Michael F. Tevlin's Blog

From New York to Oregon: My Salmon Journey

Growing up on the scarred shores of Staten Island, New York in the 1960s, I didn’t know what a salmon was. What I knew about fish was that you couldn’t eat them if you caught them, those being the days of heavy industrial pollution in the waters surrounding the big city.

Coming to Oregon opened me up to new experiences, including fishing for salmon in the coastal streams, along with the Clackamas (where I caught my first steelhead), the Sandy and the Deschutes rivers. I started volunteering with Oregon Trout and its later offshoots. And I met Guido Rahr when I was looking for potential stories about salmon that I could propose to magazines.

As a journalist and, later, a fiction writer, I wrote plenty of stories that got published. I’d never written a novel, but I wanted to. Just needed a big idea. And then, one day, driving, I had an epiphany: I could write about two things I loved—salmon and Oregon—in a book.

Nearly 20 years later, on March 12, 2020, I celebrated the publication of ­Sockeye.

Sockeye is my novel about one man’s attempt to restore a sockeye run to a lake in eastern Oregon. 

In the book, I use the salmon life cycle as a sort of template for a hero’s journey. The hero of the story has been away from his Oregon home for 10 years, fishing in Alaska, when he returns for a sad homecoming to bury his father. What happens in the ensuing pages is all about the pull of home waters and a deep connection to the land.

There’s no way I could have written Sockeye without all my life experiences. Not having grown up with salmon, I saw salmon and their story through fresh and wondrous eyes. Salmon provided the inspiration that pulled me through the writing, editing, marketing and final publication of Sockeye.

I hope Sockeye will inspire you. I will donate 10 percent of all proceeds from print sales of Sockeye during May 2020 to the Wild Salmon Center. Sockeye is available from Powells.com, Amazon.com,BarnesandNoble.com or the publisher.

Photo by Dave on Unsplash

Patience, Belief and Persistence: How I Finally Got "Sockeye" Published

The earliest file I have on Sockeye dates to 2002. Did it really take 18 years to write it?

One answer is that it took a lifetime. You may have heard the story, perhaps apocryphal, about how a tourist asked Picasso to draw something on a napkin and said she’d pay whatever he felt it was worth. With rapid strokes of his charcoal pencil, he sketched a goat. “That will be 40,000 francs.”

“But you did that in 30 seconds,” the woman complained.

“No,” Picasso said. “It has taken me 40 years to do that.”

True or not, that story can equally be applied to writing a book. How can a writer’s work be anything but the sum of all his or her experiences, learnings, attempts and failures? 

So, yes, in a way, it took me a lifetime to write Sockeye.

What the hell took so long?

But to be less philosophical, the time from earliest idea to published book was nearly 20 years. 

What went on during those two decades?

Most of those years were spent doing things other than typing words on a screen. In addition to working my freelance writing business full-time, it took time to develop the idea, create the characters, build a plot. It took more time to do research on topics including salmon recovery, dams, eco-terrorism, the Nez Perce tribe, and fishing (some of that first-hand experiences). This being my first book, I also read extensively about how to find an agent and market a book.

The writing itself extended over about five years.

But then came the editing. I produced 11 full revisions of the manuscript. The entire editing phase lasted about five years. (If you’re doing the math, there’s some overlap in phases, and so it may seem like even more than 20 years.)

If the iron is hot, be ready to strike

Once I completed a draft that I was happy with—about draft nine—I began looking for an agent. That process went through at least three phases over about 10 years. That’s right—10 long years. I had so many queries out, I invested in an app to keep track of them. During that time, I started work on another novel. I’m still working on it.

There were near-hits with some agents. I even got the entire manuscript read by some well-known New York agents who’d represented famous authors—not a small feat. 

Then I found an agent who liked the book. But—and this was a big but—she rightfully said the manuscript was too long. At that point, it was more than 530 double-spaced pages and about 150,000 words. 

That would have been okay had I been an established writer. But Michael Tevlin from Portland, Oregon? She said she’d reconsider it if I agreed to cut the manuscript—by one-third. 

I knew she was right. So I sat down again with a virtual pair of scissors and began murdering my darlings. Whole scenes and characters vanished. More than 12 months later, I completed revision number 10, cutting it down to about 103,000 words. 

I re-submitted it to the agent and held my breath. The answer came in an email: The agent had taken on another writer whose themes were similar to mine. She was kind and gentle. But she passed. The iron had been hot, but I’d missed my opportunity to strike.

I give up—or maybe not

I nearly gave up the project after that. I put it on hold and began working in earnest on novel number two. But friends and family members kept asking me about Sockeye. I made excuses for a while and lamely suggested that I’d get back to it at some point, only half believing my own words. Plenty of novelists never get their first work (or more) published, I reasoned. I’d given it my best shot, and it didn’t work out. So maybe I just needed to move on.

Then, about two years later (less than a year ago), I read something about small, independent publishers. They’re often a good avenue for unpublished writers, the article said. So I went to the library and got a copy of a directory of indie presses. I found about five publishers who looked promising and sent out queries. Within about a month, I heard back from Black Rose, now my publisher, with a request to see the manuscript. Then came an offer for a contract. I read and re-read the email and was overcome with joy.

Eighteen years, 11 revisions, maybe 100 rejections later, Sockeye is a published novel.

Lessons learned

Sure, I probably should have tried the small-publisher route right away. But you know what they say about hindsight. I never would have had the experience of querying agents had I not done it. It’s a thrill to have a respected agent request sample chapters and read the complete manuscript. I’m grateful to the few agents who sent thoughtful rejection letters explaining why they liked the book while still not taking it on.

Easy for me to say, now that the book has been published, but I’m okay with the way things worked out. I’ve learned some important lessons—like, save the long manuscript for when you’re famous or you have the deluded certainty that you’ve written the world’s next Pulitzer. And I’m sure there will be many more to learn.

But that’s for book number two—the dreaded sophomore effort.

What kids can teach marketers about the power of words and stories

Language is weird and wonderful. I’m reminded of this every day I’m with my grandsons.

My 4-year-old grandson blows me away with his verbal ability. He’s fascinated with words, and he must pick up a few new ones each day. He wants to know what new words mean, he wants to know the exact names of things, and he wants to tell you—constantly.

The 2-year-old joyfully chatters and babbles. One day, I watched, amused, as he hosted an imaginary tea party for a dozen stuffed animals (coffee, soup, pretzels and juice were on the menu). Over the course of an hour, he narrated the entire affair, seemingly oblivious to my presence. He knew exactly what he was saying, even if I didn’t.

The wonder of language

It’s amazing how we learn language. First there is the thing, the object. An infant gets to know that rattle (or piece of dirt) with his or her senses: smell, taste, texture, shape, color, and so on. There are judgments and associations: pleasant or unpleasant, attractive or repellent, comforting or scary. Then comes the sound of the word voiced by mom or dad. The word labels the thing, but it also plants a fence around it and says, “This (and not that) is blue. This (not that) is a blanket.”

Next comes reading. At first, kids look at the pictures and see the words—their shapes, the juxtapositions of letters, like the skylines of cities or the crowns of trees. Night after night, they see the shapes and hear the sounds and begin to link them. One day, they begin reading. The process flips. The word is the thing, a symbol, a door that opens up onto concepts. They hear “blanket,” and may see blue, or feel the touch of the satiny border, or be comforted by the memory of how their blanket warded off imaginary monsters.

As adults, we forget the wonder of learning language. We can return to this childlike appreciation by reading to kids.

The word is not the thing

We can also appreciate the limitations of language. Reading about a lemon is not the eye-squinting cringe of biting into bitter citrus. Reading John Wesley Powell is not rafting the Colorado River. Reading Cheryl Strayed is not walking the Pacific Coast Trail. The map is not the territory.

Words are mere symbols, collections of letters. You know this if you’ve ever had the experience of looking at a word you’ve seen thousands of times and suddenly finding that, isolated, it looks odd and foreign, like an old friend who’s had a facelift. You see the letters but you don’t get the gestalt of the whole word.

Words can fail us. Like clumsy teenagers at a dance, they can trip over their feet. They can be crooked arrows, missing their marks. Or poison darts, dipped in vitriol. They can get in the way like gnats at a summer barbecue. Sometimes, it’s better to shut up. Zen teachers acknowledge that, for all the books written about meditation, in the end the student must just sit silently and finally get to a place that is beyond language. Mum’s the word.

Tell me a story

And yet, aren’t words wonderful? That such little things can say so much? And that, strung together like beads, they make meaning through sentences, which make paragraphs, which make essays or screenplays or songs or novels? Despite their limitations, when words make stories, humans experience these stories with such empathy that they feel real. Our brains light up as if we’re there.

If you’re a marketer, how can you tap into this wonder? What is one word that captures your brand while exciting the imagination of your customer? Kaiser-Permanente does this well with its long-running “Thrive” campaign. HP tried it with “Invent.” In both cases, the companies chose active verbs that spoke to the aspirations of their audiences. They told stories.

There’s a reason why marketers should tell stories. My grandsons show me that every time I read to them.

Words and deeds: Are you a racist if you talk like one?

On April 12, 2018, two black men, Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson, walked into the Starbucks at 18th and Spruce streets in Philadelphia to talk business with a friend. You know the rest of the story: How the cafe manager tried to eject them because they didn’t buy anything and wanted to use the bathroom, they refused to leave, and they were arrested.

This event set off a chain reaction that reverberated around the world and led Starbucks to close 8,000 stores in May for anti-bias training of 175,000 employees.

A few days after the event, I was getting ready to bicycle home after a workout at a downtown Portland gym. Often, a guy from the class would join me. He was there that day, and, in casual conversation, the Starbucks incident came up.

What happened next left me shaken. Hardly a day goes by that I don’t think about it.

The N-word rears its ugly head

The guy, an outspoken Donald Trump supporter, turned to me with fire in his eyes. “You know why this happened, don’t you?” he said. “F!@#$#$ N!@@#$%.”

That’s right. The N-word. Accented with the F-bomb.

I was stunned. Thoughts of what to say raced through my head, but no words left my mouth. I looked at him as though I’d seen Dr. Jekyll turn into Mr. Hyde.

When he saw that I was dumbfounded, he said, “That’s okay. You can’t say that. But I can.”

Meaning that he, like Trump, could utter whatever came into his mind, political correctness, hate speech or morality be damned.

I rode home in stony silence as I mulled my options.

Every day after the event, I replayed it constantly in my mind. What I should have said. What I should say now. Call him out as a racist? Refuse to have anything to do with him? Tell other people so they would know who he really is?

I never did confront him. He’s a big guy, and I am not a fan of conflict and the possibility of violence. So I avoided him. If I saw him and he said hello, I said hello back. But I always find a new reason to be elsewhere when it comes to riding home.  Finally, he has stopped asking.

Can you be a nice racist?

But here’s the thing. He’s outwardly a nice guy. He’s polite to people in the gym. Friendly. Funny. People seem to like him. He claims to be religious and to volunteer at his church. I’ve seen him around people of color and gay people and have never noticed any bad behavior, malice or intent on his part.

Of course, I don’t know what he does in his private time. For all I know, he dons a hood and marches in Klan rallies. But likely not.

So is he a racist because he talks like one? Yes, I think he is a racist. I believe that what he said to me revealed what lies in his heart, and it’s racism. The Oxford English Dictionary defines racism as “a belief that one’s own racial or ethnic group is superior, or that other such groups represent a threat to one's cultural identity, racial integrity, or economic well-being.” Using the N-word is racism in action. 

I hope he never acts on that hatred, but his words themselves are daggers. And while voting for Trump does not make one a racist, it is a vote for a man who regularly stokes race hatred and division.

Is this Trump supporter a bad person? I don’t think so. If writing and reading fiction has taught me anything, it is that human beings have a capacity for complexity. We can say bad things and do good things. We can say good things and do bad things. 

Am I a racist because I didn’t confront him? I don’t want to believe I am. But I have been the beneficiary of white privilege and systemic racism. I don’t know what it is to have a black body and to deal with the pain, humiliation and violence that many or most black people, especially black men, face every day in the United States. 

Will racism ever die?

I know this. The N-word is one of the most hateful words in the English language. I will never use it. And I hope if anyone—including the Trump supporter—uses it in front of me again, I will have the courage to confront this hate speech immediately.

Racism—along with all the other isms that pit us against each other—is an ugly side of humanity. I don’t suspect it will completely die out as long as we fear the Other. But I hope against my better judgment that it will. 

Photo by Nicola Fioravanti on Unsplash

Message Platforms: 3 Practical Reasons You Need One Now

In a perfect world, you would write every piece of content yourself because you have the brand voice, tone and key messages down cold. You’d have plenty of quality time to write, few distractions, no crises or priorities du jour. You’d also stop for coffee breaks and go for mid-day runs.

In the real world, you eat lunch at your desk and don’t have time to write thoughtful content unless you take the work home. So you farm out writing projects to freelancers or agencies. Some get your business, industry, messaging and voice. Most don’t. You end up with potluck: a tray of Costco lasagna here, a kale salad there, some deviled eggs and a bag of Doritos.

There is a better alternative. One where you don’t write any content yourself. And where whoever writes for you does the job you would do if you had the time. And frankly, if you had the talent. Because, in fact, you may hate writing, or you may not be good at it, or you may just want to lead the marketing and content strategy, which is what you got hired to do in the first place.

You need two things: a message platform and a writer or writing team who know how to use it.

Save time, maintain consistency

A message platform, also known as a message matrix or a brand messaging guide, can range from a one-page, high-level piece to a multi-page document listing vision, mission, values, background on your industry and company, key corporate messages, product/services messaging, and more. Voice and tone can be addressed in a messaging document as well but are most often found in brand guidelines.

I’ve created and used messaging platforms for my clients, and I can vouch that they’re life savers. The more detailed, the better. Messaging platforms benefit you in at least three ways.

1. Message platforms save time. You don’t have to waste time hunting for an annual report, corporate brochure or email that had some good messaging in it. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time a new piece of content is assigned. You don’t have to develop a creative brief for every new tactic. You can open up the messaging platform and—presto!—find the perfectly prioritized language you need. 

2. Message platforms ensure message consistency. To support and build your brand, it’s critical to have unity of voice, tone and message across all your communications. Too often, because we feel we don’t have the time or, worse, because the executive team can’t agree on or won’t abide by a unified way of speaking to the world (see my post about getting buy-in from the C-suite here), we get a hit-or-miss approach. You end up with a mishmash of news releases, web pages, marketing brochures, white papers and social media that are the equivalent of a block of San Francisco Victorians: cute, but do pink, yellow and blue really represent your company? Message platforms limit the verbal paint to those colors you choose ahead of time.

3. Message platforms place strategy ahead of tactics. Developing the message platform is when you collaborate, debate and maybe even fight about what to say and how to say it. But once you’re done, you’re done. You shouldn’t have to fight those strategic messaging battles every time you put out a news release or white paper. Creating a message platform is a front-loaded strategic exercise that lets you expedite tactical content later.

Getting writers on the same page

Producing a message platform is a great first step, but it doesn’t guarantee success. They’re worthless if they collect dust on a shelf. Assuming that’s not the case, you can still run into problems with consistency in your written communications. This generally is an issue with execution. 

You don’t have to demand that your writers adhere to the platform language dogmatically. There is room for nuance and creativity. But don’t hand out your message platform and tell writers it’s just a suggestion. That would be like giving someone a grocery list and telling them to disregard it if they think of something better. Or having a director pass a script out to actors but telling them it’s only a starting point for whatever creative lines they dream up.  

Larger companies with bigger budgets fix the execution problem by training in-house and agency writers on the message platform and by hiring editors and brand cops. These keepers of the brand patrol the web pages and marketing lanes, collaring miscreant messages and arresting off-brand bandits before they can do further damage. 

Not big enough to afford brand enforcers? One marketing manager I know had this problem. She had created a comprehensive message platform. But she was still getting mixed results on assignments. Messaging, voice and tone varied between content produced by different writers at the public relations agency and freelancers.

She solved the problem through specialization. She retained the agency to focus on media and analyst relations. But she took all content development in-house, assigning writing to a single freelancer whom she trusted to understand and execute the company’s brand voice, tone and messaging on every piece of content. Working with a single writer simplified her task. But she still could have enforced consistency with multiple writers.

Putting it all together

Message consistency starts with getting your message act together. Put your key messages down on paper. Get your boss(es) to sign off on them. Follow them the way a sailor points her ship with a compass. And make sure you have a writer or team of writers who thoroughly understands and follows the message platform on all of your communications. 

The Royal Order of Adjectives: Why it sounds better to say 'shiny little red car' than 'red little shiny car'

Why does it sound better to say "the shiny little red car" than "the red little shiny car"?

Because of the royal order of adjectives.

I love that phrase. It makes it sound so ... regal. Or a secret club where you dress like those guards on bottles of Beefeaters gin (aka Yeomen Warders of Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary) and read the Oxford English Dictionary out loud for kicks.

The royal order of adjectives lays out the order in which categories of adjectives should fall before the nouns they modify.

Here's the not-so-secret sequence:

1. Determiner: articles (a, an, the), possessives (your, his, her, my, their, our), number, demonstratives (this, that, those, these)
2. Observation or opinion: anything that involves judgement or subjectivity (ugly, playful, nice, genuine, etc.)
3. Size: huge, tiny, petite
4. Shape: fat, thin, oblong
5. Age: old, young, ancient
6. Color: cerulean, sienna, ruby
7. Origin: American, Irish, Kenyan
8. Material: wood, silk, copper
9. Qualifier: an adjective integral to the noun (hound dog, racing car, wedding dress) or that describes its purpose (adding machine, walking stick, sewing machine)

Here's a ridiculous but technically correct example: "the gorgeous little old white American silk wedding dress." In other words, "determiner opinion size age color origin material qualifier noun." Mix up the order to hear how weird it would sound if you screwed up the royal order. 

As native English speakers, we know what sounds right and wrong. Most of us just didn't know it's because of the royal order of adjectives. Now you do.

By the way, notice the lack of commas between the adjectives? No commas are necessary between adjectives from different categories. But use commas to separate adjectives in like categories, such "an odd, ambivalent feeling" (observation/opinion) or "the long, cavernous blimp hangar" (size). When adjectives are equal, you can switch their order and still maintain proper syntax.

You are now an honorary member of the royal order of adjectives. Go forth and string your adjectives correctly.

Marketing to Utilities: 10 Takeaways from the Utility Dive State of the Utility 2018 Survey

If you’re a cleantech marketer selling to electric utilities, check out Utility Dive’s new State of the Utility survey. The 2018 survey offers important insights into the challenges, concerns and goals shared by companies in the electric utility marketplace. In other words, it’s an invaluable tool to stand inside your customers’ shoes and see what their world looks like.

The survey has plenty to say about where utilities are today and where they think they’re headed. It’s loaded with insights about operations, regulation and business models. But for this post, I look at the survey through the lens of a marketer. Reading between the lines, there’s a lot you can learn and apply to your marketing.

Here are 10 takeaways from the report to make your marketing more relevant to utility customers.

1. Help them compete. If there’s one overarching theme in the report, it’s change from competition. Utilities face more competition than ever. And they expect the competition will get more intense. The report cites a California Independent System Operator white paper that finds 85 percent of that state’s utility customers will be served by at least one other alternative energy supplier by the mid-2020s. New players want to disrupt business models and raid the cookie jar.

Takeaway: Frame your products or services to show how they help utilities compete and provide value to their customers.

2. Address pain points. The top five industry concerns are:

physical and/or cyber grid securitydistributed energy resource (DER) policy (net metering, microgrids, rate basing DERs, etc.)bulk power system reliabilityintegrating renewables and DERsaging grid infrastructure

Takeaway: Chances are your offering hits one or more of these pain points. These concerns keep utility managers awake at night. Show them how your solution will help them sleep better.

3. Partner in growth. Half of the respondents operate in traditional cost-of-service regulatory frameworks. But change is in the air. About the same ratio of those polled expect to move to a mix between cost-of-service and performance-based regulation within 10 years.

Takeaway: As revenues from energy sales decline and competition ramps up, utilities will need new sources of business, revenue and profits. At the same time, utility customers want the financial, flexibility and sustainability benefits promised by new DERs. While much of what utilities can and can’t do will depend on regulation, they would like to play a part in this emerging market as a way to offset stagnant or declining load growth. Show them how you can be a partner in this growth.

4. Overcome regulatory challenges. The top five regulatory challenges:

justifying emerging investmentsrecovering revenue from declining kWh salesmanaging growth of DERs and the revenue/rate impacts of solarredesigning rates to recover fixed costslosing customers to competition

Takeaway: Utilities hesitate to invest in new technologies if they can’t justify them to regulators. At the least, acknowledge this reality in your marketing. Show your utility customers through actual use cases how other utilities have gotten regulatory approval for new ventures. And join in industry efforts to support utility investments.

5. Prepare for greater competition. With the exception of the Midwest, with its predominance of coal-fired and nuclear energy plants, and the Southwest, all other regions of the United States expect their markets to be more competitive within 10 years. Even in the South and Southeast, the only region currently with full cost-of-service regulation and no regional wholesale energy trading, the desired market model is competitive with some cost-of-service structure.

Takeaway: Utilities overall want and expect more competitive markets. Show how your product or service will help them compete in this new paradigm.

6. Ease DER and renewable integration. No surprise here: Utilities expect to move away from coal and nuclear and toward renewables, energy storage and DERs over the next decade. More than nine in 10 respondents think they’ll increase their share of distributed generation and storage. Four in 10 expect it to increase significantly. On the minus side, about four in 10 respondents say uncertainty over markets and regulations is their single greatest challenge. And reliably integrating new resources is their second biggest challenge.

Takeaway: While there might not be much you can do to create greater certainty in markets and regulation, you can show how your product or service helps utilities more reliably fold renewables and DERs into the power mix.

7. Understand their customers. You’d think low prices would be the top reason to invest in clean energy technologies. But price actually comes in a distant fifth place. Instead, for the second year in a row, utilities say they’re investing in renewables and storage primarily because their customers demand it. “As energy markets become increasingly competitive, this motivation is likely to grow stronger,” Utility Dive said.

Takeaway: The customers of utilities want cleaner power. Let your utility customers know that you understand the importance of meeting their customers’ demands for decarbonizing their power supply.

8. Share your DER expertise. The utility outlook for DERs is upbeat across the board. About nine in 10 expect to increase their involvement with EV charging, distributed solar, smart inverters and grid communication technology.

Takeaway: Work to engage, partner and collaborate with progressive utility companies on DERs. They want to develop new revenue streams, deepen their relationships with existing customers and find new customers. They need your expertise in distributed energy.

9. Work within DER business models. A slight majority of utilities want to build their business models around partnering with third-party providers to deploy DERs on the grid. This preference is strongest on the West Coast and in New England. Other utilities, especially those in the South, Southeast, Midwest and Canada, prefer direct ownership.

Takeaway: Whether utilities eventually own and rate-base DERs or partner with third-party vendors, they realize the increasing importance of DERs to modernize their grids. Make sure your marketing taps this emerging trend to connect with customers.

10. Prepare for EV Charging. The overwhelming majority (92 percent) of utilities believe they should participate in EV charging. Their involvement could range from creating special EV charging rates all the way to owning and operating charging stations, either through their regulated utility or through unregulated subsidiaries. The potential benefits include not only new revenues but also a large source of flexible capacity for grid services.  

Takeaway: Utilities see EV charging as a new business opportunity for which they’re particularly well suited. Even if you’re not in the EV industry, you can show how your products or services prepare utilities for the significant changes that EVs will bring to the grid.

Understanding the utility mindset

One of the most important tasks of a strategic marketer is to understand your customers. Well, here it is. Utility Dive’s State of the Utility survey gives you an inside look at what today’s utility managers care about.

Read the survey in its entirety to draw your own conclusions and drill down on regional variables. Of course, you should also do research with your own customers. But incorporating these takeaways into your marketing should give you an advantage over other cleantech companies competing for market share in the electric utility marketplace.

I worked for an investor-owned utility for 10 years, so I have a bead on the utility mindset. If you’d like to tap into my expertise, contact me.

Longer Blog Posts Beat Short Blog Posts. Here’s Why.

Write longer blog posts.

That’s the advice of experts who study the behavior of online readers.

Coming from a writer, that may sound self-serving. But it also is supported by evidence.

A recent article from veteran corporate communications trainer and editor Ann Wylie confirms that:

Longer posts rank higher in searches.Longer posts boost backlinks.Longer posts get more shares on social media.People spend more time reading longer posts.

Just how long should your blog posts be?

Ideal Blog Post Length

For the four metrics—search, links, shares and reading time—the ideal blog post length ranges from 1,400 to 2,500 words. This jibes with findings from search engine optimization specialist Yoast. Its own articles of more than 2,500 words do best on Google search rankings. And Hubspot says its sweet spot for blog post length is 2,250 to 2,500 words.

Here’s the breakdown from Wylie of the metrics and ideal lengths:

Search: 2,000-2,500 wordsBacklinks: 1,800-3,000 wordsSocial sharing: 1,500 words or moreReading: About 1,400 words

If you don’t have the skills or time to write longer posts, never go below 300, Yoast advises. Below that threshold, posts don’t have enough words to merit a search engine ranking. Google brushes off posts of fewer than 200 words, according to Wiley.

Longer posts get higher search rankings

Research shows that lengthier blog posts rank higher in search engine page results, or SERPs. One SEO consultant, serpIQ, found that pages that contained more than 2,000 words ranked in the top 10 of searches. The highest ranking went to pages with more than 2,450 words.

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Pages with more than 2,000 words ranked highest in Google searches. Source: serpIQ

Longer posts get shared more

A funny thing about longer posts is that they get shared more. My guess is that has to do with editorial quality. When you read a really interesting article, do you get excited and want to share it with a friend or associate immediately? I do. Other times, I’ll save it on Pocket and then share it later with contacts I’m nurturing. I’ll also link to the article in my newsletter or my blog post.

Longer posts earn more backlinks

Getting more social shares drives more backlinks. It makes sense: If your post lands higher in search results, it will get more visits. Then, if readers love your post, they’ll be more likely to link to it on their social media updates and content. Those backlinks kindle SEO, which in turn drives more visitors and then begets more links.

It’s a virtuous feedback loop.

Longer posts drive deeper reading

The optimal reading time for a blog post is seven minutes, according to Medium. That equals about 1,400 words. After that, interest wanes. I love Medium’s nuanced conclusion: Don’t force your posts to be read in seven minutes. Rather, focus on writing great posts, length be damned. In other words, let the content dictate the length. If you have a lot to say, by all means, take the space to say it. “If you put in the effort, so will your audience,” Medium says.

The optimal blog post read is seven minutes long. Source: Medium

Why lengthier blog posts rank higher

It has a lot to do with keywords. Longer posts naturally provide more opportunities to use your keywords. Keywords will show up in body copy, headlines, subheads, links and meta descriptions. You’ll also have more longtail keywords—those three- and four-keyword phrases that are very specific to what your potential customers are searching for. The more words your piece has, the more search terms, including longtail keywords, it will have. The more search terms it has, the greater the likelihood it will rank higher in search engine results pages.

Mind you, it’s not about keyword stuffing. This is the notion that the more keywords per page—the greater the keyword density—the better. Moz, the SEO consultancy, cautions that this persistent myth is a spammy practice to avoid. If it looks like, reads like and tastes like spam, it is spam. And search engines gag on spam the way I gagged on liver when I was a kid.

You’re going for quality, not quantity. “The value from an extra 10 instances of your keyword on the page is far less than earning one good editorial link from a source that doesn't think you're a search spammer,” says Moz in this post on search engine myths and misperceptions.

How to write longer blog posts

Writing longer blog posts takes skill. But the point is not to lard your posts will fat and filler. Instead, Wyle advises, go deep, not shallow. I advise also going narrow, not wide. In other words, pick a specific, narrowly focused topic that your readers care about and that will give them intelligence they can use. Then go deeply into that topic. Make it “How to use artificial intelligence to automate utility demand response programs,” not “How to use artificial intelligence.”

The secret to writing longer blog posts is taking a specific topic and exploring it deeply. Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

Or take one element from a list and expand on it. Start with an overview (as I’m doing here) and then write a series of posts that explore each element. For example, you could take any one of the four metrics about longer blog posts and focus on that. This, by the way, is a great way to flesh out your blog editorial calendar.

Make it easy to read, too. Just because it’s long doesn’t mean it has to be dense. Rather than a news release, just-the-facts style, use a feature style more akin to magazine articles or features made famous by the Wall St. Journal. I’ll write about this style in a later post. Also, help your reader walk through the journey of the story with helpful signposts and resting places in the form of headlines, subheads, lists and graphics.

Let common sense be your guide

The minute you take the long-post notion as a rule, you’re on the wrong track. Online marketer Neil Patel cautions that length is only one factor to consider. Among other considerations, the top one is substance. In other words, what are you trying to say? If you can say it in 100 words, do it. Don’t waste your readers’ time. But if it needs 2,000 or 2,500 words—and your audience cares that deeply about what you have to say—go for it.

In other words, make your post as long—or as short—as it needs to be.

Longer posts get better results

Writing well-researched longer posts dripping with great content requires more thought in choosing a topic, more time researching and more time writing and editing. (That said, one of the most difficult writing tasks is writing short headlines, captions and blurbs.) As long as you have something useful to say, investing that time will repay itself many times over with higher search rankings, more backlinks to your post from other websites and blogs, more shares on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and other social media, and more time spent reading your posts.

But as you compose and edit your post, always remember to value your reader's time. As the author Robert Heinlein said, "The most important lesson in the writing trade is that any manuscript is improved if you cut away the fat.”

10 Tips for Writing News Ledes that Get Editorial Attention

The problem with most news releases is that they’re not newsworthy. But presuming you actually have something to say, the next problem is how to say it to get an editor’s attention. First, you have to write a great subject header and headline. If you’ve gotten that far, congratulations: You’ve gotten the editor to open your email.

Then comes the next big hurdle: the lede.

The lede, or first sentence, has to fulfill the promise of the headline. If it doesn’t, the editor won’t bother reading further, and your news release will end up in the trash with the other 99 percent that didn’t make it.

Here are 10 ways to give your news release lede a fighting chance:

1.    Think. Writing is thinking. Use the 5 Ws and H—who, what, when, where, why and how—to decide what is most newsworthy. This exercise should inform your subject header, headline and subhead as well.

2.    Focus. Limit your lede to the one most important point. If you have other points to make, make them in later sentences and paragraphs.

3.    Keep it short. Columbia University recommends no more than 35 words. Other editors say keep it to 15 or 20 words.

4.    Keep it simple. Say it with a simple declarative sentence: subject-verb-object. If you can’t say it simply, that could indicate a problem.

5.    Keep it active. Use active voice with strong verbs to add zip to your lede.

6.    Be specific. While your lede summarizes the news, it should use specificity to provoke interest. Overly broad or abstract ledes are buzz killers.

7.    Think like an editor. Editors care about their readers. So should you. Write the lede so that it shows why your news is important to them.

8.    Unstuff it. I recently had a well-meaning associate edit my initial draft of a news release and stuff the lede until it sagged with nearly 50 words, three parenthetical phrases, and the names of two companies and one very long public agency. All those names and titles add clutter. Chisel out extraneous words and phrases to reveal the news. The names and titles can come later.

9.    Think like a storyteller. Good stories use conflict and tension to pull in readers. Editors (and their readers) don’t want to read about things that come easily. Show them the struggles and setbacks along with the triumphs.

10. Read it aloud. If it takes more than one breath to say, revise. If you have time, record it and listen back. Does it sound like something you’d pay attention to if you heard it on the radio?

Of course, there’s more to writing a news release than writing a lede. But once you’ve completed this task, the rest of the writing should come more easily. Developing a good lede requires you to think hard about what you’re trying to say and why it’s important. Invest your time and thought in writing great headlines and ledes, and you’ll succeed in getting more of them published. 

What climate leadership means, and how the U.S. is losing it

President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement was widely criticized as abandoning the United States’ leadership role in climate change policy and the global transition to a clean energy economy.

But that begs some fundamental questions: What does it mean to have the climate leadership role? Did the United States ever have it? If it lost it, who will take over?

There are two types of leadership at play. One is moral. The other is economic.

Moral leaders set an example that cajoles or inspires others to follow. The United States got props for its part in making the Paris Agreement a reality. Whether the hero status was deserved is a matter of debate. After all, we are the largest polluter in history. We better lead the charge. Still, the historic agreement probably wouldn’t have happened without the leadership of the United States, in the form of President Obama.

Walking away from the agreement ignited a firestorm of dissent. Critics denounced Trump’s decision as a moral failure.

“The United States risks losing any mantle of leadership and moral authority on climate change,” said Kofi Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations, and Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 2010–2016, writing in Time, June 3.

"... many may well claim that June 1, 2017, was the day that America's global leadership ended."—Simon Reich, Rutgers University—Newark

One of the more damning quotes came from Simon F. Reich, a political science professor at Rutgers University Newark. Writing in U.S. News on June 2, Reich said, “Historians decades from now will no doubt debate the issue of if and when America abdicated from its role as ‘the indispensable nation.’ But, looking back, many may well claim that June 1, 2017, was the day that America's global leadership ended.”

Economic leadership—in industrial-age technology

Economic leaders set the business standards for others to follow. They innovate, attract investment, and create jobs and wealth. Yet, over the long term, withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement will hurt American jobs, investment and, especially, international business prospects.

Why would an American president who purports to be a pro-business job creator want to kick American businesses in the shins? It may have something to do with making good on campaign promises, as many observers have surmised. It clearly was a victory for his nationalist and anti-multi-lateralist chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon. And it helps the president’s friends in the fossil fuel industry.

In the short run, Trump’s fossil-first, climate-be-damned approach may slow the loss of jobs in the coal industry. The U.S. coal industry employs about 160,000 American workers. But coal jobs have been shrinking in the face of competition from natural gas and renewables.

American businesses employ 2.2 million workers in energy efficiency, 374,000 in solar and 102,000 in wind, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Moreover, solar and wind jobs grew by 25 percent and 32 percent, respectively, in 2016. That’s a lot of jobs related to reducing carbon.

“Why would you try to help the coal industry while reducing investment in future energy such as solar, wind and storage? This is crazy,” Mike Phillips, CEO of Sense, a maker of a high-tech power-measurement device for smart homes, told USA Today.

Long-term, international business at jeopardy

The U.S. withdrawal from Paris may not rock the domestic cleantech business boat immediately. Shayle Kann, head of GTM Research, points to market and local political forces as two reasons why.

“Cleantech growth in the U.S. is unstoppable from an economic perspective, partly because you'll likely see continued support (of such companies) on a state level,” Kann told USA Today. “You'll see continued growth in this area because it'll be the cheapest energy available.”

But as the U.S departure reverberates, the ripple effect may sink international prospects for American cleantech business over the long haul.

“As a business mistake, the decision means the U.S. will miss out on some of the $1.4 trillion global business opportunity that the global low-carbon economy represents,” Mark Muro, a senior fellow and policy director, Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institute, said at the Brookings website.

“As a business mistake, the decision means the U.S. will miss out on some of the $1.4 trillion global business opportunity that the global low-carbon economy represents.”—Mark Muro, The Brookings Institute

The fallout could take a number of forms, from trade retribution to diminished competitiveness.

Kann of GTM Research said the biggest long-term risk to the United States will be the consequences of losing its seat at the negotiating table for future climate talks. “If you're not able to negotiate bilateral agreements,” Kann said, “that can impact U.S. exports of our own leading-edge technology.”

The pullout also could amplify the risk of a trade war. Unhappy with having to clean up their act while the United States does business as usual, countries could slap U.S. products with retaliatory tariffs. And the decision could dampen enthusiasm for investment and sales.

“An international race is on to lead the effort to build robust renewable energy systems and negotiate support for addressing the threat of climate change,” Phillip Bump wrote in the Washington Post. “Trump essentially just announced that the United States was stepping away from that competition.”

And the winner is … China?

China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is also poised to become the global leader in clean energy. The country recently halted construction on 103 new coal-fired power plants. Already the largest producer of renewable energy, China has announced plans to invest more than $360 billion and get more than 50 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020.

"China ... would like nothing more than to see the Trump administration take action to undercut the U.S. clean energy sectors just as those global markets are really taking off.” —Melanie Hart, Center for American Progress

By turning away from its promises to cut emissions, the United States would also be handicapping its ability to compete internationally, Jules Kortenhorst, chief executive officer of the Rocky Mountain Institute, told National Geographic. “That is a decision you can only make once,” he said. “If the U.S. backs out of the energy transition, China will think, ‘It’s time to double down,’ because the market opportunity has just fallen even closer into their lap.”

“[China wants] to dominate global clean energy markets,” Melanie Hart, director of China Policy at the Center for American Progress, told ThinkProgress. “Paris nations are going to be rolling out new energy projects, and imports [of clean energy technology are] expected to be around $13 trillion. China will be delighted to sell as much of that $13 trillion as it can, and they would like nothing more than to see the Trump administration take action to undercut the U.S. clean energy sectors just as those global markets are really taking off.”

U.S. cleantech will succeed despite Trump

Ironically, the nation responsible for bringing 195 countries together under the banner of global climate action is now threatening the demise of this historic agreement. But if the response from U.S. companies, universities, states, cities and local governments is any indication, Trump’s decision, so out of step with the wishes of most Americans, will go down as a historic failure. We can hope that the impact on U.S. cleantech and clean energy businesses will amount to a ripple instead of a tsunami.