ProBlogger: Thinking of Quitting Blogging? The Tale of One Blogger Who Did (and What Happened Next!)

---

Thinking of Quitting Blogging? The Tale of One Blogger Who Did (and What Happened Next!) Posted: 02 Aug 2015 07:22 AM PDT There has been a definite shift in the blogosphere over the last 12 or so months, and I’ve heard story after story of people who feel a real sense of transition in the air. Blogging can take a toll on the strongest of people, what with its 24-hour cycle, it’s relentless need to be updated, and its ability to totally take over your life if you let it. What I’ve noticed, though, is how hard it is for people to let go. Either to let go of their blogs completely, or to let go of the parts of blogging that don’t serve them (me included!). It could be fear holding them back, or resistance to change, the motivation is different for all – but I wondered how helpful it would be to hear from people who dealt with all of these feelings very differently. From someone who straight-up quit, to someone who hung in there, to another who merged blogging with other pursuits, the experiences I’ll be sharing this week have given me hope. I always find it useful to see how others have made huge changes and not only survived, but thrived, and I know you’re going to find some solace in the stories  from Megan Tietz today, Nicole Avery of Planning With Kids Wednesday, and Heather Armstrong from Dooce on Friday. Megan blogged at Sorta Crunchy for eight years before finally laying it to rest at the beginning of 2015, and setting off for pastures new. If you’ve ever thought of just walking away and starting afresh somewhere else, this one’s for you. When did you start to realise it might be time to stop blogging? I happened across a post from my archives a few weeks ago, something I had written in the summer of 2012. That was shortly after my book had been released, and I know now as I read back over it that in my heart, I knew it was time to stop blogging back then. But I had a book to promote and a platform to maintain, so I powered through and kept at it for a few more years. In the late summer of 2014, I had one of those rare but wonderful epiphany moments where out of the blue, the thought “I’m closing my blog” rolled through my mind, and it felt so incredibly hopeful and liberating, I knew that the time had finally come to be finished. Were you making an income? Sort of. I experimented with different income streams including private ads, sponsored campaigns, and affiliate work, but it was only ever enough to pay my blogging bills and have a little extra play money on the side. Did you know you had a different direction you wanted to go in, or did that come later? My friend Tsh Oxenreider had been generous in asking me to be a frequent guest on her Art of Simple podcast, and that experience gave me the confidence to being exploring creating my own show. I knew that I was deeply burned out on writing, yet my personality is one that craves connection and community. I’m solidly in my late thirties now and the thought of teaching myself how to work in a new medium was exhilarating and inspiring. How did you finally make the decision? I know this sounds a little woo-woo, but I genuinely feel like the decision was made for me. Once I knew it was time to close the blog, I found it excruciatingly difficult to write anything. It was as if after writing easily and frequently since I was in the fifth grade, I had finally used up all of my words. I couldn’t have kept blogging even if I wanted to. The well had run utterly dry. What were the factors that led you to stop? Were they internal reasons or external? I would say it was 95% internal and only 5% external. The external reasons include the pressure to create Pinterest-worthy posts, click-inspiring headlines, and content that would perform well on all social media platforms. But as I said above, it was mostly this internal assurance that the time had come to move on and move forward to taking on new projects. Have you felt/seen/heard evidence that this feeling of discontent is widespread among bloggers? It’s funny, having been part of the blogging community for over eight years, I’ve certainly seen bloggers far more widely-read and well-known step away from their platforms for a variety of reasons long before I chose to do so myself. Yet I think it’s one of those things when once you’ve tuned into a certain vibe, you start to feel it everywhere you turn. Yes, I think there is a feeling of discontent amongst my peers who are still blogging, but I think that’s the nature of this beast; a beast which on the one hand has done away with the gate-keepers and made a path for creatives to share their work in ways never possible before, but on the other hand, it requires of you the creation of awesome, amazing, share-able content day after day into perpetuity. Why podcasting? I have dreams of exploring lots of new mediums in the realm of new media, but I decided to start with podcasting because I am an unrepentant podcast junkie. The more shows I discovered and the more I found myself delighted by what others are creating in this realm, the more I became consumed with the idea of creating my own show. Even just a few months in, this is one of the most exciting, rewarding, and thrilling things I’ve ever done. I’m in love with the process and product, start to finish. My only regret is that I didn’t start sooner! What advice do you have for people who are thinking of stopping, but are a bit frightened to totally pull the pin? When you are dating someone seriously and begin to ask, “is this person The One?” you’re often told, “when you know, you know.” I feel it’s the same way with blogging. When it’s time to stop – not just take a break to recover and rediscover your purpose and mission in blogging, but truly stop blogging – you just know. And it is absolutely scary. I spent a few months scribbling in my journal thoughts revolving around the question, “but now what am I going to do?” So take the time to work through the fear and any other negative feelings that surface as a result of such a big decision, but know that everything good and valuable and important that you learned from blogging can be put into practice in a dazzling number of ways outside of this medium. What’s life like on the other side? Liberating. People often ask me if I miss blogging, and I can genuinely say that I don’t! I think that’s because I didn’t take my own advice and pushed myself to keep blogging long after it was time for me to be done. I didn’t realize how much mental real estate blogging was taking up in my mind, but now that that chapter is over, I feel so much more free. There’s a wonderful lightness that comes with following your intuition, no matter how scary the path is that it leads you down. It’s a newfound freedom that I am enjoying immensely. Do you feel a bit like quitting? Like there’s something else on the horizon you’d like to explore, but you can’t just walk away? Let’s chat in the comments, cos I feel like that too… Stacey is the Managing Editor of ProBlogger.net: a writer, blogger, and full-time word nerd balancing it all with being a stay-at-home mum. She writes about all this and more at Veggie Mama. Chat with her on Twitter @veggie_mama or be entertained on Facebook. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Thinking of Quitting Blogging? The Tale of One Blogger Who Did (and What Happened Next!) The post Thinking of Quitting Blogging? The Tale of One Blogger Who Did (and What Happened Next!) appeared first on @ProBlogger.

You are subscribed to email updates from @ProBlogger To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States

What Is the Ideal Length for a Blog Post? - DailyBlogTips

---

What Is the Ideal Length for a Blog Post? Posted: 01 Aug 2015 05:17 AM PDT There is no arguing the point that the Internet runs on content and that quality copy is essential to success. There is, however, some debate over the perfect length of a blog post and how its word count influences its overall performance. There will always be valid points to both sides, as the art of content marketing has more in common with consumer psychology than any exact science. That said, the purpose of this article is to address the ideal length of a blog post as relevant to the needs of professional bloggers. Fortunately, solid research has been done to shed light on the topic and provide a deeper insight from which we're now able to draw data-backed conclusions. First, let's discuss the two extremes. The Content Arms Race: Short vs. Long For the sake of argument and for the remainder of this article, we'll maintain that a short blog post refers to content with around 1,000 words or less and a long-form blog post refers to a piece containing 2,000 words or more. Under these parameters, BlogTyrant conducted a recent investigation into the success of its articles and found those with higher word counts repeatedly outperformed their shorter counterparts. Such outcomes have been consistently replicated by others. BuzzSumo, a company specializing in the tracking and analysis of viral content, collated the results of seven independent studies, concluding that feature articles of significant length and detail generate the most interest. In one of the studies, NewsWhip noted that a 2,500-word article from the Huffington Post on the habits of happy people received more than 470,000 shares within three months of publication, owing to an exponential relationship between the number of words and social media success. In contrast, Upworthy's current most popular post, with a total of nearly a million shares according to BuzzSumo, has just 130 words. Just 130! Granted, there's an infographic in there, but that difference is enough to show that it's more about what the content is than how long it is. The difference in performance, however, is often tied to and influenced by specific criteria relating to subject matter and shareability. In this way, the very definition of success can vary by degrees. Factors Contributing to Sharing and Search Success Despite the fact that there is mounting evidence in support of long-form content, the reality is that the value of an article cannot be determined by length alone. The end result often comes down to many factors, and the following are key considerations every blogger should account for: 1. Google's Preference for Quality It's no secret that Google favors quality content and prioritizes the material that meets the company's list of demands – there are more than 200 hundred of them. Essentially, creators must implement best practice in SEO to achieve a better indexing. Accordingly, longer articles that that are able to incorporate more backlinks, subheadings, alt title tags and long-tail keywords are always going to achieve that elusive first-page ranking ahead of shorter blog posts. 2. Readership Expectations Contrary to popular belief, online audiences aren't always out to scan the information they read – more on that later. Shorter articles are often met with the expectation that the content will only offer a cursory glance and that by contrast, more information means a more in-depth discussion. 3. Level of Authority and Credibility This last point relates to and is informed by the first two. Articles that are well researched and set out to establish a particular view about a topic, or actively seek to encourage public input, need to be fleshed out. Conversely, even if you do everything right, the structure may prevent the content from achieving a following. This goes directly to the heart of the ever-decreasing attention span of online audiences. Time as a Factor in Determining Length It may be one thing to aim for a high word count, but it's an entirely different matter to make sure the content is actually engaged with and understood. As such, bloggers need to account for the way in which readers consume information online and consider the role time plays. Therefore, the question of this post becomes, "For how long can the average reader focus their attention?" Fortunately, Medium assigns a time signature to each of its blog posts and is able to keep track of this kind of information. When the site compared the average post length to the time it takes to read, after adjusting for a spate of short posts, a pattern emerged. The site was admittedly more concerned about levels of engagement and less about click-through rates, but it determined the ideal length of a blog post to be 7 minutes long – an estimate that capitalizes on the maximum amount of time most users are prepared to allocate towards reading online content. One speed reading test places the national average at 300 words per minute. Assuming the optimal timeframe holds true, the average U.S. adult will be able to read 2,100 words before their attention starts to drop. Thus we can place a ballpark figure on the number of words an article actually needs to be effective, rather than arbitrarily stating the more the better. There is, however, one other important thing to consider. How Do Images Fit Into the Formula? A recent article from HubSpot suggests that in 100 of the highest-ranking blogs, there is at least one image for every 350 words and that the typical reader will spend 10 percent more of their time viewing the images while scrolling the site. When less time is spent reading, less words can be written. For context, it may help to note that Medium's own seven-minute story about the ideal length of a blog post was laden with graphics and concluded at just under 1,000 words. If images are to be used, they must be relevant to the information being presented. If not, the blogger runs the risk of devaluating the message and the authority of the article. The importance of pairing quality content and quality images is not to be underestimated. Together, they help the reader get over the first few crucial seconds where they decide whether to bounce. Also, great images make your posts pop on social media. When StatisticsBrain took a look at the Internet browsing habits of a cross-section of users and 59,573 page views, it found that 17 percent of those page views lasted less than 4 seconds. That's potentially 10,127 articles that were never read, and likely never shared. What Makes a Perfect Post? The evidence thus far supports the idea that when it comes to virality, long-form content benefits from better Google rankings, higher indexing results, more shares and an overall improvement in audience engagement. From a non-scientific perspective, you could say that the perfect post is exactly as long as it needs to be. Or, the perfect post says exactly what the reader wants to know. For example, a piece like this one about the history of the Ford Mustang might go into less specifics and use more photos and videos for nostalgia purposes than a piece detailing the history of one specific Mustang model. Ultimately, the ideal length for a blog post is going to be closer to 1,500 words, but as with most things on the Internet today, there will be exceptions to the rule. As long as you have an active following and a message worth communicating, length will be a situational decision, not the choice that makes or breaks you. What's your ideal length for a blog post? Share your preferences in the comments below. Adrienne Erin is a freelance writer and designer who blogs at Design Roast. Follow @adrienneerin on Twitter to get in touch. Wanna learn how to make more money with your website? Check the Online Profits training program!

You are subscribed to email updates from Daily Blog Tips To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States