Niche Site Titles: Odd on Purpose?

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   jansharesposted 8 years ago

   I was looking at the title for the newest niche site "ReelRunDown." Each time a new one launches, we see it as odd and debate about the appropriateness of the title. The latest debate about "FeltMagnet" drew a lot of opinion.
   
   So now I'm thinking these titles are not mistakes. The one thing that they all have in common is that they are odd plays on words; they seem to have little to do with the site content. Is this done on purpose as some type of secret, SEO strategy that we don't understand? For example, if the site titles avoid topic keywords as much as possible, will the site articles be found easier, avoiding the competition of similar sites?
   
   I am far from being knowledgeable about how these internet things work but after looking at these weird titles as a whole, I think there is something bigger going on that's supposed to work toward the success of these sites. Many hubbers have already said that searchers are not going to google the title of the site; they are going to google topics, inquiries, and keywords. Thoughts?

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      LuisEGonzalezposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      If this was done in purpose maybe they know something we don't. Otherwise it's just another HP fail.....to say it as kindly as I can.

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      calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I agree.  It looks likes they are picking names that stick in the mind.  I stay of these name debates because it's obvious that HP is going for distinctiveness, and the name of the site is far less important than the content.
      
      All things considered, if I had a photography article on a content farm, I'd prefer it be on a content farm called 'feltmagnet' sharing space with craft articles than on a content farm called 'hubpages' sharing space with an article on how to shave your rear. (And before someone else says it, yes I know an even better third option is to have the article on your own visual arts site.)

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      kenneth averyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      janshares,
      Hello. My problem goes back to how WE choose where to save our hubs. We can use SEARCH or MOSTLY USED. Sometimes I search for just the right category, but some of my hubs do not belong in the titles available put there by HP, so I do not know what to do.
      But this I do know; Guess work and hubbing is not wise.

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      sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I think people will type in the topics they are interested in.  I would never type in the site name but I would type in the subject matter I was interested in.

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         Rochelle Frankposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I agree. As an example: who would ever search for "Pinterest"  or "Snopes" or even "HubPages" if they had never heard the word? People are looking for the subjects within the site first and perhaps the name of the site later, after a few encounters.

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         makingamarkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I'd agree if somebody was already on the site
         
         However I thought the whole point of creating niche sites is generating more traffic for niche interests and getting out from under the Google kicking
         
         The point is that domain names (that are not about wholly new products eg Pinterest) do much better if their domain name actually includes something relevant to the niche - and that generates better rankings in search engines and hence better traffic via search queries

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      NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      People choose domain names based on two things: Either keywords or brand recognition. Looks to me that HP has chosen to go with brand recognition. In other words, domain names people are liable to remember and return to.

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         makingamarkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         So where is the marketing strategy to create the brand recognition?
         
         Changing a domain name does zilch in relation to creating a better profile for a brand. You also have to do an awful lot of additional work on social media to raise the profile and get people interested in a brand.
         
         One of my new sites has a dedicated blog, dedicated twitter account and a dedicated Facebook Page - introduced in stages over the last 12 months - and this has helped enormously with creating a high profile for the brand within its targeted market segment. The Facebook Page (introduced last month) went from zero to 750 likes in 10 days flat and is continuing to produce steady gains in traffic for the site.

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            NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I'd agree that a brand has to be promoted through social media. I was just answering a general question about domain names. Clearly HP is not going the route of keywords in the domain name, so it's more likely they're looking for brand recognition.
            
            There are share buttons on those articles on the niche sites; that could contribute something to promotion of the brands. Other than that, maybe HP has a plan for promotion; I don't know.

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               makingamarkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Share buttons on the sites is a useful but MINOR and PASSIVE way of marketing sites.
               
               If HP has a plan for promotion there should have been evidence for it by now.
               
               Launch marketing for a new site is all about coverage, timing and co-ordination. I've not seen a lot of evidence of this so far.

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                  paradigmsearchposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Maybe they want to fill them with content first?

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                  relacheposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  They are doing exactly what they did when they first started HubPages, almost a decade ago now.

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                     Solarasposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     The difference being that they already have a lot of good content vetted by Google, and a number of writers that have proven the ability to stay in the game. And social media is a much bigger factor than it was 8 years ago. They may be relying on the writers to push the content through those outlets. Some have been very successful at that.

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      ChristinSposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I didn't see the debate on feltmagnet or I'd have chimed in on that one lol.  Some of the names are OK and some are really just bad.... bad like "feltmagnet" bad... I get brand recognition and all that, but I really don't think that something that sticks in your head because it's so bad is a good thing...

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         Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         All the existing names have been debated but it's all pretty pointless, really. By the time each name is announced, the name has been registered and the site has been launched, and it's too late to change it. 
         
         I think HubPages has already bought all the domain names for the upcoming niche sites.

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      2. 91

         RachaelLeflerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Reel Rundown makes me think of someone reeling cause they got the runs. Haha. Felt Magnet is kind of a cute name as a center for crafting. At least the names are memorable. And I like being able to use them to search out other writing that's similar to my own. They picked the names for the cheap domains and so that people will remember them. Felt Magnet is memorable because it's silly, Reel Rundown is memorable because of alliteration. They're trying to get people who get there from Googling a topic to come back to that site by remembering it specifically by name.

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   7. 97

      eugbugposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Some nice logos would be nice to aid brand recognition. The font used for the niche sites are crummy (although I like the font used for the HubPages title on the parent site). The logo would need to be simple and yet distinctive and maybe just based on the text of the site title (like the logos of Cadbury, Disney,  FedEx etc.).
      I agree that most traffic is probably organic and people don't necessarily search for a niche site using its name, however if the site is easy to navigate, looks good and creates an impression, a percentage of casual surfers may bookmark it, and return to read more articles at a later stage.
      Maybe HubPages should have a competition for designing logos for the niche sites?

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         Sue Adamsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         +1
         HubPages' own logo is simple, well designed, easy to spot and to remember.
         
         Apart from the first niche site logo
         
         
         
         which is vaguely tattooish looking,
         
         all other sites' logos are arbitrary fonts, churned out in haste "en masse". It even looks like several of the new logos use the same font slightly distorted.
         
         Question is: What's the big hurry?
         
         I would gladly participate in a competition for new logo designs.

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      jackclee lmposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I am new to this forum but like to give my two cents. I was doing searches on google and bing just for comparison and here is what I found. The hubpages domain name does better on google and even on bing though not as well. However, the new niche sites are not getting the results on google and on bing. So, if the intent is to increase SEO traffic, so far, it does not seem to be working.

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         paradigmsearchposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Actually, most of us who have had hubs transferred to a niche site have seen substantial increases in traffic.

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            kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Hi, paradigmsearch,
            Would you mind finding out why HP did away with the Voting Section that used to be above the comments section at bottom of hubs?
            You know the segment. We could vote Up, Interesting, Hilarious, etc. Now we cannot.
            I wonder why.

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               paradigmsearchposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Anything I say would be pure speculation.
               
               HP has been stripping away functionality from the mothership for awhile now. I suspect in time HubPages.com will become nothing more than a gateway and supporting site for the niche sites. I hope they at least keep the forums.

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            2. 91

               Jodahposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Kenneth, this question was asked previously and HubPages staff replied they were done away with because they felt the voting buttons were underutilized (not used enough) and they had more important features to concentrate on.

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                  kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Jodah . . . thank you for the answer. I feel at ease now. But I still miss the opportunities to vote for someone else's works.

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                     Jodahposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     No problem, Kenneth. I miss them too.

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            Kylyssaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Also, traffic to hubs on the niche sites does not appear to be throttled by Google as it appears to be on HubPages proper. Even if the vertical sites had terrible names they are better places for our writing that any website so heavily penalized by Google. I only hope they move a significant percentage of hubs rather than just letting most hubs just sink away into oblivion on the heavily penalized mother site.

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2. 91

   Jodahposted 8 years ago

   This is a very good question, Jan. There has to be a strategy for these "weird" names. "FeltMagnet" for instance has attracted a lot of debate, not just in regard to the name (which seems strange for a niche site promoting craft) but with the subjects included within it, mainly "Art, Drawing, Painting, and Photography. Many feel that these should be under "Visual Arts or at least have a separate category than "Craft." I have had hubs selected for PetHelpful and DenGarden and don't really have a problem with the names of those, though views are very minute. "ReelRunDown" did sound like a site about fishing to me, until I read it was about movies etc.

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      Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      But, "ReelRunDown" can fit with photography also. How can one distinguish it specifically for movies?
      "FeltMagnet" refers to the force of appeal and attraction which is experienced by our sense organs.

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      kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Jodah, I pray that THIS be my last query for a while. I noticed, thanks to paradigmsearch, a niche named "LetterPile," where some of my abstract/prose poetry is filed by HP.
      Is THIS site only for such hubs as mine?

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         paradigmsearchposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         https://letterpile.com/ has seven literature categories, drop by.

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            kenneth averyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Ahhh, very, very good. Thanks for the promptness, paradigmsearch. Have a safe week.

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            1. 92

               Jean Bakulaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               It's been about 2 weeks now, and 23 of my hubs have been moved, mostly to Exemplore, but I had a Dengarden one too (about shade gardening), and a hub on Auras that went to Exemplore. All the niche sites have categories, so your hub may still show up in a category which makes more sense than you thought. Atheism would probably show up on Exemplore.
               
               But I've seen a BIG spike in traffic in the hubs that have been moved, enough to get excited over it. A few made double what they usually make. If a person is searching for, say, an Astrology hub, of course they won't put Exemplore in the search bar. But Astrology will lead them there if your hubs are there. People put what subject they are looking for in the search, not the oddball name of a site. So maybe we are getting too upset about the site names.
               
               I wrote to the team about a series of 12 which they split in half, and they did move the other half of the hubs to the niche site. So they are being cooperative. They are taking the hubs you have which have the most views. They are taking off most of the Amazon capsules, and some pictures. If I really can't stand the picture, I've been putting one I like on it, just have to be sure it's legal. You can still edit your hub once it's on the niche site if what they did really annoys you.
               
               I have problems finding Astrology pictures and people pictures. I've been on all the sites, and they say some images are royalty free, but when I go to that section, the logo of the site is on the pics and that's a no/no. The 3 pictures per hub rule seems to out the window as well.

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3. 71

   makingamarkposted 8 years ago

   Is it a film site for depressives?

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      RachaelLeflerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Being a film critic will make you depressed if you weren't to start with.

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4. 95

   Solarasposted 8 years ago

   I like ReelRundown - Looking for a movie review, it says that it is exactly what I am looking for.  Rotten Tomatoes? I trust them too, because it's a name that sticks in my mind.

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      Jesse Drzalposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Some of the names are slightly iffy..but all in all, I don't think the names are  that bad..at least not as bad as everyone makes them out to be!

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         paradigmsearchposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I agree. And I think Jan is onto something.

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            Jesse Drzalposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Yup.

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               paradigmsearchposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               

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                  Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Wow! This is a fantastic illustration of how our niche sites names are being worked out. I appreciate your wits and presentation of the idea. Hope some terrific name will soon be there for science and maths too!

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                  RachaelLeflerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Kitty Kalculus

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5. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 8 years ago

   I agree that HubPages has chosen the titles based on brand recognition.  They're hoping that these "catchy" titles will stick in people's minds and they'll type in the name of the site when they want to read more on those niche topics. 
   
   The trouble is, I don't think they've made good choices.  As I said on another thread, they're trying to sound young and funky but they're just sounding clunky.

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      misterhollywoodposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      +1111

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6. 81

   Wesman Todd Shawposted 8 years ago

   I just wanted to point out that the name 'Hubpages.com' is essentially meaningless itself. Has that benefited or hurt our work here?
   
   So I'm not worried about the niche site names. The bit of success I've had here came on a site with a name that never had anything to do with my content.

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      janderson99posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I diasgree
      Hub = a center around which other things revolve or from which they radiate;
      
      So Hubpages is a collection of pages (articles) on various topics / categories. The term is not meaningless!!!
      
      FeltMagnet = a magnet attached to felt so that it can be attached to a fridge door or other metal sheet. Ho Hum!

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         Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         +1

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         makingamarkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         +1

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         LuisEGonzalezposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         +11111

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         misterhollywoodposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         +11111111

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   janderson99posted 8 years ago

   IMO the ODD names are simply produced by rushing to get names less than 15 letters that vaguely relate to content. It is hard to find good (dot) com names. But there are dropped ones out there if you take the time. Also you may have to pay for a good name such as TVShowsMovies which is available for 3k.
   
   IMO the image headers based on weird script fonts is sooooooo! old fashioned and 1970's. No one does that anymore. Authority is the game and this silly rushed name strategy just does not cut it IMO. The favicons are poor as well (first letter of the script name).

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      calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Sites that aggregate links to illegal streaming and downloads of TV shows and movies often have domain names like tvshowsmovies.com. (I won't link or name examples here for obvious reasons). The first thing I think of when I see a name like that is a place to find bootlegged streams.

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8. 89

   WryLiltposted 8 years ago

   After being here for six years and seeing multiple changes - I honestly don't care. As long as my content continues to get traffic, I'm happy.
   
   This is only one of my smaller income streams now, so it's nice to get a couple of nice payouts each month. It's also nice NOT to be the one spending hours doing market research, tossing around ideas, creating and moving and changing. I do enough of that on my own sites!

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      NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      +1

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      Suzanne Dayposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      +1 - I'm doing other stuff too.

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      agilitymachposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      +1     It's obviously working based on the numbers.  I remember "FeltMagnent" but I probably wouldn't remember "artsite" or something similarly boring.
      
      Enjoy the oddity.  If the numbers are there for your hubs, who honestly cares.

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         Jesse Drzalposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Totally. Well said.

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         janderson99posted 8 years agoin reply to this

         It is not about 'remembering'
         BUT about authority in the SERPs
         FeltMagnet is nonsense, artsite => a site about art.
         Most people would choose artsite ahead of FeltMagnet in a list of links displayed in the SERP. Better still would be artsncrafts.
         
         OR craftnart(dot)com which is available!!!!

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            LuisEGonzalezposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            On the money...Great analys!

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            makingamarkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            +1

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               Jean Bakulaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Today they moved about 15 of my astrology and tarot hubs to a site--wait for it--Exemplore. What the Hell? Is that even a word? How would anyone think to use that word, it has nothing to do with the subjects or any metaphysical subject. It also has hubs about reincarnation, spirit world, vampires, (things that have nothing to do with metaphysics). I'm not sure what to think.
               
               One of my gardening hubs was moved and is getting much less traffic.I guess it's wait and see.

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                  makingamarkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  15 hubs is a lot of content!!  If that happened to me I'd start thinking about whether to go it alone......
                  
                  That has to be the worst title yet!

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                     Jean Bakulaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     Making a mark,
                     I've tried going it alone, and don't have enough computer/money making know how to do well. I've made friends, and did get new clients who paid for readings, so that's a success. But it wasn't enough for the work I put into it.
                     
                     Thanks janshares,
                     I think you are right about the names of the sites.
                     
                     Hi Kylyssa,
                     I thought I saw something about religion/philosophy on Exemplore. Each niche site has a few categories. I'd be interested to see where atheism ends up. I have a few on Buddhism, and one I was going to post on healing crystals. Unsure if it's a good time to add work. Do you think they will take mostly new material, instead of combing through our old hubs. I heard they were done with the first wave, but all the hubs of mine moved were in about the first third, chosen by largest amount of views. I have a lot left.

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                        misterhollywoodposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        Hi Jean!
                        
                        I'm just now noticing all of the moves on my end too. Wow it's a new world here. I see a lot of your hubs are on Exemp!ore. Wow that's a different name!

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                        Solarasposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        About 6 weeks after they launched PetHelpful, they did a second pass on the hubs left behind. now all but a couple have transferred.

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                           Jean Bakulaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                           HI Solaras,
                           I must be behind then, they just did one sweep that put about 1/4 of my hubs on Exemplore. I do write a lot in series since my subjects have much info, and I did write the team and ask that they not split up my series, or they would not make sense.
                           
                           It appears they took the hubs with the highest traffic, but I only had that one sweep, and many of my series hubs did get split up. I hope they don't wait too long to do it again. I wonder if they are going to use newer hubs on the hopper instead. Most of my hubs are 4 or 5 years old, though they are evergreen. I stopped writing much when most of my hubs were stolen.

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                              Solarasposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                              Try doing some minor updates to the serial hubs left behind - that might get eyes on them and get them moved over sooner rather than later.

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                  Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  I'm still wondering where my atheism hub they snipped is going. If it's going to the supernatural site I'll probably be able to milk the inappropriateness of its placement for humor.

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               3. 94

                  jansharesposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Congrats, Jean. I wish you success. I had two recipe hubs moved to Delishably. One has never regained traffic. It gets 5 to 10 views a day now. I don't think the site titles means anything. As I said in the title of this forum, I think it's done on purpose. I don't buy the branding theory either. Don't know exactly why yet but I believe it is strategic. HP staff are not stupid. Everything they do is for a reason.

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                     jansharesposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     Boom. See this forum posted by Christy Kirwan:
                     http://hubpages.com/community/forum/136 … site-names

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            Solarasposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            What's Amazon about? Husky, murderous women or a river in Brazil.
            
            What does Google or Bing mean?
            
            Tumblr? Imgur? Zillow? Rakuten? Etsy? Yelp...
            
            Many of the most popular websites on Earth have names that are in no way descriptive of their products or services.  Just made-up names or kooky words like Yahoo.

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               makingamarkposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Might that possibly have been because they were inventing entirely new concepts?

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                  Solarasposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  No, you have just forgotten about the early giants of the industry.  AOL - America OnLine. Makes perfect sense.
                  
                  Before Google there was Infoseek and Webcrawler and Netscape, very descriptive names.  Altavista and Dog Pile were starting to get a little out there.  Google and Bing are not even words.
                  
                  Rakuten replaced Buy.com - what could be a better shopping site name than Buy.com
                  
                  Early real estate online providers were ZipRealty and Move.com eventually made obscure by Zillow and Trulia. When I first started looking at real estate sites and Zillow and Trulia came up, I was put off by their names.  Seemed silly, but the info contained there was good, so now I am happy to click on them.

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                     Solarasposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     Having said that exemplore.com seems cumbersome.  WTF.com might have been more to the point.

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                        Jean Bakulaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        I agree.

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                     makingamarkposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     There's a HUGE difference between a word which describes a very precise niche and a very generic word which describes a very generic activity.
                     
                     All I know that the best decision I ever made 10+ years ago was the name of my blog.

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   Sheralee Bottaliposted 7 years ago

   Unique & impressive Title is best for quality traffic.

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