HubPages is Like Spinning Plates!

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   PaulGoodman67posted 4 years ago

   I feel like one of those performers who spin plates up on long poles. The trick is to get as many going as possible, without any of the older ones slowing and crashing to the floor.
   
   Back when I started, the emphasis was generally on producing as much new material as possible. Nowadays, the official advice is to spend 80% of time on editing/updating/improving. That leaves less time to write new articles, especially if you have a lot of hubs already published. Producing new hubs is generally where the fun is, but if you don't keep an eye on the older material, it can be fatal.
   
   Ultimately, I guess the most efficient approach is to distill one's body of work down to only the stuff that's reasonably successful and jettison the fluff.

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   Holly Howardposted 4 years ago

   I agree that it’s like spinning plates! Something I’ve started doing the past few years is to spend January updating. I literally get a spreadsheet going of every single published article and work my way through. This year it took me all of January and February to do it. Then I take a little break and spend the rest of the year producing with little tweaks and updates here and there. This way I’m keeping all of my articles current without stagnating on my published numbers.

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      OldRosesposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I do the same.  This year it took me all the way until March to finish updating my articles but it's worth it.  The uptick in traffic since I started my annual updates has been tremendous.  The rest of the year I devote to writing new articles.  Since I write about gardening and there are literally thousands of plants and techniques, I will never run out of new material for new articles.

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   Holly Howardposted 4 years ago

   Also don’t jettison anything that is well written and looks great just because there’s not traffic! I had an article that sat for years with just a couple hits a week. Then, earlier this year, Netflix released a documentary that revolves heavily around the topic of my “loser” article and that resulted in red arrows everywhere! I made a pretty penny off it. You never know what’s going to suddenly take flight.

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   Rupert Taylorposted 4 years ago

   I'm a hoarder - I can't bring myself to cull anything from the herd, I'm emotionally attached to them, so I am delighted to hear about Holly's experience. Perhaps, there's hope yet for a couple of traffic stinkers.
   
   I also use Holly's approach and go into update mode in January so as to get a new date for the search engines to latch on to. Seems to work.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 4 years agoin reply to this

      On here, I'm dedicated to a mercenary approach, which necessitates a certain brutality, I feel. I need the money.

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   Solarasposted 4 years ago

   Well, I had one hub languish for years at 30-40 page views a day.  Then about 5 years in, it went up to 450 views a day. No changes had been made to it, it just suddenly caught on, or its competition went away?
   
   So I don't jettison poorly producing hubs. As long as they are getting views, hope stays alive.  And sometimes I get a new idea that can help a hub turn the corner and offer a fresh take on the subject.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I wouldn't generally consider 30-40 views/day as "languishing" myself.
      
      I would consider a hub that gets below 30 views/month (an average of one or less per day) and can't get onto a niche site despite numerous tries a possible contender for the chop. I think I'm the opposite to a hoarder. If I think if something isn't doing me any favors, I enjoy letting it go. I think writing is generally an area where it's good to be brutal.

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