Isn't it a Waste of Time to 'fix' an unfeatured Hub?

1. 69

   qeylerposted 9 years ago

   I've been writing here for quite a few years, I go back to the ancient era before the 'featured' 'not featured' declension.
   
   I have found that 'fixing' a Hub which is not featured is a total waste of time, as in a day or so, after a fix, it is back to unfeatured. 
   
   I did an experiment and I can say, without a blink, that all the Hubs that were not featured in 2014 were 'fixed' in 2015 and are not featured.
   
   My belief is that;
   a) who or what makes the determination of featured/not featured is of extremely questionable validity.
   
   b) a wiser move is to take the item, unpublish it here, and publish it elsewhere. 
   
   What has been your experience?

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      calculus-geometryposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      If they're going back to unfeatured  within a day or so then it's not worth keeping them here. Since you asked for others' experience, all I have to add is that when mine are unfeatured for traffic and I make a trivial edit, they go back to featured and stay that way.  If they didn't, I would move them.

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         qeylerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I republish them elsewhere

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      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I used to spend more time fixing them, but mostly I unpublish and move them now, as you suggested. Mine get unfeatured for lack of traffic and, unless I can feasibly change keywords in the title, it's unlikely anything is going to make those Hubs ever get any kind of decent traffic. I've actually tried to keep some Hubs alive for a few years, but there is a time to give up.

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      Siddharthasbposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I'm having the same experience. Thanks for sharing yours.

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      Sherry Hewinsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The thing I would consider is whether the hub was getting traffic before it was unfeatured. If it has never done well, it probably won't hurt to let it go. If it was doing at least OK, it may be worthwhile to put  some effort into getting it refeatured.

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      1. 69

         qeylerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         The prob. with Hubpages is that it is a Content Farm...Google hates it.  So if you write here and are the only person on Earth to write the topic, you will appear on a Google.  If you aren't, you won't.  So there's no sense in having an item here when I can post it somewhere else.
         
         The Good thing about unfeatured is that is saves me the trouble of deleting it.

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            TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I disagree with your first point because there are many who write on my niche topic, and many of my articles still rank well.  I know this because I have a fairly decent traffic flow on a regular basis.
            
            As for "tweaking", it all depends on the problem which could be anything from writing on a highly competitive topic to poor structure, spelling and grammar.
            
            Whenever I see an article failing, I go in (before anything ever gets unfeatured) and try to figure out what the problem is.  Oftentimes, it is very apparent, and many times I have to restructure the focus of the hub to make it get and stay featured.   In the end, my article always is much better than it was before, and I want to kick myself for not seeing my errors.
            
            When I look at other people's hubs, their mistakes jump off the page for me.  I get yelled at a lot for trying to help them see what they are doing wrong, but the teacher in me simply cannot do otherwise.
            
            Just yesterday I saw a hub that had three major spelling errors in the title and two of the capsules.  Right there you have a simple to fix problem that will drag the ranking down.
            
            We all make mistakes.   The secret is to be able to figure out what they are and decide the best way to fix them.  This works for me most of the time.  It is only when it doesn't that I delete.

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               tsmogposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               1+

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            2. 69

               qeylerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Without going into gory details, I have republished a number of items not featured here on other sites, and done fairly well on other sites.  What I will get 2c or 4c for here I get $ elsewhere.

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            3. 69

               qeylerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               And as you said you write in a niche market.  If I were working for the Tourist Board in my country and posted item after item on various hotels and tours and stuff like that, a Tourist who was thinking of coming to my country would find these items and I'd do well.
               
               Alas, I have nothing to 'sell.'

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  If you started a website or blog specialising in advice on your country, I am sure you could find plenty of things to sell.   
                  
                  In the first instance, you could join affiliate schemes run by various hotels, hotel booking sites, airlines and travel agents, and you would get a commission for every booking.   In the longer term, if you can build a following, you'd be able to approach local hotels and offer them advertising space on your site for a monthly fee - if you can prove a large audience using Google Analytics or a large number of people subscribed to your newsletter, you can charge quite handsomely.

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                     qeylerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes, that is a brilliant idea.  It is worth exploring.

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                        Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        If you need some help, PM me.

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      Dale Hydeposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      To answer your initial question, simply "yes." and, "b" is what I do. I do go to Google and make sure the url is deleted from index before i republish.

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      mts1098posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      It really depends on why the hub was un-featured but I do agree with posting it elsewhere...

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      1. 69

         qeylerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         There are sites which you can network and which get hits.  This site is, unfortunately, not liked by Google.  If I write "How To Do a Fast" here, it gets no hits, because there are other sites which 'out rank' Hubpages.  If I publish it on a site like that...it is the same item, but is getting hits.
         
         I don't know why it has become 'rocket science'.
         
         Years ago I wrote an item; 'How To Handwash Silk' on Triond.  It used to get a lot of hits.  Then in 2011, as Triond is a Content Farm, nothing.  If I even put that exact title into a Google I'd see "How to was a silk scarf'  'How to handwash', before my item.
         
         I posted it, as is where is on a new site, and it was number one.  That is because Triond didn't exist in Googleland.

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            calculus-geometryposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            If your articles don't do well on this content farm, the best place to put them is on your own site, not a different content farm. Google is just not that into content farms.
            
            HP is only worth using for 'passive income' if it truly is passive for you.  For me it is, more or less, but for others it's clearly not.  If you find yourself needing to do a lot of work to earn pennies per article per day, then you should reevaluate if HP is worth it.  I know if I needed to constantly edit and tweak my hubs to please Google and HP I wouldn't bother with HP anymore.  Know when to cut your losses.

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               qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Exactly!   I agree with you.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               +1

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      bondaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      2016 vacation hub still not featured despite removing what HP would call 'spammy.'  can HP admin identify the problem so that i can fix it?

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         Ramkitten2000posted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I think your best bet is to email them at team@hubpages.com and ask.

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            bondaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            thanks for the HP email.

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         qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         They can't be bothered.  They make a determination..or an A.I. does it...they will call 'spammy' a link to a connected article you wrote.

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2. 87

   Kristen Howeposted 9 years ago

   I don't think it's a waste. It would better your chances to get more traffic and earnings. I've only had NFQ, when I had to fix the writing, remove spammy elements, etc. Now it's better to go featured and not featured at all. It took me some time to fix one hub, a few weeks, after I let it sit and went back to it. Step away from your hub and go back to it later.

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   Mark Ewbieposted 9 years ago

   You got 300 odd hubs and been here five years.  I reckon you'd have it figured by now.
   
   Depends why you are here.
   
   If it is for traffic which is my thing then let the unfeatured ones go.  There is no audience for them.  No point.
   
   If it is for vanity, ego. Tweak them, improve them, nurture them.  Maybe someone will read them, maybe not.  Or move them somewhere 'safe' like a blog or own site.
   
   We all know the deal with HubPages.  They cannot judge quality and cannot risk having low traffic content.  It is their site, their rules.

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   1. 69

      qeylerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, well put.  I have ceased to tweak.  Hub not featured...I post it elsewhere.  Since it isn't featured I don't have to delete it before publishing it on another site.  Less work

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4. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 9 years ago

   Depends why it was unFeatured.
   
   If it's for a breach of the latest round of rules, then it's probably worth it.  They will be easy to fix once you've understood what the issue is.
   
   However, if it's unFeatured for lack of engagement, then I'd say it's not worth it.   "Lack of engagement" just means "lack of traffic", pure and simple.   The only way you can fix that is to do major work on the Hub to improve its performance on Google, so it attracts more traffic.  That's not an easy thing to do. 
   
   It's true that if you do even a small edit, the Hub will be Featured again for a little while - but if it doesn't get more traffic, then it will lapse again so that's a waste of effort.

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      Au faitposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The title is super important and most people here still don't understand that.  The title can make the difference as to whether a hub gets traffic or not.  There may be nothing wrong to fix -- other than the title.  The title shouldn't be a snappy cool phrase that reaches out to grab you while waiting in line at the grocery store because it isn't going to do that.  No one is going to try and think up a great title when they are Googling for information.
      
      What words would YOU use if you were looking for information like you have in your hub?  Those are the words/questions that should be in your title because they are likely the same words other people would use while searching for that information.
      
      If you have a cool phrase that you're proud of having thought up, use it as the title to one of the capsules in your hub, or as the first sentence in a capsule.  The title to the hub itself should be the search words people might use to find that information.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         That is an excellent point.

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5. 53

   janderson99posted 9 years ago

   Keep 'em all featured - that's my motto. You never know if and when they will take off. Beat the silly rules.
   
   

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6. 69

   qeylerposted 9 years ago

   Thanks guys; you've been very helpful...going to give this a good think.  I'm going to move a portion of them off Hubpages....I'm going to check my Titles...and I like the reference to 'vanity'....for if no one is interested in my topic here...well why am I stressing? 
   
   Thanks again.

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7. 73

   LeanManposted 9 years ago

   People need to keep in mind the reason for hubs being un-featured and why the system was introduced in the first place...
   
   Either you are going to be un-featured because you have failed to follow the rules of the site in which case read the message that you receive about the hub and fix it...
   
   or
   
   You will be un-featured for traffic which is probably the reason that annoys most people..
   
   The reason for this is that HP as a whole is judged based on the weakest content by Google. If HP or your personal site is seen as having weak content then Google will send it less traffic. So what is the easiest way to tell if something is seen by Google as being weak? Well the easiest is to see if it is actually being sent any traffic by Google.... If Google sends no traffic then MAYBE it sees the hub as being no good! It may however just mean that no one is searching for it or that there is just too much competition on the internet in which case that hub is still not getting any traffic and will be un-featured even though Google does not see it as weak - but you were not getting traffic from Google any way so it will not hurt you.. Un-featuring hubs is the quickest and easiest way for this site to remove pages that MAY be seen as problems by Google.
   
   Internal competition; Another issue is that HP will have many hubs all targeting the same sets of keywords. Google is only ever going to show one or two from this site in the search results even if there are 100's of good hubs about it. So if you have a good hub about something but there are 100's about the same subject here on HP already that you are competing with then it may very well do much better on a site of your own where it has no internal competition.
   Leaving too many hubs here with similar keywords will again trigger a problem with Google as they do not like sites that try to have a page for every possible keyword combination when each and every page contains basically the same information just a different variation of keywords. (Examples: recipes for bacon butties, buttie recipes with bacon, bacon buttie recipes, how to make bacon butties, bacon as a buttie, etc) HP has to take those that Google are not sending traffic to and unfeature them or they will get issues - issues that affect every single one of us here on the site.
   
   So the answer is it depends on why you are being unfeatured as to what you should do -
   
   Bad Hub - fix it..
   No one searching or better pages/sites elsewhere on the internet that you cannot outrank - forget it..
   Too much internal HP competition - Move it

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      janderson99posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      A couple of points in reply:
      => I don't believe that pages with low traffic damages a sub-domain or a site. There is no evidence for this. Popularity is not a ranking factor.
      => Unfeaturing for low traffic was designed as a quick, inexpensive, but dirty way of weeding out poor quality hubs. HP admitted a long time ago that there was collateral damage. High quality hubs get dumped with the dirty bathwater. HP argues that the low traffic means that Google hates the artcile,which is utter nonsense. It may be more about saturated topics or obscure topics. It is much easier for HP to run the low traffic test than to QAP all the old pages, via mturk. From HP's point of view there is minimal loss in terms of reputation and earnings. From the author's point of view the loss of reputation via fabulous pages getting unfeatured and dumped from the suite of great hubs can be debilitating. Similarly authors lose the prospect of getting future traffic from dumped pages.
      => Hubpro works by out-competing hubs on similar topics. How else do you explain the 20% increase in traffic, with no increase in site traffic for HP as a whole. This means that you, the author, can improve your hubs so that they can get more traffic. Changing the title can be very worthwhile. Use a tool such a Jaaxy(dot)com to try other versions which the tool predicts are competitive. The process is very hit and miss, so try other options.
      => Author reputation from a suite of great hubs helps an author compete for listings on the SERPS. So if you hang in there and keep your hubs 'alive', while you build your reputation, there is every likelihood that your cream will rise to the top. Hubs by other authors on the same topic will be unfeatured all the time, so if you hang in there your traffic can increase in time. The stayers win!
      => Google is not the ONLY source of traffic. Pinterest accounts for more than half of my traffic. The startling thing about Pinterest and other social media traffic is that it does not solely depend on ranking or search engines. If you have fabulous images in your hubs, someone may pick them up from your boards, or someone else's boards, on unrelated topics, tell their friends about them and hey presto you have a mini-viral traffic boost. You can also put your image in a board with another set of keywords and these boards appear in the SERPS on Google. The more baited lines you have out there the more fish you are likely to catch. So add more fabulous images and pin them. Tell your friends about them and your article. Don't allow your hooks to be hidden and unbaited by HP!
      
      Conclusion
      IMO Keep all your hubs alive and featured!!!!!

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         LeanManposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         In reply to your 'in reply" JAnderson99
         
         Low traffic pages do not hurt a site unless they are low traffic because there is a problem with the page in the eyes of Google.. Unfortunately with a site like HP with hundreds of thousand of pages the quickest way to root out all of the pages that MAY be a problem with Google is to simply de-index every page that Google does not send traffic to.. I understand why they did it I did not however say that it was the best solution to the problem - but it certainly was the quickest available to start climbing out of the mess the site was heading into.. Without what they did I am sure that this site would have sunk lower and for much longer.
         
         With the information that they now have and the QAP they should now be able to stop de-indexing for traffic issues..... In fact I believe that they have eased up on it and the time period for no traffic for many authors is much longer. I remember some discussions on this some time back. but too lazy to go find them.
         
         As to the cream rising to the top that is very true - if you have cream - unfortunately many of those that complain have articles that just repeat the same tired information as all of the other hubs about the same topic. So for them it is often better that they just remove and publish elsewhere.
         
         And I wish that pinterest worked for my business related stuff - but since the majority of the users of the site are not interested in what I write about then it does not help me too much. Every niche has its ways of generating traffic and Google as you say is not always the best nor the most reliable.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            +1

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      tsmogposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for that valuable advice from experience. Having done the advice to remove non-productive Hubs while  not having a blog or website I feel the focus is SEO centric much more 'today' for traffic contrast HP yesterday. For instance once there was the HP encouraged 30 Hubs in 30 days challenge. However, with a new Hub and the consensus it takes 6-12 months for Google traffic I ponder expected results by HP with a timeline for results. I ponder if different for a new Hub contrast one unfeatured. Any thoughts?
      
      A short story is today I have 7 Hubs all easily featured with a mix of creative and informational addressing two different marketplaces while once near 200. I followed that mentioned approach with many Hubs. I was SEO illiterate the first two years here, but had good traffic results probably more the social marketplace.
      
      I took hiatus one year+, came back discovering a new HP model. This year  in the first 6 months wrote only those 7 keeping only 2 informational Hubs.They all may have dismal results with traffic while the informational does have a trickle. Thus, the last six months learning here in the forums SEO their was the impact of Google algorithms. Those caused change at HP. I also researched the web. SEO for me is mind boggling. However, I am nearing desiring to publish new Hubs again. I ponder the expected results and a timeline for that.

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   3. 69

      qeylerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Let us admit that traffic has lessened due to the Panga. Let us admit that the nature of the 'Front Page'  is not helpful to 99.99999% of those who write on Hubpages.
      
      There are sites in which one earns much more than on Hubpages.  You all know more sites than I do.   
      
      I have been very successful in republishing hubs.  Due to the non-featured status I can virtually cut and paste.. And so far...with all respect, (or the lack of it) to Hubpages, I've made more $$ in one month on other sites than I have in two years on Hubpages.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Why do you think "we all know more sites" than you do?   We don't.  I've tried several and still have articles on other sites like Wizzley, Infobarrel etc - and have never found any of them to earn as well as HubPages. There are so many article-writing sites out there, it's impossible to try them all, so if you've found some that do pay well, we'd love to hear about them (and there is no rule against mentioning other sites on this forum).
         
         There are people who've posted recently about moving Hubs elsewhere and making money - but they have ALL been speaking about moving posts to their own blog.
         
         By the way, sites like Compete.com are only guessing about how many visitors a site gets.  They (and other sites like them) are often woefully inaccurate.   Qantcast is different because sites can consent to have their traffic tracked directly - HubPages has consented and therefore the traffic is totally accurate.

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            qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            I already named the sites that pay.
            I am not attacking or questioning Qantcast...it is that compete only gives US figures, and Q gives global...I didn't know about Q...now I do..thanks.
            
            As you said, 'own blog'... in many cases people make more money by moving to their own blog and being paid directly by adsense or another such service.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Did you name the sites in this thread?  thanks, I'll go back and have a look.
               
               I didn't think you were attacking Qantcast, I just got the impression you weren't aware of the difference between the "guesstimate" type traffic trackers and Qantcast's model, (which uses a code the site owner embeds in the site, like Google Analytics).

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                  qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  You are spot on...I didn't even think of Qantcast...I thought of Compete and didn't glance left or right.   
                  
                  Hubpages did lose a lot of its viewership between 2011 and 2015.  The owners are more than forthcoming of the hit the site took.  In 2014 I could post the name of an item I wrote here and it would NOT be on the front page of a Google.
                  
                  I could find it with bing, ixquick, dogpile...the other search engines, but not Google. 
                  
                  Since about April 2015, some Hubs are appearing on Google searches.

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8. 54

   paradigm searchposted 9 years ago

   I always update my hubs long before the unfeatured-gremlin shows up, so I've never had that problem. I do, however, unpublish hubs when I've finally given up on getting traffic. And I'm careful about that, got to be over two years before I consider bringing out the firing squad.

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9. 80

   Esperantaposted 9 years ago

   Janderson said "It is much easier for HP to run the low traffic test than to QAP all the old pages, via mturk"
   
   I, however, do not think that a 1-second assessment by Mturk losers (losers because it is evidently people who cannot make a semi-decent living elsewhere who turn to Mturk as a source of income) trying to earn a few cents per hub reviewed is an acceptable quality criterion. However, since I do not depend on HP to make my living (I earn many 1000s times more in my real online work as a translator), I am not letting this worry me.

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10. 76

    psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

    I have never seen a hub go back to unfeatured within a few days.  It either doesn't pass QAP right away, or it is featured at least for a few weeks (longer, I think) before being hit by the low traffic penalty again.

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       qeylerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Goes back in days.  In fact, a couple of half circles I have 'fixed' became featured for a couple of days then unfeatures.

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          Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Are you sure they're unFeatured for lack of engagement?  That should never happen within days.

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    Mark Ewbieposted 9 years ago

    Re. moving v. tweaking.  I got a bit bored of tweaking because for all the effort I can't change the layout, the inter-linking, the number and positioning of ads.
    
    Plus I didn't - and still don't - really know the difference between own site and HubPages. Is my stuff crap because of Panda and HubPages... or is it just crap?
    
    So I am a year of hard - damned hard - work into building my own place.  So many things to learn, ignore, try and abandon.  So much temptation to give up and go back to the same old.
    
    And yet.
    
    I have complete control of my destiny.  If I want to add an ad or take one away - or move it - or try something else - I can.  I can make MY pages look how I want them to look.
    
    On balance - even with less traffic, less income and more work - that is what I would rather do.

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       TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       I don't blame you for feeling as you do, but you must admit that your work is highly unique.  This means it is important to find just the right spot for it.  I applaud your efforts and hope they pay off because you offer something really special that people should be able to access and enjoy.
       
       What site have you moved your hubs to, if I may ask?

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          Mark Ewbieposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Oh hey, thanks for that!  I took my non performing pages, the stick people and humour basically, and started creating a site on Weebly. It is a site builder for amateurs / beginners but it is more than good enough for what I want.
          
          Now I am trying to create something that people will enjoy stumbling on.  Pages without many adverts and that I believe in.
          
          I am just playing the same old game but free to do it my way.  Anyhow... thanks!

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             Sherry Hewinsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             If you are doing what you love, I think that's what you should do. I should hate to see you leave HP completely though. I, at least, appreciate your genius. Maybe someday the right person will discover you, spread the word, and you will become an overnight sensation. At least I will be able to say "I knew him when..."

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                Mark Ewbieposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                Oh please - stop it!  First target - make a dollar a day.  And I will still write occasional failing hubs over here.

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                   Sherry Hewinsposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                   Just don't delete the http://hubpages.com/entertainment/How-t … m-your-Ass hub. My FaceBook friends did truly appreciate it.
                   
                   P.S. You know you love it.

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                      Mark Ewbieposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                      I do love it, and that one is staying!

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             TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

             I agree with Sherry.  It's very important to spend time doing what you love.  In your case, you're also darned good at it.  Have you ever approached some of the big newspapers to see if you could go on board as a cartoonist?  You'd be perfect for that!

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                Mark Ewbieposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                Well thanks again.  I am learning slowly and trying to find what works.  Maybe next year something will happen.
                
                Or the year after...

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12. 72

    iijuan12posted 9 years ago

    A number of you have said you have moved your hubs elsewhere. Where are you moving them to?

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       Mark Ewbieposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       There are a few opinions on this.  No one size fits all answer.
       
       The pro users often say specialised blogs or sites on Wordpress.  Focus on single subject area. 
       
       Others will try Google blogspot or whatever it is called. 
       
       There are other content sites out there.  Doubt if any of them are as good as HubPages.
       
       There are simple site builders such as Wizzley or Weebly (my choice).
       
       People also have different results from moving.  Some say it was brilliant, others got no traffic or money.
       
       I was slightly disappointed to see that non performing pages on HubPages turned out to be non-performing on my own site.  It was not a magic solution to the internet making money question for me.
       
       But everyone has a different offering and expectation from what they do.

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          iijuan12posted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Thank you for suggesting some options! I have noticed quite a number of people suggesting WordPress.

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             Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             Wordpress is the Rolls Royce of blogging/website builders.  As I explained in my Hub, there are two versions of Wordpress - the one where you create the site on THEIR host (which is Wordpress.COM), and the one where you buy your own hosting and install the free Wordpress.ORG software.
             
             You can't put any kind of advertising on the free Wordpress.com site, but you can upgrade to a Premium option for about $99 a year, and then you can do anything you like.  If you have your own hosting and use the Wordpress.org software, again you can do anything you like.
             
             Mark has is slightly wrong - Wizzley isn't a place to build a website, it's an article site like HubPages.  He may be thinking of Wix - where you can build gorgeous looking websites, but their coding is pretty bad for SEO.   I used to like Weebly, but it has some disadvantages too.  One is that if you take the free option, you are not entitled to ANY customer support of any kind.  The second is that if you go for the free version, your site will reside on their slowest servers - and Google dislikes slow websites, so you're handicapping yourself.  Thirdly, if you decide you're unhappy with them, there is no way to download your content and move it somewhere else - you'll have to copy and paste each post one by one. Whereas if you use Blogger.com or Wordpress. you can easily download and move your content any time.

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                Mark Ewbieposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                Oh yes, sorry I meant Wix.  Why are they all W's?
                
                I am paying a few dollars per month to get rid of the advertising footer so I hope they have me on their super fast server.
                
                

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                iijuan12posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                Thank you! That is very helpful to read! I actually just came across Wizzley last night, so that answers my question about that.

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                   justholidaysposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                   Wizzley is part of different Pagewizz websites, created by 2 former German Squids (Simon and Hans). The American Wizzley was co-funded by Chef Keem, Nightowl, and Ronpass, three other former Squids. I was in the French site team at one point.
                   
                   Because I worked closely with them I know that they're reliable. But as suggested many times by Making A Mark: never put all your eggs in just one basket. It's something former Squids experienced with the closing of Squidoo but many of them had already faced the closing or simply the change of many sites, which left them with pages and pages to be moved.
                   
                   As Marisa, I highly recommend the self-hosted Wordpress platform: you're in control of your own site, on a server you paid for and you're free to do whatever you want.

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                      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                      I would echo the fact that they're reliable.  It's the sort of place I'd recommend to good writers who "just want to write" and don't want the hassle of their own site - but with the caveat that they're not likely to make much money.  For some reason, the site has never managed to generate good incomes - which means there is always a risk it will also close down, because it's not paying its owners a reasonable return.
                      
                      I saw a discussion on a forum recently, where a Wizzley member was moaning that the owner of the site was keeping too much revenue for himself instead of sharing it with members.  I can't recall the figure mentioned, but at the time I thought, "well, if that is all the owner is getting for all the work of running a site like that, I'm surprised he bothers!"
                      
                      I can see someone running a site like that and accepting a low return while the site is new, in expectation that earnings will rise substantially as the site matures - but Wizzley has been around a long time now, so I can only assume he's doing it as a labour of love - it sure wouldn't pay the rent!

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          tsmogposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Mark . . . Having followed you since early here when I was on hiatus from HP your FB posts always caught my attention. I read many as I like the 'Stick Man' humor. When I saw your Zazzle campaign I recommended that to a former Hubber. She followed your lead with Zazzle and has fun with it today.
          
          But, like here you have to market for success. Personally I think your Weebly approach is a good idea. Content while advertises a Zazzle product specific to the content at that content maybe? Then a Weebly page for all products. The 'Stick Man' concept has an icon feel about it.
          
          BTW, there are several articles at MozBlog about Ad campaigns at FB contrast just the posting we most do. It is in their topic Social Media. The most recent they shared info on one with a budget of $10.

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             Mark Ewbieposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             I am glad your friend is having fun on Zazzle and thanks for the FB link.  Marketing is indeed very much an aspect of being 'successful'.
             
             The Weebly idea as you realise is to take what little ability I have and wrap it together with sales and social marketing.  The 'funny' article that might get shared with the humorous merchandise advert accompanying it.
             
             I keep thinking it won't work but as I was doing other things this morning I thought "If you don't try - you won't know".  That will keep me going for a while.
             
             Cheers Tim.

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                tsmogposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                Cheers! That same friend also built a Weebly site to learn with. Her focus for it was only one of her many children books. She also has two blogs. She has let them wander a little focusing on doing illustrations for others children's books this recent year or so. We both discussed it is just like with a Hub article there has to be SEO with those. Were still learning. I learn a lot here in the forums like with Marisa.

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       NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

       I move mine to my own sites which are self hosted or to Wizzley, which is my second fave writing site next to HP. I'm going to go ahead and admit that I don't know how to make money on Wizzley, but I like the site and so I move articles there that otherwise would be doing nothing for me.
       
       Like I said, I generally move unfeatured articles to my own sites though. To tell you the truth, many of them are better suited to my own sites because they are specialized.

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          iijuan12posted 9 years agoin reply to this

          That is helpful to read! Thank you!

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             NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

             No problem.

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    Kristen Howeposted 9 years ago

    Those half circles were for Not Featured for Traffic (NFT). I've gotten five of them and fixed them by adding words to the product and photo capsules. That've done the trick to get them back to featured status for me. Try it.

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       qeylerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Oh, I've done it on some but on most...nahhh.

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       Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Yes that will work, but the point is, it's only a temporary fix

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    qeylerposted 9 years ago

    If I received $30.00 a month from Hubpages...well, okay.  I'll make sure every single Hub is polished to a shine, and spend my life repairing, Hubs that have the half circle.   But I don't make that on Hubpages and I doubt most of you do.
    
    Hence, it is wiser to take selected non-featured hubs, do that polishing, and publish them where I earn $25 a month.

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       Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       ...which is where?

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    Blackspaniel1posted 9 years ago

    I have the problem of not featured for traffic, which my articles on Wizzley never experience.  They have traffic.  Here, when I add a paragraph the article too often goes unfeatured with the full circle.  The problem is Hubpages has accepted content, but after adding words it has too many product links, which is often just a few.  I can often get things published with about two products, not the one per fifty words we are allowed.  Apparently Hubpages can allow something one day, then change the next.  They reviewed the article and it passed, but add words and it has too many products.  I cannot hit, and have stopped trying to hit, a moving target.  And, apparently the seasonal pages like Christmas traditions in a country need traffic year round  to make the filter happy.  I am quite happy at Wizzley.  They know how many products, whose images help with the article, are allowed and stick with the rules.  If you can count you can determine if the filter will allow your work.  Here, you guess.
    Oh, I can promote an article with low traffic, have traffic come in, and it will remain unfeatured.  How is this?  This is starting to look too much like an overreaction to Google and we know what happened to Squidoo.

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       qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Perfectly put.  This is exactly the situation.

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       makingamarkposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       1+
       
       If there's one thing people from Squidoo learned and now know for certain it's that trying to hit a constantly moving target means people very often choose a different playing field!

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          qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

          Beautifully put.  Hubpages, due to its fear of the Panda twisted itself into a pretzel, not aware that Google's ulterior motive was to destroy paying writing sites so as to push it's non-paying Knol.    The damage done to Hubpages, which used to get 12M hits a month is worthy of a lawsuit. 
          
          Yes, there was crap writing, but that should have been skimmed by the Mods...not all the articles...those which scored so high...those writers who scored 100 every day.. and wrote rubbish...

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             Susana Sposted 8 years agoin reply to this

             Not saying that Hubpages is perfect, they have definitely had issues with unfeaturing decent content in their quest to get rid of bad content, but the site received 43.3 million views in the last 30 days and Knol was closed 3 years ago.

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                qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                Hubpages has just reverted to the basic style.  It was so rattled by Panda that it would post username/hubpages.com.  Now, it is hubpages.com...they are just coming down from that.   BTw.  Compete.com  has Hubpages at 5M views last month...so I don't know where you got the 43.m

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                   NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                   https://www.quantcast.com/hubpages.com#trafficCard

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                   Susana Sposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                   The subdomain switch worked at the time. 4 years on and with all the Google changes in between it's no longer effective or necessary. What's the issue?
                   
                   Hubpages traffic is directly measured through Quantcast (see Nate's link above).

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                      qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                      Really?  I've always used Compete.com

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                   qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                   Ahhh...I see my error...Compete only gives American traffic!  Thanks for quantcast.

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    forinternetlawposted 8 years ago

    I don't know if I can agree that this site is not liked by Google as I read somewhere that everything published here gets indexed by Google. Not sure how it all works but I would like to think that publishing here is useful for your articles' exposure

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       DrMark1961posted 8 years agoin reply to this

       There are plenty of people on this site that have had their pages viewed by Google millions of times. That would be a pretty amazing accomplishment if they were not even indexed.

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       NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Yes, Hubs definitely get indexed and can place high in search engines results; I've done it, many others have. And it is definitely possible to make a regular income here.

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    3. 69

       qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       What I find so amazing about these comments is that Hub Pages was labelled a Content Farm and slapped down by Google, which led the the sub domains. 
       
       The change back, after 3 years or so of subdomains is the subject of Hubpages weekly newsletter...and you don't realise what happened here?
       You don't realise what happened between Google & Hubpages?
       
       You are denying what happened?
       
       Amazing

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       Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       It is perfectly possible for Google to "not like" a site, and still be indexed. 
       
       Here's how it works.
       
       Google scans a site and gives it an overall ("Panda") score, based on the quality of its worst content.   It then looks at each individual article and ranks it based on its own merits - BUT then it adds in the Panda score. 
       
       So, say you have an outstanding article on a site with a bad Panda score.  It will be ranked well individually, but then the Panda score will be added in - which will reduce the article's ranking.  The article will still be indexed, just ranked lower.
       
       It's generally considered that HubPages has a low Panda score due to the amount of low quality Hubs on the site (and remember, the Panda score is based on the worst content, not the average - so having lots and lots of good quality content makes NO difference).  That explains why some Hubbers have been able to move Hubs to another site and do better - because the site they moved to had a better Panda score.
       
       I should qualify that by saying it's a very much simplified explanation and there's lots of other aspects to the algorithm!

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          qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

          I have posted items on various sites, as have others.  A particular item on Hubpages, is number one on a Bing Search... number three on a Google.
          
          This item does well because is not much written on the topic.

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             Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

             I have just read back through this whole thread and I can't find any  names for the sites where you are making a higher income (other than a mention of Triond which suggested it did NOT make money).

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                qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                you missed blogjob?

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                   Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                   Yes I did! Again, that's a blogging platform not an article writing site, though it looks like a blogging network so there's more member interaction than Blogger or WordPress.

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                      qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                      I think everyone feels the same...your own blogging platform earns more...

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17. 53

    janderson99posted 8 years ago

    Keep ALL you hubs - You never know when Pinterest will pull a rabbit out of the hat. Pinterest boards appear in the search results. What is more you can get two listings in the SERPs for your articles. Sharing pins provide a search-free source of income via social media. Your Pinterest pins can take off for mini-virals.
    
    

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       qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       this is excellent advice

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       NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

       I was just looking at an article from one of my own sites that was getting traffic and discovered it was ranked in the SERPs via Pinterest. Pinterest definitely brings in search engine traffic.

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    lizyetterposted 8 years ago

    I occasionally submit list articles to ListVerse. The pay is $100 per accepted article and pay is to Paypal. TheRichest sometimes hires new writers. I am currently contracted with one of their new sites and have been very happy with the work. Other than that, I have been with About since 2008. Besides starting your own blog, there aren't any other sites that compare with HubPages at this time, IMO.

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       Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       Well done being accepted for About.com.
       
       I've looked at those sites which pay a large amount for articles.  The snag seems to be that you have to submit articles on spec, they only pay for the ones they want to publish BUT they also keep the ones they don't publish.  So you could potentially submit 10 articles and have only one published - OK you got paid $100 for that one, but effectively you're earned $10 per article for the 10 articles.

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19. 73

    cheaptrickposted 8 years ago

    From what I've seen the last year or so it's a waste of time to fix featured hubs as well...

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       qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       I notice Hubpages is getting back some of its past prestige...(it was really bad during 2012-2015)  so we will see if there is any point.

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20. 72

    lizyetterposted 8 years ago

    Marisa - It is not as bad as that. If you write 10 long length, cited articles you will probably get at least 2 accepted. Then you take the rest, reread them, and submit them to a different site, such as Cracked who had a submission program where they work with you to build the best article if it is about something they find interesting. That's another $100 an article to start writing for them. Anything that does not get accepted can be placed on HP or on your own blog to earn money. There is no waste when it comes to writing.
    With The Richest, you become a contracted writer. You will have a list of articles they are interested in having written and you can submit your own title ideas. Once a title is accepted, you research and write the article and submit it. An editor either approves it or tells you what she wants changed about it so that it will be published.

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    lizyetterposted 8 years ago

    I think the point is to diversify. With About, I get one paycheck at the end of the month. With the other contracted job, I get a paycheck mid month and end of the month. With ListVerse, I get paid in roughly 7 days after an article is accepted. I get the Adsense pay and then I occasionally get an HP payment in. Write for as many platforms as possible.
    As for HP, I came back because HP is starting to show up in the searches again, unlike other content sites. I am testing it out to see if it is possible to earn good money here again. If it works, great. If not, I have a side blog I can move the content to.

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       qeylerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       I was stunned to see Hubpages show up...about a month ago.  So I'm still here.  But, non featured get moved to other sites.

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22. 43

    Shadrack2posted 8 years ago

    so true

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23. 70

    waynetposted 8 years ago

    Haven't been here in awhile, been busy making money elsewhere...what once worked here does not work for long...I've a good portion of my hubpage content that has outlived it's usefulness and become unfeatured here....I may experiment with some newer more detailed hubpage content as the set it and forget it formula no longer works.
    
    I'll admit half of my hubpage content is crap, but I have no time to update the unfeatured hubs!

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24. 57

    jeffzodposted 7 years ago

    I have had problems with some of my hubs not being featured.The issues raised by the editor was that my hubs were too promotional.I fixed the issues, and they were still not featured.I agree that one can spend a lot of time trying to get featured.Is it a wise move to delete unfeatured hubs?

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    1. 77

       TIMETRAVELER2posted 7 years agoin reply to this

       When a hub of mine is not featured or is getting very few views, I read it carefully to see what is wrong with it.
       
       Sometimes it's just the title because it doesn't match the content or is not searchable,
       sometimes it's because it has lost focus and needs to be tightened up
       sometimes it's because there's just too much competition for that topic.
       
       It might also be that the photos are poorly done or it has spammy elements.
       
       I don't remove it until I figure out what the problem is.  If I think it's fixable, then I update it. If not, I remove it.
       
       It has been my experience that I've been able to revive many hubs by doing this, but it all depends on how well you write in the first place!

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    2. 69

       qeylerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

       I use Hubpages for storage.   I will take an item, and spruce it a bit, and publish it elsewhere.
       
       Further, if you use different computers, i.e. home, work, an Internet cafe, if you put work on Hubpages, you can work on it anywhere.    It stays 'non-featured' on Hubpages because you pop in a few bold words or an Amazon Ad or a link; whatever you need to keep it 'unfeatured'.   
       
       You go to work, get a break, connect to Hubpages, do your writing, save, back to work.  It's really very convenient.

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25. 75

    NessMovieReviewsposted 7 years ago

    Since beginning here, not long ago, I am surprised all my hubs are so far featured. Can you specify one that is and one that isnt so we can relate the two?

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    1. 57

       jeffzodposted 7 years agoin reply to this

       I have decided to delete unfeatured Hubs; a Hubber has suggested that they lower my score and rankings on both Google and Hubpages because they have a no follow tag attached to them and they are not indexed by Google.

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          Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          Your score is completely irrelevant.   Other Hubbers know what it means - NO ONE else does.  Google certainly doesn't care what your score is.   Also, Google can't see your unFeatured Hubs so it's not judging you by them.

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26. 0

    pen promulgatesposted 7 years ago

    @nessmoviereviews: good job. 
    Don't be surprised, if the writing of any article is proper, and it has content meeting the rules of HP,  I see no reason why it will fail quality.

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27. 70

    makingamarkposted 7 years ago

    Nobody noticed this thread was 20 months old until resurrected 2 hours ago?

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       Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

       Yes I did, but the debate is still relevant and I answered a person who had a current question.

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          qeylerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          It is very relevant.  If your Hub was unfeatured because of bad spelling or grammar, or badly written, then you can 'fix' it.  But a perfectly good article, perfect spelling and grammar is 'unfeatured' for what?   No good answer.

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28. 64

    gottaloveit2posted 7 years ago

    Most of my articles are now unfeatured but they continue to earn! Not exactly sure how that happens but it's working for me so I just leave them alone, UNLESS they fit into one of my 6 website niches.

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       qeylerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

       That is strange... you see the half circle?

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          Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          It is possible to earn from unFeatured Hubs if you're still getting visits from people you've sent the link to, or from links on other websites.  It won't be much, though, as those visits would be less frequent.
          
          By the way, if a Hub has been unFeatured for lack of traffic (the half circle), all you have to do is edit one sentence and it will be Featured again.    It only takes a minute.
          
          It probably won't stay Featured for more than a few weeks, though, unless it suddenly starts to get traffic (which is unlikely if you don't improve its search-engine-friendliness in some way).  Then you'll have to make a small edit again.

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             qeylerposted 7 years agoin reply to this

             I have done all the experiments.  I've taken articles that are non-featured and published them elsewhere without changing a thing.  I've gone to those half circles and spruced the item, removing Amazon Ads, bold words, links, etc. and it's been up a few days then down again.
             
             It is an absolute waste of time on a site like this which pays so badly.  I make more money in one day on mylot than in month here.

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                theraggededgeposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                Having taken a quick look, I would say that your titles aren't working hard enough for you. For example, "Are You (Too) Experienced?" doesn't give your potential reader any idea what the article is about. You would do so much better if you used search-friendly titles.
                
                https://hubpageshelp.com/content/Learni … ndly-Title

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                Sherry Hewinsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                MyLot? Talk about a waste of time.

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                Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                It sounds like you need to read my Hub on the Basic Rules.  Yes, I know you've been here as long as I have, but it's obvious you haven't kept abreast of how the rules have changed in recent times. Once you get a clear explanation of the links rules, they do make sense and they're not hard to follow.   Personally I don't agree with the strictness of them, but it's their site so it's their privilege.
                
                I've just read your article on unFeatured Hubs.  I had many Hubs unFeatured for traffic, and I did the same as you - I broke them up and used them elsewhere.   My view is, If something has been published for a while on HubPages and didn't get traffic, then you can assume it's not Google-friendly so there's no point posting it on any site that relies on Google for traffic.  You need to move it somewhere where it can earn in other ways.  That was Bubblews, for a while. Maybe MyLot works for you.  Have you tried Steemit?

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29. 93

    melbelposted 7 years ago

    A lot of my unfeatured (or rather, all of them) are crap. Either I paid someone else to write them or I didn't put a lot of passion into them. I use them for templates. When I "fix" them, I don't make a few changes. Rather, I gut them so they're completely different articles by the time I'm done with them.
    
    If they don't do well here, they probably won't fare much differently elsewhere. Your best bet is to either move on and write something different and leave those alone or use them as a guideline/template/outline for a completely updated/gutted/remodeled version.

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