Is anyone submitting to the remaining niche sites?

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   Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks ago

   Yes. This is, in a way, a rhetorical question. With all the dumping into Discover, submitting articles to niche sites is probably futile, right?

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      bravewarriorposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

      Which ones remain, Kenna? I haven't checked lately other than to see if my articles that are still on niche sites have been moved. So far, Delishably, Dengarden, Letterpile, Pet Helpful, Tough Nickel, and Turbo Future seem to still be in tact. At least they are as of 3:20 p.m. EST on August 2nd 2024.

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         Solarasposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

         check out this forum thread of the current count.  "Which niche site will survive the cull?"

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            bravewarriorposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

            Barbara, please provide the link to the forum to which you refer.
            
            Thanks.

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               Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

               Here you go, Shauna. https://hubpages.com/community/forum/36 … e-the-cull

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                  bravewarriorposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

                  Thanks, Kenna.

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      WriterJanisposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

      I think if the niche site is still up, it couldn't hurt. What's the worst that could happen?

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         Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

         Janis, waste my time and effort.

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   viryaboposted 5 weeks ago

   Nope.
   Definitely not!

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   EricDockettposted 5 weeks ago

   I do see some benefit to writing here, even now. However, I won't be posting anything until it is clear what HP is doing with these changes. Since they won't tell us, all we can do is wait.
   
   HP has driven away creative writers by removing the comments and all but eliminating community interaction.
   
   With their overbearing editing policies, poor communication, and lack of transparency, they have driven away people capable of writing content that brings in search traffic
   
   At some point, HP is going to have to ask themselves: Who is left?
   
   If they think about it, they won't like the answer they come up with.

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      Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

      Eric, thank you. Your post is insightful and reasonable. Oddly, we haven't heard anything from HP, which is most disheartening.

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         theraggededgeposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

         Oddly? 
         
         We never hear anything from HP in these discussions.

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            Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

            True!

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      Solarasposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

      At this point, I suspect staff has been told to avoid the forums.  Just a waste of their time, which is better spent shoveling niche sites into the barrel.  Even legitimate complaints regarding code functionality go unanswered.
      
      So staff have their heads down, and we wait and watch.
      
      I have updated a few of the best performing articles, in the hopes of improving an appalling week of sinking earnings.  If the stats on my page are mirrored by PetHelpful, then its downward trend would put PetHelpful inline for a transfer to Discover, for a quick sugar high for the Borg, then an inevitable crash. 
      
      But then again, can I even believe my lying eyes when I look at my stats.  What would be the cause of such a dramatic decline in pageviews.  Is it the crashing of all of the niche sites into Discover, or should I suspect something else?
      
      Can we believe our dashboards, when we are being shunned by the TAG community. I believe it's called cognitive dissonance.  Only a sociopath can be kind and helpful, while cutting you off at the knees.

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         Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

         The problem, Barbara, is we don't hear from them. Thus we try to fill the void ourselves, which is unfulfilling.

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      bravewarriorposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

      I couldn't agree with you more, Eric. Well said!

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         EricDockettposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

         Unfortunately, at this point, I get the feeling they really don't care.
         
         I mean, I think they care about the sites being profitable. But I don't think they make the connection between that and attracting and keeping capable writers.
         
         Or, maybe they do, and they just don't think it is worth the effort.
         
         If you're running a burger restaurant, and you aren't making money, you can do one of two things.
         
         You can invest time and money into making better burgers, which will improve your reputation, eventually attract more customers, and build a long-term business.
         
         Or, you can cut expenses as low as possible, so at least your crummy burger joint isn't losing money.

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            Solarasposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

            I think TAG and Ross Levinson always considered Hubpages a roachy burger joint. Sports Illustrated was fine dining, and HP was there to be milked for the benefit of the Michelin Star properties, The Street, Men's Journal, Parade lol. 
            
            They have been milking, and trying to find ways to cut us out for years now.  I would not be surprised to find that some of the editors are employed, not only to write News posts, but also to rework and post our more popular articles for the benefit of TAG.  Originally the curation process to the Niches involved not having duplicate content; new articles would have to be better than the extant articles to be moved, and the old content moved out. Now there are 3-4 articles cannibalizing the same search terms.  It will only be worse with everything being piled into Discover.

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   Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks ago

   Bellatory is gone now without email notification.

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      Solarasposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

      Good God.
      
      Edit:  I have a couple on moribund articles on that site. I'll let you guys know if anything happens to enliven them.  Doubtful.

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         Kenna McHughposted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

         Yeah. I did pretty good with that niche site. Very sad.

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      CYong74posted 5 weeks agoin reply to this

      What happened to transfers on Thursday? I'm confused. Thursdays are now Saturdays  in the United States?

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   Shesabutterflyposted 5 weeks ago

   Skyaboveus is also gone without notification. Disappointed in how HP chose to dismantle niches, while ignoring Discover and long term writers.
   
   If I were actively writing or updating, I would not bother submitting. It's useless without knowing which sites are staying around, if any.
   
   Considering staff supposedly did not know which sites they were moving on Thursdays, they are dumping sites rather quickly.

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      Kenna McHughposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

      Yes. It's hard to choose and write when I don't know what is happening.

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   Solarasposted 5 weeks ago

   So I have published a new article, and it went through QAP pretty quickly, less than 24 hours.  Probably there is very little competition coming from HP for the QAP gnomes.  However, I can't submit it to a niche site, as the "Author View" link does not exist for the one article.
   
   Wondering if PetHelpful is next up on the chopping block.

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      Kenna McHughposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

      I still see Pethelpful in the queue for submissions to niche sites. From my experience, the "Author View" link appears once the article rolls over to Discover. If HP management could explain this to us, that'd be nice.

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         Solarasposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

         You are correct again.  "Author view" is available now.  I went ahead and submitted to Pethelpful, just to see what would happen.
         
         Bellatory and Feltmagnet, among other defunct sites, still appear in the dropdown menu, on my end, as submission sites.  Someone who cares should do something about that.

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            Kenna McHughposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

            Yes. Let's see what happens.

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            WriterJanisposted 4 weeks agoin reply to this

            Good luck!

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