Scott Fish

Size Matters & Top Bloggers Confess Their Secrets.  Jonathan Fields has interviewed several top bloggers to get their take on the matter…

Here’s a few excerpts from the interviews. (you’re going to want to read the whole post, however!)

Darren Rowse | ProBlogger.net - I would argue that it can impact readership growth - but that it can be a little unpredictable in how it impacts different blogs.

Leo Babauta | ZenHabits.net - Does size matter? Whether your blog requires long posts or short ones or a mix thereof really depends on what you’re trying to accomplish, and what your readers come to your blog for. For example, the biggest blogs are usually tech blogs, and readers go there for tech news, brief commentary on tech news, and some in-depth how-to posts. For those blogs, they can get away with a dozen short posts a day, with one or two long ones every day or two. That’s what the readers want.

Anita Campbell | SmallBizTrends.com - To me, post length is like the difference between USA Today and the Wall Street Journal. One’s short and filled with colorful pictures. The other looks plainer and has longer articles. Both have their place in the world.

Penelope Trunk | Brazen Careerist - The mainstream media outlets I have written for online — Yahoo, Wired, AOL, Information Week — spend a lot of money to analyze what length works online, and they all specify about 800 words.

Wendy Purcell | eMomsAtHome.com - My best and most successful posts are always the long ones that take me 4-8 hours to research write. They do well with social media sites and always add to subscribers and lead to more return visitors.

Liz Strauss | Successful-Blog - Sure it does, but it also depends on the content and purpose of the blog. For example, if the purpose of the blog is capture celebrity fans, short pithy posts with large pictures will draw more regular readers than longer pieces that tell their life stories.

John Wesley | PickTheBrain - It’s possible to be successful using long or short posts, or a combination of both. Instead of worrying about the proper post length, it’s more important to focus on giving readers the best value and developing a distinct and consistent style.

Glen Stansberry | LifeDev - If you can effectively communicate an idea in 5 words, then that’s the right length. If it takes 5 paragraphs, then that’s the right length.

Jay White | DumbLittleMan - I want readers to leave my site either more informed on a topic or perhaps with an action that they are going to implement. If I can accomplish that in 3 sentences I will.

Tamar Weinberg | Techipedia - I think it varies. Truthfully, it’s the style of writing that keeps me coming to bloggers over post length.

For example, Seth Godin is short and sweet and I read his posts. Rand Fishkin and Kathy Sierra are typically longer posting types and I also read their posts.

Donald Latumahina | LifeOptimizer - The important thing for readership growth is not post length, but post quality. However, I believe post length does have some correlation with post quality.