Article Writing – What’s the Optimum Article Length?

If you place yourself in the shoes of an ezine publisher what is the optimum length you would want for an article to be published in your ezine?

Ideally you prefer an article that contains high quality information that helps the reader’s business. A short article of 250-300 words can do this if it crystallizes a problem and offers a good solution.

Benefits of Writing Short Articles

1. Can be written quickly e.g. 15-20 minutes. You can just identify the main problem of your target market, then offer one solution. This enables you to write several articles in one sitting.

2. Can be rewritten quickly so you can submit a different version to alternative directories.

3. Keep reader’s attention. It’s harder to read content online than offline therefore a short article will get read in it’s entirety whereas a long article may just get scanned.

Cons of Writing Short Articles

1. Not chosen by ezine publishers as often as longer articles. They usually prefer articles over 700 words.

2. Not well written. This is because a short article requires less thought. Sometimes the content is written just to get backlinks or improve search engine rankings . It’s not written for the reader.

Benefits of Writing Long Articles

1. Preferred by most ezine publishers.

2. Carries more weight than short articles.

3. Include more keywords

4. Create an authority article for your blog or web site so it positions you as an expert in your field.

5. Create an ebook or ecourse from these articles.

Cons

1. Takes a longer time to write than short articles, therefore it requires more research and deeper thought.

2. Readers may not read or skim the article because it’s too long and they don’t have the patience or time to read it.

3. It’s harder to read a long article on a computer screen.

Tips

A long article can be created by combining one or more articles.
Constantly test different article lengths to see which one receives the most visitors.

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Herman Drost is the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of Web Design, Web Hosting, SEO