Big Milestone Reached

1. 70

   Ralph Deedsposted 17 years ago

   I reached a major milestone, for me at least, this morning--100,000 page views. It took a lot of hours and a lot of hubs to get there. Not much money but a lot of fun and satisfaction from efforts to make my views known to the world, or at least to my page viewers.

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   1. 82

      compu-smartposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      Congrats also..Heres hoping you get another zero and a small move of a decimal point added to that stat pretty soon;)

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2. 80

   jimmythejockposted 17 years ago

   well done Ralph, although your hubs deserve alot more readers......jimmy

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3. 84

   Marisa Wrightposted 17 years ago

   Ralph, you certainly have an impressive number of Hubs and deserve congrats for a superhuman effort. 
   
   However I have to be honest, if I'd come across some of your Hubs without knowing who you were, I'd probably be flagging them.
   
   A Hub which contains only a video or a cartoon isn't really a Hub, IMO, no matter how funny it is.  You have written other Hubs that have good content, so you can write.  I can't help feeling you've fallen into the trap of sacrificing quality of Hubs for quantity of Hubs.
   
   Maybe it's time to stop and revisit?  You could probably improve your earnings (and the layout) by breaking up the text in your long Hubs into two or three capsules, so you get mid-article ads and an Amazon capsule.  And maybe you could beef up some of those short ones.

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4. 72

   Kenny Wordsmithposted 17 years ago

   Congratulations, Ralph and wow! I am only a baby celebrating 5000 views!
   Marissa's comment is a bold but honest one. Beefing our hubs up so that vistors spend more time in our hubs would probably ensure a more rewarding time for them, return visits, and more revenue for our hubs.
   Keep rolling, Ralph!

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5. 70

   Ralph Deedsposted 17 years ago

   Thanks for your congratulations and suggestions.

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6. 84

   Marisa Wrightposted 17 years ago

   Ralph, hope you didn't take my comments the wrong way.  I'm still a relative newbie, but I think that the recent Flagship Hubs give us a good idea what HP would like us to produce.
   
   Personally, I don't feel entirely comfortable with the Flagship concept because it feels just a bit TOO long, but I am trying to add variety and make the layout more interesting. 
   
   I don't know how you keep track of where you're up to with your Hubs.  I have enough trouble with mine.  I recently started going back over them to improve the layouts, fix up my Amazon ads and check the videos were still working, and I found it hard to remember which ones I'd worked on and which i hadn't.  how I would go with over 600, I can't imagine!

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7. 84

   Marisa Wrightposted 17 years ago

   ....which just gave me an idea.  Any chance we could have an extra column on the "my account" page, showing Date Last Edited?

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8. 70

   Ralph Deedsposted 17 years ago

   I missed the announcement about Flagship hubs. I just read Lissie's excellent hub about how to write a Flagship Hub. I have done several which might qualify. However, I'm more inclined to doing shorter "mash-ups" passing on funny, useful or important information and views from the morning papers and magazines I read. I guess I could go to the trouble of re-writing them as if they were my own, but what would that accomplish for the commonweal? I don't see a lot of truly original stuff on HubPages. Anyway, as Diego Rivera once said "I paint what I see. I paint what I think. I paint what I paint" at least as recounted or imagined in E.B. White's topical poem on the infamous destruction of Rivera's mural in Rockefeller Center.
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/I_PAINT_WHAT_I_ … _E_B_White

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   1. 84

      Marisa Wrightposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      That's true, but I don't think that necessarily makes it right.  It would be interesting to hear what Paul Edmonson has to say about what place "mash-ups" have on HP.
      
      I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the subjects you mention, just that I feel we're supposed to contribute something of our own to a Hub, not just cut and paste.  What's the point of simply re-publishing something that already exists elsewhere?  If all you want to do is highlight important items you've found elsewhere, there are sites especially for that - places like Stumbleupon and Digg.

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   2. 77

      Lissieposted 17 years agoin reply to this

      
      Thanks for the complement! I actually thought a lot of stuff here is original  -mine all is, even the stuff promoting other sites! I see no point in doing duplicate postings because google will discount it anyway

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9. 70

   Isabella Snowposted 17 years ago

   Congratulations, Ralph.
   
   I'm sorry Marisa had to do her hubpages police thing in what should have just been a nice little thread.

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10. 84

    Marisa Wrightposted 17 years ago

    Sorry if I offended you, Isabella.   Ralph has a lot of good Hubs, but his shorter ones do raise some questions for me.  I thought the debate that raised was worthwhile.
    
    It's a bit like what JimmyJock said about people commenting on Hubs just to get the statistics - while Ralph's achievement is impressive, I'd hate to think others would start competing to get lots of Hubs, regardless of content.

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11. 70

    Ralph Deedsposted 17 years ago

    I'm prejudiced I guess, but I think mashups can add a lot to a simple little print article from the morning paper--a brief comment or summary, photos or cartoon images which illustrate or elucidate the article, links to other related articles, videos added perhaps to a print article about a concert or musician and background or history on a commentator, to help a reader better understand where the commentator is coming from.
    
    Obviously, there would be no original content unless somebody, somewhere, wrote the poems or stories, took the pictures or videos or drew the cartoons. But few of us are capable of producing something original of high quality, every day or every week or perhaps ever.
    
    I participate in another online forum of a different type--much smaller and much more of a community of friends where people contribute whatever they feel like contributing. The result is an interesting mix of commentary on politics, art, movies, science, sports, etc, along with links to interesting or funny articles, photographs, art, cartoons, etc. Everyone is free to access the linked material or not as they wish and agree or disagree with commentary. This forum has a much greater sense of community and congeniality than HubPages. It started as the Slate.com but split off to form The Mote ten years ago or so. Hubpages was conceived as something a bit different, and it does need to improve the quality of its hubs. However, it would be a mistake to try to narrow the definition of a hub and force everybody into a single mold as you seem to be suggesting.

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    1. 84

       Marisa Wrightposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       Ralph, I'm sure you won't be surprised if I say I didn't look at ALL your Hubs!   Of the ones I did look at, I found some were detailed articles, whereas others were just a photo, video or cartoon and almost nothing else.  Those were the ones I was concerned about. 
       
       A Hub of the kind you describe, which includes your own opinion on the photo/video/whatever, elucidation, links to related articles etc is a totally different beast and would certainly fit my criteria for "adding something of your own".   I didn't happen to come across any of those Hubs, but they sound interesting and I can certainly see how they add value.
       
       Once again, I'm happy to stand corrected, but I don't think HubPages primary role is to be a community. It's great that we have one, and that we read each other's stuff and help each other, but that's a side benefit.  My understanding is that HubPages' main aim is to be read by the general public, because that's what pays the rent - both for HP's founders and hopefully  for us, the writers!

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12. 70

    Ralph Deedsposted 17 years ago

    Another point--there is an advantage to producing a lot of hubs on different subjects. All your eggs are not in one basket, so to speak and your page views tend to be steadier than they might be if you shoot for a lot of traffic on one or two subjects. Interest in various topics tends to wax and wane depending on events such as elections, the Iraq war, poisonous products from China, etc. Until the election next year politics will be popular and then decline a bit. My most popular single hub by far is entitiled Segolen Royal--A Breath of Fresh Air in France. http://hubpages.com/hub/Segolene_Royal_ … _in_France
    This hub which is purely a mashup which started when Segolene announced her candidacy for President of France and which has continued since she lost the election. It provides the reader with everything they need to know about Segolene Royal and all other women heads of state. The hub has produced 17,000 page views to date and continued to be a steady producer even after the election was over.
    
    There is no way I could have written a a hub about Segolene Royal nearly as interesting as my extended mashup. My only alternative other than a mashup would have been to ignore Royal and the French presidential election and forego the 17,000 page views.

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    1. 77

       Lissieposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       So that's a mash up - I understand now - and no I agree there is no point in writing original copy on a topic like this - but I think by bringing it all together you have added value to the reader.  BTW on your list of world leaders who are woman you missed :Helen Clark (New Zealand, at 1 point we had female PM, Leader of the Opposition, Chief Justice and Governor General! ) Also Julia Gillard is the new Australian deputy  - but that only happened Saturday!

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13. 70

    Ralph Deedsposted 17 years ago

    The other forum I mentioned above is http://www.themote.com/
    in case anybody wants to check it out.

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14. 84

    Marisa Wrightposted 17 years ago

    Thanks for the link to your "mash-up".  There's certainly a huge difference between that content-rich Hub and the ones I was referring to!

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15. 40

    AspireNowposted 17 years ago

    670 Hubs is a massive accomplishment. I guess the thought occuring to me is why not just put these on your own blog, keep the revenue, and have your own fan base there?
    
    Just a question.
    
    I like hubpages, I think HubPages has value. When I post something I've posted elsewhere, I tend to change it at HubPages, or add to it, so it is not a true double post.
    
    But, still, 670 Hubs is a ton of content and certainly worthy of a dedicated blog, in my opinion.
    
    Cheers,
    Scott

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16. 68

    relacheposted 17 years ago

    I'm completely fascinated to have learned that I have 1/10th the amount of hubs as Ralph and have five times the pageviews.

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17. 70

    Ralph Deedsposted 17 years ago

    I'll have to start reading more of your hubs to discover your secrets! Congratulations!

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18. 66

    Mishaposted 17 years ago

    Congrats, Ralph!
    
    And don't pay attention to what some of ladies say, I guess they are just teasing you

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    1. 68

       relacheposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       Misha, I'm not teasing.  What I do here at HubPages and over at Squidoo and a few other sites is how I'm paying my rent these days.  It's a meager living, but I don't have to have a day job and I'd like it to stay that way. 
       
       I also have a firm belief in quality over quantity.

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19. 66

    Mishaposted 17 years ago

    Relache,
    
    I'm with you on that belief. However, I also believe this particular thread is not the best place to post such comments...

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20. 70

    Ralph Deedsposted 17 years ago

    Quality is in the eye of the beholder.

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21. 70

    Ralph Deedsposted 17 years ago

    I guess a lot of people must be more interested in tatoos, christmas cookie recipes and the like than I am. More power to you.

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22. 58

    Mark Knowlesposted 17 years ago

    I am wondering if it makes any difference what other hubbers do? I try to write only good quality hubs that are original stuff and well laid out, but some people seem to be getting upset at the hubbers who do things like post a video and call it a hub. Does that have an effect on other's hubs. No offense meant Ralph. I personally don't care what you do on your own hubs, I just wondered. I am fairly new to Hubpages, I like it a lot and would like to know. then I know whether or not to give you a hard time
    
    And congratulations on the milestone.

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    1. 84

       Marisa Wrightposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       If you're referring to me, I'm not at all upset, I'm just raising a point which I think is important.  My own gut feeling is yes, it does make a difference what other hubbers do.  I'm sure, when I first read about HubPages, one of its boasts was that Hubs scored high on search engines because of the "good reputation" of HP.  If HP starts to get clogged with a lot of low quality Hubs, that's going to hurt its reputation, and that has to be bad for all of us.
       
       Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Ralph writes low quality hubs!   I've only clicked on a selection at random, and there are a lot of detailed original articles and interesting mash-ups.  Looks like I was just unlucky that the first two I clicked on were nothing more than a single photo/video and a link. 
       
       If it wasn't important to maintain the standards at HP, why would we bother having the flagging mechanism?
       
       Relache, well done on making a living on your Hubs.  I'll have to do some studying too!

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23. 61

    trakker14posted 17 years ago

    I saw Hubpages advertised on GMA one morning and they said some old fella made 250.00 in his first day..I personally dont see that as a possability...do you??

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    1. 68

       relacheposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       I don't think that's possible on someone's first day, nor with a single hub.

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       1. 82

          compu-smartposted 17 years agoin reply to this

          I think it is possible to have one hub which has a high score, good content, highly advertised with high paying keywords of earning good revenue, compared to an author with 100 hubs who don't have, or have implemented all the above!
          Having said that they may have been talking about 250 cents! lol
          
          If you have hubs like one of mine pretty in pink with adverts for "dog food"! then I doubt good or any revenue will be earned..

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24. 61

    trakker14posted 17 years ago

    he  had one page he made about bees.

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    1. 58

       Mark Knowlesposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       yeah, I can see that would bee massively popular

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25. STAFF

    pauldeedsposted 17 years ago

    Here's the deal with low quality content.
    
    We're not out to remove everything that isn't a top notch hub.  I can think of a quite a few examples of Hubbers that had that started out a little slow but gradually became solid contributers.   Different people have different ideas about what HubPages is, and how to use it.  We don't want to drive people off on their first or second visit, we want to educate and encourage them to contribute more positively.  To some extent HubScore is supposed to take care of "hiding" weak efforts.
    
    The users that we want to discourage are the professional and semi-professional spammers, web marketers, search engine optimizers, etc. Their intent is to take from HubPages without giving anything back.  If you agree with a lot of these statements, then you probably fit into this category:
    
    - My primary motivation for using HubPages is to get backlinks for my other sites
    - I have more than 5 HubPages accounts
    - I paste in text content from other sites without attribution and typically without much attention to detail or aesthetics
    - I leave comments and become other user's fans primarily to promote myself
    - I rarely read anyone else's hubs
    - I repeatedly link to the same sites (that nobody has ever heard of)
    - All my hubs have hundreds of tags
    - I pretend to be an attractive women, when I am actually a man
    - Many of my links start with "Click here ...."
    - I know what an article spinner is
    - I'm in enrolled in at least 15 different affiliate programs
    - My mom would be embarrassed if she understood how I make money
    - I put a lot of phrases in my paragraphs in bold for no apparent reason
    
    Feel free to add to this list (or turn it into a hub), if you have some other good ones.

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    1. 84

       Marisa Wrightposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       Paul, is the word "text" in there on purpose, or would it be true that pasting ANY type of content from other sites in this way would be classed as "low quality"?

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       1. STAFF

          pauldeedsposted 17 years agoin reply to this

          That list should not be interpreted as the definition of "low quality", as in what should be flagged as low quality.  Those are just some characteristics that I've noticed that are common to a lot of the people that are a drag on HubPages.   The question of where and how to draw the line for "low quality" and "spam" is a difficult one.  If we could define it precisely we could just use software to do all the moderation ....

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26. 88

    Patty Inglish, MSposted 17 years ago

    Good information Paul - Thanks!

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27. 82

    Whitney05posted 17 years ago

    Congrats Ralph!!!
    
    Ignore the slightly rude remarks made by a few others about their own hubs. It seemed as though they were made to put a damper on your excitment...
    
    It truly is a feat. Good Job!

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28. 72

    Kenny Wordsmithposted 17 years ago

    "My mom would be embarrassed if she understood how I make money"
    
    Paul,.that's interesting. My mom is very traditional in her attitude, and I have to be extra careful!
    
    Hope to remove my 'quite a drag' hubs before HP does it. I do this almost periodically.
    
    Compu-smart, don't know why ebay gave you dog food and jobs! None of your tags are anywhere near those!

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    1. STAFF

       pauldeedsposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       Kenny, I don't think you have much to worry about. 
       
       Also, I wouldn't recommend removing any hubs unless the information is out of date.  I've seen hubs chug along with 1 or 2 page views a month for months and then jump up to thousands a day out of the blue.

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       1. 81

          embitcaposted 17 years agoin reply to this

          I can attest to that. I made a recipe hub ages ago that saw little traffic for months and months and then all of a sudden the traffic shot up for Thanksgiving. It is gradually dropping again, but now I figure next year I'll see another bump

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29. 70

    Ralph Deedsposted 17 years ago

    Thanks. However, I'm not offended. On other forums I've been "flamed" many a time and responded in kind. Basically, HubPages is quit congenial compared to many other sites, especially the ones devoted primarily to politics. Congeniality is to be encouraged, in my opinion. It's more fun for everyone.

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30. 61

    Apaeposted 17 years ago

    I only have 1 hub and don't think its even worth checking my traffic at the moment lol.

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31. 82

    compu-smartposted 17 years ago

    Kenny,....... your right, its so lol. What is funnier is that in my Pretty in pink hub i "do" have "ONE" picture of a dog lol.... I have just been reading Jeniffers post and i have learned that it can take a few days before ads are relavent;)
    
    Apae......It only feels like yesterday that i was thinking the same thing as you wrote;) just think of it as one of many;) good luck;)

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32. 61

    Apaeposted 17 years ago

    The problem with that is, you need more than just one bump a year to hope to make any money. That is, unless you have other hubs bringing you alot of traffic. In that case, the bump is just an extra bonus.

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    1. 81

       embitcaposted 17 years agoin reply to this

       Obviously, yes. The point, really, is that it is not worthwhile to delete low-performing hubs because they can become better performers under the right circumstances.

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33. 70

    Ralph Deedsposted 17 years ago

    Lissie, thanks to your suggestion I added Helen Clark to the gallery of women presidents and prime ministers.

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34. 60

    thecounterpunchposted 17 years ago

    Congrats Ralph !
    
    Look at his 666th major milestone
    http://hubpages.com/hub/Interesting-New-Site

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35. 58

    Mark Knowlesposted 17 years ago

    It must take ages to do those

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36. 89

    gamergirlposted 17 years ago

    Ralph, thanks for sharing your milestone.
    
    I wish people wouldn't turn a positive thread like your happiness here into a policy war.

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37. 59

    darksideposted 17 years ago

    Congratulations!
    
    I'm yet to make 10,000 personally. Though I've managed to get 100,000+ through signed up referrals.

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38. 72

    Kenny Wordsmithposted 17 years ago

    That's wonderful, too, Darkside!
    
    Thanks, Compu-smart and Paul. I'll just beef up my low-score hubs, then.

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