Benefit of network sites?

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   LHwritingsposted 2 years ago

   Do network sites provide any advantage to our articles? If so, how?
   A number of my articles have been moved to various network sites, but some articles are linked with hubpages.com/discover and some with just hubpages.com. Are the non-network ones suffering some kind of disadvantage?
   Thanks — Lyndon

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   1. 97

      theraggededgeposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Network sites are exposed to more traffic and tend to do better in SERPS.
      
      Anything left on HubPages is not eligible for earnings.
      
      Discover is a sort of halfway house.

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2. 92

   LHwritingsposted 2 years ago

   RaggedEdge writes "Anything left on HubPages is not eligible for earnings." Hmmm ... This seems to be a procedure established since I first joined HubPages in 2011. I don't think the network sites even existed then, yet I did start to receive a trickle of earnings.
   
   In any case, several of my articles, without my intervention, over the years have been selected for several network sites, and probably are responsible for earnings I've seen reported in recent years.
   
   Two of my most recent articles have been upgraded to Discover. You describe that as " a sort of halfway house". Does that mean they are eligible for earnings?
   
   Thanks — Lyndon

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   1. 97

      theraggededgeposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, your Discover articles will earn, but if you can improve them and submit them to the networks they should do better. Well, that's the theory.
      
      When Discover was implemented a couple of years ago, we were told anything that didn't make the cut or was deemed ineligible because of quality or lack of traffic would be left on HP, where it would not earn.

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3. 95

   PaulGoodman67posted 2 years ago

   Everything that Raggededge says is true.
   
   In the old days there was only one site, HubPages, but nowadays it's split into multiple sites.
   
   In blunt terms:
   
   Articles in HubPages.com are considered crap and there's no earnings.
   
   Discover is the house of mediocrity, not crap, but not considered good enough for networked sites. You earn here, but likely won't get a great deal of views.
   
   Networked sites are topic-based and home for what HubPages consider to be its premium material. You get more views and more earnings.
   
   That's a simplified explanation but the essence.
   
   In theological terms, HP.com = Hell, Discover = Purgatory, Networked sites = Heaven.

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   1. 92

      LHwritingsposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      PaulGoodman writes:
      
      "Discover is the house of mediocrity, not crap, but not considered good enough for networked sites. You earn here, but likely won't get a great deal of views.
      
      Networked sites are topic-based and home for what HubPages consider to be its premium material. You get more views and more earnings."
      
      Sorry to belabor this issue, but I'm trying to understand a bit better how this works. So far, I understand that a HubPages.com posting is not even eligible to get earnings, even if it gets hits.
      
      So HubPages.Discover... and the network (niche) sites are the ones eligible for earnings, but Discover gets a "purgatory" level of hits and a network site gets you into the "Heaven" of hits.
      
      Any idea why this happens? What is being done for postings on these better sites to attract more hits? (I naively thought all postings were more or less equal ...) Any idea what HubPages does to improve things for the better sites?
      
      Thanks — Lyndon

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      1. 95

         PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

         The various sites are split into levels of perceived quality. Quality attracts readers and Google treats a site more kindly if its content fits certain criteria.
         
         Conversely, lower quality articles bring down a site, in part because Google relegates the site and its articles in the search rankings.
         
         That's why HP editors only allow certain articles into the networked sites.

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         1. 92

            LHwritingsposted 2 years agoin reply to this

            PaulGoodman: Thanks! That adds some clarification ...
            
            Lyndon

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            1. 95

               PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

               The word "quality" has many meanings, but Google uses it in a very specific way. For Google, quality is assessed and rated through the collection of various technical and statistical information, such as how long readers stay on the page, and how many websites link to the article.
               
               The Google idea of "quality" is therefore not fully the same as many people's general understanding of the term. HP have to take into account the Google interpretation, as most of their traffic comes via Google.
               
               There's a lot of info in the HP Help on how to make articles search engine friendly.

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4. 97

   theraggededgeposted 2 years ago

   "In theological terms, HP.com = Hell, Discover = Purgatory, Networked sites = Heaven."
   
   
   
   It's all blimmin' purgatory at the moment.

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