Blog Guide: Think Articles, Not Posts

Application and web usability expert, Jacob Neilson writes that it is better to write well-researched articles of some lenght, than short blog posts that comment on transient issues.

"Blog postings will always be commodity content: there's a limit to the value you can provide with a short comment on somebody else's comments. Such postings are good for generating controversy and short-term traffic, and they're definitely easy to write. But they don't build sustainable value. Think of how disappointing it feels when you're searching for something and get directed to short postings in the middle of a debate that occurred years before, and is thus irrelevant

My objective and hope is that I ride the line on the side of value-added content. But the time involved, especially in the summer when there are so many other, more interesting things to do becomes a barrier. Witness my upcoming impeachment screed, which still lies in the drafts queue, 70% finished.

My most-accessed posts/articles over the last three or four months are the ones I worked hardest on and are also the longest, most in-depth:

• Building Code Kerfuffle


• The two long background pieces on the economics of ethanol, "Bottom Line Economics on Ethanol," and "Ethanol Market Fundamentals."


• Guide to Taking Your Kids to Chicago on the Cheap

So, it is a case of the old saying, "Quality beats quantity."