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Is This Too Long For an Article? - How Long is Too Long?

by Mary Gallivan
16 replies
Hi

I have just seen an article in EZA that is slightly under 3,000 words. Yes, you read that right - 3 THOUSAND words. I even checked it again to make sure I'd read the word count correctly.

In all honesty I didn't read the entire article as I prefer shorter ones. Had it been written in a fashion of story-telling it might have captured my attention and compelled me to read, however this was not ones of those.

Whenever I write articles the number of words used is dependent on what I am using the article for. When I submit to EZA or other directories the finished article is usually between about 400-500 words. If it is for my blog that's a different story.

If nothing else, it got me thinking about my own writing. An 'average' length of article that I write is about 500 words - give or take a 100. For ones that are far longer than that then I would break them down into 2 shorter ones.

I'd be interested to hear what you have to say on length of articles and how long is too long?

Mary
#article #long
  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Brock
    3,000 words?? That's insane. Unless I was seriously interested in the topic, I probably wouldn't make it even half way down the page before I left. 3000 words is like 2000 more words past my attention span.

    What it boils down to is educating the reader, not how many words are written. The reason we write these articles is to build authority - if you write 3000 words and are unable to teach your reader anything, your article is worthless. Sure you might get some clicks here and there, but they won't convert for squat.

    On the other hand, If you can write, say, a 300 word article and provide your reader with something useful they never knew before, you are in a much better position to make the sale.

    Originally Posted by Mary Gallivan View Post

    Hi

    I have just seen an article in EZA that is slightly under 3,000 words. Yes, you read that right - 3 THOUSAND words. I even checked it again to make sure I'd read the word count correctly.

    In all honesty I didn't read the entire article as I prefer shorter ones. Had it been written in a fashion of story-telling it might have captured my attention and compelled me to read, however this was not ones of those.

    Whenever I write articles the number of words used is dependent on what I am using the article for. When I submit to EZA or other directories the finished article is usually between about 400-500 words. If it is for my blog that's a different story.

    If nothing else, it got me thinking about my own writing. An 'average' length of article that I write is about 500 words - give or take a 100. For ones that are far longer than that then I would break them down into 2 shorter ones.

    I'd be interested to hear what you have to say on length of articles and how long is too long?

    Mary
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Riley
      The guy from EA (can't think of his name even though he's in my Twitter) has Tweeted that articles 400-750 are preferable. With that length, you have a much better chance of being picked up by other sites and blogs. Anything much longer doesn't get re-published much.

      Of course, a 3000-word article could be re-purposed as an e-book.
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      • Profile picture of the author frasser
        Yeah, 3,000 words is WAY TOO MUCH for an article. My suggestion is that you break it into parts or episodes. That will the reader's eyes a rest . This way, visitor can read the first part, and if he is interested, that he can continue to the 2nd part.
        The best articles that eyes can take is about 400-600 words, imo. So try to break up it to some 400-600 words article.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Daniel - My thoughts exactly! In fact, as soon as I read the word count I simply skimmed through it and went elsewhere. I think it could probably have been broken down into 3 x 400+ articles and get more views etc.

    Kevin - I deliberately didn't give the writers name or a link to the article. I think if I got to the point of writing that amount for one article I'd have taken it a step further and produced a report instead or a series of reports.

    Mary
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  • Profile picture of the author sanjid112
    Originally Posted by Mary Gallivan View Post

    Hi

    I have just seen an article in EZA that is slightly under 3,000 words. Yes, you read that right - 3 THOUSAND words. I even checked it again to make sure I'd read the word count correctly.

    In all honesty I didn't read the entire article as I prefer shorter ones. Had it been written in a fashion of story-telling it might have captured my attention and compelled me to read, however this was not ones of those.

    Whenever I write articles the number of words used is dependent on what I am using the article for. When I submit to EZA or other directories the finished article is usually between about 400-500 words. If it is for my blog that's a different story.

    If nothing else, it got me thinking about my own writing. An 'average' length of article that I write is about 500 words - give or take a 100. For ones that are far longer than that then I would break them down into 2 shorter ones.

    I'd be interested to hear what you have to say on length of articles and how long is too long?

    Mary
    3,000 words, that's when I write for the journal publishing.
    I do prefer read article 400-500 words long, because when it is too long, it make my head feel dizzy :p

    But, that's nothing wrong with the length, because all of it depends on it used and clients demand. If you need for research or other academic writing, I think that's not too long. If it just for blog or website content, it rather too long if 3,000 words.
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  • Profile picture of the author Karen Connell
    Correct me if I'm wrong (and I quite often am...), but isn't the object of an article to encourage the reader to click on your link at the end?

    I wouldn't take the time to read 3,000 words or even 1,000 for that matter, so would not even reach the link in the bio box!
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  • Profile picture of the author Franck Silvestre
    If you have a 3000 words article, all you need to do is to create a multi-part article with it.

    So you would submit 6 or 7 articles to EZA.

    you will get MORE traffic like this.

    As for the submission, you can submit them all at the same time, or just submit a couple of them on Sunday, and the others at the end of the week.

    Both strategies work.

    Franck
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  • Profile picture of the author pakidesigner
    its not an article but essay.

    an essay is a long thing. it don't have that much informative as an article have..so i would not consider it a article. because article is a short piece of information about a specific niche.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Thanks everyone for your input.

    In one of the EZA newsletters Chris Knight suggested articles should be around 500 words. That is a reasonable length to provide readers with enough information and encourage them to reach your resource box.

    Mary
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    • Profile picture of the author Dal.K
      I personally prefer to write shorter articles, around 250- 350 words, so people don't click away before seeing my resource box. Although, perhaps the person who wrote that 3000 word article hasn't full understood the power of an article, or maybe they don't care.

      I've seen long articles on Ezine, and perhaps some of the articles on there have been posted by authors who have no commercial intent, and just want want to post their work on the site because they're writing for the love of it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jay Jennings
    It's only in article marketing that 300-500 words is considered an article. Pick up any magazine and look at the article lengths -- 300 words might be a sidebar in some of them!

    3,000 words for an article might be just right -- depending on what the author is trying to do.

    And as far as people who won't read that long of an article -- do you not ever read "real" articles? Or books?

    The article can be too boring, but if it's well written I doubt the target market would say, "Oh, that's too much."

    If you're just trying to drive traffic to a web site then shorter (400-700 words) is probably better. But I can imagine situations when a 3,000 word article might be just right.

    Jay Jennings
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    • Profile picture of the author Karen Connell
      Originally Posted by Jay Jennings View Post

      It's only in article marketing that 300-500 words is considered an article. Pick up any magazine and look at the article lengths -- 300 words might be a sidebar in some of them!

      3,000 words for an article might be just right -- depending on what the author is trying to do.

      And as far as people who won't read that long of an article -- do you not ever read "real" articles? Or books?

      The article can be too boring, but if it's well written I doubt the target market would say, "Oh, that's too much."

      If you're just trying to drive traffic to a web site then shorter (400-700 words) is probably better. But I can imagine situations when a 3,000 word article might be just right.

      Jay Jennings
      Jay,

      You are absolutely right!

      I was simply looking at an article that is on EZA with the intention of getting traffic to your website.

      I didn't give a thought to other uses of EZA because my own personal experience of article writing has only been for traffic.

      Karen
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  • Profile picture of the author madison_avenue
    There is no "right" and "wrong" length, even what EZA "prefers" is irrelevant as long as they accept it. People place articles on EZA from different motivations and objectives for the article. There can be tactical reasons to place a long article.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mary Gallivan
    Jay and Madison - Good point. I use EZA for article marketing to drive traffic to a site. I suppose It can also be used as a way of getting your work published.

    As I said, it depends on what the article is used for.

    Mary
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  • Profile picture of the author Bev Clement
    The first article I wrote was almost 2,000 words. I have recently written an article which is around 2,500 words. As Jay said, it depends on the purpose of the article.

    People assume if it's on EZA it has to be because people will click on your link and then you make a sale.

    I know someone who had an article and there was no link to an affiliate product. But a person read it, like it, and they were offered something (being vague here so don't ask) which gave them 5 figures for around 10 hours work. Before any asks, not me.
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    • Profile picture of the author achivement84
      Personally i prefere the short articles over the long ones as well as it covers the main topic and give all the needed amount of data, long articles usually get the reader out the issue.I think from 400-500 is much enough.

      Regards
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