In Defense of Short Form Content
Let's keep this brief. The latest research from Orbit Media confirms a long-standing trend: blog posts have gotten longer.
According to the 2022 survey of 1016 bloggers, the average blog post racks up 1376 words, increasing from 808 in 2014.
A little bedside reading anyone? Blog posts have grown 70% longer since 2014.
Unsurprisingly, the average time spent on producing a blog post is also up by 74%, at 4 hours 10 minutes, over the past three years.
Why Go Long?
There's no doubt blog posts are getting longer and publication frequency is reducing.
Proponents say it speaks to a growing appetite for greater in-depth engagement. The age of short, bite-sized content is finally passing.
Of course, long blog posts - just like long novels - have a place. But we need to be careful not to assume that longer always means better.
When crafting your content plan, think about post length. If you really need 1500 words to convey your point, so be it. Certain technical explanations absolutely require length.
But let's not forget economy of expression. What takes 1500 words to say at first pass can generally be condensed to 1000 words without over-diluting the content.
In fact, tightening the expression often strengthens the message by forcing you to write more clearly.
What Would Abe Say?
And what's wrong with a short-form content anyway? A quote here, a few sentences there, a 200-word article that summarizes the key points. These all have their place in the ecosystem of content.
Remember Lincoln's Gettysburg address. A total of 272 words.
Short story exponent Raymond Carver was a genius at distilling deep meaning into the fewest possible words.
James Joyçe's story collection Dubliners is just as impactful a read as his swirling, swaggering extravaganzas Ulysses and Finnegans Wake.
Print journalists are used to seeing their 850 words of copy extruded to a more manageable 500 words to fit the space available.
Short & Sweet
So don't be afraid to go long but don't be afraid to go short either. It all depends on the skill of the execution.
In other findings from the Orbit research, 73% of bloggers are in the practice of updating older articles. Bloggers are 2.8x more likely to get strong results if they regularly refresh content.
For the record, this blog post comes in at a total of 385 words. That’s a bit more than bite-sized, but certainly not a three-course meal. Let's call it a light lunch.