Change Amazon rule - increase the number of words per capsule

1. 84

   Marisa Wrightposted 9 years ago

   Janderson just submitted some great suggestions on this thread:
   
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/126313#post2666393
   
   and I think this one deserves a suggestion post on its own.
   
   We're always being told to be discriminating with our Amazon capsules - less is more, they must be directly related, etc etc..   And yet the cap on the number of capsules is set at one capsule to a mere 50 words!  This short paragraph is 50 words. 
   
   Would HubPages really approve of a Hub which had an Amazon capsule for every paragraph that size?   I doubt it.  So why have a rule that says it's OK?  It sends the opposite message to the one HubPages is trying to convey.
   
   I don't know what the limit should be set to.   100 words?  150 words?  200 words?  But it needs to be higher, IMO.

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      SusanSaiesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I agree that 50 words are too few for a product capsule.
      
      I find the current emphasis on HubPro to be confusing, when it seems to me there are basic changes like this one should be implemented first.

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   2. 83

      Venkatachari Mposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Sorry, I am confused about it. What does this mean? 50 words limit per capsule. Does it mean you are explaining the product in 50 words and say that 50 words is not sufficient for explaining the product?
      Why relating number of words with amazon capsule? If I include amazon capsule, am I required to tell about the product or something related to that product? Why this measurement comes? I think I can simply click the amazon product and show it on my page at any place. Is it not like that?

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      1. 84

         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         The limit is one Amazon capsule per 50 words of text in your Hub.  So, if you have a 400 word Hub you can have 8 Amazon capsules under the current rules.

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         1. 83

            Venkatachari Mposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Normally we write a hub of 800 to 1000 words. It means you can have 16 to 20 Amazon capsules. Does it look nice? Added to that the normal 5 adsense items. The whole hub will look like an advertising poster instead of hub content. Is it good and reasonable? I may not personally regard it good at all.

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               Barbara Kayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Venkatachari M, You can have just one if you'd like. It is up to you.They are saying not to put too many on.

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   3. 85

      DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      IMO, Marisa, it should be on a limit of capsules per hub, not mere word count.  That would end product-stuffing right there.
      
      Anyone who wants to make a pure product review hub should have no problem with that either; reviewing a single product should not require more than a single Amazon capsule.

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      1. 84

         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         But wouldn't that be unfair?   Then you could have a situation where one person writes a 400 word Hub and can have one Amazon capsule, whereas someone else could write a 1,500 word Hub and still have only one Amazon capsule (or whatever the limit would be). 
         
         Reviewing a single product often requires more than one capsule:  for instance, I have a review of the NYDJ brand of jeans, and I want to show a choice of styles, as the one which suits me might not suit everyone.  And on my Hub on tango shoes, I want to recommend a shoe for beginners and a shoe for the more advanced dancer.

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   4. 83

      peachpurpleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      oh, i didn't know there is a limit of words for each amazon capsule! Can i write 100-200 words? I like to explain more

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      1. 84

         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         That's not what I'm talking about.  There's a limit to the number of Amazon capsules you can have in a Hub.  It's one capsule per 50 words of text in the Hub.

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   5. 90

      Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Usually when I write a product hub, I have an introduction that explains what these products have in common (here are the 10 best gadgets in the world), then the descriptions, and then the conclusion.   I think that it should not simply be words per capsule, because that tends to create a spammy ratio, because the intro and conclusion gets counted too.   Maybe a minimum, and then a ratio after that minimum. For example, one capsule for the first 500 words and then one for every 50 or 75 thereafter.

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2. 94

   Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years ago

   I think one Amazon capsule per text capsule would be a good policy.

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   1. 84

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not sure that would help, as unscrupulous people could get around the rules by putting just one sentence in a capsule?

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      1. 94

         Phyllis Doyleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Well, that really would be unscrupulous. Maybe one Amazon cap per 400 or 500 words would be better.. Too many Amazon capsules makes a hub look a bit spammy.  I usually write long hubs (1200+) and usually use only two Amazon hubs. Most of my text capsules are 200 words or more, so one Amazon per text capsule for mine would be ok. I used to add a lot more Amazon capsules, till I found out that I get credit for any Amazon product that was purchased through my hub link to Amazon, even if it is not the product I suggested. So, for me, two Amazon capsules per hub is sufficient.

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         1. 74

            Lionrhodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I would say that 1 per 4-500 words is way too strict. Paul suggested that viewer satisfaction goes down when it's less than 125 words/Amazon capsule, so that might be a better amount.
            
            It depends on the type of hub too. One of my hubs is a reading list. On that one, it makes sense to have plenty of Amazon capsules. I'll have to look at it again and do the math, but I'm fairly sure I still clock in with at least 125/words/capsule or more.

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            1. 84

               Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Yes, that's what I've noticed. I have a couple of Hubs discussing the merits of various brands of dance shoe, so obviously they need a capsule for each shoe.  That looks a bit too Amazon-heavy I think, but if I count the words I'm way over 125 words for each.   You can't say much about a product in 125 words, after all!  But I also feel 400 would be going too far.

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   2. 88

      Jodahposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      That wouldn't work for poetry hubs that don't have a lot of words but are often split into more than one capsule Phyllis. There could be more Amazon ads than text. As soon as I see a hub that has excessive Amazon ads I just leave without reading any further. I feel the ad description should not be included in the word count and the requirement should be increased to at least 100 words per Amazon capsule.

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      1. 85

         DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I don't even turn ads on for my poetry hubs, let alone place Amazon capsules.  No ad has much of anything to do with a poem, and I think it's distracting.

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3. 0

   calculus-geometryposted 9 years ago

   Is this a widespread problem that you've noticed?  I've honestly not seen more than a couple with such a high density of Amazon capsules, but they were also written in very poor English and thus probably not featured. Can you link to some examples?

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   1. 84

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      They probably don't get through QAP, but that's not the point.   The point is that the rule exists, and therefore people can write Hubs that are "legal" as far as rules are concerned, and which then waste the QAP's time because they look so spammy.
      
      On another thread, Paul said they think the limit needs to be 125 words minimum, so my question is - why not just increase it to that, at least, so as not to confuse newbies?

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4. 69

   makingamarkposted 9 years ago

   One product review lenses were introduced by Squidoo.  They were NOT the solution re traffic.
   
   Indeed many would say they were a huge waste of time as they didn't have enough substance to gain traction in the Google ranks.

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      Lionrhodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Totally agreed. I hated that product review format, and my three thinnest hubs (plus one that I unpublished) are the result of that. I've been working on making them more useful.

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   2. 84

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think anyone's suggesting that.  MsLizzy was just supporting the idea of limiting the number of Amazon capsules per Hub, regardless of size.  I can't imagine they would ever reduce it to one Amazon capsule per Hub so I'm not sure what was behind that part of her comment.

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         ologsinquitoposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         It seems as if it can only help the situation. I'm for anything that can help.

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            Lionrhodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I have a three review hubs that have one or two products each. Some of my other hubs have 2-3 products at most. Others have zero products. It may take time to see which do best. I'm actually betting on the zero product ones. Time will tell.

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      2. 83

         Venkatachari Mposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I think, we can have two amazon and two ebay products per one hub. Not more than that. Otherwise, the importance and quality of your hub will get distracted.

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      3. 85

         DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Actually, in retrospect, Marisa,
         I'm not sure what I meant by that part of the comment.  I must have been sleep-typing!

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5. 84

   Marisa Wrightposted 9 years ago

   In light of the new filter, which seems to be penalising Hubs for having too high a ratio of Amazon and eBay capsules to text, isn't it time this rule was changed to reflect what HubPages actually allows?

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      colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes!

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   2. 84

      misterhollywoodposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes! Personally, I favor just one Amazon capsule per hub. When people start recommending too many products, it dilutes the general message of the hub itself. I've seen some hubs in the past that had far too many capsules and it just looked like a click crud.

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   3. 90

      Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      If the algorithm is indeed counting a ratio different than the rules, the rules do need to be changed to reflect that.  I do agree that the number provided must be a more reasonable one.  50 is way too low.
      
      One of the things I have noticed, though, is that HubPages tries to give people leeway and let them use their own common sense.  They can't go around giving advice on each specific situation. 
      
      Unfortunately, there are people who are hoping to do the minimum work.  If the rules are changed to say 75 words are allowed, some (not all) people will just add enough words to meet that ratio, without actually seeing how many words are really needed to describe that product or use common sense to see if the hub looks spammy.
      
      And if the number of words are changed, this will require people to go back and edit their hubs, which will create another outrage, since there has been a lot of editing recently already.

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      1. 84

         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         In light of the new filter, it's likely any Hubs affected have already been unFeatured.

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         1. 90

            Millionaire Tipsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Maybe I wasn't clear in my post.  I don't know that the rules have changed, but if the algorithm is reflecting different rules, then the rules should be changed to reflect the change.
            
            I am agreeing with you that the rules should be changed - the current rules are too lenient.
            
            I am also agreeing with you that the algorithm and the rules should match.  It isn't fair to have an algorithm be more strict than the rules.

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6. 0

   Snakesmumposted 9 years ago

   Personally, I feel that 50 words per Amazon ad is too little.
   200 - 250 words per ad would be better.   
   I don't think limiting the amount of Amazon capsules to 1 per hub is a good idea.  Perhaps a limit of 5?
   
   Just my thoughts.

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