Hub Score - Why, How, and WTH?!
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Do we really need another hub score article on HubPages?
Apparently, we do! Curious minds want to know why a hub with pictures of armpits gets a higher hub score than my brilliant economic treatise on Angelina Jolie and the laws of demand and supply.
Here we try to unravel the mysteries of: Why does my hub score suck? How do I get a higher hub score? and WTH is going on with my hub scores?!
Why Does My Hub Score Suck?
- The hub on armpits gets a lot more traffic. If you only had 10 minutes to spare after a hard day at work, would you rather look at pretty armpits or read about demand and supply?
- I am a lot less prolific. It took me many hours to package demand and supply economics up into an Angelina Jolie type package; so I end up making fewer hubs.
Therefore, to borrow a term from Battlestar Gallactica,
Are we non-armpit hubbers seriously frakked?
Which would you prefer?
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Other dubious hub score observations
- HubPages Comments. Hub scores tend to be highest for my most comment-heavy hubs. The scores remain high even after there is a significant drop off in web traffic. Getting new, daily comments can help a lot with your hubber score. This can be achieved by frequently publishing new hubs.
- Controversial hubs, may get a higher amount of external traffic, but they also tend to get lower hub scores. Such hubs may get an inordinate number of thumbs-down; not because of their quality, but because readers disagree with the position or conclusions of the hub.
- HubPages audience. Hubs that attract a large HubPages audience tend to get higher scores than those with mostly external visitors. HubPages members are more likely to leave comments and more likely to thumb a hub.
- Time lag. Remember that there is always a time lag before new HubPages statistics are collected on your hub, calculated, and summarized into those two green numbers. A hub with a lot of activity, may currently have a low score because the new statistics have not been taken into account yet.
How Do I Get a High Hub Score?
It would be very difficult to compete with armpit pictures if hub scores were heavily based on web traffic.
Even the big G, tells us that celebrity armpits are a lot more popular than demand and supply economics. However, luckily for us non-armpit hubbers, our hub scores are only marginally based on web traffic.
The key to getting a high hub score is to ask yourself this very simple question,
What have I done for HubPages lately?
There are two types of hub scores, your hubber score, that is the green (previously red) number that appears in your profile page and next to your hubber name; and your hub score, that is the green number that appears in your individual articles or hubs.
Your hubber score is extremely dependent on your activity within HubPages.
Try staying away for one week (this may be a difficult exercise for some hubbers) and you will see your hubber score plummet by about 10 points. This was true for me on several occasions, even though my total traffic was stable, or increasing.
A low hubber score will drag down all of your article hub scores, and vice-versa.
Why does hubber score matter?
- A high hubber score (> 95) will give you a good shot at appearing on the Featured Hubber and Featured Article lists on the front page of Hubpages, when you publish a new hub. Aside from the coolness factors of appearing on the front page, this will temporarily boost your hub traffic and increase your fan base.
- A high hubber score will help to boost the hub scores of all your articles.
- You appear more godly with high green numbers next to your name.
What helps your hubber score most?
See results without votingHow Do I Get a High Hubber Score?
- Comment on other people's hubs.
- Post in the forums.
- Make and answer requests.
- Publish new hubs.
Commenting on hubs and posting in the forums are both relatively easy, and not too time intensive.
Of course. it is an added bonus if you actually make meaningful comments, posts, and requests. Others may be so impressed with your word kung-fu, that they might visit your hubs in return, give you many thumbs-up, leave you comments, or even join your fan club.
This reciprocal activity will help to further boost your individual hub scores and lead you down the road to hub score nirvana.
However, even if you lack quality, quantity alone can get you far. Consider that the hub score machine only uses objective measures, and we do not yet have the technology for machines to subjectively rate the "quality" of a comment or forum post.
This does not mean that random, stupid, spamming will get you anywhere. In addition to the hub score godly machine, there are also many non-machine type people on HubPages who can detect spam-like comments. Spamming links, or posting meaningless stuff will likely get you reported and banned in short order.
However, I have noticed that it is possible to get away with leaving generic comments like: "Very good information!", "I love this hub, thanks for writing it.", and "Your tips make a lot of sense to me. I am definitely going to follow it".
Before you run off and go crazy with generic commentary, remember that many hubbers put a lot of time and effort into their hubs and spamming comments is not only annoying but also a teansy-weansy bit insulting to their hard work. While you may not get banned, you will probably not be earning much good-will either.
Poor, generic, word kung-fu will not lead you to high green numbers.
Does a high hub score bring in more traffic and earnings?
See results without votingHub Score WTH?!
Yes, it can sometimes be annoying when your brilliant hubs get rated below armpits and maybe even below really hairy armpits. However, hub scores have less to do with brilliance, and more to do with popularity and participation.
If Einstein posted his theory of relativity in hub format, it would probably rate below hairy armpits and cute bottoms.
A high hub score, may contribute slightly to bringing in more traffic, but in my experience, it does not really affect my HubPages traffic or HubPages earnings numbers by much.
So why the heck am I reading this crappy hub?!
I don't know, but if you want to make money, get outta here and go make an armpit hub!
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Comments
I still don't get it. Haha, I'm just kidding. :) Funny hub, though!
Yes, I am guilty: I have a shameless cute-men-in-jeans hub (arm pits are not the area of focus, I assure you). But I'm hoping the folk who come to see Brad Pitt in denim will also read my short stories and other stuff. I could do what several people have done, and delete a lot of my hubs, just focusing on what I want to write. But I'm on a pension. I need the 26 cents I earned yesterday from Adsense. You'll be pleased (I hope) to know that I found your hub on economics (which I might otherwise have missed) by reading this one. So I guess we are all in this together, and the support we can give each other is valuable, indeed. Thanks for the hub. Got me thinking.
Pardon me, I'm just stalking Teresa because I have to eat matzah all week.
Trying to divine the formula they might use to arrive at a Hubscore gives me a headache. They say traffic, word count, and other factors. Who knows? Who cares? I'd rather just write and ignore the score.
[Glenn] Yay a BSG fan! And Shhhhh! Ixnay on the final yloncay. :)
[Three Legged Dog] Thanks! I was shooting for brilliant; but I guess I'll take funny :D
[Teresa] O-O I am always up for cute men in jeans! But I don't know, once I see Brad Pitt I just sit there drooling, and may not make it to the other good stuff. And I'm retired with no pension so 26 cents is sounding pretty good to me!
[Tom] I love matzah! It was much much better than dorm food :)
Ya, matzah's good, but I miss bread. Ah well. I think that hubscore is more dependant on traffic than vice versa, but it is only an emotional feeling, not scientific data.
My HubScore is always low, I think my frequent and annoying posting in the forums is the culprit, its a conspiracy I tell ya! You correct somebody in a forum then they swing over to your hubs and send you a thumbs down.
Ill see if a sexy armpits hub can help my score...hell maybe ill do a PG hub on each of the fetishes people could have...celeb feet, celeb noses, sexy bellybuttons
By this time next week ill be a 99er too!
[Tom] I used to steal all the matzah from our dorm cafeteria and store them up in my room like a chipmunk :) People gave me lots of funny looks. As for hub score, I don't think it is very much tied to traffic either way. I have an alternate account with very little traffic; but frequently, it gets a higher score than this one. It is all very weird. Participation is key, I think, but my hub score ain't that high so I should just stop talking :)
[sunforged] lol - just stay out of the religion forum! :) O-O I have a fetish on noses - do one on hubber noses and tie that to their hub writing style. Bound to be a hit! :)
... "many hubbers put a lot of time and effort into their hubs" ... How true. I have 47 hubs fermenting in notepads, and whenever I find the time I make changes to one or more, all the while trying to bring it up to some intelligible standard, fit enough to appear online. Whenever I feel I've reached a point from which I cannot go any further, I either publish it or delete it.
I once read an amusing essay by respected fellow hubber Hal Licino on how hub score works. He even stated something like the length of the shadow caused by moonlight falling on the tower of London divided by the dollar rate against the rouble at the exact time you hit publish has an effect on your hub score ... Ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha! ha!
Say "woof" to Shiba Inu and Shania Inu!
I'm still pretty much clueless about how hub scores and stuff work, but I sometimes wonder why the competition? Ratings are pretty subjective and should we really plunge into the depths of despair because some computerised (I imagine) system is playing God with our scores? More fun to just write and hope that someone out there enjoys reading what you write.
I just say I don't give a bleepity bleep, and everything seems to work out
I am not sure but It Is my opinion mine Is far too low for my literary skills !
Interesting, I never knew that you can gained 10 points for not showing up on hub page?! That I cannot do! Hub page has become my new love.
hi. Does hub score matters at all? beside being 95> hub score doesnt matter for peopls.
Interesting -but I don't know what is keeping me in the 90's - I rarely visit the forum, I make about 5 comments a day and try to research and write a minimum of 3 hubs a week..... the score thing is just a puzzle - but Teresa had a 100 yesterday ! hurrah!
I have been without my computer for a week, and have found that my score for the past week has been as low as 90 and a high of 92,,big whoop! I'm accustomed to at least 94-97. I just published a new hub about 30 minutes ago, and the score went up to 94. Your observation appears to be correct.
Thanks for sharing.
[quicksand] "I have 47 hubs fermenting in notepads, and whenever I find the time I make changes to one or more, all the while trying to bring it up to some intelligible standard, fit enough to appear online. "
All I can say is that your hard work produces really fun to read hubs - even the "thud", "yelp", "yelp" ones. :) I am pretty random when it comes to "hub production time" - sometimes I do it in a couple of hours and quickly hit the "publish" button before I change my mind; and other times a hub just sits there, like smelly cheese :)
And a "woof, woof" back to you and your 12 dogs. No "thuds" please.
[Feline Prophet] Thanks for dropping by. I have been having a good time reading your hubs. lol - I guess I have taken many some dips or even dives into the depths of despair recently; although that is probably more due to the DOW score than my hub score. I think you are definitely right about write, share, and enjoy; but since the scores are there, I sometimes can't help myself :) I am easily manipulated.
[GT] lol - funny how that seems to work out well for a large number of things.
[Tony] I think the scores that indicate literary brilliance are around 88-93. Anything higher and you are just pandering :D
[May] Actually I lose 10 points for not showing up. I am easily distracted by large shiny things so sometimes I don't visit for weeks :) However, HubPages has been very addictive lately. Sometimes the whole day passes and I haven't done anything except read hubs.
[Aniket] Yeah, it don matter much, but it is a fun topic to talk and gripe about :)
[Iphigenia] Actually 5 comments a day is very good; and 3 hubs a week is amazing. I must get my lazy butt in gear.
[Trish] Thanks for the additional data. What you describe has been my experience as well. It will be fun to actually collect data on this - but my lazy butt doth protest. :) Ok, I'm off to make general commentary so that I can boost my score by a few!
Well, I was just inspired to write a hub about hairy armpits...may that will juice up my hub score and incoming traffic! I have found that staying away from hubpages for a month only decreased my score by about 7 points, either I'm lucky or I have a higher score when I'm active then I thought... Thank you very much for sharing this information with us in a pretty entertaining way!
"Pardon me, I'm just stalking Teresa because I have to eat matzah all week. "
I've heard quite enough Matzah whinging already close to home, thanks anyway (-:
[roastedpinebark] I am glad I inspired another armpit hub! Never can have enough of those. :) Hmmm, what you say is interesting. What was your traffic like during the month holiday? Maybe the score drops faster initially, and then stops after a while. Would be interesting to test out.
You sincerely speak the truth as I battle everyday with my score moving up and down and especially my articles. I am still trying to figure out how to get a perfect 100 and stay there. I see the traffic on my articles and become quite confused by why it is either stuck or moving slowly. Yes I definitely do give you a thumbs up as armpits are honestly not what I want to read. Happy Easter !!!! :)
"I am still trying to figure out how to get a perfect 100"
Just ask Teresa. Or Tom might know, since he is stalking her. Actually I think Tom is really onto something here; stalking is a simple and quick way to get a lot of good hub score strategy information :)
And a Happy Easter to you too!
It is not all that easy to go around from hub to hub making remarks unless of course you have purchased a "PLR" package of 990 instant remarks, from which you select a suitable one ... hey! waitaminit! ... did I say PLR package with 990 ready made remarks? Oooh! Some dude may think of that too. Already there are programs ranging from $19.00 upwards on how to get your articles on page one using the power of HubPages ... but 990 instant responses! Wow! You could even re-shuffle the words around and make new phrases! But, would it make any sense? Who cares?
Well, some of us DO, don't we?
You were the first to point out that content is not king.
I have found that after making a dozen comments and retreating, my hub score drops! It sure does. As if the system is able to differentiate sense from nonsense, and penalize me!!!
Cheers, and Happy Easter!
I happen to be brand spanking new here and this is the kind of hub someone in my predicament finds helpful. Will my score of 30 rise to a whopping 31 or 32? Guess I'll have to hit that little "Post Comment" button below to find out.
Thanks for the insight.
Yikes, PLR! I stumbled across much of it on eZine, which is really quite unfortunate because they pretty much drown out many of the other articles. It seems like they do a much better job at HubPages in screening out this stuff, but maybe I've just been lucky. I think this area of "community hacking" is a very interesting one, and there is much that could be done in terms of tools to help curb this behavior as well as providing attractive alternatives for making money or getting traffic that is actually friendly to the community.
"You were the first to point out that content is not king."
I think the issue of content is another really interesting topic. When I first started out on HubPages, I had a very difficult time finding my voice. I was flailing all over the place trying to get Digg popular topics one day, and another day trying to get HubPages audience, etc, etc. I think that readers want something practical that they can use right now; which could be useful information that they can apply today or quick, fun, entertainment. Don't try to do too much - is a good mantra :)
"I have found that after making a dozen comments and retreating, my hub score drops! It sure does. As if the system is able to differentiate sense from nonsense, and penalize me!!!"
lol - maybe this is just the time-lag. I have had similar experiences, but the score seems to tick up after a few hours. Also, stop posting nonsense! No more thud, thud articles - ya hear?! :D
Gripe, welcome to HubPages. I like this place best compared to the other online writing sites I have tried. Hope you enjoy your stay here as well :)
I started hubbing about a week ago and am still trying to understand what all those numbers are which keep changing. I think it has made a little more sense after reading your hub. I didn't know comments on others hubs made a difference to the ratings, rankings, whatever. I comment when I like a hub or when I have something to say.By the way I found your polls hilarious and I went with the majority.
Cheers to hubs.
Welcome to hubpages Diana. I am glad that you enjoyed some of my dubious observations about hub scores.As you have observed, it is usually best to go about your own business and not worry too much about the scores. To quote the great Goldentoad:
"I just say I don't give a bleepity bleep, and everything seems to work out"
:)
I like Hub tips a lot better than armpits. Personally.
lol - I am not a big armpit fan myself, but Teresa's men in jeans are definitely very yummy!
well i guess we're all into a competive writing thing trying like hell to achieve something most of us don't really understand, we're turning into grade monkeys, once i reached 97 for about 2 minutes and was so excited, but never again....so, suppose you go away for vacation? you get punished for going camping?
i've read some really interesting hubs with so so scores and found some high scoring hubs that i just had to wonder how the heck they earned it...and i'm not saying just something i'm not intersted in but pure drivel...
"you get punished for going camping?"
lol - I never thought of it in that way before but I guess you are right! I suppose the same thing happens with work. After the camping trip, we usually have to put in some extra hours to catch up on the e-mail and paperwork that have piled up during "vacation".
"i've read some really interesting hubs with so so scores and found some high scoring hubs that i just had to wonder how the heck they earned it...and i'm not saying just something i'm not intersted in but pure drivel..."
That has also been my experience.
How to assign scores is always an interesting but very complex issue. We want to reward the people who do well, and yet not discourage the people who aren't doing so well. We want to encourage competition, but also foster a spirit of cooperation and support. We want to keep the community vibrant and active, but also take into account that people *do* sometimes enjoy camping without their computers.
People have a hard time balancing all this during work reviews; but modelling this in a machine is even more challenging.
I used to have very interesting discussions with one of my work friends about this. It is an interesting problem that comes up everywhere in life.
Thanks for your interesting observations. Lots of ideas for Hub Score Part Deux :)
Nice hub dude! I'll try get more scorer from now.. I'm just starting... =D
I was wondering about this - thank you very much!
Hello Netperking, The important thing to remember is that hub score is often not very well-tied to earnings or traffic. Nowadays I just focus on the other two things and let the hub score figure itself out :)
Thanks for dropping by and welcome to HubPages.
I'm still wondering why the scores are even necessary. I.E. what do they really achieve here other than making people worry about 2 points here or there - especially when there's a random factor involved (why?)
*shrug* oh well, I guess I'm just not the competitive type (unless it gets me something, and, I was once in the 90's, as high as 97 at one point, and it really didn't earn me anything I can spend on dog food or grooming - i.e. money).
At least, when I put work and effort into my dog, I get results - here, I get a nice number...and that's it :( and lately, I don't even have that (all the way down to 77)
Maybe I'm just bitter.
Hello KB! Good to see you. What have you been up to?
I have been playing around with WordPress. It is Schweet! I am creating a super theme. Am really excited about it :)
As for the hubscore - it does play one important function which it helps to filter out the most spammy hubbers. People who copy text and don't even alter it at all will often get a very low hub score, and have their outgoing links set to no-follow.
Other than that - I suppose it is a way to get others to participate in the community and publish hubs. :)
Been tending to a couple of my other hobbies - getting back into drawing (or trying to anyway), wondering just how many cucumbers I'm going to get (I think I planted too many!) and of course engaged in the ever-present mental tug-of-war with Wally. :) I think he makes up a few games of his own and sees if I can play his games LOL
Hey awesome - I didn't know you liked art. I'm a big fan myself although I haven't done too much traditional stuff lately. Been too busy playing with 3d-image tools.
You should check out some of these 3d-programs - they are very addictive :)
Do you have your art up online? I would love to have a look.
Heh nope, not online anywhere - I don't think I'm that good yet :)
I'll bet that it is better than 99% of what is out there :)
What type of art do you like doing? I am mostly into figures, with a bias towards fantasy figures and the anime style.
Drop me a link if you decide to put it up.
I like the anime/manga style as well and am trying to learn it to make my own characters.
Now I really want to see :) Hope you will put something up!
I am trying to tweak some manga looking people on my 3d software and then use them to create skins/themes for WordPress.
Your Hub was interesting but still did not explain the disparity between the score on my profile page photograph and that sent to me in the HubPage Weekly. Often ten or more different. Curious. Thanks for the Hub though.
Very interesting infoprmation. I wrote a book on one of my hubs and my score is still a mere 66 :(
Hello Peter,
As far as I understand it, the score we receive in e-mail is a snap-shot taken in time during a particular month. Or perhaps they take several snapshots and pick the highest score. If they take that snapshot and then your score shoots up, it will not be reflected.
Nowadays I don't pay much attention to the score - as long as you keep your personal score above 75 -all your links will be follow so that is all you really need.
Nice hub and love your sense of humor. I just joined yesterday and had a score of zero. Today I have a score of six yikes! Does this score just naturally rise over time?
Hello david-n,
Welcome to HubPages!
Your score will rise as you publish more articles and participate in the community. Publishing, I think, is the most important part of the score. The people with the highest scores are usually those that publish and/or participate a lot in the community.
Just have fun and the rest will follow :)
High Score in the News
- Davis, White win GP dance final; Lysacek sits secondUSA Today10 hours ago
World champion Evan Lysacek was edged out by Daisuke Takahashi for first place in the men's short program at the Grand Prix final on Friday night. Americans Meryl Davis and Charlie White won the ice dance event after finishing first in the free dance with 169.44 points.
- Lysacek second after short program at Grand Prix finalUSA Today10 hours ago
World champion Evan Lysacek was edged out by Daisuke Takahashi for first place in the men's short program at the Grand Prix final on Friday night.
- Sisters in Troy gets high score for food, service, costDothan Eagle3 days ago
It had been four or five years ago when I visited Sisters’ Restaurant in Troy for the first time.
Glenn Frank says:
8 months ago
Correction... starbuck did not turn out to be a cylon.
:-) Her armpits are still nice though.