Niche Site Selection!

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   sallybeaposted 8 years ago

   Should I assume that my latest hub was not good enough if it was not immediately moved to a niche site?   Hardly encouraging, is it?  It makes me wonder if I should publish the one which I have been working on for several weeks.

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      Wesman Todd Shawposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      It seems to me the home site 'hubpages.com' has recovered itself to where one could conceivably do rather well with none of their content moved to niche sites.
      
      Some of the things of mine which have thus far been passed over for being moved are doing very very good right here. Then, some other things of mine which were moved to a niche site are not doing especially well there.
      
      So while having a thing moved is something I think of as a vote of confidence - things here on the big home site are sometimes doing well enough to where it doesn't seem to matter.
      
      All in all, right here and now is a good time to be putting work into hubpages.com.

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         sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         That is very reassuring, thank you so much for that.

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         Will Apseposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Traffic on the main site has improved. Maybe the link juice from the niche sites has helped. Maybe a thinning out of overly similar pages has done the trick. Maybe tougher regulation of HP content has finally had an impact.
         
         Overall, though, the  niche sites currently offer the best opportunity.

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            sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Good to hear Will.  I have not been as active recently so can perhaps blame my inactivity on diminishing views or perhaps it is just the time of year.  Good to hear your views on traffic and opportunity.

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         NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I've been thinking the same thing. At first I thought I'd move Hubs that weren't chosen for niche sites, then realized that my Hubs here on the home site are doing better since the niche sites started. Now I'm thinking if the Hubs never move they will still get traffic and money.

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         LuisEGonzalezposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Exactly what has been happening to me.

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         Greensleeves Hubsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         That's an interesting comment. I haven't been able to judge traffic changes so far - I have noticed a rise in the past couple of weeks, but that's really down to just a couple of hubs which were already doing well, and it's difficult to guage if there's an underlying trend upwards on the home site as well as the niche sites.
         
         But I have been very unhappy with the movement of hubs to niche sites - not the movement itself, but the alterations made without consent to hubs - and in the past few days, I have been seriously considering requesting all my hubs to be left where they are, to save the frustration of having to revert edits which I really don't like. If it is the case that it doesn't really make a lot of difference where the hubs are, then that would encourage me to do that. (At the moment I don't want to, because I do understand the logic behind topic-specific sites, but the editing which has been done really upsets me to an extent that the staff don't really seem to understand).
         
         I am trying to assess whether I'd have less trauma with HubPro Premium  (which involves a consultation process, but which I opted out of because I thought it meant there would be even more edits) or with HubPro Basic (which theoretically has less edits but which is mandatory). But if I am going to stay here on HubPages I have to do something to change the current editing process on my hubs. Maybe requesting to keep them all on the home site is the answer for me?

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      eugbugposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      It took a few days for a couple of my new hubs to be moved, so fingers crossed!

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         sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Fingers and toes crossed then.

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      Christy Kirwanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Sally,
      
      The new Curators are still in training, so things will go more slowly until we are confident that they are ready to work on Hubs along with our existing selectors (who are mostly busy training them). The speed should pick up within the next week or two.

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         sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Hello Christy,
         Thank you, I guess I thought that selection would happen at the same time as a new hub was published (if it were good enough!) but clearly, I was wrong, so it could still happen:)

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            Christy Kirwanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Yep, it can take us a while to get to even newly-published Hubs and things are a bit slow right now with the 7 new Curators to train. Your Hub probably hasn't been looked at yet. We're doing our best to get this process going faster, but it's going to take a couple weeks, so please be patient and don't get discouraged.

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               sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               No problem Christy,
               It is always good to know how the process works and I do appreciate your addressing my concerns.  Thank you,

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                  Jean Bakulaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Hi sallybea,
                  
                  At first all the hubs that were moved to niche sites were old ones I wrote ages ago. I had a bunch of articles I wrote for other sites, but when they didn't make money, took them down or moved them to blogs of my own. Finally I got sick of my own blogs, and took all my work down.
                  
                  I added three old articles I decided to put as hubs here, and two were picked for niche sites. So I guess it depends. I suspect now they are looking at newer stuff. I recall they said they intended to make 3 passes at our older hubs, and almost every day they move one of my old ones. But so far I've only experimented with those 3 old articles. I'm looking everywhere to find stuff I've written to decide if I want to try it on here. Good luck!

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                     sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     I am pleased to hear from my most recent HubPages notification that a lot more new hubs are being written than has been the case recently.  I feel pretty much convinced that things are on the up and up again.  I always think that it is better to update rather than remove hubs.  MY thinking is that as long as I have my writing here it always has the potential to earn a residual income for me.  Good luck with your writing too.

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      kenneth averyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      @ sallybea, I will be glad when vacations are over and my traffic starts getting more active. I am about to publish two new hubs, but it is only by faith for lately my comments/traffic has been very meager.

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         sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Kenneth,
         Same here but I have been working on two hubs for what seems ages.  I don't bother too much about comments on my hubs as most of my traffic comes from outside HubPages but am sure things will improve as Summer is replaced by Autumn and Winter:)

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            kenneth averyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            @ sallybea, you are a beacon to me struggling (at times) to negotiate my way through this ever-changing maze of changes. Change makes me uncomfortable. I am proud that I am a creature of habit.

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      Greensleeves Hubsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I published a hub a couple of weeks ago, and I noticed there was a longer than usual delay in the pending process before it was featured. Usually that only seems to take a few hours, but on that hub - for no obvious reason - I think it took a couple of days. After being featured it was then moved to a niche site. So maybe there's just a delay in the process at the moment with staff busy on other matters?

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         Jean Bakulaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Hello Greensleeves,
         
         I think the staff is working hard, but they said they need to hire a few new people, and it is a lot of work they have to do.
         
         I've been upset by some of the changes too. Most of them are pictures, I wasn't very computer savvy when I came here and thought I could take them from Google Images. I've corrected a lot of them as I went along, but it's a tall order. Also, on the hubs moved to niche sites, they took many of my subtitles and put them in gray capsules. They look unattractive, like blobs. Also, in my niche many of my hubs are in groups of 12, and they have split some of them among two different niche sites. I keep writing, but they don't fix it.
         
         
         They have left my writing alone for the most part. And I am making more than the monthly payout for the first time in about two years. Almost double. So I feel it's worth it to let them change my hubs, I wrote some of them as long as four or five years ago.
         
         Don't give up, unless the changes they make are really extensive, Then I would write in and discuss it. Robin is usually approachable more than the others. Best Wishes.

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   EricDockettposted 8 years ago

   Sally, I have been very concerned about this too. It is encouraging to have new content move over soon after publication, and this has made me excited to write new Hubs again. But last week I published a couple of Hubs that seemed to get ignored, and a few other writers who usually have their work moved over appeared to have no better luck.
   
   It seemed something had changed, but I asked Christy about it another forum thread and she said the process has been slowed as the new curators are being trained.
   
   So, for the time being, it appears there is no cause for alarm. Just a need for a little patience.

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      sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Ok, will try expressing some patience or adopt a wait and see attitude.  Ye of little faith is probably my nickname:)

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         kenneth averyposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         @ sallybea, hey, I have cornered the market on impatience, so do not try to intrude on my turf. LOL

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            sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            

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      DrMark1961posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I think you are correct. I wrote a hub last week that was recommended on the newsletter but as of yet it has not been moved to Pethelpful. I think it will be, since all of the new hubs I have published since that niche site started have been, but it seems like the HP team is just a little slower.
      Sally, I do not think it is anything you should worry about.

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         sallybeaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I am not going to concern myself anymore.  I am totally convinced that things are on the up and up here and staff will get to the backlog eventually.  I am glad to have the motivation to publish a few more hubs.

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