Unfeatured Hubs Due to Traffic

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   Emese Frommposted 7 years ago

   I just noticed five of my hubs getting unfeatured due to traffic.  I was expecting this for some time now since I never really got a lot of traffic in the first place.  I've joined HubPages less than a year ago, didn't even start writing for the first month, so I was pleasantly surprised to see all my hubs featured as soon as I posted them, four of them were (still are) Editor's Choice.... I really just joined for being part of this community, and a chance to learn from fellow writers, not necessarily for any earning potential (though it would be nice), so I wasn't really concerned about attracting traffic. I am not really consistent with writing either. So I am not surprised or upset. I just don't know what to do about it. 
   I was thinking about deleting the hubs in question, but then soon I won't have any left. I'll try editing them, but I'd rather write new ones when I actually have the time to sit down and write here. I think I'll just leave them alone for now.  My understanding is that they are still available to the HubPages community, and that's what really matters to me at the moment.
   Any advice?

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      calculus-geometryposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      It only takes a very small edit to get them back to featured if they are defeatured for traffic. The refeaturing may not last long, but it will give you enough time to think more about what to do with them.

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         Emese Frommposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you.  I'll try doing that for now, see what happens.  I appreciate your advice.

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      NateB11posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      If I were you I'd just leave them be. Being unfeatured just means the search engine doesn't see them anymore, but Hubbers do. You can also fix it on your profile that they still show up on your profile, in the 'edit profile' mode.

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         Emese Frommposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you Nate. That's what I figured. I'll keep them on my profile though thanks for that tip

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Unfeaturing due to traffic means your hubs were not getting any search engine traffic.  In other words, Google was not ranking them.  However, even if they remain unfeatured, they can still be seen by social networks and you can still earn money from them.

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         Stacie Lposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         +++++
         

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   emgeposted 7 years ago

   Unfeatured hubs do bring in traffic. So I advice that you let them be. In case you have another site you could then delete them on hub pages and publish them again. But make sure to make some changes.

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      Emese Frommposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you emge. There is one that I might publish on another site eventually but for now it's not worth it. I think I'll just leave them.

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3. 82

   Dale Hydeposted 7 years ago

   I move all "unfeatured" hubs to my blog.  I am burnt out on editing them continually to please HP.
   
   There was a time that hubs were supposed to be "evergreen"...in other words, not need to be tweaked all the time, weekly, due to HP's whims and such.
   
   This no longer exists.  There is no point to edit them....they will just be unpublished again, soon, and very soon.
   
   No one has the time to tweak all the time, especially for the pennies HP pays.
   
   I have two sites that generate twice the revenue that I generate here....strictly Google Adsense....and not a worry about tweaking to please anyone.

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      Emese Frommposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for your input, Dale. It makes sense to move them to your own site, if you have one. I started a blog several years ago but haven't done much with it, and rarely ever publish there. I'm planning on starting a new one eventually, but in the meantime I don't really have another place to move them. For now I edited two of them and they are featured again. I'm not touching the other three, I might eventually either delete or move them.
      Thank you for your answer.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         The key to Dale's success is that he has expertise and knowledge in particular subjects, and each of his blogs concentrates on a particular field. 
         
         If you're going to revive your old blog or start a new one, then you need to choose a subject area and stick to it, otherwise you'll have virtually no hope of attracting traffic.  The days of writing a blog on a variety of subjects are long gone.
         
         Google respects age, so because your existing blog is a few years old, I would suggest building on it rather than starting something completely new.  Since it has "yarn" in the title, it would be ideal for a knitting/craft blog.   However, you would have to remove ALL the existing posts which are not relevant to knitting or crafts, because they would damage its chances of success.  Google hates irrelevant material!
         
         I would caution against using Travel as your subject, because it's an extremely competitive market (thousands and thousands of bloggers trying to fund their travels with a travel blog!).

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            Emese Frommposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Marisa, Thank you so much for your answer!
            
            Also, thank you for checking my blog.  I did start it as a knitting/craft blog, though I wanted to make sure I could also add stories.  Over time I found that when I wrote about travel, the articles attracted more views, so I added that subject to it as well.  When I realized it was a mistake, I didn't know what to do with it, so just left it until I would figure it out.  I was planning to delete it, but I am going to take your advice and just change it back to what it was originally meant to be. What you are saying makes perfect sense.   
            
            I also realized that what you are saying about Google has affected my hubs as well.  All but one of the unfeatured hubs had a subject that did not relate to the rest of them. The one that was true to the subject was not very good, it really did need editing (still does). I'll just leave the travel writing for my hubs, they seem to be doing good here, and move the craft/knitting ones to my blog.
            
            Thank you so much! I really appreciate you taking the time to help me.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               You're welcome!  If I can also suggest, gt rid of the date-based archives and instead, classify your posts into categories (and sub-categories if needed), and then provide a categories menu. 
               
               Very few readers care when you wrote a post - but if they find a post you wrote on, say, mittens, then they may well want to find posts on other kinds of gloves.  A category structure will enable them to do that. 
               
               It's best to remove the Blogroll section - it appears by default when you create a Wordpress blog but it's not necessary and not helpful to readers.

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                  Emese Frommposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes, I was planning on getting rid of the dates as I was cleaning it up to keep only relevant posts. 
                  I had another blog on Blogger, called Rekaknits, which was really just a knitting blog, nothing else, but I abandoned it when I started the one on Wordpress. I found Wordpress easier to work with than Blogger.  I started looking at it and I'm wondering now if I should revive the one on Blogger  instead.  It would be easier to keep it as a knitting blog since it never had irrelevant posts to begin with.
                  I think I'll try to work on both, see which one turns out better, then delete one of them. I still like using Wordpress, but I chose a really long title on that one.   
                  Thank you again for all your help

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     Hmm, tough one!   
                     
                     Wordpress is far more powerful than Blogger and you can create much better navigation, which gives your readers a better experience.  The BIG problem with Wordpress.com is that you can't place any advertising on it, unless you upgrade to their Premium service, which is about $90 a year.
                     
                     Personally, I think if you're serious about earning an income from your blog, then $90 a year is worth paying for their high quality service - but that's up to you. 
                     
                     I would not persevere with both - I would choose one and concentrate on it.  All things being equal, the one to choose is the one that's currently getting the most traffic.  Then gradually move the relevant posts from the other blog to your chosen one, scheduling them to appear about once a week.

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                        Emese Frommposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        That's a good idea.  I think I'll keep the WordPress, since I find it easier to work with and I get more interaction with readers on it.  I started moving some posts over. I deleted most of my posts, there were only a handful relevant to the topic. - the yarn thing.... I think this is a good plan, see where it takes me.

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            willvanderbergposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            "The days of writing a blog on a variety of subjects are long gone."
            
            Any chance you could back up that claim? Not saying I disagree, just looking for something solid to read up on.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               The case has been building for a long time, but much more so since Google changed their algorithm and started to favour "authority" more strongly.
               
               Here's what one blogger was already saying, way back in 2005:
               http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005 … any-blogs/
               
               And here's another good article:
               
               http://www.shoutmeloud.com/single-topic … -blog.html
               
               You'll notice several Hubbers saying that they've moved Hubs to their own blogs and experienced better traffic - in every case, it's a specialised blog and the Hub is relevant to the blog topic.

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   Chriswillman90posted 7 years ago

   I got my first unfeatured due to traffic hub last week but will leave it be for now. I'm still planning on doing a mass edit on all my hubs soon and see if that helps. If they're still unfeatured then will probably save them for a blog or something in the near future.

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      Emese Frommposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I think that's a good plan. I only edited two of the unfeatured ones, since I know I want to keep them here; they needed editing anyway; they were some of my first ones and honestly weren't great. I'm just letting the other ones sit until I figure out what to do with them. They are better written, but their topic doesn't fit with the rest of my hubs, so I'm guessing that's the issue.

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      Emese Frommposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      That sounds like a good plan. I don't think it's worth really stressing about it or even worrying about it. I was trying to understand how this all works since I've been here for less than a year.   I feel that some are worth editing, while others just need to be moved... I'm working on it when I have extra time.

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   Thomas Swanposted 7 years ago

   The unfeaturing has gone too far. Hubpages unfeatured a couple of my hubs earlier this week. I just edited them, got them refeatured, but now a different one is unfeatured within the hour. It was almost as if HP was waiting for me to edit those hubs before giving me another job to do. So you know what, I'm done spending my time here. If HP wants me to write here, you have to accept that some of my articles will get 100 hits per day, while others will get 1 or 2. Take my juicy google candy with a side of boring veg or you get neither. This will probably be my last comment on HP for a long time. Consider my account dormant.

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      Emese Frommposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      You have some great hubs!  I'd like to take some time to read them, so I'm glad you are just leaving the account dormant, not closing it.  I hope this is all  just temporary while HubPages figures out the best way to get traffic to our hubs.

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   ianeliteposted 7 years ago

   very nice post..worth reading.. would really love to read more

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