Constructive Criticizm...if you don't mind!

1. 61

   CollegePrepUposted 13 years ago

   Hello all!
   I'm relatively new to the forum here, but it was recommended by SteveoMc that I have some Hubbers take a look at my recent hub about College Savings.
   
   Just some background...I've only been here about a week, I have 5 active Hubs that have gotten around 130 views so far.  No one hub stands out from the rest as they all have around 30 views give or take.
   
   Anyway, here is the hub I'd like to have looked at:
   http://hubpages.com/hub/Best-Way-To-Save-For-College
   
   My reason for being here first and foremost is to learn!  So any comments are appreciated!
   Thanks everyone!

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   1. 0

      BRIAN SLATERposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      hi and welcome hubpages- I liked your hub it read well and you certainly gave it some thought. I thought it was broken up quite well and easy to read.
      
      The length of any hub is always a moot talking point on these pages, but I think you covered your subject and it was long enough this time.  Aim for 850-1200 words as this seems to be the preferred amount.
      
      I don't  think you have to number each section like you have and I am unsure about using CAPITALS so many times.
      
      Your English was good- now I just need to get my daughter to read it LOL

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2. 72

   MauKatposted 13 years ago

   I think you wrote a pretty good hub! My only suggestion would be to add an image or two. It seems to make the hubs more interesting.

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3. 94

   thooghunposted 13 years ago

   Good job all round, although I think its important for you to understand what you did right as well!
   
   1) Your lengthy introductory paragraph ensured you a prime adsense ad spot (to the right at the top).
   
   2) Your article is informative and not too long (although perhaps an additional image to breakup a couple of text modules may be more aesthetically pleasing)
   
   Since you're after criticism, here goes:
   
   i) Your tags alone will not guarantee SEO success. Try and make your URL seo friendly, the one you chose "best way to save for college" has quite a low search rate (although it also has  low search term competition). As you no doubt know, Googlebot will shelve crawled hyperlinks in order to figure out what your article is about, so including a few altruistic outgoing links with your tags to authority websites will ensure a  nod from Big G.
   
   ii) to guarantee more views I would hyper-link a few of your tags to authority websites such as Wikipedia that are relevant to your article.
   
   ii)If your main objective is to market your website (as linked below) I usually find it is better to link it a little higher up (I've been told it improves weighting somewhat).
   
   iii) Overall grammar seems to be fairly good, although I would omit triple question marks in a finance pitch
   
   Overall, these are my 2 euro cents, I think you did a wonderful job!

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   1. 61

      CollegePrepUposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I want to note: Yes, I have a link in that hub to my website but it only points to a temporary page that my web design guy has up while he is revamping the site.  I just wanted to make that clear so that people don't think I'm just trying to peddle a product.
      
      I'm actually going to 'unlink' that one since the site won't be finished for another week or so....

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   2. 78

      Scrapaholicposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      This is great advice for all of us newbies! I hadn't even considered that by writing a longer intro paragraph, you give Google an opportunity to place their ads at the tip-top. I will also try to make my hub url's a little more search-friendly, instead of just using the hub title.
      
      Thanks, thoogun!

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      1. 61

         CollegePrepUposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Yeah, I picked up on that one pretty quick!  My first couple hubs started with the default capsule order....picture first/at the top.  NOT the best thing to start off with.
         I think if your hub title is the keyword you're going after, it should be the URL also....
         
         I could be mistaken though...

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4. 68

   lrohnerposted 13 years ago

   First off, nice job!
   
   I would avoid using so many exclamation points. You have quite a few in the first paragraph (and throughout the hub), and it makes the text read a bit like a used-car salesman.
   
   You have a lot of good information. Unfortunately, it's in very long paragraphs without much to break it up. Either break it into shorter paragraphs, use more sections or add some visuals.

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5. 61

   CollegePrepUposted 13 years ago

   Thanks you guys!
   I'm going to take all of those suggestions and modify that hub.  I completely see what you guys are talking about.  With the exclamation points?...I was actually thinking there was too much of that going on.  So thanks!
   
   Let me see what I can do...

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