Hubs over 3 years old with less than 100 views total

1. 94

   Shesabutterflyposted 7 years ago

   I started on this site five years ago, but have been inactive for several of those years. I just recently started getting into the swing of things again and I'm noticing many of my hubs have very little traffic. Well under the 100 mark for several years. Some hubs need major reworkings which I will get to in the coming year, but a majority are poetry and I'm not sure I can add much more content to the hub unless I do something along the lines of combining several poems together under one hub and then deleting the old hubs.
   
   What would be best for my account and trying to up the traffic to all these under performing hubs? I have several hubs that get a couple thousand views a month, but I also have many that get no views despite their scores being in the 70's and 80's.
   
   I've tweaked a few hubs that were not featured and they are now featured but they still are not getting much traffic. I made a few minor adjustments to another hub and got it moved to a niche site, but I'm wondering what will be the best move for my severely lacking in traffic hubs. What would you do?

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   1. 83

      TheShadowSpecterposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      It's a business like anything else.  You only get from it what you put into it.  You may write the most exceptional articles in the world and not get hardly any traffic.  Therefore, you have to cultivate your marketing skills and find creative ways to drive traffic to your hubs.  Of course, anybody could have told you that.  Good luck! :-)

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      1. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Actually, I disagree, UNLESS you have a specialist subject.   If you're writing Hubs on a variety of subjects, then the marketing effort required will always be greater than the resulting income IMO, especially now. 
         
         You'll find lots and lots of advice online about how to drive traffic, but they are about driving traffic to your BLOG or WEBSITE. 
         
         You know how it works - you promote your links.  Someone then clicks on the link to your website.  Your whole website is on the same subject as the post they've arrived at, so they're likely to stay and browse around.  They might bookmark it to visit again, or share it with friends. They might also sign up for your email list.  And you've got a prominent "Contact" link so they can ask you questions. So, for every click you get on a promoted link, you get a lot of interaction with that reader and plenty of opportunity to turn their visit into a sale of some kind, or a repeat visitor.
         
         Compare that to HubPages.  You have to put in exactly the same amount of effort to promote - but when someone clicks on your link, they arrive at your Hub. But their very next click might be on someone else's Hub.  And even if they bookmark HubPages or the niche site to come back, there's a very good chance it won't be to your Hubs, especially if your Hubs are scattered across the niche sites.  Although our egos want to believe otherwise, a vanishingly small number of readers ever go to our profiles to read more Hubs, it's the subject they're interested in, not us. And you'll never know who they are, unless they leave a comment.  So for every click you get on a promoted link, you get one view, one chance to make a sale.
         
         Even amongst website owners, there's a mountain of debate over which promotional activities are worth the effort and which aren't.   And look at the return they get on their investment!  I just don't see how it can pay off for Hubs.

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         1. 83

            TheShadowSpecterposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Oh, I get what you're saying, Marisa.  People are only going to be interested in the article, not the author.  In any event, I think what you and I can agree upon is that nobody is going to make lots of money on Hubpages through laziness.  They have to write articles, and they have to acquire an understanding of the psychology of the market and put it all to intense use as you described in your reply.  Even at that, it could be either feast or famine.  There are no guarantees in life except for taxes and death, but I still say one should set forth the effort if they want to succeed at something.

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            1. 86

               Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Yes, BUT you also have to do a cost/benefit analysis to decide whether that effort is going to produce sufficient return to make it worthwhile.  If you are promoting individual Hubs the same way professional bloggers promote their specialist blogs, then you are undoubtedly throwing far too much effort at something which won't give you enough return.

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2. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago

   It depends what your goal is.  If you're hoping to make money then I would be pessimistic whatever you do, because poetry generally doesn't make money!
   
   There is a site called CreativeExiles.com which was created by Hubbers as a home for their creative writing and poetry, you might like to check it out.

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   1. 94

      Shesabutterflyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I posted the poetry as a way to get started on HP. Most of my early work was work that I had previously written for myself, but shared as a way to get my foot in the door so to speak.
      
      My goal is to make money, which I do every 3 months and have for years. I'd like to earn more which is why I'm now looking to revamp my page and update and clean up my hubs. I just spent 2 hours re-writing an earlier hub as it was very bad quality and I'm not sure how it was ever featured quite honestly.
      
      I have hubs on a variety of topics that I'm working on linking together. I have many topics that do very well here, but I know poetry in general does not create much traffic as it's hard to get those to come up in search engines.
      
      My concern is that the poetry is so old, that I might lose some of my credibility if I delete most of my older work. Is this something I should be concerned about? I do have some poems with similar topics that I could link together or even combine into one hub.

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      1. 88

         NateB11posted 7 years agoin reply to this

         I read your Hub on Bubblers, which I found fascinating and well-written. One thing I know is that when Hubs are moved to niche sites they gain a lot of traffic; it might take several months though. It might take awhile to start getting traffic when you edit Hubs too.
         
         Also, I would consider re-working your titles; sometimes the only reason you get low traffic is because titles are not "search-friendly", meaning no one is typing those phrases in the titles into the search engine. I recommend you read Wrylilt's Hub on using Google Suggest for finding good titles for Hubs that are search friendly.
         
         On your Hub about Bubblers for instance, I would turn the title into a question, because people more likely type questions into the search engine. I did a search for keyword titles on that Hub and found some better titles. It can make a difference in traffic just changing a title.

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         1. 94

            Shesabutterflyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            The bubbler hub was definitely one of my favorites to write. Thank you for the tips! I'll work on re-wording my titles.

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3. 88

   WryLiltposted 7 years ago

   There are ways to increase traffic to your poetry hubs although, as Marisa said, it's not the best niche for traffic in many cases.
   
   This hub by Cardisa gives a good overview of doing SEO for poetry hubs.

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   1. 94

      Shesabutterflyposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you. I'll take a look. If it would be better to delete them or combine them I'm not opposed to that either. I'm simply looking for the best options for my page, and I've received some great advice so far.

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4. 90

   Country Homemakerposted 7 years ago

   TheShadowSpecter, very well said and so true!

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5. 78

   Kathleen Cochranposted 7 years ago

   Poetry has never done very well here.  I think if the powers that be had their way, they would get rid of all of us poets.  I've been here 4 years, have 150 hubs, and about half of them don't get much attention no matter how new they are.  But I write for my own pleasure and am something of an acquired taste!

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