Summary:
Write articles in 600 words or less. Many readers will avoid longer articles.
People read only about 20% of your text and even less if your article exceeds 600 words.
Jakob Nielsen's research shows that people don't read -- they scan.
People are busy, lazy, and they don’t trust you enough to assume it’s worth reading your longer articles.
If you hear Bill Gates say…
Warren Buffett has taught me a lot about business and wisdom in life. I encourage you to read his letters to shareholders.
…Then you might be willing to read Buffett’s 18-page letter. (Though you’d more likely read a summary.)
But you’re not Warren Buffett. And neither am I.
Until we are endorsed by the Gates’ of our fields, we’ll have to write short articles if we want to hold onto a lingering faith in humanity to read the damn things.
Louis! You must stop writing articles beyond 600 words!
You'll forgive me if I have a lingering respect for attention spans beyond 46 seconds!
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Very true Kevin! Anything over a page I typically hit “read later” (instapapper) and it’s gone forever. Of course, the master of brevity http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Thanks Ninja.
As great as Godin is, there are two problems with this posts:
1. He needs to write some longer, more in-depth posts. Godin is pithy, but sometimes he just intrigues you without providing any “how-to” tips.
You’re inspired, but he hasn’t advised you what to do.
2. When he does write longer posts, they’re often just lists. A December 16 posts reads, “I’ve been to a bunch [of retreats] and here’s what I’ve learned, in no particular order.”
Then he lists 20 bullet points. That is ineffective and terribly lazy. He needs to emphasize one key message in a post. Not 20 random bullets.
I’ve read some of Seth Godin’s insightful books since I made the comment above.
Now I feel bad for nitpicking some of his posts. In hindsight, it feels like I criticized god.
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