Publishing an article

1. 51

   Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months ago

   I have revised the article 3 times. Removed links. Removed references to technology that is not even ours. There was never any sales language in it.
   
   It keeps getting rejected with no explanation of what is wrong with it. Why should we waste our time if there is no decent feedback?

   replyreport
   1. 93

      Kenna McHughposted 19 months agoin reply to this

      I hear you! And agree! Use the Teams@hubpages.com in reply to the forum email. That way, the receiver can help answer your questions. Good luck!

      replyreport
   2. 94

      greenmindposted 19 months agoin reply to this

      Since you're a new writer, you need to write and publish at least 5 high-quality articles before you will gain any traction with HP central. If you show the editors that you can write quality pieces (which, in my opinion at least, you definitely can), and that you're engaged with the site enough to write consistently, then good things will follow.
      
      In short: It gets easier. Write a handful of great articles to prove yourself and you'll be fine.

      replyreport
2. 95

   AliciaCposted 19 months ago

   I can’t find your article on your profile. There should be instructions for sharing an active link in at least one of the emails that HubPages sent you. If you follow the instructions in the email, someone may be able to help you.

   replyreport
3. 94

   Glenn Stokposted 19 months ago

   Paul, I looked at the article you put in your spotlight. Two things immediately caught my attention about why your content is not approved.
   
   1. You are using images that are not licensed for commercial use.
   
   According to Bigstock’s Standard Content Usage Agreement, Restriction #15, they do not provide permission to use images commercially.
   
   Since you get paid from ad revenue, your articles on HubPages are commercial.
   
   So you cannot use images from Bigstock.
   
   2. Some of your subtitles are not ASA capitalized. That is a requirement to be on the niche sites.
   
   It’s crucial that you study the rules before going any further. Read up on the learning center by clicking “Help” at the top right on any page.
   
   In addition, always read the terms of use and license requirements when taking images from other websites.
   
   I see you’ve been on HubPages for eight years, and it seems you are just now beginning to write articles. But it would be best if you educated yourself with the learning center articles first.
   
   Regarding your point that there is “no decent feedback,” everything you need is posted in HubPages’ learning center. They put a lot of effort into giving you everything you need to know.

   replyreport
4. 51

   Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months ago

   Glenn - I am in the middle of something and will respond more fully soon.  The images used belong to us. We have been a Bigstock customer for a decade and use their images in our online course development work, on our website, and in digital brochures, and email campaigns. We have never had an issue.
   
   Also, I / we are not publishing here to earn revenue from HubPages members or viewers. Our business is providing a learning management system, designing and building online courses for our clients, and helping them manage their online learning or training programs. It never occurred to us to earn revenue on these articles. Not a priority at all.

   replyreport
   1. 95

      AliciaCposted 19 months agoin reply to this

      I still can’t see your article, but did you state that you are allowed to use the Bigstock images in the article? The HubPages editor wouldn’t know this, unless you sent a message to them.

      replyreport
   2. 94

      Glenn Stokposted 19 months agoin reply to this

      Paul, If you have a signed agreement with BigStock overriding their license denying use on commercial sites, then you need to specify that under every image to clarify.
      
      It doesn't matter that you don't want to earn revenue from HubPages. You are overlooking that HubPages earns revenue from the ads on your articles. So the fact remains that this is a commercial site.
      
      In addition, your reply didn't make this next point clear, and I may have misunderstood; But if you are using HubPages for hosting your online courses, that doesn't fall under the terms of service. Getting that approval from management would be necessary if you want your articles accepted. That could be another reason all your work has been rejected over eight years.

      replyreport
      1. 51

         Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

         In my earlier response I said our company provides learning management systems, designs and builds online courses and helps our customers manage their online programs. We couldn’t host courses on HP as it is not equipped.
         
         There is either a human or an algo reviewing the article and reaching a decision. How hard would it be for the process to return the article to us with commments instead of making us guess.  The original piece was so much better and HP declined it. It is simply not worth the time just to post such a simple article.

         replyreport
         1. 94

            Glenn Stokposted 19 months agoin reply to this

            Paul, there is no need to guess, as you say.  HubPages has put all the information in the learning center that explains what you need to do to have your articles accepted. Why do you keep refusing to learn from the resources provided to you?

            replyreport
            1. 51

               Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

               Glenn, your response tells me you are not some neutral member of the forum.
               
               Here is what I received just a short time ago. The 4th time I get the same message with no detail on where the problem is:
               
               Heads up! Your article wasn’t cleared for publication because it didn’t pass the Quality Assessment Process (QAP). Don’t worry, every new Hubber goes through Boot Camp, and all you need to do is improve your article so that it meets our quality standards. To graduate from Boot Camp, you must publish at least five Featured articles.
               
               Featured articles are thorough and contain high-quality, relevant media. Articles that reflect the following elements are more likely to be Featured on HubPages:
               
               - Does not include spammy content (e.g., spammy links, promotional activity, links to your personal blog or website, unrelated product listings, repetitive keyword emphasis, etc.)
               - Demonstrates correct English grammar usage and spelling
               - Offers complete and in-depth coverage of their subject area or topic
               - Has an attractive layout (text is broken up into multiple capsules with high-quality images and media)
               - Has easy to read text (consistent formatting that avoids excessive bolded, underlined, or italicized text)
               - Offers “evergreen” content, or content that will stay relevant for months and years to come
               - Is not artificially generated content

               replyreport
               1. 94

                  Glenn Stokposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                  There you have it. They're telling you everything you need to know. The rest is up to you.

                  replyreport
                  1. 51

                     Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                     I don't see anything in this message from HP that tells us where in the article the problem resides. All I see are possible issues. Now, since I am not a writer or journalist, I used a lifeline. My spouse is a 28-year veteran journalist. I didn't say anything to her in advance. Her response was exactly the same. That a human or algo acting as an editor would point out exactly where the issues are. Anything else is a waste of time.

                     replyreport
                     1. 93

                        Kenna McHughposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                        Your wife has a point.

                        replyreport
                        1. 93

                           Kenna McHughposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                           I find this the case regularly. I have to personally contact someone at the Team email to get a valid and helpful response.

                           replyreport
                     2. 94

                        Glenn Stokposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                        I already told you where in your article the problem resides. Go back and read my first reply to you.

                        replyreport
               2. 87

                  tsmogposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                  All of those are explained at the Learning Center. There are nine articles there with pertinent information regarding creating articles Link is next.
                  
                  HubPages Help (Learning Center)
                  https://hubpageshelp.com/
                  
                  Also, available is the FAQ full of information. Link following.
                  https://hubpages.com/faq/
                  
                  That is an easy format with a table of contents off to the right with linked topics. Both the Learning Center articles and the FAQ are worth a good skim just to get one's coordinate of what is what. For instance, for overly promotional the FAQ says:
                  
                  "My article was moderated for being overly promotional; what does that mean?
                  
                  Purely promotional offers and articles designed only to promote other sites or businesses are not allowed. In particular, the following actions are likely to get your articles identified as overly promotional:
                  
                  **Including more than 2 links to any one domain
                  ** Keyword stuffed: repeatedly emphasizes words or phrases (often times with bold or italics)
                  ** Short "teasers" with links to "read more" at another site
                  ** Solely promotes a product, site, program, organization, or service
                  ** Excessive Amazon Capsules
                  ** Including links to a page that contains largely the same content as your article
                  
                  Please note that promotional links are links that you have any interest in promoting (your blog, your Website, affiliate offers, etc.). Links to well-known Web resources which you don't have any personal interest in (like Wikipedia, news sites, encyclopedias, open directories, etc.) are exempt from this limitation."

                  replyreport
                  1. 51

                     Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                     We actually stripped out all the links. None were to our website. Three links were to software apps offered by what one might classify as competitors. We listed them because their tool was an excellent example of what you could use to achieve the point we were trying to make.
                     
                     There is zero marketing or mention of our company.
                     
                     Ironically, my email alerts from HP frequently contains straight sales pitches disguised as article titles. See attached from earlier today.
                     
                     
                     

                     replyreport
                     1. 95

                        AliciaCposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                        Have you read the articles in your screenshot to discover if they are really sales pitches? Writers sometimes try to create a title that draws attention to their article, but the article itself is acceptable.
                        
                        You should contact team@hubpages.com before you give up writing here.

                        replyreport
                        1. 51

                           Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                           Sheer fluke. I deleted the links to BigStockPhoto, which we there to give them credit for the images, and the article was published.

                           replyreport
                           1. 95

                              AliciaCposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                              Congratulations!

                              replyreport
                              1. 51

                                 Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                                 Pyrrhic victory. The original article was better. The links in it were to tools amd apps - none of them ours - that were very useful for anyone wanting to create engaging online learning content. Not just telling them what to create but pointing them at tools they can use to actually do it. Isn’t that the point?
                                 
                                 There is still another article from 8 years ago when I first signed up here. It has consistantly been declined. Meanwhile, it got over 10,000 downloads and hundreds of positive remarks in the first 2 years it was online on another platform. Riddle me that.

                                 replyreport
                           2. 73

                              Miebakagh57posted 19 months agoin reply to this

                              Congratulations, Paul.

                              replyreport
                              1. 73

                                 Miebakagh57posted 19 months agoin reply to this

                                 There's something of a fun that I can't make out here.                                     And I think either  FatFreddyCats or PaulGoodman can do that.                                        Where are these guys anyway?

                                 replyreport
                           3. 95

                              AliciaCposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                              I'm confused. You said that your article was published. I assumed you meant that it was featured. I can't see it on my phone, but I can see it on my ancient iPad mini (minus the photos). I've just noticed that the iPad says you have no featured articles under the article on your profile. The phone tells me this, too. Being featured is necessary in order for the public to see the article.
                              
                              I think you need to contact the team to find out what the problems are. They will be able to give you an exact answer.

                              replyreport
5. 51

   Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months ago

   Still tied up with a bunch of tasks but I thought I’d add a few more quick thoughts. We had no idea people would be paying us for these articles. We really just thought HP was a place to post and help increase awareness of our company. I assume the payments we would receive would be the tiniest drop in the bucket when compared to our regular business revenue. More on that later.
   
   I have read the guidance on how articles should be written. However, it would be great if someone told you specifically what the issue was rather than just saying the article does not meet guidelines.
   
   The simple truth for us is that we are just too darn busy to keep trying to guess what the issue might be. And, the wee bit of revenue is not an incentive to invest an inordinate amount of time on these articles. They are not critical to our business or our success. Sadly, it seems the more productive route is to forget about HP as a venue for these articles.

   replyreport
   1. 94

      Glenn Stokposted 19 months agoin reply to this

      Paul, HubPages is definitely NOT the place to post content to help increase awareness of your company. That is against the terms of service. This is a place to publish magazine-style educational articles that provide helpful information that people search for online.
      
      In addition, since you are too busy (as you say) to read the guidelines in the learning center, you're wasting your time here.

      replyreport
      1. 51

         Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

         Glen, if a person writes a good piece the reader is typically inclined to want to learn more about the author or look to see if they have written other pieces. That, my friend, is what I am referring to when I say increasing awareness. The original piece that was posted was good. Our efforts to satisfy HPs mystery objections has reduced the piece to pablum. So, you are correct… we are probably wasting our time.

         replyreport
         1. 94

            Glenn Stokposted 19 months agoin reply to this

            I already explained what I saw wrong with your article in my first reply to you. You prefer to claim it's good, but you haven’t made it a stellar article that would make it worthy of any niche network sites.
            
            When you don’t use ASA capitalization and you use images that are not licensed for commercial use, then your article is not good, and therefore not acceptable. You refuse to accept that, and instead you complain that no one is giving you answers.
            
            Go to the learning center and read up on how to make a stellar article.

            replyreport
         2. STAFF

            Matt Wellsposted 19 months agoin reply to this

            Remove the promotional link from the article and place it in your HubPages profile instead. Send an email to team@hubpages.com, and we will review for publication.

            replyreport
            1. 51

               Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

               We stripped out all the links previously and it achieved nothing. It seemed a bizarre requirement because we were linking to competitors who offer great products that enable the reader to do what we were talking about in the article.
               
               We had links to the source for our images as a courtesy. We stripped those out as well in recent days. We still got rejections.
               
               We then began experimenting with what links could be included. More rejections.
               
               So we stripped out every single link which, in our mind, denies the reader valuable info.

               replyreport
               1. 95

                  AliciaCposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                  I think you need to have a one-on-one discussion with a staff member. Contact Matt at the address that he has given and ask for specific things that you need to do in order to get the article featured.

                  replyreport
               2. 87

                  theraggededgeposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                  No one has explained to you that you shouldn't link to any commercial site whatsoever. The editors have no way of knowing in which companies you may or may not have an interest.
                  
                  Therefore the only credible links are non-commercial and informative such as references. That also goes for images, which are acceptable if they are Creative Commons licensed, Public Domain, or your own photos.
                  
                  You can't use articles to promote a business but you can link to your own business in your profile.

                  replyreport
                  1. 51

                     Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                     I get that. However, people want more than just reading that they should make their online course more engaging by doing X. When you are telling people to adopt a "process" tool to make their online course more engaging it is a real help if you can point them to 1 or more examples of a process tool. Saves them time. Particularly if they are novices at designing and building online courses. The rules for HP stop short of that.

                     replyreport
               3. STAFF

                  Matt Wellsposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                  Thanks for removing the promotional link. Your article is now featured.

                  replyreport
6. 73

   Miebakagh57posted 19 months ago

   A reader starting to write articles on hubpages?                                    The learning center is a better place to start.

   replyreport
7. 78

   psycheskinnerposted 19 months ago

   If you want concrete feedback use the link provided to share the actual article not passing QAP on the forum

   replyreport
8. 51

   Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months ago

   Glenn, do you work for HP?  I was looking for feedback from the site as they are the ones who rejected the articles 8 years ago and again these past months. If you do work for HP then you should let us know so we can take your comments as an official response and not sit around waiting for Godot.

   replyreport
   1. 94

      Glenn Stokposted 19 months agoin reply to this

      No, I am not employed by HubPages. However, if you want to ignore help from fellow Hubbers, that's your choice. Unfortunately, none of us can help you then.
      
      And by the way, your article is NOT published. If you can't get a single hub accepted in eight years, what you're up to is clear. It has become evident you are just here to waste everyone's time trying to help you. We all have better things to do.

      replyreport
      1. 93

         Kenna McHughposted 19 months agoin reply to this

         Well said, Glenn.

         replyreport
      2. 51

         Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

         Glenn, can explain this record in My Account. See the image below.
         
         And, I think you misread my post. I tried to post an article 8 years ago and it was rejected several times. I gave up as I had so many other tasks to accomplish and HP wasn't a critical item.
         
         I actually forgot about HP until this past January when I was clearing out old usernames/Passwords and stumbled upon the HP info. Since the article from 8 years ago was old I opted to try with a newer article. Same results. Rejected articles with no explanation why.
         
         

         replyreport
         1. 94

            Glenn Stokposted 19 months agoin reply to this

            Paul, you already said you will only accept “official response” and not from me since I don’t work for HubPages. So why are you asking me to answer more questions? I will no longer respond since that was your choice.

            replyreport
            1. 51

               Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

               Glenn, I was going to leave HP as I did 8 years ago and again this past January but I let my curiosity get the better of me and posted my question to this forum. Everyone seemed nice. You seemed offended. I thought that might be because you worked for HP. Perhaps you are a little too invested in this platform.
               
               People that use our platforms post critiques or make suggestions all the time. We value those as they help us improve the system. If they have a problem we have a Technical Support Help Desk and account managers to assist. We don't ask our customers to rely on the general public to solve their issue.
               
               Now, perhaps I am spoiled by what has become basic tech industry standards in our world. Let me give you an example. The Hemingway app helps people turn their writing into a form that is more readable for the web. All you have to do is copy and paste your content into Hemingway and it tells you exactly what you need to fix. We use the desktop version but here is a basic web-hosted example:
               
               https://hemingwayapp.com/
               
               So, again, my 28-year veteran journalist spouse and I ask.... in the current tech world, how hard is it that the user can't get a more detailed explanation of what needs fixing?
               
               Imagine if Grammarly just said, "Your grammar is wrong".

               replyreport
         2. 95

            AliciaCposted 19 months agoin reply to this

            There is a difference between the published and featured status for an article. The featured status allows people who aren't logged into HubPages to see the article. Once again, I suggest that you contact Matt (a staff member here) at team@hubpages.com to clarify your situation and get official advice.

            replyreport
            1. 94

               Glenn Stokposted 19 months agoin reply to this

               Give up, Linda. He keeps saying HubPages rejects his “articles with no explanation why, ” despite the fact that all the explanations are in the learning center that he refuses to read.

               replyreport
               1. 95

                  AliciaCposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                  That’s good advice, Glenn, but Matt (or another staff member) has just featured the article.

                  replyreport
               2. 51

                  Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

                  Glenn, you're suggesting that I should read the 8 articles below where I might find out what the issue is rather than expect HP, which rejected the articles, to simply tell me why they rejected the articles. My response is that there is an easier way and that the real issue becomes a question of time vs value. Don't take it so personally.
                  
                  
                  https://hubpageshelp.com/content/

                  replyreport
            2. 51

               Paul Jacobelliposted 19 months agoin reply to this

               Thanks Alicia. The whole exercise started 8 years ago when I stumbled upon HP and thought it looked interesting. It proved to be not worth the time so I moved on.
               
               I rediscovered HP this past January as I was cleaning out old Usernames / Passwords. Again it proved to be a tangle. As it was not a priority I again moved on.
               
               I was finishing the Username / Password clean-up this past week and stumbled upon HP again. After a few more rejections, I was about to delete the account when I let my curiosity get the better of me and posted my comment / question. It looks like my critique of the platform has offended Glenn.
               
               My expectation for the HP platform was perhaps coloured by my experience with apps like this below:
               
               https://hemingwayapp.com/

               replyreport