If a new hub doesn't fit the niches, should it go elsewhere?

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   Kylyssaposted 9 years ago

   The focus of HP has turned to the niche sites. Editing services will only be used on hubs being considered for the several new niche domains for the foreseeable future. The niche topics chosen for the next year or so seem to be pets, tattoos, piercings, beauty, food, and beverage.
   
   If we don't write on those niche topics, is there any point in putting anything new on HubPages that isn't relevant to any of them? Or should we only publish hubs in the niche topics chosen and find new places to publish other topics?
   
   I think HubPages doesn't understand that there's any effort involved on our end or that the future of pieces we place here means something to us. Otherwise, they'd publish submission guidelines for the new sites and let us know if they intend to turn HubPages into a slushpile for the niche sites.
   
   I'm sure it's different for everyone, but no one wants to waste their time posting writing on the wrong topics on a website that doesn't want them. It would be a slap in the face for HP to tell us to go about business as usual and then to only promote hubs in the chosen niche topics online while letting the main part of Hubages turn into a messy slushpile with hundreds of thousands of "submissions" they have no intention of considering for the sites they'll give a higher level of service.
   
   It's not cool to, either through action or inaction, cause other people to waste their time and effort needlessly.

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      Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Please see my previous response here: http://hubpages.com/community/forum/135 … ost2796518
      
      We do not know yet what all the niche sites will be, and we are working on a plan for the Hubs that remain on HubPages.com as well. We recommend continuing to write on subjects you are knowledgeable and passionate about as you normally would.
      
      Choosing to stop writing or move your existing Hubs elsewhere is certainly an option open those who wish to do so, but it's our intent to create a home for most of the content on HubPages eventually. And as always, the more Hubs you have, the more you are likely to earn in general, both on HP and on the niche sites.

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      1. 99

         Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I get that moving my content has always been an option. 
         
         You are very slowly creating niche sites and editing takes a long time. I understand that that isn't something that can change. Only a few thousand out of hundreds of thousands of hubs will be moved to niche sites within the next months. This whole niche project is really only going to move about one percent of existing hubs within the coming months to a year.
         
         I get the idea that you'll be getting to other niches eventually, but if you do the math using the team's past editing speed, it's pretty clear that anything beyond a tiny percentage of hubs making it to niche sites is months to years away.
         
         Meanwhile, all of HubPages top earning hubs will be gone from HubPages. Google will see the remains of HubPages as a site with fewer quality pages that gets fewer views, downgrading it even further than it is now. At some point during the move to niches, the only real chance for new hubs to get substantial views will to be on the niche sites because the high-traffic pages and thousands of pages Google considers higher quality will have been removed from the site and the old trash HP has never purged will still be here.
         
         I'm not sure, but staff replies to hubber questions seem to imply that niches are the one and only priority from now until the foreseeable future, or at least until HubPages comes out of crisis mode and comes up with a plan. If that impression is wrong, it needs correction quickly, because it reads like the remaining 99% of hubs will be left here without site improvements, tech support, staff involvement, promotion, or editing services and may or may not even have homes after a short time. My impression is that no effort will be put into removing the years and years of accumulated trash on HubPages because you're sorting out the trash by skimming off the cream and taking it off to use elsewhere. Are my impressions correct?

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            Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            "Meanwhile, all of HubPages top earning hubs will be gone from HubPages."
            
            This will not be the case until we've launched a significant number of niche sites and we intend to have the HubPages question figured out by then. We are not choosing starting niches purely by traffic. There are a number of factors that have gone into the decisions regarding which sites to start with and the majority of traffic will continue to reside on HubPages for quite a while to come, except in the specific topics that have already been transferred.
            
            In other words, for people who write on those specific subjects, the goal should be to write content that will be chosen for the new sites. For Hubbers who do not write on those topics, nothing has changed yet.

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            1. 99

               Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               If HubPages proper will continue to receive the same level of attention from staff that it always has, you really, really need to do some image management by announcing it. The lack of planning involved in this move makes clear communication vital. Or if there actually was planning, that needs to be communicated because you're currently communicating that there was and still isn't a solid master plan of any sort.
               
               I've been concerned that the focus on only about 1% of hubs would result in the loss of:
               
               *Tech support including repair of bugs and broken features.
               *Staff involvement in HubPages proper and its forums.
               *Promotion of HubPages proper by HubPages.
               *Plans to remove the trash hubs that are killing HubPages because the trash problem could be considered solved simply by abandoning it on HubPages.
               
               People need to know if the plan is to turn HP into an untended slushpile or not.

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               chef-de-jourposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Thank you Christy Kirwan. Quite a few twists and turn in this online journey! I'll continue to write as normal and not move any hubs just yet. Best to wait and see how the new niches perform.

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         2. 87

            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I don't know where you get the idea that HubPages has ever done any "promotion" for any Hubs - it doesn't.  Things like Hub of the Day or Editor's Choice are simply internal promotion and make no difference to a Hub's external traffic.   So that won't change.
            
            As for editing - as you know, editing has been limited to the best Hubs, so it never did anything to address the dross, so it's loss won't be crucial IMO.
            
            Also, as you rightly point out, it will take a LONG time for all the niche sites to be created, so to say Hubs won't have a home within a SHORT time doesn't make sense.  In the long term - I agree that's less certain.

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            1. 99

               Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               The advertisements that HubPages buys are promotions. If they buy ads for TatRing or PetHelpful instead of, instead of in addition to, ads for HubPages they will be ending their promotion of hubs.
               
               Hubs won't have a good home after the high-traffic hubs have been cleared from the site and the trash has been left behind with them.
               
               Editing doesn't address the dross so that's why I made it a separate bullet point. It's just a service that will go away for the hubs on HubPages.
               
               If they just scrape off the cream to use instead of continuing to try to get rid of the dross, it will affect what's left behind with the trash.
               
               The loss of services and features combined with the loss of all the high-traffic hubs would cause changes in the way Hubpages performs.

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                  Barbara Kayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  I am like you and I am a bit worried about the hubs that are just left here. I'll just start new niche sites myself it that happens. What else is left? It isn't that hard to start a site or blog yourself. I have several.

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                     Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     It's simple and easy to start a blog and to post on it. Producing enough single-topic content, promoting it, and monetizing it effectively are not.

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2. 61

   Adam Harkusposted 9 years ago

   I for one haven't the desire or knowledge to write about pets, tattoos or piercings. I'll just continue as is, until either Hubpages sinks or sites on other topics are launched. If the experiment fails though, I feel Hubpages has nowhere to go.

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3. 80

   chef-de-jourposted 9 years ago

   But are you certain that these topics are the only ones they'll be actively promoting for a year or so? Is this you guessing or HP definitely stating?

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      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      It's a guess. However it's not an unreasonable guess, because they are hand-picking the Hubs for each of the new niche sites, and that's a labour-intensive process for a company that doesn't have many staff.  So just getting each site ready will take time - and then they'll want to wait and see whether the first few sites work before investing effort into doing more.

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   2. 99

      Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      It's a guess but they've stated they'll be making niches on those topics; the part that is a guess is the speed at which the changes will occur.
      
      They've managed to edit something like 4,000 of HubPages hubs in something like a year. While they probably won't do a full formula checklist edit on every hub they move, they've stated there will be editing of the hubs moved and that editors will be choosing hubs, which also takes time.
      
      There are hundreds of thousands of hubs. Even if they go a lot faster than they have in the past and process ten thousand hubs in the next year, it's still only a drop in the bucket. It just so happens the hubs that get most of the views are in that drop.
      
      I don't think it makes sense to endlessly add to the hundreds of thousands of hubs any hubs but those that have a future with HubPages or one of its daughter sites.

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4. 87

   Marisa Wrightposted 9 years ago

   Personally I wouldn't write any new Hubs except on subjects which have been announced as future niche sites. My reasoning is this: 
   
   It's fairly obvious that HubPages is choosing the subjects for niche sites based on which topics are currently getting the highest traffic. By definition these are likely to be the best Hubs - or at least the Hubs which Google judges as the best, which is what matters for traffic.
   
   If you have a group of items and remove all the best ones, the average quality of the group will drop. So it seems obvious that's what will happen to HubPages.com - when all the best Hubs are removed, what's left will be all the dregs of the site, plus a smattering of high quality Hubs on unpopular topics.  HubPages has said they don't want HubPages.com to become a rump, but I don't quite see how they will avoid it.
   
   The big difficulty, of course is - where is "elsewhere"?  I don't know of any other writing site which can match HubPages for earnings, even now.  So unless you are ready to run your own site, if you want to write you don't have much alternative.

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      chef-de-jourposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      You could be right.
      Solution?
      I'm going to write super new hubs on this wild niche topic : How to Tattoo and Pierce your Cat and Dog whilst cooking Home Made Alcohol Stew.

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         Besarienposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         This comment made my day! Thanks.

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         Eleshposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         This is the best comment  ever. Lol.

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5. 68

   Sue Adamsposted 9 years ago

   You are right. For us, untattooed, ugly, sober, no-foodies, as long as we keep getting our monthly payout, it's probably best to continue as normal - with our content well backed up, just in case.

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6. 92

   paperfacetsposted 9 years ago

   This is my plan. If HP does not take my pet Hubs to the Pet site, I will move them myself. If I continue to see traffic and sales here I will stay where I reap the most pennies. I have a blog, another platform like HP to write on and a host that lets me have any number of websites.
   
   Kylyssa, you know that you will not get answers to some questions. Businesses do not want to say too much most of the time, because they will change their mind or strategies just when we have everything working to the formula.
   
   You are a good, and creative writer and will do okay. All this wait and see changes are very unsettling for sure.

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      Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      The changes aren't unsettling, their admission that they're making the changes without a plan is.

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      Barbara Kayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I agree paperfacets.

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7. 0

   Bronwyn Joy Ellioposted 9 years ago

   + infinity and beyond

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8. 61

   FatFreddysCatposted 9 years ago

   I have a grand total of one hub which would qualify for the new "niche sites" and it doesn't look like it's going to be moved there anytime soon, soooo....(shrugs).
   
   Screw it. Wake me up when HP gets around to launching their niche sites devoted to heavy metal music and/or trashy movies. When that happens I should be golden.

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   1. 99

      Kylyssaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I have several pet hubs, but it looks like they're not going anywhere either.
      
      The average hubber is unlikely to see any of their hubs moved any time soon. So the real impact on the majority of hubbers will be determined by how well the Hubpages primary site gets taken care of while the whole team is focusing on the niches for the foreseeable future.

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         calculus-geometryposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I can't get the image of a vacant lot with weeds out of my head.
         

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