Site Update - Kontera, plus Comment and RSS Capsules

1. STAFF

   pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

   We made a few updates to the site today.
   
   The biggest change is that we've added Kontera as an advertising option.  It is off by default for all hubs.   You can enable or disable it for individual hubs by editing them, and changing the Kontera setting next to Ad Level.  You can also turn it on or off for all of your hubs at once on the affiliate settings page.  The text link ads will only appear to readers that are not signed in to HubPages.  In our tests we saw a 15-20% boost in total income per hub, but your results may vary.
   
   Kontera Signup Instructions
   
   We've also added a much requested option to the comments capsules, that will allow you to limit the display of comments to the first 20, 50, or 100 (with the rest loaded by clicking on a single link).
   
   On top of this, we added display options to the RSS capsule that allows you to show just a snippet of the text from the feed.  This will be especially useful on feeds that display the full text of the article.
   
   We also made a bunch of other minor changes.  Please let us know right away if you have any problems with the site, or notice something unusual.

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      darksideposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Excellent!
      
      I have some that need trimming back.

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      darksideposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Could we have it so it displays the 20/50/100 most recent comments.

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      1. STAFF

         pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, that option already exists.

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      naseem1posted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Can you please help me to solve my problem. My Kontera id has been long time approved my affiliate setting says that it is set yet i cant see any ad when i logged out of my hubpages

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   gamergirlposted 16 years ago

   Fantastic!! Thanks for all the updates you guys are constantly working on, Paul!

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   jimmythejockposted 16 years ago

   well done guys, great job thankyou.....jimmy

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   hassamposted 16 years ago

   Nice work there guys, I just hope that it will increase our income.

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   jyuvaposted 16 years ago

   Thanks for all updates!!

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   Stacie Naczelnikposted 16 years ago

   Cool.  Thanks to all the hub powers that be.

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   Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

   Kontera is currently not accepting my profile page as a valid URL.
   
   

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      Mark Knowlesposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Paul,
      
      There is a + sign in my URL. I have replaced it with %20, but get the same message:
      
      

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8. STAFF

   pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

   Mark -- I'm not sure if this will help, but if there is a plus in your URL, you might try replacing it with a %20.  I'm looking into it further now.

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   Mark Knowlesposted 16 years ago

   And when I preview my post, I get to say , "Cool.  Thanks to all the hub powers that be." in the preview

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      Stacie Naczelnikposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      

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         Mark Knowlesposted 16 years agoin reply to this

         No, really - that's what it says I am going to say

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            Stacie Naczelnikposted 16 years agoin reply to this

            I know.  I checked it and saw that.  I'm everywhere.

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      jyuvaposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Mark same problem here also

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10. STAFF

    pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

    The forum preview issue should be fixed.  I'm working with Kontera on a solution to the URL with spaces problem, we should have an update for you shortly.

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       terrygposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Hello Paul, I will give it a try.
       
       Do you recommend any color settings under our Kontera account or does your software do this for us?

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       1. STAFF

          pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

          We take care of the link color.

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    Uninvited Writerposted 16 years ago

    Great. I already have a Kontera account but have never used it...

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    ProCWposted 16 years ago

    Sounding good so far! Wish they'd hurry and send that approval e-mail to me!
    
    ProCW

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    thranaxposted 16 years ago

    Hey guys....Every time I click on one of there menu options..Like English or any of them, the page refreshes all of the information, maybe it only works in Internet explorer and not firefox? HELP T_T
    
    Update: I tried it in IE and FIREFOX, still it refreshes the page every time I select something!

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       ProCWposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Same thing happened with me. I had to re-do some of the information, but it finally went through. Good luck!
       
       ProCW

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          Loni L Iceposted 16 years agoin reply to this

          Much thanks to the HubPages team for the updates.  Even if some of them are being. . .interesting.  Still, no quality plan goes through without a hitch, right?

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    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    Paul, with the new comments option, will it show the most recent comments?
    
    Also, I can't get past the Website language scroll list. When I click English, it clears everything. Any suggestions? It actually clears the screen when I click my category.

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    thranaxposted 16 years ago

    I been trying for almost 10 mins, anyone have an answer?? T_T

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       guidebabaposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Hello. It work in both IE and Firefox. Try it several Times.

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    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    tharanx what problem are you having?

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    thranaxposted 16 years ago

    Everytime I enter information the page refreshes before its done.

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       Whitney05posted 16 years agoin reply to this

       So the same problem I'm having, where when I pick something off the scroll link it all erases?

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    thranaxposted 16 years ago

    Here is a video I just made to show you the issue! It does keep erasing on the drop down menus, look!
    
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87SSprlgDCs
    
    In the video I point at the green bar after it reloads once, and when thats going I can fill in all information, but if i hit submit it has none of it. And it is just all 100% blank.

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       thranaxposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Do you now understand my issue?

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    Debbie Cookposted 16 years ago

    I am on live chat with them right now. The tech guys there are trying to figure out what the problem is.

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    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    Thanks Debbie. Let us know what's going on. In the mean time I already made a list of hubs I want to try it on. lol. I don't want the links on all the hubs, but I do want to try them on those that don't already have text links to other hubs within the content... Too many links may may it look low-quality. But anyway, yea let us know.

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    Debbie Cookposted 16 years ago

    They told me that they do not have a resolution yet but they will notify me by email when they do.

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    Trsmdposted 16 years ago

    Hai,
    
    can anyone help me..
    
    when i click signup page , I got the message page not available. 503 error.
    
    then how to signup?

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    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    Tharanx, yea I see the problem. Looks like the same thing I'm experiencing. Now the page doesn't even show up period, just the 503 error.
    
    Also, Paul I jsut changed a few of my hubs with more comments to a lesser option, and when I approved a comment afterwards for htat hub, I couldn't see it, and had to change it back to see all comments in order to reread the comment to see what to comment on exactly. Is there any way to show the latest comments and to be able to view past comments, as I frequently get questions from repeat people that I need to go back and see what their initial concern was. It just seems to be a pain to go and change it to see all each time. :-/

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24. STAFF

    pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

    Here is the temporary solution for Kontera signup URL problem.  In the URL box, put:
    
    http://www.hubpages/affliate
    
    and then put your profile URL into the comments section at the bottom.

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       thranaxposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Does this fix my problem with the English language menu and other menus?
       Show here:
       http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87SSprlgDCs
       ^
       I AM STILL having that problem
       
       I also got this from your URL:
       
       We're sorry, that page could not be found!
       
           * If you typed the URL yourself, please make sure that the spelling is correct.
           * If you clicked on a link to get here, there may be a problem with the link.
           * Or check our tag pages for your keywords:

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       1. STAFF

          pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

          I didn't mean for you to put the URL into your browser, but rather for you to enter that URL in the Kontera sign up form (to work around the issue that Mark had with his URL being rejected).  As for the language issue,  that's something we will have to wait for Kontera to resolve.
          
          You might try doing shift-refresh on the first page of the signup form, or just come back and try again tomorrow.  Until you enable Kontera on some of your hubs, you aren't really missing out on anything, after all ...

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             thranaxposted 16 years agoin reply to this

             O, OK I get it But it isn't just language, its category, where you heard from, and traffic one (all the things except fields)

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    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    Paul, it still erases when you go to click the language.
    
    Edit, tried a 2nd time and it erased at category.

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    1. STAFF

       pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       I believe Kontera is working on it, there isn't much I can do myself but pass along the work around for the URL issue (you might want to try using a different browser).   We signed up several accounts here without a hitch before announcing the update ...

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          thranaxposted 16 years agoin reply to this

          I used Firefox 2 (not 3 idk what the whole number is)
          And I used Internet Explorer =\
          
          Different browsers isn't helping Paul ='(

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    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    Paul what about the comment concern?
    
    I'm about to try using Firefox.
    
    Edit: Didn't work. Hopefully Kontera will fix the problem soon.

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    1. STAFF

       pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Perhaps I'm not understanding your question, but you should be able to see the complete set of comments by just clicking on the "show X more comments" link after the last displayed comment.  What I'd suggest is that you display the complete set of comments before you start moderating.  If you approve or disapprove comments before loading the additional comments, it might throw off the the range of list that is loaded.
       
       As for showing the most recent comments, rather than the first X comments.  That's something we considered, and may still consider adding.  However, we couldn't figure out a way to make the user interface for loading the earlier comments intuitive and simple (since they would be injected above the displayed comments rather than below).

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          Whitney05posted 16 years agoin reply to this

          I'm seeing the first say 50 comments, but can't see any of the most recent ones unless I go back and edit the comment capsule to show all comments. It's not only a concern when moderating comments, but for people who post a question and come back to see if it was answered. I mean if they can't see their comment, they're going to think it was deleted or that it never went through. I think they should be able to see their own comment versus the same top 50 or so comments that will never change.
          
          And, yes I was asking for a link that would say "show more comments" or something, if not showing the latest comments.

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          1. STAFF

             pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

             Ok, this might be part of the confusion.  That link should already be appearing.  For instance, on this hub right above the comments box there is a link that says "See 10 More Comments":
             
             http://hubpages.com/hub/Walmart-Ralph
             
             If you click that link it loads (or should load) all the undisplayed comments.

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             relacheposted 16 years agoin reply to this

             Just FYI, I share the same concerns as Whitney as my most-heavily commented hubs are where people are asking for advice or where there are on-going discussions.

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                Maddie Ruudposted 16 years agoin reply to this

                Obviously, it's up to the discretion of the Hubber.  For example, the popularity of my Wu-Yi tea hub is due in large part to the ongoing complaints of disgruntled customers in the comments section.  It would be unwise for me to limit the comments to the first 20, 50, or even 100 (it has almost 700 comments at this point).  So I'm simply not going to.  But people have been asking for this option, and it may be helpful for those hubs in which the comment section has become more of a conversation or chat than it actually contributes to the content of said hub.

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                   Whitney05posted 16 years agoin reply to this

                   Relache, my concern is really related to leaving the oldest comments at the top, as those people have already gotten their answer and probably won't come back to read the hub again.
                   
                   I'd love to use the option, as I was one of the people asking for it, but I guess I figured the more recent comments would be visible. I don't think people will notice the link to view more comments. I mean I can't even see the link using IE, but I realize that it's because I'm on IE. But, I think a lot of people use that particular browser.
                   
                   
                   
                   I actually think the option is a great option even if the comment section isn't being used as a chat, as like you mentioned for your hub, some hubs have hundreds of comments, which makes loading slow and the page, in general, a pain to scroll through because it seems there's never an end. I just think having the latest comments one tops makes more sense. So, as much as I want to use the option, I don't see it very useful since the oldest are listed on the top, and I don't see people noticing the link to view more, if they can even see it.

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    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    Paul, where's the link? I don't see it above the first comment or below the comment box?
    
    Edit: I can't see it on IE when signed in or out, but I can see it on Firefox when logged out.

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28. STAFF

    pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

    Hmm, it looks like there may be an issue with signed out internet explorer.  I'll see what I can do, it may be a little while.

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    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    What do you mean whne signed out on IE? I can't see it when signed in or signed out... :-/
    
    I can wait. I'll just leave all my hubs alone in regards to the comment options. Thanks for checking on it.

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    Shirley Andersonposted 16 years ago

    When I use   http://www.hubpages/affliate    I get a message asking me for a valid URL and won't let me go any further.

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       ProCWposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       uh... affiliate? check your spelling.
       
       ProCW

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          Shirley Andersonposted 16 years agoin reply to this

          Is that different than affliate?
          
          That one above was what I copied from Paul's post.  The one I put into the application was what I copied off the Hubpages instruction page.
          
          I'm too tired to try again tonight, will start fresh tomorrow.  Think I'll type it in to be sure.
          
          Thx-a-bunch!

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             ProCWposted 16 years agoin reply to this

             Shame on paul... haha...
             
             You're welcome.

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    2. STAFF

       pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Sorry, that was a typo, this is correct:
       
       http://www.hubpages.com/affiliate
       
       Full instructions are here:
       
       http://hubpages.com/help/kontera

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          ProCWposted 16 years agoin reply to this

          we all have thoughs days...

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    thranaxposted 16 years ago

    Guys!!!! It worked after another 20 tries with firefox!!
    
    What I did differently:
    
    Selected English (let it refresh)
    Selected the 500,000 or less page views
    Filled all fields
    Then Filled English
    (IT STUCK)
    
    In comments I added "Learned from www.hubpages.com"
    
    Hit Submit and it worked!!!

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    SunSevenposted 16 years ago

    Paul, having trouble signing up for Kontera . Not able to go past the first step. I am using FireFox 3.0. Please help.
    
    Thanks and regads

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       thranaxposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       I had this same problem if you read up SunSeven, a lot of people have. Keep trying and try the order I entered Information, it worked! But if it doesn't work like that for you they are working on an answer, it took me about an hour of trying but I got it

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    jyuvaposted 16 years ago

    I am able to sign up in first attempt itself

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    Froggy213posted 16 years ago

    It keeps blanking out and will not let me sign up

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    AEvansposted 16 years ago

    Paul,
    Thank you I was able to sign up fine, I wonder  why some can and some cannot?

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    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    I finally got it working! Whatwhat! lol... How long should it be to recieve the actual confirmation email. I know it says 2 days, but sometimes companies say 2 days and it's near immediate.
    
    Edit... the email says 5 days. Ugh.

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       thranaxposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       ^ I know really, LOL if they had to sign up for there own dang website for 2 hours they would make confirmation's a lot quicker

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    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    Definitely agreed tharanx. I mean it's a simple sign up but, but full of bugs. lol. I mean Google sent me an email right away, as did EPN and Amazon. Whatever... I wanted to go ahead and change over specific hubs but, I guess I'll just wait, there's no sense in 5 days worth of potential revenue to be lost from my pocket. lol.

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       thranaxposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       I know, the only other one that ticked me off was eBay...it took 2 weeks for a confirmation but with prayers I got it =P

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    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    Paul, I was just thinking about it... You say that depending on what your ad setting it, will determine how many kontera links will be added to the hub. What is the average number of links per setting. I like to keep mine at high, but I don't want to have 10 kontera links. If that makes sense.

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       thranaxposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       I would like to know this too. Is there any way to just put Kontera on low and leave Google Ad Sense on high? Or are they linked

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       1. STAFF

          pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

          The ad level setting has no impact on the number of links Kontera will put in the page.  It's either on or it's off.   So far, I haven't seen an example where the number of links seemed excessive or the distribution was bad.   But, if we do see that we'll work with Kontera on tuning the settings.

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             thranaxposted 16 years agoin reply to this

             Thanks Paul, it might be a good suggestion to put into Kontera I'm not sure but if you could set how many links (say 1-3) in each paragraph and you pick the paragraphs they appear in? And then there will be a top number of links you can have on a page (say 10 maximum). Just a suggestion, so far there isn't a call for it, when I start using it (get confirmed) I will see if something like that would help or not.

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             1. STAFF

                pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

                They typically place from 3-6 links on a page and they already have technology to distribute them throughout the text (so they don't bunch together).  However, if you see something different do let us know.  There are some settings that we can adjust if need be.

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                   Whitney05posted 16 years agoin reply to this

                   Paul, that sounds pretty good. Does the actual number depend on the context and the available ads that they have to offer?

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    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    Oh ok. Thanks Paul. I just reread your initial post, and I got confused when you said the setting was by the ad setting level. I didn't see the "by" and thought you meant that the setting altered the kontera setting too. Sorry.

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    Louie Jeromeposted 16 years ago

    I got it working using Firefox2
    
    
    I put url       http://www.hubpages.com/affiliate
    
    in the url box
    
    In the comments box I put my profile page url like this:
    
    http://hubpages.com/profile/louie20%jerome
    
    
    It wouldn't work with a space, or with + between the two names.
    
    Hope this helps!
    
    Good luck.

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    Froggy213posted 16 years ago

    I finally got it to work too, just waiting on a confirmation
    
    Thanks Paul

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42. STAFF

    pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

    We made a slight update to the Kontera sign up instructions.  You should enter your HubPages profile URL where it says "Website URL".  Then, only if your URL is rejected you should enter "http://www.hubpages.com/affiliate" and (important!) place your profile url into the comments section.
    
    People seem to be getting through the process now, and they are working to approve application as quickly as possible for us.
    
    Updated Signup Instructions

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    Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

    Would it be better if the comments were listed in the order of most recent first, rather than oldest first?  If it was the older comments that were on the next page, rather than the newer ones, that would be less of an issue.

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    spudsposted 16 years ago

    Cool, I'm signing up to Kontera now.

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    easegiriposted 16 years ago

    Whether Google Adsense accepts Kontera  advertisements by the side of Google Advertisements.   Google Adsense may cancel our account if we put Kontera advertisements in the hubpage which shows Google advertisement!!!
    
    
    I think to display Kontera along with Google Adsense is against Google Adsense's policies.

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       terrygposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Thats not true. Google accepts Kontera link ads. The terms of service has been updated to reflect this.

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    Debbie Cookposted 16 years ago

    I received a message from Kontera - turned me down because my site was offline. ???

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47. STAFF

    pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

    I'd suggest contacting Kontera support at support@kontera.com, using the email address you signed up with.   Send them the URL to your profile page.  I'm sure they can straighten things out.

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    Uninvited Writerposted 16 years ago

    Does it take a few days for the ads to show up.?
    
    I just added HubPages to my Kontera account and was given the okay today.

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    1. STAFF

       pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Kontera text links will only appear for signed out viewers, and they load after the rest of the page (so it may take a couple of seconds for them to appear).

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    compu-smartposted 16 years ago

    I've signed up to Kontera and thanks Paul for your, as always, very  simple to follow instrucions:)

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    Uninvited Writerposted 16 years ago

    Thanks it is working. I do notice though that my hub about Amazon MP3s has at least 16 ads.

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    1. STAFF

       pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       I saw 7 text link ads the two times I refreshed that hub.  We'll keep an eye on that issue, and work with Kontera to adjust things so that our authors (that are using Kontera) are comfortable with the way the links look.

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          Whitney05posted 16 years agoin reply to this

          I just checked it out and it had 9 the first time, 0 the second, and 19 the third refresh. I counted it like 3 times because where the link phrases were on a split line which make it look like more links that it really was. But just a second ago there were a total of 19 link (not including those that were split on a line break), with 18 of them being within the first few paragraphs all bunched together, and the 19th link in the bottom section.
          
          If there is the possibility of there being so many ads all bunched up like I saw, then I dunno if I want to implement them. :-( Paul, please check it out and keep an eye on it, as I thought you said there would only be a few ads that were evenly distributed on the page.

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