Things you NEED to know about HP before stating your opinion.

1. 62

   jubiladayposted 12 years ago

   There are so many people currently spouting off about why Hubpages should or should not do things, and whether Hubpages will hang around. Please stop saying things unless you're informed on the subject. TO HELP YOU:
   
   From Wikipedia:The site launched in August 2006 after collecting a $2 million investment from Hummer Winblad. According to Quantcast, HubPages has become one of the 50 most visited US sites on the Internet. In December 2010, it received around 42 million visits and over 90 million page views [3], which, according to the site, were across over 1 Million Hubs published by more than 200,000 published users.
   In May 2010, HubPages was recognized as one of the “2010 Hottest Silicon Valley Companies” by Lead411.
   
   Quantcast Traffic Profile shows traffic decrease since late February - Panda.
   
   According to this hubpages staff post, staff are currently in talks with Amazon, since Amazon affiliate laws (which have come into other states over the last year) have caused Amazon to drop all affiliate accounts in California.
   
   Hubpages had meetings with eBay. Hubpages had  meetings with Google.
   
   So what does this mean?
   
   
   --->Hubpages is a business (which only broke even last year). This means it will do what is ultimately best for business, so it isn't here to just let you write. Running at a loss so you can make a profit isn't financially viable for any site.
   --->Silicon Valley is located in California. That means Amazon has dropped Hubpages as an affiliate.
   --->Since panda, and despite mass changes, Hubpages traffic is still dropping.
   --->eBay meetings never resulted in a change to the application for epns through Hubpages. Google talks obviously still haven't done anything for traffic. How are the Amazon meetings going to go?
   
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   Draw your own conclusions. But draw them based on facts not on your own uninformed opinion, or what other people say.

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   1. 62

      jubiladayposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I would hope that the subdomain test isn't based on this post.

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   2. 69

      bgamallposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      They can use a change of headquarters if they want to keep Amazon. They need to come to Nevada because houses are cheaper and they will be rich selling theirs, AND there is a huge Amazon warehouse here. Nevada will not vote to tax online retailers or Amazon will leave.

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   3. 72

      relacheposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      From the "you can't believe everything you read on Wikipedia" file:
      
      HubPages may have once been in the top 50 but most likely those were "pre-Panda" figures because as of June 2011 it is outside the top 100 sites according to Quantcast.

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      1. 95

         PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, wiki is way out of date.  I have considered editing the entry myself, but not got around to it.  Plus, poor HP seems to be getting hit from every direction at the moment!

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2. 95

   PaulGoodman67posted 12 years ago

   Well said.  I would agree with that summary, as depressing as some of it is! 
   
   The only thing that I might add is that HP are currently experimenting with giving each hubber their own subdomain, a radical restructure of the site.  There has been no feedback on the results so far.

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3. 71

   Cagsilposted 12 years ago

   There actually isn't anything that needs to be known before stating any opinion. Everyone has a right to their opinion regardless of how foolish, ignorant, pathetic and/or stupid that opinion might be.

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   1. 0

      Motown2Chitownposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Cags, I thought something along those lines myself. 
      
      That said, let me just state MY opinion for the record.
      
      From what I see, the majority of folks worried about HP "going under" are not major earners on the site.  They are like me:  here primarily to try their chops at writing for an audience - however small that audience might be - and to enjoy the fellowship and community of other writers.  The possibility of earning a few cents here and there is an added bonus, even if what we earn is only enough for a cup of coffee and we won't actually see any sort of payout before we're old and gray.
      
      That said, even those of us earning small amounts of money for ourselves are earning something for HP - adding grist to the mill as it were.  And, the fact that we are not necessarily getting thousands of ad impressions is not an actual indicator of whether we are receiving traffic.  It's simply an indicator that folks are not clicking our ads when they come.  I know that I am generally far more interested in the content of a page when I visit it, and rarely do I actually click an ad while I'm there.
      
      There is a small amount of fear among those small contributors to HP that without the large contributors, our opportunity to publish easily and to publish anything will indeed be taken away at some point.  I, of course, would lose nothing in terms of income, but I would lose greatly in terms of audience and community. 
      
      THAT'S the issue at hand for many, I believe.  Many large scale earners can go (or have gone) elsewhere.  I don't hold that against them, but it makes it a little scary for those of us who are left, and not among the spun/spam garbage that shouldn't be here anyway.

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   2. 77

      DIYweddingplannerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Oh, Cags, we can always count on you to tell the absolute, unvarnished truth!

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      1. 71

         Cagsilposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         

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   3. 65

      theherbivorehippiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Echo

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   4. 67

      6 String Veteranposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      'There actually isn't anything that needs to be known before stating any opinion...' LOL

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4. 70

   psfposted 12 years ago

   HubPages statistics from WHOIS record, it is pretty impressive,
   has 7,944,489 Unique visitors per month!!
   
   http://whois.domaintools.com/hubpages.com
   
   

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5. 72

   livewithrichardposted 12 years ago

   HP has dropped from a top 50 site to the current rank of 131 and still dropping.  Nobody is spreading fear they are showing discouragement and rightly so. 
   
   HP staff has not stymied any of the discouragement that is being felt by many successful hubbers.  Instead we get these disingenuous posts about "secret talks."
   
   Am I discouraged? You bet I am. I was earning well over $1200 per month here, not nearly as much as some that I know of, but I've lost over 80% of that income even though much of my traffic is back.  I don't blame HP for the Panda fiasco, I do blame HP for allowing all the junk on here in the first place that allowed us to get hit as hard as we have been, and they're still allowing junk to get published. 
   
   Do I see it getting better soon?  No, I don't. With the loss of Amazon for HP they stand to lose over $100,000 per month (probably more) and that is going to hurt.  How many STAFF JOBS do you think that is going to cost? 
   
   Recovery for HP is going to be on the slow boat, and I see much stricter guidelines on the way for publishing, which is good for the long term but does nothing for those of us that have lost a GREAT stream of income.
   
   If it were up to me, I would get rid of every hubber that does not have a profile summary or an avatar published within 48 hours of joining the site.  I would not allow their hubs to go public until they have provided an avatar and a profile summary either. 
   
   This would probably eliminate half of the spun and bogus crap that is on this site but of course it would significantly reduce the STATS that HP loves to brag about (published hubs, # of authors, etc) and also it would eliminate a significant number of backlinks pointing to this domain and further reduce the authority of this site. But if HP wants to fully recover then they have to make some hard decisions.  Do they want bragging rights on some bogus numbers or do they want to earn more money and save some STAFF JOBS and prove that this IS the BEST user-generated content site on the Internet?

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   1. 84

      CMHypnoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      So agree - so much of the old dross needs to be done away with now. It might hurt in the short term, but for the long term health of HP they need to do some emergency surgery

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      1. 95

         PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I would agree generally.  I guess the only worry at HP might be that they clean the site up and yet it still declines, maybe even faster than before?  The actions taken so far certainly don't seem to have done much good.  If Google has got it in for HP, they are doomed no matter what they do!  :-(

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      2. 55

         janderson99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         All Good Stuff!
         BUT - the writers are the worker ants for HP and I would suggest that the writers could be provided with more comprehensive updates on what's happening and the strategies. Many worker ants have left the nest or have stopped working because they cannot see improvement and have not been kept adequately informed. The suggestions from the worker ants have been outstanding - driven by the perceived lack of information from HP. The worker ants are trying to help! The worker ants need HOPE!
         Compare
         HP advice for writers http://hubpages.com/faq/#substandard
         with EzineArticles advice for writers
         http://blog.ezinearticles.com/2011/07/m … ority.html

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   2. 91

      prairieprincessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Agreed. Richard, it is definitely NOT being negative to be very worried about Hubpages right now. Something drastic needs to happen, for it to continue. I really love Hubpages, and hope it is able to sustain itself.

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   3. 81

      Mark Ewbieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with this.  I think it is not a question of getting round the Google change, but acting upon it.  I think of HubPages as a magazine site, we write articles that someone would enjoy reading for entertainment, information and / or commercial purposes.
      
      Given the changes such as Google +1, the Facebooking of the internet, the importance of social networking weighed against search traffic which has been gamed into disreputability - I believe that genuine quality content is the only chance.
      
      If HubPages lives up to being a magazine for fun, information, etc. then people might choose to visit and Like and Share, rather than be conned by some keyworded piece of crap.
      
      Of course, I know nothing.

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   4. 67

      6 String Veteranposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Agreed: non-avatarians are for YouTube, not the Hub (and i love YT, btw. But, hey, it's a different place).

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6. 84

   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   Whether the actions have helps is a but relative.  The Hubads are working pretty well for me--I make more money now than pre-Panda..

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7. 87

   Bill Yovinoposted 12 years ago

   Sorry if I'm very late to the party. I read here that Amazon is not paying for Hubpages traffic due to some tax implications with California. Is this restricted to California based Hubbers, or is this site-wide due to the location of Hubpages headquarters? If the ban is site-wide, does it make any sense to keep Amazon capsules in your Hubs?

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   1. 0

      Motown2Chitownposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Bill, it's a handful of states right now (California and Illinois, for example).

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   2. 71

      Cagsilposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Bill, it is based on the States who have passed the laws regarding tax collection of affiliates of Amazon.
      
      Amazon has cancelled affiliate contracts in each state and California isn't any different.

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      1. 95

         PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, but it's complicated by the fact that HP is based in California, isn't it?  I mean what's in it for HP, if they don't earn money from Amazon?  We might all end up losing out, even if we live in a state that isn't effected by law changes?

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8. 70

   sunforgedposted 12 years ago

   If HP chooses to cancel Amazon sitewide I would imagine that would be a final blow.
   
   At that point - what would HP be offering that Squidoo, InfoBarrel,   Xobba and dozens of smaller sites do not?
   
   If anything, I think they would need to program the amazon modules to be replaced with another block during that 40% - but that might lead to some very confused readers as the better copywriters will no doubt be mentioning and referencing the amazon module son their pages.
   
   The only easy answer is moving offices, or sell the site to someone who will move to a friendlier tax region. If Nevada does in fact have Amazon warehouses then that would be a smart move as a nexus will already exist.
   
   I guess thats not really an easy answer. I almost feel bad for them now.

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9. 70

   sunforgedposted 12 years ago

   Im starting to believe that HP will work around this one. Im usually not much for vapid cheerleading but there are apparently some precedents that HP/Amazon may be be able to work with. Good luck CA affs!

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