Question:

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   Beth37posted 11 years ago

   I have a hub that formerly had an "H" by it. Now it doesn't. It still has those little ads posted in it, but does the missing "H" mean it's no longer published? And if so, can anyone tell me why they might change its status? Thank you.
   
   http://beth37.hubpages.com/hub/Master-craftsman

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      Sally's Troveposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      This forum post may be of some help...
      
      http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/108920
      
      The lack of an "H" means that your hub is not "featured", although it is still published. Also, it is no longer "indexed", meaning that Google may not include it in their search results.
      
      This is a rich topic with many HP forum threads. Spend some time looking for them and at them.

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         Beth37posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I don't understand yet, but Ill read that link, thanks a lot.

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            worst-of-hpposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Deleted
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               Beth37posted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Oh, lovely. Poor Whitney, first drugs, then death now this.

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            Beth37posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            So if I understand this correctly, this could actually be my own fault. Every time I write a new hub, I tend to highlight it and this particular one has basically sunk to the bottom and if I want it to be "featured" again (what ever that means) I need to highlight it and get it back into circulation? So is it un-viewable at this point?

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      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      When a Hub stops being Featured, it becomes semi-private - the only people who can see it are your followers and people whom you send a link to. 
      
      If you write a new Hub, it goes through a Quality Assessment Process which decides whether it's good enough to be Featured.  If it doesn't pass the test, it stays semi-private.
      
      If it does pass the test, then it becomes Featured.   It then has a period of time to attract traffic.  If it doesn't get many readers during that time, it will stop being Featured - not because there's anything wrong with it, but just because it's not attracting traffic. 
      
      You can get it Featured again by editing it, but it's not going to stay Featured unless you can get more traffic to it. That means learning how to do some promotion.
      
      That said, you also need to ask yourself, "Will this Hub ever get many readers?  Am I writing on a subject that other people have already done to death?  Could it be that I'm sharing something a stranger wouldn't  care about?"  Because if the answer is "yes" to any of those questions, no amount of improving or promoting will attract more traffic.
      
      One more tip -  catchy titles work on paper, but they don't work on the internet.  Always make sure your title clearly indicates what your Hub is about.

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         Beth37posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         I know you're right. I tell myself the title is supposed to clearly reflect the subject matter, but it goes against everything natural not to attach a creative title to it. I still have a ton to learn. I don't know anything about promotion yet. I'm kind of one of those ppl that takes things on in pieces... Im gonna get there eventually. Thanks for all the info!

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            Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            In this particular case, I'm sure you can see your title is all wrong.  If you're going to write a Hub about a subject, the subject has to be in the title.  Period. 
            
            The subject matter is a popular topic, but try Googling and look at how many million pages there are on the same topic.  That's probably your main problem.

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               Beth37posted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I just changed the title to the subject about an hour ago maybe.

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   2uesdayposted 11 years ago

   Beth you are not alone in this, just to let you know that it happens to others too. It is a recent introduction on the site. Different people have different approaches to what to do. Go in an edit the page is one option, then see if after any improvements you can make help it to stay featured. If that does not work, some people are moving such articles elsewhere.
   
   I cannot really offer advice as I am in two minds as to what the answer is when it happens to one of my pages. One of mine, has just had the H removed and it had 500 visits last month even though it is not really the right time of year for it. Maybe I will edit it and then if it drops back to not being featured, think again, about where to move it. The problem I am having is that so much has changed since I started writing here. At one time I had over 200 hubs but sometimes it has been easier to remove them than to try to keep up with the constant changes needed.

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      Beth37posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you. I changed the title. It should get some hits considering the subject matter. Its weird how much you have to do to keep things afloat here and I havent touched the tip of the ice burg... I still haven't filled out the financial stuff yet. You'd think writing them would be enough. lol

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   Marisa Wrightposted 11 years ago

   Good start!   This question might've been better posted in the "Improve Your Hub" section so you'd get feedback on what to do, but here's my two cents' worth:
   
   The Hub is on the minimum length for a Hub at just over 400 words - particularly so, because a good chunk of those words are about you (your singing, your musical tastes, the time you saw Whitney).  Those topics are fine to include - but right now, if you take those bits out, what value is your Hub offering to a reader?  Those personal titbits should be the icing on the cake, not the cake.
   
   It's also under-developed, with only one photo, no videos and no other special capsules.  HubPages is a multimedia site and Hubs do better if you take advantage of that.
   
   I know it's hard to find "legal" photos of celebrities, but you've got over 400,000 Youtube videos to choose from - and if you're going to talk about a singer, then it makes sense to feature some of the songs which best illustrate her voice.  Why not have a poll asking people a question about Whitney?  How about a "Further Reading" links capsule at the end, listing some good sites for Houston fans? 
   
   Once you're signed up for the HP Ads program, it would make sense to have some Amazon ads for Houston CD's and DVD's, too. 
   
   Having said all that, you are up against a lot of competition with that Hub.  There are 143 million results on Google for "Whitney Houston".  That's an awful lot of people who are ahead of you!

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      Beth37posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Haha, I didn't even know I was in a competition. That's ok, Ill pick it up in time.
      I appreciate all your advise, thanks.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         It really depends what you're here for.   If you're happy just to share your work with other Hubbers, then you're not in competition - you just need to be active, read and comment on other people's Hubs, and they'll reciprocate if they like your writing.
         
         However, if you have dreams of gaining a wider readership, then you are, most definitely, in  competition!
         
         Virtually no one, except members, ever comes to HubPages just to browse around.  Most people who visit a Hub don't even know it's a Hub.  They've arrived via the search engines, looking for an answer to a question or a solution to a problem. 
         
         There are millions and millions of pages on the internet.   Ask yourself, "if I want to find something on the internet, what do I do?"    You go to Google or Bing or Yahoo.   All those search engines have to have some way of deciding which pages to include in the results - if they just included any old sites at random, searchers wouldn't be very happy.   So when you write a new Hub or blog post, you're in competition with every other Hub or post on that topic, to get on to page 1 of the search results.  Because if you don't get on page 1, chances are no one will ever see your article or even know it exists.

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            Beth37posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Yeah, I see... b/c of marital tax issues, I haven't been able to enter the financial info yet so I don't even have the hope of making the pennies ppl say they are lucky to make.
            
            I had readers on my blog, but they were just from my FB page. I enjoy HPs cause I need the give and take from other humans more than I need anything else I can think of right now. Maybe someday I will write a book? I don't know... Im slowly figuring it all out, I'm not sure what I want yet, but Ive got time.
            
            Thank you again. Hopefully Ill get it all together soon.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I think that's one of the great things about HubPages. I stopped writing new Hubs nearly two years ago, but I'm still here on the forums and reading Hubs because it's such a great community.   
               
               Take consolation from the fact that most people find new Hubs earn very little.   My best performing Hub (which has earned over $400 so far) earned less than $5 in its first six months.  So you're not necessarily missing out on much by not having the financials set up early!

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                  Beth37posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Oh that is good news. Thanks.

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