very long article or split into different articles?

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   John Serranoposted 13 years ago

   What do you think is more efficient? Writing one very long article or splitting it into different articles? When I say "efficient" I suppose I mean which one will get me more money, bring my hubscore up, get more followers etc etc basically make me more successful here on hubpages.
   
   Here's a little bit about my situation (if you care): I'm a complete newbie to hubpages and I'm working on my first article. It's an analysis and review of the films of Charlie Chaplin and seeing as he's made 82 films (not talking about all of them, but quite a lot of them) I'm thinking that my article is getting too long. I'm at about 7000 words and I'm only about 60-70% done. I could split up the articles based on the films he made in different studios but the article is also about his technique and filmmaking style, and I wanted to talk about his films before I get into that, so I don't know if splitting the article up would work. Any advice? Also, I'm worried that I'm putting a whole lot of effort into one article, and the fact that I would make the same amount of money from making an article that's 90% shorter seems like a waste of time. I'm having fun writing it anyway, so I don't really care too much. hahaha. But I would like to know for future reference. Thank you.

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      CASE1WORKERposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Hi, I faced this dilemna on my other account Just History- as I wanted to write about Henry Viiith and his wives and just about everthing else. I split the articles  because after about 2500  words I think the reading experience will be just a bit too much for the internet. Also if you publish , say thematically- for example- early works- satire- new techniques etc you could go into a  lot more detail and as you say enjoy yourself whilsst you are doing it.
      I dont think efficiency is the goal here?

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      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Conventional wisdom says that people on the internet have a shorter attention span, and dislike having to scroll down excessively - so it's best to keep articles to a maximum of 1,500 words.  That's especially true because big chunks of uninterrupted text can be indigestible, so you need to break up the text with headings, photos, videos etc - which will mean people have to scroll down even further!
      
      The other factor, as you point out, is that if you write one long Hub you have only one opportunity to be found - whereas several Hubs, heavily interlinked, could get you more attention.
      
      However, my first thought on reading your post was - why HubPages?   If you're able to write 7,000 words on Chaplin so easily, you should consider starting your own blog specialising in that topic.   It would be easier to split your information up over several blog posts, which are designed to be read as a series.  You could set up a free site at Blogger or Weebly, but I recommend you get yourself a domain name that reflects what you're writing about.

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         John Serranoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         i've never really tried blogging before. I have to be honest, I'm only here on hubpages to make some money. I'm pretty much a complete newbie to freelance writing as well. This is the first freelance "job" I've ever done, so I'm just kinda trying it to see how it works out. Maybe I will try blogging. Would you recommend it over hubpages?
         
         another question about blogger that's kinda off-topic: does blogger only use google adsense? or does ebay and amazon work over there as well? because I've heard that adsense is very unreliable e.g. accounts getting deleted/disabled for no reason etc.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Normally I wouldn't for a complete novice.  I would say, "wait until you've found a subject you're passionate about before you start a blog".  But it sounds to me as though you've already found that subject! 
            
            HubPages has its advantages too, and in fact I'd recommend using both.
            
            
            
            Adsense isn't unreliable.  You see a lot of people getting deleted and disabled but it's usually because they've been breaking the Adsense Terms of Service - often because they haven't taken the time to understand them.  However, I find Adsense forms a very small part of my income on my own sites, and I dont even have Adsense on some of them.  eBay and Amazon do work on Blogger - Amazon is particularly easy, because Blogger has a built-in tool. You can also sign up for other affiliate programs with companies like Book Depository, Barnes & Noble etc.  I wrote a couple of Hubs about monetizing Blogger which you might find helpful.

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   Polly Cposted 13 years ago

   Hi John, it's a bit of a dilemma but you might want to consider splitting it into at least two articles. I have an article that is over 5000 words long but I was getting a little worried about the length. However, it does not appear that people give up reading it - it has a long reader duration and is my most popular article. Having said that, I can tell that it is being read by students, who might feel the need to plough on regardless! It makes me no money, btw, but I still like the fact that it is of use to people. If your article is going to be around 10,000 words, though, that might be pushing it a bit.

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   Website Examinerposted 13 years ago

   Given the nature of the article, it hardly matters how long it is. If well-formatted, readers will simply scroll down to the part of the article that interests them. If you split it up, most likely one of the articles will do better than the others. You could make one long hub, plus one short hub that summarizes your findings.

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   John Serranoposted 13 years ago

   thanks everybody for the feedback. I think I will be splitting it into different articles. But if I do, should I make them more independent of each other? What I mean is, should I just do it like "The Films of Charlie Chaplin Part 1," then part two etc etc in which case, most readers would have to/want to read the other articles as well? OR should I just separate them in a way that readers won't have to read the other articles?

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      Website Examinerposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Use the Groups feature to link them together. But don't count on most readers to proceed. So make each article as complete as possible.

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         John Serranoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I see. Thanks. But how would I go about using the Groups feature? Sorry, I don't see it anywhere.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      If you have lots of Hubs - or lots of blog posts - all with very similar titles, Google will penalize you because to Google, it's a sign you are spinning your articles.  So using the same title with Part 1, Part 2 won't work, I'm afraid.
      
      This is the limitation of HubPages for a series - the only way to link them is to use the "Groups" function but that only creates a link at the very end of the Hub.  So you'll need to manually create a capsule in every Hub with links to the others in the series.   But don't necessarily expect readers to follow those links, because the links to "related Hubs" by other people are far more prominent and are likely to tempt them away.

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   Website Examinerposted 13 years ago

   No problem: http://hubpages.com/faq/#hubgroups

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