Help! Why is my 3,000 word hub page spammy?

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   iijuan12posted 8 years ago

   I'd like some help with passing the Quality Assessment Process as my page "contains spammy elements."  I have tried changing it multiple times today and have not has success with getting it featured. Will you please give feedback on my Hub Amphibians, Reptiles, and Fish (Cold-blooded Vertebrates) Lesson? What can I do to get it featured?
   
   I have 2,986 words, 13 images, and 5 videos.  I only have 2 live links to each web host, and the links are all relevant as they go to the homework pages we used.  I have 13 amazon modules, all of which are mentioned in my lesson plan as they are books we read during the lesson.  There are not more than 2 amazon modules next to each other. I have personal comments on each item featured in an amazon module.  This page has had 599 visits since October when I was transferred here, and it has a 92 as it's hubpage score.  What is wrong?
   
   Thank you for any suggestions you can provide!

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      wildernessposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      You advertise 25 different books.  Are you providing valuable information for a reader or a set of ads?  When considering that, bear in mind that "valuable information" is not "Go read this book (or website, or anything else)".
      
      Amazon ads can be valuable...when they are the subject of the hub.  A review, for example, on a coffeemaker might be accompanied by an amazon link to that coffeemaker.  Not to sugar, creamer, a different coffeemaker or anything else; only to what the hub is reviewing.  Your books are not the subject; they are a transparent effort to get the reader to go somewhere else for the information they came to you about and that makes them spammy.

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         iijuan12posted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you for your reply.  I only have 13 (not 25) amazon links.  As I mentioned above, every single book mentioned is one that we read in the lesson, with the exception of 2 books we used during the week.  I have over 3,000 words with very few of those words related to the books I mentioned.  Most of the words (i.e. about 2,900 words) in my hub are related to teaching about cold-blooded vertebrates.

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            flycatcherrrposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            One of the Amazon ads seems to be for an aquarium, not a book?  And there's also a shark anatomy model and a Bill Nye DVD advertised just below your videos, just an "empty" Amazon module without added description. Source code seems to show 16 Amazon modules in total, so perhaps some of these were an oversight?
            
            HP is very very picky about what's considered "related" in terms of Amazon modules and other product links.  Perhaps if you used only the book links, and cut back those back to just your first choices, adding an explanation of why those particular books were best suited to the lesson plan and/or your children's ages & learning styles, what in the content and illustrations make the book a real stand-out, perhaps a bit about the author and why he/she is a good authoritative source and/or particularly good at communicating on science topics for kids, that sort of thing?  Just a thought.
            
            [edited to add]
            Another possibility is the long list of links to your other hubs at the bottom of the hub.  It is my understanding that this is now discouraged - others will correct me if I've misunderstood recent HP communications on this point, hopefully - and that we're to use the Groups feature to lead readers to our own closely related hubs, instead of links.
            
            Hope something here is helpful to you.

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               wildernessposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               That would probably do it, except that the hub isn't about books.  Adding 13 or more good sized paragraphs on the usefulness of books would destroy the hub.
               
               Two or three might be left, with a colored sidebar of text on the book itself might work.  An aside, if you will, from the main topic.  I've done that with good success in the past, although the mobile requirement has nearly destroyed it (you can't but a sidebar on a narrow screen).

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                  flycatcherrrposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Excellent point there, Dan.    Any way one looks at it, that's a lot of books.  Maybe a reading list (not links) with one or two special recommendations (Amazon modules) would serve... Considering from the readers' viewpoint, many parents would not be in a financial position to buy multiple books to support a lesson of this sort, and even those who have the cash would probably benefit from more specific guidance.

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            wildernessposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            You also have other links to books and sites as well as the amazon ads.
            
            But you said it yourself; your text doesn't relate to the ads.  That's what makes it spammy.

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               colorfuloneposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               That's it. We need to mention related products in the text.

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               iijuan12posted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Every amazon ad is relevant to the page as they were all used for the lesson plan -- which is what my page is: a lesson plan.

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                  psycheskinnerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  I did not see how the first book related, and I was not the only one--so consider that the QAP reviewer is probably seeing what we are seeing.
                  
                  If your title specified that this lesson plan is for Christian religious instruction (of "x" denomination ?) it might blend in but otherwise it is just the first hint that either the book or the title is a bit off target.

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                  relacheposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Lesson plans are not quite the content HubPages has been encouraging writers to develop, so the QAP review here is going to look at it more like a feature article.  And according the current trends in Hub standards, your page is going to be penalized for pushing too many retail products.
                  
                  Trimming your retail products down to just a few and re-categorizing your Hub so that it is a religious Hub, and not an educational one, will almost certainly result in it being successfully reviewed.

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      peachpurpleposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      i think I know the reason. For each amazon capsule, you need to write at leas 100 words of text related to the ads. I counted you have 30 words only. As for the links, if they are external links, you can insert max 2-3 links per hub, more than that is consider spammy. I was warned that way.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         @Peachpurple, you said " For each amazon capsule, you need to write at leas 100 words of text related to the ad"
         
         That's not correct.  You're confusing two rules.
         
         First, the Amazon ads must be directly related to the main topic of the Hub. 
         
         Secondly, there is a maximum ratio of one Amazon capsule per 100 words.  However, that doesn't mean you have to write 100 words about each capsule: it just means that if want to show 5 Amazon capsules, your Hub must be at least 500 words long.

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            tsmogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I was confused on the meaning for words for affiliate capsules until you clarified above. I thought it was 100 words with a direct relationship to the item. For instance I may have an internal text capsule about travel to Argentina in a Travel hub. I thought I had to use a product about that and not travel in general. Thank you for the clarification. Also, I believe Ebay capsules are limited today to one per hub?

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               Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               No, it's not 100 words with a direct relationship to the item.
               
               All the rule says is, if you want to use 5 product capsules (Amazon or eBay), then your Hub must be at least 500 words long.   If you want to use 10 product capsules then you need to write 1,000 words.  And so on.
               
               If you want to improve your chances of making a sale, then it's always a good idea to position your product capsules next to a relevant paragraph.

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      erorantesposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I like your hub. You need to edit and clean your hub. The commas, dashes, semicolons, and periods looks too many. The part of the sentences with numbers at the begining , it does not need a dash.  You need to check with the learning center . you need to click on help. Thank you for sharing your hub.

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   Millionaire Tipsposted 8 years ago

   I just wanted to make sure that you understood that when someone clicks on one of your Amazon capsules, you get the revenue no matter what they buy. So if you link to one book, and someone buys a whole cart-full of them, you still get the revenue on all of them.
   
   Since you've tried out so many of them, how about you tell your readers which ones really engaged the students in a fun yet educational way? If you could only afford one of those books, which one would you buy? I find that more people tend to click if you say "this is the best one" than if you just link to a whole bunch of them anyway, so your sales will actually go up with fewer capsules.

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   joeyparkkerposted 8 years ago

   Basic thing in article contains 400 words and may be your article have too many keywords .

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   lbrummerposted 8 years ago

   iijuan12
   My suggestion would be to have just 4 Amazon ads. Under the Fish section, place an ad, then in a module beneath the ad have a paragraph titled     
    
   Fish Books and References We Use:     
   Under this title place the names of the books, the authors, and the reason why you suggest each book.
   
   I sent you an e-mail, iijuan12, with examples.

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5. 65

   iijuan12posted 8 years ago

   Thank you for the great suggestion! I just edited it as you suggested and will see what happens.

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      iijuan12posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      It didn't work.

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         SheilaMilneposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I would suggest you have only two or three Amazon capsules and use your own words to describe the rest of the books, your own images too, if you have any. 
         
         People only need to click on one of the Amazon links to buy any of the books you mention.  They don't need a link to each and every one of them. 
         
         That's what I did for my 101 books hub because clearly I couldn't have capsules for all 101 books.  It was featured straight away.

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         flycatcherrrposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         "It didn't work." - ?
         But I'm still seeing the same issues we pointed out earlier, notably far far too many Amazon modules - some of which are unrelated or only marginally related to the topic of the hub... 
         What was it that you changed?

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   justholidaysposted 8 years ago

   I'd say: still too many Amazon ads.
   
   Plus the first one not related to fish and amphibians. All ads MUST BE closely related so books about fish it's ok, books about Egypt Exodus is nothing about fish related, it's close to religion not fish dissection.
   
   Oh and also lists aren't clear, you should use bulleted or numbered lists. Yet I'm not sure all those titles that one can find anywhere online would be considered as "unique text". Try to shortent those a little or add a short description for each and every book.
   
   Fingers crossed for the future of you Hub.
   
   .

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   psycheskinnerposted 8 years ago

   2300 words (words within the ads do not count) and 13 amazon ads, one completely not relevant to the topic.

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   calculus-geometryposted 8 years ago

   Besides the high number of Amazon ads, the hub is miscategorized.  You have it listed under education and science when it should be in the religion category for all the times you mention God creating animals. 
   
   This is not a lesson plan for homeschool programs in general, it is a lesson plan for a Bible-based religious homeschool program.  Your title should also reflect that so people aren't misled when the click on the article.

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9. 65

   iijuan12posted 8 years ago

   Thank you to everyone for your helpful replies! I deactivated some links, deleted some of the amazon capsules, and added a few extra headings and words.  I am no longer in need of further suggestions.  Thank you again for your support!

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10. 65

    iijuan12posted 8 years ago

    The book is part of the lesson plan as all 150 of my lessons start with a relevant Bible passage. During the 10 plagues in Egypt, each type of cold-blooded vertebrate (fish, frogs, snakes) is mentioned.

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    Kylyssaposted 8 years ago

    People would be more likely to find your hub through search engines like Google if you give it a name indicating it's a Christian homeschooling lesson. You could make your title more accurate and more likely to be found simply by adding the words "for Christian Homeschooling" to the end of the title. You'll get a lot more views that way!

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       iijuan12posted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Thank you for the suggestion!

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