Why flagship hubs?

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  1. Marisa Wright profile image87
    Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

    What do people actually think of the flagship hub format? 

    When I joined, I struggled to work out how long a Hub should be.  I finally settled on a length which doesn't require the reader to scroll down too far - because I know I find it irritating to read a blog that goes on and on and on and on....on the same page.  If I have a big topic to cover, I split it up into several Hubs, then (a) put them in a Group and (b) place a link at the end of each article to the next one.  Personally, I feel that's easier to read than putting the whole shebang in one l-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-ng Hub.

    But that's exactly what Flagship Hubs will have to be - long.   I'm wondering if that means I'm doing the wrong thing, and that HP have done research which proves long Hubs are what people want?

  2. Lissie profile image75
    Lissieposted 16 years ago

    I'd like to know too -  I can say that from the experience of writing one http://hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Write-a-Flagship-Hub that the tools aren't perfect for adding long capsules of text.  After a paragraph or 2 you have to do annoying scroll up  to find the format bar.  I do seem to have done well with SU - maybe there is a demand for longer articles? Its kinda the opposite of yahoo answers where you can get a best answer by stringing together 50 coherent words!

    1. darkside profile image63
      darksideposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      There are topics that won't be dealt with sufficiently in 50 words or less.

      Think of it as an article in a magazine that informs and educates a reader. Not just a teaser or a taste, but the reader will know more about the subject and it's workings then before they started.

      That's not to say that shorter or indeed very short hubs aren't necessary, but from what I understand HubPages Inc want an excellent effort, an exhaustive effort, put into the flagship hub.

  3. Marisa Wright profile image87
    Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

    Thanks Lissie for the link!  Great hub on India, but I felt like I was scrolling down, down, down forever.  As a reader, I think I'd have found it easier to read spread over a few Hubs - which would also mean the pictures and videos could have been bigger. 

    It kind of makes my point - your material was great, but I'm not convinced the Flagship structure displays it to its best advantage.

  4. Marisa Wright profile image87
    Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

    Darkside,

    If you read my original post, you'll see that I'm not questioning whether some topics need more thorough treatment.  I'm just questioning whether cramming all the information into one Hub is the best way to present it.  It would be quite possible for Hubbers to produce high-quality informative work but spread it over several Hubs.

    For instance, I have an article on Asthma that I've split up into two Hubs (with a third to come). It's like having chapters in a book. 

    Maybe it's because I'm of an older generation.  People who've gotten used to blogs may not mind scrolling forever down the page!

    1. Lissie profile image75
      Lissieposted 16 years agoin reply to this


      Yeah me too I dont like scrolling for ever - I prefer page down!  Also HP has made it worse than it should On my laptop screen (14" not a widescreen)  the width of the hub is less than 1/2 the width available some real estate is used for the profile, tags, related hubs stuff - but even then there is wasted white space to the right again.  As you go down the long hub it gets worse because once you are below the related hubs you have this huge expanse of white space on the right. 

      It would be interesting to hear from the HP guys as to why they have the white space - future advertising would be my guess! In terms of reading it would be nice to have a read more line which the author put where they wanted it (like WP) and then the rest of the hub opened in a new page nicely formatted for reading.  You will see something like it on newspaper sites such as this one http://www.smh.com.au/news/spain/pilgri … 16600.html if the link has broken (I think the move stories on fairlly soon), just pick a story from the travel section they tend to be long.  Towards the top you will see the option to email or print (for the real oldies!) and towards the bottom you will see page 2 , 3 etc but also the option to see single page format.  It aint perfect but it might solve some of the issues raised here.

  5. Marisa Wright profile image87
    Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

    Yes Lissie, I know what you mean about the "read more" format.  I use the same thing on my blog.

  6. Whitney05 profile image82
    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    I kinda like the long hubs. But what makes them long are the videos and pictures. I find that, content wise, they're not so bad. You just have to find a way to format the words. Where in a normal hub you may have bulleted a list of something, in a flagship hub, you may have to find a way to list in a sentence or two just to save space and have less white area.

  7. Jason Menayan profile image59
    Jason Menayanposted 16 years ago

    Hi all -

    In short, both work. Either one long, very detailed Hub, or many shorter but more specific Hubs, will attract traffic. But they do so by different methods.

    The former, which the Flagship Hubs are modeled after, are excellent "linkbait". That is, because they are comprehensive treasure troves of information on a subject, they are likely to get linked to on social bookmarking sites, blogs, sites like Digg, etc. People want to tell others, or remind themselves, about such a great resource. All of those links help raise the Hub's credibility in Google's eyes, and even though there is plenty of competition for more general terms, a Hub with lots of backlinks will get Google traffic.
    -- Although there are millions of pages on "travel to Japan", yours, because it contains so, so much great information, has been linked to by plenty of would-be travelers to Japan because they think it's a great resource. So you might get a portion of the very popular "travel to japan" search volume because you have so many backlinks and Google counts those as "votes in your favor".

    The latter works by tackling niches that are simply underserved or not dealt with at all by other pages on the Web. If you write a very specific Hub, it might capture the lion's share of the traffic on searches on that specific subject, because there isn't much competition.
    -- You might prime positioning in Google for "scuba diving clubs in sharm el shaikh" because there are only 2 other pages on the Web on this specific subject, and yours is just a bit better or newer. Granted, the search volume for "scuba diving clubs in sharm el shaikh" is much smaller than "travel to Japan" so the idea is to get a larger portion of a smaller pie.

    Hubs, on the other hand, which are very general in scope but short and limited in content almost never get any search traffic. The competition is just too great.

    - Jason

  8. Lissie profile image75
    Lissieposted 16 years ago

    Thanks Jason - that's a very helpful reply!

  9. Marisa Wright profile image87
    Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

    Great explanation!  All is now clear.

 
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