Niche Sites and HP?

1. 78

   Don Bobbittposted 9 years ago

   
   Of course, HP is playing their cards close to their vest, and rightly so.
   
   But, from what I know about fracturing the HP family of writers into these so-called "Niche Sites" is a little like taking a cannon ball and melting it down to pour the liquid into molds for shotgun shot.
   
   Each group pulled over and into a niche takes away from the HP whole, and at the same time, puts those of us moved into a smaller place to be found by the world.
   
   Actually, it seems that the rest of us can do that ourselves with a little diligence, possibly training, and education. But we can build our own "smaller home".
   
   They say you can tell when a ship is going to sink because the Rats come out of their holes.
   
   I see a lot of rats in my morning feed, mostly illiterates a lot with copied items some with great rats on a hotel in a small town in the far reaches of India, Pakistan and Africa. Are these our Rats?
   DON

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   1. 99

      Rochelle Frankposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Well, I would refer you to my hub about getting rid of rats-- but that would seem self-promotional.

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      OldRosesposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      From what I'm reading on the forums, niche sites are the last gasp of content farms before they go belly up.

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      1. 87

         Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         We don't know that, because only one other content site has ever tried it. It failed because it made a complete botch of the transfer, so the new sites never got off the ground. So we're in new territory

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         1. 62

            C.V.Rajanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I think you mean Helium, but there was this Triond (http://www.triond.com/) which was practically doing the same idea at least 6 to 8 yrs ago. In the above link, you can see their topical website details too. I was writing for them for some time, but it was of no use (from income point of view).  I left it and withdrew my articles. Whether they were/ are successful, I have no idea.
            
            (The only great thing I vaguely remember about them is that they had virtually no minimum accumulated payout amount. Even if it was 1 dollar, they were religiously crediting it every month those days!!)
            
            C.V.Rajan

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         2. 72

            makingamarkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            No Squidoo tried it too
            
            It was a non-starter. Happened just before the end when they were getting a bit desperate and jumping on any idea which floated by - a bit like a melting ice cap!
            
            Niche sites work when they have an Editor who is enthusiastic about the subject and exercises judgement to keep out the trash.
            
            Niche sites where anybody can contribute only work (up to a point) if they are called Wikipedia.
            
            I've never come across a collaborative niche sites with a business model for earning income behind it. In that sense it's unknown territory.
            
            Niche sites with one careful lady owner are however another matter entirely!

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            1. 98

               Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Actually, they are called magazines and there are plenty of them.

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            2. 98

               Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Actually, they tried it more than once. Remember the SquidPaws lenses and Ever.com things they tried a few years before that? The lenses of mine put into Paws and Ever sunk like rocks so I recall the try.

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   3. 60

      Vic Dillingerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Brilliant, Don Bobbitt, and definitely points up what's coming.

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2. 78

   Wesman Todd Shawposted 9 years ago

   It's all okay. The crap gets de-indexed soon, if it ever gets indexed at all.  I'm for the niche sites - just so long as they create some for my junk

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      Sam Montanaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      That what I am thinking also. The first niche sites seem rather narrow like a site for tattoo articles. I guess all we can do is wait and see how it all works.

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      1. 72

         makingamarkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         That is THE WHOLE POINT of Niche sites - they have a very specific focus!!!

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3. 78

   Don Bobbittposted 9 years ago

   Yeah, Somehow HP doesn't understand the basic reason for their existence as far as writers are concerned, EXPOSURE!
   That's right, their  job is to provide us and our articles with EXPOSURE. Exposure for our EGOs or for MONEY or for both, but in the end, for exposure.
   So, do your job HP! Where's our exposure?
   DON

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4. 60

   Jesse Drzalposted 9 years ago

   I think Hubpages is doing all they can to get out of Pandas death grip. We will just have to wait and see and patient. I'm sure there will be some kinks along the way too. I would stay and give them a chance. They are one of the first to be in this format and is now basically the last man standing. That means something to me.

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   1. 78

      Wesman Todd Shawposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Whenever I write an article I know already that surely there is somewhere on the web another one about that topic, and so all I have to do is outdo that one already out there. It isn't too hard to do that, usually - as the formatting here make for damn fine looking webpages.
      
      I think that now it takes longer for an article to age, and be accepted by search engines as legit or good. I've no statistical analysis for any of that, just my feelings about it for looking at my stats and remembering how things used to go.  Everything is fine, maybe you have to work a tad harder to make a page good now - that's fair, there is more competition now.

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      1. 60

         Jesse Drzalposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Right on.

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      2. 81

         Farkleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I don't think it's no longer as easy to "outdo" as it was before. In my experience, you can write far better than other other websites, offer much more, but then you're penalized because Google doesn't like us. With the other websites being older and us being featured on a generic website, I don't think we stand a chance of beating other websites. For this reason, I think hubpages is on a good path in doing niches, Google doesn't seem to like websites on generic stuff.

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         1. 72

            makingamarkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Google does not like HubPages. It is simple as that.
            
            Take your content (assuming it's decent quality) and....
            Put it on your own niche site (assuming you have enough to make this a worthwhile exercise) and....
            Watch your traffic rocket.

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5. 90

   Venkatachari Mposted 9 years ago

   I simply like to listen to your threads. Knowing the views of all of you. No comments for now please.

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6. 61

   Linda Poitrasposted 9 years ago

   Well I know that what I right isn't popular but I don't like the fact the HP decides for me what people will read or not. Which is sad. But anyway ... such is life on HP I guess ... would be nice if it changed

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7. 84

   Suzanne Dayposted 9 years ago

   I like the niche sites idea and they could take off money wise. As long as spam in comments etc and spammy articles are eliminated. Imagine with Tatring if you wrote your own site of 300 pages, it would work very well for Google. The only problem is waiting for the domain to age and get more exposure but the upside is that HP writers don't have to write 300 articles themselves.

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   1. 72

      makingamarkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Nonsense. The domain does not need to age.
      
      The domain just needs to be relevant to the topic and contain enough quality content of a very specific topic.
      
      Google is all over quality content as soon as it hits the internet - there's no waiting to age involved!

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8. 61

   pumpkincat210posted 9 years ago

   Right when it seems that traffic is increasing or has increased a new version of Panda is rolled out and the down trend starts over.  Also, my hub was doing better until they had outside help optimizing the site.  That really killed my traffic. 

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