HP Articles Just for Driving Traffic to Maven???

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Natalie Frankposted 6 years ago
I have just come across several of my articles that have links embedded at the bottom to get the reader over to a largely unrelated Maven article. It's also only apparently on the mobile version, where it seems perhaps we are less likely to notice it. It's not just a link but the article picture and a the beginnings of the article. It is after the list of related articles on HP which just list the title of the article and is much bigger than those and again includes much more info, making it more likely that a reader will click on it, taking them away from the niche site.

I wouldn't have a problem with this if when I go to the article there was a similar link back to mine. However, when I go to the article it is clear that the intention is to drive traffic to that author and to get the reader to stay there, as the bottom of the Maven article just includes links to every other article that author has written on Maven. For example, for my article "The Jewish Origins of Fried Green Tomatoes and a Kosher, Non-Dairy, Gluten-Free Recipe", at the bottom there is a link for "How to Fall for Creamy Rich Pumpkin Cheesecake Cups" which takes you to the Maven site with no reciprocal link back to my site or any HP site.

This means that our article will not only no longer provide traffic for each other on HP they will actually take traffic away from HP as the Maven articles provide traffic for only that individual author through links to every one of their articles but no other Maven or HP article. Given that every Maven article has what is similar to our Profile layout of all or our articles at the bottom this also provides far more room for ads and there is a much larger number of ads and thus opportunity for revenue for Maven articles compared to our.

Unless I missed the announcement we were not informed that this would be a new practice and as I check to see how my articles appear on both the desktop and mobile versions every time I update one, it seems this is something new. I am taking exception with this practice as I am not working to get new articles out and update other articles regularly to make money for Maven authors instead of me. I do not make much off of HP as of yet but had steadily gone up over the roughly year and a half since I was approved by Adsense and had hopes that eventually I would reach monthly payouts with amounts growing over time. This practice needs to be terminated or minimally there needs to be reciprocity with every article my articles are driving traffic to having a link back to mine. This should not be a one way street.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I have articles from Maven Craft Gossip at the bottom of my Tutorials which take readers away from my pages to Maven Authors. It is very disappointing as traffic has decreased as has income. I look forward to an explanation from HubPages (MAVEN)
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I checked about 12 of my Hubs. All the craft ones have links to Maven Craft Gossip (Editor) with the same image and text. Many of my Hubs now have at least 6 - 10 ads throughout the hub including the comments the section. That seems a bit odd when you think of the stringent restrictions placed on Amazon ads. Is that something new and do we get paid when people click on them? In hubs which are not on Feltmagnet, I have links to Authors and their articles. As far as I can see there are no backlinks. Correct me if I am wrong.
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Beth Eaglescliffeposted 6 years ago
Which sites are your articles on Natalie and Sallybea? I've just checked a few of my hubs in mobile mode (on Dengarden, Turbofuture and Owlcation) and they don't have any links to Maven articles. So perhaps this is only happening as an experiment? (But I agree, it's not a good thing.)
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Most of mine are on Feltmagnet with a few on Delishably, Healdove, Letterpile and Remedy grove. I notice that there are also ads which take readers to other sites which I don't think are Maven but they might be. I need to investigate a bit further.
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Natalie Frankposted 6 years ago
I haven't gone through all of them but definitely all of mine on delishably and we have kids. Its likely they are trying to identify which Maven authors our articles relate to so if there is currently no Maven author that has articles on what you write about they haven't linked yours yet. That's not to say they've finished the process or won't have new sign one in the future (and id like to know how many Hubvers were signed by Maven since it seems they've identified and signed everyone they intend to) that your articles relate to. My views have started going down forcaeticles on these two sites. Recipes traditionally don't get lots of views to begin with but now all of the traffic they do get will be redirected to Maven and not us with no reciprocity? I don't intend to so anything until HP explains this to us but I am keeping options open.
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Natalie Frankposted 6 years ago
Also Tough Nickle and Hobbylark.
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wildernessposted 6 years ago
It was under a "fred meyer" ad on mine, and looks very similar. Can we presume we are being paid for the ad space?
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  The articles which the authors are featured in all have the MAVEN key at the bottom of the page. No backlinks as far as I can see.
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Beth Eaglescliffeposted 6 years ago
Hmm. Something's not right. I've checked my articles in mobile mode on Feltmagnet, Soapboxie and Skyaboveus and none of them have Maven article links attached.
I wonder if there is another factor? Do you use the new Q&A? I don't. I didn't like it so switched mine off almost as soon as the option became available. But if you do, perhaps Q&As are being used to find out what people are searching for? (and thus benefiting Maven "partners")?
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I am using the new Q & A. I don't like it.
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  Beth Eaglescliffeposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Aha! So there could be something in my theory that enabling Q&A means you are more likely to be linked to Maven articles.
  
  If you don't like Q&A anyway, why not try an experiment? Pause the Q&A and see if the Maven article links disappear.
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Gregory DeVictorposted 6 years ago
All of my ToughNickel articles have the Mavern button on the bottom left. Here is what I get when I click on the button:

https://maven.io/

I noticed the buttons several months ago.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Yes, we were aware of that but are you getting Colorful Links to the Maven site at the bottom of your hub but just before the Q +& A section?
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  Gregory DeVictorposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  No, just the Facebook and Pinterest logos.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Those are at the top of our Hubs, the links look like colorful ads which take you either to something like Craft Gossip or to an Author on Maven.
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  Gregory DeVictorposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I don't see any but I'll keep looking.
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Beth Eaglescliffeposted 6 years ago
Gregory, all the niche sites have the Maven button on the bottom left.
Natalie is talking about something different.

She has noticed links to specific Maven authors and their articles.
This takes traffic away from the niche sites and means our income is likely to fall.
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  Patty Inglish, MSposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  The links to specific Maven articles began appearing on all my niche Hubs about an hour ago. Interesting to see what that resulting effect will be.
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sallybeaposted 6 years ago
I did not want to do that as I seem to recall someone saying it would our income!
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  Beth Eaglescliffeposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  That would be difficult to prove one way or the other. Team HP are still assessing the benefits of using Q&A, so how can anyone else know if they don't yet know?
  
  I don't use Q&A function and my income has continued to rise. Income has so many variables, article topics, their seasonality, serendipity etc. etc.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I am not referring to anything related to the Q & A. I am talking about links with large featured adlike boxes that go directly to a Maven author's article followed by links to all of her articles with no links anywhere leading back to my article or any other author on HP or one of the HP niche sites. So each author at Maven is able to publicize only their own articles, once readers are on the Maven site they are more likely to stay there rather than return to an HP site, especially since there is no link anywhere that goes back to us and absolutely no mention of HP or any or the niche sites anywhere on HP. Plus, the little Maven key icon that appeared at the bottom of all my articles now only appears on niche site articles. Up until yesterday if you clicked it, it just said Part of the Maven Coalition. Now it also takes you directly to Maven.
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  The maven coalition thing is on hover and since the day it appeared it was linking to the maven site. That is not new.
  
  EDIT: It's not just on the niche sites, even on hubs on the main HP domain the link is present, just that it is transparent. You cannot see it. If you move your mouse to the same location (bottom left on desktop) you will see that it is clickable and if you click on it, it takes you to maven.io.
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  DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Even if you are getting hundreds of question views per day, your income will only go down 2-5 dollars per day. (That is based on question views, the 60/40 impression split, and your CPM)
  If that amount of money is significant to you, go ahead and leave it. If not, and you are bothered by the Maven links, then Beth´s suggestion to pause the Q&A feature seems reasonable.
  (I would not expect those links to disappear overnight, even if they are related. Give your test a few weeks.)
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Patty Inglish, MSposted 6 years ago
I have a floating Maven key in black (it stays with me as I scroll) on my niche-site articles, but I have not lost income. Clicking the key takes me to a Maven search box. I notice no links in Mobile mode yet.

In joining Maven and HP, I suspect Maven is the more major entity; and I suppose HP members will need to try to be accepted as Mavens to increase income.

Have a great weekend.
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Cool, good luck with that Patty You have a nice weekend too. But I must disagree here when you say "Maven is the more major entity". They do seem to be boss, but they are not the big fish here. HP has most of the monthly unique views. With a strong ad network and no one to show ads to Maven is not that big.
  
  They are trying to grow and it seems like they are being leeches, taking into account this new feature. What's disappointing is the fact that HP has made a change without letting us know about it - again.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  As far as getting accepted by Maven, not everyone who has a key on their profile is actually able to publish on the Maven site. I have one and have not been invited to join although it says I am supposedly a member of the Maven Coalition. Short of using my articles to generate income and traffic for Maven instead of me or one of the other HP writers, there is no connection between myself and Maven. When you click on the key it takes you to the Maven search bar which lists a bunch of different areas. Once more when you click on them it only lists the Maven sites and authors none of the HP niche sites or authors. When I put my name into the search bar nothing comes up at all. So again, anyone curious about what the little icon is who clicks on it will be taken away from the HP sites and redirected to Maven which does not include any of the HP writers except those who were invited to join Maven who have already jumped ship.
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  That key is not there because you have been "chosen" or rather destined to have a maven channel of your own.It's there to show that the HP niche sites are a part of Maven. It's more branding than anything else. Every single hub on the niche sites has this key. There is not one hub that will not have it.
  
  Also, when you click on it and reach that search bar, there are a few categories from the niche sites that show up. I can't seem to find any now, but some other hubber pointed some out a few months ago.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I just went through every category that comes up on the search bar. None of the niche sites are there - every one is a Maven "publisher". If there were niche sites listed there at one time they aren't any longer. It is definitely a one way street. Our articles are serving to redirect our readers to Maven and to encourage them to continue clicking on that specific authors articles when they get there with no backlinks to HP at all. Also when I put my name into the Maven search bar none of my articles or my name comes up at all.
  Edit: I didn't click on every link under the search bar so the niche sites may be under sublinks for some of the subtopics - Sorry for the confusion. I am still concerned about the traffic pattern of cyphoning traffic and earnings from HP to Maven however.
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  Patty Inglish, MSposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  On the Maven site under PRESS is a paragraph stating that Maven navigation, branding, etc. would launch across all platforms (e.g. HP) on June 1, 2018 and it appears to me that it occurred. Maybe that was our announcement. Not well distributed, I 'd say.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Neither my name or Wet Felting come up anymore on their search bar though Craft Gossip was featuring 2 or my articles earlier this year. They do include Needle Felting currently but no links to my work as before. I suspect that MAVEN will only feature those people who are asked to become MAVEN's going forward.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  But are they now linking your articles to Maven authors articles?
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  No, none of my writing is featured on the MAVEN site anymore where previously there were 2 articles with backlinks to HubPages A search did not reveal them. I am only getting the same ad for Craft Gossip appear at the bottom of every felting tutorial I have written on HubPages. On other niche sites have written for there are links to writers on the MAVEN site. No backlinks to HubPages.
  I am wondering if this is an EU thing? There was some talk about trying to increase the earnings of writers who are from the EU because they don't attract the same amount of advertising. I notice that a few people responding here are from this part of the world.
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  If it's the EU thing, then that space would have to be treated as an ad and the maven network would have to be paying the HP network. Very unlikely.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Craft gossip has not offically joined the Maven network yet. They still have their original site, and your work is there at least for now, with the links to hp and felt magnet for your wet felting projects.
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  Barbara Kayposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I found DenGarden under Gardening. You had me really wondering what is going on. If the links to Maven articles continues though, I think Hubpages writers are in for big trouble. I wonder if we'd be better off writing about stuff that isn't on Maven.
  
  As far as writing for Maven goes, I heard they've hired who they are using and won't ask more. Who knows how things can change?. This is hearsay from someone that was chosen.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I did not see Dengarden just now. The only one I found was we have kids. All the niche sites use to be there, but today I only found the one (we have kids). It looks like they are removing all the niche sites as they find them.
  
  To Natalie, I see HP staff has answered your questions, but I wanted to add that I didn't realize the widgets would appear like they do. I have not looked at any of my articles but I'm off to do that now. You were never able to see hp articles from Maven so I'm not surprised that you still can't, although I find this very frustrating. I've always seen Maven as using HP for their gain and as far as I can tell that's exactly what is still happening.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  They used to be there and they still are. All the niche sites are in the Maven search engine. Look closer. They don't go my the same names. They go by the more traditional words. For example, "SkyABoveUs" is under "Outdoors" – "PairedLife" is under "Relationships" – and so on.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I know how to find them. I've been following Maven very closely. The niche sites are no longer there with the exception of wehavekids which is under parenting.
  
  EDIT: Skyaboveus is now The Hunter's Guide, Delishably is now Food Industry 101/Kitchen Essentials/Your Guide to Dining Out ect, Dengarden is now Green Thumb Gardening....This does not look good from an HP perspective. The Maven author's sites all have their own names, it does not look good when they are not giving us the same. It is looking more and more like a takeover than a merger.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  It's a mixture of both. I see all our niche sites. Anything that doesn't fit a HubPages niche site links to a Maven Channel instead.
  
  I do see what you mean though. "SkyABoveUs" is "The Hunter's Guide" but it's listed under "Outdoors". They are still working on it since some of it does't work. I agree with you on that. Such as "The Hunter's Guide" is too narrowly defined. But at least its under Outdoors. I keep seeing changes so I know they are working on it to get it right (hopefully). It's still far from perfect. Many terms are missing.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  It's still a misrepresentation in my eyes. All of the Maven author's have their sites listed. They are not broken down into arbitrary and ridiculous name categories like the HP niche sites. If I'm looking for a recipe for example I am not going to click a link that says food industry 101 or kitchen essentials to me that is not where I'm going to find what I'm looking for and I'll look elsewhere without even clicking the link.
  
  I'm also not likely to click on something I don't know the meaning of in the case of Gustatory Grains. To me it's silly to break each single category into it's own search. It all goes to Delishably. Just keep it Delishably. It is very simple to navigate through the Delishably site.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  You are correct about that. But do not fear. It won't help them, in my opinion. Their method of listing each Maven author under a separate channel (as they are called) is a proven failure for getting organic traffic.
  
  That's why HubPages divided us into individual niche sites. That's been proven to work. For that matter, I discussed that problem in my first hub on Maven back in March. The only reason why Mavens method will work (for them) is that their journalists already have a loyal following. Their followers even pay for access on some channels, as I learned when speaking with Maven authors when I was at their conference in April.
  
  HubPages uses a different method. We get revenue from organic traffic. That's why we need to use good SEO methods and Maven does not. We are two different kind of animals, so to say. I don't think the Maven search engine is going to be a problem either way because our major traffic comes from all other search engines.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I can see where you are coming from and agree to a point. I agree the sites on Maven are likely to not get good search results, but I also think those "channels" that were doing well will ultimately fail if Maven does not do some restructuring. I know several people who use to follow religiously some sites that Maven has picked up. Since the sites have moved to Maven they no longer read them, because they hate the layout and can't easily find what they want.
  
  I know we likely would not get much traffic from the maven search, but to me it's not about the traffic. It's about having our niche sites represented, and I do not feel these new "titles" represent hp fairly.
  
  They are trying to show that hp is a part of maven, and I think they've gone too far by replacing our niche site names with silly search terms. Having the maven key logo and the widgets to maven articles along with the search bar I think is enough to show we are all one unit so to speak. Changing all the titles makes it seem like we are going to be absorbed into Maven and the niches will eventually change into channels.
  
  I have to agree with Natalie though that not having hp sites linked on maven's end does not look good. I hope this is truly still in the works, but I honestly do not have high hopes.
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  DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  "The Hunter's Guide??!!" Really???!!! I have an article on "The Sky Above Us" niche site, and it deals with boating lingo--hardly related to 'hunting!' I am neither amused nor impressed!!!
  
  (Neither was I all that impressed with HP's niche title--"Outdoors/Outdoor Recreation" would have been more apropos; "The Sky Above Us" sounds more like something dealing with the cosmos; astronomy, etc... but the Maven "channel" title is far worse!!)
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  DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I've been saying the same thing all along, that this looks and feels more like a hostile takeover than a merger...
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I've always been skeptical of the merger as well.
  
  Sky above us is 1000 times better than The Hunter's Guide, but I agree I was not impressed with many of their niche network titles. I agree sky above us sounds more astrological related compared to the content that is actually on the site. A lot of categories are also not given an equal chance on the network sites, but these search terms are not good and in my opinion are not that helpful.
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  Patty Inglish, MSposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  The language in press releases at MAVEN and the blog at HP do use the word "acquire", which means M has taken over HP as of June 1, 2018. Some consultants say "acquisition" and "merger" are almost the same, but having gone through both several times in businesses for which I have worked, I can say that they are different.
  
  Not sure this one is hostile, but I still think M is the leader of the coalition; but my income has not dropped even though the views dropped just a bit. I hope for the best.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Are people finding that all the one way links from their niche site articles used to promote a maven author are gone at this point? (So far it seems to just be on the mobile site, not desktop). I have more than ever. They've now been added to the ones that didn't have them originally. Not sure when they are supposed to be reversed as Paul hasn't gotten back to us about that. Would really like more transparency about issues that directly effect us and a heads up with just a brief explanation of what is happening and why. A couple of sentences before this happened could have made this entire line of inquiry unnecessary.
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  bravewarriorposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Natalie, you need to select a subtopic within each topic, then scroll until you find your article. I searched for one of my recipes and an article I wrote about keeping track of your expenses. I found both of them. So, HP authors ARE appearing on the Maven site.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  If you click on a subtopic you are taken to either a Maven channel or an hp niche site. If you are on a niche site you are no longer on the Maven domain and will find only hp articles/authors.
  
  What Natalie is referring to is entering search terms rather than selecting from Maven's predetermined categories and sub categories. If doing a search for a keyword or author no hp content comes up (authors, articles, or niche sites).
  
  Edit: The Maven search bar does not work in the same way as the hp search bar. You cannot actually search for articles by topic because nothing useful comes up. You have to use their drop down choices to find anything of value to what you are looking for.
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  bravewarriorposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Yeah, I saw that. It makes no sense to not be able to search by keyword. The entire Internet is run via keyword searches!
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  That is not what I said. If you put any of our names into the search box we don't come up while each of the Maven channels as well as the Maven authors do.
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  bravewarriorposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I don't know if we have the option of accepting the invitation. All of my articles, even those that aren't on niche sites say I'm a member of the Maven Coalition. I was never invited, but I suppose once you have an article accepted on a niche site, you're automatically inducted.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  It's not us who are part of Maven, it's the niche site. You'll notice there's no Maven key on your HP articles.
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  bravewarriorposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Yes, there is. It's just not visible. Hover your mouse over the lower left corner of your HP articles, and the "Member of the Maven Coalition" pops up.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  That still doesn't mean we've been invited to join Maven.
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  DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I believe only 'certain authors' with very high traffic and earnings are being specifically "invited." I know I saw a post on here somewhere (HP's blog??) about Eddie Carrera having been invited, because of his expertise on cars.
  
  The rest of us just go into their slush pile, I guess...
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  Barbara Kayposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  DzyMsLizzy, A friend that was invited to the conference said that you had to write about certain subjects. According to Glen's hub, only 50 were invited and chosen by Hubpages to go to the Maven conference and not all of those will be writing for them.
  
  Even if we are writing for Hubpages, we are still considered part of the Maven Coalition. I just hope even if Paul gets his stock after 2 years, he will still be involved here. I always felt we could trust him. Maven will have to prove themselves before I do.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  That is true. From what they said they don't want more than one person or site covering a particular niche. However, as there are numerous people out there writing on every topic imaginable, the ones they ultimately choose to invite are based on views and earning potential.
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  bravewarriorposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  After reading the entire thread and going into the Maven site, I get it. I just hope having our articles appear on the Maven site gives us the page views at the HP rate of conversion and continues to do so.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Are articles aren't appearing on Maven unless we were one of the few to be invited to join Maven in which case earnings are determined by whatever was negotiated in the contract. Each person has a different deal based on their contract.
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  DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I checked that, and it wasn't true for any of my non-niche articles; no Maven 'key,' invisible or otherwise. That only shows up (and is visible) on the niche site articles.
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lobobrandonposted 6 years ago
Beth, this is not related to the QnA thing, that's for sure. This thing is just being seen on some niche sites not all, not yet at least.

For those commenting that they do not have something like this on their hubs, Natalie did mention a few of her hubs where this is seen, just look at those. I checked out her fried green tomato hub and under Related hubs I see the huge Maven link. When compared to the layout of my dengarden hubs, I noticed that Natalie's hub does not have the Popular Articles. So the Popular articles which shows the most popular articles on the niche sites is replaced by a Maven article.
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  Beth Eaglescliffeposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  
  Lobobrandon, I disagree. This IS related to the Q&A function. The only people who are seeing these direct links to specific Maven author articles are hubbers who have the Q&A feature enabled. (i.e. not paused.)
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  theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I haven't seen it yet. I've had Q&A for a while now. I haven't checked all my hubs on mobile, but nothing on the ones I did look at.
  
  Edit: Okay, I've signed out, turned off ad-blocker, gone through hubs on Exemplore, Bellatory, PairedLife and WeHaveKids, but still only seeing Google, eBay, miscellaneous ads. And only other articles from hubbers. Nothing linking to Maven apart from the key. I'll try again on my tablet later.
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  Beth Eaglescliffeposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  OK, I give in, my hypothesis is incorrect.
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I have it enabled and I do not see it on my hubs. It is specific niche sites. If you go through this thread you will see that some authors have mentioned that they have this on some hubs and not others.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I don't think it's sites as much as what articles we have written that are related to areas the Maven authors publish on. If there's no Maven author that publishes on anything related to what you write they wouldn't be able to link one of your articles to theirs. So some authors will have this and others wouldn't.
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ChristinSposted 6 years ago
This is certainly a discouraging turn of events and my traffic is down now as well. I was earning more for a bit, but I am noticing now that my work is basically promoting their craft editor. That's not what I signed on for.
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STAFF
Paul Edmondsonposted 6 years ago
These are the RCWs (recirculating widgets) we’ve posted about a few times.

They are still in development and will point across all articles in the coalition.

We are collecting data and working on a V2.

They do point to Maven sites from HP sites but that will change shortly.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Thanks for the reply, Paul. I'm sure you understand why we are concerned. What is shortly? We are all losing money in the interim though I expect the Maven authors are all seeing quite a windfall if the majority of our niche site articles are being used to promote them. Does this mean that at some point this will switch and the Maven authors articles will be used to promote us unilaterally for a period while the calculations are being carried out? Also, what about the search bar not accessing the HP writers only the Maven writers despite it being the search bar for HP as well? Thanks again and have a great rest of the weekend.
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Glenn Stokposted 6 years ago
I'm going to address both issues discussed in this thread.

First, the issue Natalie originally created this thread about is definitely correct and is happening. I checked several hubs — both mine and others — on both desktop and mobile. I discovered that at the bottom, randomly displayed, is what looks like an ad, and it goes to a Maven channel.

These “ads” don’t have an agency link in the top right corner, so I’m not sure they are treated as ads and therefore not sure if there is any monetizing involved. As Paul said, those are RCWs (recirculating widgets).

As for the Maven key icon that I see others have mentioned in this thread... When you click it, it goes to the Maven search engine (maven.io). Others have posted that this does not include HubPages. But when I tested it, I definitely saw that the HubPages niche sites are included.

If you enter a search argument it will display matching categories, if any. Click any of those categories and it goes to whatever is most closely related to your search. This can be either a subcategory of a related HubPages niche site, or it can be a Maven channel. I found no bias leaning towards one or the other.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I had edited my original comment correcting the point bout the niche sites. What I did say was that when someone is redirected to the Maven search bar and puts in a hubbers name whereas it used to come up with that hubbers articles it now has no such listings. I have checked a number of names. It does however, come up with all of the Maven's names and each of their individuals sites. T
  
  That means if someone reads our article, sees the large ad-like promotion for a Maven article meant to redirect them from HP to Maven and clicks, then wants to return to the HP author and puts the name in the search bar they will receive no results. They are then left with exiting Maven, googling the HP author and going to their profile list to search through their articles and get back to where they wanted to go. If it is this or just staying on Maven and reading the articles of the author they have already been redirected to, it seems like a no-brainer as to which they will do. I have had maven redirection widgets already added to my newest niche site articles and it seems that they are being added as soon as the article makes it to the niche sites. I am waiting for this to be reversed like Paul said it would be but my views and earnings are continuing to drop. It certainly effects my motivation to keep writing new articles.
  
  I have turned off q & a as I don't find this particularly useful and more time consuming than beneficial. I would like to take down the answers I have already written in the hopes of turning them into individual hubs but can't seem to find the way to do this now.
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  theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I don't understand why your traffic and earnings have dropped because of the Maven thing. It's not like readers tend to view profiles. They are looking for one particular search term which is usually how they land on our hubs. I doubt very much if many readers will click on the Maven 'ad' in any case. They are far more likely to click on the related hubs.
  
  All your Q&As are available on your QandA page. All you have to do is click on the Filter and select Answered. They are all there. Easy enough to copy and paste. Or do it from the hub itself. Just click Show More.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  The Maven "ad" is an a related article that is shown in a large square the size of an ad with a snippet included.
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  theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Okay, but why would your traffic be dropping because of it? By the time they get to the Maven ad, they've read your article. Presumably most of your traffic comes via Google? I would assume only a very small percentage of readers would click on it anyway.
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  wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  In terms of decreasing traffic, I've got google.com at the top, then google,ca. Third is dengarden, followed by Bing.
  
  If I've got that much traffic from Dengarden, I assume it is mostly coming from those links on the sides - traffic that could well disappear into the bowels of Maven. I interlink hubs, but not nearly as much as I used to, so doubt it is that.
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  If you are interlinking, your GA ID is on both the pages, it will not count Dengarden as the source. It is these interlinks that make your bounce rate less than 100% on HP articles.
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  wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Then that leaves hubbers flipping around the Dengarden "home page" and those "similar articles" at the side to produce Dengarden sources. Both of which will be lost with a transfer to Maven.
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Hubbers and visitors flipping around yes, and yes the popular hubs will lose out not the related hubs, because from what I saw if this were to stay as it is (Paul said things are still being worked on) Popular hubs is being replaced by a Maven link.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  is the link still there? I can't find one today.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Mine are so far.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Interesting!
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  None of your articles on mobile have the links to Maven authors today? That's interesting.
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  Patty Inglish, MSposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Most of my Maven links on mobile are gone now, too.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I saw the maven links on several different articles on delishably, felt magnet, & wehavekids just moments ago.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  You're right Natalie. Most people aren't going to go through all that trouble to search for an author they were just reading. And for that matter, I think most people don't pay attention to the author anyway. They read the article to get the information they were searching for and that's it.
  
  Having said that, if anyone does want to return after clicking to Maven via an ad or other link, most people just click the browser's back function a few times until they get back to the article they were reading. So I doubt we would lose loyal readers who do want to return.
  
  As for your desire to shut off Q&A. Google's behavior flow report shows me that I have 59.2% through-traffic from my Q&A. So I think that's a good thing if you use it right. You need to make each answer like a mini-hub.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  All of my answers are mini hubs. Still not worth it to me.
  
  Providing they stop using our hubs to generate traffic for Maven hubs whatever I may have lost this month I'll accept it. However, if someone is looking for information and there's a big ad for a similar article of course they are going to click on it. If that author then has all of their articles listed with links on the article they will stay to read the related articles. With the related articles from Hubpages downplayed the way they now are, if someone wants more information they are obviously going to go with the one that gets their attention which is the big one with the additional information included as a snippet.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Yeah, but, as Bev just said, they would have finished reading your hub already by the time they get down to that ad.
  
  Don't give up on the Q&A so quick, I see a steady growth with that. I'm watching my Google reports.
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  Barbara Kayposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I use the right side links to other pages in Hubpages all the time. I get a lot of traffic that way also. If they find the ad that takes them to Maven, I won't get that traffic anymore. That is a big concern for many of us.
  
  I am getting over 100 views a day already from questions and answers. I expect in the future I may get many more. The questions being asked don't have many answers on Google. If traffic continues to grow, I may get a good income some day from them.
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DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years ago
1) I don't "do" mobile, so I haven't seen those links

2) I did check one of my niche articles, and there is the "Maven" key logo at the bottom left; interestingly, you cannot 'right-click/open in new tab;' right-click; left-click = all the same. Their page opens right there, and takes you from the page you were on. NOT GOOD.

3) I disabled the Q&A on my articles because all I was getting were stupid questions, already answered within the article. They were as if someone read only the title, then posted a question. I have neither the time, inclination, or patience to deal with such tomfoolery.

4) If having the Q&A active drops your income, as seemed to be suggested, then I sure as hell cannot afford that! I'm finally making payout every month, which never happened before, but that said, it's still below the $5/day mark, so no way can I afford to lose "$2 - $5" per day!!!

5) I'm not the least bit happy with this merger, which, as I've said before, seems more like a hostile takeover, especially if "M" is not giving reciprocal links!!

6) It will be really FUBAR if the whole thing turns turtle, and HP drops off and we are stuck with "M" and if they don't have the same kind of payment structure that has finally let me see an actual income from writing....."MAD" won't begin to describe my mood if that happens...

7) Paul, are you listening???? We all hope you can NEGOTIATE a better deal with these "Maven" people, for all your loyal HP authors, so we don't get the shaft!!
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Regarding point 3. Having the QnA feature enabled does not result in you losing any money.
  
  DrMark used that as an example considering you were already getting 1000 views a day to your questions and after you were receiving these many views you decide to turn off the QnA feature. Having the feature active will not result in any loss of revenue.
  
  Tomfoolery: I like this. I never heard of this before. Added to my vocab
  
  Paul did say that the Maven links are temporary if I understood correct. Or if they are coalition wide links then we should also see links from maven to HP. But, as we know, HP was at a lot more uniques per month compared to Maven, so this is only going to benefit the Maven authors. But that's what happens in a coalition. They benefit from our traffic, while we benefit from their Ad strategies and higher CPMs.
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  robhamptonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  HaHa! "Tomfoolery" That's an old school one. Don't hear it much but I like it!
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  DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Yes, I am definitely "old school," with emphasis on "old."
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  DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Okay, perhaps I misunderstood what Dr. Mark was saying; but I still can't be bothered answering stupid questions.
  (And I get nowhere near 1K views/day on anything, let alone questions.)
  
  As to "Tomfoolery," it's an archaic expression, I suppose; mostly heard in New England. At least, that's where I picked it up, my mother being from MA.
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  Barbara Kayposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  My Grandmother used that expression. She was born at the end of the 1800's though. I love it, but haven't heard it used in a long, long time.
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  DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this
  The income loss could only occur if you already are using the qanda and are making an income from it. It is not going to diminish the income you are getting from page views.
  
  Having Q &A never drops your income. Not having it, however, can affect your potential page views.
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Lady Loreleiposted 6 years ago
How do we shut off the Q and A feature?
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  theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Click 'Pause' at the top of your Q&A page: https://hubpages.com/my/hubs/qanda
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  Lady Loreleiposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Thank you raggededge
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sallybeaposted 6 years ago
I checked a few Hubs. They seem to have disappeared.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  On the mobile platform? I checked yours and they all seem to direct traffic to Craftgossip.
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sallybeaposted 6 years ago
Really I have not checked. I feel pretty depressed about the drop in traffic. Last month I just missed a payment. CPM seems to have increased but not enough to make a real difference.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I know how you feel. I was between 2.50 and 3.50 dollars a day and am now under a dollar. I understand some people are doing better with this Maven take over but I can't help but wonder if it is just those few who have weighed in on the forums with the majority of HP authors doing the same or not as well. Again, I wish there was a way to get more transparency. I understand that this is a profit making business and they have the right to not tell us everything. Originally I was willing to wait and see, giving them the benefit of the doubt. But I fear once we have been fully integrated into Maven what that will mean for those not picked up by them, which seems to amount to most of us. Though they said this would be done slowly it seems like things have sped up since the beginning of June.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I agree things have sped up greatly since June, but I've been seeing changes across the board in all aspects here at HP and I'm not happy with most of them. I hit a major slump in cpm's/earnings/views, but things seem to be recovering. Nothing like what I saw in December though. Only time will tell if things will ever get back to that level.
  
  In regards to the widgets, I still see them on mobile, however I do not see them on any new network sites only the 3 that I saw them on a few days ago. I don't use my mobile for HP, but I was interested in what you were seeing and I see the exact same thing. I still see them on my feltmagnet, wehavekids, and delishably articles. Just checked a couple of Sallybea's as well and her's are showing Craft Gossip for the exact same article (wrote 7 days ago) on each one.
  
  What intrigues me more is that craftgossip dot com still exists as it's own site. But if you click the widget it goes to themaven dot net / craftbits. For some reason they've changed the name of Craft Gossip and craft gossip still gets to retain their site. I'm assuming it's because Craft Gossip contains articles from hp and feltmagnet as well as other sites from all over and they are not allowed to have those articles on Maven. I cannot find any articles from Craft Gossip that are on Maven and vise versa, however, I do see that they are allowed to write "conversations" for the sole purpose of directing traffic back to Craft Gossip. Not sure what the difference between stories and conversations are in regards to Maven.
  
  On the desktop if I scroll down before the whole page loads I see a flash of a maven widget before an advertisement takes it's place. It will be interesting to see if the widgets will soon be on the desktop version as well.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I didn't want to mention the flashes of maven widgets covered over by ads as it sounded odd and I didn't know what it meant. It was almost like they were being hidden for some reason but I can't figure out what benefit this could possibly result in. I just hope this isn't going to go the way it seems to be heading right now and that they are being truthful about what they have said will be happening with HP. I lost about 100 articles when something similar happened with another site and am not willing to lose yet another 100 if they change the TOC on us.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Are you subscribed to the Maven and did you get the Investor Note 6/4: The expansion continues .....in an email? It. fascinating to see how busy they have been since the Whistler Conference. For the first time, I see that one channel is being written by a HubPages Author.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I am subscribed to the Maven newsletter but didn't get the email. Will go back and look for it. I also saw the channel written by a HP author. I know of a couple others they were talking to at the conference about moving to Maven. There could have been others I wasn't aware of but I know that many of us were not approached. I can understand for those of us who don't have millions of views and a successful website and blog. I guess only time will tell if any others will be approached though I think those they wanted they've already spoken to. Don't know if there will be any options for the rest of us when they fully incorporate us into Maven.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  If you don't find it, am happy to copy and email it to you. It makes for interesting reading.
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Could you send that to me, please? If you agree to, I can send you a message so that you get my email ID.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Yes please, I will send it to you once I receive it.
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  Barbara Kayposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  The person I know that was asked said you had to write about the topics they needed writers for. Of course, they wanted those that were good writers too.She plans on writing for both Maven and Hubpages.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I did not know you could write for both. I would not expect to be asked but it is always nice to know how these things work.
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  bravewarriorposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  What is the subscription all about? I haven't heard anything about that. Come to think of it, HP hasn't been sending newsletters lately, either. What's the difference between being a member of the Maven Coalition and being a subscriber and/or being invited to Maven? My niche site articles are already over there. How can that be if I have to be invited first?
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Niche sites are not actually on Maven. They show up in the drop down search, but they are still a separate entity (at least for now). The Maven key at the bottom of all the sites is simply to show that we are a part of Maven, but not in the sense that the Maven channels are. Hp and all the niche sites still have hp tos (again at least for now).
  
  You can subscribe to get newsletters from Maven, they talk mostly about the acquiring of new channels and data which is hard for most without tech experience to interpret.
  
  A member of the Maven coalition is a term for all websites now under the Maven name so to speak. An invitation was given for some hp members to write on maven and have their own channel. A subscriber is someone who can read Maven articles or get updates/newsletters.
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  bravewarriorposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Thanks for clarifying, shesabutterfly.
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sallybeaposted 6 years ago
I would like to write my 100th Hub but quite honestly I might put a hold on it until I can see where all of this is going to. The idea of writing just to send one-way traffic off this site is very unappealing to me.
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Glenn Stokposted 6 years ago
This is the article listed in the latest email I received yesterday from Maven. It's about the triple merger and expansion.

https://www.themaven.net/the-maven/inve … p5-DK032w/

Dan Robbins (Cre8tor) is the one who was offered a Maven channel. He definitely deserves the position. He offers a lot of excellent information about home heating and air conditioning systems. Here is a post about him:

https://www.themaven.net/the-maven/feat … yz7FNQMxA/
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  Glimmer Twin Fanposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Thanks for posting this Glenn!
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Thanks Glenn. I just signed up for their newsletter myself.
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lobobrandonposted 6 years ago
The Maven update says this:

"We’re also launching major initiatives around search engine optimization and cross-coalition distribution."

I see the cross-coalition distribution thing, but does anyone know what they're going to be doing on SEO?

Did you notice that the videos on the Maven pages stop playing when you scroll below the video player? I just noticed this on the page talking about Dan.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  As I understand it, Cross-Coalition distribution works both ways with links to and from Maven and HubPages. These things are changing on a daily bases. I already noticed that when I do a search on Maven's site, some of the results go to HubPages' niche sites.
  
  As for SEO, I also am noticing a gradual trend towards making individual channels as separate domains, as we do with the network niche sites. Browse around and you will notice that too. I haven’t read anything official about that though. It’s just an observation.
  
  Lastly, yes, they program the videos to play only when on screen. That reduces the load on the server.
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Reduces the load true, but I am a person who listens to videos and reads at the same time. Maybe that's not the norm.
  
  I've not checked out any maven channel to make observations, but good observation. That would definitely be better than what they had (subdomains).
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Another really deserving hubber, Eddie Carrara also has a contract. His channel is Simple Car Answers at https://www.simple-car-answers.com/ a continuation of what he was doing at HP. I do want to say congratulations to the Hubbers who were selected by Maven and hope they see nothing but continued success with their writing and their new channels.
  
  As for cross coalition distribution, I have spent some time looking at the articles mine continue to be used to promote, as well as some of the ones other hubbers articles are promoting. It continues to be a one way street. Our articles link to them and their articles promote only their own articles. Our names are still not included in the search bar which is a change as I know at the beginning I could search for myself and my articles and have them come up. I can however search for each Maven channel as well as each Maven author. Not only that but when I put my name in it returns with a Maven author whose first name is Frank. None of this would be in keeping with the idea of cross coalition distribution.
  
  It is my hope that Paul will let us know what is happening and how it will affect those of us who will not be moving to Maven.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I discovered that one of my results went to a niche site today.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  What do you mean by this? "These things are changing on a daily bases. I already noticed that when I do a search on Maven's site, some of the results go to HubPages' niche sites."
  
  What type of searches are you doing? I cannot search by keyword because only channels come up and all of them are Maven channels, even if they are unrelated. For example if I search for hunting I get three completely unrelated results from Maven despite there being tons of information on hunting on one of the hp niche sites. If I want to find information on hunting I have to go to the search bar and click outdoors and then click on the hunter's guide. It doesn't actually come up in a search for the keyword. You cannot search by author either because only Maven comes up. If I go to themaven dot net where just the search bar is nothing comes up outside of what they have listed. Which we have already established the niche sites have been on those lists for several months now. The only difference is they are changing the names.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  What I mean about daily changes is that they seem to be experimenting. A few days ago people were complaining that all the links were only one way. As both theraggededge and sallybea just confirmed, we now have links from Maven to our niche sites, as I discovered too.
  
  Their search engine doesn’t accept keywords. It just gives you a list of categories, and subcategories. I wish they would accept keywords just as you say. I do also admit that the names are strange, and I don’t like that either. But they do include our niche sites, so things are progressing.
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theraggededgeposted 6 years ago
When I searched on Maven for spiritual stuff, it took me straight to Exemplore.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Through keyword search?
  
  I tried searching for a keyword that is in a title of one of the hp niche sites new names and unless I click on the niche before it disappears nothing comes up in the search results. The same cannot be said if I search mom moments for example. If I do not click the link I get a bunch of search results, some that are not even related. If I wanted the niche site itself I would simply select it from the drop down box (which we have been able to do for awhile now). However the drop down is not useful if I don't know what site I'm going to anymore. If I search for recipes I only get Maven sites most that are not even related to the keyword recipes.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  The search engine maven.io doesn’t even include recipes at this time. But they hard coded the keyword “food” and that includes our Delishably niche site under “Your Guide to Dining Out.”
  
  I hope eventually they make it work like HubPages' search bar — accepting keywords and matching to content. That’s not how it works presently.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  One keyword which does work is HubPages. It goes straight to some of the niche sites.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Other keywords work as well, but they don't bring up anything useful.
  
  I agree with Brandon though most people are not going to be using the search bar. I was more concerned about the widgets. However, if they go both ways it's not really a concern.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I agree nothing very useful which is a shame because I think we all want to know how this whole thing is going to pan out.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  However, they still don't go both ways. Plus, my child articles are promoting a site that is basically being used for advertising. The most frequent link goes to a relatively short article advertising five books with five amazon links to buy them. Additionally, every single comment originates from another page on the same site and is itself, another link taking you somewhere else in the site. So one short article, has five amazon ads, a list of every article on that author's site with corresponding links, and an additional 10 or so links to other places in the same site as part of the comments. The one thing it does not have is a link back to anywhere within HP. To date that is the case on every one of my niche articles that are being used to promote Maven authors. I can't imagine anything being more self promotional than the way it is currently set up. I also have an issue with my articles linking to articles I do not necessarily feel are particularly well written and making it look like I am trying to promote someone who just wants to sell someone something.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I didn't see any from Maven to HP either but Glenn or someone said they saw some so that's where the comment came from. Although I'm not impressed with much of Maven or the articles I've seen there. A lot of them feel very self promotional and have lots of links. One is basically a "channel" for selling stuff. Other channels have parts of an article and you have to click through to other sites for the whole thing. Nothing like what is allowed at HP at all. I'm not surprised they are sitting quiet.
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  DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Would you even want a backlink from a page like that?
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  No - it's just the question of why HP is being used to promote the Maven authors and why we have no say in what sites our work is being linked to. It could be seen as something I decided was good to link my article to which goes to my credibility - especially when my article is based on research and it is linked to something that is not well written, clearly self promotional and ad heavy.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  If it’s self promotional, flag it as against HubPages TOS. Even articles on Maven, let the team know when you find these things. I agree with you that it doesn’t do any of us any good. I have found articles on Maven with spelling and grammar errors. They obviously don’t have a good QAP. I don’t think they use ours. That never came up at the conference.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Their rules are different than ours - that was made clear at the beginning. Plus, if we have different TOC, they can't be held accountable to ours just as they can't force us to hold by theirs (at least not yet). I don't really have a huge issue with that. I just don't want my articles linked to theirs without my okay. I should be able to have a say in what my articles are being associated with. I don't even think they have a way to flag their articles - at least the sites I've seen don't seem to have that function anywhere.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  They don’t have a flag icon to click on, that’s why I said to let the team know. I wouldn’t want my articles linking to low quality content either.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I spoke to 5 people at length on the ride from the airport and several others that night. It may have changed since then, but they said there was no QAP at Maven. I believe they said that there might have been some kind of editing for simple things like punctuation and obvious typos but as they are taking on entire websites for the most part I think that they figure if the site is that popular there is no need to vet the articles. The people I spoke to were actually surprised at what goes into getting an article accepted and featured at HP. Probably one of the reasons they are linking our articles to theirs - to try to up their cred. (don't know if links affect google rank as well).
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  100% agree. I hate that we are forced to have our articles connected to these subpar articles.
  
  Have you noticed the widget changes to the newest articles on Maven? All the widgets on my Delishably articles have changed to a new food Maven channel. This article is a little better in regards to content, but is still completely self promotional and contains way too many links.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  It seems like mine are going to the same articles they were originally, starting June 1. All very self promotional or just product reviews looking to sell Amazon products with way too many ads. Staff remains noticeably silent without any update or attempts to explain what is going on. It may be that what they are doing really is temporary (though it's been 10 days already - I suppose if they want to collect data that they might leave it up for a month which I could deal with if they'd just let us know) and it has some purpose where it makes sense to just link all our articles to theirs without any reciprocity in terms of linking anything from Maven to our articles. I have though about it and feel even more strongly that they need to let us remove links that we feel could hurt our professional reputation or make our article that is promoting the Maven author look less authoritative. With this discussion going on for 7 days now and multiple people weighing in, it seems staff would give some kind of update or make a statement explaining where things are at and addressing our concerns.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  The new one on Delishably is a review for some product I've never heard of.
  
  I have not found any other widgets on other niche sites which I find hopeful, but the lack of comment from hp staff has me wondering. It seems like it's still in beta testing, but with the Maven articles not being up to hp standard I fear they could start causing issues for us if left on too long.
  
  I saw a huge drop in traffic for two days so I'm hoping it's not related to this. It would be great to be able to disable or flag these articles that could be seen as detrimental to our researched and we'll written articles.
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  sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Lowest traffic I have seen in years. If it were not for higher CPM's and a few Amazon sales I would be feeling very depressed.
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  theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  That's interesting... that the links to Maven articles are causing traffic to drop. As far as I know, none of mine are linking to Maven and traffic is holding steady. A few days ago, it was around 600 views higher than usual. So there's something going on. Are you certain you aren't experiencing a seasonal drop? Have you checked the same period last year?
  
  It's horrible to be left in the dark without an explanation or of some way to opt your articles out of these links.
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  Shesabutterflyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  My cpm's are steadily dropping but they didn't take as big of a hit as my views have, so thankfully I am still earning enough to make payout.
  
  The thing that worries me is the unstable views. I was going steady for a long time hit an all time high in Dec and now they have been all over the place. Earlier this week my traffic was down by half. Today it's back to where I've estimated my new "normal/average" will likely be. Although it's hard to tell after a really bad few months view wise.
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  Jean Bakulaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I clicked a black key on the bottom right of one of my astrology hubs, and was led to a page called Astrology Ask. But that was as far as I could get, I couldn't find any way to get beyond what looked like a landing page. That was a few days ago.
  
  Since then, I've had a search bar come up. But from what I glean in this thread, things are changing daily? I don't want to panic.
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  93
  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Things are changing quickly but not necessarily for the better. I found two more articles of mine that now have a maven site in a a relatively large ad like box before the comments. Same issues previously mentioned with no reciprocity etc. And still no response from staff other than the brief one that came over two weeks ago. *sigh*
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  wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Some of my hubs, particularly outside my primary niche, have that ad, some don't. But I'm not sure it is hurting anything - traffic has been rising lately and today it's showing the highest one day total I can remember.
  
  I will say, though, that the highest traffic hubs are those that do not have the maven ad.
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lobobrandonposted 6 years ago
But seriously, do you people think someone other than writers here or on Maven uses the maven.io search engine?
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DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years ago
I notice staff is suspiciously silent on all of this...it sure feels and sounds as if we have been sold out.
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Glimmer Twin Fanposted 6 years ago
On the top right of the Maven site is a search bar with the key logo to the left and "Find Your Maven" in pale grey text. Click on that and up comes a menu of categories. Many of the sub categories on that screen link directly back to the various HubPages network sites. I have not looked at all of them, but the ones I chose directed me to the HP sites.
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FatFreddysCatposted 6 years ago
I haven't had much time to look around the Maven site, but it appears to me that at the moment, they do not have a "Maven" who covers heavy metal music and/or '80s "B" movies.

Since those are the subjects which I write about most, I would like to officially throw my hat into the ring for either one of those positions.

Hey Maven! (makes phone shape with thumb and pinky, whispers) CALL ME!

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  DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this
  In their latest email they did mention they were looking for Simpsonphiles. Too bad you can´t get it on that one!
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  84
  FatFreddysCatposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I could do that. Put me in Coach!
  
  (waves) Over here! Hey! Stop ignoring me dammit!
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Remember all of us little people when your star begins to rise!
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  FatFreddysCatposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I've been writing here for seven years. If my star hasn't risen by now, it ain't gonna
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  When Maven picks you up you'll soar - Keep waving at them, they're bound to notice such talent!
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Kenna McHughposted 6 years ago
Keep contacting them until you get an answer.
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DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years ago
I'm still not impressed. Although (so far) my income rate is up enough to reach payout threshhold every month (ever since Dec. 2017), lately, I notice it's fallen off by about a dollar a day... That can't be a good sign.

And I know I won't get "invited" to join "M" because I don't have a specialty niche; I'm a generalist, and write about many different things.

HOWEVER, THIS IS NOT THE TIME OR PLACE FOR GENERALIZATIONS AND VAGUE PROMISES!! WE DESERVE HONEST, CONCRETE, AND THOROUGH ANSWERS!
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  TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this
  You clearly are frustrated by the changes that are at hand, but you obviously have no idea about how complicated and time consuming these things can be.
  
  You won't need to be "invited" to join Maven to do well here. What you will need to do is make sure your hubs make it to the niche sites.
  
  The team has taken on a major and difficult task, and we need to let them work it out the best way they can. It's hard to give answers when you are still working on a plan. Your income is up, you're obviously getting views, so what's the problem?
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  DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  @TIMETRAVELER2:
  
  If you read my last sentence in my first paragraph, I clearly stated my income is slowly dropping off. So yes, that is a frustrating worry, just when things were starting to turn around for me.
  
  I know I don't need to be "invited" to Maven, but just get my articles onto the niche sites; I have many on several of them already. (Of well over 300, approaching 400 articles, only 280-something still remain on the HP base platform.) My comment there was only an observation and recognition of "what it takes" to gain a specific invitation (like Eddie Carerra, whom I mentioned earlier in this thread).
  
  I understand the team is "still working on a plan," but IMHO, all that planning should have been done before papers were signed.
  
  Therein lie my "problems."
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Yes, but the Maven link in your hub is definitely not a reason for the drop in your income. It's very very unlikely. Unless you were getting most of your traffic from your hub being a "Popular Hub" on other folks hubs.
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STAFF
Paul Edmondsonposted 6 years ago
We’ve been working on the plan, identifying technologies we want to test and user scenarios for how to display widgets. It’s quite a large project that will take time, but we are working on it.
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  DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Thank you for your input, Paul.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Could you please provide some details for how all this will effect HP authors specifically? In particular, with respect to the concerns raised about us being linked one way to Maven authors sites without our input or permission and the lack of reciprocity? We should be allowed to determine who and what our articles are being linked to.
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  wildernessposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  We've never had control over the "related" or "popular" sections, or the ads that appear, for that matter...
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Yup, I wanted to say that. Then I figured she meant that at least it's within the circle so somewhere someplace our hubs were being linked to as well.
  
  This issue doesn't really concern me as it cannot really affect traffic, but I see why it can be worrying.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Yes but the related and popular sections, at least the related sections are likely to include at least one or more of our other articles as most of us write in one (or possibly more) niches. Both sections include articles that are written based on the same set of criteria and have gone through our QAP. If we have an issue with any of them we can flag them and report them to the team. As far as what I was told by several authors at the conference, they don't have any QAP they are required to go through and are responsible for the quality of the content on their own channel. There is also no way to flag anything and reporting it to HP gets no results. As for it not affecting traffic if my niche site articles are linked to other low quality content which seems minimally self promotional and in some cases more as an attempt to sell the reader something it will ultimately effect my own reputation and ultimately views and earnings. I have a number of readers who look for my articles specifically and I imagine they will move on to someone else if they associate my work with other lower quality work or pseudo articles that are filled with ads and promotional copy.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I’m sure your followers would know the difference between links by you that you provide within your own content and links on the side panel that most people think of as ads anyway. So not to worry about your followers.
  
  However, I do agree with your point for another reason. Google algorithm ranks based on usage of outgoing links to low quality contact, and those bots don’t know the difference between links in your content and links elsewhere on the page. So we do have a concern for that reason. I’ve seen low quality articles on Maven too, and that bothers me.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I'm not techno savvy but Isn't there also a problem if there are lots of links going for a site to a single other site? I'm not explaining it well but given there are a limited number of channels currently on Maven but tons of articles on HP - if lots of for ex. child related articles on we have kids all link to the one mommy blog won't that cause the niche site to lose in terms of the algorithm? I'm really posing my question poorly but hopefully you have some idea of what I am talking about.
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  I know exactly what you are talking about, but if anyone is going to have problems it is the maven sites and not the HubPages niche sites.
  
  And HP has no issues at all if they link out to Maven, it cannot and will not affect us from an SEO point of view. If at all Google chooses to do something about it with a manual penalty, the only thing HP needs to do is deactivate that module/widget.
  
  The QnA feature is a lot more dangerous to the HP niche sites as it's not being used in the best way from an SEO perspective.
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  Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  How so? I get they're not being utilized in the best way possible but how will that effect niche sites from an SEO perspective?
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  The same reason hubpages was struck by Google many low-quality pages. The questions and answers are not going through the same strict guidelines as hubs that move to niche sites. So you essentially get new pages on the niche site that are not necessarily written well and that are not necessarily providing value.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  You’re right. People have to understand that when they answer a Q&A, it must be thought of in the same way as a mini-hub. Not as an answer to one person, but in such as way that it attracts organic traffic.
  
  When I answer questions, I sometimes edit the question to be more in line with what others might ask about the subject. I think in SEO terms. Then I answer it with a wide audience in mind, not just as an answer to one person.
  
  That’s why I love it when people ask questions that were already discussed in my article. It gives me a chance to have additional pages with the answer given in slightly different ways, thus increasing the number of backlinks and having more appearances in the SERPs.
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Regarding the third paragraph of your reply, I disagree there, I have specifically spoken about this issue in my new hub under keyword cannibalization. You are potentially losing out on traffic when you have multiple articles/pages targetting the same keywords.
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  DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this
  That makes no sense to me. If my article is about vomiting, the questions are about vomiting. If someone asks why their dog barks at the mailman on an article about vomiting, I do not even answer it.
  So if someone asks about why their 5 year old Lab vomits after eating too fast, would I not also rank when someone types in "my 5 year old dog is vomiting"? This would make my article more valuable for that searcher.
  (I mean the original article, not the one page answer aritcle.)
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Of course but is that your main keyword? Nope, your article is about dogs vomiting, and this question is related to it not exactly the same thing.
  
  Glenn says: "That’s why I love it when people ask questions that were already discussed in my article"
  
  So if you already wrote about labrador pups vomiting, having another question on the exact same thing is not going to help your main article rank better, it would just make it harder for your main one to rank better (that is considering the fact that your answer to the question is elaborate). I have an example of this on the hub. Also, you can look up keyword cannibalization and you will see what I mean. It's a little more complicated than this, not easy to put in words in a few paragraphs.
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  Glenn Stokposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  This is a very good discussion. And I understand what both of you are saying. I also agree with both of your viewpoints.
  
  But, Brandon, you quoted one thing I said and you overlooked the other thing I said: “It gives me a chance to have additional pages with the answer given in slightly different ways.”
  
  That means that I have another page using different keywords that I may not have used in the original article. So it increases the chance of getting more traffic.
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Different keywords and different ways are different things. If you meant different keywords then sure that's a good thing.
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  Jean Bakulaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Most of my Q&A are questions about the astrology hubs I wrote to teach the subject. I have to edit many of them to form a better question aimed at a larger audience. Some are so illiterate I delete them. But I think this feature has helped my views a little bit.
  
  But I remain unsure if it's positive or not. As others say, often the questions are asking me to interpret an Aries Moon on an Aries Sun article. So the questioners are clearly not reading the article. I even offer links to other astrology info in many of them, and they ask questions which are good, but not on the appropriate article.
  
  I am considering pausing the feature, it's a lot of aggravation. I can't decide if it's worth the time.
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Kenna McHughposted 6 years ago
Paul; Thank you for the update. We like our views/traffic stats soaring!
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DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years ago
@Jean--
I wish there was an outright "opt out" instead of just "pause." Since all I was getting was stupid questions, I can't be bothered. I've "paused" the Q&A, but I'd rather just opt out entirely.

(BTW--any relation to Scott Bakula??? )
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  lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  The pause is you opting out right?
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  Jean Bakulaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Dr. Mark and Ms. Lizzy,
  I still haven't paused the Q&A. I know to non believers of astrology this sounds crazy, but some of the people who ask me questions are in desperation regarding relationships and other things in their lives, and I can't help them, not being a professional astrologer. I feel the need to direct them to a professional to protect them and be knowledgeable about their needs. I am sometimes caught in a bad place where I don't want to ignore people who are so desperate and want me to advise them. It gets draining. They need a therapist, not me. Astrology can provide a good blueprint of a personality, but not solve serious personal issues.
  
  No relation to Scott Bakula.
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  DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Perfectly said. I have not yet paused the qanda for similar reasons. Some people read the article and want to point out the specific symptoms their dog has, and then they ask what they should do. I can just ignore their question, but at least some of them will pay attention when I reply "call your local vet and make an appointment right now".
  That might not be the best strategy from an SEO point of view, but it is the right one.
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  Jean Bakulaposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Dr. Mark,
  I appreciate your input, as you seem to have experienced similar situations .
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  DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this
  There already IS an opt out button. It is called "pause". If you do not like the semantics, just pretend that the button says "opt out". If you decide to participate again, pretend that the button says "opt in".
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  DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  We are writers; semanitcs is what we do!
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  DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Too true!
  I think we all have to use our imaginations every once in a while too.
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  DzyMsLizzyposted 6 years agoin reply to this
  Oh, I use my imagination all the time. I also happen to have the trait of digging in my heels on some matter of priciple: such as when I believe something is being done deceptively; given a deceptive name, for example....
  
  I catch this kind of thing all the time in politics. I hate to think that political stink has invaded Hub Pages, but I fear it has.
  reply report

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