Are any of your articles doing surprisingly well?

1. 94

   poppyrposted 6 years ago

   One of my game guides gets 100 views a week, even though the game came out in 2014. When I wrote it, I didn't really think it'd do as well as it is. Have any of your articles done surprisingly well?

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      kenneth averyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      poppyr . . .I have NEVER received that many views in the six years that I have been on HP.
      Now I know that I am doing something wrong. Would you like to elaborate on what I am doing to prevent such success?

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      1. 94

         poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         I'd suggest improving your titles. Add keywords like "how to...", "things to do in...", and "what to do if...", when relevant. I'm by no means an expert on the subject, but most of my well-performing articles start with "how to".
         
         Think about what people might search to find your article. For example, I'd change your "Stopping Food Hogs from Ruining Your Weekend Dinner Party" because it's a bit too specific. Why not change it to something like "How to Stop Greedy Guests".
         
         I hope that helps.

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            AloBeDaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            This is absolutely wonderful advice. Thanks for sharing it.

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               poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               You're welcome.

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      NateB11posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Congratulations on your game guide doing so well, it's nice to get pleasant surprises like that! I don't know if I have any specific articles doing better than usual but I'm seeing a very significant increase in traffic overall and also specifically to articles that do rather well in general. One thing that is very revealing is going into Google Analytics and looking at what your traffic was a year ago at this time compared to what it is now. I've been pleasantly surprised by it and it puts things in perspective when I'm unnecessarily getting negative about traffic and what-not.

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         Chriswillman90posted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Checking my analytics really made me feel a lot better. After comparing this month to May 2016, I had a massive year over year increase.
         
         I was feeling discouraged after the Dec-Feb period but it's not an apples to apples comparison. March-May will always be different than the holiday season (good or bad).

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         poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you for the congratulations. Out of curiosity, what's your best performing article?

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      chef-de-jourposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I think if you can get your articles onto a niche site then anything is possible! My experience has been really positive over the last few months and HP staff have to be congratulated for their hard work and good timing. The future seems to be 'niche' for HP.
      Wishing you well in all your literary ventures.

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      promisemposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      My best article is doing 13,000 page views a month and my worst is doing 4. So you can see it's hard to predict the results. The good performers pump me up and the bad ones knock me back down.
      
      My suggestion is that you track the average page views per article for your entire account. (I do it in a monthly spreadsheet along with some other numbers.) Keep trying to increase that number rather than focus on which articles are doing extremely well or extremingly bad.
      
      I would rather have 100 articles that do OK on average than one that does surprisingly well and 99 that fail.

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   5. 87

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Yes.  I have two of them that basically cover the same topic.  One was written a year after the other.  The first has more than 177,000 views and the second has 173,000 views.  Won't share the topic with you, but suffice it to say that it is one I would never have guessed would do well!

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2. 89

   Chriswillman90posted 6 years ago

   That's very subjective as some could see how 20-50 views a week is a surprise yet others think 1,000+ weekly views is surprising.
   
   I'm honestly surprised that any of my articles get viewed weekly because I know how difficult it is for someone to read your stuff in such a saturated market.

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      poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I meant in comparison to your other articles, not in comparison to other people.

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         Chriswillman90posted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Yes I know, just trying to look at the broad scope of your question. As far as personal surprises go, there are a few that have shocked me in how well they've done.
         
         One in particular sticks out because of how out of the blue the idea was. I woke up in the middle of the night, had an idea for an article, and spent the next 6-8 hrs crafting it.
         
         I had no idea it would become one of my most successful pieces to date with nearly a third of my total views.

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3. 92

   FatFreddysCatposted 6 years ago

   My Hub about the demise of the Hastings music/video store chain is still pulling in decent #'s almost a year after I posted it, which kinda surprised me. I figured once all their stores were closed it would fall off the radar, but nope. I guess lots of people miss that store!

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4. 90

   satomkoposted 6 years ago

   I have a few that have higher scores and more regular visits than other articles in the same series.  I have no idea why, but I'm also not going to complain about it.  I sometimes wonder if having a hub moved to one of the other sites negatively affects views because many times the links between them get "snipped."

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5. 93

   blueheronposted 6 years ago

   The success of an article--it seems to me--is almost completely unpredictable. My articles are all "how to" articles: home remedies, how to fix something, make something, or do some project. Recipes, though they are how-tos, almost always do poorly. Game guides are an example of a how-to article. The best thing is to write about how to do something that you are really good at doing or really passionate about doing.

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      poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Excellent advice. "How to"s always seem to do well, but I agree, recipes don't usually perform so well. I suppose there are already tons of the same recipe out there, and it's hard to make it unique.

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6. 87

   justthemessengerposted 6 years ago

   I don't have the the kind of fantastic viewership some of you have. However,one of my hubs is consistently viewed with over half of all my views.That is 1 hub with half plus the views, the other remaining 22 hubs have the rest of my views. Surprisingly, three of the remaining  22 have more comments than my super hub although it has nearly 5x as many views as those three combined. Go figure.

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   1. 94

      poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah it's really funny how that can happen. My best performing article has only one or two comments.
      
      Someone told me that if you don't get many comments it's because the article was good. People usually comment if they have something negative to say or the article didn't answer their question. So I wouldn't worry about only a few comments as traffic and earnings are more important.

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7. 93

   blueheronposted 6 years ago

   My top article now is "How to Grow Wisteria," at 1,589 views for the past week. Few things are easier to grow--or harder to kill--than wisteria--which is the main focus of the article. That and how to keep it from eating your car.

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   1. 94

      poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      "How to" articles always seem to do well! Can they really eat your car?

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   eugbugposted 6 years ago

   My trimmer and lawn mower articles do very well this time every year as people attend to their gardens which have become unkempt over winter and spring. These hubs tick all the boxes for traffic: evergreen, apply to every home and comprehensive troubleshooting details all in one article.

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      poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, that helps too, when it's relevant to a lot of people and evergreen. Great point.

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9. 93

   Sherry Hewinsposted 6 years ago

   It almost always surprises me which of my article do well. Some I put a lot of effort into, and they just sit there, while others that I just dash off rise to the top.
   
   I always enjoyed writing about music, but those were not at all successful, until SpinDitty came along. Now my second most popular hub is about music.

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10. 58

    RexGilangPNposted 6 years ago

    Is 10 views a day can be called well?

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       kenneth averyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       @Rex, mine sure would.

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       Sherry Hewinsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       Rex, it looks like you are quite new. It takes time to build up traffic, and of course, some never do. So, how many views is "doing well" is up to each individual and what their goals and abilities are.
       
       I have some hubs that rarely get 10 views a day, and some that usually get hundreds a day. Some people have hubs that get thousands of views a day, so if that dropped to only hundreds, they would not think they were doing well.

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          kenneth averyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          @Sherry, I agree with you on it taking time to get up traffic. But why did I get my account LOCKED tonight for just wanting to check my balance even when the security questions and answers were given by me?
          Yes, I gave HP a lengthy email and I hope it unlocks my account.

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             Sherry Hewinsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

             I'm doubt that you'll have a problem getting it unlocked, but it may take until after the holiday weekend. At least you're not really locked out, as you are still able to post. Just unable to check your balance history and such.

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                kenneth averyposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                @Sherry, yes, but all of my questions and answers were given to them by me and I kept getting that same warning notice. Ugghhh!
                Happy Memorial Day, dear Sherry.

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    3. 94

       poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       Of course!

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11. 58

    Janellegemsposted 6 years ago

    Well, one of my song hub that I wrote in 2014 gets 250-300 views a day.  My pride and prejudice movie in 2013 is about 50-60 views. I think hubs I wrote in 2012-2014 brings in more views than my present hubs.  But I am trying to get more traffic.

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12. 94

    poppyrposted 6 years ago

    I made a mistake when I posted. My popular article gets 1000 views a week, not 100. And for the people saying "it depends on the person", I meant are any of your articles doing well COMPARED to your other articles.

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    1. 93

       Sherry Hewinsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       I currently have 47 hubs. One of my hubs is responsible for almost half of my total views.

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    Jesse Drzalposted 6 years ago

    Best I've done so far is 10k in one day on a hub. But that's not normal.

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    1. 87

       Will Apseposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       That would be staggering to me. I reckon anything over a hundred views a day is great. But when you first start you need some luck. As soon as you get your first success, you start to learn what works.
       
       The page I am most pleased with at the moment is about palm trees. I went out and took a lot of pictures of palm trees in various stages of fruiting and wrote a long page about the biology and origins of those rather amazing things. Never expected traffic really but yesterday it peaked at 165 views in one day.
       
       Not sure the page will make much money, but very satisfying.

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       Barbara Kayposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       Wow. 10,000! I had 4,000 on a hub one day and was thrilled.

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          Barbara Kayposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          It was back a few years ago though. I haven't seen that in a long time.

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    MarionMicahTinioposted 6 years ago

    I wrote my first article last week. I did not even get to 100 until now. Congrats to you though!

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       poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       It takes weeks or months to start getting a decent amount of views. It took me 2 years and 124 articles to get this far. If you're a serious writer, keep at it, and the traffic will slowly but steadily increase

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    neenasatineposted 6 years ago

    I am also having a hard time to get a decent number of views. My articles took many years before achieving thousands of views.
    
    I wonder what topics that are trending.

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       poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       Most of my highest achieving articles start with the two words "How to"

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          neenasatineposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks for the tip

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    Azure11posted 6 years ago

    I have 2 accounts and both of them have one dominant hub which does way better than all the others and gets over 75% of the traffic!

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       poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       Why two accounts?

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          theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          Anyone who had an account at Squidoo has (or had) two accounts here. The old lenses were transferred over into brand new HP accounts.
          
          Other people have two accounts because they write in very different niches. There isn't much point in doing that, as it delays payout if both accounts are low-earning.

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             TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

             I respectfully disagree.  I have built an online reputation for being a credible writer of RV Living and Travel articles.  I do not want someone looking at my profile and seeing articles about another topic, and I sure don't want Google looking at them and lowering my ranking because I've watered down my area of expertise.
             
             I keep a separate site for the fun stuff, but keep the main site as my money makes.  So far, it has worked well!

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                Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                TT2, Google NEVER looks at your account.  Google doesn't even know your account exists!  Google ONLY looks at the site your Hubs are on.   So Google only knows your Hubs are on HubPages, or your Hubs are on AxleAddict.   
                
                That's why being on a niche site is so important - Google is more likely to see articles on AxleAddict as being written by experts, whereas it can see HubPages is a general site where it's more likely to be amateurs. But it still has no clue about you as an individual.
                
                To remind you of some history:
                
                At one time, we had sub-domains, because Google regarded those as little websites on their own.  That meant it WAS worth specialising.   However, Google changed their systems and stopped regarding sub-domains as little individual websites.  Instead, they went back to treating our articles as just being part of HubPages.com.  So HubPages got rid of the sub-domains since they weren't achieving anything.
                
                At one time, Google also tried to identify and follow individual authors around the web.   They gave up on that experiment, so that's not happening either.
                
                The only way Google can see you as an expert is that if you have a stand-alone blog on your topic, but even then, Google has no way to connect that blog to your Hubs.

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                   TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

                   Well, that's an eye opener!
                   
                   If that's the case, how does Google know how to rank an article?
                   
                   I've had numerous situations where an article was not doing well, then updated  it, and suddenly views started appearing again...sometimes a lot of them.
                   
                   Very confusing...but I still contend that readers who check profile pages will find an author more credible if he or she sticks to one topic.
                   
                   That's why I have the second site!!

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                      Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                      Google ranks an article based on (a) its content and (b) the quality and authority of the site it sits on. 
                      
                      So of course, if you improve the content of your article, it's going to get more views.  I don't get how that's relevant to what I said.
                      
                      Guessing what your misunderstanding might be - I said "Google never looks at your account".   What I mean is, Google doesn't know that HubPages is split up into accounts.  It sees HubPages as one big site, and AxleAddict as one big site.  When it goes through a site to rank the articles, it looks at each article separately, with no reference to who wrote it, or what else that person has written.
                      
                      Yes, if a reader checks your profile then they would likely think you're more credible if you specialise. But we do know that only a small percentage of readers ever check profiles.

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                         TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

                         That being the case, why is it that some people here who are excellent writers don't do well.  If content is appropriate, searchable and well written, how does Google distinguish between one person's content and another?

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          Azure11posted 6 years agoin reply to this

          Yes I write in two completely different niches and it makes sense to separate them. Luckily at the moment i get payout every couple of months in both but if/when earnings go down to a low level then I switch to adsense on the low account.

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             eugbugposted 6 years agoin reply to this

             Azure, does your QR code avatar profile image lead anywhere (if it didn't have the score on it) ?

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                Azure11posted 6 years agoin reply to this

                Yes it leads to links with my website and blog etc, mostly all my art stuff. Good point about the score! I just tested it though and it still seems to work!

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                   eugbugposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                   I'm still trying to think of ways of displaying a QR code to get maximum exposure. Maybe paint it on the roof of my house so it's spotted by passengers on low flying aircraft. I could paint it on rocks on the beach (hmm, that would probably be vandalism) or what about all those bald people with valuable "real estate" on their heads for advertising.
                   The ultimate stunt would be to somehow get it onto the Moon
                   

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    Barbara Kayposted 6 years ago

    Way back when I started writing 7 years ago, someone said that you will earn 80% of your money from 20% of your articles. I find that still holds true. Some are winners and more aren't so good.

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       melbelposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       You hit the nail on the head. One of my hubs receives nearly 1000 views a day and some of the others are lucky enough to have 800 total views since I wrote it! My best performing hub went supernova viral and was all over social media and then now only gets a hundred or so views a day. I really liked the money when it went viral. I could use traffic like that now! Now I get a few bucks a day. I'm no longer seeing the $10+ days that I used to.
       
       I've noticed it has to do with a couple of elements:
       How you format your hub
       The number of photos you use
       How you market your hub after you write it
       THE TOPIC OF THE HUB
       How passionate you are about the topic
       
       I'm a science writer being a chemistry major and all, but it's funny that even the vapidest of topics get a lot of views. It's hard to 100% predict how a hub will do, but researching your topic ahead of time is REALLY what makes a difference.

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    TessSchlesingerposted 6 years ago

    In my first incarnation at hubpages, one of my hubs got 10,000 a day, and one currently gets about 500 a day. That's been or the last three years.

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       poppyrposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       10,000 a day is insane!

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          Janellegemsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          I once got 5000 views in 2015 for one of my Christmas hub.

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    TaraSquirrelposted 6 years ago

    I am still trying to get started on publishing articles here. I have 2 articles that have a small amount of views but haven't been featured yet.
    
    I had to start over on the site because my previous articles were not approved and needed editing, but since it was written a couple of years ago I decided to delete them and start over.
    
    Now i must push myself into writing some good articles to try and get started in the earning program.

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    Marisa Wrightposted 6 years ago

    TT2, you know the answer to that one, really.   There are so many variables.   
    
    It's possible to be an excellent writer and not understand how to choose good titles, or how to use images properly.  You've always been able to write, but just think how much work you've had to do on your Hubs to make them successful. 
    
    Perhaps they write on a subject that's not searched as much - for instance, there are far more people who drive RV's than there are people who belly dance. 
    
    Whatever the reason, it has nothing to do with their "body of work" - each of their Hubs stands alone as far as Google is concerned.

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       TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

       I think this is what makes writing here so interesting and challenging!  I will add that you have helped me so much over the years.  Don't know if this would have worked out as well without you!

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21. 78

    Down South Mamaposted 6 years ago

    mine would be my Best Homemade Apple Butter Recipe since 2013 when I wrote it has gotten 31,507 views and by its self basically has paid me a total of $500 over the years. Never thought it would be that big when I wrote it.

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