When I first started blogging way back in 2005, I wrote long, rambling, meandering posts. My average post length back then probably ranged from around 1100 to 1400 words. To say that I was verbose would have been an understatement. I was never at a loss for words.

I enjoyed writing those long winded posts, but no one — other than me — ever seemed to read them. I put a lot of time and effort into my posts and I thought most of them were pretty plum.

So I asked myself why I wasn’t getting either traffic or traction on my blog. Was I on the wrong blogging platform? Was I letting my words runaway with me, resulting in boring, meandering posts? I decided it was time to set in motion some fundamental changes to the way I blogged. If I were to continue blogging, I needed to give my blog a shot in the arm, kind of like a vaccine.

First, I moved my blog to WordPress. Then I decided to write more concise, focused posts. No more rambling, multi-topic posts. I was going to keep my posts short and simple. Ideal for the short-attention-span blogging community.

The results of these adjustment were illuminating. My shorter posts — rarely exceeding 300 words — published on WordPress began to get read. They started receiving likes. And comments. And followers. I started interacting with people from all around the globe via our blogs. Woo hoo!

Lesson learned: words matter…and apparently so do word counts.

Written for Jim Adams’ Thursday Inspiration prompt, where the word is “why” and the musical inspiration in Del Shannon’s song, “Runaway.”motion never verbose plum vaccine illuminate
Also for these daily prompts: Your Daily Word Prompt (verbose) , The Daily Spur (never), Ragtag Daily Prompt (plum), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (motion), Word of the Day Challenge (vaccine), and MMA Storytime (illuminate).