My instincts tell me this site is as dead and void of traffic potential as flash fiction for example. I am starting this thread in the hopes that my instincts are wrong, reason being I'd like to write an article for this site.
I would very much like to hear any and all opinions and about all experiences concerning this network site. Anyone getting daily organic traffic? Most articles just lay there and collect dust? Problems getting articles successfully posted there or tampered with? Anything and everything having to do with Soapboxie. An article these days is a lot of work for me, I'd like some assurance it is worth the effort.
I do not want this to be exclusively a cheer leading thread or a bashing thread. I truly want to hear about all both positive and negative experiences and opinions. The article is probably going to be written no matter what; the question is whether to risk exposing the content to Google here first. If there are excessive rejection problems, I'd just as soon skip it; same if getting organic traffic is a rarity. In both cases I'd just as soon use the article to bulk up my website. So really the question is whether I compose this masterpiece here or there.
I think it depends what your topic is. I had about half a dozen hubs on Soapboxie, but I've deleted them all bar one as they never gained any traction.
The only one left is an "evergreen" topic that gets a regular drip of traffic. I think it would do better on another niche site, but HP staff don't agree. (I'll wait until I do a major update on it and then request once more for it to be moved.)
In conclusion, I don't think Soapboxie is a site worth spending a lot of effort on.
I have nine articles on Soapboxie, and none are world beaters as far as traffic goes. But I don't think that's because the site is under some Google penalty. Rather it's simply because opinion- or viewpoint-based content doesn't get a lot of traffic in the first place unless it's on a widely read magazine or newspaper site. For example, my most productive article on Soapboxie ranks 3rd in Google search for the most pertinent keywords (this is with private results turned off). But those keywords only generate 390 searches per month.
That said, I suspect the cause/effect vector goes something like this: Soapboxie topics generate few searches -> Soapboxie.com gets a relatively low number of views -> being on Soapboxie doesn't add any extra search boost to an article.
I have one article on Soapboxie. It's about doing community service and volunteering. It gets decent organic traffic, between 200 and 300 views a month. I think it does well because of the topic. It's an old article which was doing not bad before niche status; it has done much better on the niche site. Students and parents are always looking for volunteer work for requirements and philanthropic reasons. Views increase slightly around spring break and Thanksgiving holidays.
I'm not sure why it's on Soapboxie; it's not about opinion. But I guess service implies some type of cause and this niche provides the best fit.
I just did some research on what the site ranks for and I realised it ranks for: "what meth looks like" #4 on Google.com
If you are writing on a topic that fits on this niche site, there is a very good chance it will rank well. The best way is to test it yourself.
@janshares - My one remaining hub on Soapboxie is about volunteering too. I wondered why HP thought it belonged there and your explanation makes sense.
I have two articles on the same subject, however the topics are heavily covered by state and federal government sites so my one article does not rank and gets basically zero traffic. The other ranks on the first or second page if the keywords are put in the right order, otherwise it's hard to find as well. The second one does better and got just under 1k views in the month of March.
Para, I only have one article over there, so I really can't make any reasonable assessments.
That said, the stats said I have more of the (small amount of) traffic coming in from Google than from here on HP.
Luck of the draw. Some of my articles have had quite a bit of traffic in short bursts while others get a small regular bit. I think it has to do with whether people are searching for that topic or not.
I currently have a Soapboxie article which has been stolen by 5 different websites. I've several more there, and they get traffic. It's not a news site, at least not for me. I guess what I do that winds up there are things which are short biographies of political figures. When David Rockefeller died I got tens of thousands of page views for days at a time to my article about him on Soapboxie, and so, I'm quite pleased with the place, although it isn't my primary target for publication.
Hey, folks! Just wanted to thank everyone for their replies.
Am happy to see there are no complaints or bad news about the site, itself. As for the traffic reports; it's about what I expected, but it does look more promising than the flash fiction traffic experiences I've had.
I'm going to go ahead and give it a shot, leastwise I'll work on the article until a better topic idea comes to mind. May we all have a prosperous April.
Yup. I love to write fiction, but it's difficult to get web traffic for it.
Am having a tough time with my article, just can't seem to work up the enthusiasm that I used to have in years past. I hope that enthusiasm comes back, cuz it sure used to be fun! Haven't completely given up yet.
One section a day of the hub is what I aim to do when I find it hard. Try that
My problem is that I have lost hope. When one loses hope, that is the end.
Hey, Brandon. Way to go! A million is a great milestone.
My profile score dropped below 90 for first time this year. I guess HP doesn't like unhappy campers. Or maybe it's cynics.
It is because you are scared to edit your articles, as you pointed out in other threads. Your average hub score is probably around 80 - 85, therefore your profile score is below 90.
I went and looked. My profile score and average hub score are the same; another first! Both are exactly 89 at the moment.
Used to be my profile score was always 10 points higher than my hub average, but that changed quite sometime ago.
Next my profile score will be less than my hub average score.
Maybe I should just kill off my soapboxie draft and compose it on my website instead.
Update:
Been having photo editing problems here anyway.
How are you having photo editing problems? All you do is upload a picture. You can't do anything to it here. You need to edit on another platform if you want to edit it.
HP continues to show promise. Will do the editing and transfer back to HP.
As with all the niche sites, in my experience, informative evergreen articles with general appeal usually do just fine.
If you expect people to Google for your own opinion piece on politics, current events, or whatever, then you will be disappointed in most cases.
by ShailaSheshadri 12 days ago
I am writing articles for this website since past 3 months. At present, I have 38 featured and published hubs. I have joined for Amazon and google Adsense program. Past two months I earned like very less amount, less than 1/2 dollar. If I continue writing and publishing at the rate of one article...
by Dorsi Diaz 14 years ago
I've been seriously starting to look at article submission software and ideas, and I was wondering what some of you are using? I know Lissie has a blog on this software,http://100sites-lissie.blogspot.com/200 … -cool.html which looks good, but I wanted to get more feedback on some other...
by Eric Dockett 13 months ago
A few weeks ago, I posted some thoughts on why traffic is falling for many writers and what we might do about it. One of the things I considered is that massive rewrites and fresh articles may be the ticket to clawing back on some of these traffic drops. Here is some more food for thought on that...
by Dorsi Diaz 14 years ago
Does anyone here write articles for EZine? I've noticed they seem to get good Google ranking- I wonder what the secret is?Just wonderin..........(BTW- I've missed all my hubber friends here- August has been a month from H$$L for me, I can't wait to get back to hubbing again!)
by Susan Holland 10 years ago
Hi All,I wrote this hub in 2011. I used Google Adwords and thought it would be a great evergreen hub. WRONG! I have revised the hub and changed my title several times. Please tell me what you think. I have a thick skin. "You Need a Plan for Retirement" ...
by Jacob Horning 5 years ago
Hello Hubbers! I'm fairly new to HubPages, I've been here about a week now and love the community so far! Anyway, I was thinking, since we all have the same goal; to make money, get readers and help people, I thought I would make a topic for us all to discuss the best places to post our HubPages...
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) |