Wanted: Feedback from thinkers!

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   Apollos Crowposted 12 years ago

   Hello, hubpages!  I'm new, and I've completed and published my first hub (though it still does not seem to be indexed on the site), that I've written in exploration of the Enlightenment philosopher Voltaire.  I hope to continue learning and writing about this fascinating man and his fascinating world, and would love to hear what anyone thinks of my first attempt.
   
   Thanks in advance.

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      A.Villarasaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Just write with  verity, passion and confidence, and the rest is, as my good friend would say,...'"peanuts". Good Luck with all your writing endeavours.

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   Apollos Crowposted 12 years ago

   Oh yeah, perhaps a link would be helpful:
   
   http://apolloscrow.hubpages.com/hub/voltairefreespeech

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I had a quick read:)
      
      The language you use shows an excellent grip of the English language.
      
      I don't know whether or not a highbrow subject like Voltaire appeals to the masses or not.
      
      However, it must be a searched for term, and I would imagine your hub would be classed among those offering the most useful content to the reader.
      
      Again, I stress that I have not checked whether you have used the most searched for terms in your title and url, nor looked to see if you wrote a separate summary using the same terms.
      
      You can obviously write, and write well.
      
      I would only advise that you optimize your hubs as far as you can, by having your main keywords in the title, url and summary because this platform is not the same as writing in print.
      
      You have talent, and education, which shows in your writing. Now all you have to do is apply SEO (which you may already have done, as I said I didn't check) and you have a bright future ahead of you
      
      Welcome to Hubpages

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         Apollos Crowposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Izzy,
         
         First, thanks for checking out the hub, and thanks for the kind words about my writing.  I'm also a bit unsure about how much of an audience there is for dusty ol' 18th century thinkers, but it feels good to write it (and even better to know someone might read it!)  At this stage, I'm happy just to be read. 
         
         Thanks for the optimization tips.  I'm still exploring this whole hub thing, and I'll definitely take your advice.

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         moneycopposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         i greed izzym...the language and the flow of writing is excellent!!!

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      kschangposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      IMHO, a little dry and wordy. You could have eliminated a lot of the verbiage in the first three paragraphs and gotten to the point more succinctly. It wasn't until the THIRD paragraph did the name Voltaire came up. You're not writing a book... you don't have the luxury of spending 2 paragraphs to setup the subject.
      
      I would personally start right at the quote, but that's just my style. Find your own.
      
      The rest is a bit chatty and long-winded, IMHO. You may want to put a couple more Voltaire's quotes as side-bars from the same letter and compare them with other leaders on the same subject. That would break up the rather monotonous blocks of text.

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         Apollos Crowposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for your constructive criticism.  To an extent, I have had the same thoughts in regard to length and verbosity in the beginning of the article, and will likely pare down the introductory paragraphs (though the information they have is, in my opinion, necessary for an appreciation of the content).  If the style is "dry" to you, it's probably because the article is adapted from an academic piece I did for an academic (as opposed to popular) audience.  Also, I don't like to underestimate the intelligence or literacy of my readers
         
         I'll take your thoughts into consideration, though.  Thanks.

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   Richieb799posted 12 years ago

   He could apply SEO on this hub but I don't know how much revenue potential it has.
   I did a hub on opera once and that had quite high revenue potential, it is best to talk about the famous conductors such as Mozart or writers such as Shakespeare when talking about the arts.
   
   Hows things traffic wise today IZ? I can't believe how 3 of my all time performers are fiercely back on form and some others are creeping around the hundreds

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      Apollos Crowposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      To be honest, revenue potential wasn't my motivation in joining (though it sure would be nice, and I plan to optimize as best I can).  Moreso, it's giving me good practice for writing for an unknown audience.

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         moneycopposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         nice to know that u r audience oriented, thanks !!! people like you can change the world

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   habeeposted 12 years ago

   Candide is one of my favorite books! Ah, the best of all possible worlds.

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      Apollos Crowposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      
      
      It's amazingly modern.  I read it first many years ago, and didn't really absorb it properly, probably due to the dry translation.  But then I got the newer edition, translated by Cuffe, and it was an entirely different animal.  The wit and satire really shines through on that translation.

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      moneycopposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      habee do u know others book alike.

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   EmpressFelicityposted 12 years ago

   Your hub was well-written and an interesting read. Like others here I don't know if it has much revenue potential but then again, maybe you're not doing it for the money!

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      Apollos Crowposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks!  Yea, money would be nice of course, but I'm trying to stay realistic heh.  For now, it's just nice to have my words out there, ya know?

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   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   Just checked. Voltaire is highly searched, as is 'free speech' as mentioned in the url. I can't get anything back on letters, but that could be because MS is playing up a bit.
   You need to write a summary including those keywords. SEO is about getting traffic, not money, although the two do tend to go hand in hand.
   Oh and the money isn't bad either. How does $33,000 a day suit you? Course you have to get to #1 for that, and the competition is stiff.

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      Richieb799posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes 'Voltaire' receives 201,000 monthly searches

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         IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I'm seeing as almost 50,000 searches PER DAY which is a good deal higher. Course numbers of searches is judged by history I think, not every day and not necessarily accurate.

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            Richieb799posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Are you using Google keyword tool? remember to set it to 'exact' search terms, 'broad' search terms include variations of the word Voltaire. You want people who actually search for the word 'Voltaire'.

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      Apollos Crowposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting.  So you would suggest a summary at the beginning of the article, containing a lot of keywords?  The intro paragraph I wrote is admittedly verbose, and probably doesn't help SEO too much.
      
      And again, thank you to everyone for the replies.  I wasn't sure what to expect when I signed up for the site, but I'm feeling glad that I did.  It seems like a great place.

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         EmpressFelicityposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         No, not the first paragraph - there's a "summary" button/link that you click on when you're in edit mode. It's on the right of the page, where all the other menu options are.
         
         The summary doesn't form part of the hub - it's the "blurb" that appears in the SERPS under the link to your hub when someone finds it using Google or another search engine. Having a good summary can make the difference between someone clicking on the link or passing it by.

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            Apollos Crowposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Ah!  I gotcha.  Kind of like the old meta-tags in HTML (perhaps I'm dating myself there).  Thanks so much!

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               IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Yes if you fill in the summary box like Felicity explained that is your meta description tag which is still an important part of SEO.

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   Danette Wattposted 12 years ago

   Write what you want to write about but optimize it as best you can. I joined to make money but just can't make myself write purely SEO-driven hubs. For the most part, I want to write about subjects that truly interest me. Still, you have to find that balance because if you don't have the write keywords, then people don't find you.

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