ToughNickel is Live
I'm pleased to add another site to the list of launched HubPages Network Sites today: ToughNickel.com, the business and finance site. Please feel free to check it out.
Tough town it is; if it includes frugal, you should be shot. Or am I wrong?
- calculus-geometryposted 7 years ago
0All the people raring up to complain about this one are likely unfamiliar with http://fool.com
Another silly irrelevant name that will condemn the site to obscurity. Makes no sense. Bye!
The topics on the site are:
BUSINESS
FINDING A JOB
FRUGAL LIVING
INDUSTRIES
INSURANCE
PERSONAL FINANCE
REAL ESTATE
SCAMS & FRAUDS
SELF-EMPLOYMENT
STARTING A BUSINESS
You may as well stick to HubpagesPro as a site name. Get Real Folks!!!!!+1 I'm sure I'll get flack for this but here it goes.
I don't know who is picking some of these names and I've been keeping quiet about it, but our work is also associated with these names and I want to have some pride in where my work is displayed.
How are my soaping hubs supposed to tie into "felt magnet" for example. Now one of my best performing hubs of all time is pulled to "toughnickel" I'm in the process of making some pretty major changes and finding new homes for my work.
Whether we like it or not, names of sites do have an impact when they are unheard of and competing with other established authority sites. When I look at search results I am looking for websites that sound authoritative and trustworthy - not kitchy or flat out stupid.
For those who mentioned Twitter before as an example of a silly name. Yes, it was a dumb name too - but these sites are not being marketed and broadcast the way that site and others like it were. Also things like "twitter" aren't authority sites.
While some of the new domains here are good (I liked tatring for example) many of these new domain names are simply a disaster. I think the writing is on the wall here and that makes me so sad, but I can't take another one of my hubs having the Amazon capsules snipped out only to be moved to sites with dumb names and the same boring design.
They snipped an ad the other day for one they intended to move. I put it back immediately. The next day I earned a $14 commission on that ad. I'm not willing to lose money for their experiments. I know wordpress and have other sites already. I liked having some work here too. I make money here, not tons, but enough to make it worthwhile keeping things here, but a large chunk of that is my Amazon sales. Every single hub they snip they take the amazon capsules out and leave the paragraph(s) of text explaining and talking about that direct product. That and the names and I'm just disgusted - sorry, but I am.I hear you! Due to snipping, my Amazon activity this month is about 25% of what it used to be. It had become a significant part of my earnings here.
I have to agree with the sentiments expressed here. I understand the "why" behind what HP is doing. They are trying to survive. But they need to figure out a better way of communicating whast they plan on doing and communicating this to hubbers in advance.
I haven't authored a hub in months now because the chasnges are happening so fast that it's too difficult to know what's OK to put in a hub and what's not. I can understand why some people have opened their own blogs.
My sense is that HP is pasting for the sins of the past and that they keep trying to avoid penalties from Google.
Several of my hubs have been moved over - just tried to see them by using the search function on the site but no matter what I search for it is always a blank page returned....
Search not working??I am starting to think they are doing the name thing just to piss you all off now.
Its working a treat! Time to go - Down scope!
I think it is the best suitable name. It refers to the earnings part of life. Earning or saving your nickel is what it teaches to you.
Everybody is so excited about the names! Some of them are odd, but I'm really not so concerned about it. My Hubs that were moved to niche sites have been doing very well. My traffic is beginning to return to where it was pre-Squid merger. I never thought that would happen. I had all but lost faith in the future of this site, and anything can still happen, but now it seems brighter than ever. That's what I care about.
I think it's important not to lose sight of the big picture. More traffic is a good thing. After a couple of years of bumbling along HubPages finally seems to have found the right path. Managing my content wisely and giving it a chance to get traffic and earn money is all I want from HP, and IMO they are onto to something good here.The names are terrible, but who cares as long as they bring the traffic in?
I still believe the names are "terrible" on purpose as I said in my forum on this topic. There has to be a bigger picture as EricDockett surmises. But I do feel bad for successful hubbers like ChristinS who are losing money for no good reason really, except for being sacrificed in the name of change.
Thank you.
This is happening to a lot of us and I'm afraid it may be the last straw for me. I've stuck out a lot of things here, but I am really getting frustrated.I can understand the frustration but why not start your own blog and choose whatever domain name you want? That's what I do, and I know many other hubbers also operate sites on the side.
I have several actually and I mentioned that previously. I've been on HP for years and I will move on, but I have many well-established hubs and almost 2 million views so it isn't as simple as just shut up and go away for me. Thanks for your advice though.
There are a few issues with starting your own blog.
One is that a blog cannot be successful unless you specialise in a particular subject. The days of writing a diary-style blog, or having a general blog full of "my writings on anything and everything" are long gone (you can do it, but only your friends will ever read it).
Even if you have a specialist subject, it will still fail if you can't offer a large amount of useful information on that subject. So it's problematic if you're not hugely knowledgeable about one particular thing.
Finally, even if you have your subject and have lots of material about it, you then have to work out how to make money from it. On HubPages, management has found advertisers for you - on a blog, you'll have to do it yourself. Adsense does not pay as well as it used to, and you'll have to build up a large following before you'll be able to find companies who are willing to pay you for advertising space on your blog or newsletter. I've known several people start blogs, get lots of traffic but fail to capitalise on it.
As ChristinS mentioned, the Amazon capsules are being snipped and the description of the product that places it in context within the hub are being left. Meaning we have to go back in and edit for the hub to make sense. This is, I believed, was because the editors are not allowed to make changes to the actual content of the hub - however, I have now had this happen and have capsule titles changed. I cannot understand the reasoning of removing Amazon capsules when there are only one or two in a lengthy hub as bearing in mind the 60/40 earnings rule, this must also mean that HubPages is losing a significant amount of income. For me, the additional cpm from the extra views on the new sites does not compensate for the potential loss of earnings from those Amazon capsules.
^This - Had I not gone back in and changed the one back I would have lost $14 dollars that day. Now in the interest of full disclosure - I'll admit it is a higher priced item and I've only sold a few over the couple of years that hub has been published, but that's a chunk of change and the product is directly related to the content of the how to instructions in that hub. I explain in depth why I use that item and it's a good investment etc. they cut the capsule and left all that information.... It made me mad, so I put the capsule back in. I'm not going to lose money sorry. For me, a large percent of what I earn here comes from Amazon capsules, so yeah....
Now, I can see if it was unrelated, or not written about in the hub, but that wasn't the case. This combined with really poor new domain names and I'm rapidly losing interest in staying here. I was one that supported a lot of changes too so it's not like I'm just being a negative nelly. I think these concerns are legit.Have you emailed staff about this, ChristinS? I saw a similar situation in another forum and one of the HP staff (Robin or Christy) told the hubber it was a mistake and she was able to put the Amazon capsu!e back. I think it was a forum posted by hubber LongTimeMother.
Edit: Forgive me. I'm all mixed up. It was a link, not an Amazon capsule. But you should still talk to them about it.Nope. I put the capsule back myself. I have left some removed, but others I put back if they were relevant and the hub was largely written around them. If they delete them again I'll just remove the hubs; it's just not worth the hassle.
I'm 100% with you, Christin S.
The official response when we raise this on the forums is for HubPages staff to mutter darkly about how "risky" even one Amazon capsule can be and that it may upset Google. When we point out that they chose the Hub because of its excellent traffic - which means Google must be perfectly happy with the capsule as it is - we are told that Google may change its mind in the future.
So the message I get from this is that HubPages believes Google is going to get far stricter about outgoing links and affiliate links at some time in the future, and they're willing to forego substantial earnings now rather than risk another slap when that happens.
If that's how they feel then I guess there's nothing we can do about it, even if we disagree with it as a strategy.
Alison,
I suspect they are snipping the AMZ capsules because Google has either warned or penalized HP for being spammy. I agree, one or two capsules in a huge hub isn't horrible in itself to Google but - and there's always a but -Google is looking at the entire domain and not just one hub.
The end result is a mass purge of AMZ links. And after those are jettisoned, it seems they port the hub over to the new domain ... free of spammy contamination.
Personally, I think it's kind of futile because eventually, Google will catch on. In case anyone hasn't noticed, the big G has been on a search and destoy mission for anything that smells like an article farm.I stopped putting Amazon capsules in a long time ago, and only one was kept in the sweep where they took some of my stuff for Exemplore (god awful name). It's all mixed in with stuff that isn't really related to each other. I'm unsure if I should keep writing.
Since I write about astrology I have a lot of series that have 12 pieces, like moonsigns from all signs of the zodiac. I always thought they were of my best. They took 6 and not 12, when I specifically asked the team not to split up a series. It's about Opposites in Astrology signs and how they are attracted, but I have only half of the info on them.
I'm pretty disgusted, but it's only been a week, so can't tell if it's any better moneywise.
I had a really popular hub about gardening that always did well in Australia when it's winter by me and summer by them, and my traffic went down on that one. It may just take time.
They won't allow most Amazon capsules, you may as well just take them off. Or don't bother, they won't transfer that to the niche site. I hope it goes well, but think what they are telling us about how "hard it is" to find good names for sites is a bunch of BS. Someone found Mystical.com, which would have been a lot better than Exemplore.Jean send me a private note - I would to work something out with you outside of hubpasges.
@HP Based on all the comments I'm seeing, looks like a real problem here.
I just noticed another one of my hubs was selected, so I still love you.
What a wonderful surprise today when I received an email listing 16 of my hubs moved to ToughNickel. And only four needed a little snipping of images that I agree may actually have taken away from your message. Even though "eye candy" is useful in some cases, it's important to use something that strongly adds to the message of the content. I wholeheartedly agree with that. So anything less than that should be removed.
I also had one Amazon capsule removed and, again, I agree since it was never bringing any sales. I already discovered with my work on other hubs that removing ads that don't work allows other ads to work better.
A hub that was previously moved to another niche had experienced almost a doubling of views and income. So I look forward to seeing what success we have with ToughNickel as well.I have seen an increase in traffic due to the new niche sites, so won't complain. It was quite uplifting to see things improve. But I feel that HP could have used some hubber input on the names of the new sites. They could have asked for suggestions. There are so many people here who are very clever and may have offered some catchy unused titles. A contest with some cheap little fun prize - a notebook or pens or whatnot. Oh well, hindsight is so 20/20.
Dolores, There is a very good reason why they can't. Suggestions could be copyright or trademark infringements. For that matter, I already saw one suggestion in the forum that had copyright protection. HubPages has hired branding experts to assure they never have these problems.
See the complete explanation here: http://hubpages.com/community/forum/136 … site-namesOh, for pity sakes!! I found that to be a specious argument. All they would have to do, if they selected a name suggested by a Hubber, is to have them sign a waiver/quitclaim, or whatever legal document it would be, releasing that name to HP, without (blah, blah, blah..legalspeak), expecting to be paid or hold any copyright claim.
Then, if desired, they could offer a 'contest prize' such as a mug or something... MANY sites do this kind of thing with contests, with wording such as "all entries become the property of..." etc...
