Does The Size Matters?

in writing •  7 years ago 

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Does The Size Matters?

Now that I caught your attention, this post is not about what you have in mind, you can call it click-bait, but I’ll just say it’s me using funny words that take you with the thought elsewhere, that’s just what I do.

I’ve seen people discussing this all the time, what’s the right length, 300, 500, 1000 words? What’s the right size for your post so is not just a shitpost, only an ROI generator, but the answer is not so easy, there are a lot of things to be taken into consideration.

It’s not only about the actual length but about the value provided in that post, and maybe even the potential payout.

For instance, some people only post pictures, without any words and are making some decent money, in my opinion, that post is not of such significant value. I was posting photography a few months ago, but besides a daily picture, I always tried to include about 200-300 words and for the $1 I used to receive I feel like it was a good enough post. Of course, now that I’m making $30+ I would not post something like that since I don’t feel like it’s valuable enough.

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Giving Value?

Value, this is such a sensitive thing because after all, the real value is in the eyes of the beholder and it’s hard to set some universal criteria for determinating the value of a post, but it is possible.

There are the smaller posts, like 200-300 words, that say something short but profound and there are other massive posts, TLDR’s that are worthless. I mean, if you’re making a travel post and you get paid a couple of grand on it, you could at least post different pictures instead of ten various shots of the same subject only so it looks longer. Of course, it’s a bit valuable but not valuable enough, so it receives that much.

Also, there’s another thing that people miss out of sight if a post is shorter or it took less time to write it but it gets a nice payout some people may think it’s overvalued, but that is not always true. In my case, I’m able to write my posts now without doing any more research because for the last couple of years I have studied the topics I’m writing about currently. I still spend two-three hours on my posts, to get them at the level I want to, but I can eliminate the research part since I already know what I’m talking about.

It’s like if the plumber comes to change the pipes or fix something around the house, but he only spends a couple of minutes on that task, you think it doesn’t worth the money you give him. But people forget that the plumber spent years in studying and practicing his job, time that he’s getting paid for now.

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Conclusion

Of course that sometimes a post may look like it doesn’t deserve its big money since there are a lot of minnows that get paid pennies for better articles but people don’t know how much time that Steemian has spent to study the filed he writes about. People have no idea how many hours that whale has spent promoting Steem and engaging with the community in the chat, helping minnows without getting paid.

Value is not only about length and length is not just about value, but there are always more things people miss from the picture.

The pictures are from Pixabay: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

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Yea yea...I heard it this a lot "how can that post get rewarded so much?" Or "he is a genius"...But they have not idea of how much sweat or sweat it takes to look like a genius or get rewarded unfairly. My boss will never fix a computer in front of a client, they all judge your effort and your payment with the amount of work you put in now and not what you have put in to do it effortlessly.

I dont judge the creator of any creativity. I have no idea what is going on in that head and may never see from its perspective at creation stage. I have heard a lot about shitty post getting hefty reward but it actually takes a lot of hardwork, past sweats or maybe some ingenuity for shitty post to that rewarded.

About writing, I write for me first. When I am no more expressive I stopped.

Creation is very personal and the determination of value is also very personal. What you value is not always going to be the same as what I value. There is also the politics involved in some cases, and some authors simply have followers who are more devoted and likely to upvote everything. At the end of the day I believe a post needs to be as long as it needs to be to cover the subject at hand, whether that's 100 words or 10,000 words.

If Earnest Hemingway were alive and writing on Steemit I believe his posts would be quite short. Would they be valuable? One would have to think that they would be, but if Earnest was a minnow he likely wouldn't earn much, would he?

Haha, I bet Hemingway would've had the coolest posts, only whiskey, and war pictures, lol. The problem is that minnows need to get themselves noticed some way and most of them are not willing to put in the work, and they only expect rewards. ;)

I'm sure the posts would've been legendary since he was the one who said to write drunk and edit sober. I haven't been here that long, but do get the impression that many people start with the idea that money will just fall out of the ether for them. Not true in the least, and it isn't going to get any easier. I guess a bit of luck helps, but as we all know the best way to get lucky is through hard work.

Hahaha clever way to get attention! But hey, it was totally relevant to the content so it's all good.

Quality over quantity is what we learn at school all the time in writing and literature classes. I can BS a 5 page paper by repeating things over and over but that's not going to bring out a good essay or report. Plus, being a TA myself, I know from experience that the we look for quality of answers over the length. This literally applies to any field of study; coding, scientific papers, stories, novels, etc.

Good short reminder for everyone @guyfawkes4-20!

Exactly, quality is what matters, but I saw so many people considering quantity as being more important only because the post appears to be more valuable.

Thanks for your comment. ;)

I don't think size necessarily matters. Some people write 1000 words of non-sense or something overly wordy and pedantic. When you talk about human affairs or daily observations, you can get your point across in 300 words or less honestly; so people shouldn't get too concerned with how long something is as long as like you say, it provides something valuable whatever that may be.

It would be great if all people would think this way, but sadly most of the Steemians consider length as being value even if it's a post filled with shit.

While I agree that posts with just pictures don't create much value, it can take a lot of time to find a good shot, capture the image, edit, and then publish. Obviously, I'm not talking about the people that walk out their front door and take a picture of whatever is outside, but those that spend the time to find the perfect picture.

Now for off-topic crap posting. Size doesn't matter, it's the motion of the ocean. Typical response - you can't get to England in a row boat. My response - you can with my stamina. Funny huh!? Well maybe not.

I get that, it's hard to take a great picture, I know it and mine weren't even that great, but the internet is filled with great photos, everybody's a photographer nowadays. But if those people add some words with the pictures it will make them more outstanding, more valuable, my opinion.

Haha, good luck getting to England, make sure to post on Steem about it, lol. :)))

Very true I was just playing devils advocate.

Haha If I make it to England in a rowboat, I better at least become steemit famous.

Haha, I'll nominate your posts to @OCD and you will. :)))

Value is subjective and it depends on the reader, it’s like any market price, it depends on the market which is nothing more than the manifestation of people’s opinion about the value of something.

For someone a post about cups for example, might be totally worthless, but for another it might be interesting and therefore, have intrinsic value.

So sometimes, 200 words can be more valuable than 2000. Who decides which is more valuable, the readers.

The last post I've made took me 2 nights to write and to compile upload all the pictures makes my hand numb, for hours and I'm looking at it no one upvoting it. I feel sad really. But having the positive spirit and telling myself, right people will read my post and yes I feel rewarded with my hard work. Writing a valuable content and wishing for others appreciation is just normal I think. Writing not so valuable content pictures and few words and got more reward sometimes slap me at my face. I believed even a single picture, the author can make it more valuable, adding more personal touch! Cheers 🥂

That will happen a lot, I used to write great posts and don't get so much sometimes. I soon found that the best approach is to have no expectations, then even if you make $1, it will be well received. Good luck. ;)

Cheers!

I have come to to similar conclusions on my posts to.

Rather than longer, more detailed explanations of the topic in hand, sometimes I make points to make people think, rather than dissect down to it's component parts...

You even did a click bait title similar to mine! lololol

Hilarious. (don't up vote it, its 11 days old! lol)

https://steemit.com/blog/@lucylin/size-doesn-t-matter-it-s-how-it-looks-that-gives-the-most-pleasure

Haha, that's epic man, but your click bait is stronger than mine, lol. But yeah, a post must look good. :)))

Good marketing. It really does catch your eye. :)

Haha, I know, right? I like to play with the words. :)))

Lol awesome. Are you apart of sndbox?

Yass! It's such an awesome project, @voronoi and @hansikhouse are doing an amazing job. :)

Is it possible for me to get involved?

Right now, no. Maybe you'll be able to join five months from now when the new people will come, cycle two.

Yea was just reading into that. So you got in this new year I assume? Any requirements you need to meet? Looks like it benefiting you posts here?

Thank you for this great article. I have the feeling that it just is really hard for us minnows to get some attention no matter how long an article is... :(

This platform needs all sizes! It's a social network & status will always matter in that regard. The more social you can be the better. Who you associate with, your quality, poise & manner in your words do the speaking for you. #thealliance

Interesting post

an interesting article . . . . . love it

You're right about the 'funny words taking [us] with a thought elsewhere'. I honestly fell for it and thought you were writing about Trump's nuclear button ;-)