Not Sticking Around

1. 69

   lrohnerposted 14 years ago

   I've only been active on HubPages for the past week, but I'm trying to learn from my mistakes sooner rather than later. Obviously, my hubs are not getting much organic traffic from Google, but there is some and the results are disturbing.
   
   My Lobster Roll hub in particular is the one I need advice on:  http://hubpages.com/hub/LobsterRolls
   
   This hub has had some traffic that was generated by very relevant and targeted keyphrases:  "warm lobster roll recipe", "how to make hot lobster roll", etc. My hub couldn't be more relevant if it tried. Every single person who google about lobster rolls and got to my hub left as soon as they got there. ZERO time on site.
   
   What should I change or what am I doing wrong?

   replyreport
2. 70

   Karen Banesposted 14 years ago

   Hi and welcome to hubpages. I just looked at your hub and had to scroll WAY down the page to hit the recipe. I don't pretend to be an expert on how to write the perfect hub but I know as a busy internet surfer (and bad cook) when I google a recipe I want to see a good, easy to follow recipe right in front of me! If I were you I'd edit the hub to a quick introductory paragraph, followed by the recipe, followed by the other material you want to include. Just a suggestion. It takes some experimenting on here to hit the right formula. Happy hubbing!

   replyreport
3. 71

   brad4lposted 14 years ago

   Personally, I think that the hub looks great and is very informative and it is important to remember that most of the time you will have a pretty high bounce rate, this is normal.
   
   It could be, however, that when people are searching for "warm lobster roll recipe" and come across your hub, they do not scroll down and look for the recipe. Instead, since the first thing they see is the text, they simply move on.
   
   This is purely a guess and is only really based on how I search for recipes on Google, but you could try to make a hub or two with the recipie on the top of the page and some history below it. Then compare the bounce rate with the recipie on top and the recipie on the bottom.
   
   Edit: Personally, instead of editing your existing hub, like Karen suggested, I would make a new hub(s), but include the recipie on the top, so you had a basis for comparison...

   replyreport
4. 58

   Mark Knowlesposted 14 years ago

   On the other hand - how are your adsense earnings? Are they clicking on ads instead, because that hub is perfectly laid out so that all they see when they arrive is a photo of a lobster, a small amount of text and a lot of google ads.
   
   Do you want to be read, or make money is the question. It is a really good hub at the moment, but I would be tempted to switch the story with the recipe if you want them to stay longer and move the lobster photo down.

   replyreport
5. 69

   lrohnerposted 14 years ago

   Good point as usual, Mark. I guess my answer would be that I would actually like both readers and clicks. However, I just checked my Adsense account, and I have had only one click this week ($.16 -- woo hoo!).
   
   Another problem is that AdSense is only showing that I've had 6 page impressions over the last week, while Analytics is showing 186 impressions during that same time. I set HubPages up as a URL channel on AdSense (hubpages.com/profile/lrohner). Was that wrong?
   
   I like your suggestions. I do think the lobster picture is too big and too overwhelming. And the story, while true, is probably only interesting to me. The intent was to try to convey that New Englanders do actually debate this topic. NY and CT are in the warm with butter camp, while Maine and RI do the chilled mayo thing (blech!).
   
   Since I'm the only one who's voted on the poll, I'm pretty sure no one is even getting that far. I've gone ahead and reordered things and cut the story back. Can I get your opinion? I'm used to leading with the story and closing with the recipe, but I'll defer to your experience on this one.
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/LobsterRolls

   replyreport
   1. 58

      Mark Knowlesposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      That looks more tempting to a reader looking for a recipe. And I hate to break it to you - but recipes do not generate many clicks.
      
      Much as I enjoy writing them, I have pretty much stopped doing so and moved to more high paying subjects. I do the occasional one, but if you think about it - a really good recipe - as yours seems to be - gives the reader exactly what they came for, so they are unlikely to click an ad. At one point, I was tempted to delete half the content of my recipe hubs. The half with the recipe. The other thing I would suggest is to cut down on the "back story" a little.

      replyreport
      1. 69

         lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Mark. I actually have had pretty good AdSense success on my three foodie blogs. But I still will take your advice to heart and will turn to other topics.  Thanks again!

         replyreport
   2. 67

      Silver Roseposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      yes. Set an Adsense channel for each Hub URL - that way you can see which Hub is making the profit. If you've set the channel for your profile, the channel will <i>only</i> report impressions for visits to the profile and not to the Hubs.
      
      
      Finally, on the hubs themselves, your adsense ID is displayed 60% of the time, and the other 40% of the time, Hubpages displays their own ads. Your Adsense account will only count impressions when your own ads are shown.
      
      Hope this helps.
      
      P.S. You are doing quite well making a small Adsense profit in your first week - it usually takes a few months for the hubs to get established enough to bring in traffic and profit

      replyreport
      1. 69

         lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Silver. But I'm still confused. If I've had 186 page impressions on my hubs and Adsense is only reporting 6, does that mean that my ads were only served up 3% of the time???

         replyreport
         1. 67

            Silver Roseposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Remember that you have ten hubs plus a profile page. But you set your adsense channels to ONLY look at your profile page.
            
            You need to go into your adsense and set up a separate channel for EACH hub url (ignore the profile page). From the time you set it up, you should start to see impressions per hub when you call up the channel report. You won't see any detail from before you set up the URL channels (but any earnings will get swept up by Adsense anyway, so you won't lose them).

            replyreport
            1. 69

               lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks Silver. Done.

               replyreport
6. 69

   lrohnerposted 14 years ago

   Good Lord, I forgot Karen and Brad!  Thank you very much for your advice. I did move the video for the warm lobster roll up top and put the Maine Lobster Roll recipe directly below it. I will go in eventually and put a written recipe for the Warm Lobster Roll. I originally didn't put in a written recipe because it would basically be one line -- cook some lobster (steam, grill, boil, whatever), stuff it in a hotdog roll, drizzle with melted butter. Serve with lemon.
   
   Thanks for all of the input!

   replyreport
7. 61

   Anonymousposted 14 years ago

   Put your recipe first. Put other text later. Make any visuals smaller and compress them. There are free sites that will compress your graphics for you. Compressed graphics make the site load faster.

   replyreport