by J.R. Powell

Created on: December 19, 2010   Last Updated: April 25, 2012

The minimum word count requirement on Helium for most articles is 400 words, and Helium encourages a maximum word count of 1500 words. The minimum word count for recipes is 300 words, for poetry it is 12 words, and songs have a minimum word count requirement of 50 words.

The word count to use will depend on the particular article being written. It is best to write the Helium article as long as is necessary to give the required information without adding unnecessary words to achieve a particular word count.

Reasons to use a Higher Word Count

For product reviews, particularly of higher priced items, such as HDTVs, Blu-ray players, etc. using a higher word count (eg. around 600-1300 words or 2 or 3 pages) will allow much more information to be given about the product for the reader considering buying it to make a more informed choice than a shorter article.

A higher word count article can (though will not always) also provide higher revenue share earnings than one with a lower word count, particularly for product reviews. An average two-page product review can earn, on average, around twice that of a one page review. A three page product review can earn on average, around three times a one page review. Three pages for a product review should usually be sufficient.

Reasons to use a Lower Word Count

While for product reviews, longer articles can be advantageous, this is not necessarily the case for articles in general. If the necessary information can be fully written in one page (less than around 600 words), then a longer article should be unnecessary. While a two page article in general can give slightly higher revenue share earnings on average than a one page one, the average revenue share earnings per article page can actually be less, so it is likely that two one-page articles could be better financially than a general (ie. non-review) one page article.

A shorter article is also easier to read and is more likely to be what a web reader wants than a long article.

Word Count

To find the word count of an article, to ensure it meets the Helium word count requirements, word processors such as Open Office Writer and Microsoft Word have options that display the word and character count. The Helium 'write now' window also has an option for checking an article's word count (though the word count check that is automatically performed when an article is posted to Helium checks by looking at character count/6 instead of the actual word count, so a Helium article (except for poetry, songs and recipes which have different word count requirements) must have a minimum of 2400 characters - which is roughly 400 words.

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