Blog Post Length

jallenecs

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I've just this week started a blog that focuses on the world of Steampunk, Dieselpunk and New Pulp, in all their glorious forms. I think I've done my homework, and my groundwork. I've drafted posts almost a month in advance (I had hoped to have a larger cushion of posts-in-advance, but my mother died two weeks ago, obviously an upheaval that affected more than just my writing schedule). I'm working on my online presence through social media, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc.

I have big plans for this blog: book reviews, movie reviews, linking to videos and webpages, showcasing cosplayers, musicians, conventions, artwork, etc. I also plan to serialize my own original fiction on the blog. It makes sense; classic Pulp was renowned for serializing stories.

And the fiction is what poses the problem. I've been reliably advised that a good length for a blog post does not extend beyond ~3000 words, and ideally closer to ~2000 words. My chapters generally run in the 3000-5000 word range. Breaking them up seems an unreliable habit to get into; sometimes breaking it up works, sometimes it doesn't.

Is it okay to have a 5K word blog post, if I don't make a habit of it? If I warn the reader ahead of time, "This post is going to run long, get comfy before you start reading"? Or should I just bite the bullet and break it up into pieces?
 

NateSean

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First off, my condolences to the passing of your mother.

Secondly: As long as each blog post is not the Library of Alexandria, there's no set in stone rule about length. If something is interesting enough, I'll book mark it and read it at my leisure if I can't read it right then and there.

On the other hand, if your blog is monetized, you could do yourself a huge favor by splitting up a subject in to separate entries.
 

JulianneQJohnson

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Sorry to hear about your mom.

When I was putting original fic on my blog, I started a second blog page for it. Then I would have a short post on my regular blog announcing the update. This worked well. Readers went to the other page to read the book, and the longer posts didn't clutter up my main blog.
 

jallenecs

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Sorry to hear about your mom.

When I was putting original fic on my blog, I started a second blog page for it. Then I would have a short post on my regular blog announcing the update. This worked well. Readers went to the other page to read the book, and the longer posts didn't clutter up my main blog.


Oooh, that's an interesting solution! It also solves another problem I've been facing, freeing up my Mondays (Fiction Day on my blog) for other things. (I think I'm the only person I've ever met who's struggling with having too much potential content, rather than too little).
 

asnys

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(I think I'm the only person I've ever met who's struggling with having too much potential content, rather than too little).

You definitely are not. My list of potential topics has been expanding much faster than I'm able to write posts. :eek:
 

Laer Carroll

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I may be misreading but you seem to believe that there are two ways to go, a blog or a web site. This is no longer true.

WordPress pioneered the hybrid site which has a blog part (which can change frequently) AND a static part (which changes rarely).

Typically you would put short posts in the blog part, and long posts (which WP calls “pages”) in the static part. And there are NO size limits for the static part. You can put whole novels up there with no problem. And some authors do.

You want to keep the blog posts short because you will have lots of them. This helps your new readers when they discover you and want to see the last dozen or so posts to get general idea of what you are about, and thus if they want to skip you or come back to you often.

You have ambitious plans. Old hands at creating and keeping up sites have come up with the following advice.

START SMALL, STAY SMALL as you can. TAKE BABY STEPS and make sure the overall design of your site is a good one. One which can be expanded from tiny to huge but stay the same without expensive redesign.
 

Tonight At Dawn

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The general rule that I have always read and try to follow as best as possible, is 600 words per post. Of course, some stories require more, but the rationale behind it has always been to keep the entry short so that it doesn't seem so overwhelming to the reader.


http://tonightatdawn.com
 

muharana

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I don't have my own blog, but I can speak from experience at Our Salon which had no rules for bloggers at all, Salon, which tended to want pieces in the 500 to 1000 word range unless you were doing an "in depth" article, and The Huffington Post, which will almost always reject anything post over 1000 words even if you're one of their "chosen," which I now happen to be now, finally.

I've had readers who loved the long pieces and just as many who follow me at HuffPo to read the shorter ones. I find that if you set the tone, and offer compelling writing, length doesn't always matter. You'll be told shorter is better, but that's not always the case. If your readers love your longer work...there you are! I've reached over 25000 readers with some of my long pieces, which later became part of a book.

There's a bit of a difference, though, for chapters from books. If there's a way you can do shorter articles and then publish 500-1000 word excerpts from your chapters with links to the full chapters at the end, as someone has suggested, that might be the ideal way to handle that.
 

Jazen

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Condolences on your loss.


I originally wrote blog stories but each story had it's own blog site meant for updates. I never worried about word count because I looked at each update like it was a chapter in a book and those vary. My general feeling is if the story is interesting, the reader won't focus on how long it is, they will just enjoy the story.

If your main blog is going to do more than just host your story, then you can make a page just for your story, or you can host a second blog for just the story. Post update announcement on your main blog with a link to take them to the story and that way it won't bog down everything.

I know blogger allows you up to 5 (or more possibly) separate blog addresses under a single account.
 

archangel

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I started doing some blogging myself. I'm currently using FB until my domain name transfer is complete and my WordPress template is installed, which should be by end of day today. My posts vary in length, but the longer pieces have been divided into installments. This is good n a couple of ways. If you get your readers hooked, then they will come back for more. It also gives you something to post over the next couple of weeks. Right now, I have a 5 installment piece going.

What I have also seen is that some people may just post a teaser and have a downloadable .pdf or ebook. You could post the teaser and charge for the ebook. I eventually want to monetize my site a little, but I want to get viewership first, as i'm new to the blogging thing. All the best!