Writing online: If it's more than 500 words, it's too long

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Totally agree unless it is a news magazine article or newspaper article. But blogs? Yes indeedy. Websites? Short and sweet.
And please, I beg you, use paragraphs to break up the text. Although I feel like I'm some sort of neanderthal when I can't read something that is a complete-page text block, everyone needs some white space to rest their eyes.
 
I won't read sentences in one big giant chunky post. Just an fyi, to concur your sentiments Mort, and let others know.
We aren't reading what you write unless you 'give us a break' in there some place. Even though it is indeed the same subject, like I just did.
The Economist Magazine, read their articles, short short short to the point. This is the way it is now, for most news sources, k.i.s.s. people don't read. They want it read, pre-digested and spewed back out at 'em. This is the fax of life here. :)
 
I checked out some posts from both your and Mortie's blogs and found I enjoyed the posts that were over 500 words more than the shorter ones. I like to find out things I didn't know when I read, and so the longer posts seem to be more enjoyable for me. Some of my blog posts contain stuff that I didn't know until I started researching the topic, so they tend to be on the wordy side. I guess I must really be wierd because when I find something interesting on the internet that seems too hard to read, I copy the text onto a word document and then play with font and paragraph (yeah, I know there's some sort of way to do that onscreen) so I can read it more easily. I even take out some of those extra white spaces so the thoughts flow better!
If I see a website that is well organized and inviting, I'll stay on it and read. I am not intimidated by the length of the entry on the page. If it's cluttered with cartoon thingys or crappy I'll leave. The computer to me is an easier typewriter and a gigantic textbook. Younger folks get their information differently, so Target commercials (which drive me crazy) are aimed a totally different species generation.
My take on all of this is that I can't be all things to all people. My younger guests (whose parents are younger than I) smile when they see me plugged into my iPod. Do they read my blog? Probably not. Do they engage in lots of breakfast conversation? Not very often... but they are the kind that will leave me a message spelled out of Hershey's Kisses on top of the dresser. So, I have a blog. I use it to help in driving visitors to my website, but I also hope that the process will make me more knowledgeable so I can be a better innkeeper for the older folks. Will I ever Tweet? Never say Never, but it's not on the horizon.
BTW, I edited this post down to 345 words
wink_smile.gif
 
"But they are the kind that will leave me a message spelled out of Hershey's Kisses on top of the dresser."
I sure hope that photo is on your blog soon! I am just like you Innkeep, I learn learn learn from blogging about things. I find it all super interesting. And I agree if it is formatted correctly you can really engage the reader!
BTW I was told by DH about a book I have been reading a half chapter at a time like ONLY once a month to the kids is torture. They said they are thinking of hiding it from me. Nice aren't they. I mentioned in passing, ya know my mother never spent time with me, never read to me, she only watches TV and that's it. (YOU LITTLE PUNK!)
If you saw my current blog article on "
[COLOR= rgb(153, 0, 0)]Raising Hell in the Hollow"[/COLOR][/h1]
then you will know what book I have in mind to torture them with next! It comes out this week, the author is a local who writes for our paper.
 
I checked out some posts from both your and Mortie's blogs and found I enjoyed the posts that were over 500 words more than the shorter ones. I like to find out things I didn't know when I read, and so the longer posts seem to be more enjoyable for me. Some of my blog posts contain stuff that I didn't know until I started researching the topic, so they tend to be on the wordy side. I guess I must really be wierd because when I find something interesting on the internet that seems too hard to read, I copy the text onto a word document and then play with font and paragraph (yeah, I know there's some sort of way to do that onscreen) so I can read it more easily. I even take out some of those extra white spaces so the thoughts flow better!
If I see a website that is well organized and inviting, I'll stay on it and read. I am not intimidated by the length of the entry on the page. If it's cluttered with cartoon thingys or crappy I'll leave. The computer to me is an easier typewriter and a gigantic textbook. Younger folks get their information differently, so Target commercials (which drive me crazy) are aimed a totally different species generation.
My take on all of this is that I can't be all things to all people. My younger guests (whose parents are younger than I) smile when they see me plugged into my iPod. Do they read my blog? Probably not. Do they engage in lots of breakfast conversation? Not very often... but they are the kind that will leave me a message spelled out of Hershey's Kisses on top of the dresser. So, I have a blog. I use it to help in driving visitors to my website, but I also hope that the process will make me more knowledgeable so I can be a better innkeeper for the older folks. Will I ever Tweet? Never say Never, but it's not on the horizon.
BTW, I edited this post down to 345 words
wink_smile.gif
.
Uh oh, you counted the words in the blog? I know the wordy ones are better because I can develop an idea. But I also know there is a lot of short attention span out there so I punch it up with pix and short paragraphs. (BTW, my book is approaching 100,000 words. It'll never sell...)
 
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