Why Not Post A List Of Hubs Made Viral By The HubPro Program?

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   Kylyssaposted 8 years ago

   Hubbers are curious about the HubPro Program and even those chosen to participate often don't know as much as they'd like about it.
   
   To me, it seems like it would be obvious that posting links to hubs HubPro editing has caused to go viral would help hubbers learn about and become enthusiastic about the HubPro program.
   
   It would:
   *Give all hubbers models of what structure, organization, and level of depth readers prefer.
   *Give examples of how professionally edited hubs should look and how their text should be written.
   *Illustrate the quality standards HubPages wants all hubbers to use.
   *Give hubbers confidence in the HubPro program.
   *Get the word out that HubPages aspires to turn its user-generated content into viral content and is improving the content with a team of professional editors with success stories to their names.
   
   They've only edited a thousand hubs or so so far so the list shouldn't be too big to handle. If it is, they could just choose the ten or twenty that have gotten the most views since their edits.
   
   Better yet would be to recreate the editing process of one of the viral hubs on a hub describing the steps taken to polish it.

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      Millionaire Tipsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Unfortunately, it would also give plagiarists an easy list of hubs worth copying.

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         colorfuloneposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         That was my reaction to the proposal. Although, I would be interested in some HubPro Editor's Tutorial Hubs. The thing is they would maybe get plagiarized too.

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         1. 91

            Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            The easiest way to avoid being plagiarized is to avoid writing anything worth stealing. That doesn't make it part of a good plan for success as a writer.
            
            They could send it out in emails to hubbers that meet certain criteria designed to filter out people who've joined just to harvest the words of others if a blog post seems too risky.
            
            Articles that have already gone viral are already going to be targeted so heavily by plagiarists that a mention of them on an obscure blog isn't going to substantially add to their problems.

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            1. 92

               Millionaire Tipsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Examples of quality hubs, and even viral hubs have been shared with us over time. I do think it is helpful to see examples so we can strive for that quality.  The original post was asking for a list of the hubs, and I was objecting to a list.

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               1. 91

                  Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  I thought that it wasn't weird or wrong to want to see all the hubs Hubpro has assised in going viral. I had assumed there were more than one, too. It would be nice to see how well the program is working.
                  
                  Why would it be wrong to list the actual, substantial results of the HubPro program if more than one existed? What is it you find threatening or offensive about sharing the success stories? There's no threat to them or you in such a list, just a learning opportunity for everyone and a tiny, teeny bit more exposure for the hubs gone viral.
                  
                  Look at a piece of your viral or formerly viral content. Even a piece that has only gone semi-viral will do. Look how often it has been copied and ask yourself if one more copy made by someone who saw your piece linked to on an obscure blog would make much difference among the dozens  or hundreds of copies made by people who just found it as a viral piece of content elsewere on the web?
                  
                  Heck, viral content gets seen by a lot of people, otherwise it isn't considered viral. I found out a piece I'd written had gone viral over a year ago via a video someone posted to facebook just a few days after it hit and before I looked at its stats for the week and saw the views! A few years before that, I saw a piece of mine linked on a viral video (Kermit Under Pressure) before I noticed my piece had gone viral myself. The internet is a smaller, easier to navigate world than you might think. People who search via Google get viral results right in the first few listings.

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                     Christy Kirwanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     The truth is that viral Hubs are EXTREMELY rare. Only a hand full of Hubs in all the history of HubPages have ever become viral hits, so I don't think your request is unreasonable at all, but having a Hub go viral is simply much less common than one might realize. Though I certainly wish we had more than one to share with you right now-- it would be great for Hubbers and for Staff!

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                  2. 92

                     Millionaire Tipsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     I understand your reasoning. 
                     
                     If a hub is viral, lots of people have seen it, but it is because their friends thought they would be interested on the topic.
                     
                     If I had a viral hub (not much chance of that, so not really a worry), I would not want my hub on this list, because such a list would be a ready target for people who are looking for potential hubs to copy. It is a different audience. I personally would prefer no mention of the hub even in a separate forum or blog post, but I understand the need to share this information with the community.
                     
                     The chances of a viral hub being copied is smaller, because people who are interested in the topic are looking at it, as opposed to a list of good hubs.  I thought that was the reason HubPages put away the "best" hubs list.

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                     1. 91

                        Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        Actually, viral articles get copied a lot. The first few people who share such an article tend to be just people whose friends have sent it to them but once views expand to the hundreds of thousands, everything changes. News agencies start to pick up the story as do bloggers and, sometimes, even late night TV shows. Sometimes, such a news story, blog, or video segment is what pushes a nearly viral piece over the hill to truly viral. After a link on Quartz magazine or Huffington Post or a mention on Tosh.0, really anywhere popular, a post on a blog read by maybe a few thousand people isn't going to make much difference.
                        
                        All the pieces I've ever had go viral or even sub-viral continue to get copied even years later. One piece of ghostwriting that went viral was enough of a problem that I dropped a client for expecting me to file DMCAs for it for free forever.

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      2. 91

         Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thousands of hubbers would also be able to copy the quality and style elements, resulting in the creation of many hubs much closer to the ideal than they otherwise might be, created by authors made more confident with access to concrete information.
         
         Our hubs already get copied, sometimes before they even get through QAP. Viral content already gets copied many, many more times than non-viral content does. Content published in actual online magazines also gets copied many, many more times than content published on content farms. A few plagiarists who can get taken down with a few DMCA notices would do less harm to the site than thousands of writers stumbling about trying to figure out what standards they are trying to meet.
         
         This whole "trade secret" thing gets taken too far and it makes businesses fail. The people providing the content upon which HubPages sells ads are not the enemy. It's to HubPages advantage to give those people what they need to help make HubPages the place for viral content. I'm told that sites known for hosting viral content get more money for ad impressions and clicks than sites not known for hosting viral content! That has to be pretty good combined with all those extra eyeballs and fingertips.
         
         Besides which, the trade secrets HubPages is trying to keep hidden don't work magically. They require learning new skills and working at their application. People trying to get rich quick can't steal these trade secrets and create a website that steals away HubPages' traffic.

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   2. 85

      Billie Kelpinposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Kylyssa,
      First of all, I don't know where I've been, but I didn't know about HubPro.  So thank you for this topic! . 
      Secondly, I couldn't agree more with you in relationship to plagarism, trade secrets, etc.  Brilliant quotes of yours: 1.  "The easiest way to avoid being plagiarized is to avoid writing anything worth stealing. That doesn't make it part of a good plan for success as a writer"  2. "This whole 'trade secret' thing gets taken too far and it makes businesses fail." 
      You actually made me think of a subsite on my old website that I had years ago called "Great Free Ideas".  I had some ideas that I KNOW I could never implement, so I threw them out there for anyone.  Funny, this page is sooo old that I wrote an idea for a "mobile" meaning one of those physical mobiles that turn in the wind.   If I wasn't so darn scared of this stupid "self-promotion" concept here on hubpages, I'd write the address of that old website, just so people could laugh at it.  But restraits that are involved in THAT issue prevent me from doing so. (But I digress). 
      Worrying about the whole plagarism, trade secret concept does prevent innovation and sharing. (Not to imply at all that that is the intention of the staff.  It seems as if it's an assumed intention by some of the commenters). The whole plagarism thing is a worry, to my way of thinking,  that is useless.  Create the best that someone wants and it will quickly rise to the top and be unbeatable.
      Back to the issue at hand: It would be WONDERFUL, I think, to view the HubPro Hubs and it seems as if that will happen - perhaps because of your question   And for goodness sake, what is the big secret that makes something a social potential? Like Paul Edmondson said, his gut tells him what works.  I personally have the same instinct. In a nutshell, I think it's a matter of  fast, easy, information with beautiful pictures - end of story.  Problem is, in my own view again, the capsules as they have been designed, worked years ago.  I feel they now just don't allow for flexibility of content for modern day readers.

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   3. 92

      Sherry Hewinsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I would be interested in just seeing hubs that they have edited, viral or not, before and after. That might give us a better idea of how to edit our own hubs.

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      1. 91

         Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         That's an excellent idea. People are more comfortable with and enthused about programs and processes they can see in action.

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2. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 8 years ago

   We are going to do more studying on the impact of HubPro and social traffic impact.  There have been a few HubPro Hubs that have gotten significant social traffic after the program.  We are also going to see if we HubPro a former viral hit, if it picks up social speed again.
   
   My gut is, if the page has social potential, really nice photos and an increase in production value can tip a page to where the social shares accelerates and they see significant social traffic.

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   1. 91

      Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      It would be fantastic if we could see some examples. Then we could learn by example. It would be like a ride-along for a rookie cop. Before that, it's all textbooks and theory. Put us in the field, let us see what success looks like in this context.

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         Christy Kirwanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         We are working on a blog post on the first HubPro viral hit right now. It should be out early this week.

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            colorfuloneposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            That is great news. Thank you!

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               Thelma Albertsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               That´s cool. At least we can view how that hub became viral. Thanks.

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            Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            That's great news! I'm eager to read it.

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            janderson99posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I am concerned that not enough credit is given to the original author of the hub who generated the original traffic and SERP position in the first place. Carisa Gourley should be credited with the success NOT Hubro. It is an interesting question whether the original hub would have gone viral anyway, given the traffic and the weight-loss topic. Please give credit to the author!

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