The Care and Feeding of Your HubPages Account

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   paradigmsearchposted 9 years ago

   [This is an old post of mine that I have just deleted from another site. I figured there might be some worthwhile stuff here for newbies, nothing more. Make of it what you will. ]
   
   The care and feeding of your HP account. Just some random thoughts for fellow Hubbers.
   
   Drop by your Q&A. Got some old questions with few answers and zero traffic in the last 30 days? Delete them.
   
   Sort your hub stats changed-column so as to bring the oldest non-changed hubs to the top. Go look at that oldest hub. It is guaranteed you will find something there you will want to edit. Repeat this process whenever so inclined.
   
   Only do one ad in each Amazon and eBay capsule.
   
   Do not send evil emails to the moderators.
   
   Check out that new Styles Tip thingy in the upper-right of your hub when in edit mode. Implement those suggestions you don’t vehemently disagree with.
   
   Do not scatter self-promotional links to your outside websites/blogs across your entire subdomain. If HP discovers that, bad things happen.
   
   Avoid excessive use of bolding and italicizing in your hubs. And this is as good a time as any about not doing that keyword-stuffing thing.
   
   Do not repeatedly pick on HP in the forums. Criticisms appear to be fine. But continued outright accusations is not a good idea.
   
   Is the text too small when you are editing one of your hubs? And your vision is tired or not that great to begin with? Do ctrl+ to make everything look bigger; can repeat more than once. It will really help in keeping your hubs from looking like a shambles when you are done editing them. Ctrl0(zero) resets back to normal.
   
   Keep up on the HP blog posts. Keep up on the blue-background forum posts. Telling someone to read the entire FAQ and Learning Center is kind of cruel; the thing is an encyclopedia. However, the HP search function, located at upper-left on most pages, is pretty darn good. There are two steps to it. First, do your search term in the search box. Then, to avail yourself of the entire FAQ and Learning Center, look to the right where it says “Scope your search...” and select “Help”. This will almost always give you whatever information HubPages has on your query.
   
   And last, but not least. Get and learn how to use a Webmasters Tool account. That way you can partially find out what Google thinks of you. And in some cases be able to do what’s needed to fix the problem.
   
   Do you have a care and feeding tip? Would love to hear about it. Beginner. Intermediate. Advanced.

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      peachpurpleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      great advice, i think i need to reshuffle the hubs from old to new

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         paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I'm going on a major updating spree come January. Goggle wants fresh content? Fine, I'll give them fresh content.

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            TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Goggle????  Too funny!

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         Niko Linniposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I went through and heck just even gave my hubs new descriptions and I noticed a small jump in hits for a few days. Course I haven't been posting any new hubs so eh, that didn't keep going...but still!

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      sallybeaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Some great tips, especially about the text too small one - that really is helpful.
      Thank you

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         paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Personally, I'd be doomed without that ctrl+ browser feature.

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      ologsinquitoposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Very good advice. I didn't know about the sorting option either.

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         paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Also check out the filter, it is wondrous.

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      William Sinclairposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Good tips, as a relative newbie, they will probably be most valuable to me.

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      Elsie Hagleyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for this, I will be back and following through on this Forum post.
      I didn't even know the questions we asked were saved, until now, learnt something new today.
      Wished there were a few more hours in a day.

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      Joyfulcrownposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I am newer so I really appreciated the tips.  Thank you.

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      TCooteposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      These are nice tips! i'm a Newbie myself just started a few hours ago and so far I like it

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      DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      About the only thing I managed to accomplish was to go in and close ALL of my questions.  None of them were terribly new, and no new answers I figured was equal to no traffic.

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      Hicks Daysposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      nice, thanks for the share

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   Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years ago

   These are great tips.  Worth remembering and implementing.

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      paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks. I'm feeling unusually optimistic about year 2015. And Q is looking somewhat better since the design change, https://www.quantcast.com/hubpages.com?country=US

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   aesta1posted 9 years ago

   Great summary for me. There are some things I haven't checked out yet of the HP features but will be on it. I only started following the forum here in HP. I am learning a lot.

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   DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years ago

   I have no clue about Webmaster Tools.  I've heard of it, and that is all.
   
   I have tried to use analytics, and it makes little sense to me.
   
   Do you by chance have a Hub explaining WT, Paradigmsearch?

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      paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      .
      Alas, no. Sounds like a great hub topic though, doesn't it? Unfortunately, anything written on the subject will be obsolete every 6 months because of Google always changing everything.
      
      Hopefully this link works, https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/home?hl=en Just mess around with it from time to time when you are in the mood.

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         DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Okay--I don't even know how to begin.  It says first, to enter your site name.  I presume that is my HP subdomain URL, correct?
         Then it says to follow these steps:
         1. Download this HTML verification file. [google ..... html]
         2. Upload the file to http:// (my subdomain).HPcom/
         3. Confirm successful upload by visiting http://......com/google....... html in your browser.  (I eliminated the middles of the codesfor display here, just in case those are 'personalized' or 'hackable' ...)
         4. Click Verify below.
         To stay verified, don't remove the HTML file, even after verification succeeds.
         
         What?  Where?  How do we upload anything to HP, since it isn't really "our" personal site?  Where do you put that stuff?  Or can you even do so? 
         It's telling you to 'verify ownership of a site,' even on the "alternate methods" tab.
         
         I'm stuck and stumped before I start.  I'm just not enough of a techie/computer geek!  LOL

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            lbrummerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            DzyMsLizzy, did you ever figure out how to do this?  I looked at the link and I'm with you about how hard it is to understand. I'd sure like to know how to do this, but it would be nice if the instructions were easier to follow.  Maybe I'm just not computer literate enough to "get it."

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               DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               No--I did not figure it out.  I never got an answer/explanation from anyone who understands this better than I, so I just didn't bother with it any more.
               I'm not much more than a computer user--I am pretty clueless about any of the technical stuff.  I do well to manage to keep the machine running with de-fragging, cache-clearing and other such basic maintenance tasks.  As for any kind of programming, or the whole 'workings of the web,' I'm stumped.

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                  colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  Liz, here is one hub I just found on How to Install and Use Google Webmaster Tools - Made Easy  http://askjoanne.hubpages.com/hub/How-t … ster-Tools
                  
                  There is a lot of information on the WWW if you Google it.

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                     DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     Thanks--I just looked at that--did a quick browse-through for starters, and I found this caveat:
                     "In order to manage a domain, you must have a certain access level in order to be able to verify your ownership of the site. The types of access required include; being able to change a DNS record, link to a Google Analytics account, Uploading an HTML file to your server or Adding a Meta tag to your site's home page."
                     
                     Uh--we don't have any of those kinds of advanced-level permission here on HP.... those would be admin-level permissions. 

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                        paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        Sign into your Analytics Account.
                        
                        Then proceed to create a WMT account.
                        
                        WMT will be aware you are signed into your Analytics Account and let you create a WMT account.

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   Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years ago

   Thanks, Para. I closed four old questions I still had open.

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      paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I think I had over a 100 of those critters at one time. I am now down to 15. Come to think of it, I haven't seen an ad click from that directory in a long time. Oh, well.

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   paradigmsearchposted 9 years ago

   Yes.
   
   Yep, I just went thru that same mess a short time ago with one of my new subdomains. Somewhere in those tabs is an option to verify your subdomain by using/referring to your corresponding Analytics account. I went that route and it worked.

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   DrMark1961posted 9 years ago

   Unfortunately this forum post is going to be lost among your others, and these suggestions are useful and should be read by those just starting out, for a long time to come. You should think about writing a hub on this and putting it among your "highlighted hubs" so that others can find it.
   I know that it is only going to be read by hubbers, and thus you will not make much money off it, but the info provided by Marisa, Relache, and Writer Fox is not enough. We could use your input.
   Thanks for considering this. (I went and deleted an old question too!)

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      paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      [Bolding was done by me.]
      
      Thanks for the compliments, guys. But I'm pretty sure that if I were to take up the role of providing regular "input", I'd get viciously attacked again by a certain one of the aforementioned.
      
      I'm content as I am. Besides, I've got lots of industrious activities planned for year 2015. 

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   Stacie Lposted 9 years ago

   These are good suggestions especially deleting old questions. I didn't give them much thought until now.
   I am going to check out the webmaster tools,even though it intimidates me a little.

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   LongTimeMotherposted 9 years ago

   Hello paradigm. You've offered some great tips!
   
   My care and feeding tip for new hubbers would be to take care to switch on the copyright notice (under 'display' when editing). It is helpful to mention a copyright notice is displayed on the page when filing DMCAs.

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    lbrummerposted 9 years ago

    Thanks for the tip, LongTimeMother.  This is the newest "Guess what I learned today," that makes Hubbing easier. I really appreciate this thread. Now to go put into practice what I've learned!

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    Tammy Cramblettposted 9 years ago

    Thanks for the great tips paradigm! LongTimeMother, I never even gave the copyright notice a thought! I'm glad you brought that up

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    1701TheOriginalposted 9 years ago

    I never knew about the Webmaster Tools, so I checked it out. After using the data highlighter, my site saw a 50% increase in traffic. Your post saved my hubpages!

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    jansharesposted 9 years ago

    . . . And this, my HP friend, is why you are the reigning Forum King. Excellent, concise, and helpful tips. Thank you.

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    sachin001posted 9 years ago

    I am really new to HP forums. And surely your nice tips are going to help me out in improving some of my hubs.

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    mary615posted 9 years ago

    Some good ideas here; thanks!  I have never really understood Webmaster.  When I write a new Hub, I go there and enter the URL as a new site, and it says it will be "managed", but I don't really know what that means.
    
    I think the copyright feature is a good one. It took me a long time to find it under "display options", though.
    
    I will go and close my old questions now.

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       Bazaar Compassposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks for the great advice! I am new to Hub Pages so I found your tips to be super helpful.

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    colorfuloneposted 9 years ago

    Thank you for the tips. You are kind to write this out to help others.

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    Hicks Daysposted 9 years ago

    Thanks for the tip, it surely helpful for a newbie like me

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    paradigmsearchposted 9 years ago

    This one cracked me up.
    
    

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    Chriswillman90posted 9 years ago

    I liked this and I'm a newbie so I understand it.

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    aesta1posted 9 years ago

    I just checked out a hub that has not been updated since 2010. We're now in 2015. I think that these hubs have to be flagged especially when many have difficulties having their hubs published these days.

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