Do you ever go back and look at an old, poorly performing hub?

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   kirstenblogposted 14 years ago

   Do you ever go back and look at an old, poorly performing hub and think, what was I on?!
   
   I just had a look at one of my worst hubs, it was also one of my first I might add
   The keywords were kinda irrelevant and the layout was very off-putting! An amazon ad was dominating the whole thing cause I had tried to have it to the right of some text but couldn't actually fit in that space so just looked horrid! I suppose it could have had the greatest text on the topic in the whole wide world and just not been read cause of a bad layout!
   
   A few keywords with google keyword tool for tags and removing the irrelevant tags and hopefully the traffic I do attract will actually be relevant and willing to read something laid out pleasantly I suppose I could go have another look at the title and if there are minor adjustments to the text that could entice a reader to read. Perhaps even try to find unobtrusive ways to add the keywords I just searched for in the body of the text.
   
   Have any of you found that some little tidily change like this turns things around for that hub because of your newbie lack of understanding?

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      lynnechandlerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Kirsten I think we hijacked your thread, sorry. Let's see if we can't get back on topic.
      
      It seems that most people are forging ahead with a few tweeks here and there. I know that is about all I can do, if it helps that is great but if not then I don't worry with it too much.

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         kirstenblogposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Im not bother if its hijacked, I like to think that I sparked some fun here
         
         As for my hub, I just went to have a look this morning at the bottom of the list as that is where it was and couldn't find it! It seems to have shot from a hub score of like 50 to closer to 70 so I think the few tweaks I did helped. The only change to the text I actually ended up doing was to the summary text but this seems to have helped, better tags and a better summary

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      relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I've never looked at an old hub and thought "what was I on?" but I have looked at many and realized I could make them a lot better due to something new I learned or by comparing it to a better performing Hub.
      
      That's part of why I don't have as many Hubs as some others who've been here as long as I have.  I prefer to fix things rather than abandon them and only build fresh.  I think this has contributed to why I have only a few Hubs that are ranked in the 60s now, with most of my Hubs in the 70s and up.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I'm not implementing it as effectively as you do, but this is pretty much my strategy as well.  Considering how well you're doing financially on your small number of Hubs, I think you're on to something!

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            relacheposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            When I look back over my years here, it's clear that my personal pattern is to build Hubs and then take a break for a bit and then have a burst of new Hubs again, etc.  My personal goal is for efficiency.  I'm after how to get the most return from a tight group of Hubs.  So I try to apply a lot of what I learn from the really superlative ones back to the rest.

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   lynnechandlerposted 14 years ago

   I do this on a regular basis as hubs that haven't had much activity turn a bright blue in the status list and sometimes the tweeking helps generate a bit of new traffic.
   
   All the specific to holiday hubs will get a revamping as the holiday approaches again I'm sure because there will be new and different things to add to them to make them fresh.
   
   I have two that I really didn't think would do anything and they are my top performers for the most part in getting traffic and some clicks.
   
   I still find all this baffling to a degree.

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   Denno66posted 14 years ago

   I look at the poorly performing hubs and shake my head. I can't tweak them, they're just wordy, highly involving reads. My mistake putting them online instead of putting it all in a book. My bad.

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      kirstenblogposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Very understandable, I never take a poor performance personally, there is no accounting for taste!

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         Denno66posted 14 years agoin reply to this

         

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      Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Denno, one of the many good things about HubPages is that you have the option to delete them if you like, and put them in that book after all.

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   thranaxposted 14 years ago

   Some of my most planned out good ideas I thought are doing horribly. The one that I thrown together in about 15 mins got more in one month then most do ever, and I am still trying to find a way to get more traffic to those poorly preforming hubs. I was thinking about re-writing the copy but thats too much work. They still serve the purpose they were intended without any add on or rewrite.
   
   ~thranax~

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5. 61

   Lady_Eposted 14 years ago

   It's been on my Writing "to do" list for weeks now.
   
   ..to tweak some of the Hubs I wrote 5 - 6 months ago, but I still haven't got round to doing it. So my answer to your Q would be -I'm about to.

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   shazwellynposted 14 years ago

   I'm a newbie and have already deleted one of my hubs!  It felt like a bit of a white elephant.  All the hubs that I have published have generally had a quick response - except the one I did today!  I have been really careful to be good with keywords, tags, layout and structure and not one person has even seen it!  It must be crap.  They must be put off by the title.  There is no point in having it online if it isnt viewed, so might take it off and put it elsewhere.
   
   I have been over and over my hubs, trying to learn and improve.  I really want to get the admin right.  It's a steep learning curve.  I am always hyper critical of my writing and do heaps of changes with fresh eyes.
   
   x

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      Denno66posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I'll go check it out. What's the title?

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         shazwellynposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Working in Care?  cant understand why there is no traffic?

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      lynnechandlerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      It's an interesting article. The only thing that I might do different is not have the first capsule titled and change the title of the article to something a little shorter and more defined.

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         shazwellynposted 14 years agoin reply to this

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   Janettaposted 14 years ago

   eh, every now and again, I'll go through some of my older stuff-hubs that aren't generating much traffic and tweak it. Sometimes it helps, sometimes not but at least I feel better about it

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   Lisa HWposted 14 years ago

   Something along the lines of my first 100 Hubs were/are pretty much losers, in terms of what a Hub ought to be.  I signed up and didn't really know what people "were supposed to" write.  I went to "requests" (now "questions") and just challenged myself with what I could come up with on a bunch of them.  (For several months I was the "Number 4 request-answerer" on HubPages.  )  On the one hand, I tried to write something decent in response to the requests, but I didn't realize I shouldn't just leave the title worded the way the request was, or answer requests that were really, really, unique.  (Not that this was one exactly, but I'd answer things like, "What to do when your child calls your boyfriend, 'Daddy', but your ex-husband isn't in your life, and your other old boyfriend wants to come back into your life, but your sister and your other old boyfriend went out for two weeks last Winter."  )
   
   I had come to HubPages to get practice "writing on demand" in a wider variety of subjects than I'd had, and I didn't know what I was doing, so I just answered requests. If a request was general it was fine, but a lot weren't.  So now I have - like - 70 or 80 Hubs that really could use some polishing up or re-writing, and it's overwhelming (and not too exciting) to think about doing that tasks).    I keep thinking how I'll either re-write, polish, or delete one for every new one I write; but then I don't do that because I get "all involved" with the new one.  Not long ago I decided to just put all this in my profile (for now) and go with the "they-are-what-they-are" mentality. 

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   zampanoposted 14 years ago

   Yes.
   Mine.

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    lynnechandlerposted 14 years ago

    I just posted two new ones myself Shaz and well the numbers are going up and down but no traffic recorded so I'd say it is just taking a bit to catch up. With all the glitches from this last week I'm trying not to watch the numbers too much cause they can make you crazy.

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       shazwellynposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       im getting traffic on the other hubs, but none on the new one.  This cant be, cos you have commented. so I must be getting some traffic.
       
       What do you think?

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          Denno66posted 14 years agoin reply to this

          I liked it a great deal. Good job

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             shazwellynposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             No larry!  I didnt mean the hub, I meant what do you think is happening to the system?  You know as in hubpages techie. Doh ... hehehe x

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             lyricsingrayposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             

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                Denno66posted 14 years agoin reply to this

                Hey smiley face.

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                   lyricsingrayposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                   pee

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                      Denno66posted 14 years agoin reply to this

                      Poop.

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                         shazwellynposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                         gruff

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11. 64

    GreenMathDrposted 14 years ago

    What do you do when 90% of your hubs are performing poorly? I tend to just keep writing and not looking back but I'm a bit of a newby so I probably have no idea what to do to fix them and maybe when I have an idea I might go back and see what I can do.

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       Lisa HWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I just took a quick scan of your Hubs, and it looks to me as if you're writing the kind of Hubs that usually do ok.  Three months isn't all that long in the "scheme of HubPages", though, and it can take a little while for Hubs to get "noticed" by search engines.  If you haven't done this already you might want to search the forums and site for information on titles that work best and/or keyword use.
       
       Your Hubs look good to me.  Posting on forums that interest you may get more Hubbers to read your Hubs; and since they look pretty good, most likely people will vote them "up" would could boost scores.  Having said all that, it could just be the Hubs need a little more time (but a few efforts to boost them doesn't hurt either). 

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    Ultimate Hubberposted 14 years ago

    As far as I remember, I have done this just once.

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    Flightkeeperposted 14 years ago

    I think it's hard to totally revamp an old hub, mostly because I might not have the same ideas when I put that old hub together.  I think an old hub can be tweaked though so that it can be made better.

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       Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I think it comes down to your definition of what's a "total revamp" and what's a "tweak".  There's a vast area between those two!
       
       When I first started at HubPages, I didn't appreciate the finer points of the site.  Since then I've changed a lot about my Hubs.  Individually those changes were tweaks, but if I'd done them all together, they might have constituted a revamp.
       
       The main "tweaks" I made as I learned were:
       
       - breaking the text into several capsules to maximise ads
       - adding videos
       - adding a news capsule or RSS feed for "fresh" content
       - adding more images
       - moving the first image down to the second text capsule
       - adding an external links capsule
       - creating my own summaries
       - removing some Amazon ads and changing the rest to specific products
       
       If you have older Hubs that are just a wodge of text with one photo, all of the above is well worth doing.

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          Flightkeeperposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks Marisa, I appreciate the tips.  Especially the RSS feed.  Can you point me to a hub so that I can learn more?  Again, thanks.

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    earnestshubposted 14 years ago

    I constantly tweak my old hubs. I will be replacing some that were about subjects that are no longer relevant.

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    Crazdwriterposted 14 years ago

    I've been thinking about looking and revamping some of my old hubs but I don't know. Don't have the brain power to do it today maybe tomorrow.

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    Marisa Wrightposted 14 years ago

    You could try browsing through this thread. If you don't find anything, let me know - I'm assuming all of my suggestions have been covered in one Hub somewhere but if not, maybe I should write one!
    
    http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/27123

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       Flightkeeperposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       This thread gave me what I needed.  Thanks Marisa!

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    Carolina Creteposted 14 years ago

    I tweak some of my hubs occasionally and a couple of the badly performing ones are long due an overhaul. I've been saying that for six months - I'll get around to it eventually!

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    thisisoliposted 14 years ago

    I do plan on revamping some of my early hubs, but it is kind of a daunting task, I never seem to get around to it somehow!

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    videl05posted 14 years ago

    Absolutely, I think it's a great benefit if you do constantly go back to your old hubs that worked poorly, it's like looking into a mirror, it helps you know better who you are, what's your strengths and weaknesses in writing, and how you can improve.

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