Traffic Increase to Owlcation as Students Return to School & College

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   eugbugposted 2 years ago

   If you write tutorials, have you noticed a surge? For me, after last year was the first year that it didn't happen and this year seems to be turning out the same.

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      chef-de-jourposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Yes Eugene, most of my articles are visited by school and college students on literary courses and the stats always follow the curve of term times, so I'm used to the months of little (end of June, July&August, December) and those of plenty. The surge has arrived yes, albeit mild compared to years ago.
      I've been checking the stats on many articles and there's a definite expected huge slump on all graphs from February-May 2020, reflecting the pandemic of course - not yet recovered if they ever will. Plus mini-slumps when the format and ads placement changed. HP stats aren't as detailed as GA I know but the general trends, dated, are plain to see. I'm gonna keep a stoic gaze on my navel and plough on as best I can.

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2. 69

   PaulGoodman67posted 2 years ago

   I wouldn't say that I write many tutorials, but I have stuff that's aimed at school kids and young people in education, which has the same dynamic.
   
   I also used to pick up Amazon sales from other hubs (the educational stuff doesn't have Amazon links) during the late Aug/early Sept period.
   
   A few years back, I used to have a surge in Amazon sales at the end of August/start of Sept, as students and parents bought things for the start of the new term. Books, bags, electronics... That stopped.
   
   In recent times, I don't get the Hub Ads surge so much either. Last year was bad.
   
   It's a bit too early to say for sure this year, as today is the first working day after the Labor Day Weekend. I'm definitely seeing more views today, but that could be just a contrast with the public holiday over the weekend.
   
   Hopefully, all the hard work that's been done on Owlcation will pay off at some point. But there's no solid evidence of that so far that I can see...
   
   We're in the middle of an update rollout too, which has been a damp squib so far, but it could still have some effect...
   
   I do find it hard to keep up a "things can only get better" approach, though, when things have just kept getting worse for more than a year.

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3. 69

   PaulGoodman67posted 2 years ago

   Medium has lost more than half of its traffic over the course of just over a year, according to sites such as SEM Rush.
   
   The picture seems more mixed for the HP niche sites.
   
   Paired Life, for instance, is similar to Medium.
   
   However, Owlcation has supposedly had increased views to the domain. That doesn't really fit with my personal experience, although maybe there's a lot being published there, which pushes up the figure for the domain as a whole.

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4. 67

   eugbugposted 2 years ago

   Traffic seems to ramping up this week, but CPM is falling proportionately If the figure is an average as I think, it would indicate that math and physics articles aren't good earners. So I won't waste any time writing more.

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      Madeleine Claysposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      eugbug,
      
      As a teacher in the US, I will tell you that to help clarify and understand Math concepts, teachers and students very often turn to short tutorial videos. For example Math Antics videos are very popular here in the US and teachers will often post them in "Google Classroom", "Schoology" or whatever online platform they use, so that students can easily access them to review concepts they covered in class. My guess is that Math videos are popular in other countries, too.
      
      I don't mean to discourage you from writing more Math articles, but the competition is tough so I encourage you to focus on topics where you've seen a larger readership like your DIY articles, for example, which I am guessing are doing very well.

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      1. 67

         eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         Not as well as they used to unfortunately. My math and physics articles regularly draw traffic from Google Classroom though, I don't have figures to hand, but must check. My triangle tutorial has received more views than any other, 2400 peak per day. In the last year, views have declined however to less than half that.

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         1. 98

            Madeleine Claysposted 2 years agoin reply to this

            Well, then perhaps I'm wrong since you are getting regular traffic from Google Classroom which is very popular. That's very promising!
            
            I do notice that in recent years, kids' attention spans have decreased significantly. They spend a lot of time on video games, tik tok, etc. outside of school so they're used to a ton of stimulation. This makes it harder to keep them engaged when they come to class. Teachers can't compete against that no matter how engaging our lessons are! I suspect the decrease in views on your math and physics articles may have something to do with the decrease in students' attention spans. Just a thought.

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               eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

               Not a huge amount, but I do see views popping up every so often in GA. Writing guides that turn out to be popular is difficult though, because of the competition.

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               1. 98

                  Madeleine Claysposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                  Also, keep in mind that here in the US, the school year started just recently. Generally students start to need extra support as the content becomes more challenging--maybe around October or so. I don't know how many of your views come from the US, but just something to keep in mind.

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                  1. 69

                     PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

                     My basic computers educational articles have a similar dynamic to Eugene's Maths/Physics, even though they're generally on Turbofuture, rather than Owlcation.
                     
                     They get lots of views, but they've never been big earners.
                     
                     Views have halved in the last year or so. So now they earn even less.
                     
                     I don't believe that it's to do with issues like the structure of the school/academic year, which more or less follows a regular annual pattern, but rather it's a more technical matter that relates to the search engines and how they interpret HP websites and articles.
                     
                     Views for general education articles aren't really falling overall, kids still use them.
                     
                     What's happening is that Eugene and I's traffic is going down because the articles are dropping in the Google rankings and other (non-HP) articles are taking their place in the top slots.
                     
                     Dropping just one place in the rankings can lose you 40% or more traffic.

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                     1. 98

                        Madeleine Claysposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                        I see. In a sense, that is encouraging because it shows that students are indeed still reading them. I also see the ongoing challenge of keeping them at the top of Google rankings.

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5. 69

   PaulGoodman67posted 2 years ago

   There is some rise in seasonal traffic going on. But as Eugene points out, it's often the educational stuff that increases, which, while worthy, doesn't earn a great deal.
   
   The shocking truth for me is that, so far, I seem to be on track for a September that might actually earn less than any of the summer months.

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   Ben716posted 2 years ago

   I write non -month and -science subjects, particularly concentrating on literary works. While they're targeted at specific regional students owing to the literary works - novels and plays - used in the region, I have noted views from other countries outside of the targeted region.
   The views have been on an average range irrespective whether schools are on holiday, or ongoing.

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7. 67

   eugbugposted 2 years ago

   600 extra views per day this week, but less earnings per day with CPM dropping proportionately. Educational articles must make a pittance on ads. I wish Hubpages would let me insert sponsored ads on high ranking articles and we could do a deal on splitting the proceeds.

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   1. 69

      PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, if you look up the related key word values for those types of articles, they are generally close to zero. That's nothing new, though. The situation was much worse back in the Adsense days.
      
      Keyword values vary a lot, though. You certainly have some more valuable articles, too.

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   Kellysoderlundposted 2 years ago

   It seems that students are now smarter and have begun to understand that college is useless.

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      theraggededgeposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Hello Kelly,
      
      Welcome to HubPages Are you here to write?

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         Kellysoderlundposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         For the most part I love to read, but I also prefer to write.

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