rather see some shorter posts here or should I keep going the way I have been and not worry about post length?

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