Hard To Beleive The Success Stories

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   canadawest99posted 12 years ago

   This message isn't too attack, just question.  I look at some of the articles by success stories writers and I find it hard to believe they are making that kind of money with what I see.  Some of their work is modified recipes that can be found anywhere, some is poems and short stories.  When I loaded up some of their articles, some of the adsense ads aren't even relevant to the topic (same problem I have.
   
   Hubpages makes it sound like its just creative unique writing that will lead to success but I think there is something else.  Lots of followers, large twitter accounts, facebook, aggressive backlinking must all be at play as well.

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      relacheposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I don't backlink and don't use Facebook or Twitter.  I do have a lot of followers but from that I can tell you that followers are really passive and only respond to a very narrow segment of my Hubs.
      
      So, why am I a success story with about a quarter of the Hubs that you have?  My best guess (and this is just my opinion) from reading some of your content is that I offer unique information and personal experience in with my content, and don't just reproduce information that could be found anywhere else.  For example, your "best" hub right now is on Knotts Berry Farm, and it's just a simple regurgitation of info you could find on the actual Knotts site.  There's no reason to read that page over any other page about Knotts that exists on the web.  I don't get the feeling you've actually ever visited it yourself.

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         canadawest99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         The Knotts Berry Farm article was my last attempt to rank for a keyword, although a very popular one. I was able to get that to about the 2nd or 3rd page of google, then it fell off the map after that.   I have been hesitant to revive keyword writing since then.

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            WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            The whole point of keywords is to pick a topic that is NOT popular with writers. Aim for one that just gets a few thousand views a month and not many people have written about (and that isn't pointing straight to a major website, such as a brandname one).
            
            Being on the third page with Google is the same as being on the thirtieth.

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   Website Examinerposted 12 years ago

   There are many myths on HubPages, probably many lies too. On a side note, I am wondering why you have not even filled out a profile description for your account; that ought to help your author score.

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3. 88

   WryLiltposted 12 years ago

   I think the reason it's so hard to emulate the "success stories" is the fact that many people forget that earning online is JUST like a real job. Would you spend two weeks working at a real job and expect a pay rise and a promotion? No!
   
   And what do you mean by story writers? You'll find that online, creative writing (stories, poems) doesn't earn much. Articles on things like travel, food and product reviews earns a lot more.
   
   And as for the Adsense adverts, it really depends on your location. The adverts are targeted based on both the searcher's location and their search history. If they have been searching pet toys and then look at a hub about cactus, it's likely they'll still see pet toy adverts.
   
   Just a quick look at your account indicates that you haven't even hit 100,000 views. I'm coming up for a million shortly, and I've never had more than 200 hubs on this account (and for the past year have only had 85).
   
   One of the first problems I see is writing in saturated topics - weight loss for instance. If you write on a topic that has hundreds or thousands of articles written about it, you are very unlikely to ever get serious traffic and beat out the big,  high tech websites with lots of backlinks.
   
   You need to learn about using keywords - find topics that don't have a lot of people writing about them but still get a few thousand searches each month.

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   Garrett Mickleyposted 12 years ago

   With enough backlinks you can make crap content rank.  I've seen it time and time again (even done it before just to see if my theories were right).

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5. 87

   Will Apseposted 12 years ago

   As far as I see your account has been hit by panda. That would go a long way to explaining your very low views.
   
   Or it might be that you have many sandboxed pages.
   
   Certainly, short, low information pages on widely covered topics will not make you money.

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      canadawest99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Most of my articles are pre panda where I was doing quite well writing about general consumer products.   
      
      I haven't done much since panda other than some generic topic articles that I moved from another site I used to write for.

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         Barbara Kayposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I've read, but can't prove it since  I haven't written any, that Google no longer likes product articles unless it compares several products. Maybe that is hurting you.

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            Greekgeekposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Not likely. Google is just looking for unique information that answers a question or solves a problem.
            
            The problem is that every product has a pretty good description, with reviews, on or or more shopping sites, which have the strong advantage that people can BUY the product there.
            
            Google's quality rater guidelines specifically mention that if it's about a product but not on a sales site, then the page has to give good, useful information to the shopper that's NOT the kind of information they can find on, say, the Amazon page for that product. (why not just send the visitor to Amazon, if that page has all thy need?)
            
            The one thing you can give that the official websites can't is your own perspective, judgment, and comments about why you like something and how you use it. i've sold exercise bikes on one-product pages, which is NOT easy, because you have to earn the reader's trust and prove you know what you're talking about on a very expensive product that people generally like to test drive.
            
            I've got a few other one-product pages that do well. In every case, I used my own photos.

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   Will Apseposted 12 years ago

   It really is the articles. You need to up your game. This is not meant to sound harsh.
   
   Just try spending a good amount of time on a few long, well researched pages. Even if the subjects have been covered before, an outstanding article can do well.
   
   Use a little keyword research and check the competition first, though. Never publish something unless it is better than the stuff already in existence.

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7. 84

   rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

   Sometimes I wonder why anyone would write another article on how to make money with google adsense. They almost all sound the same to me, and I sure wouldn't bother reading from a random online writer without some impressive SEO credentials behind his writing. Otherwise, most likely it's simply content taken from one of the reputable articles.
   
   Online readers (depending on your choice of topics) are smart enough to see the junk for what it is. As far as the success stories here, I think some of the writers have some very good hubs, but I've seen others with grammar, spelling mistakes, nothing really unique about their hubs. Some of it looks like it was copied from travel brochures, etc. I think relache hit it when she mentioned unique, personal experiences added to the content.

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8. 87

   Dorsiposted 12 years ago

   I think hubs mature with age too. I do link to Facebook, Twitter and share my hubs where appropriate. Writing with a conversational style seems to have helped me alot. I'll have to pop over to your hubs and read. With all the changes Google has made this last year, I think it'a new learning curve for alot of us.

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   Journey *posted 12 years ago

   Hi canadawest99,
   Two people with comparable numbers of hubs and quality writing can earn significantly different amounts of money on the site if one is more active than the other. It will be important for you to stay active- that is in addition to writing hubs, keep posting in the forums or starting your own threads like you've done here, moderating comments on your hubs regularly, and commenting on other authors' work. Hope this helps.

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      Website Examinerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      In this case, I am pretty sure that the low author score points to problems with some of the OP's hubs. Being active is unlikely to change things.

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         Journey *posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Well yes, the writing will definitely need to be of good quality. If it isn't, it will need to be edited/ improved to even count in the mix.

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            Website Examinerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Agreed. With 902 published hubs, that will give the OP something to think about.

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               canadawest99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Doubtful I will invest that much time and effort to go back and improve hundreds of hubs.  Back a couple yrs ago, a 400-500 word article was all the rage so I wrote lots of them on different subjects.  Now it seems the rules changed midstream again.
               
               I will probably continue to write passively here at HP until I cross 1000, but on the side I am actively building a blogger network of sites to diversify.

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      Marye Audetposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Actually, this is not true. I participate very  little in forums, do not comment on other hubs much - in fact, I rarely have time to read many - I still have several bookmarked that I want to get to. I don't backlink, I rarely promote on facebook or twitter. I try ti interact with commenters on my hubs but sadly I rarely have the time to respond.
      Once I write a hub it is responsible for it's own care.

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    savanahlposted 12 years ago

    Well, reading this thread has been very helpful in showing what works and what doesn't.
    It seems to me, from looking at those who are successful, you have to not only write great content, but you have to be active and proactive. Even though everyone says that being successful has nothing do do with how many followers you have I've not seen one successful writer here with only 100 followers, and all the successful writers here talk a lot about going back and revising old hubs to improve them.
    If it works for the successful writers why question it. I believe that if you want to be successful at something you have to mimic those are already successful. If you've never experienced that success yourself, why relay on your own thoughts about it. Why not be open to other people's suggestion. It's just my opinion.

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    Java Programsposted 12 years ago

    Hard to believe .... But am excited  to post on hub pages ..... hope after few months .... i might get some money ..........

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12. 83

    creamsodaposted 12 years ago

    Well, I'm relatively new to HubPages and I haven't done much writing yet as I've had some health problems, but I'm a believer! I think that if someone try's hard enough and puts out good content, this could work!

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