All is not Doom and Gloom

1. 87

   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   I see a lot of established hubbers giving up on HP. BY all means, diversify, but remember that it was HP who started a lot of us in this business.
   
   My adsense has been shot to pieces, same as everyone else and Amazon sales are down (but not out!)
   
   HPads, on the other hand, are climbing. I've had HPads since early March, barely a week after Panda hit, and while yes there was a big drop to what I was previously earning, month on month it is climbing again.
   
   So I am back to writing hubs again, and think everyone who has doubts should climb aboard. It's a rough ride so wear your seatbelts.
   
   This time, write articles around your hubs and spread them around a little so that not all your eggs are in the one basket.
   
   HP staff seem to have been taking our complaints on board, and they sent me a nice email yesterday (or the day before) listing what hubs needed brought into compliance.
   
   See, they have been listening to us!
   
   I had also been getting hit with random hubs unpublished notices. None of them mattered much because outside of Christmas they never got much traffic anyway, but for other hubbers, they were still their bread and butter and an unpublished notice was too much.
   
   I'm willing to rally round Hubpages. Let's keep on publishing quality content.
   
   Who's with me?

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   1. 0

      Baileybearposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      my HP ads are doing better than google.  It would be good if we had the choice of just HP ads.  The community has been not as friendly lately. 
      I have learnt lots from HP and am leaving my articles here and have the confidence now to set up a website in a niche area.  Also will look at writing articles elsewhere to link to/from.

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   2. 0

      Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Izzy, that's why I'm leaving my hubs. I'm sure HP will rally at some point.

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      1. 87

         IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I think a lot of the more experienced hubbers would have left their hubs, but they've been getting unpublished at a rate greater than they can repair them. Some of the better known hubbers here on HP have actually got thousands of hubs under different usernames (see? I knew all along there were only 3 members here really) and these people took time out to go through every single one making the changes required, and with yet more changes, they are giving up. Unpublished by HP? Not a problem, they just get moved to a new site.
         
         I'm lucky in that I really only have the 400 odd hubs shown on my profile.
         
         I am starting to publish new ones again, as well as write on other sites and building up my own sites.

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2. 72

   Cagsilposted 12 years ago

   I am not leaving, as of yet. I have shut off HP Ads and seen a rise in my adsense. However, I am moving to do other things. I've continued to write hubs, even though some people don't think what I write is quality, but some do.

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   1. 87

      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I'm glad you've seen a rise when you shut of HPads. I didn't, and am not anxious to try again because HPads actually aren't that bad.

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      1. 72

         Cagsilposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         When I turned HP Ads on, my Adsense fell to the floor with very little results. I didn't like that and what I was getting from HP Ads wasn't good enough for me to keep them on.

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         1. 87

            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I guess it depends too where your traffic comes from. I was getting a lot of non google.com traffic when I tried turning them off. I think there are regional variations in clicking habit.
            The US is brilliant for clicking
            
            If you are getting loads of google.com traffic might be a good time to run HP ads off.

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            1. 0

               Baileybearposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I get google traffic, but they don't click

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3. 57

   Mrvoodooposted 12 years ago

   'Who's with me?'
   
   Not me. 
   
   Over a month on and I'm still having hubs unpublished for trivial reasons.
   
   If I genuinely thought that this was a one time only experience I'd consider it.  I do think that HP can be a great place to write. But the idea of having to do this again somewhere down the line, with double, or triple the amount of hubs... No thanks.

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   1. 87

      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Really? I thought that this email that I got was site-wide, so there should be no further need for things getting unpublished.It outlined all the hubs that were not within their new standards, plus warned me of the hubs I have that contained the news capsule, which once they remove may alter formatting.
      
      I still had issues with Amazon capsules/word ratios and instead of unpublishing the final few, they emailed me to fix them.

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      1. 57

         Mrvoodooposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I haven't received any e-mail as of yet.  But then I never received the one that went out first time around either.  Although the first one possibly went to my spam folder, possibly.
         
         My concern isn't for compliance with the 'new standards', it's for compliance with the 'new new standards'.  That may be enforced in a week/month/years time.  Unpublishing a hub may only take the moderators a second to do, but that hub, with off-site work, could represent a huge amount of time, and effort.  And as much as I genuinely would love to keep writing at HP, and would love to consider it a future-proof environment in which to do so.  HP have shown no real understanding of, or consideration for, the work/hours many hubbers have invested here.

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         1. 87

            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            This is something we have the chance to reinforce to HP staff that this is one thing we will not tolerate.
            
            They have done it already. Everyone was saying WTF, but we got placated in the forums.
            
            Top hubbers have left or in the process of leaving.
            
            I don't know why you didn't get the email- check your spam folder again.
            
            I got one first time around, and it mentioned maybe 5 hubs. I fixed them, plus did a general look through and repair of the rest, but I still found myself getting hubs unpublished without warning.
            
            Fortunately for me they never unpublished a currently popular hub.
            
            I know they did for others.
            
            I am hoping that this latest email means that they realise the damage they are doing to their long term hubbers, the ones who MADE this site, and that in future, more care will be taken should new changes come in.

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            1. 57

               Mrvoodooposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I didn't mean to trash what was supposed to be a positive thread. Sorry for that.  You obviously have a good understanding of everything that's gone on in the last month or so, and wanted to be encouraging, and lift the mood a little.  And I can appreciate that.
               
               But does a nicely worded e-mail signify a change of attitude, and that our concerns are being taken seriously.  Or just suggest that somebody's been giving a presentation on better 'customer' relations at HP HQ?  Who knows.
               
               But it certainly seemed as if hubbers as individuals were considered to be fairly disposable, over on this thread, just the other day: http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/74155 (or that's how I read it anyway).
               
               And some things aren't quickly forgotten.
               
               Anyhow.  It's late here, and I'm off to bed.  Hopefully you'll get a few more positive replies soon.  And who knows, maybe in a few months, we'll all have forgotten all about this, and it'll be back to business as usual.
               
               But for me, not just yet.

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               1. 87

                  IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  It wasn't the nicely worded email so much as it was the signs that the staff here on HP have listened to us. albeit a bit late.
                  
                  Thank you for your understanding words

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4. 58

   TerryGlposted 12 years ago

   I don't share your opinion. You will soon see the senior hubbers here will be those one's with a Joined of around 2 years. It will be rare to see a hubber with a longer terms of service.

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   1. 87

      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      And this saddens me immensely Terry, and I fully understand why.
      
      [to those reading here for the first time, HP pulled the rug from under a lot of our top hubbers, unpublishing their #1 rated hubs on Google for having something stupid like a minorly pixelated image].
      
      Hey doesn't take long to lose a SERP position. Given HP's current standing, takes a lot longer to regain it.
      
      Possibly new moderators going too fast, too soon, without seeing the damage they were doing.

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5. 67

   lrohnerposted 12 years ago

   Izzy -- I have to say I think MrVoodoo has hit the nail on the head. When the first round of new rules came out, I saw most of the established hubbers putting their heads down, getting the job done and showing the utmost support for the HP team.
   
   I'm not sure if it was the second round of rules announcements or the third, but it simply got to be too much. I don't believe any discontent has arisen from the actual changes that were made -- just how they were implemented. It's sad because it was so avoidable.

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   1. 72

      Cagsilposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      All changes should have been rolled out in ONE-Lump sum package.

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      1. 87

         IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Agreed!

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   2. 87

      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes I understand that. No totally I do. I've been in a totally black mood for ages now since all this stuff started. But I can't write when in  black mood. I can pick fights, I can make trouble, I can look for trouble where none existed.
      But I can't write.
      
      That black mood was partly caused by HP treatment of us all. We spend hours researching and writing a topic, some of us spend hours getting backlinks (though I gave up on that a while back), but we make hubs as good as they can be, then WHAM, the site gets hit, and DOUBLE-WHAM, we get hit by staff unpublishing hubs for whatever reason, but mostly minor issues.
      
      I'm totally with those who wanted to leave. At least, with their reasoning for wanting to leave.
      
      I am a strange creature of habit. Leaving isn't part of me. Except if I do it abruptly.
      
      Let's work together here. Instead of leaving, let's get back to writing only this time with the knowledge to share our work around so that we don't lose so much, so quickly, should another Panda strike.

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6. 66

   Mutiny92posted 12 years ago

   Izzy, I wish I could share your optimism.  I am sure things will turn around someday, but Google decided that our articles and the HubPages domain are persona non grata in their search engines.
   
   I hope that HP's efforts pay off, but I suspect that we REALLY don't know what we are shooting for because Google has opted not to tell anyone.  HP can work hard, but without knowing the new rules, no one knows if we are getting closer to the goal or further from it.

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   1. 87

      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Well, there is nothing you or me can do about it except complain in the forums. HP is down, but not out.
      
      I published 2 articles  a couple of days ago, both differently worded but around the same keywords.
      
      One I put on HP the other I put on another site that is apparently up and coming.
      
      Yesterday, my HP hub was on page 4 of Google, and the other one was on page 8. Unfortunately, I couldn't find either in Yahoo or Bing in the first 10 pages for the aimed at search term, although they were both there for full title and domain name.
      
      When I first started here I was over the moon if any of my hubs got as high as page 4 within a few days of publication.

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