Article Marketing, Articles that are 2400 Words Long?

12 replies
Alexa has said longer articles are better. But 1200 seems to be what "longer" means.

The first article I am looking at to syndicate is 2400 words.

Does anyone have any experience trying to syndicate an article that is this long?

I could break it up into part one and part two, or let the publisher decide to do that himself or herself.

Or is this just too long?
#2400 #article #articles #long #marketing #words
  • Profile picture of the author writeaway
    It's not too long. Make sure you have lots of subheadings and you use the 'trigger' method to keep the reader engaged enough to go to the next subheading.
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  • Profile picture of the author lisakleinweber
    The trigger method?
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    • Profile picture of the author writeaway
      Originally Posted by lisakleinweber View Post

      The trigger method?
      You start off a subheading with an attention grabbing subheading title. You draw out the reader's needs and fill it with the information you have for that subsection. Once you do that, you raise more questions-these trigger the reader to read the following subsection with its own subheading.

      The name of the game is not to let the reader's attention trail off. You need to do this because of the length of the article. If you were writing the standard 500 to 1000 word article, you can get away with the standard list format.
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  • Profile picture of the author franamico
    Renownigly, articles of this size work very well on web 2.0 properties like Hubpages and Squidoo giving higher ranking power.
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  • Profile picture of the author datingworld
    Not sure about syndication - Madam Alexa would have better opnion on this

    though I have tried to rank longer articles of 2600 on my sites as on site optimisation and it worked well.
    My experience is longer the article as on site optimisation, the better it works
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  • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
    Banned
    Originally Posted by lisakleinweber View Post

    The first article I am looking at to syndicate is 2400 words.
    That's about my maximum length (I know people who've successfully syndicated longer stuff, though - it depends on the niche?).

    Any possibility of making it a "two-parter"? Or at least suggesting that possibility?

    Originally Posted by lisakleinweber View Post

    I could break it up into part one and part two, or let the publisher decide to do that himself or herself.
    That'll teach me to read the whole post before starting to reply. I agree, though.

    Originally Posted by lisakleinweber View Post

    Or is this just too long?
    I don't think so. I think it's perhaps kind of "approaching the upper limit, though", for some purposes. I don't have much experience of this: it may turn out to be less of a problem than you/I imagine? Possibly the thing to do is just "say nothing" about the length and assume it isn't an issue at all, and see what happens? There may not be a problem there at all?
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    • Profile picture of the author myob
      When writing for article syndication, take into consideration not only the standards which publishers require, but also expectations of the readership audience. For example, the sweetspot appears to be around 800-1500 words for ezines, and much shorter articles may be allowed by blog publishers.

      Personally, I try to write long engaging articles (1000-1500 words or sometimes push it to 2000+ depending upon the niche) because conversions can be significantly higher than short articles. However, there are various limiting constraints on article length by publishers, and it is far more typical for editors to reject an article rather than cut to fit.

      Before writing an article for syndication, you should plan for the often fine line between the limits of publication requirements and reader expectations.
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  • Profile picture of the author janicej
    Banned
    Any article can be made to sound interesting, almost regardless of the topic. The only problem with really long articles is that many people will simply skim through them or stop reading after a few paragraphs because they don't have the time or patience.

    Subheadings, catchy phrases, lists and bullet points can really help avoid that. It also helps if the topic is something that really captures the reader's attention.
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  • Profile picture of the author sethriley
    I would say to write around 400-500 word articles that are packed with punch! Most people will not stick around for more then 5 seconds or so if they are not intrigued. I would also add a punchy H1 H2 Headline after your first 2 paragraph ti catch their attention if they happen to fall off.

    Also adding a YouTube Video to every article is always a great idea even if it's 2 minutes long. This is just how I choose to keep people engaged, I don't want to make them feel like they are doing homework. I normally go in-depth through video marketing nowa days.

    Good luck to you!

    -Seth
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    • Profile picture of the author Alexa Smith
      Banned
      Originally Posted by sethriley View Post

      I would say to write around 400-500 word articles that are packed with punch! Most people will not stick around for more then 5 seconds or so if they are not intrigued. I would also add a punchy H1 H2 Headline after your first 2 paragraph ti catch their attention if they happen to fall off.
      I take your points completely, Seth, and I understand why you're saying what you're saying, and I agree that you need a punchy opening, and to intrigue people as quickly as you can. And I don't intend the point that follows to detract from that at all. But ...

      The reality of using content to generate traffic is that (for various quite complicated and interesting sets of reasons) it's phenomenally difficult to get 400-500-word articles published anywhere helpful/targeted, and they're not going to do you any good if nobody much gets the opportunity to read them. Let's not forget, here, that putting them on your own site, and getting them published in places where you can just submit them on your own, without meeting a publisher's editorial and acceptance needs, isn't going to get you very far at all. In all the ways that matter, that just isn't "article marketing".

      In a whole, qualitative, very significant way, a 400-500-word article is typically not part of a realistic traffic-generation strategy in the way that a 1,200-1,500-word article can be. I do this for a living, and I can't make a living out of 400-500-word articles because I can't get enough of them published in the places where the already-targeted traffic I want to to attract is already reading, and that's what matters. Like it or not, those are the facts.

      That's why 400-500-word articles have no realistic traffic-generation value.

      The hugely talented American classical composer Charles Ives wrote a fantastic little masterpiece of an orchestral work called "The Unanswered Question" - acclaimed by tiny numbers of aficionados as his finest work - but it's entirely the wrong length for concert performances - it's just too short to fill a decent space, and as a result almost nobody apart from people who are already huge Ives enthusiasts has ever heard it!
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        At 2400 words, you're starting to approach many magazines' lower limit for feature articles. Perhaps a look at Writer's Market and a few query letters are in order.

        If the subject is appropriate, you may also want to contact the department editors of newspapers. 2400 words is long, but they may go for a two-part guest column.
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