Does Local Content do well on Hubpages?

1. 74

   frugalfamilyposted 12 years ago

   I've been writing for both Hubpages and Examiner.com for over a year. I absolutely love everything about Hubpages.  It seems every time a change is made, it is for the better.  My content is usually much longer here and Hubpages makes it very easy to keep it organized and tagged correctly.
   
   Truthfully, the only reason I'm writing for Examiner, is because the locals like to see me covering a story.  I would love to take my stories over to Hubpages but I don't know if they would be welcome:
   
   They are usually short..about 300 words
   They are local..about an event in town that happened recently
   They are not evergreen
   
   I think my readers would have a much better time reading their article here than at the wild and crazy Examiner.com where things pop up and load time is forever but I don't want to bring articles here that don't fit.
   
   I'm looking for honest opinions..so tell me what you think!

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   1. 60

      Living Well Nowposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It depends on your examiner.com niche. Can you make a niche of your content on HP? If you can make your stories longer and give them an evergreen slant, you might want to publish them here. Use the keyword tool in AdWords to look for words and phrases you can spin into a readable, search-friendly hub title based on your content. Bonus points if you can spin something on mesothelioma, liposuction, repairing bad credit, etc.
      
      I write for examiner.com and I've thought about making hubs out of those stories. I have a broad tech niche and it wouldn't be too difficult to get a first-mover advantage or build an evergreen hub around them.
      
      http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/Firs … Publishing
      http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/keyword-tree

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      1. 74

         rmcrayneposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Terrible advice. 
         
         
         
         
         I agree with Bard. I have about a dozen articles on Texas travel, shopping, restaurants, etc.  I wrote most of them for the HubPages contest in Sept 2010.  I used AdWords to make sure those topics/words/phrases were being searched, but to date those articles have barely 10K views all combined. 
         
         Glad you came up with a plan you are excited about.

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         1. 60

            Living Well Nowposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            It's tongue in cheek. Humor.

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   2. 95

      Cardisaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Your readers would probably love reading their articles on HP but it seems that those articles are better suited to a magazine type publication rather than an article site like HP. The articles are  a bit short to begin with and articles that have a short life span like recent evenst would eventually die on HP so I don't think it's a good idea but that's just my opinion.

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2. 77

   Bard of Elyposted 12 years ago

   I started a second account here that I was only going to post local/regional articles in all about Tenerife. Naively I thought this was a good move and would make me a niche writer but the traffic and income for the site after two years is terrible. So in my experience local stuff does not work well here.

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3. 75

   Aficionadaposted 12 years ago

   But if she already has a devoted readership, would that make a difference?  - as opposed to starting up something new, I mean.  I've never looked at Examiner (as far as I know), and so I don't know what draws people to that site.
   
   As far as length goes, maybe a few articles could be combined into one Hub, using each of the previous articles as a subtitled section of a new Hub.  It seems to me that it couldn't hurt to try out with just a few of the articles that seem to have the best continuing traffic to date (depending on how many articles are in her Examiner account), using them as a test to see whether the traffic follows her here.
   
   Since you've already been writing online for a while, frugalfamily, you've likely seen all the information about how to make sure something is de-indexed before publishing it elsewhere.

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4. 74

   frugalfamilyposted 12 years ago

   Thanks for the honest answers. It seems pretty clear the local articles will not do well here The only traffic I got from Examiner was the traffic I created myself.  Why was I sending people to someone else's site?
   
   I was already in the middle of another huge project..a mobile site for local business accompanied by a text messaging opt-in. Although I do seo for small business websites, I was stumped on how to get traffic for a mobile site. One of the biggest obstacles is that there is so little content on mobile pages.
   
   Cardisa's post was the aha moment for me!  I can write my local articles, and use them for SEO to the mobile site (by using a re-direct) I'm mixing in feeds from local newspapers and photos from a local photographer.
   
   Suddenly I have my own on-line magazine!
   
   The feedback from business owners has been great so far..3 signed up for advertising. The content is light right now because as Aficionada mentioned, I need to wait for other articles to de-index before I post the back articles.
   
   Other pages are waiting to post strategically for SEO reasons. 
   
   It is a perfect place to post local content..giving the locals what they want and giving my own sites the traffic they deserve.  I'll let you know how traffic goes..this whole project might make a great Hub one day:)
   
   Thanks again for your responses.  I know I can always count on my fellow hubbers for great content and assistance!
   
   If you want to check out the site it is at http://DiscoverTomball.com.  It will take you to the mobile version on a mobile device or the magazine version on a pc...it is still unclear where an ipad will take you.  Maybe you can let me know.

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