Hub Length

1. 61

   rbtreevesposted 12 years ago

   I'm new to HubPages.. wondering what the minimum and max acceptable length is?????
   
   
   Rob

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      Uninvited Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I think the least you can write is about 150 words...aiming for a minimum of 400 is best, there is no maximum.

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      1. 61

         rbtreevesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thank You.. write on! !
         .

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   2. 66

      waynetposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      12 inches, just like mine

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      1. 64

         Richieb799posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Wayne, what did you think of my one page article? I added some new pictures of my holiday in there but I've noticed a spelling mistake so I'm going to have sign in and edit it I'm a bit Dyslexic..

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            waynetposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yeah that's great...cheers!

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      2. 83

         earnestshubposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That's contrary to the rumour's I heard from your girlfriends on facebook!

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            waynetposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            What?! they was saying it was humongous!!! They could be right lol!

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            1. 83

               earnestshubposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Humongous?
               
               
               
               
               One of them mentioned tweezers!

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               1. 66

                  waynetposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Nooooooooooooooooooooo!
                  
                  They had no right to tell the truth!

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                  1. 83

                     earnestshubposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     
                     I hate it when that happens!
                     
                     My six year old GK came up to me yesterday with a sympathetic look on her face and out of the blue said "Gandpa you're old. You're gonna die soon!"
                     Just to stay on topic I have settled for a minimum of 400 words. Some of my hubs have thousands!

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   3. 79

      Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      The more important thing is that you use enough words, and the right words, to get your point across. This is not a place where you write based on numbers of words. But if your Hub is empty of original content, or full of spamming, it will be flagged as unacceptable.
      
      Your purpose here will dictate the right amount of words for you to get your point across.

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      1. 61

         rbtreevesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Awesome Sally...  appreciate your insight..

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      2. 76

         lorlie6posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         This may be premature, Sally's Trove, but I'm not seeing the umbers I usually pull in on the first day.  No gloating intented.
          
         Oh, and waynet (as an naughty aside)  I am truly impressed.   And don't believe a word of it...but that's neither here nor there, is it??
         
         Back to the topic.  I think 379 words have marred my hub performance.    That's too few and perhaps the 'wrong' choices, so I plan to work on it tomorrow.  UW was right initially and I should know better!
         
         Humongous?  Oh, please, you two...

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   4. 79

      Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Gee whiz, if you are still following this thread, you've certainly gotten an ear or eye full. Hope it all helps.

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2. 76

   lorlie6posted 12 years ago

   I just wrote my shortest one yet-379 words.  Let's hope I'm not penalized!

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   1. 83

      earnestshubposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      My two latest hubs are short too, but I still had around 500 words in each.
      I can't shut up even when I try too!

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         rbtreevesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Earnest..

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3. 61

   SomewayOuttaHereposted 12 years ago

   ...i haven't even counted...do i care? no.

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4. 72

   Cagsilposted 12 years ago

   What is quality?
   
   That is what should determine hub length. However, HP Staff and other members, have never(not since I started) been on the same page.
   
   Many would say that quality begins at nothing less than 400 words. Many would say that quality begins or does better at 1000 words.
   
   The longer the hub, the more informative and detailed it has to be, and must be written to keep the readers attention, unless it's a sales hub. A Sales Hub has to be written in a specific manner, so as to get the reader to click the link and purchase the item written about.
   
   So, in essence- hub length? Is a joke.

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   1. 79

      Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Quality doesn't necessarily prescribe hub length and hub length doesn't determine quality. What matters is that you use the number of words/capsules you need to get your point across. If you want to put only 300 words in a Hub, then you should have a good reason for it...maybe you've written poetry and categorized your Hub as such, in which case you are immune from a whole lot of things.
      
      Word count means nothing in certain HP categories.

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      1. 72

         Cagsilposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         My post was pointing out that hub length is a joke.
         
         The better question is "what is quality?"
         Really?
         There should be a reason for everything. Just a thought.
         I've reported Poetry Hubs that are less than 50 words. Even some that are less than 100 words. Yes, poetry comes in all forms, but not all poetry is actually considered quality writing either.
         So far, the only category I have found that word count means nothing is poetry. Other than that HP does indeed want a minimum number of words to obtain quality.
         
         However, that said, I flagged two hubs the other day and I found the poor in content. But, the person opened a extreme hub makeover forum thread and asked about the content?
         
         I said it wasn't enough and Maddie disagreed with me. So, in essence, HP is probably changing their "standard" of "quality", and apparently, it isn't anything like what it resembled in the past or of my experience.
         
         I told her, if she did consider them quality, then apparently, it is time that I stopped helping others attempting to write on HP, considering my standards are higher than HP's are now.
         
         So, with that said. I am done with this thread. Good day.

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            Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            You and I don't disagree.

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         2. 87

            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Interesting Cags. I guess I missed that thread. Did notice Maddie only returned to the forums recently after a long absence when she was busy training up new mods, apparently.

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            Uninvited Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I actually agreed with Maddie in that case. They were short but not bad quality in my opinion.

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   2. 89

      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree that length doesn't automatically mean quality - however quality can't be judged by automated filters, and sites like HP cannot possibly rely on human moderation 100%.  Therefore it must use some other kind of filter, however clumsy or imperfect it may be.
      
      Of course it's possible to say something meaningful under 400 words, but setting a minimum word count would cut out a lot of the people who think HP is a place to write blog posts, and a lot of the spammers who want to post 300 word spun articles.  So it's worth doing.
      
      Personally, I think that if you can't write 400 words on a subject, you shouldn't write a Hub.   Under 400 words isn't much more than a comment - it belongs on a blog or a site aimed at "snippets".   Besides, several of our former Hub gurus felt that Hubs needed to be longer to rank well in Google - even Sales Hubs!  Remember Nelle recommending 800 words and up?

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      1. 72

         Cagsilposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yes Marisa, I remember Nelle talking about 800 word hubs, even sales hubs. And, I agree with you on your other statement. If someone is going to write an article then it does need to be longer than 300-400 words.
         
         Anyone can write a blog post that length and I have done it myself, which is why I said it should be longer. I have read plenty of hubs on HP and the most quality type hubs I've read are over 1000 words long and packed full of information.
         
         I don't see HP or Hubs, as blogs and if HP is headed in that direction, then it should let the rest of the community know that. It certainly will change the quality of the site, without a doubt.

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5. 87

   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   Well, I might be alone here, but I would like to see a 500 word minimum put in place. No - make that 700. I am sick and tired of hopping and finding one paragraph (with a link of course) passing for a 'hub'.
   
   If one paragraph was quality, I'd have 10,000 hubs by now.
   
   If none of you know what quality is by now, the least you should know is that there is no way you can post one paragraph and expect it to pass muster, unless of course the author then puts up 10,000 backlinks to it, cheating Google into thinking it is quality.
   
   One paragraph can easily be 150/300 words.
   
   Hubpages should be aiming higher than that. We should be able to offer the reader something more.

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      Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      With all respect, Izzy, HP has made it clear that poetry is a category in and of itself and not to be measured by word count. The same may be true for HP's fiction category, although I don't know that for a fact.
      
      A quality Hub is not measured by quantity of words, but by whether the words get the point across and a whole lot of other things that are dictated by HP "rules".
      
      This is still a touchy subject.
      
      I think we all know that writing here as an excuse for gaming Google is no longer an option. But newbs will sneak in under an HP filter that fails to work.
      
      But I think I repeat myself. Better get some Mylanta or Tums or something.

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      Peter Owenposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Izzy
      While I don't really disagree with you, I have come across one paragraph hubs which were very informative and to the point, and much better than a lot of 1000 word giberish on subjects the writers knew nothing about. I don't mind people spewing out volumns on their personal stuff since I don't usually read any of this. But when a writer is tackling a subject that requires knowledge and experience, be it in Financial Planning or sciences, or how to roof a house, many people just put stuff out there that is total nonsense.
      Case in point is a very popular hub (which I will not name) on financial planning which took 1500 words to say nothing more than people need to save more and spend less, and the stats quoted were totally wrong.
      To me, this is the stuff that make the public's view of Hubpages not a Go To Place for information.

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      1. 87

         IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I have NEVER come across a one paragraph hub that I could take seriously, no matter the content. [I exclude poetry here]
         This isn't CNN or some site reporting the latest news flash giving the bare details of a story yet to come.

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      Ms Deeposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Me, too, IzzyM ... on the "sick and tired of hopping and finding one paragraph (with a link of course) passing for a 'hub'"

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6. 87

   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   I'm not talking about poetry.

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   1. 79

      Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      OK

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7. 89

   RedElfposted 12 years ago

   I agree with Cags that length should not be the sole determinant of quality. Quality can be found in short (concise?) hubs in some categories, such as in creative writing (poetry, fiction, etc) or photo hubs.
   
   I would love to say that quality can be had in all short hubs, however it isn't, and I also have to agree with Izzy on that point.
   
   If I am looking for information on a specific topic though, I would like to see more than a short paragraph or two - especially in the "how-to" genre. Those one or two paragraph shorties (not disrespect Waynet ) just don't cut it for informational hubs.
   
   Of course, as you can tell from the length of this comment, I don't have a problem making lots of words.

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      If I want the bare details on a 'how-to', I will look up eHow. I expect to read something more substantial here.

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      1. 79

         Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         HP isn't eHow and needs to get its house in order accordingly. What I'm thinking about is the issue of reader expectations.
         
         eHow meets readers' expectations, and it's been doing it for a long time. It's the promise of that site. HP has never made a promise to readers for any kind of authoritative/useful/branded content. It's only made a promise to authors that they have a place to publish (under certain conditions). HP has never branded its site as a resource for readers, and a great deal of the problems here are the result of fallout from that lack of branding.

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8. 79

   Sally's Troveposted 12 years ago

   While I'm on a tear, HP never promised and does not now promise its readers anything.
   
   It's been an exemplary site for building a dedicated community around the concept of writing for money. That's how I got here three years ago. I saw an HP ad on craigslist that said something like "write and get paid". And I got hooked.
   
   But that's not enough. HP did some significant marketing to draw in new "writers", which it still does today, but it does little to promote the value of its content to readers.
   
   HP seems to be a one-way street, a place of self-congratulation among its members. Until that turns around, it will remain a quite lovely anachronistic place to archive Hubs that represent thoughts from around the world. There's great value in this archive, but as it stands, it's not marketable.
   
   Think about it this way: eHow content is marketable. People want to know how to do things, and eHow markets themselves that way.
   
   What does HP need to do to make its content marketable to readers?

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That is the million dollar question in a nutshell.
      
      Obviously I haven't been here as long as you, but HP seems to be proud of its ability to advertise itself as "an open publishing platform" and "a way to make money online".
      
      The two things are separate, yet intertwined. The HP I learned to know was powerful in ways I didn't realise as a new publisher. I'm just a wannabe writer, but with a certain level of intelligence and  education but coupled with a desire to learn and a love of research, you could say HP was perfect for me.
      
      Until I realized the actual strength of the HP platform that took mediocre writers and catapulted them to the top of Google, not just those who took their time to work hard and do their best.
      
      One guy I found here on HP has several hubs at the #1 spot for keywords I had targeted (before I realised anything about keywords)and all his stuff was not only duplicated, he didn't even take the time to make their layout interesting. He has a hubscore of 1. Says it all, really.
      
      Unfortunately, for Hubpages to change, they are going to put off so many potential writers, who, like myself, had never done anything like this before.
      
      I'm not sure I would have felt confident enough to submit anything at all. It would have been put on the back burner like the book I've been planning to write for years.
      
      Glad it's not my call.

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         Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I'm glad it's not my call, either. I did gain confidence here, as many others have. I came to HP through craigslist and it opened a new door to possibilities. Here, I could write what I wanted to and have a potentially huge audience.
         
         Maybe HP needs to market itself that way...a place of exploration where new writings go very much beyond the pablum of what generates Google search results.
         
         I keep coming up with the question, what does HP have that is unique, and how are they going to market that uniqueness?

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   Wesman Todd Shawposted 12 years ago

   Gosh, I flag things that are two hundred words unless they've got some outstanding links, pics, and vids along with it.
   
   I think I've got two five thousand word hubs - probably stupid of me to create them that long, instead of breaking them up into readable sized hubs. . .er, more readable sized.
   
   I generally feel like I'm just getting started at a thousand words, unless it's a product hub.

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      Uninvited Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I tend to say things more succinctly, i have several hubs under 400.

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         IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         No! I am frankly shocked and stunned!
         
         OK, haven't read all your hubs - hands up - but what I have read has been quality.

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    ershruti304posted 12 years ago

    Quality and quantity of words all matters. Good quality of words allows you to attract traffic to your hub while large quantity makes the placement of ads quite convenient. Thus if you are interested for making profit you need to write good quality as well as number of words.

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