Any advice for this Hub?

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   Cre8torposted 10 years ago

   Hello Fellow Hubbers,
   
   I have been here for awhile so am not naive to making Hubs, some fairly successful ones at that but I am surprised that this Hub hasn't done better. Honestly, my wish for this Hub to do well is so others can gain what my family has from it's message.
   
   I would be very appreciative if anyone has some thoughts on why this Hub isn't doing well or suggestions to improve it.
   
   Thanks,
   Cre8tor

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      Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      http://cre8tor.hubpages.com/hub/freecollege4urchild
      
      Haha. Yeah, that will help.

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         Robinposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I think your Hub has huge social media traffic potential.  Since you aren't seeing a lot of search traffic, perhaps try a different route and change your title around to see if you can get social traffic.  Here's a great article from Upworthy on how they get social traffic.  I would definitely check it out and tweak your title to see if you could see traffic from Facebook.  I know that I didn't know about dual enrollment before reading your Hub, and I would definitely share it with my friends.  Very cool!

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            Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you Robin. I read the article and it was very very useful. I will be putting my thinking cap on for sure. This gave me a lot of ideas.

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               Robinposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               I would recommend reading a bunch of titles of articles that have gone viral.  Viralnova and Neetzan Zimmerman of Gawker have done extremely well with viral content.  I would take a look at their sites and see how they have constructed their titles. 

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                  Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes. That's a good idea before making any significant changes I think. I've been reading a lot on Upworthy to get a good feel for what the slides were teaching me.
                  
                  Are there any long term damaging affects on a Hub that you experiment with by changing the title multiple times in a relatively short time frame?

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                     Robinposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     I don't think there should be any long term damaging effects for changing your title--especially if you aren't really seeing search traffic as it is.  I think it's worth giving it a try.  However, Upworthy does state that most of the videos don't go viral.  I think it takes a lot of swings to get a hit. 
                     
                     Play around with it as an experiment and let us know.  I'm going to work on a viral Hub soon, and I'm thinking our next contest will revolve around this topic.  One way to be out of the grips of Google is to create content that has the potential to do well on social media.

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                        Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        Well I don't know that viral is what I'll achieve here either but hope I can get it to more than a few hundred people over 2 years! :-) My silly Valentine poem does better! (Goes to show huh?)
                        
                        I'll be anxious to see what you come up with. Immediately after reading the article and others, the wheels started turning for me too. Too fast really. :-)

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      Laura-n-Sashaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Why are you saying this is not doing well? There seems to be many people commenting and there are look like a few views. What do you feel is the problem.

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         Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         The comments there are old and honestly, from Hubbers that I was in the AP with. This is my least trafficked Hub with only 337 views in 2 years.

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      Ewentposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Hubs are singularly tied to whatever interests your followers. When you consider the most captivating hub titles and content, these are more likely to have high audience appeal. The old saying, "Know your readership," still holds true. Try making your hub as interactive as a forum. Give readers just enough to capture their attention and ready to respond.

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   chasmacposted 10 years ago

   Your hub is well written but I can't imagine that many people will be searching for this information using keywords in your title. So search engines aren't going to be sending high traffic.
   
   Another problem is that a significant portion of those who do arrive at your hub via search engines will be disappointed. That's because on further reading it turns out that it's only for those in Ohio, something that your title makes no mention of (although you mention in the hub that you think there are probably similar schemes nationwide).
   
   Many of your visitors (Brits, Aussies, Irish, Canadians, etc. etc. and even many Americans outside Ohio) will spend literally a few seconds on your page, realise it doesn't apply to them and promptly hit the back button to look elsewhere. Search engines see this behaviour (short time on page and high bounce rate) as indications that your hub isn't delivering what your title promised, and so they downgrade it in the search results.
   
   Use Google Analytics to check what search terms were used by those who came from search engines, how many visitors are from outside Ohio and outside the US.
   
   With your title as it is at present, the majority of search traffic will be from the US but outside Ohio. Your hub will have limited relevance for them.
   Next will be from those outside the US. Your hub will have virtually no relevance at all for them.
   Last (and sadly least) is your true target audience - Ohians(?) Ohioans(?) I mean those from Ohio ;-)
   
   I suggest you expand your target audience to all of the US by mentioning some similar schemes in other states. Don't just tell them that you think there might be others nationwide. Find a few and mention them in your hub and reword your title to attract and keep the audience you want.
   Attracting people for whom the hub is irrelevant does get you more views but hurts you in the long run when search engines keep you well away from top spot due to your hub not being relevant to the majority of your visitors.

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      Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you Chasmac. You bring up some very good points that I will work on addressing today. I never looked as far into the bounce rate thinking "I mention there may be similar programs..." would keep people from feeling excluded but you're right...people don't hang around long once they see "Ohio". Still, with just over 300 views in 2 years, traffic is bad and thus bounce rate is nearly moot. I've switched up the title a couple times but perhaps my subtitles and keywords need the most work....blah....I'm just repeating what you told me now. Thank you kindly for taking so much time to read and respond.

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         Health Reportsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Try "Planning for College Tuition | Get Free College Tuition in 45 States"  Or however many states have this program. Then explain dual high school / college enrollment in the Hub summary section.  I would use some subtitles such as ""planning for college tuition," since this needs to be started well before they are halfway through their senior year of high school.

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            Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Health Reports - I have incorporated these ideas. Thank you for your input.

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   Cre8torposted 10 years ago

   Thank you all for your help. I was able to find some additional information to make the Hub a bit more universal, incorporated what should be better key words and tweaked the title a bit in the hopes of being more search friendly based the finding that "dual enrollment" is a more country wide term as opposed to the PSEOP I was so focused on. Again, thank you kindly. I'll report back sometime to let y'all know how it's doing.

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   Health Reportsposted 10 years ago

   I heard on PBS the other day that Georgia has a Dual Enrollment program with free college tuition.  Hope that helps with your research ;-)

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   Marcy Goodfleischposted 10 years ago

   Hey, long time no see! 
   
   Your hub is excellently written - full of good information. I like the suggestion someone gave about expanding it to go beyond Ohio. 
   
   What I noticed is the frequent use of Dual Enrollment in subheads (which are areas of valuable real estate for searches). Some people may not search for that term, or even know what it means, but might search for articles about saving tuition costs, etc.
   
   FYI - not sure if this is related to your focus, but Excelsior College has a good approach to dual enrollment, is entirely distance-based, fully accredited & very respected. Maybe you could include some brief info on them (they're based in Albany, NY) and one or two others outside of the Buckeye State? 
   
   Stay warm - I grew up in Columbus, and have been watching the weather predictions.  My family & friends still live there, so I fret about them.

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      Cre8torposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Hello Marcy! Yes. It's been some time. A lot had gone on for awhile and I was struggling to find time and motivation concurrently.
      
      Thank you for the suggestions. I do think I went overboard in finding that dual enrollment is a term used outside Ohio more than post secondary and is what spurred me asking Robin about how frequently I'm tinkering with this Hub. It really wasn't doing well anyways so not much to be lost in terms of viewership but now that I'm experiencing first hand how great this is, I want to get it out.
      
      Thanks again for your help. I always appreciate your input.

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