Traffic Dropped By 50%
Big spurt this evening. Numbers are back to normal. Feeling very optimistic.
A trip yesterday after work that normally takes 1 hour during rush hour only took 20 minutes. So many people are on vacation (or holiday, as they say in some parts of the English speaking world) and so many kids are out of school (not using the Net for research) that Internet traffic in general has to be down right now. This is a good time to take a look at Hubs for SEO purposes and update them. We'll really know if HubPages has problems if the traffic doesn't return in the fall.
Have you compared last years traffic with this? I think they had holidays last year as well?
Yes. The same concerns were raised last summer. Obviously, HubPages is suffering from some traffic decline. I am not trying to deny that, but this is a time of the year that traffic traditionally drops off, so it's not the best time to get too concerned about a drop in views.
OK, I'll try not to. It does seem a little bit of shame that my traffic has halved and is way lower than this time last year but I promise to check back regularly.
You never know!
Might get lucky.
Good point, Mark. I have always noticed the summer is low on views in the U.S., but generally it comes back around Mid-August, when kids go back to college to begin the Fall Semester. At least that's when they do it here.
The oddball thing is when my traffic was the lowest ever, I had a 100 hubber score, and all of my hubs are featured out of my 134. Only one is under 75. So I don't get it. I understand the score doesn't matter, but the fact all my hubs are featured should.
I have a series I must finish, 4 more pieces, although my heart isn't in it. Then I'm not adding any new content until I see more red arrows. I had about 10 red arrows yesterday, but that was pitiful. Someone said that maybe Google doesn't like older content, but if it's evergreen, it shouldn't matter. Besides, we've had to change so many times, by now I'm sure we have all updated or changed any info on Hubs that isn't relevant anymore. I'm so tired of all these games. And then whenever a new site becomes the "flavor of the month" everyone goes there. I don't think people should rush to delete unfeatured hubs. All you have to do is change a sentence or two, and it's featured again. Although if you wrote it long ago, and read it all the way through, you'll end up fixing it up more anyway.I will move all unfeatured from now on. No question about it. Blog, site, Bubblews or just dump.
As for writing. Facing QAP and no traffic - it is hard to get very interested.
And views. I'm thinking it had to do with HP figuring something out with big brother? Who knows, anyway. I feel like Internet writing is like boxing with a blindfold on.
I've also seen the flavor of the month rushing toward new sites, and I'm guilty of the same, and trying hard to curb this tendency right now. I totally agree with not moving articles all over the place.
Got two Adsense clicks today on my own websites. The total, while not awe-inspiring, is more than I have earned here all this month so far.
WriteAngled: Can you recommend a good website creator?
I don't recommend any website creators. Usually they are unique to the service they're based on - so if you subsequently decide you want to move elsewhere, you lose your whole blog and have to start again.
There are only three options that make sense and are transportable:
1. Blogger.
2. Wordpress.com
3. Wordpress.org software on paid hosting
Whichever you choose, it's absolutely vital to buy a proper domain name (never use whatever.blogspot.com or whatever.wordpress.com as your site name - it sounds amateurish and limits your ability to move the site later if you need to). Both Blogger and Wordpress.com have instructions on how to attach the domain name to your blog.
Blogger is easiest because it allows you to use Adsense and affiliate links freely, but it is more limited in design and navigation.
Wordpress.com does not allow Adsense or affiliate links, although you can apply for their advertising program if you have a domain name, which will cost you $13 to do. It's not a bad place to dip your toe in the water, because
(a) it gives you a chance to learn the Wordpress software
(b) it puts your blog in the Wordpress.com community, so you'll be able to network with other Wordpress.com members
(c) if the blog does well, it's super-easy to transfer it to Wordpress on paid hosting later, without losing site age.
I have a couple of Blogger blogs. In addition, I have several niche websites on a service that gives me simplified Wordpress (no installation needed) plus extensive training material plus a supportive community and unlimited web sites, as long as I supply the domain name, all for $35 a month. Unfortunately, I believe this service is a banned link here, so I cannot post it, even though I have been using the service for over two years with no problems.
Sounds like sitebuitdit (or whatever it is called)
$35 a month is very expensive.
I pay about $5 a month for my hosting on Hostgator. Installing Wordpress is very simple so there is absolutely no point in paying for "simple installation" - besides, Hostgator support will install it for you if you're really stuck.
These days, I very rarely have to go anywhere near the "back end" of Wordpress - virtually everything can be done via the dashboard - so there's no need to be anxious about managing the site, FTP'ing files etc etc because you won't often have to do it.
In addition, I use ManageWP to manage all my sites in one place, which is also inexpensive.
My only other expense is my domain names.
No, not that.
It's a community for marketing people, but it is NOT the Empower scam (which costs $hundreds). Personally, I think $35 a month for unlimited hosting is not bad. I guess though that others will soon chip in with better bargains
That sounds about right in the U.S., but in other countries I think it's still fairly expensive. There is certainly a lot of competition in the U.S. for Internet hosting, and deals can be had.
I'm in Australia, but I can (and do) buy hosting in the US. Mine costs about $5 a month.
Hi Rock_nj,
I'm hoping it's the summer doldrums too. I also have a group of hubs waiting for September so I have new content, but I want to be sure things are looking better before I post them.
At Tripod, I just pay $4.95 a month and then $20 a year for my domain name.
Keeping things in perspective. Back in the glory days of HubPages in 2011, there was no HubPages Ad Program, and people made money from either Google AdSense ad clicks or selling products via Amazon and eBay. Even with all that traffic, it was not easy to make money.
I have also moved some content to other sites, like Blogger. When HubPages had their misguided strict policy of idling Hubs (yes, they still do it occasionally, but it's not annoying like it was), I would copy my original Hub onto Blogger and then update my HubPages Hub, so I now had two copies of essentially the same article that are different enought not to have duplication problems. Something to think about when considering moving things off HubPages.With my last update here I had mentioned an increase in traffic...well, it is bottoming out again.... It never really got back up to what I consider normal to begin with, but it is falling hard again as of this post.
Dale Hyde: Mine, too. It's now at its lowest point so far! Hard to swallow when I'm getting good views and more money at a stupid site like Bubblews!
I've never had more than 200 views per day, even after a year on HubPages. I've used Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. I have links to my hubs from a neighborhood historical society, and I rank third on Google for a number of interesting searches. Are expectations of unbridled riches making so many people so dissatisfied?
e-five, I am surprised that you didn't get more views than that if you rank 3rd on Google. No, the unhappy people got a lot of views and are now getting very few. That is the problem. Me included.
Lots of people think that just because they write about something that interests them or that they know about that they will automatically get thousands of visitors. The truth however is that unless they write about something that has people searching for it they will not get regular volumes of traffic.
Sorry to pick on one of your hubs e-five (I have not read it so i can't comment on its quality) but how many people are likely to be searching for "The film noir version of the 2012 election"?
If you write for pleasure then it does not matter what you write, but if you are chasing visitors and the elusive buck then you have to write in an area that will attract the visitors. Not only do you have to write in an area that people are searching but you also have to find areas that have low competition, because everyone else will be writing in those areas to get those visitors also! Your film hub will have limited if any competition but has very few searches so it will rank high in search but still get very limited numbers of visitors.
Ranking third or even first for a term that only gets a handful of searches every month will get you few visitors, ranking at the bottom of the first page for a term that gets 100's of thousands of searches every day could get you thousands but getting there will be very difficult as many will be targeting those terms.
So yes, peoples expectations of easy money does make many people dissatisfied as they have very unrealistic expectations!!A lot of my Astrology and Tarot things are on the first page of Google. And I did profiles on Mitt Romney and President Obama that were still getting views, well, when I was getting views. It just doesn't make sense to me, and that makes me feel angry.
LeanMan: Your views make sense except for one thing...I happen to write in a niche area that people DO search for and DO read and who thank me profusely for what I write and tell me I do the best job of it they've seen. YET...those articles are getting hammered also. Explain that one to me!
It's not just a niche area you have to be concerned with. You have to cater to an exact keyword phrase that has low competition for that phrase. Even then, you have to present your content on a platform that is well optimized, provides some authority, and then you have so socially market it. But the content itself has to be created in a way that makes others want to socially market it because if the only social indicators are coming from the content creator then the only thing Google is going to notice is that you are trying to game the system.
Although I don't write online for a living like many here do, I have always been intrigued by online writers who assume that their hub should be ranking higher than authority sites, authority domains with thousands of quality incoming links. If I'm searching a popular public figure or the latest medical research on cancer, etc., I'm going to click on an authority site regardless if the information is the same as a hub on HP, written by someone with absolutely no authority on the topic. The authority of the site will most likely get someone to click. Those of us who have recently taken a hit with the switch back to our subdomains can see that plainly. The HP domain has a higher PR and carries more authority than our subs.
a five: It is not expectations of unbridled riches that is the problem. I do about the same as you on HP and was satisfied with that...and I've been here 20 months not. It is very painful to work so hard, follow all the rules and then get slapped around with serious page view losses. For me it has never been about the money, but writing and then not having people regularly read what you write seems a waste of time.
Two things HubPages could do to improve traffic around here are:
1) Try to target some additional countries that may have writers that are receptive to using HubPages. Right now, HubPages is dominated by the United States, with India coming in a strong second, and the UK in third. The Quantcast data clearly shows this.
2) Give new Hubbers an incentive to publish their first few Hubs. I have had a few people sign up for HubPages using my referral trackers, but 90% of the new signups never do anything beyond just signing up. Perhaps a $1 per Hub bonus for the first 3 Hubs? A loss leader of sorts. Once someone writes that many Hubs, they are more likely to feel comfortable with the platform and keep writing, which will generate future views and revenue for HubPages, and hopefully some additional traffic for established Hubbers, as people find their Hubs and look around the site.Hi Rock,
You seem to be under the huge misunderstanding that traffic to your hubs comes from the members of Hubpages. It comes mainly from the search engines such as Google and Bing/Yahoo when people search for information.
The information that you are looking at on Quantcast tells you where those searchers are based (Funnily enough heavily populated countries with access to the internet!) It is traffic from places such as the US and the UK (English speaking affluent (??) countries that provides us with advertising revenue.
As to offering people money to create content it will just get more people spamming the site with rubbish.My thinking was that more people would find their way to HubPages via the new user's Hubs and then find their way to existing writer's Hubs. Also, some of the new writers may share some of the things they come across.
As far as giving new writers an incentive to get started. Once someone has $3 in their account and uderstands how to publish Hubs, they are more likely to stick around and try to reach payout.Hi Rock_nj,
I'm from NJ too. I always thought that HP is a tad dishonest in the way they describe the way you "Write hubs, make money." People with a lot of computer experience understand all the rules, but many of the writers on here are people looking to make a little extra money when they retire, or to go out with. Most have no experience with SEO and have no clue what that is. I didn't when I came here. I just wanted to write and for the first time in my life had time to do it. Because the Admin makes so many ways for hubbers to interact, it seems great when you get 30 comments on your hub. But that doesn't mean a thing. You don't make a penny from views of other hubbers. It only comes from people who find you on Google, hence the attention grabbing titles. It seems to me they could be more transparent. It's so sad when a person from India writes in and says, "I wrote 2 hubs, where is my money?"Hi Jean,
I think HubPages staff has been whipsawed by the Google changes like just about every writer on this site. They try to react and make adjustments, but sometimes those changes do more harm than good. For example, their push for high traffic became too zealous with their Idling (now Featured) Hub policy. At first they misled everyone by saying it was about improving the quality of Hubs, but later admitted that quality was not what caused a Hub to idle, it was a lack of views. That certainly left a bad taste in a lot of writer's mouth and caused many good ones (and not so good ones) to leave HubPages.
The SEO thing really isn't HubPages fault or problem. It changes all of the time. I know because I do some work in the field of SEO. It's just part of being an online publisher these days that you have to keep up with SEO. If not, your views will suffer. Some can live with that, but what's the point of writng if nobody reads it?
I think we're experiencing the typical summer doldrums. Traffic will pick up in the fall with the return of hundreds of millions of Internet users from vacations and non-computer related summer activities. Now is the time to look over Hubs that have the potential to generate traffic over the fall and winter and improve them, so they are more likely to be found. Also, it's a good time to think about topics to write about and start writing. I have about 10 Hubs that I am preparing for the early fall.
Has anyone seen any posts from the Hubpages Team about this steep drop in traffic?
I have a red "up" arrow next to one of my hubs!
Oh... it has two views for the last 24 hours. It's pretty disheartening when two views will earn you a red "up" arrow.Feels like I'm playing snakes and ladders. Today I had four comments, which is more than recently. Yay! Then two hubs went unfeatured for lack of engagement and my hubber score dropped. It's not like I'm not trying. So many people are having trouble, give us a break.
Hands up, I've not published a new hub for a while, but where is the incentive? Think I'll be looking at my own site soon. I do appreciate the things I've learned here, and the support from experienced writers. This was a first attempt at online writing. I have joined another site, which is much more straightforward. Just a bit disappointed right now.I, too, had a hub become unfeatured today due to "lack of engagement." Was hoping they'd adjust the engagement criterea a bit given that so many people have suffered a tremendous drop in traffic with the latest Panda, but nope. My hubber score dropped too. And they won't say how high the hubber score needs to be to maintain "do-follow" links. I've published one hub in the last year, in part because I'm busy with a full-time job, and in part because there have been so many rules changes here. I keep hoping things will settle down a little...
I guess I missed the BIG DIP in traffic. Maybe that's good for I would have really been depressed about it. Things seem normal on my account with a number or red arrows and traffic to some hubs which never got much views.
I just checked and I have 10 red arrows. That's the best I did all week.
I'm getting red arrows also, but my traffic is still abysmal! Jean...did you say you write for Blogger? If so, please tell me what you know...I need a new place for some of my better articles.
You can either start your own blog on Blogger or join another content site. Blogger gets a lot of traffic and it gives you freedom to publish what you will. The same rules apply for Adsense so be careful about that.
My advice would be to create your own adsense ads instead of using the adsense generic tool.
Totally unamused as to yesterday's traffic and especially the CPM.
And just when I thought both were going to at least be satisfactory this month.
Oh, well. I shall concentrate my efforts elsewhere today.
Rant concluded.My pageviews are up 35%!! My earnings actually went down.
Now that is discouraging. On the bright side, our budget billing for our electrical bill shows we consumed less electricity this year over last year. However the budget billing amount we pay is going up.
And that's about the size of it.
There may be other larger factors at play concerning the many reports by Hubbers that their Hubs are ranking well in Google, but their traffic is down. The switch from desktops to mobiles comes to mind. There are early signs that more users are using social networking sites like Facebook to search the Internet than they had in the past, and mobile is just accelerating this trend. Perhaps less people are actually using Google to surf the Internet, and therefore, there are less people finding and clicking on Hubs through Google?
I think more people use their mobiles in the summer. Once winter comes we will be rich I tell you.
Also I was thinking. It looks like Google users have a summer break and Bing / Yahoo do not.
Mark Ewbie: It's interesting that you mention that because I've noticed in the past few weeks that I am getting more views from Bing and Yahoo than ever before.
All kidding aside. These are large macro trends that are affecting search and will likely continue for years. I'm not saying that Google users are using their mobiles more during the summer, I am saying more people are switching to mobile surfing and more are using sites like Facebook on their mobiles to search, rather than switching to Google to search. Perhaps the value of having a high Google search ranking is eroding.
Rock_nj: If you are right about people using FB and other social networking sites to search the net, it is possible that Google has had its day in the sun and ALL of this hand wringing and hard work will have been for nothing. I don't belong to FB and am wondering exactly how they use it as a search vehicle other than people posting articles on it...which I pretty much thought was considered to be spamming. Any thoughts?
One more thing: It could be possible that people are sick of going on to Google and seeing nothing but ads from companies selling products rather than the info they are searching for.
Facebook has new search function that was just rolled out over the past few months called Facebook Graph Search. It provides search results from internal and external sources, which is why Facebook users are using it instead of Google. I guess you could increase your chances of being found on Facebook Graph searches by posting links to your Hubs in Facebook, but since the data also comes from external sources, it is not entirely necessary.
I agree that Google's days of being the king of search my be numbered.TimeTraveler2,
I never bothered with a Facebook A/C either. Most of my friends know what I write about and have the addresses, so I assume they read my stuff when they are bored at work and such. I know everybody thinks Facebook is so great, but it just seems spammy to me, and I can't see just opening an account to put links to my written pieces on there. I think it annoys people. Plus I really never felt a need to tell strangers what is going on in my life. I know there are settings, but before you know it, besides the time you spend writing, you can end up spending more time on these social sites. I realized that when I began writing on HP again earlier in the summer. I wasn't spending more time online, but I was spending less time on social sites that most likely don't matter anyway. Pinterest is a real time waster if I let myself go on it!
I also agree that when you go on Google, the first page is still mostly garbage and a lot of ads, so it isn't improving.When I heard the FB was using facial recognition software that could potentially be used to gain all types of private information (including SS numbers), I dumped out. It was hard to get out of that site...took almost two months. I think they are as overbearing and potentially dangerous as Google...just too much power...and people follow them like sheep to the slaughter. No thank you...I'll do without those extra views!
I believe that as a writer you try to create stuff that OTHER people want to share. That's my strategy. Doesn't work - but mostly I try not to spam my stuff anywhere.
I don't blame you for being cautious about using Facebook. They certainly have too much information about their users. If they want to compete with Google head on in search, they're going to have to ensure that outside data is included in search results, so non-users should be fine.
Besides, Facebook is getting so commercial that it is losing its coolness. Young people use other social networks more these days. I could see the whole Facebook thing unravel quickly and become irrelevant.
This discussion was started 5 days ago, but is still relevant.
My traffic views is declining each day. Even the hubber score is going down and down. Every time I log in, I feel discouraged and disappointed. Even the motivation to write something new is declining.ChitrangadaSharan: HP just announced that it has readjusted the way it is figuring hubber scores. Mine has also dropped, but I have not been writing articles recently so am not sure if that is the reason.
If we're hurting, hubpages will have to sack all their staff as their share won't cover the cost of the boss' wages......
Comparing my traffic 2 years ago to this month, on a "per month" basis, I am now getting 9% of the traffic I did 2 years ago.
Today I didn't earn enough to pay the tiny electricity bill for running my tiny PC monitor. Might have to start posting with it turned off.Your hub, quality or otherwise, is only as good as the platform it is written on.
For the longest time, eHow were dominating the SERPS.
True, some of their articles were excellent, others less so.
Now, the top of the SERPS are dominated by ask.com or the like, with 2 line question answers, that give the searcher an idea of an answer to their query.
Maybe we should ask why.
Does Google prefer quick answers that neatly fit on small android screens, like mobiles?
Do users prefer 2 line answers?
Hopefully that will change, but it is totally outwith the control of HP who seem to be moving in the direction of Wikipedia.
It's maybe not a bad thing, but Google needs to catch up.+1 It is strange, though, because Goo keeps talking about "authority" and "expertise". Really most of the ppl providing the 2 line answers don't know what they are talking about.
This is the problem. Perhaps the majority of internet users like the simple answers, even if they are wrong. What do we do then?Google talking about authority and expertise is hot air, if it were not they'd have some way to assess who is an "expert" or otherwise. I mean, what exactly do they mean by expert? The algos simply can't determine this.
The trust ranking/factor, whatever it is is interesting. Clearly searchers place too much trust in sites like Wiki answers etc. Which is Google's fault because they rank them so highly..The 'authority and expertise' they demand is on the site owners.
Many site owners ARE expert in their field and many aren't. I totally 'get it' that the experts shine through, because they will have many articles written in their field of expertise, and each of those will have that extra 'oomph' factor.
Simple spinners and re-writers lose that and should get caught out, (but don't).
HP is full of them. Re-hashed stuff from wikipedia or the like.
I, myself, have a fair number of hubs that should be binned. I spent hours researching and writing them, but none were in my field of expertise.
I hope that what I have written is of use, but it is not completely original. The wording is, but the facts are not.
And that leaves us with a problem, really. Should we put up any hubs that are not personal stories and therefore unique to us?
Absolutely everything has already been covered online, unless we are talking about a brand new product that will be obsolete 2 years down the line.
Experts in many fields do not have the time to write online. They are simply not interested in the SERPS or whatever, because they will have their own intraweb to look up.The 'authority and expertise' they demand is on the site owners.
But how can they determine expertise from a site that offers content on every conceivable topic? The site owners would need content from experts in their field for each topic.
I hope that what I have written is of use, but it is not completely original. The wording is, but the facts are not.
But facts can never be completely original, because they are facts, they have been already been established. Personally, I don't see it as any kind of issue if you have been offering facts, or what we know to be true, the problem is misinformation.
I'm into wildlife, in a big way- but I'm not an expert and have never professed to be. As you say, spinners and spammers will just re-hash what is already out there. But if we try to add something more, information which we have sourced from places other than the internet, attempt to fact check and include relevant links- and sometimes say that we are can't be certain of the facts- then surely we are offering something more.
Every thinking person knows not to trust what is written on the internet.
I have always longed to write total inaccuracies just to see how far the word would be spread, as if it were Gospel.
Thankfully, my conscience has stopped me every time!
Not so with many of the cancer cure people but that is another story.
Again, it comes down to the platform you write your article on. If it is 'Flavour of the Month'. your unique article will be replicated all over the web, if not by copiers, then by those who believed what they read, especially if is was #1 in Google.But articles are much more believable if they are supported by evidence from a reliable source. Suppose this would make pages too academic, or otherwise boring for the average searcher though. They just want a yes, no, this is the answer and that's it response. Anything more would require effort on their part.
If only life were so straight forward. lol.
Hi WryLitt, I think it is the Google Penguin update. What else could be happening on our fellow hubbers.
There are also too many links on some Topic pages and Subdomain Profiles with more than 75 Hubs. I've mentioned this before but it has never been addressed by management.
Timetraveler2--
Delete? Gasp. How about just copy the article and repost it without the comments for a while and see what happens?..Doodlehead: I have thought of turning off my comments in my settings to see what happens. Has anybody here tried this?
Nothing is going to work unless Google decide they love HP again (which is clearly looking very unlikely), and certainly comments being on or off will not even be noticed by Google. Best start your own websites if you haven't already. My main external website is now earning close to what I earn here, and I haven't added any content to it in well over a year.
Writer Fox, do you believe we shouldn't have more than 75 hubs per account, or should we get rid of some of the links?
Actually, you should never have more than 63 Hubs per Profile on HubPages.com, so long as HubPages continues to show your Hubs in one long scroll-down on your Subdomain Profile. There is a link to each Hub on your Profile and this is great because you want Google to follow the link, flow PageRank from your Profile Page and to know that the Hub is part of your Subdomain. The reason you shouldn't have more than 63 Hubs is because Google doesn't want to follow more than 100 links per page, and every Subdomain page starts with 37 pre-set, followed links:
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Until HubPages makes some of its links NoFollow, don't publish more than 63 Hubs if you want Google to follow the links.
Also, your Hubs share PR links juice with things like two links to the HP homepage, six links to other Hubbers, etc., so link juice is already limited to your Hubs even if you only have 63.
HubPages could help the SEO of Subdomains by NoFollowing most of its preset links and showing your over-the-limit Hubs on a Page 2, Page 3, etc.So, why aren't they doing this? People with hundreds of hubs would certainly do better if they did, and so would HP..yes?
Thank you Writer Fox, because I was planning to add a lot more hubs to this sub domain. Maybe I have to either start a new one, or move my work elsewhere. I don't know. I was always under the impression that traffic flows much better when you have a larger body of articles, and my traffic was starting to pick up. I didn't want to mention that on the same forum where people were having traffic troubles, but, after looking at today's stats, I don't mind.
I have just over 63 hubs. Was it the last couple I published that created this?
Perhaps Hub Pages will make those links no-follow, if that's the case. You are correct in that the long scroll down doesn't work well."Was it the last couple I published that created this?" Do you mean that created a traffic drop? No. What it means is Google quits following and allocating link juice to the links at the bottom of the page. And Googlebot will crawl many of the links in the footer before it starts on the second column of your Hubs.
It's a serious problem on this platform for Hubbers who have 100 or more Hubs and whose Hubs are in a position below the followed-link cut off on large Topic pages. Those Hubs will have serious ranking problems on Google search results. How could they not?
This makes a certain amount of sense, and would perhaps explain why many of the people who've had traffic drops have a large number of hubs.
Just bumping the thread to ventilate. My traffic is even lower than when I was complaining about it before.
*le sigh*
(Still waiting to see if the Editor's Choice thing does something),Not only seeing a drop in traffic but my Hubber score has gone down 12 points in the last few days.
I have hubs first page Google and one first page Bing and Google. No 1 spot My score dropped 12 points. My total traffic is dismal. Good luck to everyone! I am not looking at score any more.
My hubs are getting hammered now, and I only have 20 or so published. Down 60% from the start of the week.
A good day for me now is if I can get 200 views. Lately, it has been a struggle just getting 150 views a day and I have more than 130 hubs!!
Paul: I am the same as you, but it has always been that way for me. Now I rarely get 200 whereas before I would sometimes top 300. I have never had great success here, but have enjoyed writing here and meeting other people.
Traffic terrible...morale, low. My stats page is like an empty elevator shaft where I can hear only the echoes of my own sighs. So pitiful that I'm expecting to see the majority of hubs de-featured at any moment. If that happens I might just throw in the towel since I don't believe any amount of tweaking will save the situation.
Yet views were so great a while back when, apparently, they were hooked up to the main domain. Please, Supreme Leader, beam me back to the mothership!For HP 'The End is Nigh', (short of divine intervention). Sad, but pretty obvious looking at most people's drops in traffic (plus the site's as a whole). Not holding my breath on any sort of phoenix-like 'rising from the ashes' either. My traffic is now down from over 10,000 views a day a couple of years back to just over 1000 views a day as of a few weeks back (a gradual but steady decrease after every new run of Panda, Penguin etc). I should add that I wrote mostly 'evergreen' content and not 'sales' hubs. I give up now, and barely even check my views or earnings each day, and I have backed up all my hubs here just in case the site vanishes suddenly.
The latest decline in views was definitely due to the recent Google Panda update in July. I posted the statistics on this thread:
http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/115452
I'm really surprised about your traffic report because your articles are high quality and you know how to write content for the Internet. To hear this from you is truly discouraging! (Glad to hear your personal site is doing well. Mine are, too.)WriterFox: When you say "personal site", are you referring to your own website or to a blog you have somewhere else? I need more info on this if you are willing to share. Thanks
I don't connect my personal websites in any way with HubPages. But, they are websites (multiple) not blogs. I don't do blogs.
Writer Fox: Is this because blogs are not productive either for page views or money or that you don't trust writing for them?
Unless your name is Darren Rowse (and he had a first-mover advantage), it's much more difficult to attract an audience for a blog than it is for a website. Blogs rank highest in Google if they are written by a group of people. The blog format is limited, very cookie-cutter and leads to a 'blog-blindness' similar to the 'banner-blindness' syndrome. Blogs require constant and consistent posting schedules. Blog posts get outdated very quickly. There are more abandoned blogs on the Web (especially on free platforms without independent URLs) than there are abandoned websites. Most successful blogs are tied to websites; they are not stand-alone blogs. Blogs don't generate as much revenue.
If you're just starting out, running a blog might be a good learning tool before creating a website. Prepare 30 – 60 posts before you begin and see how well you like writing those blog posts compared to writing articles.
How many blogs show up on search engine result pages compared to websites for topics you want to write about?
To each his own. I choose websites.Writer Fox:On the other hand, if you have very few "tech" skills, setting up a website can be a daunting and time consuming task. I am using my blog as a place only for RV lifestyle articles that don't coordinate with those I'm writing here. Do you think I have a chance doing that, or is it a waste of time?
I don't program my own sites, either. You can hire excellent people at freelancer.com for a very low price if you don't have someone locally to do it for you. Freelancer guarantees the work and holds the money. You also get a content management system so you don't have to have the programmer post new articles. Once the website is set up, it's very easy to manage yourself.
I don't know if your blog is a good idea or not but I believe that a website is a better idea than a blog, much easier to rank on Google, and doesn't need daily posting of new content.Writer Fox: The problem is that I make practically nothing with my writing and am not sure hiring a programmer will work for me financially. I do not do this for a living, as I am already retired and have been for many years.
Well then, don't spend money you don't have. Set up a free blog and see how it goes. If you do that, at least spend the money to register your own URL.
Writer Fox is giving you good advice, but missing one important point - there is a very fine line these days between blogs and websites. It's all in how you write the posts and how you set up the navigation. So you definitely do not need a programmer and you don't need to invest money. There is a learning curve but it's well within the ability of any reasonably intelligent person of any age.
I (and many other webmasters) use blogging software (Wordpress) to create websites, but I bet you wouldn't realize it if you saw them. For one thing, you won't see monthly archives on my sites - the only navigation is by category. That's a choice you can make too. I don't write short blog posts, I write them as longer articles (similar to HubPages). Also, both Wordpress and Blogger allow you to create PAGES as well as POSTS.
So, as Writer Fox says, your best bet is to sign up for Blogger - but think of it as a website, not a blog. You DO need to buy a domain name - but that will cost you less than $10. You also need to decide what your site will be about: for it to work, it absolutely must be about a single topic. It should be a fairly broad topic, so you're confident you won't run out of material too quickly! But don't think you can write about a mixture of stuff- you'll be wasting your time.Marisa,
Just for information, I thought bought domain names are only for websites. Wordpress and blogger allow own choice of name without paying for domain name. Can you please explain further? ThanksYou can buy a domain name and "attach" it to your Blogger or Wordpress.com blog. I think it's an absolute essential, because if you simply use "....blogspot.com" or "...wordpress.com" then you're stuck on that platform forever. Whereas if you get yourself a proper domain name, it's possible to move to another platform (like paid hosting, for instance) if you eventually get more advanced.
I never knew that. I thought once we used wordpress/blogger we need to fill in the title capsule provided by them. No wonder I kept seeing "funny" Urls without "....blogspot.com" or "...wordpress.com" . Now I understand. I may want to try this out.
Can you elaborate on the steps? I have 3 blogs for years already, but never knew about this interesting feature.
Thanks Marisa for explaining.fwiw - I don't bother with a domain name. I did originally but it costs money. I don't make any blogging. Therefore its just a waste.
I always thought that I would use freebies. IF I ever found some way to make money then I might bother with a site, domain - all that stuff that costs.
I didn't.
Marissa: I've only been at this less than a week on Blogger and decided immediately to make my blogs about those types of RV things that won't work on HP, such as personal experiences with camping, interesting people I've met along the way, problems while traveling, etc. I want to be able to link it back and forth with HP. Yesterday one of my blog pages turned up in the number 1 spot on Google! I was shocked. Another turned up in the number 3 spot a few days back! I have linked to Google+ and am already getting views, and while I don't plan to write articles every day, they all will be evergreen articles that people interested in RVing should like. I didn't see where it said I could get my own domain name...any help here? Thank you so much for your input. I doubt I'll make much money with it, but then I'm making very little here right now...so what's the difference?
TT, to get a custom domain, sign in to blogger, click on the drop down menu of your blog and select "settings". Look for "blog address" and under that there should be a link, "add a custom domain". Click that and from there it's an easy walkthrough.
Thanks. What is the benefit of a custom domain?
Sounds good! Tip: don't link "back and forth". Link FROM your Hubs TO your blog, never back in the other direction. Google doesn't like it.
In order to make money from your blog, you'll need more than just Adsense. Google "RV affiliate" and you'll find companies you can sign up for as an affiliate, and display their ads on your blog (they all work very similar to Amazon).Marisa: How do you set up an RV affiliate? I see no linkage on the blogger site.
I joined blogger over the weekend. Of course, clueless and impulsive but I know I needed to start doing something else. I have a domain name and a blog address. I just put an intro blurb to inform and invite people. I will probably need feedback.
Good luck Jan. I spent some time on Blogger - hit lucky with a subject and got well over hundred thousand views last year. Made about fifty pounds in total.
Not really got anywhere else with it. I have my new favorite place now.Thanks, Mark Ewbie for the encouragement. Yes, HP is our favorite place forever.
janshares; I think Mark was speaking of Bubblews, not HP!
Mark: Where did the views come from: Google? Google +? Give it up!!
On Blogger? Google visits - popular theme for a while that I hit lucky with. One page cobbled together from stuff on forums and other people's blogs. Google liked it. People searched for it. At peak thousands of views a day - it was mental.
But. It was luck. It made no money. And that was an important lesson for me about blogging and internet.
And that's the addiction.... you calculate that you earnt £X for one hour's work ... and, like a gambling addict, you keep throwing your time at this online writing malarky forever more dreaming of earning £X/hour for 40 hours/week.
janshares: I like it! It takes a little while to learn how to navigate over there, but play with it and before long you'll be on your way. Be sure to connect it with Google+ as that will extend the number of people who will want to read your work.
Finally, i too joined the League of Traffic Drop
Since two days observing - Nearly 35% gone. Hoping for good days. Scared to post any new articles.I have seen a traffic drop but I'm not going to try to reach any conclusions about it just yet. I get a lot of views from students and it's the summer hols so I was expecting a drop anyhow.
I've only noticed a traffic drop in the last two days as well. So something has caused it, and if others have noticed the same it's either a Google update, the beautiful weather or something else.
I have one more hub in the works I was planning to publish, and I'll probably still publish it, but after that I'll have to see what happens.There was a Google Panda update on July 14... I believe that was the reason for the huge drop.
Actually, I don't want to jump the gun. I should probably add that the traffic pattern I've just seen at HP closely follows what I've noticed at another site, rising traffic and peaking on last Friday, followed by a big dip Saturday and Sunday. So a lot of this might not be specific to HP.
Traffic is now better. Not as high as last week, but it didn't keep falling and has come back a little.
I am also on the other place.......
My Hubpages traffic is now at 25% of where it was 3 months ago; but the earnings aren't there because it's not only been a drop in traffic, but a drop in Click Through Rate and a drop in Earnings Per Click.
A triplefold whammy .... and I can't even afford the fish to be slapped in the face with.Man, this is the worst I've seen it in 5 years! A virtual bloodbath!
I have tried to remain positive over the last few weeks, but this keeps getting worse. My HubPages keeps dropping behind on Google keyword searches on ALL my Hubs. And the few I put out on Bubblews for testing purposes are steady to moving up on Google search. Something is SERIOUSLY WRONG here at HubPages! I see no reversal in sight. I do feel sorry for those that were making a good income here at HubPages.
I just copied and deleted about 30% of my hubs..hope that helps.
More ugly blue arrows and down even further - I am at 30% of the traffic I had 1.5 weeks ago. I guess I am headed to zero....
Could the experts that said it was a summer drop please explain themselves?
It is that sort of misleading garbage that gives people false hope and confusion. So thanks for that.
Meanwhile anyone with even half a brain could check their own stats and Quantcast and the wider world and see there were and are problems.
It just goes to show you might as well toss a coin as listen to anyone on an internet forum. With exceptions of course. Good luck finding them...For those that have been here at least a year or more. How does this August traffic compare to last August traffic? Just looking for perspective since I've only been here 6 months. The bottom fell out of the traffic I did have as well.
Much worse. Use Quantcast HubPages to see traffic stats for the site over the last however many years. It shows the effect of Panda, Penguin and the recent nasty drops.
My own traffic is now less than half what it was in March. I didn't change anything. As far as I can see what changed was Floating Ads. For me they are the last straw in spam advertising. I don't even want people to find my stuff with that on the page.
How can you be implementing quality controls and making the adverts worse? It makes no sense to me.Floating ads that stop when the reader gets to the bottom of a writer's piece, to be confronted by another block that I don't think hubbers get paid for either ....
I hate/blame the floating ads ... and, there's another nifty link in there to sign up to hubpages, but not with our affiliate link.I blame them too. They came in and my traffic started to drop. Up till then we had been getting better - QAP was working - no real recovery but stable. Someone put those ads on. In my opinion they ripped us off and ruined the site.
EVEN if they did not look bad to Google they look bad to anyone - anyone at all - who thinks what a casual reader might feel.The entire floating ads thing really gets me. Now they say we can only have 1 Amazon or eBay product in a capsule, because Google doesn't like it. Well Google doesn't like their floating ads either I bet. I am getting tired of this whole thing. If I have to go through every hub and change it, I've had enough of not making money anymore and redoing 181 hubs.
Very interesting. Can anyone else confirm that having Ebay or Amazon ads in our Hubs is not a good idea and that Google does not like these? If this is true, would it cause your Hubs to drop in Google search?
I removed all Amazon ads but see no difference in fact it's worse. Blue arrows this morning.
I have also just deleted all of my Amazon and Ebay capsules to see if my Hub scores increase and whether or not my ranking improves on Google search. I am trying everything I can. I will let all know what my findings are.
It has now been approx. 2 hours since I delete my Amazon and Ebay capsules. I only had one Amazon ad, the rest were Ebay. To my surprise, my Hub scores for these Hubs has increased between 1-3 points in the last couple hours. I guess it will take a few days before I can test if this has improved my Google search ranking any.
Ebay seems to be outing a negative view on Google Ads, so maybe this is payback to Ebay. Maybe Google's last algorithm upgrade is penalizing sites with Ebay Ads now?
Within reason I am sure Google has no problem with some Amazon and Ebay ads, it is just when people push it too far by having stacks of them on every article that it could cause a problem.
Edit: Sorry LCDWriter, just saw that you have already said this in as many words.
Are there floating ads? I have not seen them yet. Floating ads will bring down traffic for sure. By Monday I should be at 0 views..
The floating Ads are on the right of every hub and as you scroll down the page they 'float' down with you. At the bottom of each hub is another block of them. They are labelled 'Related Search', only if you click into them they just take you to pages of mostly unrelated adverts. Yuck
Thanks for telling me how to do this Mark. I did not know about the Quantcast option to see a year. Yes, definitely a major drop from a year ago. Wow.
Wow indeed and it is why I have been quite cross with 'experts' saying it is a summer drop.
Everybody seems to mention March as a real drop off time. It was March for me too and then May Penguin and current Panda.
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