General question

1. 61

   TessSchlesingerposted 6 years ago

   I have written several hubs about fashion and clothing. I worked as a designer, dressed woman, sewed, created patterns, etc. in the early 80s. I also have a couple of years towards a fashion degree I never completed, plus a diploma in colour coding and I once got 100% for a make up exam.
   
   So I'm not without knowledge in the field.
   
   I'm trying to figure out why none of my articles have been picked up for niche sites.
   
   Any ideas?

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      peachpurpleposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      did you use the right keywords? scatter them around your hub maybe 5 of the same keyword in the same hub? Share the link at social medias?

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         TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Yes. I have to confess that I am not getting that much traffic for them. I just don't get it.

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            Sustainable Sueposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            I've had a few not-so-heavily-read hubs accepted on niche sites, in addition to others, so I have some suggestions:
            
            1 - Don't use questions in your titles. Instead, turn them around into assertions, as was suggested with your jeans title. Make sure the keywords are used in the title, then use them sparingly throughout the article. HP doesn't like it if you use them too much, so look for synonyms to use instead.
            
            2 - Look in the niche where you want to submit an article and see if you can find one already written on that topic. If it says essentially the same thing yours does, don't submit. If you notice no one has written about a topic of yours you particularly like, do submit that one.
            
            3 - Sometimes informational articles, although interesting, don't fit niche sites, because there's no action component to them. See if you can add one.
            
            An example is one I wrote about trees and how they function. For DenGarden I rewrote it completely, focusing instead on how to plant trees. I still kept the info about how a tree functions, but the focus was different. It'd had hardly any traffic, but was accepted because DenGarden didn't have any articles about trees yet.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               Great advice!

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               TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               Thank you. Good advice.

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      nipunsourishiyaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Deleted
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         theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Start your own thread. Don't hijack someone else's. Please.

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            nipunsourishiyaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks, I will do it. My intention was not that.

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   Marisa Wrightposted 6 years ago

   Firstly, remember that the initial selection for the niche sites was made on the basis of Google traffic.  Only the highest-traffic Hubs were moved. That makes sense - the goal of the niche sites is to please Google, and if Google is sending high traffic to a Hub, that means Google likes it. 
   
   Since then, the moderators have been going through the remaining Hubs to find other high quality Hubs which didn't get enough traffic to meet the threshold.  I don't know how they are tackling that, no one has told us.  Are they being systematic?  Are they working through them based on traffic stats, or HubScore, or what?  We don't know. 
   
   So I can only guess.  Maybe they just haven't got to your Hubs yet.  Have you tried submitting them?

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   1. 61

      TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      No, to be honest, I haven't submitted anything since January. I meant to, but (as you know), my life took on a topsy turvey aspect for six months and I'm only getting back to working now.
      
      I guess I'm asking because I would like to submit them, but I don't want to submit something if there's no chance of them being accepted - in case there's something wrong with them that I'm overlooking. I'll check their traffic.
      
      Thanks.

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         lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Just make sure you fulfil all the criteria to be on a niche site. The checklist when you submit should be good enough to know if your hubs meet the required standards.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         If you submit something that isn't accepted, what's the harm?  The only negative I can see, is that you miss out on submitting some other Hub.

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            TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            True.  Do they tell you why they don't accept them?

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               Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               You get a generic email, but often they will give some specific advice at the end of the email.

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                  TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                  Okay. Thanks. I will submit the one with the most traffic.

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   Health Reportsposted 6 years ago

   Here is a specific response for your jeans stretching hub a new title suggestion:
   why do jeans stretch out so much?
   
   That is something people are searching for and no one answers that query with that title.
   
   Suggested headings:
   how to fix stretched out jeans
   how to tighten jeans waist

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      TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Wow! Thank you so much for seeing that. I will do that.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Actually Tess, I meant to mention that.  Like many professionally trained writers, it looks like you are choosing titles that would be perfect for a print magazine - but they are inappropriate for an online article.   Online, titles are often boring, not catchy, because they have to be based on what people are searching for.  I would suggest reviewing all of your titles.  You might find it will make a big difference.
         
         My Hub on How to Optimise Your Hub explains in more detail, but basically your title MUST be based on a phrase people are likely to type into Google.  If you look at a title and can't imagine anyone typing that into Google, the title is wrong and is losing you traffic.

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            TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            I know that. I have been doing that for a while. I guess there are areas, though, where I am still stuck in the print era. (I started writing for publication in 1962/3. I guess I will, indeed, have to go through all my titles. Thanks.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               I didn't have journalistic training, but I did have the "catchy title" requirement drummed into me at school and on writing courses.  It is a hard habit to break, I think.

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                  TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                  Yup. I can believe that. Actually, just looking through my titles, I realize that.
                  
                  I've also just rewritten my profile. Why? Because my article on depression has to have a new bio indicating my expert ability on depression in order to get to the niche site.  It appears that these days the idea that a journalist can report accurately on any topic has been lost.
                  
                  I did the best I could in the bio section of the article, but I don't think it's any good. i don't want to tell any lies.
                  
                  In the days I started writing, we researched everything, then wrote about it. I still prefer that methodology because people who are experts on something often can't write a damn. You only have to look at text books to see how difficult their contents are to comprehend.
                  
                  Anyway, Marisa, thanks as usual for your input. I will go through all my articles and fix the titles and other sub-titles.
                  
                  Still scratching my head on what to write for the bio for my article on depression. Any ideas?

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                     theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                     You could say something like "As a professional writer, I have always had a deep interest in psychology, psychiatry, and mental health issues."

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                        TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                        I suppose, the bottom line is that I don't want to confess to an interest in something like that. Terrible, but true.

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                     I agree, a good writer can write a top quality article based on research.   I find HubPages' insistence on "personal experience" of everything quite silly.

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                        TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                        Thank you. So I'm not the only one who feels that way.

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                        wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                        Perhaps because that information is already out there?  The writer has produced nothing "original"?
                        
                        Don't think I would agree - a new "take" on old information is certainly possible, and collecting data into a single article would be valuable to a reader, but that might be part of the reason. And we [i]do]i] see a lot of it in hubs on religion, history, astrology, tarot, etc. 
                        
                        Of course, encouraging that kind of thing will result in thousands of useless hubs, too - relatively few people would actually offer anything new.

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                           TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                           If you are saying there is nothing new in my information, I challenge you to find articles with the same info that I provide.

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                           Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                           Of course it's possible for a good writer to put together an "original" article from existing material.  Some of my best-performing Hubs are like that. 
                           
                           For instance, when my husband had cataract surgery, the information we got from the surgeon was vague, and my husband (as usual) refused to "make a fuss" and ask questions.  So I started researching.
                           
                           It took me hours to find all the information I wanted.  I couldn't find a single article that covered all the aftercare information clearly - I had to read through dozens of sites to find everything I wanted.  So when I had finished my research, I put it all together and made a Hub. 
                           
                           I've had many comments on that Hub, from people saying they hadn't been able to find the information anywhere else - yet it's all publicly available, factual information, nothing from my personal experience at all.
                           
                           However, I take your point. Although a conscientious writer can produce a good article from research, saying it's OK encourages less scrupulous people to cobble stuff together.   So really, this is another example where HubPages is forced to create a rigid rule to prevent abuse, which makes life difficult for the rest of us.

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4. 94

   Kierstin Gunsbergposted 6 years ago

   As others have said, I would just go through and retitle your articles. It's amazing how just changing article titles drives traffic! I have been able to gain views on probably a dozen old articles just by changing the titles from something classic and clever to something boring but searchable.

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      TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you. Big job ahead, but worth doing I suppose.

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