Hubber Advice

1. 59

   Jesse Drzalposted 9 years ago

   As an extension of Timetraveler2's recent thread, I would like to personally invite LONG tenured hubbers with a hub score at LEAST 5 points higher than mine to browse my profile quick and check out how my hubs are laid out and structured, and just give some advice, good or bad, to help me become a better hubber, so I can further work on producing material that is good quality. I already know in advance that some titles are not very SEO savvy. Thanks!

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      Blond Logicposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Jesse,
      I've just had a look at your sunglasses hub. I think it is a great idea but I would say make it less history and more about how it will suit the wear. Something like, "Which sunglasses style suits your face shape" or "Celebs and their favorite styles" or "10 biggest mistakes most people make when choosing sunglasses.
      In general, the viewing public want to know what you can do for them. They have problems and want you to solve them. They want to make money, lose weight, and also need guidance for choosing the best pair of sunglasses.
      
      I hope that helps.

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   2. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, your titles need fixing.  Work on that first.

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2. 0

   calculus-geometryposted 9 years ago

   A lot of your hubs are broad and shallow, but if you want good search engine traffic they need to be narrower and deeper.   People google specific questions, titles and topics need to answer questions.
   
   In the faucet hub, for example, the writing doesn't give the impression that you have more expertise in this area than the average person. It contains a lot of general statements that any lay person could have made if they spent 10 minutes googling and skimming home improvement sites. But if you really are a faucet expert then you need to pick topics and titles that make it clear you can be a trusted authority on them.  It would be better to write a long in-depth hub comparing the pros and cons of different types, or write one hub for each type that you have experience installing, repairing and using. If you are a plumber, repairman, contractor or whatnot, it's good to mention that too.
   
   Feel free to disregard this advice if our score differential decreases.
   
   Btw, the best people to ask advice from are people who get traffic, regardless of their score of how long they have been a content farmer on HP. There are users who have been on the site for less than 2 years and already have a million views.  Of course, a lot of people who get good traffic don't advertise it and don't bother with the forums.  best of luck to you in any case.

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   1. 59

      Jesse Drzalposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I will pretty much disregard that. But thank you for your time anyways.

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      1. 0

         calculus-geometryposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         looks like someone else had the same thoughts as me
         http://hubpages.com/community/forum/134 … ost2793111

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         1. 75

            TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, I was surprised to see we finally agree on something!

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3. 59

   Jesse Drzalposted 9 years ago

   Once again, thank you for you time.

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4. 59

   Jesse Drzalposted 9 years ago

   Thank you, Marisa, for the advice. You have helped me out very much on my past forum questions as well. Every few days or so, I find myself hopping on your profile and reading a bunch of your content. You are a talented writer.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      +1

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5. 84

   jansharesposted 9 years ago

   Hi Jesse, welcome to HubPages. I checked out your profile page and hubs. Nice topics. Here's my advice on titles and subtitles. Don't capitalize these words: by, and, in, is, to and of. The following are tricky and could go either way depending on title structure and your preference: with, from, it, and your. Other hubbers may have different opinions, just wanted to share what works for me. I wish you the best, you have a great start.

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6. 59

   Jesse Drzalposted 9 years ago

   With all due respect calculus and timetravel, I do appreciate you guys taking the time to read and interact. What I have issue with is your guys thinly veiled references at calling me a content writer hack. I have received on here, and on social media as well many, many genuine comments on my articles. I have received some very nice traffic as well. I see my stats, and people are reading through my work. I just received an engaging writer accolade as well, Remember I am new here. Six weeks in. And you know what, if SEO is not good and my first few articles get ignored by a search engine, so be it. I really don't care. Once again, thank you for taking your time to interact with me, as I look forward to our future interactions as well. I hope you all have a good day.

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   1. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Jesse, I think you're misunderstanding what those two Hubbers have to say.  I just went and checked TT2's critique of one of your Hubs and I felt it was pretty much spot-on.    I don't think she was saying your Hubs ARE spun, just that because you were writing overviews rather than going into more detail on a subject, it could give that impression. 
      
      Also when you write a Hub offering basic information on a subject, you're in competition with sites like Wikipedia - and that's a competition you're not going to win.  Whereas if you can focus in on a particular aspect of that subject, you've got a better chance. 
      
      The Springer Spaniel Hub is another good example.  If I google Springer Spaniel there's plenty of information already out there which gives a general overview.   What could you share about these dogs that isn't widely covered?  You mention hunting - perhaps you could do a whole Hub on using these dogs for hunting, how to train them, good and bad points, etc etc?   
      
      Also, again you've got an irrelevant Amazon ad, which could result in your Hub being unpublished at some point.  The product is dog-related but you do not refer to it at any point in your Hub and it is not related to Spaniels or any of the activities mentioned - that means it is nowhere near related enough.  HubPages is getting more and more strict about this rule, so be careful!

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      calculus-geometryposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      At least you have a good attitude, sorry that you read into it that I was calling you a hack, I wasn't.  I was only explaining problems with the less-than-strategic choice of topic and overly general nature of the information presented.
      
      I don't know what line of work you're in in real life, but that's usually the best place to mine for ideas because you can go into depth explaining things the average person doesn't know.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      You definitely misunderstood what I was saying.  Nobody said you were a "hack", only that the info you provided was very similar to the type that people can find anywhere in the internet.
      
      It is common for people who don't really know about a topic to spin such info and produce articles using it.  Had you clarified that you were a plumber, that comment would not even have been in the mix.  I just wanted you to know how the article might be viewed. 
      
      The fact that another hubber made the same comment should serve as a red flag about that issue, because your wordage clearly could be viewed that way if you were not actually a plumber.
      
      Furthermore, if many are writing about the same topic, which they probably are, you will have stiff competition, which may mean your article won't be ranked well and will not bring in many views.

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7. 59

   Jesse Drzalposted 9 years ago

   Do not capitalize ok I see.I just do It because I thought it looked pro..I see what you are saying. Thank you for taking the time to look. I appreciate that.

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      jansharesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      You're welcome.

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8. 59

   Jesse Drzalposted 9 years ago

   No problem calculus. I may have just misconstrued your comments, and I apologize to you for that. Thank you for the last words of advice too, Marisa. You have a nice way of explaining things, very to the point and very helpful, so thank you again for that. The point of this thread and the whole exercise is that I, as a new Hubber, want to write the best that I can. Good writing by new members and old will help BUILD this site, to make people WANT to read Hubpage authors and grow the site for everyone here. ALL members, but especially new one's NEED to adhere to this.
   
   Ok now the nitty gritty. As timetraveler suggested on another thread, she had trouble beliving me as a plumber and also stated the material felt contrived. I am in fact, a real plumber with many years trade experience. But, timetraveler is correct, I never stated that. The purpose of the article was to bring up different design styles, including finishes and spout styles. My target audience was for designers, and homeowners looking for information. Because it was not meant to be a how-to article, i.e crawling under the sink and replacing hoses with wrenches etc I did not feel the need to state myself as someone who has worked in the plumbing trades. And timetravel had another solid point that iI totally missed. The title. Replacing in the title would suggest this was a how-to artice, which it is not, and leaves the reader deceived.  I need to rework my profile information and state my experience in subjects I am using in my writing. And now Amazon. I am just using keyword search for product placement, so I was assuming if that came up, It was Amazon approved. Guess not. The pet friendly, non toxic ice melter for animals came up and I thought that makes sence..Its winter out..so that is why. We need to get some better Amazon info out there for Hubbers, It is not really mentioned in the learning center. The Spaniel article is just a fun thing for me to share in my Springer groups, there are many people in those groups and I enjoy my interactions with them. Between all my 11 hubs, I am getting like 100-150 views a day so far. Any more input from you guys would be great, and sorry calc and traveler no hard feelings. Thank you all so much, Jesse Drzal

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   1. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Jesse, you don't need to rework your profile since very few readers will actually look at it.  Virtually the only people who look at your profile are other Hubbers.   What you should do is add some "biographies" - go to your Account and look in the nav bar for "About the Author". Click on that and you'll find you can create a number of short biographies, which you can "attach" to different Hubs.  Write one mentioning your skills as a plumber then assign it to Hubs as needed.
      
      As for Amazon - Amazon does not care what you put in your Hubs.  HubPages has its own rules about what you are allowed to show, and the rule is that whatever product you select, it must be very closely related to the subject of your Hub.  It's usually better to choose a specific product than rely on a keyword research, to avoid the risk that an inappropriate product will appear, a moderator will spot it and summarily unpublish your Hub!
      
      There is quite a big learning curve to Hubbing (and to online writing generally).  It is confusing at times!

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      When writing about plumbing issues, be sure to share your plumbing expertise as part of your bio.

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9. 59

   Jesse Drzalposted 9 years ago

   There has to be a compiled list of sorts I think, even if loosely connected. There must be tons of hubs floating around with incorrect products. So would an ad for a beach towel on a beach/vacation article be deemed acceptable, you think? I did filter through many of the Amazon results and did pick with what I thought was a properly placed product.

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   1. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, of course there are tons of Hubs with inappropriately placed products - there are many Hubs which haven't been through the QAP since the rules were tightened.  The thing is, you never know when a moderator may notice yours.
      
      The rule is fairly simple:  products must be CLOSELY and SPECIFICALLY related to the subject of the Hub.
      
      So, to take your example, a beach towel on your vacation article would be acceptable IF you were writing about what to pack, and you were recommending a particular size or style of towel to take with you.  It would not be acceptable if you were writing an article about the best places to go for a beach vacation - too distantly related.
      
      Similarly, if you were writing a Hub about how to sew a skirt, a skirt pattern or a recommended type of thread would be fine:  but a sewing machine would not be, unless you needed a specific type of machine to make the skirt. 
      
      Same with home handyman Hubs - you can feature the specific tools you need for the task being described, but not others.
      
      With this in mind, you'll see that quite often, you may not even be able to find an Amazon product to go with some Hubs:  that's normal.  It may seem unnecessarily restrictive - but in practice, you'll find that closely related products are far, far more likely to be clicked on, so it is in your financial interests to follow the rule.

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10. 59

    Jesse Drzalposted 9 years ago

    That all makes sense.

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