Questions from newbie hubber

1. 54

   Daniel Mollatposted 7 years ago

   1. How do I reply to a comment at the bottom of my hub?
   2. I posted an Amazon capsule directly related to the theme of the hub and yet it was snipped. Why?
   3. When I posted the Amazon capsule I was not asked to enter my Amazon associate code in the posting process. How do I make money if the product sells if the associate code is not referenced?
   4. What does it mean to submit an article to a "niche" site?

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2. 65

   Glenn Stokposted 7 years ago

   1 and 2. Your first two questions are answered in detail in my hub “12 Overlooked Hub-Writing Techniques You Need to Use” - you can find it in the list on my profile page.
   
   3. As for your third question, the details about signing up for the HP Amazon earnings program can be found in the Learning Center: https://hubpages.com/faq/#HubPages-Amazon-Program
   
   4. The niche sites are the sites where your hubs make money on specific topics. Google doesn’t like sites that have a lot of unrelated articles. That’s why nothing makes money on HubPages anymore. You’ve got to get your hubs moved to the niche sites. The editors will select stellar hubs within a week or two after you publish. In addition, you can submit older hubs to have them decide if it’s good enough. The submit button is at the top of each hub.
   
   See the learning center about writing stellar hubs so they get selected for niche sites:
   https://hubpageshelp.com/content/Learni … tellar-Hub

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3. 54

   Daniel Mollatposted 7 years ago

   Thanks for your reply Glenn.
   So we cannot ourselves post our hubs directly into the niche sites?

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   1. 74

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Not necessarily.  Every 14 days you can post one hub to the niche sites, but it's a good idea to first wait and see if the team will grab it up so that you'll be able to use this benefit on lesser looked at hubs.
      
      I usually will wait a week after posting a hub before I try to submit unless I have a lot of hubs that I want to have moved. If I have several, I pick the one that has the most views and the highest hub score.

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   2. 65

      Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      No, you can't post your hubs to the niche sites. TIMETRAVELER2 explained it wrong. Posting and submitting are two different things.
      
      You can only publish your hubs on HubPages' home site, as you have been doing. The curators look over every new hub and choose what is good enough for niche sites. They will also decide which niche it belongs to. In order to be chosen you need to follow the standards for a stellar hub. I gave you the link before to the learning center for that.
      
      Sometimes they find something promising, but needs work, and they will email you to tell you what you need to do to improve a hub so that it can be moved to a niche site. But if you follow the stellar guidelines, you'll be ahead of the game.
      
      Besides being chosen by curators, you can submit your hubs to specific niche sites by clicking the submit button as I mentioned earlier. But as TIMETRAVELER2 said, you should wait to see if a new hub is chosen by the curators, otherwise you waste your allotted permission to submit, which is only one every 14 days. So submit only your oldest hubs that have not been chosen yet, and only after you updated them to meet stellar standards.  Make sure you also followed all my 12 overlooked techniques.

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4. 54

   Daniel Mollatposted 7 years ago

   Glenn,
   In your hub "12 Overlooked Hub-Writing Techniques You Need to Use" you talked about selecting a good URL for each hub we write. You suggested we overwrite the URL appearing after we write our title and insert a more generalized URL. I'm not sure I grasp what you are trying to say. Like what kind of generalized URL should we plug in?
   
   Can you elaborate some more on the benefits of doing this? I notice the voter turnout is that 72% of hubbers don't do this. I guess it's because we were totally ignorant about it. So it would be a great help to us 72% if you could expound some more on this.
   
   Thanks!

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   1. 65

      Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Daniel, You are right that many Hubbers never even knew that they can specify the URL when creating a hub. That field is not obvious unless one pays attention to all the fields that can be filled in when starting a new hub. Most people don’t pay that close attention.
      
      For that reason I see many people complaining in the forums that whenever they change the title of a hub, the URL no longer makes sense because it’s so very different from the new title.
      
      This is why I always choose a URL that is a general concept of the topic, one that will apply no matter how I change the title in the future. Do you see my point? 
      
      Trust me, over time you will find yourself changing your titles. This usually occurs after the hub has been published for many months and you start seeing what people are typing into Google to get to your hub. You’ll also see what is causing some people to drop out when they click to your hub from a search and immediately leave because it wasn’t what they expected.
      
      All this is available to you in your Google Analytics Reports. I make good use of that information to fine-tune the title and even the content in order to improve my income on poorly performing hubs. But don’t worry about that for now. You’re learning a lot already as it is.
      
      The important  thing to remember is that once you publish a hub, you can no longer change the URL.

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      1. 74

         TIMETRAVELER2posted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Exactly how do you do this? I don't understand.

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         1. 65

            Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I show you how in my hub "12 Overlooked Hub-Writing Techniques You Need to Use" – scroll down to "Select a Good URL for Your Hubs"

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5. 54

   Daniel Mollatposted 7 years ago

   Glenn,
   Can you give us an example of a generalized URL? Are you suggesting that we use the same URL for all our articles regardless of titles?
   
   Thanks for your patience with many newbies here.

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   1. 65

      Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Daniel, Obviously you need to use a different URL for each hub. When I said “general” I meant generalized in the sense of the subject.
      
      “Generalized” means that it’s not dependent on words that may change when you update the title in the future.
      
      You do want to keep important keywords in the URL. That helps with SEO (that’s Search Engine Optimization).  But other words in the title don’t need to be used in the URL.
      
      You asked for an example. Here’s one:
      
      My hub with the title “Five TurboTax Versions: How to Choose for Tax Year 2017 and Avoid Errors”.
      
      I wouldn’t want the year in the URL, since I change it in the title every year.
      
      It’s against policy to post the URL to my own hubs, but the ending of the URL (the part you can control)  is “do-your-taxes-right-with-turbotax”.
      
      That works no matter how I change the title later. It applies “generally” to the subject without any reference to “five versions” or to the year, either of which may change in the title.

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6. 54

   Daniel Mollatposted 7 years ago

   Got it!
   Too bad I can't do any changes with hubs that are now published.
   Thanks once again

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7. 97

   Rochelle Frankposted 7 years ago

   Why can't you do changes? Go to your account list (or the hub in question) and click the edit button. If you are signed in you should be able to make any changes you need.

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8. 54

   Daniel Mollatposted 7 years ago

   I'm referring to changes in the hub's URL per Glenn's recommendations. Once you've accepted the default URL without making changes while creating your hub, that's it. It's permanent!

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   1. 97

      Rochelle Frankposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Ah, Okay I get that. I have heard that the URL isn't too important especially if it still reflects the subject of your article. 
      You can keep it in mind when you post your next hub, to get the URL you want.
      I have changed titles on my hubs many times. Few of them match the URL exactly anymore.
      Have fun... looks like you have a lot to write about.

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      1. 65

         Glenn Stokposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Rochelle, you’re missing the point. Sometimes when you make changes to a hub in the future, the URL no longer relates well to it. That’s why it’s important to consider that when you first create the hub, because that’s the only time you can specify the URL. You should read my tutorials that explain all that and more. I discuss many things that some Hubbers seem to be missing.

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         1. 97

            Rochelle Frankposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            OK thanks, yes I understand this.
            Do search engines pay more attention to urls or titles?

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9. 86

   Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago

   Titles are far more important

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   1. 97

      Rochelle Frankposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I thought so.

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