Keep It Simple, Stupid

After writing “The Cat in the Hat” which had 225 words in total, Seuss’ publisher Bennet Serf challenged Seuss to write a book using even less words. Pleased to accept the challenge, Seuss wrote “Green Eggs with Ham” which surpassed Serf’s expectations at exactly 50 words.

I think a lot of bloggers can benefit from this example as Seuss cut off the fat and gave his audience what they want in exactly 50 words. For me, this book was a classic and I still find its humour coming up in pop culture.

While reading blog post, after blog post I find myself skimming and only paying attention when I notice keywords. People want their information quickly, properly decorated with pictures, and with the right amount of white space. Why not give the people what they want? So –throw a catchy title in the mix and whip up another great post!

Why do you think video is so huge with marketing? It’s so popular because the viewer can absorb so much more information than by reading and in a shorter time frame too. This forces me to think of Twitter’s Vine application because we can now diversify and enrich our 140 characters into informative, entertaining and to the point communication.

I find the same theme is consistent with email. Where if you don’t earn someone’s attention within the first few lines chances are slim they’ll continue to the next paragraph. Be brief, be informative and convey what your trying to say without drawing it out too long.

Be creative, trust your intuition and ignore word count recommendations for standard blog posts.

Saves us with brevity.

Author: Anthony Baisi