4,800,282
Long enough for me to get my point across without any worthless filler!
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
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Dana Hollish Hill
Bethesda, MD
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
-
Rebecca Gaujot, Realtor®
Lewisburg, WV
2,763,735
Depends on the subject matter. However, if the draft goes longer than 40 or so lines, it might be broken into more than one post.
It's hard to concentrate on long, long posts.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Dana Hollish Hill
Bethesda, MD
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
-
Rebecca Gaujot, Realtor®
Lewisburg, WV
5,584,328
if what you're blogging about is a product related profession like flooring or cabinets or countertops, then a 2,000 word post is expected and will be read... the more detailed, fact filled information, the better.... but I think 300 words is more than enough for any real estate topic or display of a listing....
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Dana Hollish Hill
Bethesda, MD
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
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Rebecca Gaujot, Realtor®
Lewisburg, WV
-
Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
38,609
Hi Praful;
Huh. Until right now, I hadn't thought about posts in terms of length so much as in fleshing out the topic at hand. Sometimes I can do that relatively quickly, and other times, more discussion is required. Typically, I know when I'm finished because I feel 'complete' with the answer, whether it's a long one, or a shorter post.
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Dana Hollish Hill
Bethesda, MD
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
-
Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
921,504
Not one word more than needed to convey the full message correctly interpreted by the reader OR the minimum to get credit for the points.
If the writer is known for 'cliff notes' topics...then keep it brief and fluffy.
If the writer is known for in depth, actionable topics, don't disappoint the reader, give them a blog with fabric.
If the perception is the reader has such limited time that subjects of fabric are unreasonable, the real question must be what is the PURPOSE of the blog?
In most cases it not about conveying substance it is to create traffic that makes the search engines think something important is happening. So, what is the PURPOSE?
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Bob Crane
Stevens Point, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
-
Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Barbara Todaro
Franklin, MA
1,513,143
The post should be as long as it takes to get the point across.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
-
Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Barbara Todaro
Franklin, MA
1,780,590
I agree with all who say "It depends." That said, it should use the number of words required to clearly convey the message and no more.
When a writer starts wandering off on side trails (or repeating things over and over and over) readers lose interest and leave.
Padding to increase word count is always a bad idea.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Dana Hollish Hill
Bethesda, MD
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
1,432,699
I try to do 300 words min on AR and if it getting too long I break it in two.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Gene Riemenschneider
Brentwood, CA
2,763,735
Of course, members who "post for points" with their 6 line entries probably don't have many subscribers.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
539,848
For my WordPress blog, I use the popular WordPress SEO by Yoast plugin. It reviews your blog draft for good SEO before you publish, and will give you a warning if the draft is under 300 words.
I don't like reading long posts. The post should focus on one topic or keyword phrase. If you want to talk about several topics, they should be in separate posts. A long post could also be broken into Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, etc. In fact, there is WP software that can be used to turn a series of blog posts into an online course.
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Dana Hollish Hill
Bethesda, MD
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
86,514
I've been adivsed to keep it to 1,000 words. The Word Press blog I use has a great feature in that it checks to make sure the content of your blog post matches the title and that you are using key words to give it better seo. I write a column for our local daily every other week and they have me pegged at 1,000 words. Takes me about an hour to do. I've been licensed since 1978 and can usually call on my background to come up with compelling articles. I try and stay clean of the "10 top things" blogs. However, I do try to pull them in with an intriguing or timely article headline. My best column which I post to "Active Rain" was on "Buyers strategies in a Multiple Offer Market" It's up to 1800 views. I reprised the set of articles on multiple offers recently and they are generating the same reponse. TIMELY information on the market is always desired by buyers and sellers.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
263,948
As many words as it takes to say what you want to say. I do have to edit my own because I tend to be wordy. I try to keep them short, sweet, and on point.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Dana Hollish Hill
Bethesda, MD
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
557,475
Very interesting comments from very interesting commentators.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
94,459
I'm a fan of short blogs. I think that's because if I open someone else's blog to read and it's really, long, I won't read it (unless I really need the info). Life goes too fast and people are in a hurry.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
1,868,918
I don't know really - we used to have that counter but I'm not sure if that is still in the works. I just write.
Many people are WAYYYYYY toooo long & when tht happens I think you should chop it into sections/parts. Honestly, I won't read them if they are too long. I'm not on AR to read a novel.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
1,683,918
I hear 100 words is recomended, but many of us don't have the time to read that much. I think 200 to 350 is plenty.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
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Rebecca Gaujot, Realtor®
Lewisburg, WV
1,092,025
Praful, the ideal length of any blog post should be to get the point across, and then stop. Sometimes that takes me 1000+ words, other times it's more like 300 words. Usually if I have less to say than 250-300 words I don't think it's something worth blogging about.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
-
Rebecca Gaujot, Realtor®
Lewisburg, WV
2,234,859
I don't like to be too wordy. I think you lose some people that way. Plus if you are offering information, wouldn't it be nice to leave some questions unanswered so the consumer calls you? I don't think you have to write a novel to be impressive. Just get the message out there and do it so you don't lose the reader.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
-
Rebecca Gaujot, Realtor®
Lewisburg, WV
1,749,377
Great question and one that anyone can answer if they just remember that there are fewer points remembered by a reader the longer the post.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Rebecca Gaujot, Realtor®
Lewisburg, WV
6,089,850
Praful- it depends upon the topic. I want to get my point across but not be so long that I've sent the reader away due to its length. And yes, as Lenn Harley suggested, if it gets to be too long, I'd consider making it 2 posts.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Rebecca Gaujot, Realtor®
Lewisburg, WV
3,986,473
60-85 words...people get bored after that...Heck, I get bored at long posts and don't always have the time to read 1000 words.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
-
Rebecca Gaujot, Realtor®
Lewisburg, WV
4,322,035
Diana Dahlberg - yes, not to lose reader's interest is the key.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
4,322,035
Gene Riemenschneider - now that's a neat idea...
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Gene Riemenschneider
Brentwood, CA
509,601
I'd have to say that with a few exceptions, the ideal length of a blog post for me is between 300-500 words. There was a member of AR that I think used to make all their posts not take up more than a screenful ("above the fold") and I thought that was good.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
982,293
One reason why I like the Q&A section is the short read. Just get to the point. I do understand the issue of SEO with the Q&A. So how long not long. I have notice the post appear to be getting longer. I wont read pass the first paragraph.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
450,362
It's funny, but I tend to write longer posts on my blog than I do on ActiveRain. Sometimes my AR posts are used more as a way of communicating with the AR community.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
149,298
I get carried away in my comments. God help me if I blogged but I agree with Barbara Todaro. Also depends on the subject.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
1,139,819
I would do less posts and longer posts if you are trying to rank for the post. If you doing them for links back to your websites better shorter.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
683,806
Lots of responses ... liked them all. However, the best number is whatever is needed to get your point across ... and not lose the reader's interest. But over 300 so you get your SEO.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
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Dana Hollish Hill
Bethesda, MD
82,920
Long enough to direct them to your video.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
6,659,420
All my blogs are the perfect length.;)
In all seriousness though perfect length this whatever length that takes to get the message across.
Keep in mind though most people have a very short attention span.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
86,514
I was at a video class and they recommeneded telling "your story" in 15 second "movies"! Yeah--15 seconds. As a society we have the attention span of a gnat!
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
39,897
I agree with the majority in regards to using as many words as needed to get your point across. I would say for longer posts to keep the info organized as well as include photos. Although I enjoy reading informative posts, if all I see is a page of words . . I tend to just skim through the article as ADD kicks in ;)
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
396,289
Good question. I think Activerain has a number of words that make it a "counted" blogpost. Is that 250 words???
I am learning to use the Blogging Blueprints, it's very helpful.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Pam Maglione
Levittown, PA
613,494
Depends on what you are blogging for.
Google wants "content" Minimum of 300 words and ideally 500-750+.
AR people want a fun read 300 words or less.
If the subject it dry and the words are hard to read...crammed with no spacing or division, a paragraph can be too long.
Eve
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
-
Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
2,578,595
When a post goes past 300 words I seem to loose interest...of course this depends on the writer and if it is an interesting subject.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
2,818,727
It depends on my target. If my target is my potential customer, then minimum of 1000 words and often 1500-2000+ words (assuming that is what is needed to address the topic). That's what works well (usually for their needs) as well as ranking well in google...in fact has a huge impact on google.
If I'm writing fun posts for AR people, shorter is better...maybe 300-500 words (and sometimes I do more like 200 words).
I've also done a few "helpful" (or what I hope is helpful) how to's for members here that have been on the longer side as that is what was needed.
One of the keys for longer posts is for them to be well orgazed, lots of white space and lots of pictures.
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
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Rebecca Gaujot, Realtor®
Lewisburg, WV
634,582
Like Barbara Todaro I find in depth posts very useful when the topic merits it. Otherwise keep it short, and for marketing a property under 300. But include pictures!
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Diana Dahlberg
Pleasant Prairie, WI
-
Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
305,610
Long enough to get the message across but short enough to keep them actually reading it. LOL
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
4,322,035
432,962
I like the shorter blogs, if they are too long I end up skimming them rather than reading them.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
4,322,035
Jim Miner - well that's the purpose - to drive the lead to your site.
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
4,322,035
Bob Crane - that's a great answer - length as per the need and that's perfect!
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Praful Thakkar
Burlington, MA
4,322,035
Sandy Padula & Norm Padula, JD, GRI - now that itself is a good point....
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Sandy Padula & Norm Pa...
, CA
630,351
4,322,035
4,322,035
Tammy Adams ~ Realtor Maricopa, AZ - that's a perfectly balanced answer!
4,322,035
4,322,035
4,322,035
Debbie Gartner - you have very informative posts and can't be contained in 300 words! And I like them, too.
4,322,035
Rebecca Gaujot, the GO TO REALTOR - most of us have same thinking - not more than 300 words.
4,322,035
4,322,035
Jill Watts - Google changed lots of things for SEO, including length of the blog!
4,322,035
Lyn Sims - and I won't read it if it is too long either - unless there is a compelling reason to read.
4,322,035
4,322,035
4,322,035
4,322,035
Lenn Harley - they miss the best part of being in our community! (And those points don't help them either!)
4,322,035
4,322,035
4,322,035
Kathy Streib - so true. If need be, split into two posts. I am not a fan of too long a post either.
4,322,035
4,322,035
Pam Maglione pictures makes lot of difference - and help us reduce the size of the post.
4,322,035
4,322,035
S. Leanne Paynter ~ Broward County, FL - with you on that. No need to write long posts if not needed.
4,322,035
4,322,035
4,322,035
4,322,035
Russ Ravary ~ Metro Detroit Realtor call (248) 310-6239 - wasn't aware of that....
4,322,035
4,322,035
Kathleen Luiten - makes sense to keep it short when not needed for sure.