Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated ― Confucius

This post by Seth Godin is 55 words. It is simple. Concise. It is a plan of action. Many blog posts of considerably greater length don't deliver this kind of clarity and direction.  Many people will read it because Seth wrote it, but anyone could have written it and the words would still ring just as true.

According to many experts, and I see it several times a year on the webs, the optimal length of a blog post is 1500 words. For many new bloggers that figure might seem an unassailable hurdle.  They may have something valuable to share, but are intimidated by the thought of having to write 1500 words thinking readers won't take them seriously.

So they don't.

Chasing optimal is to go down a rabbit hole.  It's a time sink.

Optimal kills – creativity, imagination, enthusiasm.

It kills your art.

The optimal blog post doesn't exist. It's a theoretical. It's content fodder for only SEO ‘experts'.

Forget optimal. It's an illusion that only feeds your fears and doubts. Do not become a slave to false specifications. If you have something to say, Write it.  Publish it.  Then write again.  In the end, whether it is 55 words or 500 or 2000, only your reader can decide whether it's optimal.  No one else matters.