Content pacing

As far as post lengths go, it's generally better to write short, frequent entries than rare long ones, as this encourages repeat-readership. However, some bloggers might have a different agenda, like showcasing essays, which would merit another approach.

So what constitutes "short"? Modern Life's Stuart Brown analyzed Technorati's top 100. "The shortest average was a terse 77 words, and the longest a snooze-inducing 1,449. The vast majority of posts were over 100 words and under 500."

The bulk were 100–249 words, which would be my recommendation as well. I sometimes overspill this bandwidth, though, because, well, I'm in publisher here and I just plain want to...

The pressure to post – something, anything, even tales from the U-bend! – often inspires some short, snippety entries. And that, my friends, is a Good Thing. Because a varied palette of story lengths adds texture and rescues your blog from being a monotonous, paint-by-numbers boilerplate. Keep things lively. Mix in a 100-word reaction to a relevant news story with a 500-word essay and a photo montage. Different lengths will challenge you to think and work in different ways. And when the author's learning, and stretching and having fun, chances are the reader will too.