Traffic and Earnings

1. 85

   Deborah Minterposted 2 years ago

   My situation on Hubpages has improved the last few days! How is everyone else doing?

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   1. 86

      jansharesposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      A little better but views are way down today which usually happens on Saturdays.

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      1. 85

         Deborah Minterposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         I hope traffic continues to improve this month.

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   2. 85

      SerenityHaloposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      No change here. Same range of bad numbers.

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      1. 85

         Deborah Minterposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         I hope everything improves.

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2. 69

   PaulGoodman67posted 2 years ago

   There appears to have been a relative recovery. The problem was that the hit in late September came on top of drops that have been happening since the end of last May, so we were already in a bad place and, in many ways, still are.
   
   HP have said that we should hopefully see a rise in traffic over the coming months and I hope that this is the case and the recovery continues. Ideally, I'd love to see traffic back to the levels that I had in the early half of last year.

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   1. 85

      Deborah Minterposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Agreed! I would like to return or rise to significant levels again.

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      1. 69

         PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

         There was apparently another Google algorithm update a few days ago, which may have been the cause of the traffic creeping back up.
         
         I hope it wasn't just a one-off event. What we really need is sustained increases over time.

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3. 81

   bhattucposted 2 years ago

   Congrats and keep up the good work.

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   1. 85

      Deborah Minterposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you!

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4. 66

   eugbugposted 2 years ago

   No improvement yet. Traffic half of of 2020 levels. There may be a bit of an uptick today compared to last Sunday.

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   1. 69

      PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

      I think I may have got the 15% back that was lost recently and now things are back to dire, instead of completely hopeless.

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      1. 66

         eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         I'm optimistic that it won't get worse. Surely it'll have to bottom out sometime, or will Google just keep inflicting repeated penalties?

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         1. 69

            PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

            We've been through a year when I thought: Well, at least things can't get any worse! And then they did!
            
            I think HP expect that their ongoing editing work to improve the site's rep with eventually bear fruit. I hope they're right.
            
            I do believe that the root of the problem lies in reputation. If they can improve trustworthiness, I think the site will recover.
            
            They are constantly emailing me and telling me to change this and that. I see that as a positive.
            
            (By "site," I mean the niches collectively)

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            1. 66

               eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

               Maybe they could hire experts temporarily to go through articles and fact check them, giving them the seal of approval (and include their profile like on Wikihow). Instead of TAG continually acquiring more companies, wouldn't it make more sense investing in Hubpages to improve its viability or does it just want it to stand on its own feet financially? Maybe Hubpages doesn't exist as a separate company anymore, just a brand, and that's why we don't have much communication anymore except from Matt when there's technical issues. Who knows? I've only ever had one or two, less than helpful replies from TAG on social media so they aren't very responsive.

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               1. 69

                  PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

                  My understanding is that like virtually all online publishing, HP is kept afloat by outside investment. Paul E was seeking something like Maven/Arena for 12 years. Without that, HP could have folded. That's the bottom line, I believe.
                  
                  To fully understand business structures can often require specialist knowledge that I don't have. I don't believe that the business structure of Arena is related to HP's lack of communication with writers in recent times, though.
                  
                  I prefer to focus on the writing, which is something that I know about. My expertise on things like corporate business structures and indeed online advertising strategies is limited. I'm always wary of the Dunning–Kruger effect.

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                  1. 66

                     eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                     Mine is even more limited, it's way above my head.

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                     1. 69

                        PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

                        As for the "experts" thing, HP said they were going to bring in experts some years back. Ironically, I had incidents of material being changed or added that was factually incorrect during that period.
                        
                        I think HP is so broad in scope that it's practically impossible to have the required expertise on everything, even temporarily. That's a general and fundamental problem for them.
                        
                        I've changed tack multiple times since I started writing here. A few years back, I actually tried to shift from generally writing material that was completely factual towards material that necessarily had an element of subjectivity.

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5. 86

   Jodahposted 2 years ago

   Not good. Almost all blue down arrows.

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   1. 85

      Deborah Minterposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      That's awful!

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6. 80

   EricDockettposted 2 years ago

   Nobody is really talking about these "news" articles. Since Panda, Google has penalized sites with a lot of thin content. It seems like those news articles would certainly qualify as thin content.
   
   I know if I wrote a 400-word blurb about a video where a kitten likes to ride on a tractor or whatever it (rightfully) wouldn't even pass QAP. Yet, hundreds if not thousands of these pages are on each niche site, and more are added daily.
   
   I guess these news articles earn by dragging views in from wherever they are posted but is it at the expense of the entire site getting knocked down in search?

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7. 69

   PaulGoodman67posted 2 years ago

   While my traffic overall is still terrible, I am also getting a lot of surges, individual articles that generate hundreds or thousands of views over a short period of time. Some are explicable, but others just seem random. The surges are keeping me from sinking underwater.

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