How will the impact be on this site be if writers leave for Maven?

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   sallybeaposted 6 years ago

   Will they still be allowed to continue writing for the niche sites or will this site be diluted as our best writers and their work leave for a better deal?

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2. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 6 years ago

   I can't imagine a situation where those writers would be banned from writing for the niche sites, why would they? 
   
   If writers are invited to write for Maven, then they'll be invited to create their own new channel.   The only risk I can see, is that HubPages might lose content.
   
   Let's say that Maven is so impressed with DrMark's dog articles, they invite him to set up a new channel on Maven just for dogs.  If he wants that channel to be a success, he's going to need a LOT of material - so it would be very sensible for him to delete all his dog Hubs and move them to his own new channel.  Losing all that material would be detrimental to PetHelpful. 
   
   However with the current Maven setup, I would not be accepting the invitation anyway.

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      sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Just as I thought.  I was not thinking about a ban, logic tells me that money speaks and I can't imagine why the invited would not want to take their material with them.  I wonder how clearly this has all been thought out?

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         TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

         ...because once your content is on Maven you no longer have control of it.  You keep your copyright, but you turn over all rights to them AND you agree to make nothing if they use your materials to, for example, write a book.

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            theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            You don't know that yet. There may well be a different ToS for article contributors. There's no point making assumptions until we are given the full facts. Not only that, you could be disseminating untrue information which causes people A. to panic and B. to remove their hubs unnecessarily. Do what most of us are trying to do--hold back on the speculation and keep writing.

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               TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

               I was only stating the obvious:  Maven has a different TOS than HP.  If your work moves to the Maven's site, common sense tells you that you would be under their guidelines.  I don't think this is speculation.  I am going with the facts that exists right now.  The ONLY info Paul and Christie have given has been about what will happen with HP, which is that, for now, nothing will change..  There has been nothing said to date about potential changes that might occur with Maven. once the merger is complete..  Is it possible Maven might change their TOS as part of the deal?  Maybe, but I tend to think not because they already have their business plan in place.  Bottom line, as long as yo keep your work on HP, you should have control of it for the foreseeable future.  That's all we really know right now and "assuming" something different could be a serious mistake.

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   2. 99

      DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I do not think anyone who writes on HP has to be worried about starting a channel on Maven, despite that announcement. From looking at their site, it appears they only want persons/sites that have already built up a following, and, as you have mentioned before, no one who writes on HP is able to do that.
      If they start a channel about pets, they are likely to look for someone like Marty Becker, who can sign up thousands of readers/followers right away.
      
      I think they are reimbursing the writers by paying back the subscription fees for those readers who want to join each site. There seems to be no other reason for these well-known people to move their web sites over to Maven.
      When Maven does start to place ads on each site though, I think they are going to be keeping 100%. That is probably going to be their payment for hosting these channels.

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3. 95

   LongTimeMotherposted 6 years ago

   I can think of a very good reason not to unpublish from hp/niche sites. So many of our articles have been stolen and copied that we risk losing the ‘first publisher’ status with google and other search engines.
   
   Dr Mark is a clever guy. He could simply write fresh material on pets, plus provide links to existing articles. That’s what I’d do.  If Maven owns hp sites they’ll still be making $$ from views. I can’t see why it would be necessary to completely jump ship from hp.

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   1. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      This is all highly theoretical, but for what it's worth:
      
      Firstly, theft is a problem but the solution is simple.  Copyscape is very effective at finding stolen copies and the one-off service is cheap.  So you'd identify the Hubs which haven't been stolen, unpublish them and transfer them to your new channel  Then you identify the stolen copies you stand a chance of removing, file the DMCA's and transfer them as they're fixed.  You'll have to leave the ones copied by Chinese and Russian sites on HubPages, but hopefully that's not too large a proportion.
      
      You may say that's a lot of work - but it's a lot less work than writing the same number of brand new articles.  And it gives you a solid foundation of tried-and-tested articles for your new channel. True, you've just lost the income you were making on HubPages - but then, you wouldn't accept an invite from Maven unless the future prospects were better than HubPages, are you?
      
      Also, he wouldn't be wise to link to his existing articles on PetHelpful, because frequent linking to the same website would damage the Google ranking of his new channel.
      
      The other reason for moving your articles is to remove competition.  In my fictitious example, Dr Mark could write all new articles, but they would have to be on completely different subjects - otherwise his channel would be competing with his Hubs on PetHelpful. 
      
      Like I said, personally I can't ever see myself accepting an invitation from Maven if it were made, because the TOS is completely unacceptable.

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      1. 82

         sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks all, in order to avoid too much speculation I am just going to see if Paul's latest statement works out.  If the team's first focus is bringing better monetization to HubPages then I doubt anyone will want to leave.

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         1. 78

            TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

            To me it's ironic that while the team is trying to increase earnings for us, they continue to drop significantly.  I suspect this is because advertisers are antsy about what will happen, but who knows?

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            1. 82

               sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               Yes,  probably seasonal.  Views remain just about the same as they were at Xmas and earnings are less.   I am still on the HubPages earnings program but Adsense earnings have not down at the same time.   It is tempting to think about changing to Adsense but I never have the courage because it might mean that I don't make my target on HubPages.

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                  TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

                  If you sell on Amazon and normally do well, you'll meet your HP target with that income.  If you are making more on Adsense, it won't matter if you lose the HP income.  Adsense right now is all over the place...I have days when I do quite well and others, like yesterday, where it's about what I would have made on HP.  Having said that, let me stress that much depends on what you write about. Can advertisers make money with their products posting on your sites?  For example, I wrote some things about Medicare during the sign up season on my second site.  Advertisers went crazy posting because they wanted people to buy their insurance products.  Now that the signup season is over, views AND Adsense income have dropped significantly.  Fortunately, that's not the only topic I write about on that site..

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                  1. 82

                     sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                     Interesting, to learn that yesterday was good for you too.  I don't think the bulk is coming from my writing here though.  I think it is coming from my own website.  I wish I were more of an expert in understanding my Analytics stats.

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                        TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

                        Glenn Stok knows a lot about this.  Maybe you should ask him to write a hub about this topic that all of us could benefit from!

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                           sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                           I think he might have already. @Glenn Stok usually has all those bases covered:)   I will have a look thank you.  I think I should probably sign up for their free learning course.  It would be nice to know if anyone here has done it.

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            2. 86

               Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               No, it has nothing to do with advertisers being antsy.  Especially where Adsense is concerned, because with Adsense, the advertisers don't even know which websites their ads are displayed on!
               
               There is another thread on earnings and it would appear that although earnings are low compared to December, most people are finding they're better than last January.  January is a slow month.

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                  TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

                  Interesting.  Then why would Adsense earnings drop?  Not enough buyers this time of year?  I have never understood how Adsense works, but if you do, I'm all ears!

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                  1. 86

                     Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                     How it works is this:
                     
                     The advertiser chooses keywords they want to be associated with.   For instance, I set up advertising for Eleni, a belly dancer friend of mine.  She chose "belly dance entertainment", "belly dancer" and a few other phrases like that. 
                     
                     What that means is, when someone types "belly dance entertainment" into Google, her ad might  show up for that person.  However if there are several advertisers all wanting that spot, Google conducts an auction.  The advertiser who bids most gets the spot.
                     
                     The advertisers set their maximum amount when they set up their ad campaign, and Google conducts the auction automatically - the advertisers don't need to do anything. For instance, Eleni has set the maximum she'll spend per day at $3.  Sometimes it might cost her 80 cents to get the spot, sometimes it might cost her 10 cents, it all depends how many other advertisers there are. 
                     
                     That's why earnings go up and down.  Like a lot of businesses, Eleni particularly wants to be visible in December, because Christmas parties are lucrative, so she increases her daily limit.  In January, she knows there's not much call for belly dance performances, so she'll cut back.
                     
                     As you have probably noticed, Google remembers what people have been searching for - so that person who searched "belly dance entertainment" will continue to see ads from belly dancers on other sites and other pages (which have nothing to do with belly dance) for some time after their search.
                     
                     So you see, the advertisers are paying for their ad to be displayed to an individual - they don't know anything about the article it's being displayed on.

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                        TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

                        Thanks!  That's really interesting.  Explains a lot.  I"m sure this post will help many others here to understand Adsense as well.  You're one schmart  cookie, Marisa!

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                           EricFarmer8xposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                           We see Adsense but the advertisers see Adwords. I have run a campaign with Adwords in the past. It was free credit from buying domain hosting.
                           
                           Everything was like what Marisa Wright said. I choose a keyword and set a budget for it. I had to also set a maximum cost per click (CPC). The one thing I learned is that advertising is costly. I used my free credits very fast with not much results. But my ads were shown to people. I probally could have planned things better though if I know more of what I was doing.

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                     2. 82

                        sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                        I sometimes am offered free advertising on Google but have never bothered as I thought I might be automatically charged again for continued advertising.  Do you simply accept and choose the keywords and then Google does the rest?

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                           Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                           Usually, it's not completely free.  If you look carefully at the offer, you have to commit to spending a certain amount, then you get extra advertising free.

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                              sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                              I thought there might be a catch somewhere which is why I did not want to touch it.  A friend of mine took out some Google advertising and she said it was very expensive and resulted in very little more business.    Thanks for that Marisa.

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                                 lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                                 If you have a good business and the website actually converts it's in practice very easy to run a profitable ad campaign. I've done this for many clients. The thing is you need to know what you're doing else it's money down the drain. Google does offer free help for new adwords accounts. I would not suggest placing ads unless you have a direct product or service to sell. It is possible in some cases to run successful ad campaigns with affiliate websites too. Right now this is something I am building up on.

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                                    sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                                    I don't think it likely, I was just reading up on it but always good to know how these things work:)

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                                       lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                                       Okay cool. It's a good way to blow your money away too

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                                    Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                                    Yes, I've set up a few people with products or services to sell, and they've found it worthwhile. I've found it less so for affiliate websites.

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                        lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                        Exactly. If you're interested to learn more about this look up remarketing. Just read one of those 300 word websites explaining it.

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                           sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                           I will do, thank you very much @ lolobrandon

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                           1. 78

                              lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                              Sallybea I was just going to write a reply to you. What is it that you wanted to know how to track? Did you want to differentiate between Amazon sales from your website and hubpages?

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      2. 78

         lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Just commenting on the part where you say the other reason would be competition where Dr Marks articles on pethelpful and Maven compete.
         
         If he really wants to reach a larger audience he would write on the same topic at both pethelpful and Maven. Because now he has two pages that can show up in the top 10 serps. This is a very common practice.
         
         If anyone of you are interested there is a very interesting study carried out by a blogger I follow where he shows us how just 16 businesses are ruling the SERPS through different websites covering the same topics

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            Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            Link?

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               lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               http://www.viperchill.com/google-control/

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                  Are you sure that's the right link?  That article explains how a company can get a website to dominate the SERPs by having a lot of other high-ranking sites feeding it links.  It relies on a network, I can't see the relevance if you just have two sites.

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                     lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                     I am not saying you have control. I am saying people were worried about competing with themselves. Those companies are getting most of the traffic because they don't care if they are competing with themselves because at the end of the day they know they are going to rank #1-10. Just saying you shouldn't be worried about competing with yourself.

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4. 91

   MizBejabbersposted 6 years ago

   I haven't read the Maven rules yet, but I have a question about the invitation to choice writers. What are they considering as choice? Are these truly good writers with well-done work that may or may not generate a lot of interest and followers, or are they writers who generate a lot of traffic because they publish several mediocre to poor hubs a week that by sheer volume generate a lot of followers and traffic?
   
   I know there are some who are talented enough to do both, but not that many.

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   1. 82

      sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I don't know if anyone except staff knows what the criteria will be.

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   2. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      If you're invited to write for Maven,you'll be invited to start your own channel (which is basically, your own blog on their network).  So they will be looking for writers with the capacity to create a large amount of material on one subject.  Since they're a business and they want to make money, I would think the writer would need to have a track record of attracting readers.

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5. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 6 years ago

   Aw shucks

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6. 0

   Timothy Andersonposted 6 years ago

   Yes Marisa... thank you.  You are the first person or place I've found that actually (and finally) helped me understand how Adsense works. 
   
   Timetraveler2, and thank YOU for asking her the question.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Well, I've been wondering about this for some time because, frankly, the money I've earned since starting to use Adsense has gone far and above any expectations I had, but I couldn't figure out why it was that even when page views were lower, the money could still be higher!  Now I get it!

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         EricFarmer8xposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         It is nice to have a better understanding of how things work. I tend to love details like this and have spend many countless oru spending research into things I am curoius about. It all lead to me working in IT and who knows where else in the future.

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7. 58

   Doreen Mallettposted 6 years ago

   I am still trying to understand what this merger with Maven means for existing Hub writers. Do we wait to be invited to the Maven platform? If we remain on the current HubPages network(s) is it likely that the merger will open our articles to the possibility of increased viewers?
   
   I had initially thought that HubPages would merge into Maven and therefore not exist as an entity but this seems to be not so.
   
   Where can I get information on what the merger is about and exactly what writers need to do (if anything). My articles have been getting reasonably good viewing but I have received no money and I am wondering what I am not doing right or what the HubPages network isn't doing right.
   
   I just think there must be something I don't understand but there is so much conversation / dialogue that one has to read through to glean an ounce of informattion that i am becoming quite disillusioned. Can't the appropriate information on the merger (and on any important matter) be simply compiled in one place!!!

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      lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      There's all the info you need on the official thread. I don't have the time to look for it right now. I hope you find it.

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   2. 76

      Barbara Kayposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Doreen, First of all, being here for only 2 months is part of your problem and only having 8 hubs is your other problem. I didn't start earning anything to speak of until I started writing more and I was here for 8 months. That sounds like a long time, but you will earn money from the hubs you write for years as long as Hubpages stays around.
      
      For right now, I'd start an account at Pinterest. Then post the hubs that are of interest to women. You'll get some traffic that way.

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      1. 58

         Doreen Mallettposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you. I'll do.

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   3. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Doreen, this may help:
      
      Here is what we definitely know so far:
      
      1.  Maven  has bought HubPages.  That means they have bought the business, and the right to publish our articles.  They have NOT bought the copyright to our articles, we still own our work (which means we can delete our Hubs at any time);
      
      2.  Paul Edmondson and all the HubPages staff have been hired by Maven to continue to run the business as a separate subsidiary;
      
      3. Each of the niche sites will become a new "channel" on the Maven network;
      
      4. ALL existing HubPages authors will be able to continue writing for the niche sites once they become channels - we don't need to do anything;
      
      5. HubPages authors will NOT have access to write for any of the other Maven channels, (but it's possible some Hubbers may be invited to create their own channel in future).
      
      6. , When the niche sites become channels, they will retain their URL (i.e. PetHelpful.com will still be PetHelpful.com).
      
      You can see the existing Maven network here, but remember, the niche sites will be added as NEW channels - we won't be able to write for any of the channels already listed. 
      
      There have been no other announcements about any other changes.
      
      You'll notice HubPages.com (the main site) doesn't get a mention.  That's because it's basically just an administrative hub now.   All new Hubs are automatically considered for the niche sites and if they're good enough, they're moved within a few weeks of being published.

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         Doreen Mallettposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you.
         I have not published for several weeks because I was  not sure that it made sense. what are others doing?

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         1. 82

            sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            I  can't speak for others but I am going to continue as before and hope for the best.  I will also work on improving my own website.

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8. 82

   sallybeaposted 6 years ago

   I wish I had the answers to your questions. Do you have Google Adsense?  You can't earn here without it.   Perhaps others more informed can provide more information.  I would love to know for instance whether there have been any writers here who have been invited to write on the Maven platform.

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