Hub Length

1. 51

   marc benjaminposted 13 years ago

   I am having problems publishing some hubs. I am told there is not enough material to publish? What is the minimum length a hub has to be?
     On the other hand I can not publish all of a chapter that I want to paste into a capsule. Is there a maximum number of characters you can write in a capsule? I had this same problem with blooger.com.

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   1. 60

      Becca's Blogposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I do not know about a minimun number of characters or a max. It seems most hubs are between about 400 and 800 words. Any longer than that you risk losing the interest of a lot of people.

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      1. 60

         aj'sposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Hey i also had this problem with my first hub. My opinion is, we should write informative enough on any topic so that readers are interested to stay. And it is right that very long article scares readers off, as it will loose interest.
         
         Be particular
         Point out
         Explain....

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   2. 91

      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      A Hub should be made up of several text capsules, not just one.
      
      The recommended maximum for an online article is around 1,500 words - it's said that readers lose interest beyond that point.  However I do know some Hubs that are up to 3,500 words.
      
      General tip: your paragraphs are far, far too long.  You're not giving your readers a chance to breathe!
      
      Also, if these are chapters from a novel, I'm not convinced publishing them here (or anywhere online other than your own blog) is the way to go.  I wrote a Hub about promoting your novel online - you'll find it if you check my profile.

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   3. 59

      LVMposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      It is possible to publish a 150-word hub if you include at least one photo.  It is possible but not suggested.  HubPages suggests a 500-word hub.  One reason for this suggestion is that Google Adsense needs textual information to identify what relevant ads to show.  The second reason I could think of has something to do with the search engine ranking.  The more textual content the hub has, the more chances that it is not seen by the search engines as a duplicate content from other sites, and give it a higher ranking.  And of course, hubs are meant to be useful and informative, which is probably not possible with a 100-word article.

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2. 74

   E. A. Wrightposted 13 years ago

   I'm usually aiming for 500-800 words per hub.

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   1. 0

      cosetteposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      reely.
      
      i better start padding my hubs then, as mine are way too short.

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      1. 59

         blue dogposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         it depends on the site.  you might check with mgmt, or darkside on this, seem to remember him having info on that.  i think they like them to start around 600 words.
         examiner suggests 300-500, theirs is a totally different setup though.

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3. 61

   patfulposted 13 years ago

   You asked about the length of a hub article. I'm new here, so I don't pretend to guru status, but here's a suggestion.
   
   If you're having problems with "the length is too short", try making some notes before you create the posting. For an arbitrary number, make three main points to your central topic. Or another way to go, frequently used here, is to say "Top Seven Ways.." or "Nine Cities to See", etc. When you give yourself a number, then you develop some comments on each of the items in your list...or, if you're using the three-point system, talk a bit about each of the three.
   The length you're looking for will appear. It's not so much that 500 words are magic and 25 are not but that you'll give more of a sense of "completeness" as you add words.
   And I agree with an earlier comment that this isn't the place for a novel chapter. Give us a quick summary, if you like. That avoids the "MEGO" syndrome--My Eyes Glaze Over.

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4. 60

   Dame Scribeposted 13 years ago

   Yes, as Marisa Wright said, break your text into more text capsules, just click on them and it will be auto-added . Also, make them about 5-8 lines long and start another paragraph. As Patful said, don't want *Mego* that's a new word for me too, lol. Welcome to HubPages.

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5. 0

   Mark Galenkampposted 13 years ago

   Yeah dont use to many words, perhaps my mistake is, that I did >.<

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6. 69

   Appletreedealsposted 13 years ago

   Just offering an opinion. I enjoy hubs in the 1500 word range. Shorter ones (400-500 words) leave me feeling like they were "news clips" instead of articles. This is not criticisms of shorter hubs, just relaying my impressions.

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   1. 94

      Susana Sposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I feel the same way. When I come across a short hub I tend to skim through it to see if there is anything really useful and click out pretty quickly. I'd much rather read something with a bit more meat to it. Google prefers longer articles too!
      
      I usually aim for around 1000 words, most are longer and a few are just over 800 words.

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