Deleting Hubs With No Hope

1. 0

   Snakesmumposted 8 years ago

   Just wondering how other former Squids have been going with updating their lenses to hubs.
   
   I'm still working on mine, and have deleted a few, and think more will have to go.
   Why?
   
   Because they just don't seem to work here on hubpages, and I couldn't see a way to improve them.
   
   Is anyone else going through the same thing?    Have to admit that those I've deleted were also getting the non-engagement notice on my account, but fortunately not many.
   
   Would much rather start work on some new hubs anyway, so perhaps it's a good thing to clear the decks, so to speak.

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      peachpurpleposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      sorry, i haven't got any account at squidoo but I think that those lens that you have posted here, maybe you could edit the contents and then share at the share medias. Will get more traffic. I did that for my deleted posts from Triond.

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2. 71

   Elsie Hagleyposted 8 years ago

   Yes I have finished going through all of mine, still working to improve them a little more, been taking out Amazon capsules and adding more text. Have deleted about 50 sales Lens/Hubs. What are left are looking much better, still have 170 hubs. Will start writing new ones soon.

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3. 96

   Cheeky Kidposted 8 years ago

   Haha. I'm on the same situation as you. My previous squidoo account (now hubpages account) is still on the haggard process of editing and updating by me. I've actually deleted almost half of my hubs already and managed to update/tweak to perfection several of them. My goal is to finish updating them all and removing the "out-of-place" ones before the year ends.

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4. 65

   sara0129posted 8 years ago

   I am still updating my lenses. Had to delete a few. The recent decline in traffic is really discouraging. Guess will just have to wait and see what happens. I have also started writing on webnuggetz. Instead of deleting your lenses/hubs you can try moving them there. I have seem some sales from a couple of my pages on webnuggetz. Hope this helps.

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5. 65

   favoredposted 8 years ago

   I thought I was the only one who wasn't finished. Guess not.  So much to do still that I'm not sure if I can get some of my articles to fit here.   It takes so long just to do one, but the ones I have fixed look OK now.  Wish the traffic and sales would pick up though.

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      MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Hubpages was my first try.  I guess I was so keen to write that I did not read enough prior to.  Some hubs never seemed to make headway so I took them off, and am hoping to edit them when time permits.  In the meantime I guess I will cruise for a while as my life is getting more and more hectic!
      
      I guess it is better to have a few good ones than too many lame ducks!
      
      do you agree?

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         DrMark1961posted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Marie, it is far too early for you to say if a hub is going to be successful or not. Leave the hub on here for about a year and if you are not getting traffic at that time go ahead and delete it.
         It may take anywhere for 6 months to a year (and I have heard sometimes even longer) before your hub starts getting good search engine traffic. Do not unpublish it to edit it.

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            MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Wise advice DrMark, but I am an impatient sort of person.  My mind knows that my worth is not tied to the hubber score, but the rest of me hangs on it. . .ha!ha!!
            
            Unfortunately they don't allow us to swing a hammock on the beach here.  Now THAT could cure me of this impatience!!
            
            I did take 2-3 off the list, but have not deleted them.  Now that they are off the list, I do feel I need to polish them up somewhat before I put them back!!
            
            Appreciate your input . . . . . .

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6. 63

   gottaloveit2posted 8 years ago

   I've barely started! I've decided to fix up just the cream of the crop which seem to be performing 'ok' on HubPages - and, fwiw, they're all sales articles (so, they can work at HubPages). I've moved some to my own websites to add some bulk over on them and the articles are doing well.
   
   As an interesting note, I've written 4 new articles maximized for HubPages. Traffic wise? They're non-existent....

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      FYI   Those articles may be bringing in views and money, but HP does not want them and at some point Google will penalize you heavily for them.  You should read the guidelines from Google Webmaster Tools about what they want...and yes, sometimes what they want does not earn, but this is a writing site, not a sales site...and that's how Google will view it if people keep writing sales hubs...it will ruin the site eventually.  Just sayin'

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7. 80

   KarenHCposted 8 years ago

   I stalled out on updating my old Squidoo lenses-turned-hubs, mostly due to lack of interest in those last few hubs.  I unpublished the last few with violations, since they were gift suggestion pages with way too many affiliate links to the same URLs.  It's hard to get excited about fixing them when traffic and earnings is so low even on my best performing hubs.   
   
   I've tried moving a couple onto Weebly pages, but I like the look of Hubpages layouts better than what I can create on Weebly.
   
   I'm going to let my updated hubs sit for awhile and see what happens, but in general I have other things going on in my life that need more attention than my online writing.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      When you say Weebly "pages", what do you mean?   Weebly is not a writing site, it's a place where you create your own website or blog - like Blogger or Wordpress.   Writing one or two posts on Weebly won't work, you need to commit to creating a whole site and posting on it regularly.
      
      Having said that, I strongly recommend you stay away from Weebly because the free version has a lot of problems and the paid version is a rip-off.  If you want to create your own blog, use Blogger.

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         KarenHCposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Marissa,  I had been thinking of using Weebly to create a website or two, each with a focused theme, but I haven't actually gotten around to publishing the pages I've tried to put together using their free version.  It's interesting to hear what you have to say about Weebly -- that the free version has a lot of problems (I wouldn't be interested in the paid version at this time).   
         
         Linda, it's interesting that you don't like Weebly either.  I've tried to find reviews of "real" people who use it, and haven't found anything.  But neither of you think very highly of it :-)   I'd be really interested to hear the problems you've had with it, but this may not be the place for it (or if it is, I'd love to hear your reasons!)   So I may go back and create another Blogger blog since I'm familiar with that.

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            Mark Ewbieposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Um, I have been on Weebly a couple of months and am loving it.  No problems at all.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            My biggest objection to Weebly is simple:   you can never leave!
            
            If, at some point, you're unhappy with their service, there is no way to download your content and move it elsewhere.  The only way to move your posts is to manually copy and paste them, one by one.  To me that represents a big risk;  even if the free version works for you now, what if their service gets worse?  What if they discontinue their free service and make you pay?  What if their fees go up?
            
            Whereas it's easy to download your posts from Blogger and move it to  Wordpress.com or Wordpress.org and vice versa.

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         favoredposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Glad you told us about this. I was considering that site.  Now I know it's not like HP.  Already use blogger so this is good to know.  Thanks.

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8. 60

   GlennaJonesposted 8 years ago

   I'm going through the sifting out process as well.  I am planning to leave my general interest lenses as hubs here but am deleting the ones that were experiments in affiliate marketing that never did much anyway.  I am finding that as I do a little more research for my lenses while recreating them as hubs, I often find some new better looking material to add to them.  The upside is that one of mine was named HOTD last week.
   
   I don't know how this will translate into dollars and cents but am seeing my writing improving which is great.

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9. 72

   relacheposted 8 years ago

   I've unpublished a lot more than I've deleted, at least at present.  I was in the process of reducing my main Hub account, and to suddenly have two more accounts get created from lenses was not what I planned for this site, or that content.
   
   In the end, I will wind up removing a significant amount of material which clearly is not suited for this site.

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10. 59

    LindaSmith1posted 8 years ago

    Weebly was nice in the beginning once you got the hang of it. But now, it is crap.  I will be moving what I have on there back to blogger except for the one I have a paid domain for. When time runs out, I will move my domain elsewhere.

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11. 65

    MartieGposted 8 years ago

    Deleted approximately half of my Hubs and will be using them on Blogger. Still in the process of reformatting many of mine but it is slow going. I will keep some here and give it a good try but am starting to miss those nice monthly payouts.

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    Titiaposted 8 years ago

    I too am still in the process of updating. I've done a lot and many more to do. Some are easy, but others take a lot more time.
    
    I'm also in the process of making my own website and will see if some hubs that don't really fit in HP will do better on my own site.

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13. 74

    clivewilliamsposted 8 years ago

    basically, if the hub is not making any views aka money and after updating it nothing happens, don't delete it. Start your own blog and add these articles to it. You will get views. If you still feel like you want to get rid of these hubs. Please send them to my email account so i can make good use of them:
    clivwill@hotmail.com

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14. 59

    LindaSmith1posted 8 years ago

    Karen: It is a drag and drop. If you want to add an image, the box where you put it goes where it wants to, so I assume there is set spots for it.  Although it takes HTML, that is a horrible function as well. I spent over an hour posting one page with some images and it looked like crap.   Cardisa is a hubber.  Go to her profile page and scroll down her profile..  She has created several websites using blogger. I don't mean the traditional blogger blog, she has turned blogger into what looks and acts like a web site.  She has moved her wordpress sites back over to blogger.   A couple of years ago,I would have recommended Weebly but not now. Support is not that great at Weebly either.

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       KarenHCposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks, Linda.  It was the "drag and drop" feature that first made me interested in Weebly.   I did try using their HTML box (or whatever it's called), and it was weird to work with.   
       
       I'll take a look at Cardisa's blogger websites.   That is probably the direction I'll go with at least some of my lower-performing hubs (which is most of them right now).   That's very interesting that she moved her Wordpress sites to blogger.  Often it's the other way around.  Blogger is certainly easier to use (at least in my experience).

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    LindaSmith1posted 8 years ago

    She is able to use HTML and templates that work with blogger.

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16. 0

    Snakesmumposted 8 years ago

    It's certainly been interesting, reading about other people's experiences and getting their advice on whether or not to delete hubs.
    
    Some of the material I have saved for future use on my own website and blog, some of it, I have just said goodbye to.
    
    There were a couple of lenses/hubs which were purely sales oriented, and although they haven't yet been deleted, I'm seriously considering it, if I can't add enough material to make them viable here on HP.
    
    DrMark1961 advises leaving hubs for at least 6 months, and better a year, before making decisions about deletion.   He feels it takes that long to start getting search engine traffic.
    
    Others are using blogging and other sites to write - currently, I'm staying with HP and my own site, as I don't have time to learn another site, and honestly, lack the motivation as well!  :-)
    
    I'll most likely give HP at least 12 months before doing anything really drastic.   ATM, once I've brought my hubs up to standard, I'm looking forward to being able to add more new ones to my account.   There are only 5 new hubs, and one in progress at the moment.
    
    Also, although I find it a little harder to write for HP than for Squidoo, it's a good thing, as my writing is improving, as is the quality of my research.
    
    Thanks everyone for your comments.

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       Barbara Kayposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       I agree with his advice to wait 12 months. Almost everyone that has written here will agree.

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17. 69

    PaigSrposted 8 years ago

    When I moved over all of my quiz sites came over minus the quizzes. I communicated with someone at HP that said they would not transfer. So I deleted them (9 sites with lots of comments) thinking that quizzes were not a HP thing. Two things happened shortly there after. 1) I found out that there was a way to recreate the quizzes on HP. 2) I went from a level V commenter to a level IV commenter. Not sure if the second had anything to do with this but the fact they both happened at the same time concerns me. Where am I going with this you ask. Basically don't delete unpublish your sites instead. That way you don't loose anything. Looking back that is what I should have done. But hind site as they say is 20/20.

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18. 59

    LindaSmith1posted 8 years ago

    Before you delete or move them, go to the right of the hub where the list of capsules are.  HP has a quiz capsule.  If you don't know what you can do with them, click on them and check them out.  Delete if you don't like the capsule.

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    1. 0

       Snakesmumposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Good advice on capsule use, Linda.   
       
       I've only used those I wanted, but there will probably be others I can use if I try them.
       You learn something every day in the forum!  :-)

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19. 71

    Nanciajohnsonposted 8 years ago

    I am glad to have found this discussion topic since I have been deleting hubs knowing that they will not fit here at HP.  Too much affiliate marketing as well.  I have a few more I am thinking of deleting and don't really think those will ever fit here to just "unpublish" and just go back to.  I am a very part-time writer and have been for years.  I am disappointed in the continual lack of sales and cannot even get Google Adsense for whatever reason which is required here.  My amazon account is practically at zero so I don't know at this point.  I will let some of my hubs sit for now.  It takes "brain power" to keep rethinking and rewriting which I am a bit low on right now!  Anyways, thanks for letting me vent a bit.

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       Barbara Kayposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Nancy, Just keep trying for an Adsense account. If you applied before you were at Hubpages for a month, that is why you were denied. You have enough hubs, so they should accept you.

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20. 89

    MelRootsNWritesposted 8 years ago

    I finished my first round of edits a couple of weeks ago.  I have a handful of hubs that rather than delete, I unpublished them.  They were each going to take too much work and I really don't know what I want to do with them yet.  They were never my favorites.
    
    Now, I'm going back and trying to fix my hubs further.  My biggest problem is book reviews.  They aren't getting traffic and almost all have fallen into unfeatured/non-engagement.  I'm not sure if it's worth it to build them up more and I don't really have a website or blog that they would fit into.  I just don't know if book reviews work on Hubpages.
    
    I'll just leave them for now as I want to concentrate on new hubs.  I may get inspired later and find a way to make them fit.

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21. 0

    Snakesmumposted 8 years ago

    Like you, MelRootsNWrites, I've had problems with review articles.    They will most likely be deleted very soon, as I don't see them fitting in to my website or my blog.
    Basically, reviews were only ever written because Squidoo required us to do some shorter articles towards the end - it was never something I wanted to do, but wanted to keep my Giant status.    That was a bit of a con, in the end, because all we giants lost it anyway, but that's a whole other subject.

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       MelRootsNWritesposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       I'm glad it's not just me with the reviews. Most of mine are book reviews.  I have expanded the text where it made sense.  But, how much more can you add before it starts to sound like filler?  I have added photos and maps to make it more interesting.  I'm not sure they are a fit for hubpages at all.

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          religions7posted 8 years agoin reply to this

          Well, yeah - the reviews are an issue. They are very hard to rank - inherently: too much competition.
          
          If you have several reviews within a niche, they might be combined into one article that is easier to keyword optimize. For instance, if you did three book reviews of grunge-fantasy (I just made that genre up), you might make one hub/blogpost on the best grunge fantasy books 2014 and include all three reviews as well as a general introduction to the genre.

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    sprickitaposted 8 years ago

    Do you save them anywhere? You should, if not just for personal reference/log. I mean totally up2u but just saying... ps Sorry that it is a hard transition to make.

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23. 73

    Rymom28posted 8 years ago

    There is a lot of good info in this forum.  Hoping we can all help each other out.  It was tough feeling like I had to start back at square one.  This hub has really help me: http://relache.hubpages.com/hub/hubpages-squidoo
    
    In addition, if you look me up here you can check out my blog to read all about my online writing ups and downs, as well as tips.

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24. 57

    religions7posted 8 years ago

    I have been unpublishing hubs that hubpages has marked as unfeatured - so that I can then move them to my own sites.
    
    I don't delete them till I have moved the content elsewhere.

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25. 0

    Snakesmumposted 8 years ago

    Peachpurple said:
    
    "Sorry, i haven't got any account at squidoo but I think that those lens that you have posted here, maybe you could edit the contents and then share at the share medias. Will get more traffic. I did that for my deleted posts from Triond."
    
    Yes, I and many others are posting our hubs at Pinterest and other places, but thanks for the tip.
    
    Editing takes quite a lot of time, and many of we ex-Squids are still working on it.  Another hub/lens was deleted yesterday, but the content is saved for future use.   I'm a great believer in recycling!  :-)

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26. 41

    WhichCameraposted 8 years ago

    I deleted my lenses down to four hubs, 2 is published and I am in the process of updating the other 2. Meanwhile, I have also created 5 new hubs.

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       MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Wow!!  You're sure making a splash here WhichCamera.  Goodonya. . . .keep going as strong!

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          WhichCameraposted 8 years agoin reply to this

          Yikes (and thanks), found me an aussie mate too...
          I am back in Malaysia now, but was once in Melbourne, eons ago!

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             MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

             Hi there,
             
             Melbourne ok, for restaurants and culture, but hey, not a patch on the North Coast where I am.  Beaut beaches, temperate climate, and a laid-back lifestyle. . . .
             
             Next time you're heading south, go north [that sounds Irish, doesn't it?! ] young lady.  North's the place for fun!

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    NanLTposted 8 years ago

    I pared out those which were unsalvageable. Merged 3 former small lenses into 1 larger hub, and have had everything updated and featured for just over 8 weeks. Long before the sale of Squidoo I had already been going through the process of deleted dead wood and moving some lenses over to blogs.
    
    No, not all of my hubs have high scores, but I'm not really worried about that right now. I'm getting small, but regular traffic to most if them over a month.

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       MarieLBposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Sounds to me like you are doing a great job, I think you are heading towards the top.  Goodonya [Congratulations Aussie Style!]  : ))

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    shellys-spaceposted 8 years ago

    Snakesmum: I am waiting a bit longer to see what will happen and have updated all my Hubs to reflect their rules. If the traffic does not return, I will delete and move them in 6 months or a year.

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       Snakesmumposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Yes, that seems to be the wisest thing to do, and hopefully the traffic will start to improve soon.
       Like, I wish it would improve yesterday!    I can see it's going to take years to make $50 unless something drastic happens!  :-(
       
       Once my deleted hubs are out of the caches, I'll be adding them to my website and blog.   Maybe they'll do better there.
       
       That being said, I do like it here at HP now I've become used to the format, and the way we can see exactly what is wrong with a hub from the icons is great.
       
       At the moment, one of the first things I do when logging in to my account each day, is check out the list of hubs to see if they are all still featured, and have no violations or missing links, etc.

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