In light of my last post which kind of became drowned out in debate, specualtion and argument I decided to create this thread which I do not want anyone to post in other than a Hubpages staff member, or someone who can provide a simple one or two sentence question.
There are a lot of concerns over the ToS changes and the Amazon changes, so I think it would help if we could get some simple answers, or at least indications of what Hubpages in planning. I know that to many of us the answers to these questions will affect our ocntinued participation Hubpages, but stonewalling does nothing but cause issues, speculation and paranoia.
Leaving the community in a shambles like this is bad PR/ marketing, especially when the competition is focusing on clarity. We can lsiten to Hubpages tel us that this is for our benefit, but if all we see are negatives this doesn't particularly help.
For that reason I hope Hubpages staff see this as an opportunity to either alleviate unwarranted concerns, or at least provide sound reasoning as to why certain changes are being made.
Remember that as much as it may seem as though certain Hubbers have become 'the enemy' (and indeed several ex hubbers do now simply regard to hubpages as 'competition') for many of us we still have a vested interest in seeing Hubpages succeed, since our own wages come out of our profits from Hubpages. The reason many of us become concerned and sometimes even angry is because the changes you make throw a light of uncertainty over earnings that we rely upon. Think of it like this - if someone told each member of staff that their wages would be delayed an extra 30 days for no apparent reason from now on, and you may be paid less if they decide to value your work a certain way, even if you still provided the same amount of value - how would you react?
In any case my questions are as follows.
Will our participation in the Amazon program require us to cease our current amazon contract and therefore lose the ability to advertise Amazon on our own sites?
Is it set in stone that you will be required to use the Hubpage Amazon service in 2012?
Will we still be allowed to post out own Amazon offiliate links on a page?
If not will we still be able to provide links to Amazon.co.uk/.ca/etc?
If the nexus tax arrives again will we all be required to switch to a ppc model which 'may' earn us less?
or, is the clause that says that hubbers may be placed on different payment models a way to allow hubbers who are not affected by Nexus tax to continue earning commission payments?
Is there any reason other than using hubbers as a bargaining chip to force us all on to this system?
If you do go towards a CPM/CPC model to circumnavigate Nexus tax laws you will need to provide payments based on traffic rather than sales (since any form of commission based on sales value is covered under California sales tax changes). If this is the case have you already started work on the formula?
If the answer to above is yes, have you figured out a way to make sure that low traffic/high sales value hubs are treated fairly compared to high traffic/low sales value hubs when their actual earnings currently are similar?
Will we see any significant rise in affilaite earnings if your negotions go as planned (If they don't thats okay, but some indication of what you are aiming for would be nice)?
The biggest benefactors out of a small percentage increase would be Hubpages, if you do reach the point where
As I am sure you are aware one of the biggest benefits of Hubpages, is that it is not Squidoo.
How are you going to retain clarity for authors on where their earnings are coming from?
Is there any danger of Hubpages becoming a Squidoo like 'tiered' payment system.
Will you begin to provide direct BACs transfers, international checks and other payment methods?
Will there be any moves made to streamline the payments process to help alleviate the huge gap between earnings and payment? Close to 90 days payment terms is some of the worst in the industry.
While it is understandable that you will want to ensure purchases are valid before payment, is it possible that hubbers with a proven track record be placed on an expediated payment program with returns taken out of future earnings?
When it comes to the ToS on forfeited earnings, will this be 'strictly' enforced? Or will it be used to prevent liability when you do housecleaning on aged accounts? (Not relevant to me personally, but I have been asked it a few times already).
Will hubbers with a larger number of accounts be able to enter a consolidated earnings system, or will they have to await niche accounts to reach the minimum payment threshold seperately?
Is there any possibility that the earnings threshhold will be lowered to $10 to accomodate those with lower earnings?
Will there be any use of the Hubpages earnings system as leverage against Hubbers if there are any particular differences in opinion, their opinions on chnages, etc?
Will we be seeing even more changes on content we are allowed to publish on Hubpages?
Will we see further restriction on affiliate links, or may we see a reversal on some of the more legitimate affiliate programs out there that may currently cause a hub to become unpublished.
Think thats it from me!
