What is the latest on the Editor's Choice feature? Still in?

1. 92

   PegCole17posted 9 years ago

   Wondering where we stand with regard to a new accolade for having more than 5 EC hubs or even a way for people to see this special distinction publicly on our hubs. Right now, we are the only ones who can see it - on our account statistics. I'm tempted to opt out at this point. Is there anyone else still in?

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      bravewarriorposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I haven't received an Editor's Choice award. However, I can tell when a hub is EC because the hubber's name is removed from the URL.

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         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Bravewarrior, I'm actually shocked that your work has not gotten the attention it deserves in regard to this "award". You are a fine writer in every sense of the word.
         Thanks for sharing your take on this.
         Peg

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      The Examiner-1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Peg,
      I was happy to receive my first E.C. on a Hub not long ago. All that I can say is that it had the most views of my Hubs but the fewest comments and the E.C. did not change that. Perhaps my edits and the E.C. will give it a boost later. :-)

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         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Kevin,
         Congratulations on the EC award. I hope it serves to improve traffic or comments or both.
         Peg

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            The Examiner-1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I hope so too, we will see. I did not opt out I just see it every day and get a great feel!

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      Genna Eastposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Peg...
      
      Good question.  I've received a few of the EC selections but not enough to qualify for the ICON.  I was wondering if anyone had yet achieved the total number of 5 and received the ICON on their hub profile.

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         Victoria Anneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Genna - I've received 9 EC selections so I have the badge on my profile. The one I have is for at least 5 EC hubs. I haven't really noticed a change in traffic either way so far.

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            PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Hi Victoria Anne, Congratulations on the 9 EC selections. I don't see much difference on mine either. Although, who knows, maybe traffic would be even worse without the HP domain instead of our sub domain.
            Peg

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         Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Genna. I received the EC icon on my profile when I reached 5 ECs. When I opted out, the icon was taken off my profile. and off the hubs that earned them.  However, I do recall that Sheila Myers said the icons will be restored when you opt back in,which I think I will do when the 60 days is up.

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            PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Hi Phyllis, Interesting. I wonder if they will be restored automatically if we opt back in. Or does it go through the whole process of evaluation again. I've been in since the beginning. My count has remained stable for weeks with no new ones showing up.
            
            I wonder what percent of Hubbers are in the program and how many total ECs the site has.

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               Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Hi Peg. As far as I know, the EC hub and profile icons are restored automatically when opting back in.  I do not pay as much attention to how it has affected my traffic, but I believe my traffic has slowed down a little since I opted out  -- that could be because when I received an EC, I posted the notice of award on my network sites and got some traffic by doing that.
               
               It would be interesting to know "what percent of Hubbers are in the program and how many total ECs the site has" -- I think that would be a plus for HP to publish.

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                  PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes, Phyllis, that would be valuable information.
                  Peg

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         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Genna,
         Yes, I do. I've wondered if there is any advantage to it or is it a disadvantage, as Relache pointed out, making our hubs more vulnerable to theft.
         Strange that there is no news from headquarters as to any progress on the program or any studies of results that would give us direction, etc..
         Good to see you.
         Peg

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I think an Editor's Choice hub is something we should really be proud of. It is not just the HP team that gives the award, but other hubbers who nominate a hub for the award that should make us happy to know our work is recognized.

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         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         That's a good point, Phyllis. Our peers can nominate our hubs as well.
         Peg

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      Matthew Meyerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      We just posted to the blog related to Editor's Choice.
      You can find the post here.
      http://blog.hubpages.com/2014/06/update … oice-hubs/

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         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Hi, Matthew, I read the blog this morning and was glad to get the update from HQ. Thank you for posting the link here as well.
         
         Peg
         

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   Au faitposted 9 years ago

   I've been in since the beginning, still am.  I've listed my hubs that have been honored in one way or another by HP at the top of my profile page. I've been informed that doing that is in bad taste (by another hubber), but otherwise no one will know which ones are which.  I do have the accolades but that doesn't tell anyone which hubs received them.

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      PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Au fait. I see on your bio where you've featured your EC hubs. Kudos. It's the only place anyone else will know yours have been selected as "special". I keep hoping for some improvement on traffic from the switch in the domain but I'm beginning to falter in my faith.

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Au Fait, I do not see that listing your EC hubs on your profile is in bad taste at all. Everyone somehow, somewhere, promotes their own hubs and your way is great, I think.  We should list/promote our EC hubs, for that is something to be proud of. It also shows others that hard work pay off.

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      Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I've done the same Au Fait, I don't think it's bad taste at all. If Hub Pages give you any accolade you should be able to be proud of it and show others. There seem to be a lot of people here that tell you what you should and shouldn't be doing. It's so good if you are here just to write for pleasure and not really concerned about the money, because you can write your hubs anyway that pleases you.

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         Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Very well said, Jodah.  We also need to remember that we can vote to nominate a hub for EC. So, when I get an EC, I know a fellow hubber has nominated my hub and that is a good feeling. I agree, Jodah, we have a right to be proud.

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            Patty Inglish, MSposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            +1

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               PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Hello Patty Inglish,
               Here's the blog post update from Paul Edmondson if you haven't seen it.
               http://blog.hubpages.com/2014/06/update … oice-hubs/
               Peg

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                  Patty Inglish, MSposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  I'm OK with no accolade for it, if that occurs finally, and the good traffic increase I have consistently from it is worth the designation. Thanks!

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                     PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     Hi Patty, Yes, traffic is far more important than accolades. I'm glad to hear you are having good results. Good news is always welcomed.
                     Peg

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         PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I like that viewpoint, Jodah. Everyone has an opinion on what works. If we are here to hone our writing skills and express our views, then the money is of little consequence. Thankfully, I'm in it for the experience rather than the cash - but the cash is a nice incentive.

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   jheheposted 9 years ago

   I only have one Editor's Choice so I don't know about the special distinction, but I have considered opting out of EC. I read a while back that another user decided to opt out of EC because he noticed his traffic decreased. Now if monetization is enabled, lower traffi means lower earnings. Perhaps you might want to take the risk of opting out if it can help boost your traffic. I have decided not to opt-out because my hub topic isn't very popular. It generally focuses on special interest groups so you might also want to take hub topic into consideration.

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      Au faitposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I haven't noticed any difference in my traffic on those EC hubs.  They seem to perform about the same as they always have.

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      PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Jhehe, Nice to meet you. I see you have a lot of techie hubs on gadgets. That is a specific niche and will attract a special audience.
      As far as traffic goes, mine has remained about the same as it was after the Google Panda thing. No significant increase.
      Congratulations on your EC selection and all the best to you in your writing success here.
      Peg

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         jheheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Peg,
         
         It looks like we are the lucky ones not affect by Google Panda. I read that some have been significantly affected by the change and even switched over to Squidoo. Really no clue what HP and Google are doing in the background.

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   Solarasposted 9 years ago

   I did receive a bog boost in traffic on one of my EC hubs, and it is still my best performing hub, which I link to others on the same subject. They receive a boost from it as well.
   
   I like it!

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      PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Solaras, Congratulations on the boost in traffic. Glad to hear from you.
      Peg

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   Torrs13posted 9 years ago

   I haven't noticed any major differences in traffic on mine, so I'm happy to keep the Editor's Choice!

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      PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Me either Torrs13. It's hard to see any difference. I'm still undecided on whether to opt out or not.
      Peg

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         Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Peg, when I can opt back in, I will stay in the program. I feel it is a good incentive/motivation for me to continue creating the best hubs I can.  It is also very nice, gives me a good feeling, to see the award which tells me my hard work has been noticed and appreciated.

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            PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Phyllis, It does feel good to receive recognition for our hard work. Sometimes an accolade can inspire me to write more hubs as well. Thanks.
            Peg

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   relacheposted 9 years ago

   I don't mind having Hubs that are Edtior's Choices.
   
   What I utterly fail to see is how promoting that fact is going to mean anything to the search engines where I get the bulk of my traffic, and thus I think accolades for this aren't worth the time it will take to design a graphic for it.
   
   Making cute little awards to give to site users rather than what they want, which is more traffic and more money, seems really poorly thought out.  I would rather have much more clear retail reporting, which would actually allow me to fine-tune my Hubs and the relevancy of their content.  I would rather see admin get a freaking grip on the slew of ragingly poor content that still exists here.  They may think that the "feature" feature is great for hiding bad content from Google, but if I can still find crap content visible all over the site, so can other visitors and users and Google is watching them.

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      PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Relache, I guess I was hoping for more than just another pretty accolade. I actually wondered if being under the Hub Pages domain again would bring back the traffic that has been severely lacking for some time now.
      As far as the "slew of ragingly poor content" that exists, it is rather disappointing to find it on a daily basis. The "feature" feature has driven off more quality writers than I can list here; people I looked forward to reading their latest work, even if it was poetry or short stories. We don't all fit into the mold of what's considered "quality" hubs based on the present standard. Quantity of words doesn't equal quality.

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7. 72

   relacheposted 9 years ago

   I've felt the EC has been beneficial to my own Hub performance, but I'd prefer to not see that be turned into an easy way to point content thieves at the site's best content.

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      PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Relache, I was wondering if being under the Hub domain made us more visible than we would be under our sub domains. There are several copy cat sites that have come up as duplicate of the entire Hub site in various languages. I agree that it would identify our "best" hubs, or at least the ones HP likes, not necessarily our best performers.

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   Rochelle Frankposted 9 years ago

   I'm still in, and have more than a dozen\ "chosen"... but haven't seen any new EC's on mine in a several weeks-- and haven't noticed much difference in traffic.
   So...?? as far as I can see it doesn't make much real difference.
   It's nice o know that an 'editor' has noticed a hub. other than that...???

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      PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, it is nice to know an editor has noticed. Congratulations on the dozen plus, Rochelle. As writers, we need all the encouragement we can get.

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   relacheposted 9 years ago

   I have noticed a difference from the EC designation but I'm still gathering data on just how it performs. 
   
   I will say this:  I know a few other sites which are restructuring content the same way, so that would seem to indicate the people who have access to larger data streams than we, who can see the big picture better seem to think they are seeing good results.

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      PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      That's good information - a positive beacon of hope. Maybe we're heading in the right direction.

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    Jodahposted 9 years ago

    I have three EC hubs Peg. They are quite old now and had good traffic and comments when I first published them, but get very little  traffic now. I do have others that are much more popular, but I am proud of any accolades I get whether they have any real importance or not. I haven't considered opting out even though there may be an increased chance of theft, because the topics I write about don't seem to be attractive to thieves. I think that happens more to Hubs of the Day anyway.

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       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Hi Jodah, Sorry for the delay, my Internet was down this morning. Accolades are reinforcement of our accomplishments as writers and have value. Don't be fooled. Your hubs are at risk for theft. There are sites out there which have copied the entire Hub Pages format into other languages without any links to our work. I've found mine in Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Polish and other languages. Copy and paste any phrase from your hub into a Google search bar to see what comes up. You may be surprised.
       Peg

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11. 69

    MartieCoetserposted 9 years ago

    Where do we see the list of Editor's Choices besides our own which are marked in our accounts?

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       Au faitposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       When you open a EC hub, you can tell it is an
       EC hub because the URL has been changed and the hubbers handle or chosen name (mine is Au fait, for example) will not be in the URL.

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          PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Hello Au fait, You and I know this but, do visitors to Hub Pages know these nuances of how to determine if a hub has been designated as Editor's choice? I doubt it. I have wondered what the real benefit is and who benefits?

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             Au faitposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             I can't say that I have benefitted all that much.  Like I said, my EC hubs seem to get about the same amount of traffic as EC hubs and they did before they were EC hubs.  HP is trying to build up their own name and I think they believe their name carries more recognition that each of our own names.  Since we get 60% of the earnings from the ads presumably both PH and ourselves would benefit from our EC hubs assuming they do get more traffic as a result.

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                PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                It's really hard to determine if it has helped or not at this point with all the variables like summer traffic slow down, Panda, etc.. If it helps HP, then, it would probably help us, too.

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       Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Martie, I believe there is no list of EC hubs available to us. It sure would be nice to see that.

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       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Hi Martie, I think that's the only place to see Editor's Choice selections, other than checking the URL to see if the sub-domain is us or HubPages.
       Good to see you here. Thanks for dropping in to join the conversation.
       Peg

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    jansharesposted 9 years ago

    Hi PegCole17. I've been out for months, didn't see any change or benefit to the six I received. I appreciated the recognition but never really had a clear understanding of its purpose. Maybe one day I'll opt back in but I'm not sure what the incentive would be.

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       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Hi Janshares, I thought the recognition was nice too. But who can really tell that we've received this distinction? Sorry to hear you've been absent.
       Peg

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          jansharesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          I've been around, sorry for not being clear. I opted out of EC at the beginning of the year.

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             PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

             Oh, Janshares. I misunderstood you. Sorry. So you have not seen any improvement from dropping out of the program, then. That is interesting.

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                jansharesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                I wouldn't say that, really don't recall specifically which probably means there was no measurable difference. The traffic increase I've had I think would have happened anyway with time and promotion of hubs.

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    Dallas Matierposted 9 years ago

    The way I see it, I can't really tell if the Editor's Choice label actually helps the chosen Hubs, in any way (I haven't noticed any real improvement on mine, at least) - but, it doesn't seem to be hurting those Hubs, either.
    
    At the absolute worst, it's just the people in charge of HubPages making a token effort to hand out some more recognition to the people they think are producing good content. Even if that's all it is, there are many worse things than a pat on the back.
    
    So, because of that, I don't really see any reason to opt out.

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       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Yes, a pat on the back. Thanks for voicing your preferences and for the insightful comment Dallas Matier. Nice to meet you.
       Peg

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    mary615posted 9 years ago

    I never opted in for EC to begin with.  I know I could opt in, but I just have no desire to do so.  I could be making a mistake.  Who knows??

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       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Mary615, It's really hard to know without reading about the results of the experiment. I keep hoping we'll have some data to go on.
       

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       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Hi Mary615, I'll imagine that with your quality of work, that you would receive quite a few EC awards.
       Peg

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15. STAFF

    Paul Edmondsonposted 9 years ago

    I've been meaning to write a blog post and give an update.  Shooting for this week.

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       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Thank you for the blog post update, Paul Edmonson. It's good to know the program has seen some positive results.
       Peg

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    Sue Adamsposted 9 years ago

    I only have one EC hub. It has received more views since chosen. Looking forward to Paul's blogpost.

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       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Sue, Congratulations on your EC hub and it's results.
       Peg

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    LeslieAdrienneposted 9 years ago

    What a blessing to be recognized by your peers... Congrats to all Editor's Choice winners!

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       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Hi LeslieAdrienne, Thanks for the congratulations to EC winners!
       Peg

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    psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

    Up about 2% sounds like probably not a significant outcome over a sample size of 20,000 hubs.

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       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       It's not a large increase in traffic, but at least it is an increase. I'll give it a little more time.
       Peg

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    janderson99posted 9 years ago

    I decided to opt out of EC after reading Paul's blog, as their are no benefits to authors, and the 'cream' would be better on my own strawberries.

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       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Interesting reaction, Janderson99. I like the strawberries and cream reference.
       Peg

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       relacheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       I'll be curious to hear if your "cream" actually stays creamy after the move back.
       
       It's clear to me that some authors are seeing benefits from the program, while others aren't.  Part of why I'm staying in the EC is that I seem to be one of the few people with enough EC Hubs and non-EC Hubs in related topics that it's actually allowing me to compare the two.  Not only that but some of my EC Hubs used to perform differently, and so having them in the EC allows me to compare performance now to the past, and see what those changes are.
       
       I've always taken part in experimental options here because it's the only way to have your own hard data on the situation instead of waiting around to get a non-specific summary weeks or months later.

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          PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Relache, Do you mind sharing the number of your hubs which are EC designated? I'm curious as to the percentage that you deem enough to make adequate comparisons. Mine stands at about 22 percent but most are in unrelated topics.

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       janderson99posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       UPDATE: Since opting out of EC my overall traffic has increased 10% despite the seasonal downturn

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    relacheposted 9 years ago

    I just had the best July holiday weekend in two years.

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       Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Glad you had a good break real he, we all need that now and then.

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          relacheposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Since none of my Hubs fit in with this holiday specifically, I don't think of it so much as a good break and more the result of the work I've been doing over the last month.

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             Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             Ok

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       PegCole17posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Congratulations, Relache, on a nice reward for your efforts.

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