Subdomain Move Update

1. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years ago

   About a month ago, I posted a blog post and forum post recapping our response to the Google Panda algorithm update, and announcing our test of moving Hubber accounts to subdomains. Many of you volunteered to move your accounts early, and we thank you all for your interest and support. We ended up moving several accounts over with the expectation that each account would experience different traffic changes.  The most important part of the test was to develop confidence that, by putting each author on a subdomain, using the rel=author meta tag, and given the moderation efforts we've made, authors could get relief from Panda's negative site profiling of all authors' content. 
   
   After a couple of weeks of observing Google's response, we've seen a dramatic recovery among many accounts, but we've also tested lower quality accounts that didn't see a recovery.  We view this as a good thing and exactly what Google should want.  It's each person's responsibility to ensure they produce quality content.
   
   We've decided, then, to move forward quickly so that Hubbers can claim their own subdomain, we can move Hubs over, and so that search traffic to high-quality Hubs can improve rapidly. That process will begin later this afternoon.
   
   In the meantime, we wanted to allow those beta users to share their personal experiences in this forum thread if they would like.
   
   ---Check back after 2pm today--
   Update:  The initial steps started at 1 and it's processing.  Once it's ready, I'll post a link to the subdomain page for each author.
   
   Hubbers can begin selecting and activating their subdomains now and reading more about subdomains in the learning center.
   
   Please report issues here.

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      relacheposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Well, I was one of the folks who picked a unique sub-domain and then had it switched back to be my username.  I didn't notice any difference yet in performance from one to the other (since the 2nd switch just happened in the last 24 hours), although HubPages is insisting that I'll see better results with my username.  I'll remain hopeful on that front...
      
      But overall I've seen a return of traffic and earnings that is only about 20% down from what things were pre-Panda.  Mind you, the test has only been going on for a week so it's hard to predict where things will level out in the long run but I had traffic and Hub ads leap up within about 48 hours of getting the sub-domain.

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      spsinghposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      My daily page view increased by 10% now i don't know its due to subdomain or any other factor but i am happy with subdomain because it gave short name to my hubpages profile...really cool thing superliked Thanks paul

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      ngurecoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      This is my first day since I switched to sub-domain. In my case and in comparing traffic for:
      
      1. Friday, June 17, 2011 against Friday, July 15, 2011, the traffic increase is only 13.4%
      
      2. Friday, July 8, 2011 against Friday, July 15, 2011, the traffic increase is only 10.5%.

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      Bendo13posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I just noticed the option and switched over today... I guess in a few days I'll see if I'm considered a good or bad writer
      
      I'm curious though... are we still able to use the referral trackers the same way or is there a different place we should put them?

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         rmcrayneposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Your answers are in the thread, if you dig through, but 24 pages is a lot of digging, so I thought I would respond. 
         
         HP staff is saying we should see positive changes in 3-4 days after switching to our subdomain.  This has been true for me.  You can see my reports on the last couple pages. 
         
         You don’t need to do anything except complete the simple process for switching.  Per HP staff, everything else, including links and referral trackers, is supposed to transition as if by magic. 

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            Bendo13posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Oh ok but I mean... after you make the switch, and you have your hubs showing up on your subdomain..
            
            Do you still enter the referral code the same way you use to?  After the .com?

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               Bendo13posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Looks like it still works like that.. Perhaps I'll report back in a couple days with a smile on my face.

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               rmcrayneposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Oh, you mean for adding your referral tracker in the future/new hubs, etc.  I believe someone already asked that question, but I don't remember the answer, or if it was answered.  Sorry.  If you don't get an answer soon, try emailing team@hubpages.com.

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                  Bendo13posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Yeah I just added it in like I normally do and checked the link... it redirects the same as before, I assume you use it as you always have.

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                     Suramya.Kposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     If its still confusing, then we can try scrolling to the bottom and clicking on "Link to this page"!

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            PegCole17posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks for that info. I was looking thru 25 pages to try and find it. Mostly interested in the effect on Referral Trackers.

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   Aficionadaposted 12 years ago

   Paul, one question I have never seen (either asked or answered clearly, and I'm not sure which) is what happens with Hubbers who have multiple HP accounts? 
   
   Must all accounts be combined into one subdomain - or, conversely, must they not?  May they be, if desired?  All of this is way above my pay grade, and I don't entirely understand the pros or cons of either approach. 
   
   Thanks for any help!

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   1. STAFF

      Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Each account is independent of each other.  In special circumstances we can move hubs between accounts, but this is very rare and best dealt with by emailing our support.

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         FloraBreenRobisonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Okay, now I am confused. Some people say they are moving their hubs to subdomains and then comments like this one above  say "we" can doit-meaning the hubpages staff.  Are regular hubbers supposed to make this change, or is the hubpages staff? And if it is the hubbers themselves, which thread in the forum lays out exact how this is done?

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         1. STAFF

            Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            This was a reply to a question about having multiple accounts. Most people have one and it won't pertain to them.   Just follow the link in the first post to move to a subdomain.

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   brandonhart100posted 12 years ago

   An additional question I have is to whether we can somehow change our names beforehand or have control over the subdomain title? Some might choose to use a slightly different pen name considering how the subdomain will be titled with their own name.

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   1. STAFF

      Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      We don't offer changing of usernames.  There will be more published on how subdomain selection works.  After much deliberation we've have chosen a path that aligns subdomains with usernames as closely as possible. This move is about letting high quality content get relief from Panda and segmenting content in a clear way for Google to judge each users Hubs.  Your main subdomain page will replace your profile page.
      
      I'd encourage people to think of their presence on HubPages as a personal brand similar to a twitter handle.

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         janderson99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Ahhh! I wanted 'awesome'

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            janderson99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Reminds me of a Byron Bay politician who changed his real name to 'Fastbuck$'. We'll all have to be careful with our 'badge' that Google will identify whenever and wherever it is used, beyond HP.

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         Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         It would be fine with spaces were automatically removed. I'm almost guessing that is part of your algorithm for "as closely as possible".

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         1. STAFF

            Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, spaces removed and "-" will be options if they are available.

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         embitcaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Paul, what will you be doing about all the users who have keywords as their username?

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         1. STAFF

            Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Some words are treated differently.  Some will be accepted and others won't. When they aren't accepted they will be given some choices and in some rare circumstances they will be able to request a subdomain based on their username to our moderators to approve.

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   CASE1WORKERposted 12 years ago

   Well done Paul! Onwards and Upwards as they say.

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   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   So, subdomains will not be Hubber's choice?
   
   I ask that because someone recently informed me that 'skinner' is a slang term for child abuser.  So I am kind of phasing out that part of my name....

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   SimeyCposted 12 years ago

   I'm showing an increase of over 60% on a week to week basis. As my page views were diminishing due to niches that are coming to an end, the true figure is probably more like a 100% increase.
   
   For the same period (comparing Early June and early July) my revenue has increased:
   
   Google: 36%
   HP ADs: 86%
   eBay: 9%
   
   Amazon is about the same.
   
   What is interesting is that while my niche sites are doing well I noticed a couple of hubs that have never performed well are suddenly gaining traffic.
   
   So far I'd say I am back to pre-panda levels - my Google Analytics show a marked increase...I was switched early July and saw the increase take place on July 5th.
   
   
   
   
   
   Sorry - not sure how to make the image bigger!!!

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for sharing that Simey - you are the first hubber I have heard say how well the subdomain thing was working, and I am delighted to hear it is working out
      I didn't volunteer because I wasn't sure what would happen to my backlinks, but I realise now they are using redirects so they won't be affected.

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      kerrygposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the report, SimeyC! Glad it's helped you!

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      Urbane Chaosposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      SimeyC, that's awesome!  I hope that it works out like that for all of us!  Thanks for the info..

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      soni2006posted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Congratulations Simey. Subdomains are the most important thing which will separate high quality authors and hubs from low quality ones. I am eagerly waiting to start seeing its effects.

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      HSanAlimposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I have had about the same results as Simey. 
      
      Paul had said they expected it to take 5 days for the full effect to be felt but after 3 days I was already up over 60% and by 5 days - wahoo - I had a full 115% increase over pre subdomain test traffic.
      
      Revenue also went up but, interestingly, in the last 6 days of the subdomain test, with traffic holding relatively steady, the value of the ads being shown with my hubs, for both Adsense and HP ad program went up. OMG was I excited.
      
      I was worried when told we had to switch back to the user name for subdomain but was assured that, if anything, traffic would improve even further.
      Have my fingers, toes and anything else I can cross waiting with baited breath on that account.
      
      Bottom line - BIG SUCCESS for the subdomain test. Thanks to Paul and all the staff for their hard work.  At the hour they made the second switch, from subdomain test name to subdomain based on original user name, traffic is still at pre Panda levels.

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   celebritieposted 12 years ago

   Thanks for the update Paul, appreciate it!

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   Glamorously Jacobposted 12 years ago

   That's great news! I'm so anxious for 2pm to roll around!

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   PaulGoodman67posted 12 years ago

   Sounds very promising, thanks, Paul!

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    jimmythejockposted 12 years ago

    I look forward to seeing if the results are positive from the change.....jimmy

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    Azure11posted 12 years ago

    Well I volunteered but didn't hear anything so it's interesting to hear how it turned out. I've had some really random traffic figures in the last week - from having one of my worst days ever to having one of my best days ever on consecutive days - what is that all about?!

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       Aficionadaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I think it was a glitch in reporting the statistics.  Check out this post and the entire thread that it was in:
       
       http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/78708?p … ost1703075

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    Peggy Wposted 12 years ago

    Thanks for the update Paul and also to you, SimeyC for your update as to how it is improving your traffic and income.  Can't wait to be included in this new program! 

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    psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

    Guess I am stuck with being a "skinner"...

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    celebritieposted 12 years ago

    Its almost 2:00 are we going to be sent an email to change our subdomain name?

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    Angie Jardineposted 12 years ago

    I'm not sure how this is going to work - not good at 'techy' things. Is this sub-domain thing somehow automatic or do we have to do something?

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       Robinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       You will be able to move to your subdomain under My Account > Profile > Subdomain.  If you don't choose a subdomain within the next month, HubPages will choose a subdomain for you.  We will let you know as soon as it's live! 

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          Angie Jardineposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks for this help,Robin ... not sure how to choose a sub domain now. Can I just use my name as I am doing at present? And can I do it now?

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             celebritieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Thanks, that is a clever way to do it.

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             Robinposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             It will be available today.  Paul or I will post here when it's available. 

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          Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks Robin for that post.  I just went there and saw the subdomain option. It gave me two choices to choose from. I picked one and let it do the conversion. It took a while and I was wondering if I clicked it or not. There was no warning that it will take a while. But I didn't want to mess up clicking twice. So I waited and after a minute it was done.
          
          Everything went well. I checked out my profile under the old and new url and both work. Same for my hubs. I tested a few both ways. The old one returns a 301 so search engines will have no trouble updating to the new url.  I am very pleased. It is obvious that the HP programmers did a lot of testing prior to this because it went really well. No problems.
          
          I went into my Google Profile and changed the link to my new HP profile url, even though it's not necessary to rush to do this since the old one give the 301. But I just wanted to help Google do things faster rather than waiting to discover 301 redirects. Thought that might help.
          
          Great job! As usual HP does not let us down.

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             Giselle Maineposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Thanks Glenn, your synopsis is very helpful to those of us who might be a little daunted by the process.  It seems like it's a fairly easy change-over process, which is a relief! I appreciate you taking the time to let us know what to expect.

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    WoodsmensPostposted 12 years ago

    Well this is happy news. I may have just gotten a jolt of inspiration to write something again and also go back through and brush up my hubs

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    Lissieposted 12 years ago

    So hubpages will be just the same as blogger or tumblr - each of our accounts will be independent of the rest of the site and live and die by their own authority.
    
    Will HP be
    a) changing the revenue share percentage - why would a new user join HP and share rev when they can join blogger for free - and both new accounts will have the same authority (none)
    
    b) removing the restrictions to "prohibited sites" like clickbank and the restrictions to backlinking - because now its up to each hubber to sink or swim as far as SEO is concerned?

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       embitcaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       It does seem like fewer restrictions and a higher revshare would be in order

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          tirelesstravelerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Great news

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             Lissieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Read the thread - no not great news - unlikely to happen IMHO - just what SHOULD happen IMHO

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       Nera Woodsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Yes, Lissie, I was wondering also about that -- that it's just like being on blogger. But blogspot.com is PR8 while hubpages is PR5

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          Nera Woodsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          and just like you said that blogger gives all the revenue while HP gets a portion

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             ngurecoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             It may seem to be like Blogger but going by the significant results posted here by SimeyC, the said results are unlikely to have been obtained from Blogger had he transferred his articles there. I suppose there must be a catch somewhere.

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                Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                Ngureco, if you moved your Hubs to a Blogger account, they would lose all their existing "link juice" and reputation with Google, so you're right - SimeyC wouldn't have got the same results transferring his articles there.
                
                What Lissie is saying is that for new writers, Blogger would be more attractive.

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                   Aficionadaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                   
                   
                   But then, there are also the new writers (like me, when I first came to HubPages) who know nothing about writing and publishing online, but who want to get started with it ASAP.  The community we have here is an incredibly rich, useful resource for people who don't know how much they/we don't know.  Marisa, you are one of the ones who have helped probably thousands of new online writers, including me, to find their way.
                   
                   I haven't felt any need to find out whether Blogger has a similar helpful community, because the one here is so excellent.  I know that whatever my question, I can nearly always count on a response on HubPages from somewhere around the world 24/7/365.
                   
                   Some who have been writing online for a while really may have lost sight of how huge a resource this is, but I don't ever want to forget it.
                   
                   [Sorry for sidetracking - I was gone for a little bit. My subdomain change worked great!]

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                   Dolores Monetposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                   but I imagine that my stinky little blog would have had no visitors if not for HubPages

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          theherbivorehippiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          I'm glad I'm not the only one not jumping up and down over this. I'm having a hard time seeing the attraction to HP now....other than to use to create links to personal sites.

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          celebritieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Really, I guess I should start making more blogger blogs.

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             WannaB Writerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             I think that unless you have a very popular blog, HubPages will get more readers, since we are a community and have followers who read many things that we write. When I get notifications from HubPages, I read them, whereas RSS feeds and notifications from most of the blogs I follow get looked at once in a blue moon because I'm so busy. I always open the messages in my HubPages folder, and I'm likely to read any new Hubs which interest me. I don't feel so connected to the bloggers I'm following.

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    3. STAFF

       Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       We believe that HubPages is the most rewarding (traffic, revenue, community) opportunity for publishers. 
       
       On the revenue side each author in the HubPages Ad Program gets a direct sales force, ad network optimization, and other abilities like having more than three AdSense ads on a page. We'll do more here to provide enterprise level earnings for Hubbers while they maintain ownership of their content.
       
       On the community side, that speaks to all of the helpful people here.  This is a world class community. 
       
       Getting to the heart of your question, is publishing on HubPages the same as wordpress or tumblr?  From what we can tell during the testing process, it is not.  Subdomains allow for content to be segmented by author, but there are tremendous differences in HubPages's information architecture and other platforms.  As part of our subdomain tests, we included new accounts.  They performed similarly to how new author accounts performed pre-panda.
       
       It's our mission to make HubPages the most rewarding place to give and get information and other interesting content.  Like many of you, we've succeeded by hard work and creating value.  There is no substitute for these.  With change there comes uncertainty, and there is risk in every move. Our hope and data suggests that this is in the best interest of the excellent Hubbers, otherwise we wouldn't do it.

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18. STAFF

    Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years ago

    Hubbers can begin selecting and activating their subdomains now and reading more about subdomains in the learning center.
    
    Please report issues here.

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       janderson99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Done! Sooo Easy - thanks to all HP staff for making it seamless and easy to do.
       
       A quick question  - Will the pages be instantly indexed and recognised by Google for page ranking purposes - or how long could this take. Also are there any canonalization issues? How quickly should the changes in hit-rates take and the changes be reflected in results.
       
       Thanks and Cheers,

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       1. STAFF

          Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          All urls to your existing Hubs and profile page 301 redirect to the new subdomain.  It takes about 3 days to get indexed by Google and see ranking changes.

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             PegCole17posted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Hello Paul
             Had a question about the effect on Referral Trackers after the change to the subdomain. At present trackers show up as they always did
             
             https: // hubpages.com /my /earnings /tracker /mydefaulttracker
             
             Will these trackers change to show the subdomain?
             
             This was asked in a comment on my hub about Creating Referral Trackers. I'd like to be sure that my instructions are correct.
             
             Kind regards
             Peg

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       embitcaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Paul, do we need to change anything in our Google analytics account now that we are on a subdomain?

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          Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          No, unless you entered in URL channels with www. at the beginning.
          
          If your URL channel links started with hubpages.com, then you're fine.

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             embitcaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Hi Jason, I don't mean for the Adsense Channels. I'm talking about the Google Analytics reporting, the one with the UA at the beginning of it. My website profile for Hubpages is hubpages.com/profile/embitca.

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             1. STAFF

                Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                I didn't change anything for google analytics and it seems to be working fine for me.

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                   embitcaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                   Okay, thanks Paul. Now I'm wondering.... with the new subdomains, would it be possible to track each account with a separate website profile? Right now I just have all my hubs lumped in together. Would be interesting for me to separate the analytics info for each one.

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                   1. STAFF

                      Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                      that's possible with separate analytics codes.

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19. STAFF

    Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years ago

    This is what it looked like on my account. I went live on subdomains the week of 7/2/11.  It took about three days to get my hubs indexed under the subdomain.  Rankings continued to climb for seven days.
    
    Week    Views    Change
    2011-02-05    1,431    +12.2%
    2011-02-12    1,433    +0.1%
    2011-02-19    1,405    -2%
    2011-02-26    1,291    -8.1%
    2011-03-05    972    -24.7%
    2011-03-12    1,019    +4.8%
    2011-03-19    965    -5.3%
    2011-03-26    1,064    +10.3%
    2011-04-02    1,052    -1.1%
    2011-04-09    990    -5.9%
    2011-04-16     873    -11.8%
    2011-04-23    831    -4.8%
    2011-04-30    785    -5.5%
    2011-05-07    882    +12.4%
    2011-05-14    858    -2.7%
    2011-05-21    747    -12.9%
    2011-05-28    673    -9.9%
    2011-06-04    702    +4.3%
    2011-06-11    719    +2.4%
    2011-06-18    694    -3.5%
    2011-06-25    707    +1.9%
    2011-07-02     1,222    +72.8%
    2011-07-09    1,202    -1.6%
    2011-07-16    1,462    +21.6%
    

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    CMHypnoposted 12 years ago

    Have clicked the button with no probs - so wait and see I guess!

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       Eaglekiwiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Me too ,clicked ,easy peasy Im good to go.
       
       Good luck everyone with the ka ching $$ 's

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    PaulGoodman67posted 12 years ago

    Set the controls for the heart of the Sun, batten down the hatches and... activated!
    
    Sorry, I couldn't resist a bit of melodrama - I am excited!  :-)

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    W. Christopherposted 12 years ago

    Great job, Paul and responsible HP staff! I think it'll be great!!!

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    celebritieposted 12 years ago

    I'm all in... it was a piece of cake!

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    TamCorposted 12 years ago

    Mine is done...everything looks just the same, though--is that the way it's supposed to be?
    
    Thanks, and my fingers are crossed, hoping for the best!

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    Jason Menayanposted 12 years ago

    My results (for the account under which I publish, livelonger) have been pretty impressive.
    
    
    
    My average daily earnings (HubPages Ad Program + AdSense) is up 85% over what I earned prior to the move.

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       IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I am quite excited by this change now! Thanks for sharing your stats

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       embitcaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       That's pretty impressive results, Jason. What was your traffic like before Panda?

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          Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          It was better; I have not made a full recovery. I'm about 30% down below my highest sustained peak pre-Panda.

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             embitcaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Thanks, that's not what I was hoping your answer was going to be, but I appreciate the honesty !

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    livewithrichardposted 12 years ago

    The 'link to this page' structure needs to be changed.  I know there is a redirect but if we're starting fresh then we need to fix this as well.

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       janderson99posted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Will the transfer to subdomains affect the page rank of the home page, and this in turn pull down the page ranks of the subdomains (we're all in this together). I have noticed that HP is currently ranked at  5  - it used to be 6 ????.
       I am interested in the on-going rating relationships between the subs. It has been stated elsewhere that a subdomain page may be harder to get to a high position on the search results because of the relationship with other subdomains. I guess this is all unexplored territory.
       May the Force be With You!

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          Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          HP came down to 5 from 6 because low quality hubs pulled us all down. Now that we'll have our own subdomains we don't need to concern ourselves with the ranking of HP itself. We can concentrate on our own ranking by giving Google what it wants.  Now we are in control of that without low other quality hubs pulling us down. Just keep in mind what Google says in their blogs... they want to give people who are doing searches what they want. If you can do that, you'll do fine.

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       Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Are you seeing this show up incorrectly?
       
       EDIT: I see it now. It's been reported to engineering. Thank you for letting us know, and thank you for your patience while we fix it.

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    3. STAFF

       Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks. I filed the bug.

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    2uesdayposted 12 years ago

    Not easy to know what to pick when your writing name starts with a number but I got there in the end.
    
    Bit concerned that I could not use the same subdomain name as on my profile name. I am wondering if that will cause problems for me with traffic. Still I have given it my best shot.

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       Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       2uesday, go to your profile under your account and see what options you have. I wouldn't know but you might be lucky to find one option without the 2. I was given two options. In my case I could choose a hyphen between my first and last name or without the hyphen. Take a look and pick one. Then give it a minute to convert. It doesn't tell you to wait and you might think your browser locked up. But it's working and takes time.

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       Fawntiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       2uesday, we received your subdomain request and approved one of your choices. You should have received an email about it with a link to where you need to go to complete the process. Please let me know if you did not receive the email. Thanks!

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          Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Fawntia, I completed my switch-over successfully but I never received an email as you had indicated. I just clicked to select the one I wanted and then clicked the next step to approve my selection. Then it sat there for a minute or so while it was doing the conversion in the background. After that it came back with a message saying it was successful. No emails were involved. Was I missing something? Everything seems okay with the new url.

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          1. STAFF

             Paul Edmondsonposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Glenn, You shouldn't have had to recieve an email.  There is a small subset that have usernames that don't convert well to subdomains and a separate process for them.  I think it's about 2.5% of accounts.  The vast majority just need to click a few buttons.

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          2uesdayposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Thank you for your reply, I found the email it was in with the the spam so I may have missed it without your reply. I have followed the directions and it has confirmed the subdomain set up.
          
          p.s. I hope this change helps Hubpages and the Hubbers here as everyone is working hard.

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             IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             http://by-2uesday.hubpages.com/
             
             What an excellent sub domain name!! Hope it brings you every success

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                celebritieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                I agree, what a interesting sub-domain name pretty cool, I like it.

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28. 65

    theherbivorehippiposted 12 years ago

    If I type in one of my old urls it does not redirect straight to my hub...it takes me to Google and shows where the hub is listed....as well as an entire page of other articles to choose from. Shouldn't it be going straight to the new address?

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       Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I just tried one of your hubs the old way and it redirected properly.

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          theherbivorehippiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          really? I just tried over a dozen and it kept taking me to Google's page. Thanks for letting me know.

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             WoodsmensPostposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Redirect worked from iPhone too just now from one of your best hubs

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                theherbivorehippiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                Thank you...appreciate you checking!

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       gracenotesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Herbivorehippi,
       
       I just went to one of your latest hubs, changed the URL to the old way without your subdomain, and it re-directed just fine to your article.

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          theherbivorehippiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Thank you...I think it was an operator error (meaning me)

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       Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Can you share that link?

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          theherbivorehippiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          I think the problem was I was using addresses from my Adsense channels maybe?
          
          So weird because if I copy the Adsense channel exactly and paste it comes out to be ( hubpages. com/ hub/ hhippiestoptenagainstebay )...notice the spacing that it adds when I paste? Perhaps this is why it's directing all the ones I try to Google's page. Does this mean there will be an issue with channels or will they direct just fine?

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             Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Yes, I think AdSense URL channels embed extra periods. (I can't tell right now because it looks like AdSense's interface is down)

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                theherbivorehippiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                Do you use channels Jason? Did they also transfer fine?

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                   Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                   Yes, and they continue to work just fine. You shouldn't have to change them unless you explicitly wrote your links with a www. before (if they were encoded just hubpages.com then you don't need to change them)

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                      theherbivorehippiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                      Great. Thank you Jason.

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             Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             I know of this problem. Not really a problem though. You cannot copy and paste URL's from your URL Channel list in Google. They embed spaces so the URL does not become a hyperlink. 
             
             As for the channels redirecting... That is working because HP issues a 301 redirect for all the old URL's.

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    rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

    one click does it, how nice, it shows up immediately. Those sharing results so far sound promising!
    
    
    oops,I forgot it took away our # of tweets/FB likes.

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30. 96

    Glenn Stokposted 12 years ago

    Report of Possible Error...
    
    I see that links within text modules have automatically converted. But I found two strange ones...
    
    Links I had going to forum posts now start with my subdomain. Example:
    
    http://glennstok.hubpages.com/forum/topic/12345
    
    The above works (dummy example) but I would not have expected it to have my subdomain in front for a forum post.
    
    The second weird item is a link I had in a text module to another Hubbers profile. Here is a dummy example:
    
    http://glennstok.hubpages.com/profile/hubbername
    
    Again, why is my subdomain in front of that?  It redirects properly so the links still work, but I don't think it's right to include my subdomain when referring to another hubber's profile.

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       Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Hmmm...sounds like a bug. Can we have a look? Can you share a link to the Hub? (Don't worry - we won't mod your post )

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          Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Jason, This is where I found those links...
          
          http://glennstok.hubpages.com/hub/HubPa … s-HubMeets
          
          Look for the hyperlinks "Local Meetups", "Forum post" and "Froggy213". The first links to a forum topic, the second to a forum post, and the last is to a profile. They all have my subdomain even though they redirect anyway.

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             Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             That's odd. You encoded all of those links before the subdomain move?
             
             Let me see if I can find another example in another account...
             
             EDIT: I found another Hub under a subdomained account, and the link to a forum thread is still under hubpages.com.

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                Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                Fawntia seems to have figured it out.
                
                Glenn - for some reason your links are encoded using a relative file structure, like:
                a href="../../../forum/32"
                
                instead of the usual absolute link structure:
                a href="http://hubpages.com/forum/32"
                
                Do you remember how you created these links?

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                   Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                   Yes I do. I code the entire URL including the "http://" But I noticed that something was changing them to...
                   
                   "http://http://hubpages...etc" ... 
                   
                   I reported this double http: a while back because I had to keep fixing them. Then another Hubber told me to leave out the http:// altogether and I found the bug didn't interfere that way. So I started entering complete URL's without the http. But never as a relative format. However, I had noticed it change it relative after I save the capsule.  Weird if I'm the only one that's happening to!

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                      Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                      Thank you for sharing this. This will help us fix the problem somehow.
                      
                      Once everyone is moved over to subdomains, we will likely change all hardcoded Hub links in Hubs to the subdomain version (instead of just relying on the 301 redirects). We'll try to identify anomalies like this and fix them at the same time.

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                         Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                         No problem. The beauty of it is that you guys covered the issues so well that even bugs turn out to work right now.
                         
                         Oh, by the way, let us all know how we should format Referral Trackers in the new URL.

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                            Jason Menayanposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                            I checked before and your current referral tracker URLs should continue to work.
                            
                            I believe they also work if you add your subdomain to the URL.
                            
                            EDIT: Confirmed that they continue to work either way.

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                               Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                               Wonderful. Thanks for checking. I can imagine how busy you guys are now. You've been doing an awesome job with these necessary changes to help us survive Panda.

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    Glamorously Jacobposted 12 years ago

    I switched over! Woohoo!
    
    Great job hubpages team!

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32. 62

    WoodsmensPostposted 12 years ago

    Google searched  keywords for one of my hubs and found it first page, clicked on it and boom redirected to woodsmenspost.hubpages.com/hub/url title
    
    Exellent and not a noticeable redirect it was instant  !!!!!!!! And I am on mobile iPhone ATM

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33. 85

    rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

    very nice. I'm impressed already. Good work, HP.

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34. 85

    Lily Roseposted 12 years ago

    I'm a part of the Beta testers ... I don't have any statistics, however I can tell you that within 3 or 4 days of being switched over to the subdomain my traffic more than doubled - I'm pretty close to pre-panda levels (maybe 100-300 daily views less than pre-panda).  My HP Ad Program income has doubled as well and even my Google AdSense has greatly improved - I've had many great days (like pre-panda) and some so-so days.  Amazon has stayed about the same.
    
    Overall, I'm very happy that I volunteered to make the switch early and I hope that things keep on improving (thanks, HP!) 
    
    I just might be motivated to publish hubs again soon!

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       Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I've been a tester.  My previous average daily was in the area of 1100-1300.  Right before the testing it had dropped down to - like - 800 (and on one day, 600 and something).  After a few days of testing I started to see traffic go up to as high as around 2000 (plus or minus) on at least one day.  Most other days it's been kind of averaging in the 1800/1900 area.  That's just from memory, and I still haven't gotten around to writing summaries on a ton of Hubs that had the automatic ones wiped out.  I've got, maybe, 40 (or fewer) of my Hubs with new, nice, summaries on them.  These numbers are all from memory, but I've paying attention daily.  There's a lot of tweaking I could do to improve my traffic, so my test results are without doing all that.
       
       When it came to selecting a subdomain name, I didn't want the user name (Lisa HW) (mostly because I've hated it since choosing it too quickly).  I have a mix of Hubs, so I don't really have a niche.  With Google's latest emphasis on authors (not just as it relates to HP, but in general), I figured it may make the most sense to go with the author name (at least for my more casual, online, writing) I use everywhere (except for here).
       
       I wasn't sure that was the wisest choice because the whole subdomain thing was new, and so many people talked about getting a good niche name.  My only niche is my writing, done under the one author name.  So I just went with that (and double-checked to see what Paul Edmondson and other staff had chosen for their own subdomains.  I figured, if they chose their own name there was probably a reason for it; so I felt a little bit better having gone with my author name.  Later, I felt even better about it after reading that the author name was recommended under the whole Google/HubPages circumstances scenario recently.   Besides, with the big emphasis on trying to stop people from "working" the search engines, I just felt safer going with my author name (which won't change).  In other words, I just got so I decided I'm doing what seems to make sense for me, as a writer whose focus on only on my writing.  I liked the idea of the portability of the author name for each author.
       
       Basically, I've been happy with the results and encouraged to know that the responsibility for one's own quality will now be put with the writer.   I've been happy I volunteered too, and I appreciated the chance to be a tester.

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          ngurecoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Lisa, the results you’ve posted here are quite impressive… and may it be like that for many of us here after this switch to sub domain?
          
          Before panda, Hubpages used to tell us to expect $2 - $5 for every 1000 impressions. From your observation, did you get any closer to be within that earning range in the combined HP-ads and Adsense earnings?

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       IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Great! Thanks for sharing Lily

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    wildernessposted 12 years ago

    Well, I pushed the button. Twenty minutes ago.  Although I have checked 37 times my traffic hasn't quadrupled yet!
    
    Great job, HP - I've looked forward to this.  Now if google doesn't decide they don't like my stuff in particular...
    
    Let the waiting begin!

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       Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       That's been (and still is) the scary part for me.      My thinking is, though, that I'd rather not be liked by Google for myself (and my writing); than not be liked by Google because of someone/something else.    That wouldn't pay whatever my earnings had been paying any better, but at least there'd be some justice in it (or whatever).   

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          wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Pretty much.  It's helpful sometimes to be pulled along by someone elses coattails, but I'd rather stand or fall on my own.  At least if google doesn't like me perhaps I can figure out why and do some changing.  If the negatives come from someone else there isn't much I can do about it.

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             PaulGoodman67posted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Absolutely!

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36. 65

    Mutiny92posted 12 years ago

    I am crossing my fingers!  Converted over.
    
    Thanks HP for all the hard work!

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37. 86

    cardeleanposted 12 years ago

    That couldn't have been any easier!  Thanks HP staff.  I joined after Panda so I am very excited to see if my traffic increases with this new change!

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    gracenotesposted 12 years ago

    Just made the switch.  Happened super fast.  I am very happy to just use my username for the subdomain.  Thanks, Paul.

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    Wayne Tullyposted 12 years ago

    I'm actually hopeful of all the hard work the HP gang have put in, the stats examples are encouraging and I may just feel motivated to finish my unpublished hubs again as I've kept looking at some of them for a few months now with no oomph to write.....cheers now!

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    Nell Roseposted 12 years ago

    I am just doing it, and its taken about 15 minutes so far, is this normal?

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    1. STAFF

       Fawntiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Nell, I see that you have chosen a subdomain, but have not activated it yet. Did you click on the button that says "Move me to my subdomain"? It should not take 15 minutes or anywhere near that long. Perhaps refresh the page and try again.

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          Nell Roseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Hi, I clicked on it, and it is saying 'waiting for http etc, and my computer is doing something, not sure what! shall I give it another click?

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             Fawntiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Yes. Please refresh the page and click on the button again.

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                Nell Roseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                Thanks Fawntia

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       Glenn Stokposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Neil, There's a second step where it asks you to confirm your selection.

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          Nell Roseposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Hi, no the silly thing got stuck! Figures! ha ha but its fine now, thanks

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             Fawntiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Great! I'm glad you got it to work.

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                HSanAlimposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                Hi Fawntia
                I sent you an email about a weird redirect problem my daughter is having. Hope you can get it corrected. Thanks Alim

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                   Fawntiaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                   Alim, I just responded to your email.

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    Nell Roseposted 12 years ago

    That's it, it's okay! thanks, must be my stupid computer! thanks for your help.

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42. 85

    rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

    It's nice to hear you're happy with the results, and I was just thinking the same thing about an authors responsibility. I'm sure this will help separate the wheat from the chaff, and inspire hubbers to publish higher quality work.

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    soni2006posted 12 years ago

    Moved to my subdomain perfectly. I love my old username, soni2006, and do not like to get any other specific username. Soni2006 reminds me about my online writing career which I started in 2006. Plus as I write on multiple categories and subjects, I think I don't need a different username. What do you say about this? Will changing my username to a different one will help build more traffic and earnings?

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    JSAlisonposted 12 years ago

    If this change really returns my traffic to pre panda levels, or close, I will be back here working full time. I'm guessing a lot of  other people will be checking this all out and thinking the same thing.
    
    Let's face it, there is no better site for writers.

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45. 76

    brandonhart100posted 12 years ago

    I moved to my subdomain but I Have one last concern.
    
    As was mentioned in Paul's post poor content on HubPages led to decreased traffic for the entire site.  In the "related hubs" section of our hubs - the related hubs are chosen not by the author of the hub, but by other means.
    
    I'm no longer comfortable with these being chosen for me as it seems this could allow my hubs to be linked to poorly written content (even if it has a high "score") which in turn affects my subdomain.
    
    It only makes sense that if we are trying to build our own brand we can choose if and when certain "related hubs" are chosen...
    
    Will this lead to increased greed by Hubbers who only link to their related hubs?  Of Course.  Does this bother me?  Not really, as I believe this should be author controlled at this point.
    
    Have there been any discussions about this?

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46. 79

    Mark Ewbieposted 12 years ago

    I'm normally a bit of a moaner but I have to say that was the easiest technical thing I have ever done.
    
    Apart from remembering where I met my wife.

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       bgamallposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Where did you meet your wife Mark?
       
       This was easy. Maybe things will be better again!

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          celebritieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Mark don't forget to vote in the Hubbie Awards it started today.

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       writeronlineposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Hi Mark, sorry to horn in on your entry, but I just wanted to reiterate your exact comment - easiest 'technical' thing I've ever done. (Except sharpen my pencil, but no-one ever does that these days..). Won't this be G R E A T if it works? I'm off now to read your article on the subject, which I noticed because it's got billing on the HP Front Page!! (They want you here, Mark, clearly...)

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    BaliMermaidposted 12 years ago

    Would anyone like to know my NEW definition of excitement?
    
    Excitement is setting up a google alert for the subject of my hubs, not even an alert for my new subdomain name, and watching one by one the alert come in as Google indexes them.
    
    WAHOO - THANK YOU HUBPAGES - Paul and everyone

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    RedElfposted 12 years ago

    Done and fingers crossed Thanks, guys!

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    sunforgedposted 12 years ago

    its only been a few hours but G already has the new subdomain listed in google results for this profile
    
    seems like the PR3 is gone for now though

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       IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       At least some of hubs are indexed already, but the PR 2s and 3s now read n/a

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    lender3212000posted 12 years ago

    Has anyone attempted to ping individual hub URLs after the move to the new subdomain? I'm curious as to whether or not this will speed the indexing. I'd love to hear from anyone who has tried it.

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       kmackey32posted 12 years agoin reply to this

       no but sounds like a great idea

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