Has the traffic requirement to be featured gone up?

1. 84

   psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

   I used to have little trouble keeping everything featured but now defeaturing for traffic is happening a lot more.  It makes me wonder if the bar has been lifted?

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   1. 53

      janderson99posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I suspect that there is a formula for minimum traffic requirements that depends on Hubber score. Unfortunately the plunge in score triggers a rush of unfeaturing due to low traffic - in my case about 50 and still coming thick and fast! I suspect that is one reason why the hubber scores have been lowered.
      
      Quote from Marina:
      
      "since Hubber Score determines whether links in Hubs are nofollow as well as the traffic thresholds and trial periods for staying Featured, it makes the most sense for it to reflect the quality of one's Hubs." ???? Quality ???

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2. 84

   psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

   Oh, another lovely side effect of being devalued.  Thanks for the explanation.
   
   Given hub scores are automatic it would be nice if they just flat out said how they are calculated.

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   1. 53

      janderson99posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Its war against the willing IMO. The 100 club with their halos never get defeatured, hardly ever publish anything or contribute to the community. Inactivity is also a way to boost scores at the bottom end (no hubs!!). Your hubscore goes down if you publish more than one hub a day (despite having worked on them for weeks). That makes no sense. Why does HP feel it has to punish authors who are willing to publish! To lower the hubber scores of the majority of authors has a sourness and bitterness about it because of the consequences. Punishment for what purpose?

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3. 84

   psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

   I could live with an "average" sort of score.  But mine is very much below that, statistically speaking.  It suggest I am doing... something.... wrong? Maybe? [shrug]

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   1. 77

      colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      One thing I started doing on the 24th (just three days ago) is check my hubs with Grammarly. I found that I overly misused commas mostly. Grammarly also found where I left off an "s" at the end of a word or over-looked adding a hyphen, etc.
      
      To be honest, I reread my hubs before I have a proof-reader lay eyes on them. I was surprised how much help Grammarly is at catching human errors.
      
      My Hubberscore had gone down to 83 and was stuck there for a couple of weeks. Maybe Grammarly helped my score, maybe not, but I am fairly sure it did.

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      1. 85

         TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Don't feel too bad about this.  I was a Language Arts teacher, proof my work, etc...but every time I do an edit, I find really stupid mistakes and typos.  I think it's the nature of the beast.  While Google does look at Grammar and Spelling, they are very low on the totem pole.  I'm not sure HP worries too much about this either, but probably they judge more harshly than Google.  All writers need to edit, edit and, oh yes...EDIT!!

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         1. 77

            colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            TT, I don't feel bad about it, just glad I tried something different and got some surprisingly better results with hubscores, (for the time being).
            
            I believe you are right that it is "the nature of the beast".

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      2. 75

         CelebrateUSAposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Great tip! I will try that one - grammar was not my strong suit! Thank you!

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         1. 77

            colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            You are welcome, CelebrateUSA!

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      3. 60

         4FoodSafetyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Colorfulone,
         
         I just started on Grammarly. Wow! What a powerhouse of information. It is like having a writing partner 24/7!
         
         Thank you so much!

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            colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            You are welcome, @4FoodSafety.
            Grammerly, is like having a "writing partner 24/7!"

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      4. 84

         Lady Loreleiposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you for that tip ( reminder) colorfulone. I had been thinking on this previously but just never got around to it. Definitely should get started there.

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         1. 77

            colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            You are welcome, Lorelei. I am not leaving typos in the forums now and need to go back and edit them. Definitely saving me time.

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   2. 0

      calculus-geometryposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Just skimming your profile page, I saw several really short hubs (by HP standards), which perhaps have low scores, which in turn would depress your profile score.  Your hub about striped dogs
      http://psycheskinner.hubpages.com/hub/Striped-Dogs
      has value to the reader because you list and link to lots of resources for more info, but your hub itself doesn't have a lot of text compared to what HP often gives as examples of the types of hubs they like.
      
      I used to have a lot of these < 300 word hubs with quick answers to math problems, but I beefed them up with more text and they subsequently got more traffic, which removed the danger of becoming unfeatured.
      
      I don't write the style of hub HP promotes as model hubs, but I get traffic from people trying to solve math problems, so I don't really care if I'm in line with HP's tastes. If you are getting good traffic, try not to let it bother you too much.

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      1. 84

         psycheskinnerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Well, indeed.
         
         It was the style they rewarded until last week and that has been earning a solid 4-5 dollar CPM even in recent times (twice that back in the day).
         
         That is why I will not be jumping to change it based on a sudden change in Hubscore when my goal is to make money rather than "score".
         
         I will think it over.  Just because Hubpages want people spending long periods of time on a hub does not mean I as an individual hubber will embrace that goal unless I am convinced it will increase my earning more than writing more short hubs will.

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         1. 74

            Barbara Kayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I have several short hubs too that get good traffic.  I think being wordy only helps with Google if you can add more information. More words might make Hubpages happier, but they are just a bunch of blather if they don't add any value. Mine have low scores too.

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            1. 53

               janderson99posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               I agree - short, sweet, concise to the point => satisfied and happy reader (especially on mobiles; loads fast as well). Google is happy to give it traffic as it is rated well. Provide what you know users want and need - no more stuffing is needed.

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                  Amy Turbervilleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  I agree! As I learned in school- shorth is better than length!

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4. 92

   Jodahposted 9 years ago

   Well first the hub scores dropped (mine from 96 to 89) then hubs started becoming "un-featured". I had none that weren't featured, then overnight about 1/4 of all my hubs are now no longer featured due to traffic. It will be a lot slower getting all these back to featured status then it took them to lose it. The fun and games continue, at least it's not boring around here. I also noticed my earnings seemed up earlier in the month but haven't changed in the last four or five  days.

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5. 61

   Gek Akaposted 9 years ago

   If traffic feature gone up, its brilliant good news as traffic is the blood of all online business

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