It depends on what the hub is. If it's poetry a couple of hundred words is acceptable, anything else usually needs to be at least 800..
I've found as little as 300 words, 3 photos will be sufficient to pass the QAP.
According to the Help Site, you need 1150 words to have a "good" hub. You also needs quality pictures and other capsules, such as polls, maps, etc. Best of luck to you.
Suggested attributes of a good hub is just that. Real hubs have a variety of attributes depending on topic. What I came up with is empirical. 3 text modules, 3 photos, 300 well written words, would get featured 95% of the time.
It isn't just about getting featured. The more words a hub has, the more keywords it will have, which will make it more searchable and thus more likely to rank higher with Google.
I was surprised to see that people are still writing hubs here with only 300 words. I can't imagine one that short having much relevant or complete information.
It really depends on the topic. A recipe tends to require less text and more photos. Hard to write 1000 words on any recipe.
Hard, but not impossible. What do you think differentiates the zillions of articles about how to make meatloaf? I could copy and paste recipes all day long if all I wanted to do was put similar information of 300 or so words on line.
To me, what makes a recipe interesting is the back story. Why is this one special? What unusual ingredients is the cook using and how did they discover that these things made the food taste or look better. Is it grandma's recipe? Was it smuggled over the border years ago?
If you don't add details like these, why would anybody bother to read your recipe, let alone use it? And, by the way, I'd sure like to see a recipe where the cook says he or she actually creates and uses it successfully. I tried one awhile back that seemed like it would be great but was a total failure, and I'm a pretty experienced cook. THAT is a real turnoff!
I agree with all that you said. In some cases, it is simple and easy that makes a successful recipe. Having arbitrary determine a minimum length article is not ideal but what current AI capabilities are. We are dealing with the limitations of HP and making the best of it. As expressed by others here, a poem of 100 words can be excellent content while a 1000 words essay can be boring. One size cannot fit all bill.
Obviously, length does not equate with quality, but in order to be "found" by the search engines, the more words the better. If the engines can't find you, quality won't matter.
Hi maged,
We recommend 800-1,500 words per Hub.
I don't know if there is an official number of words that a Hub has to have. But if it's too short, it probably won't pass the quality assessment process, because it likely doesn't have enough information in it. Here's a fairly decent guide on what makes up a good quality Hub: http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/Elem … tellar-Hub
It is said that a web article, to be successful on the Web, usually has about 1150 words. Of course, it still must be well-written with relevant information in it too.
I would add, though, that much of it depends on subject matter and how well you can convey the information on that subject. I've written some successful articles that were not 1150 words long. But they did have relevant well-present information that pinpointed the issue addressed.
thank you all , i published a new hub , how can i know if it accepted or not ?
There is no minimum wordcount. I have featured hubs of under 300 words
Good for you. I have done experiments where I started with a hub of less than 300 words. By adding incrementally word count on several iterations, I reached past the 300 words and it became featured. That's how I arrived at that number.
What is the point in writing on a website like HubPages if you don't like writing and find it difficult to reach a reasonable number of words in what you compose?
* If you can't write more because you've run out of material to cover, research the topic until you can think of more questions about it to answer and more information to give your reader.
* If you are having difficulty reaching article length in your articles due to writer's block, work past it. Set the piece aside and finish it later if you must, but don't publish it until it's actually finished.
* If your point is to improve your writing, then buckle down and write. Just keep writing, without being repetitive, until you do reach article-length on your posts. Nothing but writing will improve your writing skills.
* If your point is to earn money doing something you dislike, find something else, because there's very little, if any, money to be found writing half-hearted blurbs. Find something you do like or at least don't dislike so much so at least you can fail to earn anything doing something that doesn't make you miserable.
I agree. This isn't a homework assignment where you are required to turn in a certain number of words. The point is to write a quality article that people want to read and share.
The key words here are "want to read and share". Statistics have shown that the ideal number of words is somewhere in the area of 1200. More or less generally brings in fewer views. So, while this is not a "homework assignment", those who want to even have a chance of being ranked, in most but not all instances, need to follow the guidelines. However, if low words work for you, good. Personally, I would never put a hub online with 300 or so words. I even feel 700 is pushing it.
People who want info can skim, and then if they like what they see, they can go back and do in depth reading. That's why we have capsules. How in the world do you divide a 300 word article into capsules? Beats me!
I agree with what you are saying. What I meant by "homework assignment" is that there is no one here who is forcing you to write something and turn it in. You don't have to do it at all. So instead of trying to figure out the minimum requirements and aiming for that, aim for making the best article you can write. If you write one that sufficiently covers the topic, chances are, it will automatically have the correct number of words.
The guidelines include a lot of things that would not be ideal for some hubs written for specific purposes. Like always putting in a video, or never collecting links into lists. They are guidelines for people in need of hints and suggestions for writing a generic magazine-style article, not hard and fast rules.
"People" "can" do all sorts of things. But, using myself as an example, I don't do those things. When my computer is jacked up I go for technical articles that stick to the point and solve my problem and I keep clicking until I find it. When I want a recipe I just want the recipe. Just yesterday I searched for a Kopha-based White Christmas recipe and passed up every one until I found the classic recipe without commentary, adaptations, or "more healthy" imagings. I mean FFS, it's sugar, fat, and rice bubbles. All I needed was the proportions.
What would make anyone assume 280 words is not the reason number for some topics. I write a hub to convey useful information on a topic. Sometime this is 280 words, sometimes it is 1200. Hubs are meant to serve a purpose for the reader. Wordcount is 100% secondary to that goal.
If, for example, a reader has a computer problem and want to know how to fix it, the fix can be quite simple Any extra words just get in the way of helping them solve that problem.
Agreed, only thing is HubPages quality assessment has a general requirement of a minimum of words and pictures etc....If you want to be found by search engine such as google, you need to get "featured" status.
Good point, but frankly, if I wanted to know how to fix a computer problem I would be more likely to turn to YouTube or call my computer guy than to try to find an article about it. But that's just me. As with recipes, there are a zillion articles on this topic, so even writing about it could be a problem in terms of getting views. If I did, however, choose an article on this topic, it would be one written by a pro, not by someone like me who may know the fix but does not have the creds.
A lot of my work here is in the form of flash or nano fiction. That means that the majority of it is less than 100 words. Yet every Hub is featured for quality.
I believe there is a different standard for poetry and fiction, but the question is, how many page views are you getting? From what I have heard, works of fiction are not ranked well and are not well read. Therefore, what is the point of writing something that only a few people read? Makes no sense to me.
What makes no sense to you, makes perfect sense to my readers. Remember, people do have loyal followers from other sources than HP or social media sites.
+1 There are plenty of people who follow poetry and short fiction. I have poetry hubs with views in the thousands and an average of 80 comments per hub.
There are also plenty of avid pleasure readers who are constantly looking for new things to read for free.
I suck at marketing my writing, so posting it online allows it a chance to market itself. One usually must give away the first novel in a series to get things going, anyway. Giving one away by serializing it online creates dozens of possible contact points sort of like advertisements, one or more for each chapter. The first eighteen chapters of Gruldak have gotten thousands of views and people who compose lists of free science fiction seem to love linking to it. What's not to love about that?
My fiction and poetry score great on HubPages. If a score drops on, say a chapter of Gruldak, all I have to do is go in and tighten up the text a little and the score goes back into the nineties once a human in QAP looks at it.
Jodah: Weren't you the same person complaining awhile back that after putting in so much work you only had 10,000 views? Has something changed? I am surprised to hear you say this, even though I know how good the quality of your work is and love reading it.
I can't remember complaining that I only had 10,000 views TT2, although my views have been increasing consistently recently around 70,000. I have 10,000 views from just three hubs, one of those is a recipe/poetry combination, another is just a poetry hub, and one about unexplained coincidences. It has been four years since I only had 10,000 views. Thanks for the kind words of support about my writing though.
Glad to hear this. Guess my memory took me back too far! It would be terrific, though, if you could have more. You certainly deserve to have your work read.
Yes, I know a lot of people who write in different genres have a lot more views (in the millions even) but I don't expect miracles. As long as those that do read what I write get enjoyment from it, that is what is important to me. Slow and steady wins the race
Apparently your situation is different because you bring readers in from places other than Google that are followers. Most who write here don't have followers, so in your situation, what you are doing does make sense. I was not just referring to you, however. There are tons of people here who may be writing very short hubs and getting nothing in return for their efforts. Those are the people to whom my comments were directed. Once you clarified your own situation, I had a better understanding, but I still hold with my original views.
Indeed, for every person who wants a cultural essay with their recipe there is another who just want the recipe.
So why should they come to HP to find it when there are millions of them available online elsewhere that have been created by professional chefs?
by Victoria Lynn 13 years ago
I've seen people saying that they are writing longer hubs and getting more traffic. I've always heard at least 300 words up to 800 or so. Have you found an optimal number to shoot for?
by Carolee Samuda 12 years ago
I was hub hopping and had to flag a few hubs for being substandard (word count). One hub had exactly 10 words and 2 photos. There should be a way the system prevents you from publishing a hub like that except if it's in the poetry section.
by Kate Swanson 10 years ago
Janderson just submitted some great suggestions on this thread:http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/126313#post2666393and I think this one deserves a suggestion post on its own.We're always being told to be discriminating with our Amazon capsules - less is more, they must be directly related, etc...
by jondav 14 years ago
Is there one?Or is there a maximum number of capsules that can be added to any given hub?
by Carolyn Blacknall 15 years ago
Is hub pages looking for at least 200 or 300 words? Will it be flagged as sunbstandard at a certain limit?Will they ever have a spell checker for forums?
by easyspeak 15 years ago
I know more the words the better...but can you have too many words in a hub?
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