“On the upside, those people who don’t have the patience to read make the rest of us look like geniuses.”

LOL. Well, I guess that’s an upside! And I guess it must be impossible to skim if you have to analyze literature. I didn’t have to, so I didn’t read much in college. Probably a lot of people are in that boat.

Luckily, classes in my major MAKE me analyze, but I wonder about the kids with other majors who just have to regurgitate information. I wonder what the college experience is doing to their attention spans, if mine is so affected. By the time they’re out of college, they’ve probably forgotten the importance of actually _reading_. Not skimming, but _reading_. If I weren’t forced to analyze literature, I probably wouldn’t have the attention span for this blog post either!

On the upside, those people who don’t have the patience to read make the rest of us look like geniuses.

@ Davina, at Pick the Brain, the minimum post length is 600 words. I don’t know why they picked that number; I guess they think it works for the topic. It could be that you really need 600 words for your posts. When I write a long post, I try to wait a while before posting again, since I know people are busy. And I often decide not to leave a comment in order to save time when reading.

@ Jen, it must be tough to be conflicted about this. What do your readers seem to like, short posts or long ones?

I think it depends on the subject of the post as opposed to the length. Some posts really catch my attention and I don’t even notice how long they are. It also depends on how busy I am that day, how many other blogs I’ve read that day and the length of their posts. Sometimes I’ll read a longer post, but because I’m short on time I won’t comment.

Davina´s last blog post..Video — Preparation Inspires Self-Confidence

Both long and short work for me providing the content is interesting and well expressed. Both take talent and effort to be effective. Something that is too short and leaves out the ‘meat’ or something is too long and it takes effort to find the ‘meat’ are equally frustrating. It takes some doing to know where to draw the line…or extend it.

Laurie | Express Yourself to Success´s last blog post..Kiwi!

“The tall man entered the nice building to visit a very nice man. Sit down Mr. Smith, could I interest you in any good cat food?”

It’s a lot better when you pick good words!

@ Betsy, now that WordPress displays the word count, I find myself keeping an eye on it, but just for curiosity, not because I depend on it to tell me when I’m done. Sometimes it takes me many words to say stuff too!

@ Michael, very good point, there’s a difference between hearing something and really getting it.

@ Richard, I might have guessed you were a Pavlina fan from your CommentLuv snippet mentioning a 30-day trial. He’s definitely in depth. Some people like it and some don’t, but for the ones who do, he doesn’t disappoint.

@ Dot, I agree that wandering all over the place is bad. It seems kind of obvious now, but back when Darren Rowse started, he didn’t have the benefit of being able to follow in someone’s footsteps. He combined blogging, photography, religion, and more on one blog, and found that it was much better to separate them!

On the other hand, is Andy saying that Steve Pavlina can’t blog about something as broad as personal development, that he should stick to a specific topic like raw foods? I don’t know if that’s what he means, but for me, I know that I couldn’t stick to any one narrow topic.

@ Steve C, I guess Steve’s comments were pitching his blog, but I didn’t see that as inappropriate since he was on topic. Depth usually means lots of words, definitely. Sometimes I’ll write about something that’s not very deep, but that’s not my usual preference.

@ Steve (Brip Blap), I agree that some people are made for short posts and some are made for long posts. I actually think Seth Godin’s short posts are better than his longer ones. The way things are, huh? I’ve never flipped channels, so maybe I won’t like this direction we’re heading in.

@ Cath, I guess it is misleading. What you’ve described there, is perfectly fine, and I don’t think that’s what people mean by “writing for search engines.” However, feel free to scream if you like!

@ Akemi, that’s a great power to be able to attract posts! I guess you can attract your answer about what kind of writer you are. How do you react to hearing that 800 words is the optimal length? Could you stick to that length, or would it interfere with expressing your thoughts?

@ thinkmaya, I’ve noticed that posts take much longer to write as they get longer, so it’s not just you. I think making longer posts easier to read is a good idea, and you can do that with some simple formatting.

@ Daniel, I have a range for mine too. I never know what the word count will be until I write it!

@ Marelisa, there were some pro-Steve comments too, but it was the negative ones that really caught my attention. Yes, your posts are non-microwave, but that’s who you want to target anyway, right?

@ Evelyn, I agree that the impact of the post is what matters most. I think having some shorter posts is a good way to free up more time to learn stuff, and you have some great jokes!

@ Matt,

“Could not someone argue that all these How to get Rich blogs / eBooks resemble a pyramid scheme?”

I think the desire for easy money is common among most of the people who get involved with making money online and those who join pyramid schemes. In fact, most people who try to make money from anything other than a job tend to expect big money for little effort.

I had compared multi-level marketing to affiliate programs before. They’re very similar. And what makes them legitimate and not pyramid schemes is that there’s a real product being sold at a fair price. If there was an ebook about making money from blogging that was worth $20, but it sold for $1000, and the idea was that you need to get a bunch of people to overpay for it in order to get all these affiliate commissions, then I think that would be very similar to a pyramid scheme.

“Which of your posts do you enjoy writing, Hunter:: stuff such as the Myers-Briggs trial, or promotions for how-to-get-rich eBooks? I prefer your personal reflections and experiences.”

I don’t think I’ve ever promoted a how-to-get-rich ebook, at least not as I understand that expression. A “how-to-get-rich ebook” sounds like it promotes unrealistic expectations of big money for little effort, and that it doesn’t provide quality information. I wouldn’t promote something like that, but I do promote helpful ebooks, and I like writing both kinds of posts.

@ Conrad, I hadn’t considered that, but now that I think about it, that could be what he meant. Consistency is critical because everything worth achieving takes way longer than we want it to.

Success is a result of consistant and persistant action in a single direction.

Conrad Hees´s last blog post..WTF Happened to Please and Thank You?

It’s remind me of that old lawyer joke… “What do you call 500 blogging experts at the bottom of the ocean? A good start..”

Some of these guys (and gals) seem bright, and some even have a sense of humor. But as a group, they don’t measure up to the professor whose generous name drop of your blog led me here.

re. Blogs should be of one subject… I understand what they mean. Maybe it’s a fine rule for Blogs but not necessarily for bloggers.

Myself, I just merged my 3 blogs into one. Blogger.com now has an export and import feature for posts. I had tried to separate my posts by making separate blogs, but it is too hard to juggle. One blog (to manage) is enough for anyone. Audiences find posts via keyword searches, Technorati, tags.. not by Blog name.

I like what Dot had to say. How are people making their money? Hunter, you mentioned multi-level marketing earlier as distinct from blogging for money. Could not someone argue that all these How to get Rich blogs / eBooks resemble a pyramid scheme?

Which of your posts do you enjoy writing, Hunter:: stuff such as the Myers-Briggs trial, or promotions for how-to-get-rich eBooks? I prefer your personal reflections and experiences.

Matt H´s last blog post..Talking Richard Wagoner Blues