What will happen to the creatives here in terms of niches

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   AudreyHowittposted 8 years ago

   Has anyone heard anything about the future of poetry and fiction in terms of niches? I am a bit concerned that all us poets will get lost in the shuffle somewhere

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      Will Apseposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      They have always had a soft spot for the creatives. They will probably find a home for you, somewhere.

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      chef-de-jourposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      The image of a homeless, dreaming poet somehow fits!! So romantic.
      
      But I get your point Audrey. This is harsh reality. As HP re-aligns and becomes more nicheified (what a weird looking word!), somehow the poetry will fall into place - into one of the new niches hopefully. If not we'll have to keep writing no matter what and review the situation further down the line.

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         Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Maybe all the poets and fiction writers writers from HubPages have to band together and create our own niche Creative Writing website.

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            Phyllis Doyleposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Count me in, Jodah. I unpublished all my creative stories and poems months ago when I had an inkling there was a big change coming at HP. I re-published them on another site, but will gladly move them to a new site when all creative hubbers start their own site.
            
            I think poetry will always be popular and well-loved and creative stories will also be much appreciated. Just look at the history of creative writers and poets - they are timeless.

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               Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks Phyllis, There are plenty of poetry exclusive sites on the Internet, but not many that I know of that cater for all kinds of creative writing..short fiction, poetry, humour etc... The only ones I have found are Google+So it could be a popular niche. Especially if we can keep the community atmosphere. I would be willing to help manage it but couldn't solely handle that responsibility.

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                  Phyllis Doyleposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  I would gladly help manage our site. Marisa (a few posts ago here) also said she would gladly set it up for us and host it free. This seems more possible than I thought, and I have given a lot of thought to it over this last year.
                  
                  I think we could make a go of it, Jodah.
                  
                  PS: So far we have you, Audrey and me. I bet a lot more would join us - The Creative Exiles.

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                     Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     I love the name "The Creative Exiles". I am willing to give this ago if we can pull it off. I know  ahorseback (Ed), Bronwyn and a few others feeling the same way and beginning to move their work so they would probably join us. There is strength in numbers. I say let's do it, especially with Marissa's kind offer. Maybe we should start a seperate forum thread asking for interest. What do you all think?

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                        Phyllis Doyleposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        I am with you on this, Jodah. Yes, we need a separate thread to get this going for us. Please open the thread and I will support you.

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                           RedElfposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                           Please post link to new thread...

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                              Phyllis Doyleposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                              Here you are, RedElf:
                              
                              http://hubpages.com/literature/forum/13 … -and-poets

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                     RedElfposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     I love the sound of that. I have certainly not been publishing much here recently but joining the Creative Exiles is right up my alley

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            BigBlue54posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Can I ask if you have thought of using Medium. There are writers and poets on there. They are not paying at the moment but they are looking to moneterise the site. There are groups on there and if you fancied setting up your own group that is possible.
            
            I joined recently and I am following one writer who has had 20+ books published.

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               Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               No BigBlue, I haven't heard of Medium. I will have to check it out. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

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                  Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  I just checked out Medium and it looks to be quite a good writing platform. Subjects are very wide ranging like HubPages, but the intro etc is quite impressive and it is linked closely to Twitter through the same founder. Although it isn't creative writing specific, it may be worth others taking a look at.

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                     BigBlue54posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     Glad I could help, Jodah.

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      Genna Eastposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Great question, Audrey.  I have seriously thought about traveling elsewhere on the Net to publish my creative writing.  But as usual, time is my enemy, and I thought I'd sit put for a bit and wait to see what happens.

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      CrisSpposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Pity!

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   Marisa Wrightposted 8 years ago

   HubPages has announced only three niche sites so far, so we don't know.
   
   However I would also be pessimistic, frankly.   HubPages is making these changes to stay in business, and they are choosing the niche sites based on the Hubs which make the most money for them. 
   
   As I'm sure you're well aware, creative writing and poetry make the least money of all - and that's true everywhere on the internet.  So if they get a niche site at all, it will be right down at the end of the list, which could be years away! 
   
   If I were HubPages, I'd be doing a cost/benefit analysis for each niche site they create:  "Is the potential profit from this niche site enough to justify the cost of creating it?"   I fear the sums may not add up for a creative writing niche.

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   Jodahposted 8 years ago

   Audrey, this concernes me as well. The question was put to HP staff previously after the niche sites were announced and they said a niche site for poetry and creative writing may be considered but that it wouldn't be in the first 15 launched. So they obviously have an idea of what the first 15 will be and as predicted (and Marisa said) it certainly won't be given any priority. Hopefully the original HubPages is kept alive at least as a home for creative writing.
   They say poetry isn't popular. The funny thing is that advertising myself as a freelance writer and offering to write poetry, prose, text for children's books, ghostwriting etc...almost all my requests have been for poetry (and it's increasing every month). The best thing about HubPages is being able to use your collection of hubs as your portfolio to advertise your work.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      It's not that poetry is unpopular - it's simply that the nature of poetry/creative writing means it's very difficult to make it search engine friendly, and that means people can't find it on Google, unless it's on a dedicated poetry site.

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      AudreyHowittposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I am glad that you are getting more and more work John! You deserve it--I have been getting my stuff out there in literary journals--but that is sloooow going as the submission periods are so long--I am wondering whether to keep writing poetry here--or switch it legal or mental health articles--but I don't ejoy that writing nearly as much

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         Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you Audrey, and good for you being published in the literary journals. Mental Health articles will probably do well and find a a place in a niche site at some stage. I am sure that type of writing is less enjoyable however. It is difficult to know whether to continue writing poetry here, and I have slowed down my hub production since the introduction of the niche sites. I imagine I will continue to write poetry here however as I doubt the main site will close anytime soon. However I thought we could start our own site for creative writing I would just concentrate on article type hubs.

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   Bronwyn Joy Ellioposted 8 years ago

   The same as usual, Audrey... we will be scr**ed over.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      If HubPages was making a lot of money out of your work, and then treating you badly, then I'd agree with you.
      
      However the situation is that HubPages is providing you with server space and website software free of charge, and taking only a percentage of what you earn.  Whatever you're earning from your Hubs, they're earning less.   If you're really not doing well, then you may even be costing them money.

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         ryanpugsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Its only really bandwidth which costs money though, the resources consumed in actually serving the page to visitors, simply having a few megabytes of data on a drive costs near enough nothing. Its the thousands of times that database is queried which costs money.
         
         So by virtue of not getting any traffic, unpopular content won't be expensive. Your hub Flamenco Props and Accessories is apparently 46mb in size. That's actually quite big for a webpage, but I could store 2782 hubs of the same size in the top iPhone 6s model.
         
         Or in other words, I could probably host every page on hubpages on a cheap VPS plan if they aren't going to get any traffic. Its when they start getting millions of hits a month that it would potentially require a ton of server racks and a massive electricity bill.

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            wordscribe43posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Oh my gosh!  Hi Ryan!  Pretty sure you are the person I am thinking.  I certainly remember your love for Pugs!  Anyway, great to see you.

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            Bronwyn Joy Ellioposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Bazinga!

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   AudreyHowittposted 8 years ago

   Count me in as well --

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      Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      +1

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         CrisSpposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Jodah, please count me in too.

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            Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you Cris +1

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   Marisa Wrightposted 8 years ago

   If people want to group together and start a creative writing site, I'd be happy to set it up for you and I can offer you free hosting too.
   
   However be warned, managing a multi-user site can be a lot of work, so whoever takes that on needs to be prepared for it!

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      Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the offer Marissa. It sounds like the idea could become a reality if enough people want it. I agree managing it could be a big job and would require someone with more technical know how than myself however. If anyone or a few are willing to take it on..just put your hand up.

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         Phyllis Doyleposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Good! You did see Marisa's post. I got my hands up - see me dancing the Happy Dance? 
         
         I am a very good editor and willing to take that on. Of course with fiction and poetry the only editing really would be spelling and grammar. And I am very familiar with the many different styles / formats of poetry.

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            Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            +1000

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      Phyllis Doyleposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, Marisa. That is very kind, and brave, of you  Looks like there are three of us so far who are interested and I am sure others would be also.

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   ahorsebackposted 8 years ago

   
   
   Most times in a start up  business , actual growth is all too often  the first agenda while  profitability  becomes  diluted by company size ,  I guarantee you that hub Pages has more employees ,  a bigger platform and  a more expensive set of tax write-offs than ever , but quality ?  Sustainability ?
   
   My advice  To H-P's,  better stick to something from the original or suffer  the usual way of all  , "too big to fail "  companies !

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   SweetiePieposted 8 years ago

   If you are a creative person, then there are still ways you can make money online. For instance, many of us creative types invest more time making YouTube videos, which can actually do well. If you are into cooking and vegan food, that is a huge and growing niche at the moment. I also am working on my own blogs, and doing well with Zazzle at the moment. You just have to change things up, and not focus on only one thing.

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      Stacie Lposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      

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