In the world of copywriting there is a running joke when asked about how long a sales letter should be. The punchline is, long enough to cover the essentials but short enough to be interesting. Well, article writing isn’t much different. Of course, the purpose of your article is going to have a lot to do with how long it is. I’m going to give you some insight into this question. The answers just might surprise you.

The length of the article that you write is going to have a lot to do with what it is you want to accomplish. Let’s say that your article is being written for a publication. Let’s say it’s a major publication and you’re being paid quite well for it. In this case, the article is going to have to, at the very least, completely cover the topic that you’re writing on. If it’s a broad topic, you’re probably breaking it up into an article series. Each part of the series, however, should cover that area in depth. So your article could end up to be 2,000 to 3,000 words or longer. Depends on how complex the subject is.

What if you’re writing an article for the purpose of marketing your products and services? In this case, you’re probably giving the reader some preliminary information so that they can decide whether or not they want to go to your site in order to get more information on the topic and possibly a solution to their problem. In this case, an average article probably will run between 350 and 500 words. Some might be a little longer, but it’s doubtful that you’ll be writing 3,000 word articles.

Point is, there is no set number of words that designates a good article. Abe Lincoln once wrote a letter to a friend to which he said, and I’m paraphrasing, “I’m sorry this letter is so long but I didn’t have time to write a shorter one.” Sometimes shorter is better. People have short attention spans. Many people only read out of necessity. So the last thing you want to do is put your reader to sleep.

If you keep that in mind, you’ll write the perfect length article for YOUR purpose.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to write articles that get people’s attention and can earn you up to $200 per article written? Then check out my Complete Article Writing And Marketing Guide that you can find at http://www.honestincomeprogram.com/tcawamg.html – This is my own book that I wrote from over 30 years of writing experience.