Why do so many people quit writing Hubs?

1. 39

   Hub Starposted 13 years ago

   I was on another thread and someone said many people sign up on HubPages, but very few go on to write a substantial number of quality Hubs.
   
   I wonder why this is and what HubPages can do to encourage people to stay on and improve their Hubs, which seems to be what they want.
   
   All my Hubs were recently deleted and it is enough to make anyone want to quit.
   
   A Hubber called thisisoli kindly reminded me:
   
   “I would take a look at the comments from Hubpages and go over what you have done so far, remember that they are not trying to insult you, they want you to make money, because if you make money, they make money.”
   
   Thank you for that. Your note gave me an idea as to how HubPages might prevent more quitters. 
   
   If they were to generate an automatic email, it would help. 
   
   Roughly like this:
   
   
   Dear Hubber,
   
   Our software program (or our moderator) has recently removed all your hubs.  We understand this may come as a surprise.  Please understand our intent with this decision.
   
   After four years of doing this, we have learned what garners the most attention on Google and what generates the most money. 
   
   We hope you will stay with HubPages and put the time in to revise your work to a higher quality.  When you write fantastic Hubs, we all benefit. 
   
   There are many resources to help you.  We are here to help each other. We look forward to seeing your hubs improve and hope you will not look at this as a setback but rather as motivation to move forward. We are writers ourselves and we know how challenging it can be. 
   
   
      
   
   How many people would not have quit and would have become better Hubbers if they had received a note like that?  Currently, all they do right now is reprimand you in very robotic ways for the slightest misstep. 
   
   Perhaps this is the reason most people quit?   
   
   Reprimands do not make people better writers.   Encouragement does.  Thoughtful emails and explanations do.
   
   What do others think? 
   
   How might Hubpages prevent quitting and get people to want to keep writing quality Hubs?

   replyreport
   1. 80

      David 470posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      lol a lot of people that sign up do not write any hubs. They just make an account. Then some people may make a few then end up not making anything more.

      replyreport
   2. 85

      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      One reason is that large numbers of people sign up with no intention of ever writing a Hub.  They just want to take part in forum discussions, or think they have to join up to make comments (the comments box invites you to sign up or sign in, which many people misunderstand). 
      
      Others join, then can't make head nor tail of how to write a Hub and give up before they've written even one (yes, I find that amazing, but you'd be surprised how many people post int the forums saying, "I've joined, now how do I write a Hub?").
      
      I regularly come across Hubs written by people who've joined purely to write a single article to promote their website or product.  Some are clearly spamming and get deleted, but there are many who've written a good article so their Hub survives.
      
      In the last year or so, there have been several Hubbers who got too embroiled in the religious and political forums, and got so upset by the enemies they made there, that they deleted their Hubs (which is what I call cutting off your nose to spite your face, but that's my opinion).
      
      So the genuine people who join, write Hubs and then get discouraged are only a small proportion of the number of "non-active" Hubbers.

      replyreport
   3. 0

      Stevennix2001posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      The only advice I can give you is if you want a more specific reason as to why your hubs were unpublished and deleted, then you need to e-mail the hubpages staff immediately, as they're the only ones that can answer that question.  I know that's what I did when my "ghost in the shell" movie review got unpublished for being too adult oriented.  At first I couldn't fathom why because the content was pg 13ish oriented, and I didn't write anything that was offensive.  However, when I contacted hubpages about it to be more specific, they told me exactly what the problem was, and I was able to fix the problem immediately.  This is why you should be contacting them if your that concerned over this.
      
      
      
      I think they do have automated flags that go up and give out such warnings that you speak of, as I have read about this happening before with another hubber complaining that they're email from the hubpages staff wasn't more personal enough for them, as it came off too robotic like a automated system mailed it.
      
      
      Actually, most writers quit this site because most aren't willing to put in the type of work others are, and most have a preconceived notion that they'll start making money right away.  Where in reality, only a rare few will make money right away, and most the earnings will take time to generate. 
      
      
      Well the only thing I can think of is probably to start paying people per hub they write, but then again that might take away some of the freedom from hubpages that many of us writers love to enjoy.  Perhaps a more user friendly way for hubbers to learn how to backlink maybe?  Who knows?

      replyreport
   4. 71

      Rymom28posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      A lot of it probably has to do with their personal life.  I step away for long stretches of time because of that.   In addition, I have found the process takes a conciderable amount of time, but the result is not much monetary compensation.  For me that has been okay, but for some it isn't enougb.  Good writing also requires a lot of editing.  In fact, I have found it is best to try to go back and edit your hubs at least every 6 months.  One of my best hubs has been marked with the red skull and I unpublish any that that happens to and try to edit until they are published and featured again.  It definitely can become tedious, but if you love writing, then stick with it.  Focus on why you write and maybe that will help pull you a long.  Good luck!

      replyreport
2. 90

   Pcunixposted 13 years ago

   Sure, why not.
   
   But really, you did not know that massive borrowing was going to raise flags? That seems very naive to me, though of course everybody is naive at some point.
   
   Or were you misled by someone or something?  Did you think it was acceptable because someone told you it was the way to succeed?

   replyreport
3. 39

   Hub Starposted 13 years ago

   Hi Pcunix
   
   yes, I was misled.  I read a post in a forum here that said it was not a big deal to have some duplicate content
   
   I don't think it was massive borrowing that got my hubs deleted. It was that my hubs were not "article-like" enough.

   replyreport
   1. 90

      Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I'm just curous - did you not get a warning when you published?
      
      I am in the habit of pasting in Amazon links as I start to work on a hub. They will later become Amazon capsules, but if I get interruped and just close the session without publishing, I have seen the substandard warning.
      
      You saw nothing like that?

      replyreport
      1. 39

         Hub Starposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         No, no warning.  It was two out of ten hubs that I used an ezine article on.  The other eight were just to "sparse."  They did not have enough content and had too many products listed, so they looked overly promotional and not enough like articles.

         replyreport
   2. 0

      Stevennix2001posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Your right, there is no problem if you have duplicate content...providing its YOUR OWN DUPLICATE CONTENT.  An example of this is like what happened to me, when I first joined hubpages.  Many of my earlier hubs were flagged as duplicate content, due to the fact that I used to write film reviews all the time on sites like Yahoo and Myspace when I was a kid, and I copied and pasted those same reviews onto hubpages when I first signed up.  I asked hubpages about it, but they told me there's nothing wrong with it because I did write every single one of those reviews myself, but because they appeared on other sites, that's why it was flagged as duplicate.  Outside of that though, hubpages still allows those same said hubs to remain published.  Does that make any sense? 
      
      Anyways, that's what they typically mean by duplicate content isn't a big deal on hubpages; providing its your own.  Like if you used to write reviews on other sites like me, then transferred those same said reviews onto hubpages, then of course it'll get flagged but hubpages won't remove them.  Get the point?  However, if your hub has too much content from other users, then it does become a very big deal. 
      
      Anyways, I hope that helps.  Look, I'm not accusing you of anything, nor am I implying anything either, as I would never do that unless I had some proof to the contrary.  But if I were you, I'd probably stay away from using quotes and contents from other hubbers, unless you ask them directly for their consent first.  If not, then I think you'd be better off not even using them at all.  Seriously, it's one thing to draw inspiration and pay respect to a writer's style in a hub, but it's quite another to copy and paste their work into your own, without their consent.  I apologize if this offends you, but this is just my two cents on the matter anyway.

      replyreport
      1. 85

         Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Exactly, and I bet that was the OP's problem. Copying works from other sources which you didn't write yourself is not acceptable.

         replyreport
4. 82

   Mark Ewbieposted 13 years ago

   Hi Hubstar,
   
   it is rotten to have something marked as sub standard (I know) and must be gutting to have the whole lot removed.  Encouragement goes a very long way in giving a newbie confidence to keep writing.
   
   But Hubpages themselves must have 100's of thousands of articles and hubbers to deal with and I'm sure can't run to offering a personal advice centre on each and every one.
   
   It's easy enough to see what they do pass - just take a look at the high ranked hubbers and see what they produce.  That should give a pretty good idea of what to aim for.
   
   It's not really a secret.  Original, reasonably written, pleasant to look at articles.  Nothing too special, although some of them are super , some are also less so.  It's a mix.

   replyreport
   1. 39

      Hub Starposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you Mark

      replyreport
5. 88

   WryLiltposted 13 years ago

   The reason people don't stay around to hub and earn?
   
   BECAUSE IT ISN'T EASY!
   
   It takes learning, time and skill to create enough hubs to start earning money. Of course many people join, become disillusioned because they have one hub and aren't earning $100/month from it straight away.
   
   The learning centre is a wonderful tool. If people are too lazy to even bother using the help and learning sections, I doubt an email would change their mind.
   
   We try and help on the forums but we can't help those who won't help themselves!

   replyreport
   1. 39

      Hub Starposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      That makes sense.  Thank you

      replyreport
6. 78

   sofsposted 13 years ago

   Yeah it isn't easy... It takes dedication, time and learning new skills to make it work for you.. but so is everything in life.. nothing comes easy...
   
   I enjoy what I do and so I am getting more and more passionate about it... I am learning all the while....
   
   My first hub was marked substandard, I worked and worked on it and today that is the hub that get me the most traffic.. it is all about saying never give up!!
   
   Best wishes to you!!

   replyreport
   1. 39

      Hub Starposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks!

      replyreport
7. 44

   Mikeydoesposted 13 years ago

   People don't get it. They think that since I only got $15 off of this today its not worth it. They don't get the big picture, also they don't know how easy it is.
   
   The less people that know about this the better for us. Because when this becomes even more popular in years to come, we will all be established and hopefully paying many bills with it.
   
   I really need to get some more hubs cracking, but I am way to busy.

   replyreport
   1. 80

      David 470posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      People do not realize that only 10 dollars today is good because its passive income, and you get paid ON WEEKENDS. $10=300 passive income.
      
      I agree people do not look at the overall picture at all. They look at the scratches of the picture.

      replyreport
   2. 84

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      You got $15 today?  That's amazing!  Many here only get a few cents a day.  What are you doing...selling gold??

      replyreport
8. 90

   Urbane Chaosposted 13 years ago

   ...I agree with pretty much what everyone else says.  While it is disheartening to have all of your hubs removed, it's not the end of the world.  Life goes on - you figure out what part of the hub(s) didn't apply to the ToS, and you fix them.
   
   As for the hubs getting removed - the simple solution here is this: Make a backup!  Everytime I hit the publish button, I print of the page and save it in PDF form, just so that I have a record of it.  I keep the PDF's on a flash drive as well, just because you never know when a topic might turn up in a conversation.  I've actually driven traffic to here because of that.
   
   As for duplicate content, that's easy as well - don't do it.  If you keep that rule in mind, you'll never have an issue.  Hubpages is geared to original, unique articles - not to things that have been published elsewhere.  If in doubt, there are several sites online that check for plagiarism.  I use one occasionally if I think one of my articles have been copied.. it works beautifully!
   
   Still, writing professionally (or semi-professionally) takes a lot of work.  Sometimes you simply have to bite the bullet and start over. 
   
   It is said that 90% of writing is editing, and the same goes for here.

   replyreport
9. 85

   Whitney05posted 13 years ago

   Hub Star, what you misunderstood was that duplicate content isn't ideal and is against the rules of the site when you're stealing work from other people, especially in every single hub you publish.
   
   Duplicate content is theft.
   
   When you have a warning on a hub, you figure out why and fix it. You don't quit. In most cases, it's out of accident.
   
   People don't quit becuase of hubpages, they quit because they aren't making millions overnight. That's goes the same for every content generated website or blog.

   replyreport
   1. 70

      thisisoliposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      It wasn't theft in his case, he was using eZine articles and attributing credit where due, but still it is not going to earn very much.

      replyreport
10. 74

    relacheposted 13 years ago

    According to http://hubpages.com/stats/ there are almost 1.5 million registered members on this site but under 200,000 have actually created Hubs.
    
    How come only about 13% of the people who join this site (whose main purpose is to help people publish content) actually wind up publishing anything?

    replyreport
    1. 80

       David 470posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!

       replyreport
11. 39

    Hub Starposted 13 years ago

    Hey Everyone,
    
    Thank you for all the great responses.  Sorry for the delayed reply.
    
    Lesson learned:  Even content that people want you to duplicated and spread around (ezine articles) is not allowed on HubPages.
    
    Slow and steady (and original) wins the race.

    replyreport
12. 60

    Dbostonposted 13 years ago

    Like others have said I think many people get discouraged when they don’t make any money from the 2 hubs that they have written. I just began here, and haven’t seen a cent. However, I will make sure to keep working at it because it would be great if I could get to the point where I was bringing in an extra $100, or $200 a month in residual income. I probably should get back to writing hubs, and not posting here though!

    replyreport
    1. 90

       Pcunixposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I agree that expectation of quick money - which is very unlikely to happen - can contribute to the quit rate.
       
       I just saw a newbie in another thread say something like  "It would be nice to have some extra money for the holidays".  They just joined yesterday and have one hub - it is extremely unlikely that  they'll see any extra money before we are well into next year and of course even that will require work.
       
       It's tough, though. HP can't very well advertise "Work really, really hard and you may start seeing a small, but respectable, residual income in slightly under a year", can they? Somehow I don't see massive signups from that campaign!

       replyreport
       1. 69

          simeonvisserposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          It's not a problem of HubPages though. We can see this everywhere in society: people want results but they don't want to do anything for it. They want good health but they're too lazy to work out or eat healthy food. They participate in the lottery to win lots of money because that's easier than starting a company which can also earn you lots of money. And so on.

          replyreport
13. 96

    Sue Adamsposted 8 years ago

    That looks like a huge site containing an even huger amount of garbage. Garbage on the site spoils rankings for everyone else.
    
    Nothing personal, but friendly emails will not help those who evidently ignore the rules and don't master the basic skills required to call themselves an "author". The QAP has been put into place as a simple literacy test and to induce an understanding of how HP works. Learn or quit.
    
    A way out of the current mess would be to
    1.) make new signs-ups subject to say at least five featured hubs before granting them permanent membership.
    2.) delete all substandard abandoned accounts altogether.

    replyreport
    1. 84

       TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Amen to that, sister!

       replyreport
14. 39

    ChristinSposted 8 years ago

    This thread is 4 years old. Just an FYI.

    replyreport
    1. 82

       Mark Ewbieposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       And the OPs only Hub is four years old. I guess he quit.

       replyreport
       1. 39

          ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

          lol , that's even more funny than super old threads being dug up constantly.  oh my.  I know many of us have requested and really wish the HP powers that be would listen that we put a limit on how long old threads can be commented on.   I've noticed that the "related discussions" listed are almost always several years old.  Surely they can find more recent posts to link as related? Oh well.

          replyreport
       2. 86

          passionatelearnrposted 8 years agoin reply to this

          lol.

          replyreport
    2. 92

       Millionaire Tipsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       The sad thing is that the issue is still relevant.  We do need to fix the standard emails so they are softer and more understandable.  People shouldn't need to keep posting their hubs in the Improving your hub forum when pretty much they just need to be told that their links and products must be directly related to the content of their hub.

       replyreport
15. 78

    Lionrhodposted 8 years ago

    Personal life.
    
    That's totally my answer.
    
    I was raring to go when I originally started with Squidoo and then was moved to HP.
    
    Then my computer (literally- sparks flying!) blew up, and my sister's cancer got bad and...
    
    For the few cents I've made per month here, it wasn't worth giving it a big focus. Something had to break and it was HP and my social media.
    
    IF I'd been making big bucks I'd have stuck it through, but since I wasn't...
    
    And yes, this is a completely relevant discussion, necro or not. If we were making money, we'd make it a priority.
    
    I had 30+ Hubs when I got sidelined. Now most aren't featured any more, for lack of my own input as much as anything else.
    
    That's not a lot of hubs, but ...results weren't worth the huge effort of writing articles at the time. As for the future, I'm not sure.

    replyreport
16. 71

    suraj punjabiposted 8 years ago

    People stop writing on Hubpages because they started for all the wrong reasons. They wrote to get money. They did not start on hubpages to contribute and write things people will find useful and/or entertaining and/or informative. It was all about the Benjamins. When you start anything for money you will always fail. Always. Trust me when I say that even people like Bill Gates or Zuckerberg did not start their company for money.

    replyreport
17. 75

    WriteAngledposted 8 years ago

    The answer in my case is quite simple. In half an hour spent working on a translation, I earn more than I earn for 20 hubs in one year. This makes the passive income arguments totally laughable.
    
    I hang around the forums, because it's become a habit, but have no reason to produce further content here. It's better to concentrate on earning a decent income that lets me live the life I wish and also lets me plough surplus money into a personal pension.

    replyreport
    1. 88

       WryLiltposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Agreed. I love Hubpages, because it's where I started and it is a great starting place IMO. However when you have your own website (or sideline or main job) there are so many more options, because it's YOURS.
       
       Unlike Hubpages, my websites let me easily get social media followers, list build, choose multiple types of advertising, do A/B testing etc. It's harder work, but it's also more lucrative if you put in the work.

       replyreport
18. 92

    Chriswillman90posted 8 years ago

    It's so difficult to stay motivated to write here (or anywhere really) when it feels like it doesn't amount to anything. Right now I'm experiencing a major case of writer's block and it's been a tough couple weeks. Hopefully the slump ends soon and I could get back to writing because it's still my passion despite the missteps.

    replyreport
19. 66

    Healthy Exercizeposted 8 years ago

    I have gotten frustrated because its so arbitrary. I posted several initial articles. I couldn't get them above 70 points because they were product reviews. So I moved them to another site and deleted them here. Then I wrote an information article and got a score of 77. I made 1 change, it went to 80, I made another change - it went to 74. So I deleted the last change and it went to 75. My 75 score was the identical article as the 80 score since I deleted the change. I continued doing 1 change at a time and tracking it. The scores never matched back up. This led me to conclude that the rating is arbitrary. I think that is frustrating for people. The entire time, my message was that it was 'spammy' This was the case even when all my links were .edu and .gov resource links.

    replyreport
20. 68

    coupon-fanposted 8 years ago

    I've just started writing. Published two hubs and they gave me a 82 score. How good is that result? I write short articles, as I can't imaging reading something 1500 words long myself. Will my score go up if I publish more? Does it depent on the amount at all?

    replyreport
    1. 78

       Lionrhodposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       From what I understand, longer hubs are preferable, and score higher. Adding a poll, video or other similar stuff also seems to help.
       
       Personally, I prefer a  longer hub, providing the writer isn't stuffing it full just for the sake of taking up space.

       replyreport
    2. 85

       Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       The scores mean NOTHING.  I know it's hard to ignore them, but they really are meaningless.  I wish HubPages would get rid of them, but the founder of the site is very attached to them so they stay. 
       
       Yes, longer Hubs do usually do better.  That is not because your readers want long articles, it's because you won't get readers visiting your Hubs unless you can get your Hub listed in Google's search engine results.  So you need to please Google, before you can please your readers!  Google wants long comprehensive articles that cover a subject thoroughly.
       
       However I do think HubPages goes a little too far in recommending 1250 words. Anything between 800 to 1500 words is fine.

       replyreport