What's the longest your hub should be?

1. 60

   sexygeekyposted 12 years ago

   I'm mostly curious because as I'm writing up my first ever hub, I'm realizing it's getting quite long, and I haven't even come ANYWHERE NEAR finishing it. I haven't published it yet, because I want to at least have part of it completed before I do (I'm writing up a list of things and ideas that you could do to feel younger and happier and to enrich your life, and right now I only have the introduction/origins of the hub, and the 10 things to remember before starting on this journey. I don't know if i should publish it before I actually have anything in the lists of things to).
   If it gets as long as I think it might, it might be too long to be an effective hub. What I'm writing is probably better fitted for an actual book, or maybe a multi-page website, but I can't afford a website domain and I find free web hosting doesn't look good and isn't likely to get much traffic because I can't way for advertising, and I don't even know if what I'm writing would even be worth publishing as a book (even though I spent way too many hours searching chapters and other such book stores looking for something like what I'm writing).
   
   Basically, in short form, my question is: How long is too long?
   
   Thanks everyone

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   1. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      To answer your last question first:  the recommended upper limit is 1,500 to 2,000 words. You will see Hubs up to 4,000 words, but most internet gurus say readers will only scroll down so far - so the longer a Hub gets, the less likely that people will read to the end. 
      
      How about making it a Capstone series?  By that I mean, create a summary Hub (as you've already done), with the introduction/origins and the 10 things to remember, then list your titles below that.  Publish it.
      
      Now, get on and write individual Hubs for each of the "things and ideas that you could do to feel younger and happier".  Each one needs to be at least 400 words. As you write and publish each one, go back to your summary Hub and make that title a hyperlink to the new Hub.
      
      If you can think of 29 "things and ideas", you could sign up for the 30 Day Challenge (which isn't a contest, it's a self-motivating exercise where you try to write 30 Hubs in 30 days).  You could then announce your intention on the HubChallengers forum which will give you a bit of extra motivation - though I find it motivating to see my summary Hub gradually filling up with blue hyperlinked titles!
      
      Two more final points.
      
      You're right, it would make a good ebook but only you know how long it would take you to write it (you need about 20,000 words) and work out how to publish it.  You may find writing the Hubs gets you started quicker - and you can always collect the Hub material and publish them as an ebook when you're finished.
      
      You can get traffic to your website without paying for advertising, it's a case of learning the right things to do. And have you looked at Blogger or Weebly?

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   2. 75

      Hunbbel Meerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It depends upon the content you are trying to produce. I once wrote a hub about 'personalities' (my best traffic fetching hub) and I had to break down into 3 hubs of a total of approx. 3,000 words - thus making it a series about personality.
      
      Though, I wrote a hub about 'advantages of mangoes' and it was filled with a lot of information with less than 700 words. Both are listed in Google's No.1 Page. So, I would recommend you to go for a 1,000 word hub, but try to make it as much interesting as you can and light up the layout a bit. Nobody in the world, will scroll down a boring hub, with poor layout and read a 1,000 or 2,000 clustered words.
      
      Happy Hubbing!

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   3. 75

      Hunbbel Meerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It is 'much better', to write a clear, concise hub with detailed information for every reader. You do not need to put all the extra gimmicks and words, but you will have to do it if the hub is summed up to under 300-400 words. Try to stretch it out for at least 600-700 words. It WILL NOT BE considered as a sub-standard hub. Believe me, but the hub should be equipped with detailed, concise and clear informations.

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2. 77

   sofsposted 12 years ago

   Marisa has said it all, but I would like to reiterate that a surfer on the internet does not read long articles unless it is academically oriented.
   Breaking it up into meaningful sections would work for you and the reader.
   I would suggest you do a detailed keyword research before you write the whole article so that you get good traffic to each of your hubs.
   Welcome to Hubpages

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