It's a given that nobody out there wants to publish crappy content.
Well, at least not intentionally anyway.
Everyday there are millions of bloggers out there who dream of striking gold with every piece of content that they publish.
Perhaps this could even be you.
However, those automatic sign ups into your business that you keep hearing about aren't happening. You hardly have, if any at all, customers to sell your products to. Your readers click away from your blog posts after 15 seconds and you're spending all of your waking hours staring at your computer screen wondering what in the heck is happening.
That dream lifestyle of working anywhere in the world with your trusty laptop is falling apart and you're left feeling more defeated and frustrated with life than even before you got started with this whole blogging for money gig.
The advice given to you could have been to write a 500 to 800 blog post as often as possible, publish it with your affiliate link thrown in their somewhere, and the sales and sign ups will happen like magic.
When I first started blogging, this was the advice given to me, and I followed it as religiously as I could.
But the results weren't coming.
Sure a small sale here and there, but nothing stable.
Overtime, admittedly I started to become a bit peeved off because all of my efforts weren't paying off and the urge to punch a hole through my laptop screen was rising to dangerous levels.
Fortunately, I didn't end up doing that because 1) my laptop costs too much, 2) someone like me could never survive in the real world holding down a 9-5 job anyway and, 3) I already made the decision to stick with this no matter how frustrated I got.
But do, pray tell, what is this dastardly mistake that is costing these could be rock star bloggers their time, money and effort?
Now as I was becoming more frustrated with myself because my blog posts weren't getting any views, I decided to take a step back and read through my previous posts.
As I read my earlier content, the problem became more clear.
It wasn't how much content I published that was the issue, it was the content quality itself that was the main problem.
I spent so much time focusing on fitting everything into the 500 word limit that I set for myself because I was taught that was the "ideal length", that I forgot about content quality altogether.
Now you could sit there and argue that shorter blog posts are easier to read all you want, but if the content quality of that piece of writing sucks dandelions, then no one in their right mind would want to go through it all, even if it's as little as 300 words.
I'm not saying that all articles need to be long to be good.
The point I'm trying to get across here is to get rid of the "my article needs to be between X and Y amount of words" altogether because the "training" said I should write all my articles with that amount of words.
So how long should my article be then if I don't have a guide on how long it should be?
To put it simply, your post should be as long as it needs to be, and no longer.
That's it.
Ignore all that word limit bull crap that people feed you because it's destroying your creative capabilities, the all important skill needed to actually get readers to read through your content in the first place.
Trying to squash and dumb everything down into a "bite sized post" (like I did) with the intention of making it "easier to read" for your audience is not only insulting their intelligence, but you're reinforcing a creativity killing mentality of getting it done for the sake of getting the satisfaction hitting the publish button, regardless of the content quality itself.
Your readers intentionally clicked the link to read your article. They chose to be there because they thought your article would help them with their problem.
So don't disappoint by throwing something you threw together in 15 minutes because it fit the word limit criteria in their face.
Word limits are a creativity killer.
They butcher your ability for self expression, make you fail to clearly convey what you're trying to say since there's only so many sentences you can mesh together because of it, force you to write shallow, empty sentences, and your writing will come off more as textbook-ish than anything.
Nothing is more engaging than reading something that is authentic.
And by that I mean something with a humanistic "voice".
The experience of reading an article written by you for your readers should be like having a personal conversation with you.
When people start to read your posts because they feel like they can relate to you because of your written "voice", and that your content is helpful to them, then congratulations you've successfully created your own online brand!
This is a bit tricky to get right if I do say so myself.
I've got quite the habit of going on and on because I get too immersed and sometimes end up going off topic but hey, that's what editing is for right? =P
So anyway, like I mentioned earlier, your post should only be as long as it needs to be and no longer.
What do I mean by that?
As long as you've addressed the main issue that you set out to say, that should be enough.
Be clear, concise and to the point but be entertaining about it as well.
Don't beat around the bush for 5 friggin' paragraphs, get off topic and start ranting about something entirely unrelated, or make the same point 6 billion times throughout the entire article only worded differently.
Your readers aren't stupid and they certainly don't want to have their time wasted.
They just want to dive into your article, get what they want, and then get out.
Now with that being said, blogging as a way to make a living can be pretty damn hard at the beginning.
There's just so many things to take into consideration like SEO, where you distribute your articles, getting high quality backlinks, and don't forget the art of learning how to write blog posts that people actually want to read as well.
Well, at least not intentionally anyway.
Everyday there are millions of bloggers out there who dream of striking gold with every piece of content that they publish.
Perhaps this could even be you.
However, those automatic sign ups into your business that you keep hearing about aren't happening. You hardly have, if any at all, customers to sell your products to. Your readers click away from your blog posts after 15 seconds and you're spending all of your waking hours staring at your computer screen wondering what in the heck is happening.
That dream lifestyle of working anywhere in the world with your trusty laptop is falling apart and you're left feeling more defeated and frustrated with life than even before you got started with this whole blogging for money gig.
The advice given to you could have been to write a 500 to 800 blog post as often as possible, publish it with your affiliate link thrown in their somewhere, and the sales and sign ups will happen like magic.
When I first started blogging, this was the advice given to me, and I followed it as religiously as I could.
But the results weren't coming.
Sure a small sale here and there, but nothing stable.
Overtime, admittedly I started to become a bit peeved off because all of my efforts weren't paying off and the urge to punch a hole through my laptop screen was rising to dangerous levels.
Fortunately, I didn't end up doing that because 1) my laptop costs too much, 2) someone like me could never survive in the real world holding down a 9-5 job anyway and, 3) I already made the decision to stick with this no matter how frustrated I got.
But do, pray tell, what is this dastardly mistake that is costing these could be rock star bloggers their time, money and effort?
Word Limits that Literally Limit Your Contents Kick-Ass Capabilities
Now as I was becoming more frustrated with myself because my blog posts weren't getting any views, I decided to take a step back and read through my previous posts.
As I read my earlier content, the problem became more clear.
It wasn't how much content I published that was the issue, it was the content quality itself that was the main problem.
I spent so much time focusing on fitting everything into the 500 word limit that I set for myself because I was taught that was the "ideal length", that I forgot about content quality altogether.
The Problem with the Short, Quick, Daily Posts
Now you could sit there and argue that shorter blog posts are easier to read all you want, but if the content quality of that piece of writing sucks dandelions, then no one in their right mind would want to go through it all, even if it's as little as 300 words.
I'm not saying that all articles need to be long to be good.
The point I'm trying to get across here is to get rid of the "my article needs to be between X and Y amount of words" altogether because the "training" said I should write all my articles with that amount of words.
So how long should my article be then if I don't have a guide on how long it should be?
To put it simply, your post should be as long as it needs to be, and no longer.
That's it.
Ignore all that word limit bull crap that people feed you because it's destroying your creative capabilities, the all important skill needed to actually get readers to read through your content in the first place.
Trying to squash and dumb everything down into a "bite sized post" (like I did) with the intention of making it "easier to read" for your audience is not only insulting their intelligence, but you're reinforcing a creativity killing mentality of getting it done for the sake of getting the satisfaction hitting the publish button, regardless of the content quality itself.
Your readers intentionally clicked the link to read your article. They chose to be there because they thought your article would help them with their problem.
So don't disappoint by throwing something you threw together in 15 minutes because it fit the word limit criteria in their face.
Why You Need to Let It All Out
Word limits are a creativity killer.
They butcher your ability for self expression, make you fail to clearly convey what you're trying to say since there's only so many sentences you can mesh together because of it, force you to write shallow, empty sentences, and your writing will come off more as textbook-ish than anything.
Nothing is more engaging than reading something that is authentic.
And by that I mean something with a humanistic "voice".
The experience of reading an article written by you for your readers should be like having a personal conversation with you.
When people start to read your posts because they feel like they can relate to you because of your written "voice", and that your content is helpful to them, then congratulations you've successfully created your own online brand!
Say What You Want but Don't Drawl On
This is a bit tricky to get right if I do say so myself.
I've got quite the habit of going on and on because I get too immersed and sometimes end up going off topic but hey, that's what editing is for right? =P
So anyway, like I mentioned earlier, your post should only be as long as it needs to be and no longer.
What do I mean by that?
As long as you've addressed the main issue that you set out to say, that should be enough.
Be clear, concise and to the point but be entertaining about it as well.
Don't beat around the bush for 5 friggin' paragraphs, get off topic and start ranting about something entirely unrelated, or make the same point 6 billion times throughout the entire article only worded differently.
Your readers aren't stupid and they certainly don't want to have their time wasted.
They just want to dive into your article, get what they want, and then get out.
Now with that being said, blogging as a way to make a living can be pretty damn hard at the beginning.
There's just so many things to take into consideration like SEO, where you distribute your articles, getting high quality backlinks, and don't forget the art of learning how to write blog posts that people actually want to read as well.