Amazon Ad and News Capsule Killing Spree

1. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   Well, folks. For those who missed it, here it is:
   
   "Yes.  We ran several tests and Hubs that used Amazon were the most likely to see a decrease in traffic, followed by the news capsule."  --Paul Edmondson
   http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/70082#post1526822
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   I, for one, will be busy today.

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      rieomposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I just went and moved my capsule around but I have three items of Amazon on each hub.  I also have about six items on another hub.   From what I understand from reading this thread, that perhaps I need to clear out more items?

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2. 0

   Nelle Hoxieposted 12 years ago

   I'm right there with you, I've decreased my number of capsules - both ebay and Amazon - AND most of them only have 1 product. (ps. I haven't really gotten to my Nelle hubs yet, so don't bother looking at them, but the other mini-Nelles have been given dramatic remakes.)
   
   Now more anti-inflamatories for my arthritic wrists - eyedrops for my tired eyes and I'm off to hack off more capsules and products.

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3. 94

   leahleflerposted 12 years ago

   I appreciate the recap - I somehow missed the information on the news capsules. I have several of those, so it is time to hack them from the articles!

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4. 74

   KeithTaxposted 12 years ago

   At least we no longer need to worry about losing our Amazon affiliates due to state sales tax laws. The real point everyone needs to consider is blogs and personal websites. High quality websites like Lifehacker and Zen Habits are doing fine. HP is one cog in the wheel, not the entire wheel. You can pick up web hosting for a small fee and if you self host, servers with small business software, etc run under $10,000 professionally installed. I swapped out my office server for under three grand in the last 10 days with another three grand for professional install, set-up, and professional software. This is a business, folks, if you attempt to make money. Every business has its challenges.

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5. 71

   toknowinfoposted 12 years ago

   I know that HP wants the Amazon ads to be in proportion to number of words in our hubs. But are you saying that any Amazon ads will decrease our traffic?

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   1. 59

      paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      You will have to take that up with Mr. Edmondson.
      .
      My Amazon ads don’t result in sales; so for me, getting rid of the critters is the smart thing to do.

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   Mutiny92posted 12 years ago

   @Nelle:  Please let us know how your alternate-personality accounts change in the SERPS/views as Google sees your updates.  This will be fascinating!

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7. 0

   Marye Audetposted 12 years ago

   Noooooooooooooooooooooooooo..... I just checked....edited 639 hubs last night and didn't know about that...
   Here we go again.  :::cries:::

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      Nelle Hoxieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      There should be one place where this information is posted by HP staff. Some comes out in the blog others in topics.
      
      It was the blog that suggested 1 product per keyword search in a capsule - which is different from 1 product for every 50 words.

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         Mark Ewbieposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I agree.  I haven't a clue what to do, what not to do.
         
         However the main culprit is Google.  They changed the rules, and didn't say what the rules were.
         
         I don't mean about link cheating - I mean "what is quality content".
         
         Taking an Amazon advert off, or removing a news feed doesn't seem to add much to the idea of quality to me.
         
         It's all a bit random.

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            wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Hasn't google long said that they were going after copied material?
            
            News capsules always contain a bit of copied stuff from the news, and Amazon capsules generally do the same.  Perhaps google is picking these things up as "copied" and dinging us as a result.  At least that's the way I read it.

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8. 84

   Uninvited Writerposted 12 years ago

   There are a couple of my hubs that are not aimed at selling on Amazon that have sold items consistently. One is a book review and the other is about Fred Astaire. I will probably remove some from my other hubs. I think I'll keep Amazon on the entertainment hubs, they seem to get sales.

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9. 59

   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   Plowing along…
   
   Those news capsules that I had previously added just for the sake of ongoing fresh content were easy to delete. However, in some cases the capsules are providing real value to the reader. Deletions of those were making me cringe. So I’ve settled for reducing the number of entries to just two and removing the word “news”.

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10. 83

    kerrygposted 12 years ago

    Does anybody know if RSS capsules are affected, or just News? I hardly ever use News capsules, but I have a lot of RSS, most displaying tag feeds from here on HubPages.

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11. 0

    EmpressFelicityposted 12 years ago

    Suggestion to HP staff: would it be possible to create a "delete all news capsules in hubs on this account" button, to go on one's My Account page?
    
    I don't exactly relish the thought of individually deleting news capsules for 150 hubs - so I can imagine how the people with 500 or more hubs must feel!

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    WoodsmensPostposted 12 years ago

    OMG , I have been in the process of deleting all the summary text in the link capsules and only keeping the link. Google sees this as duplicate also. Now the NEWS capsules too .....alls I can say is OMG so that means RSS and Link capsules are bunk too just delete delete and watch the $ 00.00 what a fun time .

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13. 84

    Edweirdoposted 12 years ago

    Perhaps we should not be going off half-cocked and following "tips" that are based purely on speculation!
    
    No one (including HP staff) knows for sure what is and is not relevant in the new Google algo, so isn't it a bit hasty to make wholesale changes to all of our hubs based on what little info we have?
    
    I, for one, have seen a disastrous drop in traffic, and more so in Adsense - today I have made $0.00. I haven't seen a number like that since the first week I joined HubPages.
    
    I have given up on adding anything new here, and the few changes I have made were to a handful of existing hubs to see if those changes make a difference before I go through and edit all of them.
    
    Granted I only have about 100 hubs, but it seems like a huge waste of time and energy to make changes that may actually end up hurting more than helping in the long run (or that may be totally irrelevant once the dust settles).
    
    
    Everything is in such chaos right now - between the algo change, the new Ad program, the change in ad layouts and the new content rules, I feel like I'm trying to rake leaves during a tornado! I think I'll wait until the wind dies down and then look towards cleaning up the mess...

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       Sally's Troveposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I agree that we shouldn't follow speculation. If HP knew the cause and the remedy, they would have told us. And so one day when they do, then the whole process may have to be done in reverse.
       
       
       
       
       Same here.

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    Sally's Troveposted 12 years ago

    This is crazy.
    
    For as long as I've been writing on HP, it's been suggested that news capsules are good for a Hub because they constantly change the Hub's contents (Google likes/liked content change/updates).
    
    RSS capsules were suggested as good because they can do the same, or if they are RSS capsules linking internally to HP, then there is value in that internal linking.
    
    As for Amazon capsules being some kind of scraped content, then this sounds the death knell for any affiliate program where content from the the selling site is reproduced elsewhere. (What about eBay capsules?)
    
    I get the sense that there's some grasping at straws, and I'm not making any major changes, despite the fact that ALL google traffic to my Hubs has hit rock bottom.
    
    However, I have taken this opportunity to go through all my Hubs that use news and Amazon capsules to re-evaluate whether they are adding value to a Hub.
    
    In some cases, they aren't. At the time I published a Hub (as long as three years ago), those capsules enhanced the Hub. But as time has gone by, some Amazon products disappeared, or news RSS search terms stopped returning appropriate news items.
    
    I have a small number of Hubs, and I have a headache with this. My heart goes out to those of you who are trying to bring your hundreds of Hubs into line with HP suggestions.

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    mcbeanposted 12 years ago

    I have always subscribed to the minimalist theory of amazon capsule placement.
    I have a single product per capsule and a matching text block specific to that product. I just checked a handful of mine and they seem to average 75 - 100 words per product. I did this because it is what worked for me in terms of conversion. For once I am glad I don't have to go through all of them and make changes.
    I know some have had great success with large numbers of amazon product listed but my usual hub has only three products and it works for me.
    Hopefully some people will notice a positive change after editing their hubs.

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    paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

    I tend to agree with all the posts here. Mr. Edmondson made his conclusions after running tests. So since my Amazon ads were making zero sales anyway, they are out of here! As to the news capsules I am deleting or shortening them on a case-by-case basis; quality (not algo) being the controlling factor; I don't see me having to go back no matter what the next google popcorn surprise is. Also, I’ve already discovered one news capsule that I’m sure was a major leak for me.

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    1. 59

       paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Follow-up! Sure enough! I’ve gotten a click on that formerly clickless hub that had that news capsule.
       
       Plus, I’m becoming more convinced that Google has the same opinion of 8 news links as they do of 8 amazon links; whatever that opinion is…

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    2uesdayposted 12 years ago

    Some of my hubs get their traffic from other search engines more than Google, how do I know that if I tweak them to suit the new 'criteria' and I will not lose the traffic from the other search engines?
    
    I do n't expect an exact answer to that really, it is just a question I am asking myself.
    
    I feel sorry for anyone with lots of Amazon based Hubs, after reading the posts of the last few days. People are still going to Amazon from my hubs but no sales, so it seems a waste of time.
    
    My traffic and Adsense is now erratic more often than not, well for  the last couple of weeks, not sure it is just the Google changes.
    
    I have always tried to make my pages look attractive, but they were planned around the old style ads. layout. Chrome has a feature where you can look at a 'thumbnail version of the page' before visiting it. I have always thought that therefore the appearance of a page could either encourage a visit or deter it.

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    thisisoliposted 12 years ago

    Google knows what an RSS feed is, and the train of thought that they can be used as 'automatic fresh content' is a stale theory from the dawn of RSS.  I rarely use them, RSS is for my readers, not my sites.

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