Product:Word Ratio and General Word Count Query

All agreed, Ryank. Just as an addition: that's really not the only point we are working on concerning SEO, e.g.:

• In the past days, we've created automatic filters adding nofollow to any affiliate link we could  find: in text- modules, link lists and feeds.
• We reworked our modules, sending all Amazon clicks - no matter where they come from - over an internal redirect, having three advantages: we are able to count these clicks now and show them to you in your account (hopefully). Those links are masked affiliate URLs - at least as far as Google does allow masking them (nofollow, forbidden via robots.txt and encoded). Plus, you get a higher share on them, since VigLink is avoided o Amazon. So don't be surprised, when you VigLink Amazon part drops to zero.
• In the past weeks, we have had removed 270.000 artificial zero authority backlinks on Wizzley. If anybody knows something about Penguin, you know what 270.000 spam backlinks mean!
• You are right: we do need authority backlinks, but that's kind of hard to get and we are looking for them ...

To mention a few of the many tasks we do for providing an authors' network with great potential for the future.

And for those quickly browsing over the thread: the 50 word limit has been restored.

Just to stop this getting too one sided, I'm with Sam and am ok with steps that stop Wizzley getting too spammy. Maybe 100 words per product was a bit extreme, but I respect the steps being made to protect the quality of the site. I made the decision to invest some time here in the hope that it would be a powerful domain down the track due to the stricter guidelines.

There are some good authors and great content on Squidoo. However, personally, I think Squidoo looks like trash with the amount of products they're allowed on pages. It gets abused. I have no idea how that site isn't penalized for it.  It's like google is in love with Seth Godin or something.

I appreciate the statistics that Squidoo is thriving, but I just don't get it. I clicked on something that was ranked top the other day, and there was virtually no content on the page - only products.

ryank: 09/24/2012 - 05:44 PM

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Sam: 09/24/2012 - 05:30 PM

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Come on people, 100 words of genuine content is too much per product or ad? 100 words of useful, for the prospective buyer!, content everybody can do in a heart beat! Wanna look what 100 words look like? Here you go:

"One hundred word are barely enough to tell a reader what a product is all about, what different versions it come in, how they differ, what it can be used for, why it is better than other similar products on the market or why the reader should buy it in the first! Add to that your personal experience, or that of your family and friends, with 'product' and why you recommend it to your readers and you have written one hundred words in a heart beat! It ain't that difficult, this paragraph contains 104 words and I wrote it in two minutes or less!”

 

SY

Perhaps a better question is, how many words does a reader WANT to read about a slight variation of a rubik's cube? 

Put the product / product comparison as high on the page / article as possible, and then, for the inquisitive reader, and Google!, put the rest of the information below the fold. As for laptop sleeves / cases ect you can always go by function / design / art. Come on people we are speaking 100 words as a product review, wanna see one of my articles, that makes money? Hold your breath for a monster! http://wizzley.com/gemstone-meanings/ We need to up the game, not to lower it for the sake of all our income! SY

@Mike: Same anywhere you look. No SEO-expert is able to tell why Squidoo is not dropping. It's really strange.

Hmm, we continue to look for other points to nurture our relationship with Google <3

@Jo: It's really time consuming checking all articles. Locking or marking them involves explaining "why". And even including a great and detailed "why", we mostly still have to re-explain the situation in an e-mail discussion :-P So, we'd need someone doing nothing else than checking articles ...

Simon: 09/24/2012 - 05:56 PM

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@Jo: It's really time consuming checking all articles. Locking or marking them involves explaining "why". And even including a great and detailed "why", we mostly still have to re-explain the situation in an e-mail discussion :-P So, we'd need someone doing nothing else than checking articles ...

Ah!  That's understandable.  Told you that I didn't know what I was talking about. :D

@Sam: Wow, killer article! This must be the longest article on all Wizzley and Pagewizz!! Great!

That's what we observe on Pagewizz: less products on an article does not mean lower revenue, IF the content is well written and the product really matches. On the contrary: readers prefer informative articles, something they like and tweet about. Something they trust in. If they trust your content, they are more inclined in buying something you recommend. That's what really works well nowadays. Things have changed since Squidoo and HP started - but not necessarily to the worse. It's just different requirements on content.

Lol, I had to bother Chef Keem a lot for getting me new modules and still had to streamline the article, but it brings in traffic from a lot, really a lot of, related keywords and I know it will mature well- it is an evergreen topic people will be still interested in years ;-) SY

The missing ingredient is not text - it is choice.

I had a long explanation, but there is some level of competition in this industry and I decided not to give that one away.

Common sense and an understanding of how one shops should point out why adding 50-100 words of fluff just to show a different ad module for red iphone 5 skin on an article about iphine 5 skins is not neccessary - the pictures and ads provide all the description necessary when offering red,blue, green,black, white choice options etc. Fluff text would be unwanted and unwarranted.

One description of form, utility, function and price is sufficient for the whole category of product

ryank: 09/24/2012 - 06:30 PM

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Sam: 09/24/2012 - 05:52 PM

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ryank: 09/24/2012 - 05:44 PM

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Sam: 09/24/2012 - 05:30 PM

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Come on people, 100 words of genuine content is too much per product or ad? 100 words of useful, for the prospective buyer!, content everybody can do in a heart beat! Wanna look what 100 words look like? Here you go:

"One hundred word are barely enough to tell a reader what a product is all about, what different versions it come in, how they differ, what it can be used for, why it is better than other similar products on the market or why the reader should buy it in the first! Add to that your personal experience, or that of your family and friends, with 'product' and why you recommend it to your readers and you have written one hundred words in a heart beat! It ain't that difficult, this paragraph contains 104 words and I wrote it in two minutes or less!”

 

SY

Perhaps a better question is, how many words does a reader WANT to read about a slight variation of a rubik's cube? 

Put the product / product comparison as high on the page / article as possible, and then, for the inquisitive reader, and Google!, put the rest of the information below the fold. As for laptop sleeves / cases ect you can always go by function / design / art. Come on people we are speaking 100 words as a product review, wanna see one of my articles, that makes money? Hold your breath for a monster! http://wizzley.com/gemstone-meanings/ We need to up the game, not to lower it for the sake of all our income! SY

 

Well that is a monumental article (and of personal interest, I once explored the possibility of importing gemstones from China into the UK), and should probably be published as a Kindle book complete with affiliate links.....

..... but it is well worth me pointing out that the majority of my sales pages on this account would be compliant with a 100 word to 1 product ratio. Example: http://wizzley.com/best-iphone-4-alarm-clock-dock/

It is also worth me pointing out that yes, while you have probably the longest Wizz I will ever see, you also have articles which would not be compliant with a 100 word per product policy.

888 words, 13 products (68 per product):

http://wizzley.com/small-doghouse/

930 words, 11 products (84 per product)

http://wizzley.com/harry-potter-iphone-4-case/

759 words, 11 products (69 per product)

http://wizzley.com/dog-bathing-suits-bikini/

More relevant to the debate is a discussion as to whether or not an article can offer value with a text/product value of less than 100, rather than turning it into a competition for who has the longest bit of sales copy. Either it can have value, or it can't, if it can't then that's an admission that some of your own content does not hold value. 

As far as I can see, you are producing sales copy which doesn't meet Wizzley's desired criteria just like us others?  

You yourself will need to find an additional 416 words for your small doghouse article, 176 more words for your harry potter iphone 4 case article, and 341 more words about bikini's for dogs. 

 

Lol, I never said I am perfect, didn't I? But as that is a future requirement / requirement for my future articles I am perfectly happy to adhere to that. People, don't let us forget things like this adhere to articles yet to be published NOT adding to our work load by re-doing / editing existing articles!

100 words per ad is/was a bit extreme, fair enough.

To prevent any misunderstanding: this is not about articles like "Doghouse" or "Harry Potter", although "Doghouse" would probably perform just as well with a shorter bottom Amazon module.

It's about keeping away spamy-type authors abusing websites like Wizzley - not talking about you.

This conversation is starting to get a bit tedious, but I think the bottom line is that if you know what you are doing a good article for a reader can be done with 50 words of text per item or more. 

A lot depends on what you are selling.

My opinion is that while 100 words of text may be something that we want to use for a full blown product review, the pages that I write are often showing a category of items or choices for the reader so that they understand the full spectrum of what I am talking about.  In the end, the article is made better by the visuals, and many people want the pictures, not just the text. 

Remember the adage that "pictures are worth 1000 words?"

I also want to point out that for an American audience there are expectations that are quite different in other parts of the world.  So we must decide who our audience is.  Let's face it, Americans are consumerism happy.  We want products, and we want to buy stuff.  We are busy, and we want people to show us how to do something, while pointing us directly to where to go to buy the stuff to do the thing.

If you are looking to expand the text of articles, may I suggest contests for different types of informational articles that do not have sales as their basis to drive more articles like that.  I also think that if established authors put their author link to google on each page it helps google connect the articles from various sites to that author.  To that end, we may want to institute an author bio box at the end of each article.  Or an optional one.

Panda and Penguin have changed the face of the internet, but we do not have to be completely driven by Google.  Maybe there is another way to find the spam and clear it out or keep it from the site.

I do love Wizzley.

It is a place where a forum debate can be found and held without it being lost in so many religious and political rants.

It is a place where the reasons for an action are given by the staff.

It is a place where reasoned disagreement is listened to and acted upon.

It is a place where democracy works.

Whether or not 50 words is sufficient, it has worked reasonably well until this point, and has been re-instated. Personally I think that is sensible - until proof positive is obtained that it does not work.

It is a place where both sides of a debate can be aired without anybody reverting to the statement 'That's what the Nazi's would have done'.

There I've said it - end of debate!

I second Chaz's post :) this is the best place in earth 2- er um I mean the internet layer, er um I mean the second consciousnesses of man, oh you get the point...