How to use Gather to promote your HubPages hubs
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Gather is nothing like HubPages. Yes, with both, you can publish articles. Other than that, the process, the ease, the community and the general feel are completely different. So be prepared to learn a few new tricks!
What is Gather?
It's a place where you can publish articles. Nowadays they call it "sharing a post", which took a bit of getting used to when they made that recent change. I couldn't publish an article for 5 days because I couldn't find the link!
A lot of people use Gather to chat, discuss or correspond with each other. But you don't have to use it like that. I use it to publish articles. And sometimes just short ones. Snippets. If I have a few original paragraphs to share about a particular subject, I will. And I may even slip a link in it somewhere to one of my hubs.Gather's market is the 30+ adult demographic. It has half a million members and more than one million unique visitors to the site per month. Approximately 70% of visitors to Gather are older than 35.Advantage
It doesn't matter how short your article is, you can publish it without fear of warnings or flags.
And then link back to your hub that deals with the same subject matter but in greater detail.
Don't
Rehash or republish what you've already done at HubPages. If all you're after is a backlink then how will a person feel if they've read something at Gather and then go to HubPages and find the exact... same... thing?
So don't republish your hubs en masse over at Gather.If you have a tip, suggestion, point, opinion or viewpoint that you didn't mention in your hub, use it at Gather.Do
Highlight a keyword and link it to your corresponding hub. It'll count as a backlink, and there's also a chance that a person may click on it. Gather is a great way to dip into a fresh stream of traffic.
Be sure to upload an image. It will help your article stand out. In a search or in the newest articles list it will put a thumbnail image next to your title. Its inclusion will give extra incentive for a person to click on your article.Pick a provocative title. Don't let it be ambiguous, make it count for something for the purposes of SEO, but also intelligent enough for people to understand.Promotion
Okay, so you're doing Gather to promote your Hub, but how will you promote your Gather article?
You can do the usual, social bookmarking and whatever other tactics you employ in your promotion strategies.Me? I'm lazy. My hope is that my articles are original and unique enough to be indexed by search engines. Search Engine traffic is quality!Otherwise I occasionally do a search at Gather for specific keywords for articles similar to what I've written, by other Gather authors.I do take a bit of time to read or peruse through the article and comments. And then I'll post a thought provoking opinion or constructive comment. And leave it at that. No, not even a link to my own recently published article.People are notified when a comment is made in their article. And if what I've had to say comes across as being intelligent, then the author, and also other readers, may feel inclined to click through on my profile picture and see what else I've had to say or publish.From your comment to your similar themed article the distance is only two clicks away. Between those two clicks you've given them a choice. You haven't forced yourself on them.Bombarding article comments with hyperlinks gets real old, real quick.Financial Reward?
Gather has a points system. Gather Points are redeemable for cash and gift vouchers. The better quality your contributions are, the easier it is to accrue points. Traffic counts for a lot in determining how many points you are awarded.
To find out more about Gather Points I've written a separate article.PrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
Comments
Nice hub, thanks for sharing. I´m in and now it´s time to see how it works ;)
I only just found out about the demographics myself, though it came as no surprise, the members there have always come across as mature.
It was from this page that I found the information on the demographics, there's also some extra company information: http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=28
Thanks for the information. I'll surely sign up for this. :-)
Great article, I knew very little about Gather before reading this.
How do you do it darkside, all your information is outstanding. I will always keep an eye out for your latest...
Thanks for the feedback Jana.
I just write and write and write.
And then I rewrite.
And remove as many words as a I can. The simpler, the shorter the better.
Another work of art from a great mind! thank you darkside. :)
Is there a link to Gather? And what happens to work that is not copywrited and published on web? Is it protected?
@Ms Chievous
Here's a link: http://www.gather.com/inviteLanding.jsp?parentMemb
Like HubPages, you own your own content.
I hope you get a revenue stream from Hubpages because your articles contain some of the best free info I've read. You're also an excellent writer, which makes your hubs easy reading.
good article and glad you mentioned one should have unique content at both sites
By adult website, do you mean it is porngraphic. Why 30+? I am 27.
By "adult" it means that it's frequented by "grown ups". Rather than being overrun by kids.
You can use the site whether you're 27 or 17 or 97. Just that it's a lot more mature in attitude than you'd find at a typical forum.
Thanks Darkside, I'm going to check this out right away. I haven't heard of it... well, this coming from the person who just now heard about Twitter [blushing] =)
Thanks for sharing, I am still pretty new in all these.
Cool info will check it out :)
Thanks for sharing. I will look into gather.
Gather is new to me, Darkside. Thanks for the information and demographics. I'm motivated to give it a try, of course I will sign up above.
I jumped on the gather ref link, seems like a good resource, hopefully ill one day have time to check it out in more detail
Wow. Thanks for the info. I'm gonna check it out, maybe after I get rid of the social bookmarking clutter. =) And yes, you're right, it's better to hope that the articles are unique enough to be indexed by google than creating backlinks. :P
Lissie says:
15 months ago
Thanks Glen: this is a useful summary and I must admit that gather is on my list without me having done anything with it ooops - in fact I had got as far as signing up eons ago. I will sign up under your links and actually use it this time! Useful to know that they cater to the >35 market too!