Does anyone use other sites similar to HP? Thinking about changing.

1. 69

   katleighposted 7 years ago

   I recently read some reviews on Consumer Affairs, which were absolutely devasting and have got me a little worried. I was wondering if anyone else wrote at similar sites prior to HubPages and why they made the switch, and if they had thought about going back.

   replyreport
   1. 0

      promisemposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Most similar sites are long gone (such as Squidoo) or will be gone soon. HubPages is a survivor.
      
      I read the reviews and don't find them accurate or credible.

      replyreport
2. 84

   Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago

   I just went to read the reviews on Consumer Affairs.  Because I'm more familiar than you with how HubPages works, I can see that all those reviews are the result of misunderstandings.  If you follow HubPages' rules, there's no need to worry.
   
   For instance, you'll see some of them were banned.  That happens for two possible reasons.
   
   One is that they have a hot temper and repeatedly get into arguments on the forums. If that happens too often, they will be banned from the forums BUT they can continue to write Hubs and earn money from them. I've known people to be so upset by the ban, they haven't even noticed that their account still exists and they're still earning money from it! 
   
   The other is that they've repeatedly written Hubs that break HubPages rules.  If you read my Hub on "The Basic HubPages Rules" and make sure you stick to them, there is no reason why you should ever be banned.   Even when you do break the rules, usually all that happens is that your Hub is unpublished. People who do it repeatedly and don't learn from their mistakes are the ones who get banned.
   
   Finally you'll see several complaints from people who joined HubPages when a site called Squidoo closed down.  Squidoo's owners made a deal with HubPages that Squidoo articles would be transferred to HubPages.  Many Squidoo members were furious that their articles were moved without asking them.  Also many didn't get paid what they were owed and somehow, that was HubPages fault not Squidoo's (don't ask me why).  Some of those people have had a grudge against HubPages ever since and post nasty articles and reviews around the internet. 
   
   To answer your question, though - you may have seen us discussing the future of HubPages elsewhere on the forums.  I do have some concerns about that, BUT that's because article-writing sites are not doing well in general.   A few years ago there was a huge range of sites to choose from.  Now all the big players have closed down, because general article-writing sites are simply not profitable any more.  That's why HubPages is moving to niche sites instead. 
   
   There are  few smaller sites like Wizzley.com and DailyTwoCents, but they survive only because they're one-man-bands and happy with a small income.  You can write there but your income will be smaller, too! 
   
   HubPages is far and away the best site of its kind left on the internet, especially now it has the niche sites up and running.  That doesn't mean it's a good place to earn an income, necessarily.   There are a few people earning good money from their Hubs but frankly, they are the exception rather than the rule.  One Hubber, Relache, used to run an annual poll of Hubbers on earnings.  Every year, while there were some Hubbers making payout every month and a very few earning hundreds of dollars, the great majority of Hubbers were making less than $10 a month.

   replyreport
   1. 59

      HoneyBBposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with Marissa. In addition, hubpages has the format for writing an article made simple. I recently started my own website and it's very confusing and a lot of work. I expected Blogger to have the same kind of setup for articles as hubpages but it doesn't. You also may have to learn coding to fix your own problems when they arise. I'm sticking it out for now but if anything starting my own website has made me realize all the work that the Hubpage team puts in for us to make our pennies. It's unimaginable and endless. Hope this helps you make the best decision for you.

      replyreport
      1. 84

         Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Hi HoneyBB.  I took a look at your own blog and I'm sorry to say, I would advise you to give up on it now.  Not because you're a bad writer - you're a good writer - but because your blog has no focus, so it's doomed to utter failure.
         
         If you are going to create your own blog, then it's absolutely essential that you work out who your audience will be.  You want to attract readers who will come to your blog, like what they read and then KEEP coming back for more, because every single post is relevant to them.   You need to choose a subject you can write a lot about, as you'll need to write a new blog post every week or two at first, and later every month or so for years to come.
         
         Also the subject must be contained in the name of the blog and the URL.  It's fine to create a blog using your name IF its purpose is to market your services as a freelance writer, but it's no good if you want to write articles on it to earn money. 
         
         Here are some articles on this subject:
         http://www.successfulblogging.com/blogg … -bloggers/
         https://www.shoutmeloud.com/single-topi … -blog.html
         https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/7-reas … -audience/
         
         There's no need to know code to run a blog.  Looking at your blog, I can see that you simply haven't discovered many of the features of Blogger yet.  You've probably forgotten how complicated HubPages looked at first and how long it took you to get your head around all its features.
         
         The BIG advantage of HubPages is that you don't need to know a lot about one subject to make a success here.  Whereas in order to blog successfully, you either need to know a heck of a lot about something or be very good at research.

         replyreport
         1. 59

            HoneyBBposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Wow Marisa, thank you so much for your insight...I have a couple of blogs, the one you looked at must be the wordpress one that I started a while back and I don't even have that monetized. It's was pretty much my practice blog. The other one is focused on one subject, Babies to Big Kids . I would really appreciate your opinion or suggestions on that one if you ever have time to take a look. I have been running into things where it asks for codes and I've been reading a lot on SEO. I don't think I added some code right so you will probably notice that my articles aren't aligned perfectly. I still haven't figured out how to fix it. I tried moving something once and I made it worse. Anyhow, I really appreciate the time you took to take a look at that and respond to me. From what I've learned through all I've been reading recently is that we all need to make sure our photos are the right size and compressed well and as long as we write well about something interesting we should be alright when these changes come...I have been trying to figure out how to add AMP to my blog but I"m lost.

            replyreport
            1. 84

               Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               You shouldn't be adding code in your posts. Never try to add fancy fonts in a post, just accept what your template gives you. 
               
               I did notice you had a lot of fancy fonts in your posts and alignment was a problem.  That may be due to pasting text in from Word.   That adds a whole lot of formatting code that you don't want, and when you try and fix it, it only adds more code that makes it look worse. 
               
               On Blogger, Wordpress and on HubPages, as you type your text, the system is translating your text into HTML.   On both Wordpress and HubPages, there's an icon you can click so you can SEE what that HTML looks like.  Often, if a font looks strange or lines won't line up, when you look at the HTML you can see a whole lot of gobbledegook surrounding your text.   Delete the gobbledegook and the problem will likely go away.  I don't recall whether you can choose to see the HTML on a Blogger blog post - have a look and see.   
               
               If not, the solution is simple. Highlight and Cut your blog post.  Paste it into Wordpad or Notepad (you probably have one of them on your computer).  Look at the document you've created and clear any funny formatting.  Then copy it, and paste it back into your blog post. 
               
               Wordpad and Notepad don't add formatting the way Word does, so that should give you a clean copy.  You may need to add in headings etc.

               replyreport
               1. 59

                  HoneyBBposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks Marisa, I will try deleting the gobblygook. I copied and pasted a couple of my articles from here over to there and I tried clicking on delete formatting but it didn't seem to work, other than that, i didn't bring any fancy fonts in, I tried to make subheadings from Blogger's font thingy. Blogger does have where you can see what you Compose and also look at the HTML. I took out a "div" once and that made things worse. Your advice is much appreciated.

                  replyreport
   2. 69

      katleighposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for being a constant presence on the forums! You're always so helpful. I'm honestly thinking about deleting this account and making a new one, I have all my Hubs saved anyway.
      I've had some issues lately and had way too many unpublished Hubs in the queue, and it would honestly just be easier to restart. It's not the same topic, but what are your thoughts on that?

      replyreport
      1. 84

         Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         My advice would be, don't delete your account. I know sometimes it feels like you want to throw it all in and start again - but you've already had some Hubs moved to the niche sites, and that's an achievement in itself.  You will get the hang of it, and in six months' time you'll have forgotten all the hassle. 
         
         The great advantage of HubPages is that you can write about anything you like.  Don't feel obliged to stick to one subject.

         replyreport
         1. 69

            katleighposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I just feel like I have a lot of unpublished Hubs and a lot of errors that would be easier to fix if I started over. I think I would be more motivated if I had a clean slate.

            replyreport
            1. 84

               Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               When you say "unpublished", do you mean you submitted them and they got rejected?   Delete them!
               Then you have a clean slate, BUT you still have the Hubs that have been accepted and published.

               replyreport
               1. 69

                  katleighposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  No I mean, I started to make them and moved on to another Hub. I was using HubPages as a place to store my ideas, but now I moved everything to Evernote. I have decided I'm NOT going to delete my account, I'll just take out my Hubs and edit them outside of HubPages and put them back in. I want to keep the best quality content. If I take things a little more seriously I'm sure things will go even better.
                  Thank you for your encouragement!

                  replyreport
                  1. 84

                     Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     Yeah!   Good idea. 
                     
                     One note though - if you decide you want to improve or change a Hub that's already published, never unpublish or delete it.  You want it to hold its place in the search engine rankings, and unpublishing or deleting it will destroy everything it has gained.

                     replyreport
                     1. 69

                        katleighposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                        Darn. Well, too little too late. Maybe it won't be a huge deal, anyway.

                        replyreport
                  2. 87

                     Sherry Hewinsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                     I used to do the same thing as far as starting a hub with just a title and a vague idea. Just delete those if you don't think they are worth saving.

                     replyreport
3. 84

   Jesse Drzalposted 7 years ago

   There is Niume. If you want to get paid 1 dollar per thousand views. I know I don't.

   replyreport
   1. 0

      promisemposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Niume is filled with low-quality and spam content. I'll be surprised if it survives.

      replyreport
      1. 84

         Jesse Drzalposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Agreed. The site actually looks pretty good on mobile. I use it for writing some blog type stuff off the top of my head, and if it's decent I'll share it around a little bit. It's just not worth the effort to put the time in over there.

         replyreport
         1. 0

            promisemposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            One caveat. They may be allowing the low-quality content for now just to attract contributors, then start to weed them out down the road as the site gets bigger.
            
            But I have seen so many content sites like that one collapse in the past several years that it's hard to be confident about their future.

            replyreport
4. 81

   SgtCecilposted 7 years ago

   thx for bringing this up and addressing it. i've noticed my revenue tank since 2017 and i couldn't figure out why. if it's everyone, that's a bit comforting.
   
   in all, i'm happy w hubpages for the reasons m wright already said. i'll stick around.

   replyreport
5. 84

   NateB11posted 7 years ago

   As has been said, Hubpages is the best site of its kind.

   replyreport
6. 77

   LiveMusicLoverLynposted 7 years ago

   I like it here and will stick around for sure.
   
   I do also write on UK site Ciao! - But that is mostly product reviews and is peer monitored.  You need a UK bank account to cash out there too.

   replyreport