200 Hubs Posted
My HubPages Background
I posted 200 articles on HubPages. I joined HubPages over 5 years ago. I reached 100 articles 2 years ago. The purpose of this article is to share what I think I know not to praise myself or complain about HubPages’ perceived shortcomings. There are many who have posted more articles to HubPages in a shorter time. There are many writers who are far more successful by any metric.
Method of Operations
I like to work on 3 articles at a time. I am normally working on an article related to vintage aircraft, a movie or vintage TV show article, and an article about something else. I often have some articles in my head. Getting my thoughts in a word file gives my thoughts a better chance of becoming a completed project. If I get “writer’s block” on one article I can continue with the other writing projects. If my writing projects become more involved than I initially thought I might be able complete a simpler project or two. This way in almost the same timeframe I have completed two or three projects instead of just one.
I write an article about any movie I see in the theater. I give these articles a higher priority. I sometimes look through my photo collection for ideas for an article. I have written articles readers have suggested.
I try to spend some time working on an article every day. I’ve found if I wait until I can find the time or be in the mood to do something, I’ll rarely have the time or mood to do something. Life has a habit of getting in the way of things. A few minutes, and one sentence, puts me a sentence closer to a completed article.
Stats and Observations
I have about 30,000 hits. My Hubber Score is 85, give or take a point of two. My score for the articles has been stuck at 72. It took me 5 years to reach a payout, $50 which HubPages promptly paid. These stats put me in the category of an unremarkable hubber.
My only Amazon sale was on November 21, 1996. I normally include 1 or 2 Amazon capsules in my articles. HubPages removes most of them in the automatic edit. I’ve had limited success in keeping Amazon capsules in my articles by naming capsules so they would closely match the article’s title.
My most successful article has over 1,700 hits. I posted it on September 1, 2014. It averages less than 1 hit a day. It’s a case of the tortoise beating the hare. It never had a spike in hits.[i] The first article I posted, on July 5, 2014, has over 500 hits. It’s 11th for the number of hits. Except for an article on the original Twilight Zone series, over 850 hits, the top 11 hit getters are aircraft articles.
Typically, my new articles are the top hit getter for 2-3 days. Occasionally my older articles have a spike in hits. These spikes seem to have some relation to outside influences. Two of my aircraft articles, about two of the aircraft in the movie Top Gun, spiked when there was publicity concerning the Top Gun sequel.[ii] This is one reason I don’t take down articles. The spikes are unpredictable. Another reason is stray hits add up. None of my articles have sustained a daily two digit hit count for more than a few days at a time.
I have posted 18 short stories. My short stories average 60 hits. The hits range from 21 to 130. The advantage I found with posting short stories to HubPages is some readers suggested I continue a short story. Two of my stories turned into trilogies this way. I didn’t name the short stories Parts I, II, & III. This might explain the disparity between the hit counts. One trilogy has an expected sharp drop from the 1st to 2nd story then a slight drop from the 2nd to 3rd story. The other trilogy has a sharp drop from the 1st to 2nd story the 3rd story has almost as many hits as the 1st story.[iii]
An article I posted in the Naval Combat subtitle is 7th in popularity. It received 9 hits in the last 30 days and has 400 hits total. Judging from the rankings of articles in Aerial Combat & Dogfights the popularity isn’t judged by the number of hits. My two highest ranked articles in this subtitle have far fewer hits than other articles.
The most comments I received, 43[iv], was the article I wrote about me posting 100 HubPages articles. That article received 132 hits. My highest scoring article received 2 reader comments. I always respond to comments. I’ve experienced one or two cases where HubPages mistakenly thought a comment to my article was spam. In one case it may have been the country of origin. I’ve only experienced one case of spam.
I have seen other users where comments have generated more hits. In one case the user writes articles that lead to great readership involvement. In another case the comments took a political turn and that generated many hits.
I post every HubPages article to Pinterest and Facebook. Of the 847 hits I received in the past 30 days, 27 came from Pinterest and 30 came from Facebook.
HubPages recommends reader polls in the articles. I’ve seen some users who had great responses to their poll questions. My questions only generate a handful of responses.
[i] For the purpose of this article a “spike in hits” means a two digit increase in hits that lasts less than a week.
[ii] Top Gun: Maverick, scheduled for U.S. release on June 26, 2020.
[iii] The “Castle” trilogy numbers as 130-51-45. The “Cesium Flash” trilogy numbers are 45-21-40.
[iv] This includes my responses. Sometimes multiple readers comment at about the same time so I make one comment to answer these users.
Thoughts and Practices
When a Hubber comments I give their page a Hub page a look. If it’s a Hubber that hasn’t posted any articles I give them a welcome message. If the user has articles that I haven’t read I read one of their articles. I’m not a poetry reader but have read and appreciated some poetry thanks to this practice.[i] I usually leave a comment in articles I read. Often when reading an article, I go to the HubPages of other users that have commented on the article. Making contact with other Hubbers is a way of letting users know I exist.
America, my native country, accounts for 57.5% of the hits since November 1, 2015. The United Kingdom accounts for 5.9% and Australia accounts for 3.4% of the hits. Next is France with 2.9% and Russia with 2.6%. I have received at least 1 hit from most of the other countries. I still haven’t cracked the Greenland market. Since over 40% my hits are outside America, I usually show English and Metric measurements in my articles. I also try to avoid or footnote American colloquial expressions.
I wish HubPages would be more flexible with the Amazon capsules. Selling a single $18 item on Amazon will generate as much revenue as 750 hits. For me such a sale is equal to 25 days’ worth of hits.
Occasionally HubPages will stop featuring a capsule because of low traffic. I haven’t figured out how HubPages decides which article to stop featuring. I typically make some minor changed and save it. HubPages typically doesn’t feature the article because of quality. I normally remove an Amazon capsule and HubPages features the article again.
I enabled the Article Q&A on January 19, 2020. Time will tell if it does anything to the hit count. I hope you find this information and useful. If you feel my speculations are wrongheaded by all means comment and set the readership right.
[i] Trying to solicit or accepting a mutual read agreement is unethical at best.
This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.
© 2020 Robert Sacchi