Move Creative Writing out of HP

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   Will Apseposted 8 years ago

   I would move all creating writing out of HP. No site can be everything to everyone. Give featured pages a niche site without any further selection.
   
   I have a feeling that in the early days of HP when every page was useful for SEO purposes (megasites had huge SEO advantages) then creative writing made a contribution to the overall health of the site.
   
   Nowadays, it probably harms the site. What do search engines make of a two hundred word poem? Nothing good, I would imagine.
   
   I would certainly have a good look at the user metrics. If the read times across the whole section are lower than the rest of the site, that would be an excellent reason to make the move too.
   
   Staff should really be looking at ways to save the old HP from oblivion.

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      Jean Bakulaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I guess it depends on what the writing is about. I wrote 12 hubs about what Venus in each sign of the zodiac means, but made up fictional characters and situations. It's resulted in a mess. Some are on Exemplore and some are on Letterpile.

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      NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Well, I've thought for awhile that HP is not a site for creative writing. It's a site for organic search traffic, and mostly creative doesn't get that kind of traffic. I'm over there writing at Creative Exiles like some others here and it's a great site for people who want to publish their creative work.

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   Marisa Wrightposted 8 years ago

   I agree. A group of hubbers started a dedicated site for that reason, creativeexiles.com

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      Will Apseposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Sticks and carrots needed here, I think.

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      Sue Adamsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Marisa,
      
      creativeexiles.com  is a fine website, it looks great. I may join soon to give some of my unpublished creative writing work a good home.
      
      Question: I don't see any advertising on there, only a "donate" feature. Does the site share its revenue with authors?
      It probably doesn't make any money, so the answer is probably "No".

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         Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you, Sue. We did start The Creative Exiles as an alternative niche site for poets and creative writers. There are some very good writers there, but unfortunately we are still struggling to attract search engine traffic so are not making any money yet to share with our authors. We are an affiliate for the Book Depository but until we can attract significant traffic we can't attract advertisers either. We are always looking for ideas and are continuing to work towards that. I understand that the site is still less than 6 months old so we need to be patient. We always welcome new members.
         That being said, I would hate it if HP decided they no longer had a place for Creative Writing here as I got my start with online writing here this is still my favourite place to write.

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      Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Marisa, thanks for the reference to The Creative Exiles. I may start to make a few changes there soon as there have been some changes in the management team with certain "key" members leaving. It still doesn't fill the void for creative writers if they are no longer welcome at HP, but maybe if more are forced to look for an alternate site it will. I intend to relax some of the more stringent rules and even further and possibly even invite back some former members who have left.

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   janderson99posted 8 years ago

   Hey Will, you won't have to wait long. My prediction is that HP will dramatically increase the traffic threshold and will unfeature 40-70% of the pages in the near future, as part of the legacy strategy. Such pages will be deemed to have no hope of being niche-d so will be removed. Edits will no longer revive them. Low traffic will be the death knell for new pages as well after a month or so. Sad day looms for all as the grim reaper is sharpening his scythe.

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      Will Apseposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      We are all, indeed, doomed to the big stick.
      
      But, moving on, how about a carrot?
      
      Take the best creative stuff and aggregate it into kindle ebooks, or genre related series. Put them on Amazon, free for Prime (you get some royalties) a dollar or two for non-prime.
      
      Share generously.
      
      HPOP
      
      Hubpages Online Publishing.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Janderson99:  Whoa there!  Don't you think that's a bit much? 
      
      The team does not really know for sure if the niche sites will continue to do well.  New sites always get good ratings from Google, but what will happen six months or a year from now.
      
      I think it would be unwise to throw the baby out with the bath water. 
      
      You start making moves like those you think will happen and the entire mother site will go under.  I do not think that is the intent of the team.
      
      The mother site is where they will get articles for the niches, so they can't just let it go. 
      
      They would do better to
      
      eliminate accounts that have been sitting idle for more than a year,
      limit ads to one per article (if properly placed)
      and get rid of writers who insist on using profanity, hate speech and such...things that lower the quality of the site.
      
      The first two things can be done almost automatically, the third those writing here can help with by reporting the low quality work.
      
      Yes, some of this is censorship, but if they want to raise the quality of the mother site while still keeping it intact and giving new hubs a chance to be found on Google and earn, this is the path, I think, that they should follow.
      
      I know creative writers don't generally do well here, but I do think those who do a good job of it add a great deal of quality to this site. 
      
      Personally, I would hate to see them go.

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         Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you for supporting the place of creative writers here at HP. I do think we are unfairly targeted when discussing the success or failure of HubPages. It is the badly written hubs of all genres and the spam that should be targeted as well as idle accounts. A lot of the creative writing here is among the highest quality writing on the site and much of it is combined with additional interesting and significant information to create very good hubs. I suggest those who continue to degrade it need to expand their literary horizons and actually read the hubs of some of the better quality creative writers here.

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            willmcwryterposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            wow theres alot of professional jellicy of poets and writers and i think the best judge of the quality of the writing is the writer who wrote it, not some uncool dude who says wow this story has alot of grammatical mistakes and is super boring. this isn't CriticPages!

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            Will Apseposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            There is some good creative writing here but I can't say I enjoy reading it much because it is hard to relax and enjoy fiction online. I need a book or something on my kindle.
            
            That is why I mentioned the eBook idea before. It was not meant facetiously. The only way that I would read HP writers is via a good format.
            
            A dedicated site could pump out a good number of eBooks at very little cost. One successful publication could draw a lot of readers to the site (or its eBook output).

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               Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Thank you for the idea, Will, Compiling an eBook is something for us to consider at The Creative Exiles.

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                  Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Or, as I suggested to you once, each author could compile an eBook and sell it on their individual pages on your site. That would attract more ambitious writers to your site.
                  
                  You could also hire someone to write quality landing pages and monetize your site like many other poetry websites do. Proper organization and SEO-friendly landing pages for each genre of poetry would really help you out. It would allow readers to easily reach your webpage via search engines just as they find the popular poetry websites now.
                  
                  HubPages landing pages aren't absolute top quality, but they are still pretty effective and the site probably wouldn't still be around if they had decided to skip the landing pages along the way. Even so-so landing pages are better than none and HubPages' are pretty good compared to what else is out there.

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                     Jodahposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     Kylyssa, I appreciate your suggestions both now and before. Yes, landing pages for each genre (both poetry and fiction) would be helpful. I think three or four of our authors have published eBooks and they are free to advertise them on their profile page. Also, I know you may not wish to, but if you ever wish to rejoin feel free to apply as the person you had a disagreement with is no longer in a management role (they are still a contributor and author however). The landing sites for HubPages niche sites are quite good...the landing page for HP's basic site is not so good.

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      EricDockettposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Good grief. That's a dim view, and certainly not what I'm getting from events of the past few months.
      
      However, in related news: Sometimes I worry that NASA and other space organizations aren't able to competently track all potential incoming asteroids and comets. All it takes is one decent-sized rock to extinguish billions of lives. Even if there are survivors, they're doomed to wander a dying Earth. And then of course there are the post-apocalypse zombie hordes to contend with. At that point HubPages will probably begin un-featuring pages, assuming the rock has landed far from San Francisco and Paul and the team aren't immediately zombified. I will probably stop writing here then.
      
      Also: I agree with Will that creative writing needs its own home.

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         Solarasposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         LOL

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   cheaptrickposted 8 years ago

   There should be a Miscellaneous category of writers here...ya know?;A category for writers who don't fit in anywhere else...the slightly twisted writers...like me!
   I might be the only one in the 'miscellaneous' category but at seven years membership I think I've earned it...even if it's just for tenacity...Cm-on HP...have a heart and give a little...

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      With only 7 hubs in 7 years, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

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         cheaptrickposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Aw come on now.Don't be mean to the outsider just cause he doesn't share your delusions of grandeur...

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   Will Apseposted 8 years ago

   I reckon focusing on Amazon as the publishing platform would give better options rather than simply trying to sell through the site.
   
   I think HP should consider this, as well Creative Exiles.
   
   It could be labor intensive, though, and it would be a branding exercise. Only the best stuff to be published.
   
   Perhaps find a talented editor and pay on performance, ie offer a cut.
   
   Never easy to make money with creative writing, but not impossible.

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      earnerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      This would make sense ... and give them a real flavour of whether they were any good at all based on feedback and sales.

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   Will Apseposted 8 years ago

   Non-fiction could benefit from eBooks.
   
   A few titles:
   
   Pethelpful's Bumper Book of Dogs
   
   Tatring's Most Terrible Tattoo Disasters
   
   Spindittie's Ultimate Pop Trivia Party Puzzlers
   
   All surefire winners for Xmas 2016.

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