Is it worth it to bring my article up to 1000 words?

by 27 replies
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I know everyone says syndication articles should be about 800-1200 words, but is there any difference between the two?

As in, does 1200 articles get published more that 800, or is it about the same.

I'm doing an article just now and don't know if it will hit 1000. It's at 670, but i've still got bits to add + take away.

Should I just hope it reaches 800?

Cheers
#main internet marketing discussion forum #article #bring #words #worth
  • If I were you, I'd pack as much punch as I could into the article and make it "THE" go-to article on the subject, regardless of length. I doubt publishers would complain if it goes past the 1,200 word threshold, and if they did, let them know that they can break it up into 2 pages. Any sane webmaster would love you for it

    Paul
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  • Banned
    I only have a few months of experience at it; but so far my longer articles (1200-1500 words) have been the best in terms of getting syndicated. However, if you're forcing yourself to get there, I don't think it will work out. Just use as many words as you need to use to get your point across. That's priority number one I think.
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  • [DELETED]
  • As long as I pass the guidelines
    to certain sites I am fine with it.

    I usually write a long article and
    then break it into, two, three or
    even four parts so anyone who sees any
    part of it will be tempted to follow it
    from the beginning to the end.

    Adds a lot of traffic for me compared to one 1200 words article.
  • Anything over 700 words seems excessive. You could save time and create more high quality articles sticking with articles that are at least 500 words.
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    • Banned
      Wait...what? That might hold true for a blog post, not for an article :rolleyes:.
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  • I've never written an article that was more than 550 words...
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    • It's difficult for me to write an article of that length, even if I shoot for a 500 word article, it ends up being at least 700 words and if I edit it down to approximately 500, it just seems lacking. However, that's just me.

      The very most important thing in writing articles/content, is that all of the vital, pertinent information is put forth congruently and that there isn't a lot of obvious filler fluff, imho.

      Let the length be what it will be

      Terra
    • Other than IM, as in the "real world," I can't think of any niche where 500 words is, as a rule of thumb, deemed acceptable to provide sufficient quality, detail, and be worth syndicating.

      Even in IM, when you look the major blogs that often dominate top search rankings, you do not find 500 word articles.

      .
  • I think it is best to focus on content. How long does it take to say what you need to say? Make your article that long, and no longer.
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  • The most important thing in article syndication is content. And there is no point in making an article that is so long but the idea is rubble and just going over and over again. Just focus on the information you put in the article and make sure it adds value to those who will read it. Write naturally and put less emphasis on the word count. Yes it matters, but content is the most important thing here. Hope it helps! =)
  • I never try to hold myself to a pre set amount of words. If I try to fluff it out for a higher word count I usually end up babbling or having to go back and do some massive editing.
  • Every article you write should be the exact number of words required to achieve the goals you have for that article. If you make it longer it will just drag on and not be as engaging. If you make it shorter you'll be leaving something important out.

    While there are times when you have to hit a specific length it is more important to focus on hitting specific objectives for each article.

    Good luck!
  • The purpose of any article is to communicate your thoughts to your reader. And I believe it should be done in as few words as possible.

    Like you, I've also read that articles in the range of a 1000 words tend to get syndicated more than 500-600 word articles. Even though I'm no expert in the field of syndication, I feel a quality 500 word article has a better chance of being syndicated than 1000 word article full of fluff.

    So my advice is this: Don't make the article longer just for the sake of it; it will do more harm than good.
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    • Banned
      Good advice.

      A few tests I've done on this show the opposite. Let's assume that we have two pieces of equally well written content on the same subject. One is 512 words (I like being random), one 1,268 words. Now as we said, both of these pieces are equally well written. No fluff, nothing major left out. Just two great pieces of writing.

      From a potential syndication partners point of view, on two equally well written pieces covering the same subject, they tend to go with the longer piece. Why?

      • More information is usually covered (like we said, no fluff. If we're talking about fluffy pieces it was never syndication worthy in the first place).
      • It means they have to find less content to syndicate. Their readers get one nice longer piece, and find their hunger for information satisfied for a little bit longer.
      • Readability. Now this is not to say that a 500 word post doesn't read well. The way it reads though tends to be different from a longer article. They have more of a blog post feel to them, something that is often unavoidable given the concise nature of the post.


      Just my opinion and observations from testing the matter. Who knows, your experience may vary.
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    • Banned
      These discussions fill me with misgivings.

      Partly because, in them, I tend sometimes to disagree with the people with whom I normally agree.

      Yes, it's true that a 1,000-word article "full of fluff" isn't going to be worth as much, but from all my experience of this, across a wide range of niches, it's very clear to me that articles around the 1,200+ word length have a far greater chance of being syndicated to authority sites and ezines. Mine do, anyway.

      Fin isn't suggesting trying to syndicate something "full of fluff" and I think we should be replying to his question on that basis.

      The idea that anyone should be trying to write more articles by keeping them down to 500 words is entirely misguided: 500-word articles very rarely get syndicated to authority sites and ezines.

      In a large range of entirely unrelated niches, I consistently get much more traffic (and even more backlinks) from a 1,200-word article than I do from two 600-word ones.

      While I have great sympathy with the perspective that "an article needs to be as long as it needs to be", to tell its story/serve its purpose, and I'm not suggesting padding it with "fluff", the market realities are such that I would be trying to lengthen this article, in the belief that doing so will significantly enhance its chances of profitable and productive syndication.

      Yes; yes, there is.

      Yes; yes, it probably is.

      All my experience leads me to believe the opposite: I think it will probably do more good than harm - assuming, of course, that it's done in a way which doesn't look "padded".

      Sometimes length really does matter.
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  • Haha, old thread.

    I did bring that article up to 982 words. I've still to edit it and that usually adds some extra.

    Actually, I had to tackle it from a different angle
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    • Banned
      Nah ... an "old thread" is one from 2009/10 that someone bumps to get their sig-file into it. This was only a week ago.

      Between us, we can produce the right length of articles: my editing normally makes them shorter! :p
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  • Don't make it 1,000 just to take up more space. If you're having trouble adding more content, than don't.

    But you could always take a break from it and then come back. If you do, you may find that you can add more quality AND quantity to bring it up to 1000 words
  • Don't push it, if your article doesn't reach 1000 words up, it might affect the quality of your content.
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    • If you can get your article up to 1,000 words and have it still be very high quality and well written that is great. I know it can be hard to write 1,000 words sometimes. Don't just stuff words into it and use "filler" words to get it up to 1,000 words or you will end up with a badly written article.
  • It doesn’t matter how long your article is if it provides value to the reader but you should be able to pack it wonderfully.
    Now by packing it wonderfully I mean you should made it so much engaging that people don’t even realize how long you article is.
    Also if you have to write an article which is going over 1000 or more words then you can use the effects like making the important or essence lines bold, under line or changing the color scheme.
    Also you can post a little summary just before the body of the article so that the people will get a slight idea of what it is all about and if any of the reader finds it useful he or she will go on reading it.
    I hope you will be putting in some pictures. If not then I suggest you to please put in
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