short blog posts

How to Create Impact with Short Blog Posts

Writing short micro-focused blog posts can have a huge impact on your readers. Sometimes it simply doesn’t take many words to get your point across. If you can condense your thoughts into what is fundamental, your blog posts will be easier to read, carry more weight, and probably even get more readers.

The reason you may want to write shorter, more focused blog posts is that they are easier to scan. You’ll also have more room for graphics, bullet points, and even advertisements without cluttering up your blog.

Research and outline

To write shorter blog posts that impact your audience, be sure to do all your research ahead of time. Part of the fun of writing a short blog post is that you can do it in three minutes before you run an errand.

Set a word count

If you set a specific word count for your short blog posts, you’ll be more likely to trim the blog post of unneeded words. It really is an art form to be able to explain something clearly in fewer words.

Repurpose old posts

Take a look at some of your old blog posts that have “5 steps to ____,” or “7 ways to ____” and extract one of the points. Focus only on that point in 250 words or less to make a laser-focused blog post that your audience will love.

Include graphics and white space

Remember to include bullets and images to make your point even more succinct and impactful. If you have pictures and graphics you’ll need fewer words to explain.

Q & A posts

You may have neglected to answer some questions in a post because you thought the topic was too short, but nothing could be further from the truth. If one of your readers or customers asked, the question is likely on the mind of others.

Ditch unnecessary words

Many people tend to write differently than they talk. Most of us when talking don’t add in many descriptive words to our sentences. We say only what needs to be said or we would sound really strange. Try writing how you talk and eliminate unnecessary “flowery” words.

Avoid commas

If you find that you’re including many commas in your writing, try to be more straightforward. Eliminate extraneous thoughts. Only convey one idea per sentence for best results.

Always edit!

Don’t just rush and write a blog post without the most important part: editing. Not only should you edit for mistakes, but also for clarity and focus.

Remember your purpose

If you don’t know the purpose of your blog post, it’s hard to write it with clarity. Know your point, and stick to it.

Internet readers are notoriously easily distracted. They want to scan a blog post and move on. They want to garner the meat in just a few seconds without having to think too deeply. This is because they are usually at work, or trying to squeeze in reading your blog on a break or while cooking dinner. Follow these tips for writing shorter blog posts that make a big impact.

If you don't know the purpose of your blog post, it's hard to write it with clarity.Click To Tweet

However :-)

If you ever had the pleasure to listen to Ian Cleary from Razorsocial, who has done extensive research on the length of blog posts, you know that he advocates for longer, detailed posts and he makes some important points. He points out that posts with over 1500 words receive more backlinks.

http://www.razorsocial.com/blog-strategy/

What do you think? Do you prefer shorter posts or longer ones?

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14 comments
Mikeywriteforme
Mikeywriteforme 5pts

It's so important to edit and outline your posts. I've actually created a template for this so that working with clients is much easier. I have my main headers and ideas at the top of the page in a bullet list so that I can add in as much pertinent information as possible in a short post.


Even after years of writing, I always have someone else proofread my content. I find that I can overlook my own mistakes far too easily.

SHDickson
SHDickson 5pts

@Jon_Ferrara I like it all, but I have been a huge fan of the heavier music for over 35 years.

SilkeJager
SilkeJager 5pts

I have to remember to include shorter blog posts from time to time, I tend to ramble on a bit. It's a good idea to break up long articles into several shorter posts, don't you think? When it comes to editing I find that reading the article out loud, slowly, really helps catch those little grammatical mistakes and keyboard errors.

BlueBirdBC
BlueBirdBC moderator 5pts

I like that idea @SilkeJager I am a terrible proofreader :-) I run all major pieces by my editor. The balance between short and long posts is tricky. But why not do both? I know that quite a few blog post have never been published because I didn't feel like I had enough to say.

I just realized that the same goes for webinars. I hate to ramble on for an hour. Therefore I created the 20minute.academy I should really pick that up again.

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