How does someone on hubpages get a large following without writing hubs?
When I am hub hopping, I have noticed that there are many people with little or no hubs and they have hundreds of followers. I see that some of them are following many people and I understand the reciprocity factor but I don't still don't understand the why and how of their fanbase.
Neither do I, and what's the point? If you are not passionate about writing, why be on HubPages? Great question. If I know they are just spamming for followers, I normally will not oblige.
It could be from a variety of things.
They could have been on hubpages a long time, and thus, over time, they have built up a large following.
They could have had many of their hubs unpublished, or they even unpublished them to put them elsewhere online.
The hubs they have written may be of such quality that many people want to follow, or they might be very good at visiting other people's hubs and commenting and interacting.
it could also be because people don't follow based only on the number or quantity of hubs but other factors.
I have seen some of the hubpage employees profiles and some of them only have a few hubs, but because of their connection to hubpages, thousands of people follow them.
Many people are on hubpages not because they love writing, but because they want to make some money on the side, and they are good at marketing.
Hope this gives you some possible answers to your question.
I'd also like to point out that some Hubbers don't write a lot of Hubs but may be very active with the forums and Q&A sections, thus getting followers. Just something I noticed...JS~
Yes, I have noticed a few people who are on here just to discus things in the forums and they sometimes develop a fallowing too. Good point.
I've noticed the same thing on Facebook. Some people have more than 5000 "friends". The same can be said for Twitter as well. I believe (ego) is the driving force. If none of these social networks (publically) showcased the number of friends or followers one has there would less of a competitive.
Clearly a lot of "followers" aren't actually "following". I suspect a lot it is as you described as the "reciprocity factor". I personally don't believe in following someone simply because they are following me. I tend to follow (subjects) more than writers.
Sometimes for the hell of it I will check out a person's (activity) who is "following me" and see that they just signed up to follow 50 other people within the same hour, made no comments on any hubs, nor answered any questions or posted anything on a forum. There are some that will unfollow you after a week if they notice you are not following them back! LOL!
Funny, I was thinking the same thing. I am new here and trying to understand it all, and when I have seen hundreds of followers with just one or two hubs, I was kind of confused, as I am now..LOL...But I will learn:)
I know, right?!?! I have been here 4 months, writing diligently, forming a small but worthy following and then I see someone with 500 followers and no hubs or another who asks several questions a day and no hubs. I don't get it! thanks for answering,
A lot of people are following back to be polite, and there's nothing wrong with that. My favorite is a hubber by the name of pinetreehugger. They have well over 500 devoted followers while bragging to be the uncover hubless hubber!
There should not be a "reciprocity factor", although unfortunately, the following system has degenerated to that point.
When HubPages first started, you didn't "follow" someone, you became their "fan" - which made it clear you were joining their fan club to read and enjoy their writing. You didn't expect that writer to return the favor, any more than you'd expect Beyonce to join your fan club if you joined hers.
The idea was that you were picky about whose fan club you joined, because you would be an ACTIVE fan, and read all their Hubs - something that's clearly impossible if you follow lots of people. So although I have over 2,000 followers, I follow less than 100 Hubbers myself.
But to get back to the point - there are two possible explanations. One is that the person had lots of Hubs before the Great Panda Disaster of 2011, but has deleted most/all of their Hubs since then. The other is that the account belongs to a spammer who thought the secret to making money on HubPages was to network like mad. They soon found out that doesn't work, and abandoned the account.
btrbell, I'm so glad you asked this as I have wondered the same thing! I always go to a persons profile page and read some of their hubs before I will follow them too. I have never just wanted a ton of followers who don't truly want to read my hubs. I don't follow people whose work I don't like or who have subjects I'm not interested in at all. I'm glad to read the answers here! I, too, am leery of some who want to follow me and think we should all be careful to some extent as to who we follow back. Thanks for a great question!
You have figured out how they get followers, by following other people. A certain percentage of those you follow will just automatically follow back.
The thing that is less clear is why. If you have no hubs, what do you need with followers? I guess some people just like to see a high number there.
Or, maybe some day they will write a hub, then, in theory, lots of people will see it.
by Sally Gulbrandsen 5 years ago
Have you noticed that the high earners on HubPages appear to follow very few writers themselves?Could it be said then, that it is more important to have a following than it is to follow back other writers and Are we spending too much time commenting at the cost of writing new content?
by Shawn May Scott 11 years ago
I am still new to Hubpages and have been enjoying a rather successful start. Thank you to those who have voted my articles up and those few of you who have begun to follow me. But I have noticed one thing of late and maybe it is the way it goes but I think it is disrespectful. I have commented on a...
by iceangel 12 years ago
Am on hubpages to improve my writings,what of you guys?
by sam24354 7 years ago
I have just started, so I dont expect it in the near future, but how many hubs, or how many months before you start making money? How much traffic is considered to be good traffic? Right now I am getting about an average of 75 hits per day on 4 hubs. Is that good? What...
by Escobana 10 years ago
Let us welcome both of us to OUR new world of friendship.......nice to met you here and looking forward to know you more.....read you more......Take care and God bless you.
by Variety Writer 12 years ago
How does someone with over 400 hubs, 900 followers, and over 20 months of being a member get a score of 1? I saw a one next to there photo.... how does that happen.
Copyright © 2023 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2023 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |