Having an ads hub.

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   Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years ago

   Do I need to have ads on in my hubs to qualify them to be chosen such as Hub of the Day? I know I was told that had nothing to do with scores on hubs but just wondered if they had to be open to ads for that?
   Thanks.

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      calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Having ads on a hub isn't a requirement for designations like 'featured,' 'editor's choice,' or 'hub of the day.'  That said, if your hub has ads disabled because HP deems the topic not ad-safe, then it will probably not be selected for editor's choice or hub of the day, but it can be featured.  Just out of curiosity, why do you have ads disabled?

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         Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I don't have them disabled but I am thinking about doing that since first of all I do not write for money and second I thought I would try disabling them to see if I can get my score up since I have "evergreened" every hub yet my score does not go up even with all my hub scored individually going up. I just fight a constant battle and it is never enough. Just thought I would try something different since there is no way on earth to know the answer. I don't particularly like ads; it was just another effort to be nice but if it doesn't really matter then why do it?
         I never have problems keeping hubs featured and when I publish a new one it goes featured in no time; like just a couple of hours. So I must be doing something right there.

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            calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I have no idea if ads disabled makes a hub's score go up, but as others who join this thread will tell you, the scores are mostly irrelevant.  If you're going to edit hubs, do it to make them more useful to readers and to make them more easily found in search engines, but don't worry about which direction the score goes. 
            
            I know when you've been conditioned to think of scores as grades it's hard to let go of that idea, but you really have trust that they're not worth worrying about.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I doubt that ads being disabled would make your score go up.   
            
            HubPages is a business that exists to make money: if you disable ads then it won't make money so I can't see it designing a score that would encourage you to do that!

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               Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               I am just going on their word that ads make no difference in score so if they make no difference in anything else why should I be the only one being fair? I put my work up against anyone's and I am a bit tired of not being appreciated.  Businesses that want to make money should be looking at their workers who give what they ask for years going by all the rules and show those more appreciation. It has never been my experience that businesses are really on top of things though so I suppose HP is no worse  but I would certainly not think of being a KA for them. I would prefer to just get credit for all the work I have put in for so many years.
               I have my answer from calculus; so that is all I need to know.

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                  SmartAndFunposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  I've stated it before and I'll state it again: HP needs to dump the scores.
                  
                  Here is yet another example of an earnest Hubber who feels unappreciated (some feel much worse than unappreciated) because of scores. The scores are basically meaningless and are assigned by a mysterious computer algorithm -- not a human --  yet so many writers don't realize that. So many Hubbers fret over the scores, constantly wasting time and mental energy tweaking their work and checking back for changes in their scores, hoping for a higher number, equating a higher scores with validation of the quality of their work.
                  
                  Hub scores are mainly a mind game to keep writers engaged here. While they might produce the desired effect (improved writing) in some cases, in so many cases they cause confusion, frustration and misunderstanding, and have even motivated some writers to give up or leave the site entirely.
                  
                  Dump the scores, HP, or at least make them more meaningful by letting writers know how they are calculated and what they do or do not mean. Or how about letting hubbers know their QAP scores instead?

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     +++++++++1
                     
                     Many moons ago we had some great discussions with the then moderators, who openly admitted how meaningless the scores were and that everyone should ignore them.  We had some useful debates about what could replace them and how.
                     
                     Then the boss (Paul Edmondson) dropped by and posted about how much he valued the scoring system and what a great thing it was, and that was the end of that.   So until the boss changes his mind, we're stuck with them I think.

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                  TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  You are blaming HP for not appreciating you when, in fact, they have no control over how many people read your work.  They show you the basics to help with formatting and such, but it is you who must write to please the public, not them.
                  
                  I wrote a really good book and published it on Amazon.  It is one that provides a factual story that would also help many people. Those who have read it, love it, but guess what?  Nobody is buying it!  Why? Because there are many others about the same subject or that have the same or similar title and people are not taking the time to read the excerpt OR they  don't want to read something that includes the topic of surviving the death of a spouse.
                  
                  It is not Amazon's fault that this is happening, it's just how things are!

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            TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I took a quick look at your profile and it appears you are writing on highly saturated topics, have certain titles that are too generic, write on a level that is too personal in some instances and also write on certain topics that would not hold interest.
            
            This translates to having competition that is hard to overcome and not giving readers what they want in terms of having their questions answered or providing information that will help them.
            
            They don't care about your Thanksgiving, for example, but certainly would like tips and advice on making their own better.
            
            Your problem isn't advertising, it's topics, formatting and titles.
            
            I think if you go back and do some serious rewrites with those things in mind, you will see readership go up.

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               gmwilliamsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               One has to write on topics that no one else writes about.  One has to be get creative topics, write about it, and LEARN TO MARKET, BROADCAST his/her topics through social media.  In order to garner high readership and thus high earnings, one must learn to promote through social media like Google+, Facebook, Pinterest,  Twitter, and social media.  No one is going to do for you, you have to do FOR SELF.  Internet writing is a jungle which the most savvy survives, even thrives.
               

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                  Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  You and I are not that far apart gm and I have been aware and a part of most of social media for years and have hundreds of friends all told I communicate with; but I suppose I am more into sharing my knowledge with them than selling them something. I am not at all after earnings; maybe someday, but not at this time.

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               Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               I will consider your thoughts but I do not have a problem with readership; my lowest scoring hub has over 50,000 reads so how do you explain that? Even after deleting many hubs I have nearly 200,000 reads. Back when I did poetry and only did crazy hubs just to suit me I had high 90's and hit 100 a few times. so how does that fit any of your advice for this is truth. As soon as I started listening to HP and going green and all that my score fell and has stayed there. I look at other hubs and compare to mine and it is ridiculous and those not interesting; misspelled and so poorly done yet they out score me. Most have not many, if any, comments and I would be surprised if many reads that I am talking about.

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                  TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  If your current readership is that good, what's the problem?  However, if your current readership (not the total for your 4 years here) has dropped, then you have a big problem due to the fact that all of the rules have changed.  My best performing hub has 80,000 views and is rated usually in the high 80's and low 90's BUT the majority of those views occurred prior to August of 2014.  It used to get about 250 views daily, now I am lucky to get 40 or 50.  Yes, the scores are good, but it is the competition apparently that is killing it for me.
                  
                  It is easy to look at your total numbers and assume that you are doing well when in truth you earned those views prior to Google's changes, etc.  The kind of views you are getting NOW is what matters,not your scores.
                  
                  Ignore the scores.  If people are still reading, no problem.

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                     Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     I have deleted all (regrettably) that I use to have here and I just deleted the things you were talking about, my Christmas, Thanksgiving and Halloween Hubs because they were about me. I will see how it goes now. I left my two Myelopathy hubs about me that are medical because I think this is important and not anything else like it online that I have found. I went years with this not knowing what was wrong and I talk about that and how some with these symptoms could have the same problem and then I had surgery for it and took readers through that; how it was for me and what difference it made. I don't consider that something personal others just don't care to know about. I wish I had found something like it years ago!
                     I guess since I do not write for pay it is hard for me to get in the mode or "mood" of writers who do. I love to read hubs here and I like to read ones like I write...so it may be an unsolvable problem. I don't believe any of my hubs are boring...for I have read plenty of those.

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                        aesta1posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        I thought I read somewhere that deleting hubs may affect your score. I am not sure of this so those who know more can jump in. I want to know as well as I want to delete some I am not happy about.
                        I am sorry Jackie, I don't understand your low score given that you are one of those who actively participate here.

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                           Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                           Thanks Mary; it probably is silly of me but I was always an A student and even when I came here my scores were high and as you say I am active and follow any and all suggestion of HP and there seems to be no rhyme or reason anymore and it is frustrating. I don't know if I can make myself accept it or not but I will give it a try. Maybe. lol It just seems a physical effort to keep above 80 and it really is wearing me out!

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                           TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                           Actually deleting is not penalized and sometimes improves scores.  It all depends on the hubs.
                           
                           For example, if you write two hubs about the same topic, you would be better off to delete the lowest performer and combine it into the one that is doing better.  That way, you get a more comprehensive hub, higher ranking and better views.

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                        moonlakeposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        I'm sorry you have deleted your Christmas, Thanksgiving and Halloween Hubs.

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                           Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                           Maybe people aren't interested; never considered that since friends seem to be. Just hard to be business minded when you are just trying to enjoy yourself. But even just for that reason I expect to be treated fairly.

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                              TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                              Jackie:  I just took a close look at your Makeup Tips for Older Women hub, and I think I see some of your issues there.
                              
                              First, you continually make small grammatical errors.
                              Second, you include yourself in the article.
                              Third you repeat words and phrases too often.
                              Fourth, you fill the top of your hub with a photo.  Google downgrades articles that do this because they like content above the fold, not just a photo.
                              Also, your photo is far too large.  You should size and refine it and also add some text that repeats your title and post it on Pinterest to get more views.
                              
                              Forget "we" and "I", they are taking away from your hub.  I think if you do that, your article will be more focused and tight.
                              
                              Another problem is that I see no use of SEO.  Your first sentence should basically repeat the thoughts in your title.  The last one should do the same.
                              
                              You also are not dividing your work into titled capsules, so it just looks like a big blob of words.  If you use capsules, you can use the titles to lead readers through your hub.  This is helpful for the many people who prefer skimming rather than reading.
                              
                              These are the types of issues that lower scores, so if raising them is your goal, this should do it. 
                              
                              Take a look at any one of my hubs to see what I am talking about.  My hubber score is consistently in the 90's because I do these things.and my hub scores are mostly 80's and 90's.

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                        Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        But why delete them?   If you are writing to enjoy yourself, why do you even care about the scores?
                        
                        We're all trying to explain how silly and meaningless the scores are.  In the past, even HubPages staff have admitted that and told us all to ignore them (until the boss dropped by and told them to shut up).  If you write to enjoy yourself, then just forget about the scores and enjoy yourself.
                        
                        By the way, if you enjoy writing for contests, you could take a look at WeekendNotes.com.  There is not much ongoing pay, but they do give awards quite often, and those awards are given by human beings not related to scores.

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                           Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                           Thank you, I certainly will check that out. I did get one reward (award)  here, it was from the hubbers. Maybe I should quit while I am ahead.

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                        TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        Jackie:  Anything that says "blog" is going to be a problem.  However, that medical hub your wrote is a good thing because writing about your personal experiences with an illness helps people who are going through the same thing and makes them want to search for it.
                        
                        Why not update those holiday hubs you deleted and leave yourself out of them.  I'll bet they have some great thoughts and ideas that will bring views, but only during those seasons.  Holiday hubs are not Evergreen.
                        
                        It's been my experience that it is better to have fewer well performing hubs than a ton of hubs that only bring in minimal views. Some feel differently, but this is what has worked for me.
                        
                        Please don't feel you are not appreciated.  All of us here are in the same boat as you...meaning that we are held captive by Google.  It's just how it is.  Ignore the scores and continue to enjoy writing, but if you want views, you're going to have to make a few changes.

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               Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               I took the three down; deleted, that you spoke of and there is absolutely no difference in my score. (Well possibly down one or two points.) It has been a couple days now.

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                  TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  You are letting your scores dominate you.  If you don't stop, you will become totally stressed.  Those scores, all of them, are basically meaningless.  What has meaning is people reading your work and enjoying it.  That's all that really counts.
                  
                  What kind of views are you getting daily right now and on how many hubs.
                  
                  That is what you should work on.  The scores will come.

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                  calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Jackie, you seem like a nice person and I can see your heart is in the right place by trying to raise your scores, so it saddens me that you are going to the extreme length of deleting (what I assume are) perfectly good hubs to see if your profile score increases. 
                  
                  The scores are not grades.  Having a hub with a score of 79 is not the same as handing in an essay at school and getting a grade of 79/100 on it.  Having a profile score of 100 does not mean you are an A+ student at HubPages Elementary school and better than all the other little kiddies with lower scores.  Lots of people with high scores complain about their low traffic all the time, so what is that high score doing for them?
                  
                  You seem to be very stuck in the school mindset and most of life isn't like school.
                  
                  You should also carefully weigh the advice you receive on these forums; you cannot judge the quality of advice you receive by the score of the person doling it out.  If someone with a score of 94 says do such and such and a person with a score of 79 says no that's bad advice, the person with a score of 79 may actually be correct.  I would advise you to ignore the advice of people who constantly complain about their low traffic, regardless of what their scores are.

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                     Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     I know it probably does seem like I am obsessed calculus; but no I am not; I just wanted to have an answer to why there is no rhyme or reason for something. As I said I look over hubs of hubbers maybe over 90 but at least high 80's and they can't possibly have high scores or much of a following and they have hardly any comments and misspelled...well I have already said all this. But as Timetraveller said she looked over my hubs and saw three I had which I talked about myself as a child during holidays; Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. She advised these being about me might bring down my score and that I should write more of interest to everyone I suppose she meant not just my following here at HP so I deleted those and it has only lowered my score if anything so I am just reporting back really. I left ones I wrote about myself and serious medical problems because I do think those are important and maybe I will try to perfect those if I can. As I told her I wish the information I had to give had been out there for me.
                     I feel good that several are talking to me about this and that a few are even kind such as yourself. I feel much better just getting it off my chest and I don't think I will ever take it as seriously because that really is so foolish. I know of so many who got so mad and just left for good and others who rarely show up and those we loved we can still find at Facebook! So there is life after HubPages and my determination to get an answer where there is none was really stupid.
                     You have given me really caring advice and I know you are right and I am listening! Thanks!

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                        Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        I hope now you understand that there really is no rhyme or reason to the scores, apart from the fact that HubPages' boss likes them!   
                        
                        I think you are absolutely right to keep your medical Hubs published because they can be very valuable to people.  I don't think TimeTraveller meant to say ALL personal experience is bad. 
                        
                        If you have had a personal experience that others can learn from, then that's a fantastic subject for a Hub.     
                        
                        By contrast, If you're just relating a personal experience like, say, how you spent Halloween, then that's not likely to interest anyone but your friends and family - so that's not a good subject for a Hub.

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                           Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                           That is, unless it's:
                           Hilariously funny (according to people other than your nearest and dearest)
                           Truly bizarre in a fascinating way
                           Nostalgic in a very compelling way (according to people other than your nearest and dearest)
                           Bound to start a lively discussion (maybe even a flame war) in the guestbook

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   Bronwyn Joy Ellioposted 8 years ago

   + infinity

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   calculus-geometryposted 8 years ago

   Look, here is a user called gardenerden who currently has a hubberscore of 13.  And here is another user called fart who currently has a score of 61. 
   
   http://hubpages.com/@gardenerden
   http://hubpages.com/@fart
   
   See how stupid that is? That's because the scores are poorly formulated.  In simple terms, whoever devised the formulas for hubberscore and hubscore didn't do a good job of making a mathematical equation relating all the variables, but he or she is too proud to admit it, and is too stubborn to get rid of them.  They're totally junk, so ignore them.
   
   When you catch yourself comparing your score to others' scores, just remember, that even a hubber with a profile score of 100 is only 39 points higher than fart.

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      Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I promise to never forget that calculus; thank you!

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4. 81

   Mark Ewbieposted 8 years ago

   Ignore the score.
   
   

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      Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I don't know whether to laugh or report you....hahaha.

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5. 0

   cjnileskiposted 8 years ago

   I'm still pretty new at this.  I would like to put ads on my articles.  Although I enjoy writing if I can make a little money at the same time would be great!  I currently have six articles posted and am working on the seventh one.  How long should I wait for ads to be posted?  Do i need a minimum number of them?  I remember reading something about this in the FAQ section but I was slightly confused as to the best way to go about this.  Thanks!!

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      Jackie Lynnleyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I see no reason you can't put ads right away. Have you tried? I looked at your hubs and they don't seem to be controversial. If ads don't go in I am sure they would tell you why. Sign up if you haven't and give it try!

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         cjnileskiposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks!  I'll give it a try over the weekend!

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   Kylyssaposted 8 years ago

   I really have to disagree with the advice suggesting hubbers remove all personal thoughts from hubs. It's actually bad advice for some types of hubs.
   
   Removing references to personal experiences and using a formal tone is preferable on serious, nuts-and-bolts sorts of tutorials and information pieces. There are even exceptions to the "rules" for them. Sometimes, the author's personal experience is highly relevant to and supportive of his or her expertise in the subject. There are many things one can be an expert in that require experience and may not even have an associated degree or certification one can purchase to give readers confidence in the material. Those pieces pretty much require personal input.
   
   I was actually asked to provide an anecdote to show readers my personal experience with the topic I'd written about for a fish magazine a few years back. I had to agree it made my article better by providing something the layman readers (the vast majority of their subscribers) could relate to. It was intended to make somewhat complex instructions less intimidating to their average reader. I've since applied that editor's advice to appropriate online pieces and it increased the number of social shares of some of them dramatically. On those it did not help, I fault my execution rather than the technique. 
   
   HP wants us to strive for magazine-quality articles, tutorials (including recipes), editorials, stories, and so on. Writing in first person does not make an article unprofessional or unacceptable to Google or to most actual magazines. Go read ten random articles from ten different high-circulation magazines* intended to be read by laymen and you'll see what l mean. There's personal experience or personality injected into many of them and into almost all holiday-related material found in high circulation magazines. 
   
   Some types of magazine-style writing actually depend on emotional appeal. HubPages hasn't declared this a scholarly site and making the whole site into one likely would kill it. HP is actually not aimed at scholars, but at the majority. There really aren't enough people out there who would trust material published on HP over material found on trusted, single-topic authority sites and actual magazines. There is plenty of room for scholarly articles and serious, unemotional delivery in the pieces that benefit from those techniques, but there's also plenty of room for non-technical magazine-style writing, too.
   
   I'm sad the OP deleted her holiday hubs for being too personal. Most popular holiday pieces survive via emotional appeal. Try typing a few queries one might use to find holiday pieces into Google and I can almost (but not quite) guarantee at least one front page result will be written in first person. You can probably come up with a holiday search that doesn't deliver any emotion-driven pieces or pieces that use first person perspective in them somewhere, but you'd likely need to try to do it.
   
   Google wants writers to use whatever viewpoint is considered appropriate to each type of writing as their users see it. Google's goal is to best please their users while not upsetting their paying clients.
   
    
   *'Magazines' refers to online, print, eBook-style delivery, and combination types of magazines, not just the ones printed on paper.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Nobody suggested removing all personal thoughts from hubs.  Where did you ever come up with that?  Hubs are not supposed to be blogs, but this does not mean that personal experiences cannot be included in them.  However, writing only about about personal experiences, in most instances, leads to lower views, income and scores.
      
      Unless you can provide information within this type of hub,  what you have is a blog, not a magazine format, etc.
      
      So, I respectfully disagree with much of what you said here.

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         Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I interpreted these two lines to mean you felt the OP should take personal thoughts and opinions out of her hubs:
         1. "Second, you include yourself in the article."
         and
         2. "Forget "we" and "I", they are taking away from your hub."
         
         When she deleted her holiday hubs for being too personal, it appeared to me that the OP took it that way, too. I apologize for misinterpreting your advice.
         
         I don't know what the first sentence means by "yourself" if it doesn't refer to the writer's thoughts and opinions or her writing voice. I could make guesses, but they'd be lousy guesses.
         
         I also don't know how to take the second sentence if it doesn't mean to avoid using first person point of view. I literally have no idea what it means if it doesn't mean avoiding first person POV.
         
         Obviously, unless the hub is an editorial, some other type of opinion piece, or a piece of creative writing, it has to have more than just thoughts and opinions. I didn't get a chance to read the holiday pieces the OP deleted so I didn't know they if they were intended as opinion pieces or creative writing or not.
         
         Please keep in mind that I'm not trying to be difficult or to be a smartass. I am a high-functioning autistic person and understanding unusual or novel word use, hints, non-sequiturs, and subtext doesn't come easily to me. I'm so bad at guessing correctly in those instances that I often have no idea which one of them a particular instance even represents.

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            TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            One of the problems with online communications is that they rarely are precise or easily understood.  In this case, For example, I did not include the word "never", but it obviously was understood by you as well as the original poster.
            
            I do think that including some personal experiences can be extremely beneficial, but when a hub is entirely about one's own thoughts, views and feelings and do not include more specific info about a specific topic, then you are dealing with a blog.
            
            I just felt that pieces written in this vein are not well accepted by the team in this venue.

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               Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               I admit my interpretation was colored by finding the thread after the OP had apparently taken it that way. I tend to trust other people's interpretations more than my own because they're the normal ones. This will sound awful, but I'm glad other people make the same sort of mistakes interpreting written words that I do. I never seem to see people making the same sort of mistakes I do trying to understand spoken words face-to-face so it makes me feel a little normal.
               
               In any case, I have about twenty hubs that are either written in first person POV or contain personal experiences (or both!) that have hub scores over 90, so I couldn't see why removing either would help a hub's score.

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