How to Not Make a Substandard Hub on Hubpages

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   Mikeydoesposted 13 years ago

   Well I decided to make a simple little layout to hopefully help some people out.
   
   It is clear videos are the future, and the lack of videos on this site is actually kind of embarrassing. Content is key and we should be using every available resource that we have here.
   
   My Hubs all certainly can be vastly improved, there is no doubt. But in order to make my content worthy of being read, I really need to have things people are looking for. That isn't always text.
   
   With the new Hubpages layout there is versatility to do what you want. I am currently working on this new format and seeing if there are any increases.
   
   I hope Hubpages would take exception to these links as they are very important to this topic and ultimately Hubpages. As long as we are talking about format and not promotion.
   
   The original idea was to leave enough text in the first section so the original would be there. So for instance:
   http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Best-the-Be … ng-Popular
   This hub has amassed 23 views and was me probing other areas for keywords etc, anyways. If you look at the very top. I have just enough text so that Ad shows up. This was standard practice for many of the top hubbers. Still can be used to success I would assume.
   
   Now this is my new format. And a plug for a rock band I like
   
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/ParabelleMusic
   
   IMPORTANT note on the second video, if you are LOGGED IN you will not see it how your traffic will.
   
   Yes, a video first. It gives you a YouTube impression and looks almost exactly the same AND the ad is next to the video! But also notice the second video as well, it is sitting right next to the following Ad!
   
   People will certainly stick around, especially if the video is what they were looking for. Don't forget that they will also be able to scroll around and look at your site while the video plays.
   
   Obviously the videos must be very content rich themselves, along with your own text of 500 words. I was pretty clear here, but here is my hub on it as well. Feel free to share any other successful formats or layouts.
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-not-Make … n-Hubpages
   
   Good Luck and I hope this helps.

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   1. 84

      kschangposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Video content can't be indexed by Google...

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   2. 61

      Zenofsongposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      This is really interesting. I took a look at some of your hubs and i must say they are alot more attractive.
      
      I think the problem at hubpages is that we are targeting our peers and not our audience. When I'm looking for things on the web i go for video most of the time.
      
      It's faster and i can tend to weed out useless stuff easier.
      
      What weird is the hubs with the highest hubscores tend to look like crap. Big smushed together blocks of text...alot of grey...IT LOOKS boring.

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      1. 81

         WriteAngledposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Believe it or not, some of us primarily use the Web for information, not entertainment.

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         1. 61

            Zenofsongposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            That just seems a little snotty.
            
            I watch how to videos because it tends to be easier for me to understand a demonstration than muddle through text most of the time.
            
            Think:
            Photoshop video tutorial VS. Written
            How to root your android video tutorial VS. Written
            
            IF what we're talking about is increasing traffic to our hubs, then it seems like you want to seriously look at how you hub appeals to that 50% that prefers youtube.
            
            IF we're talking about  favoritism then i think it's pretty much useless in terms of marketing and numbers.

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            1. 81

               WriteAngledposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               I read text many tens of times faster than I am required to listen to someone reading it to me on a video. I can also print out text to refer to whenever I need.
               
               Text also allows the possibility of referring to sources and providing footnotes when this might be useful to the reader.
               
               How-to videos may possibly be helpful as a supplementary resource in certain situations, but only if they have sharp, close-up images and can be rewound and slowed down as required. This is not the case with the stuff thrown into YouTube.
               
               As others have said, I too back out of any web page which tries to force a video on me when I am seeking hard information. If it is very obvious that a transcript is being made available I may stop to read that instead. Usually, though, I leave the page within the first couple of seconds of reaching it and continue in my search for the information I need.

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      2. 0

         EmpressFelicityposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Just goes to show it's a case of different strokes for different folks - I always groan inwardly when someone posts a link to something interesting and it turns out to be a video rather than an article.
         
         A five minute video usually gives the same amount of information that you'd get in a 750 word article. It takes me a LOT less than five minutes to read 750 words, unless the subject matter is highly technical/obscure. Usually, I just haven't got the patience to listen while someone waffles away on a video!
         
         Music is a totally different animal of course. Obviously Mikeydoes's approach makes a lot of sense, because he's writing about a band rather than about - say - politics or gardening.

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         1. 88

            wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            That's me, too.  I very seldom turn on a video on a site - I would much rather read about it that watch an entire video for the tidbit of information I'm looking for.
            
            I use videos, but only to demonstrate a technique or something like that.  Not for simple information that can be given much easier in text.
            
            At the same time, however, I have to agree that the web seems to be going the way of videos.  Maybe people can't read anymore?

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            1. 61

               Zenofsongposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               I think I'm going to start putting more emphasis on videos in my information hubs and using more bullet points and Italics in my text.
               
               Someone should be able to get the point in thirty seconds.

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         2. 60

            Lisa HWposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            It very much IS a matter of different strokes...    No matter what something is there'll always be a bunch of people who hate it.   The only use I have for videos is entertainment.  As one of, I guess, the 20% of people who is primarily an auditory-processor of information; the minute pictures/images get introduced as part of information, I'm out of there.  Videos aside, even if someone is trying to explain something and starts with the illustrations/graphs, etc., I get aggravated.  I liked words.  I deal in words.  I learn and entertainment myself through words.   
            
            Also, though, I just prefer, and am used to, reading those "large blocks of text" (in books and periodicals).  I don't want "dumbed down" or even "dumbed down looking".
            
            I respect that only some other people are like me, and that there are all kinds of preferences in the world.  I kind of resent, though, the idea that the "big block of gray text" that does well does so because of "favoritism". 
            
            Every Hub is different.  I think people need to recognize the different type of Hub each one of their own is, do what they believe will make that particular kind of Hub good, and use their own instincts with regard to what type of approach they take.  (A recipe Hub, a software review Hub, and a "meaning-of-life" Hub shouldn't all have the same approach used.)
            
            I don't write for "peers".  (I'm not sure I even have any peers outside HubPages, and I don't write for other Hubbers.  With the kinds of stuff I often write about, I try to think about what the reader who has already been all over the Internet looking for something different from "everything else" that's out there, and I write with that mind.   I figure, the authority sites can offer the "heavy-duty expertise".  The retail sites can offer the products for people to buy.  What I need to come up with is something neither of those offers, and pretty much what I have (at least when it comes to my HubPages writing) is either a little insight or else something that the other types of sites don't offer.
            
            In any case, each Hubber, each Hub, and each type of Hub is different (and that's the whole point of this site).  If these elements weren't different the site would be, maybe, eHow (or whatever) instead.  So what works for one person, great.  It's nice that people share their own ideas and what works for them.  It would be nicer, though, if fewer people realized that just because they don't happen to prefer one thing or another, that doesn't mean a whole lot of people share the same preferences.   

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2. 78

   glassvisageposted 13 years ago

   The only thing I've found with many videos I link to on my Hubs is that they become broken links quite often after a while, either because the video has been removed by the user, or the user profile no longer exists.

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