I'd like feedback on my article: Make your own Earrings

1. 66

   Zodiacimmortalposted 6 years ago

   Hi Hubbers,
   
   I'd like some help with passing the Quality Assessment Process. Will you please give feedback on my article Make your own Earrings. What can I do to improve? Thanks!
   
   Is there anything I have forgotten to mention? (Yes I know I need a bigger photo, and even more but Not sure if I can recover the images.)

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   1. 93

      Rochelle Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I'm not an expert on this, but one thing that jumped out at me is that you almost immediately included an Amazon ad, so you start out looking like an advertising hub.
      It would be better, I think,  if you drew people in and got them interested in making earrings, before placing and ad which should almost seem like an afterthought on your part. If you make people want to make their own earrings, they will be more likely to start thinking "What do I need?"
      Yes, better photos could help too.

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      1. 66

         Zodiacimmortalposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Hard to take photos in the house as it has low lighting.
         As for the Amazon capsule...I've put it in with the supplies. (I thought I had it after but apparently not)
         
         I've added a different amazon item this time
         
         Let me know. I, however, have to see if I can find the earrings and get some better images

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   2. 87

      theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Hi there,
      
      Follow Rochelle's suggestions, and then:
      
      *Put your titles into title case.
      *Pay attention to the punctuation. Remove exclamation points. Place periods after parenthesis when they end a sentence (like this).
      *Remove writing like, "I will see if I can include..." Either include it, or don't mention it.
      *Lose the links to Amazon Widgets and to your own blog (not permitted).
      *Clean up the formatting - you have mixed up italics. It's inconsistent and messy.
      
      In an article like this, you MUST include high quality photos to help explain the process. As soon as your readers see there are no photos to follow, they will press the Back button and go and look for something that more suits their needs.
      
      There's a lot of work to do here. Remember that HubPages only wants high-quality, well-written, magazine-style articles.
      
      Good luck.

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      1. 66

         Zodiacimmortalposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Instead of a load of pictures, I included a video
         I don't like a step by step of photos, to me, it makes a page look like a mess, especially when (now that HubPages has made it so you can not put the photos to the side of the instructions)  Also I personally prefer seeing a video how to make something.
         
         The Amazon widget i included as a listing for other supplies needed (was the original way I had it) as this was not originally a hubpage

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2. 100

   Gregory DeVictorposted 6 years ago

   In reference to your numbered items, I don’t believe that your numbers need to be in boldface.

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   1. 66

      Zodiacimmortalposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      They are not showing bold on my end... mmm wonder why... I'll try and see to fix it even if its not on my end
      I think I might start backing up my hubs to my blogs. They don't seem all too stable. They seem to be getting like Squidoo did before they went under.

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3. 100

   Gregory DeVictorposted 6 years ago

   OK, they are not showing up bold any longer. I use a Chromebook and it could be the browser. Sorry for the confusion.

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   1. 66

      Zodiacimmortalposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      No prob.As I said I would check. I just went in to see if the bold button was activated. It was on a few of them

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4. 87

   theraggededgeposted 6 years ago

   How-to articles really need a good number of attractive photos. People need a visual guide. Have a look at How to Paint Stones: Cat Portrait on my profile.
   
   Here's another on Feltmagnet: https://feltmagnet.com/crafts/queen-of- … gs-project
   
   Excellent photos get pinned and shared.
   
   I see the #2 point in bold.
   
   And you still have mixed up fonts: 'which I used for my...' and 'this is my preferred way'. Both in parentheses but different fonts.

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   1. 66

      Zodiacimmortalposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I know about the photos but also keep in mind many of if not ALL of my hubpages were on squidoo first. So I may not be able to replace a photo or add for any specific pages. I have to see if I still have those earrings or if I sold them.
      
      Also as i replied to someone else, I am still deciding on if I am moving my hubs (or certain ones)0 to my blog(s)  at least that way when I do a how to post, I can at least have the photos in line with each step and not all the photos then the instructions. The way they had the hubs before where we could leave the picture big, or put it off to the side was better. That is where squidoo started their changes and if Hubpages keeps it up, they are going to go the same way.(many squids did the same only before the merger. Which I'mm starting to think was a smarter thing!

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      1. 87

         theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Hubpages is not on the verge of collapse. It's doing much better than Squidoo, as far as quality content is concerned. The main HubPages site is now a kind of holding pen. The best articles get moved to the niche sites, where is where you want yours to go if you want to get traffic and earn some decent money. I'm trying to help you produce a decent article that might be chosen for Feltmagnet.
         
         The whole point of a how-to article is to show people how to do something. If they can't see what you mean, they'll be pressing the back button. You know what you are referring to because you wrote the article and made the earrings. They don't.
         
         You asked for help and I'm explaining to you why good photos are necessary. I gave you two examples of how photos are used properly, in line with the text.
         
         It won't matter where you move it, if you haven't got decent photos to support it, it won't get traffic.
         
         Squidoo didn't collapse because of their format requirements; they collapsed because Google penalized them for too much, substandard crappy content.

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         1. 66

            Zodiacimmortalposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            When Squidoo started doing all their changes is what MADE them end up having to sell. So I'm going to start raizing my Hubs as when I have longer pages of information they take a lot longer to load then blogs do. Also
            The format in which they have the setup. instead of not letting us put images in line with a capsule (for instance a step by step)
            
            I don't know about everyone else or how they organize /save the images they load on to hubpages,  but because  I did my pages so long ago (even the few if any  I may have set up after the merger)  those images are either lost, (because of a crash or corrupt file etc.)  Also a page with all large images looks stupid. I at least have my stuff laid out as if it's a magazine sadly we were never able to add images on the left side of the text.
            
            People rely too much on Google. Also, I got a hell of a lot of hits on Squidoo than Hubpages does Oh gee maybe that's because the holier than though don't like us to actually mention our blogs where we aren't forced to conform to crap.  I've seen crappy blogs that have looked better than Hubpages. There's a time where you need a 'sub-image'  and a time when to use featured size images.
            
            It does matter. where I move... my blogs gets more hits than my Hubpages do. And as a movie once said "blogging is just graffiti with punctuation'"
            
            If I want to earn money I'll take my hubs to my blog. I was supposed to make money before that. They want to be the writing nazi's but not fix the other pages I've seen with NOTHING and no matter how much I correct my pages or fix them I'm not ruining the integrity of what I researched long and hard to write when I had to double check facts in my books and library etc. Considering I at least write a review or information on an Amazon capsule it shouldn't have to be 300 words they should read them instead. Not everything deserves a 300-word review esp. if the hub is actually supposed to be a product review. So yes They have flaws in their site. If someone writes a review the Amazon capsule should be enough with a few images and maybe a video.
            
            Either that or writing your review in the page in a t3ext capsule should be fine and be able to just put the Amazon capsule in line with that capsule should be fine to do.
            Also having all their checkpoints just makes filler so you end up repeating yourself (spam)
            
            If you have a base of 300 words for a review then that should be enough to get into one of the niche sites (as long as there are at least 1-2 photos.
            
            there's things I have I've done reviews for that because the 300 isnt enough with photos and a video (my own or curated)  basically I've had to B.s. in it and frankly, I think that's worse than so-called 'sub-standard. That MAKES an article substandard. Squido was also at least fun. I should have done what all the other squids did instead of merging with (which also screwed up my pages)  was I should have made a blog before the merger and moved everything to that. I've destroyed some of my original squid pages because of this site. (I've had professors tell me they had not even found some of the information I've read like my Noble Norse Norns. Which IS one of the ones I'm looking to remove (or at least back-up)
            
            People have work and families. We should be being paid for our time to fix things every time they change the rules. 
            
            Also Squidoo looked nicer than this page. Everyone's looks the same what a bore!
            
            no need to write back i'm taking this down

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5. 87

   theraggededgeposted 6 years ago

   Love it when people ask for help and then tell us they don't want it, and they know better than HP staff how to run their site.
   
   Hope you enjoyed your rant. It's inaccurate on so many levels.
   
   Never mind. Perhaps my suggestions will help someone else.
   
   

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