I'd like feedback on my Hub: My Adventures Touring Europe in 1982 (22) Switzerla

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   Say Yes To Lifeposted 8 years ago

   Hi Hubbers,
   
   I'd like some help with passing the Quality Assessment Process. Will you please give feedback on my Hub My Adventures Touring Europe in 1982 (22) Switzerland and Heidelberg. What can I do to improve? Thanks!

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2. 85

   Marisa Wrightposted 8 years ago

   I can see lots of problems with this Hub.  The first one is your images. Have you looked at the Preview mode in Mobile preview?  How do the photos look?   Do they sit where you expect them to be, or are they jumbled?   Are they still clear in full-width?  HubPages tells us the great majority of visitors to HubPages are using mobile devices these days, so they want Hubs to look good on mobile. 
   
   Secondly, I wonder if it's simply that this Hub is too personal.  Let's be brutally honest here, who (apart from your friends) is interested to hear about your holiday adventures - or mine?   Nobody, UNLESS they can learn something from your experiences. 
   
   If I read far enough into the Hub, I find some nice descriptions of places in Switzerland, BUT I have to read a lot of chatter about the tour company first. The average reader probably wouldn't scroll down far enough to find the descriptions, they'd just get fed up reading about some old tour company, and they'll go back to Google to find another article.   So, I would suggest editing the article to bring the material that would interest strangers up to the top of the Hub.
   
   Other problems are related to some new rules about Amazon and links.
   
   One new rule is that you can't include an Amazon product or book unless you say why you recommend that particular product or book.  You don't say anything about the two Rick Steves' books.
   
   The other new rule is that all links and products and books must be directly related to the title of your Hub.  Your title is about vacationing in Switzerland and Heidelberg.  That means you can't have a book about mountain climbing (the fiction book).  And you can't have links to your other Hubs about other countries.

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   1. 80

      Say Yes To Lifeposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for answering.  I wrote this as part of a series about my tour through Europe, so all of them are written like this.  For some strange reason, this is the only hub in the series HubPages doesn't want to feature, even though it has been featured before, and was one of my most often-read hubs in the series.
      
      I'll make some changes and try again.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I suppose the question is, how long ago did you publish the others?
         
         Since the launch of the niche sites, HubPages has tightened its rules a lot.  They rarely go back and revisit Hubs which are already published, so older Hubs haven't been affected by the changes.  However, if you edit an old Hub it goes through the filters and the new rules are applied.
         
         So if you haven't edited the other Hubs for a while, they will stay Featured.

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            Say Yes To Lifeposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks.  HubPages published it, though they snipped some of it.  I published the series 3 years ago.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               I could tell it was originally published long ago, because the rules are so different now.  Glad to hear it's now published.

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   melbelposted 8 years ago

   I would recommend gutting the hub and going for something like "Tips for Visiting Switzerland" or something. The real "meat" or interest in readership for your hub would be in the section "Good Points" and "Bad Points." You could expand those sections to talk about pros and cons of the places you visited so it reads like more of an article than a diary.
   
   Honestly, I'd get rid of all the hubs that talk about *you* on *your* trip and make them more travel guide-like. Then, you could create a separate blog (on a different site, like blogger) where you talk about your personal life. You could link back from your personal life blog to HubPages.
   
   As is, HubPages isn't a blogging platform, so visitors to the site are hardly interested in reading about your life and don't typically don't stay to read about your *whole* life. However, if your stories warrant continued readership (are interesting), you could do well for yourself by having a blog. I mean this honestly, I have several friends who are *very* successful bloggers. That said, they'd be hard pressed to get any traffic if they were to, instead, have their content on HubPages.
   
   I don't mean this in a mean way, you paint a good picture in your hubs. With a bit of formatting and better titling, you could have a nice blog going... with some level of maintained readership. You *could* also rewrite them as informational articles about your trips. If you're open to this, let me know and I'd be happy to help you find a title for a hub or two and look at your work to get something polished written. (I'm most easily reached by Twitter... see my profile and cite this forum thread so I know who you are.)

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      Say Yes To Lifeposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, but I have had plenty of traffic on my series.  The way I see it, anyone can consult a travel book if they just want a bunch of facts about foreign countries.  My series describes real life situations.  The first part tells how I planned for it, and the last part describes how I could have done it better.  The three most read hubs in the series are the first, Switzerland / Heidelberg, and the last, in that order.

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