I’ve been actively blogging since 2014. I just couldn’t remember which month I really started. What I know is that it was a year before I got an invitation to become a columnist in Utusan Melayu, and then DagangNews. Good ‘ol days. Back then, I experienced tons of mistakes. When looking back, I cringe a little at those noob mistakes I made. What a waste of time. But hey, I learned a lot from them.
These are the two major mistakes I made—the very mistakes that hindered my growth for easily 2 years before I truly realised it. Now you don’t have to waste time repeating them. Here goes.
Obsessing over the 1,447-word so-called rule
Reading too much can be bad too, you know. One of the materials I read a lot is the trends. Data-driven insights are something I’m happy to cross paths with. Here’s the story of these 1,447 words. I came across a cool study by Backlinko about the ideal blog post length being 1,447 words. The study highlighted that they’ve run some form of research to answer what it takes for Google to rank an article on the first page of Google Search. They spent time studying a few thousand websites and came up with that conclusion. I guess this was 3-5 years ago. Seriously, it was a goldmine for me. It felt like, now I know what it takes to be ranked high on Google Search—simply write at least 1,447 words per article which must also be meaningful using the E-E-A-T formula. Then, wait for the traffic to come.
My sweet spot when it comes to the article length is between 3 to 5 minutes, or perhaps around 700 to 1,000 words or so. Before this, I was not used to writing long articles. I know it will be too flowery and long-winded. There’ll be no impact at all on the readers. But I pushed it anyway, trying my level best to still make it engaging. After 2 years, I realised that not every article needs 1,447 words. Some ideas are best communicated in 400 crisp words, while others might require 1,500 well-researched ones. Sticking rigidly to a single formula across the board is never a good idea. I mean it. Blogging is about serving the reader and answering their questions, that’s it.
Trying to answer too many questions in a single article
Writing a comprehensive article can backfire too. I figured if a reader came and read one of my articles, I knew they wanted to find an answer to their question. I thought it was my duty to answer a few more related questions as well—all in the same post. I wanted my content to feel “complete”.
I truly didn’t know that I ended up creating an overwhelming piece with overloaded information. Instead of clarity, my articles became cluttered. Nobody wants this. They will leave after the first paragraph. I would do the same if I were them. A year plus later, I realised that writing like this doesn’t make me an expert. People hate it because they can’t digest the content at all.
Now, I approach each blog post with a single goal in mind. Just answer that one main question or solve that one problem. Make the explanation thorough, sharper and simpler. Lessons Learned.
Mistakes no more
Now I’m working on repairing all my old articles—hundreds of them. From 300th, Pelantar to Medium and some other external blogs. While the task seems too tedious, I still need to do it. I want to be found better on the internet through those articles. 4 things the repair works will cover.
- Quality first.
- Clarity matters.
- Sharper sentences, less flowery.
- Make the length for only 2 to 3 minutes read.
