Timeline for maturing hubs?

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   TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years ago

   I have consistently heard that hubs need "time" to mature.  I do not quite understand this concept because some hubs do well right out of the gate, while others languish forever and never gain ground.  Anybody?

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      livewithrichardposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Some articles do well right out of the gate because there is very little competition for the chosen keywords.  Some take time to "mature" which means that organic inbound links to them build up from multiple sources over a period of time.  That period of time depends on how much competition already exists for the topic, how socially engaging the article is written, and how much authority the content is given from the site it is written on.  The level of "maturity" depends on how many inbound links the content receives from relevant sites and the authority of those sites. 
      
      Online content must be written on topics that people are searching for to get the traffic and monetary rewards.  Creative online writing differs a bit because it is not dependent on search traffic, it is dependent on the following the writer creates through all of their social networks.

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         TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         So, in your opinion, how long should it take before an author can see that a hub is not performing well to remove it?

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         1. 72

            livewithrichardposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            IMO, if a hub is not getting at least 30 visits per month after 6 months then something is very wrong with the hub.  I would either go back and edit it so that I am prioritizing the Title, the Summary, the First Sub Heading, the First Paragraph, and then use variants of my keyword phrases in the remaining capsule headings. 
            
            I would start discussions in my social networks and share it there.  That is the biggest mistake people make when using social networks such as Facebook Groups/Fan Pages, Linkdin, Twitter, etc... they post a link in a related topic and then disappear.  You have to engage an audience before sharing some content.
            
            If after these edits and engagement are made and another 6 months pass without any improvement in traffic, then it would be time to consider removing the article.

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               TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               WOW..30 a month is bad?  I was thinking less than 10!  I have tweaked ad nauseum and a good number of my hubs just don't get those kinds of views.  I have deleted more than 100 of them over my time here, but I keep thinking..."let it go a little longer.  Wait and see., etc."  I don't do much social networking because I am not good at it, so I must rely mostly on Google.  You just blew my entire day away!

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               TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Richard:  When you say "30 visits per month after 6 months", do you mean an "average" of 30 visits per month or the number that shows on the stats page as 30 or more.  I have hubs that average 30 views per month over six months, but the current figure may only be showing, say 14.  What do you suggest?  To me this means views are not holding their own and those hubs should be dropped.  Am I right?

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                  livewithrichardposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  First, I would not rely on the stats page that HP provides.  Rely on your Google Analytics stats.  Again, it is only my opinion but a 6 month average of 30 is the same results and 30 per month.  30 is a benchmark you should be shooting for.  If by mid month you are not half way there then you should probably do some more promoting and start some discussions on RV forums or even start a Facebook Fan page related to RV'ing, or a G+ Community on the same topic.  A fanpage would do wonders for your content if you build up a fan base.
                  
                  Try some of my suggestions on promoting before you decide to drop them all together.

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                     ChitrangadaSharanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     @livewithrichard--
                     Do you mean to say that by 15th of a month, the pageview should be at least 15 and then increase up to 30 by 30th of the month?
                     Thanks!

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                        livewithrichardposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        That is my benchmark.  If I have a hub that is not performing like that by mid month I try to give it a social boost if possible, unless it is a seasonal hub, then I let it go.  For instance, I have a hub on beach towels and I'm not going to worry about low traffic on that hub during the winter months or my hub on Halloween treats, I'm not going to worry about low traffic on that hub until September.

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                  2. 86

                     TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Richard:  When you say rely on the analytics stats...I am confused.  I do only see the daily stats for a given article when I look there.  Is there some way to see daily, weekly and monthly per article stats?  If so, please tell me how!

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                        livewithrichardposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        I told you once before...lol you have to set up URL Channels in your Adsense account and then link it to your Analytics.
                        https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/2495976?hl=en
                        
                        That link will show you how.

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                           TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                           Well, Richard...you may have told somebody else about this, but not me!  Anyhow, I got as far as "save changes"...and a message came up that said there was an unexpected error and to try again later!  Also, where in the world will I find the "code" if I ever do get them to  save my changes.  Sometimes I really hate Google!

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                              TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                              Richard:  Now Ad sense is showing that I have linked to my subdomain, but I have no clue as to what they are directing me to do when it comes to finding and entering the code.  Can you help me with this?  I am far from being a tech person and the language they are using is Greek to me!

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                                 livewithrichardposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                 You need to log into Adsense, click on ‘My ads’ from the top menu, then ‘URL channels’ from the left sidebar.  If you haven’t added any url’s yet then you can not go back to see how anything has performed, you can only go forward from this point.
                                 
                                 Click on the ‘+ New URL channel’ button and you can add up to 500 hub URL’s.  You should first go to your Hubpages account and gather all of your hub urls onto a notepad so you can just copy paste them into Adsense.  \
                                 
                                 Once the URL channels are set, you can start tracking their page views and earnings on each individual hub instead of the entire account.

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                                 1. 86

                                    TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                    Richard:  Good grief, man...with 115 hubs right now, this will take forever!  Can I go in from this point forward and just add hubs as I create them?

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                                       livewithrichardposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                                       It would take me 45 seconds to do all those hubs, I don't see why it would take you much longer.  Go to 'My Account' then 'Hubs' and above the stats there is a link to 'export cvs'  You then open it with Excel... if you don't have Excel you can download Google's Open Office which has a similar spreadsheet program called Calc.  All of your URL's will be in the first column.  Widen the column then right click and hold the first row and pull it all the way down to Copy and Paste the URL's into Notepad.  Once the URL's are in Notepad you can then save them for later use and then paste them into Google Adsnese as new URL channels.
                                       
                                       Certainly, you can do this going forward with new hubs but I see no reason why you wouldn't want all of your URL's being tracked.

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         TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Richard:  I didn't realize that was what you meant about placing the Hubs into adsense.  I can probably do the same method with a microsoft works spreadsheet.  I already put my main niche in, so we'll see how well I do with that.  Thank you very much for your advice and help.

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   jansharesposted 10 years ago

   Organic inbound links? Is that when, for example, someone likes my hub on indulgent parenting styles and puts the link on their site about parenting tips and I start getting more traffic as a result?

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      livewithrichardposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, that would be an example of an organic inbound link.  Someone may be writing a blog post or in a discussion on their social networks and post a link to your article for reference.  The best links are those that someone writes about in their blog posts and uses the same keywords you would use to anchor the link.
      
      @Sondra that was just my opinion and how I allow things to mature. If you are happy with 10 visits per month then that will work for you.  For me, it's not enough.  I would really go back to those hubs and select the best keyword phrase that represents the hub and plug it into Google's keyword tool to see how many searches there are for that term, then plug the term into Google's search to see how many competing pages you are up against.  The fewer the better, but if you don't see your content in the first 10 pages then you have some real work ahead of you to promote your chosen phrases.

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         jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, livewithrichard.

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      2. 86

         TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Richard:  The problem is that I think you are right...it will kill me to dump so many hubs, but it is becoming obvious that there is just too much competition out there for some of my topics.  Thank you for your guidance.  I want quality hubs that many people read, and these days it seems no matter how many hubs I write, I get approximately the same number of views for them!  I just don't get that...but then, there's a lot of stuff I don't "get".  Good thing there are people like you around to help guide people like me!

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            livewithrichardposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            One good thing to remember is that if a hub or online article is not working or gaining traffic, you can always unpublish it, get it de-indexed, and then submit it to print magazines... or republish them on your own self hosted blog.  Read billybuc and his ideas on submitting to print magazines.  He has hundreds of hubs and he just searches out publishers that may be interested in his content and he sends off a query along with the actual article.  Get your hands on the 2013 Writer's Market.  The only way you lose is if you give up.

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               TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Richard:  I have no desire to publish in hard copy...I do not do this for the money, am old, retired and writing to help others.  If I make a few dollars along the way, that is icing on the cake, but my real goal is to leave a meaningful portfolio behind once I am gone from this earth.  That may sound idealistic, but it is how I feel.  I need to apportion my time, and getting too "professional" about my writing will eat it up even more than writing for HP does now!  But, thanks for the great ideas.

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   rebekahELLEposted 10 years ago

   Great responses, livewithrichard.  It takes time to gain backlinks naturally.  But promotion is essential with more people writing online than years ago.

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4. 92

   ChitrangadaSharanposted 10 years ago

   Thanks TIMETRAVELER2, for starting the thread and thanks livewithrichard, for useful suggestions!
   I agree, just writing good and useful content is not enough these days. Promotion and marketing is very important and I am still learning everyday, with the help of hubbers like you.
   Thanks!

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5. 94

   agilitymachposted 10 years ago

   I have several hubs that were pulling about 10 visits a month until they aged to 11 or 12 months.  Then they started getting Google traffic.  It just took that long for Google to realize the substance of my work and my "authorship," I believe.
   
   Maturing doesn't necessarily happen in six months.  I'd wait a year.  And I wouldn't go with the 30 hits benchmark.  JMO.

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   1. 86

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      What benchmark do you use?  I am really struggling with this and just deleted about a dozen hubs.  Mostly what I'm finding is that competition on saturated areas is what is killing my views, and that, I believe, is something that is very difficult to overcome.

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         agilitymachposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I don't use a benchmark.  I use my gut.  I do take into consideration saturation, however some of my hubs that were on like page 15 of Google when they were first published are now on page one.  If I felt the hub was good, I just let it sit.  Why not? They are all featured, and they aren't doing any harm sitting there.  Then, over time, they are starting to get more and more hits. 
         
         Some hubbers like to have a few hubs that generate tons of hits each.  Others like to have lots of hubs that generate a few hits each.  You go with what you like to do, but IMO, if I like a hub and think it has substance and something today, I keep it.

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            TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            In my mind they do harm because they lower the value of my portfolio.  When I delete them, I'm always glad to see them go.  When I deleted this last batch my hubber score went up to 100 again.  Most people don't view hubber scores as being important, or even the scores on the hubs themselves, but I tend to see a direct correlation between those scores and how successful my work is.  I also watch trends. If a hub goes slowly from lower to higher...then its a keeper.  However, if the opposite is true, I rework it, etc, and the downward trend continues...I dump it.  I guess each of us views these things differently, but I learn a great deal from other writers by asking about these things.  Thanks for your input.

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            TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            In my mind they do harm because they lower the value of my portfolio.  When I delete them, I'm always glad to see them go.  When I deleted this last batch my hubber score went up to 100 again.  Most people don't view hubber scores as being important, or even the scores on the hubs themselves, but I tend to see a direct correlation between those scores and how successful my work is.  I also watch trends. If a hub goes slowly from lower to higher...then its a keeper.  However, if the opposite is true, I rework it, etc, and the downward trend continues...I dump it.  I guess each of us views these things differently, but I learn a great deal from other writers by asking about these things.  Thanks for your input.

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