Attack of the Blue Arrows!

Anyone familiar with Hubpages knows there is a sign we all fear: the dreaded blue arrows! Gasp! Where can we turn? What can we do?

Usually, your day begins like any other day. You are contemplating some new topics you might want to write about on Hubpages. Perhaps you've left a few comments. You've gone Hub Hopping. Finally, you decide to check your account. And then... cue the intense music... the attack of the blue arrows!

Oh, no, it is not just one blue arrow or two, but there is a full outright attack on your hubs. Your poor, innocent hubs are just sitting there. They want to be loved. They've done nothing wrong. Some of your hubs are helpful, some are funny, and some... well... they are hubs only a creator could love. Still, they are your babies and they are covered in blue arrows (or blue triangles, according to Hubpages terminology).

You start to think, "Surely there must be some red arrows. I know someone must love my hubs." But no, this day just got worse. Not only are your hubs covered in blue arrows looking as if your page has a case of blue chicken pox, there are no red arrows! Not a single hub is doing well enough on this day to receive a single red arrow! The horror!

Do you know what is even worse than the dreaded blue arrow? A double blue arrow! Yes, this evil does exist on Hubpages. The double blue arrow telling you that your hub is not just a failure today, it is a double failure ! No! Not my hub! Not my innocent hub! Take me instead!

Of course, anyone seeing these arrows on their page wonders what the arrows are all about. So if you are new to Hubpages, I will explain. The red arrow up means your hubs are pulling in more traffic recently. The blue arrow down means your hub is losing traffic recently. It is a rather simple concept.

I will tell you from personal experience, sometimes it is torture. When I look at my statistics and I see a combination of blue arrows and red arrows, I think nothing of it. When I look at my statistics and it is covered in blue arrows, I do get really bummed out. The best advice I can give to anyone having the same problem is don't panic. It happens to any hubber at times.

I can't pretend to understand why some hubs get so much traffic and some do not. I am not a real expert at this, and quite frankly, I don't always understand human nature. When I see the traffic sources and the keywords that brought people to my pages, sometimes I am seriously confused. I can't believe what some people are searching for on Google. What I can learn from that is how to craft a better hub in the future.

Some of what I do is simply trial and error. To be honest, I still don't know exactly how everything works. A hub can lose readers for many different reasons. You may look at a hub and see barely any traffic one day. You might even have the evil double blue arrow. Then two days later, the traffic picks up and you have a red arrow or even a double red arrow on the exact same hub. Who knows?

What I do know is I love all of my hubs because they are my hubs. I don't care about the blue arrows or a low hub score. I've worked on each one and I am a fan. In the end, that is enough for me.