Can we have 2-3 amazon modules per page or 1 product per 300 words?

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   iijuan12posted 21 months ago

   I keep editing my pages and keep getting e-mails back saying my lesson plan pages are still spammy. I finally e-mailed the hubpage team, and they said they recommend that each page only have 2-3 amazon modules per page. I thought the rule was that we were allowed to have 1 related amazon module per 300 words. Has this rule been changed? Is there any petition I can make in regards to this?
   
   All of my amazon modules are books or other items we used in the lesson or for homework, so they are all completely relevant. I have even deleted some of the amazon modules for the books we are using in the lesson plan, but it is still not enough.
   
   Here is a sampling of my most recent "spammy" set of hubs:
   http://hubpages.com/education/east-and- … esson-plan - 7668 words & 7 amazon modules
   http://hubpages.com/education/lever-and … esson-plan - 3836 words & 4 amazon modules
   http://hubpages.com/education/amphibian … esson-plan  - 3431 words & 7 amazon modules
   http://hubpages.com/education/knights-lesson-plan 2850 words & 7 amazon modules
   http://hubpages.com/family/sheep-lesson 2057 words & 3 amazon modules

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 21 months ago in reply to this

      I scrolled through your first article, and while I felt it was well written and informative, after awhile it almost seemed to me that you were selling products more than you were teaching lessons.
      
      The truth is that while your advertised books are definitely relevant to your topic, they are not the only books on those topics, so saying "you will need", and then naming titles, seems spammy to me.
      
      I would advise taking each section and making a hub out of it, which would include a reference to one or two books that are relevant to what you are writing about.
      
      I think if you do this you will see more success, even though your articles might be shorter.
      
      When writing online, you need to remember that readers have very short attention spans.  So, creating shorter articles about one specific topic might be a better bet for you.

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         iijuan12posted 21 months ago in reply to this

         Thank you for your suggestions.

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   Marisa Wrightposted 21 months ago

   This is just an example of the way HubPages' rules say one thing, but the reality says another.
   
   There has been a witch hunt against Amazon capsules for over a year now, and just recently it has got much, much worse - to the point where it's nonsensical.
   
   I think I told you that I had a Hub reviewing four specific DVD's and even though I had far more than 300 words for each DVD, I still couldn't get it approved with four Amazon capsules.  For the life of me, I can't see how it is more useful for me NOT to tell the reader where to buy one of the DVD's. There is no logic to that, it's just stupid.  Exactly the same applies to your Hubs, where every Amazon capsule serves a useful purpose in providing the materials needed to complete the lesson.
   
   I have often recommended people to try creating their own website, but I wouldn't usually advise anyone to delete established Hubs.  However in your case, I think it's the only way forward.   PM me if you need some help getting started.

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      iijuan12posted 21 months ago in reply to this

      Thank you! I looked into WordPress and might start working on that over the summer. The school year is just too busy for such a huge project. A large number of my hubs have been unfeatured due to this issue. I was hoping I might be able to actually figure out a way to get them featured (and save me many hours of time transferring over my pages) -- but the prospects for that are looking rather bleak.

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      iijuan12posted 21 months ago in reply to this

      Is there any petition I can make in regards to this? I did try posting something (on a slightly different topic) to the forum for the hub team, and it doesn't appear that anyone from the hub team ever took notice of it.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 21 months ago in reply to this

         If you want to contact the Hub team then you need to post in the technical forums which are monitored by staff.

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            iijuan12posted 21 months ago in reply to this

            Okay! Thank you! I posted it in the New Feature Suggestions Discussions forum.

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   calculus-geometryposted 21 months ago

   If you got a human email response that said limit the number to 2 or 3 per page, then I'm afraid there's not much else you can do.  HP's rules for Amazon, eBay, and external links have only become more restrictive over the years.  It's not inconceivable that someday we will all be limited to 1 link and only if the hub has at least 4000 words.
   
   You should probably put these on your own site.

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   Millionaire Tipsposted 21 months ago

   I don't know about HP rules, but I read once that instead of twisting your article to please Google, you should write to please the reader, and let Google figure out how to write the algorithm so it does capture articles that do please the reader. I think this applies for HubPages as well.
   
   As a reader, I think that 7 capsules in hubs like this are excessive, not because of the products to words ratio, but because of the purpose of the hub.  The purpose of the hub is to show people how to teach a particular lesson, not what supplies to buy to teach the lesson, so one or two capsules would work just fine as resources. Most of the time, you say that you used a particular book, but don't really say why you chose that book, whether the kids liked it,  what type of lesson it taught, or why you are recommending that particular book.
   
   Remember, that you will get commission on whatever they buy after they click that link, so you don't have to throw in that many links, just throw in one that really compels the reader to click it and start shopping.  It really works better if you give the reader a reason to click. If you tell them why this book is the best (and you can't have 7 best books), then they are more likely to click on it and buy it.
   
   If you want to keep that many capsules, you can try first with explaining why you are recommending these products, and see if that is enough for the moderation team.
   
   If the hub was about "best books to teach children about" then I think that more would be okay to give the reader more choices, but I can't say for sure.

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      Susana Sposted 21 months ago in reply to this

      Good post.
      
      I think the main problem is that the hub titles do not fully reflect the hub contents.

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   iijuan12posted 21 months ago

   Thank you for the suggestions! The titles are the titles of the lesson plans. The amazon modules reflect the books that are used in the lesson plan. We read 7 picture books during the lesson on East Africa. That is why there are 7 amazon modules. Including materials needed to teach a lesson is actually part of a normal lesson plan.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 21 months ago in reply to this

      Personally I think that's entirely reasonable!  I do think it's a fair point, though, that HubPages now expects some indication that you're recommending each product chosen, rather than simply picking a suitable book at random.   Maybe it's a matter of making that clearer in the text?

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      iijuan12posted 21 months ago in reply to this

      Thank you! I do explain in each amazon module why I picked each particular book to include in the lesson.

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         Ramkitten2000posted 21 months ago in reply to this

         I often wonder if the MTurk folks actually read the content of a hub.

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      Susana Sposted 21 months ago in reply to this

      If I was looking for a lesson plan I wouldn't expect to see 7 affiliate links on the page, nor would I have my debit card at the ready to buy things.
      
      I think that's the crux of the problem - a mismatch between keywords, content and reader intent.
      
      If the title, and therefore keywords used to find the page, reflected buying choices and/or resources required for the lesson then I would be in a buying frame of mind and seeing product options on the page would make sense.
      
      I suggest looking around the net at other pages on lesson plans, do they contain lots of affiliate links?

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         iijuan12posted 21 months ago in reply to this

         I have viewed at least a few thousand lesson plans on-line, and yes, they typically feature many affiliate links.

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   iijuan12posted 21 months ago

   Yay! Thank you so much to the editor who took notice of this post! The pages I listed above are now featured again.

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