Short Articles:
600 words @ a cost of 3 minutes to read (assumed reading speed: 200 wpm)
Long Articles:
1,000 words @ a cost of 5 minutes to read
Finding a new article to read: 1 minute
People prefer to read short articles. They tend to be ruthless in abandoning long-winded sites; they mainly want to skim highlights.
What Should You Do?
Should your Website have concise or in-depth content?
If you want many readers, focus on short and scannable content; a good strategy for advertising-driven sites or sites that sell impulse buys.
If you want people who really need a solution, focus on comprehensive coverage; a good strategy if you sell highly targeted solutions to complicated problems.
Typically, people who really need something are the highest-value users because they're more likely to turn into paying customers. This is why you should write articles instead of Blog postings.
However, the very best content strategy is one that mirrors the users' mixed diet. There's no reason to limit yourself to only one content type. It's possible to have short overviews for the majority of users and to supplement them with in-depth coverage and white papers for those few users who need to know more.
Of course, the two user types are often the same person, the one who's usually in a hurry, but is sometimes in thorough-research mode. In fact, business users often aren't very familiar with the complex products or services they're buying and need simple overviews to orient themselves before they begin more in-depth research.
Hypertext to the Rescue
On the Web, you can offer both short and long treatments within a single hyperspace.
Start with overviews and short, simplified pages, then link to long, in depth coverage on other pages. With this approach, you can serve both types of users (or the same user in different stages of the buying process).
The more value you offer users each minute they're on your Site, the more likely they are to use it and the longer they're likely to stay. This is why it's so important to optimize your content strategy for your users' needs.
