Hmm, writing for the web. You’ll have guessed, I’m with Ogilvy and Claude Hopkins: when you have something detailed that you need to communicate, go long.

Long works well, for example, when you need to answer questions people might have, or persuade them of something. Use cases might be a product sales page: years of testing shows that typically, more detail will produce more conversions (although it must be relevant detail). Similarly, a long job ad will communicate more of the company character and culture; it will also better explain the job role.

Where “Don’t make me think” has it exactly right is in reducing pointless words. Remove fluff and happy talk that doesn’t communicate; be as long as necessary and no longer. In that spirit, I’ll end this here.