Why write hubs? No one reads 'em.

1. 60

   qwarkposted 12 years ago

   When I joined "Hubpages" over 2 yrs ago, "Hubpages" provided a place where I could write, publish and receive comments, negative or positive, which might, just might challenge me to write better, develop a syle and write about the subjects in life that I find interesting.
   
   I wrote 54 of 'em and they were well received. I got alot of helpful hints and encouragement and a couple not so much so...but I expected that!
   
   Some I had to re-write and re-publish to get a response.
   
   I've written a couple in the past 2 weeks that were not visited by any of my 218 friends (followers.)
   
   I may just forget about writing them and just play in the forum.
   
   Your thoughts.
   
   Qwark

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2. 70

   Cagsilposted 12 years ago

   Hey Qwark,
   
   I know that for about 4 days, I didn't receive any notice of new hubs from hubbers I followed. However, I am not even sure if I am following you. I'll have to go check.

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      qwarkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Ok Cags:
      I am following you and I know right away everytime you've offered up a new hub.
      Qwark

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3. 80

   mega1posted 12 years ago

   I am now following you.  thought I already was, but alas.  Now I'll get those reminders and will comment when I want.
   
   I haven't been writing much but mainly because I haven't had the impulse, or the inspiration.  It comes and goes, just like my readers.  I get most annoyed at those who want me to follow them but yet haven't read or commented on any of my hubs and tell me I'm a "good writer" with "interesting hubs" - and in general people seem to be leaving less comments than usual lately.
   
   I also think so many of my readers who used to leave great comments have gone to other places and I miss them, but I hang around mainly cuz I'm too lazy to find somewhere else to go.

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      qwarkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Mega:
      yeh it seems to have diminished in interest and participation.
      In the beginning it was really fun to write get responses and read the hubs of others of interest and share thoughts.
      Not so much anymore.Good luck to ya my friend! :
      Qwark

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4. 87

   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   I haven't been spending as much time on Hubpages as I usually do, as I am spreading my wings elsewhere, but I was never good at commenting anyway. I often read hubs and either rate them up or leave without commenting.
   
   I've no idea either if I am following qwark or not.

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      qwarkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      No prob Izzy...:
      Qwark

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5. 64

   travel_man1971posted 12 years ago

   There are hubs that we forget to comment because of our busy schedule online.
   I have hubs with fewer comments but its scores are high.
   I am not active in the Forums but still I'm gaining new friends through my hubs.
   I keep on following new hubbers and post fan mails to encourage them to do likewise.
   Some stll follow me, but others don't. I understand the situation..we are all busy writing our hubs.

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   1. 60

      qwarkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Travel:
      
      I will never, NEVER, read someones hub and not leave a comment.
      That's just not me.
      
      I feel that I'm participating in a "writers" site, in which every writer would like someone to read and comment positively or negatively on how the hub effected me.
      
      I will also let the writer know if I voted his hub up or down and tell him why.
      
      Thanks for the comment.
      
      Qwark

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6. 75

   WriteAngledposted 12 years ago

   I've been put off leaving comments by the fact this has become yet another accolade activity. I'm sick of this childish point scoring and league tables wherever I go. It simply makes me unwilling to participate at all.

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      Aficionadaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      
      Would you be less put off by the accolades if you suppressed them entirely, even from yourself?  Or does the fact that you have to see other people's accolades bother you just as much?
      
      I've gotten so that I am essentially blind to them.  I see them, but they don't register any more.  But that's just me.

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      1. 75

         WriteAngledposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I have, as far as I am aware, made my accolades invisible to others, even though I have pretty well a full hand of them.
         
         I just hate the whole ethos of points, and scoring and competition. It makes everything so less genuine.
         
         With respect to hub comments, for example: this used to be a spontaneous response to a hub due to the commenter being moved or stimulated or amused (or even annoyed!) sufficiently to react.
         
         Now, I wonder what percentage of comments are being made mechanically, not because the commenter cares either way about the hub content, but because they think perhaps this will increase their scores and thus their on-site status and perhaps even earnings.

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7. 80

   mega1posted 12 years ago

   I admit I don't always leave comments.  That's because I don't always have something meaningful to say and sometimes because I'm just a bit lazy.  Forgive me.

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      qwarkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Mega:
      
      You left a very short, meaningful one on the hub of mine you just read.
      
      Just the fact that you responded was appreciated.
      
      I read every response to my hubs and regardless of whether they were complimentory or mean and critical, I will always offer a ty for taking the time to read and respond.
      
      That's just me...:
      
      Qwark

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         mega1posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         see, you really are a model hubber!  don't pay any attention to what the herbivore person said!

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            qwarkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Mega....
            
            ...the herbivore is OK in my book!   
            
            Qwark

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               mega1posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               wrote a lengthy response - discovered I had confused this with another thread - so that explains that.  I'm not sorry.  I'm not even sure I'm wrong this time, because its so easy to delete stuff.  I just deleted my lengthy response and nearly lost it.  Now I'm just dithering.  no.  I'm not sorry in the least.

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                  qwarkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Hahaha....WEll my response on your hub about compassion answers all my responses about we humans and compassion...lol
                  Qwark

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8. 83

   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   I'm sorry, I didn't realize only 'followers' read hubs. I must have a lot more followers than I thougth....

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9. 0

   Emile Rposted 12 years ago

   Well, now I'm confused. I thought we were trying to write things that  would eventually come up in google searches, to get people outside of hub pages to read them.
   
   I didn't realize I was trying to write things of interest to other hubbers. If that's true, then I'm falling miserably. Hardly anyone here reads my stuff.

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   1. 87

      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You are spot on! We do write here for the search engines, for people outside of Hubpages.
      
      Others hubbers can boost the readership to your hubs which in turn can somehow help its visibility in the search engines, but that is not guaranteed.
      
      I had one hub, about a year ago, that I realise now must have been on the front page of HP, but at the time I could not fathom why it was getting literally hundreds of hits daily from HP and nowhere else.
      
      When I say hundreds, it was between 300/400 hits a day, but none from the search engines.
      
      This went on for about three weeks, then died as quickly as it started.
      
      That hub has never become a search engine hit, so being on the front page does not guarantee anything. Being popular with other hubbers does not guarantee anything.
      
      Earlier this year, one of my hubs was the top Hot Hub on HP.
      
      It was getting up to a hundred hits a day, and its score rose to nearly 100 too.
      
      Since then, nothing.
      
      Luckily I have 2 or 3 other hubs that have been hits with the search engines, and they bring me sales and adsense clicks on a regular basis.

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         Greg Sageposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yeah.. had 300 hits in a day for a single hub.
         
         Same day.. ZERO hits from the big G.

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            Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yep, don't trust any of the stats implicitly.  I have many comments to respond to each day by those who search for my hubs.  Most are from google but lately more are from Bing and Yahoo.
            
            I do find my most visited hubs have HP's codes on them during the peak times of the day, often for long periods of time.  Smart business practice, I suppose.  But this does make their 40% share seem as if it may accrue more revenue than my 60% does in the middle of the night here in the US when most people are asleep.
            
            Who knows what is going on here?  We are left in the dark on most of these facets of HP business practices. 

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            callonresourcesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Hi Randy..I find most of the traffic during night time (that's in Europe) and is mostly from USA...but never from Bing...Yahoo yes..but nothing from Bing..

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            1. 59

               Randy Godwinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I usually make very little during the wee hours of the morning even when a hub is getting several hundred views a day.  My hub with the most views and ad impressions earns less than those with one tenth the impressions and much less views.
               
               The average time spent on this hub is almost 5 minutes compared to those of similar subjects which have much less time spent on the page.  This article also gets the most comments and questions of all of my hubs whereas it used to sell many products too.
               
               Something is fishy, no doubt! 

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   2. 40

      Greg Sageposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      If your reads are coming from google...
      
      ... then ignore what everyone else says and do more of whatever you're doing.
      
      Good for you.

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10. 68

    Michael Willisposted 12 years ago

    I read hubs, but only leave a comment when I can add to the hub in a way to add to the topic to benefit the Hub Author.
    
    It depends on the Hub a lot of the times. Some hubs are more for social interaction (humor,comedy or gender/relationships, etc.) and some may be informational. Some hubs invite commentary by the article topic, where many do not.
    
    What I will mostly do is "vote up" a hub I enjoy reading. I would think that would be better if I have nothing really beneficial to add.  But there have been a few hubs that I just could not stop from commenting on.

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11. 88

    Cardisaposted 12 years ago

    Quark,
    
    I think HP still have a lot of glitches that the need to be smoothed out.
    
    What I have noticed is that some hubs I have visited and voted on (vote up and useful or the other tabs available), when I re-visit the comments, there are no numbers beside the useful, funny, awesome and beautiful tabs.
    
    I also realize that when I visit my accounts page the amount of comments sometimes are more than the visits I get, that's weird.
    
    I think that people are visiting your hubs, there are people who genuinely read all the hubs published by the people they follow, but because of the glitches you are not seeing them.
    
    Last week the comments were not working so well either so some comments were not saved.

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       qwarkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       ...it was fun and interesting during the first yr after I joined.
       
       The 2nd yr, it seemed to gradually diminish in reader response.
       
       I really ejoyed writing and responding to readers. There were many writers I enjoyed reading and responding to. It was a wonderful exchange.
       
       I don't find it to be so anymore.
       
       Sometimes the "forum" is fun and challenging but I'm finding that in the "forum" there are only a few participants that are worthy of engaging.
       
       I dunno. Hubpages seems to be losing the higher quality writers.
       
       I may be wrong. It just seems, to me, to be so.
       
       Qwark

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12. 83

    psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

    Maybe the strategy of implying most of us are not worth you time is effecting the enthusiasm of your followers?

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       qwarkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Psyche:
       
       My goodness, you are testy this AM!
       
       Did I say; "... most of us are not worth you time..."
       
       I did say "...only a few..." You happen not to be one of those because you seem to have a problem interpeting what you read and your, in the main, naive, responses are loaded with "attitude.
       
       I think you should visit your local tavern for an "attitude adjustment"...of course, good advice is rarely followed...
       
       Have a great day psycho...errrr...I meant psyche! My bad! Freudian slip ya know......
       
       Qwark

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          psycheskinnerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          My comment is not affected by whether I am one of the few or not.  I am just pointing out that if you want more engaged followers you might want to lay off the vinegar. Following is basically a Pavlovian effect. If you are after comments, the goal is to have "the many" see a new hub from you, wag their tails and trot over for a pat on the head (not a tap on the nose with a rolled up newspaper).

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             qwarkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Oh hell Psyche, if it's a rolled up newspaper landing on my nose, it would be expected! 
             
             The Forum is for fun.
             
             I don't write hubs for $, I write 'cause I have something to offer.
             
             I've gotten a few honestly presented negatives and "strongly" offered advice and criticism.
             
             I give thanks to all for responding. Why? 'Cause their constructive criticism has assisted me in offering a hub in a manner which is easier to read and more comprehensive. I've learned from them!
             
             I haven't, yet, found one of my followers or responders acting like Pavlonian dogs!
             
             I naturally bask in the joy of positive accolade!
             
             I will ALWAYS appreciate and respond to all comments regarding my hubs, negative or positive.
             
             All writers want their offerings to be accepted and enjoyed.
             
             I've never known of one writer who disliked a reader expressing pleasure after reading a well organized, well expressed and grammatically correct hub. Have you?
             
             I offer both the "sweet and the sour." If all you expect from me ( I know that you expect nothing from me...) is the sweet, you'll be disappointed! I think you know that..:
             
             Qwark

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13. 66

    Rosie2010posted 12 years ago

    I know what you mean, quark.  Three years ago, I discovered blogging and I got addicted to it.  My high came from the almost instantaneous comments I received everyday I wrote a blog.  I wrote humourous blogs because I love making people laugh.  And then I stumbled upon Hubpages and stopped blogging and got into hubbing because I wanted to find out if I could earn money writing.  Well, I found out I can. Yay!  I just received my first $170 earnings from Adsense and HP Ads.  It was so thrilling.  I had written 120 hubs in which nine don't have any comments at all.. nada, zilch, nil, el zippo.  I guess no one, not even my friends, like sales hubs and American Idol (specially American Idol). lol  I hope by now you have comments to your hubs.. you certainly gained more followers from the comments above.

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14. 89

    CyclingFitnessposted 12 years ago

    I have to admit I started reading the start of this forum and began to get a rather negative impression and subsequently haven't even considered looking at your hubs as a result.
    
    I tend to only comment on the areas which I have specialism with and generally I tend to offer positives or constructive criticism. Initially I started commenting on pretty much every hub I read and the comments I wrote ended up in my mind 'menaingless'
    
    While I like to see comments on my hubs, many of the specialist subjects I've written on have had comments written which I think- despite being positive comments (and very welcome) I feel they sometimes detract from the subject and show the commenter to have a relatively low knowledge on the subject which may detract from the hub itself.

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       qwarkposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Hi Cycling:
       When I wrote this hub, my intention was not to have everyone dump everything and race off to read my hubs.
       I wrote it because it takes me time and effort to create a hub that I think may be enoyable to read.
       A painter of landscapes paint for 2 reasons:
       1. the enjoyment of painting and producing a product.
       2. the hope that those who view it enjoy it.
       I write for the same reasons.
       I joined hubpages hoping that I'd find fellow writers from whom I might learn and with the hope that they might enjoy what I have to offer in print.
       I wrote over 50 hubs and up until a few months ago, was enjoying responses and my responses to other writers interesting hubs.
       I re-wrote many of them when I was not getting any readings or responses, and republished them.
       The last 2 I wrote I got no responses and decided to re-title the last one and offer it again.
       I got a few responses.
       But my desire to write for hubpages has dimished to the point that I may not write anymore.
       I may just "play" in the forums.
       We'll see.
       Thanks for the response Cycling....:
       Qwark

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15. 70

    celebritieposted 12 years ago

    Most of my comments go to fashion or celebrity type hubs, because that is what shows up in my feed. I follow a few people but mostly I just go around and read hubs I like.

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