Update Is at the Bottom – Got an Answer From EzineArticles!

Chris (last name withheld) emailed me to let me know last night that EzineArticles only requires 250 words, not 400 words minimum as I had mentioned in my email to my list about One Week Marketing being a little outdated in some parts. Now what I was saying was that it’s hard to keep up with certain sites in an eBook like this (my Squidoo guide has this issue too) but I wanted to be clear that some site links weren’t working in OWM and some info was outdated (in regards to Squidoo and EZA).

Turns out I was sort of mistaken about EZA. Well, technically I was flat out WRONG in regards to EZA. Legally, they DO only require a 250-word article. But I KNEW I had heard the 400 word minimum somewhere so I started digging around. It had been months since this conversation took place, but then I remembered it seemed people were saying they now required 400 words minimum.

Then I remembered why I’d heard all this take place. Every once in awhile rules change and crackdowns happen at web 2.0 properties – including Squidoo, EZA – you name it. A few months ago people started emailing me saying their article got rejected and I remember people posting about it being harder to get approved at EZA in forums, too.

On the EZA guidelines page, they state: “Think 400-600 Words as Your Quality Base – Don’t fill your article body with FLUFF just to reach this word count, but rather allow yourself enough room to explore the topic.” Chris pointed out to me that they also say the article, “Must be a minimum of 250 words and no more than 5,000 words. For us, an ideal article size is 400-750 words.”

So that’s where I got all screwed up. I remember my own subscribers being able to add more content to their 250 word article and it finally getting approved. So I am guessing maybe something too short makes them eyeball the quality a bit more. Or for 250 words, it’d better be good. Which is true – it’s just harder to write a very top quality article in 250 words for some people.

So that part of OWM is technically correct. I still highly suggest you shoot for 400 words. Chris also stated in his email to me, “There is speculation that to be in the ‘Most Viewed’ or ‘Most Published’ sections, the article has to be a minimum of 400 words, but I have yet to find evidence of that on EZA’s site.”

Update: I Tweeted EZA and Chris Knight replied: “Most Viewed/Most Published sections only include articles over 400 words. Most Recent includes articles 250+ words.”

So if you want your article to have a shot at getting into the most viewed and most published sections, you need to have at least 400 words in there. Thanks for the update, Chris – he rocks at getting back to me quickly whenever I have a question.

Tiff

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