3-year old articles, no traffic, no earnings. What am I doing wrong?

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   alocsinposted 13 years ago

   I posted some articles here about three years ago and came back to write a few more.
   
   I noticed that my previous three articles have almost no traffic (about 600 hits).
   
   As far as I can tell, I've written them and my current ones correctly with interesting topics, good grammar, links, photos, polls, ads.
   
   So what do I have to do to generate traffic? (I'm comparing this to my experiences at epinions, where articles generate immediate traffic, followed by earnings.)
   
   I've been reading a lot of the posts and help texts and articles, but I still seem to be missing something.
   
   What's the one thing I have to do to increase traffic and generate income?
   
   Thanks.
   
   Aurelio

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      relacheposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      It strikes me that the most comprehensive answer to this question could be "everything."

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   Trish_Mposted 13 years ago

   Someone suggested that I put my hubs on http://pingler.com in order to encourage traffic. You could try that

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   Simone Smithposted 13 years ago

   Some things that might help include writing search-friendly titles and keeping Hubs (e.g. those that are tied to a year) up to date (e.g. adding new, relevant info and adjusting the title).
   
   I recommend checking out the Learning Center: http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/contents
   
   And also keep in mind that you only have seven Hubs with us- our authors who get the most traffic tend to publish frequently and develop a sizable number of articles. Hope that helps!

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      alocsinposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I'll check out those links, thanks. Pingler looks quite interesting and there's a lot of good info in the learning center.
      
      But I'm just wondering if I'm missing something. It's as though nobody is looking at any of my hubs -- why would quantity of topics have anything to do with whether a hub is interesting enough to visit or not?
      
      I know hubpages isn't epinions, but I know within hours of posting at epinions, I get hits from members as well as from Google.  But I also had to follow specific steps there for that to happen, beyond publishing the review. I'm wondering if there are post-publish steps here I'm missing.

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         Sun Pen 50posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I also have not written much. But my experience is when I publish one hub then the traffic to all the hubs increases. And if I ask a question, answer questions or post a response in forums also there is an increase for two three days. I tried with getting links by bookmarking and submitting short articles with links to hubs. that all works. So try all these then definitely you'll get traffic. May be these  are the things that you have to do at opinions for attracting traffic. keep us informed of the results.

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   talfonsoposted 13 years ago

   I noticed that you dated your articles. I don't mean date them literally the publication date, but you used wording that makes it dead in the water. Your Hub on auditioning has the phrase "for most of the 10 years," so you see less people coming into the Hub. That's dating an article - using exact numbers and statistics.
   
   Have you heard of evergreen content, by chance? It's content that lasts all year long and continues on at least five to ten years. I see that you picked out evergreen topics, but the wording is not. I suggest that you not only tweak the keywords and title, but also the wording. The phrase "for most of the 10 years" can be changed into "for most of the past several years."
   
   I hope it helps.

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   Dame Scribeposted 13 years ago

   Once you publish a Hub article, it's on YOU to generate traffic Use the learning centre and read other Hubs on this topic. There is seriously valuable tips. Good luck!

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   DRG Da Real Grincposted 13 years ago

   A simple posting has to be promoted. Per to say that if it's not a trending topic than you really have to make it one. Personally I believe that such an outdated Hub or blog might do less than one that is constantly updated. Updating a Hub can make it reappear in the long run amongst many resources. There are so may ways to promote now that you should be doing good if you know what your doing. Google it my friend better yet Hub it for a more detail description on how to.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      That's true of a blog, but not true of HubPages.  At least, it wasn't true until early this year when Google changed its algorithm.
      
      For the previous three years, one of the great things about Hubs was that they attracted traffic without any promoting, due to the high profile of the HubPages site.   You could "just write" and it would simply happen.
      
      I do know people who wrote some Hubs, went away for a year and came back to find they had earned a substantial amount.
      
      So if yours haven't worked, it's not because of lack of promotion.
      
      I agree with others - it doesn't pay to write Hubs that date.  Your Hub on how to audition has potential but the others aren't what I would call an "evergreen" subject, and that's what makes money.
      
      They're also short, which may be why they never got much traffic.  If you don't know about SEO and keywords, then you need to write a solid piece to ensure it will attract the search engines.  At least 400 words, preferably twice that.  Think of your Hubs as articles in a quality magazine.
      
      Finally, eBay and Amazon ads only pay when someone actually buys a product.  So don't bother putting them on your Hub unless you can find a product that is highly relevant to your subject.  Otherwise, all they do is distract readers from clicking on your Adsense ads.

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   psycheskinnerposted 13 years ago

   8 is nowhere near enough hubs to earn real money unless you are some kind of SEO genius. Also you have topic that only a very small group of people with be interested in and obvious errors such as empty amazon capsules.

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   Helpful Hannaposted 13 years ago

   I think you have to publish new hubs regularly and be more involved in the Hubpages community.  Google's recent changes haven't helped much.  Keep at it and hopefully you'll get results.  Good luck!

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      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Not really,Hanna. That will get you readers within the HubPages community, but that's not where you make your money.

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   alocsinposted 13 years ago

   Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond. I knew my stuff was missing something, and I appreciate your point out those omissions. So I've gone back and made the rather simple changes you suggested, primarily the dates and the Amazon catalog.
   
   I'm puzzled though at some of the advice here, which runs contrary to the SEO advice I've followed at other sites (where I do get a lot of hits). Specifically, the admonition against dates and specific statistics. I've been told that dates and specifics give an article credibility, even if they are evergreen. That dates and specifics just have to be updated when needed.
   
   But since removing the dates seems to work for all of you, and that's such a simple fix, I've gone ahead and done that in the interest of seeing what works.
   
   I'm also aware of Google's changes and that has affected other sites as well, not just HubPages.
   
   I'm also puzzled at the advice to increase the word count to about 800. What is the reasoning behind that? Is it to increase the chances that keywords are mentioned? I ask because everything I've ever read about article length on the web says to cap it at 500. Anything greater than that won't be read, since Internet users don't like to read long stretches of text.
   
   I also understand that eight articles will not bring much money. I'm not talking about a lot of money, I'm talking about ANY money. None of these HubPages articles have earned a single penny in the past three years, which I find rather odd. Even my worst articles on other sites have earned at least a few cents in three years.
   
   So keep those suggestions coming in, folks. I'll try anything once -- I figure it's just part of the learning curve.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      One thing I've learned is that SEO advice isn't always reliable, even if you seem to be getting some positive results from it. As a member at both Helium and the (now defunct) Today.com, I got loads of advice which I trusted, because it was from people who were "doing well".  When I left those sites and came here, I found the definition of "doing well" differs from site to site.  All of the "big hitters" on those sites were earning peanuts compared to the big guys on HubPages.   So I naturally came to the conclusion their advice was better!
      
      
      The advice to write long Hubs comes from a Hubber who tested out Hubs of various lengths, and reported that longer peformed better.  You can get the same results from writing a group of 400-word Hubs and interlinking them.
      
      One more thing - just check to make sure your Adsense and Amazon are properly set up.

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    downpourofwordsposted 13 years ago

    One of the reasons may be that those topics are outdated. There is a school of thought which says hubs/blogs need certain amount of aging after which traffic will increase. This may not always be true. Another school of thought says that the web crawlers (search engines) tend to revise web page rankings every now and then. While revising, they rank active web pages higher. So if your page/content has been lying idle for a long time, it might not be considered active and thus ignored. One way to tackle this is to keep updating the pages even if the updating is as small as changing title, adding, deleting links, changing Google ads etc.
    
    One more reason may be the recent changes by Google - panda update. I have posted a hub on the effects and some tips to avoid being ignored. Hope this is useful.
    
    http://hubpages.com/hub/Change-Google-Low-traffic

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    psycheskinnerposted 13 years ago

    SEO is mostly about content.  The hub need to be something people want to know, that relate to products and so to advertising, and that people will link to. I have to say that I don't see your hubs doing any of these things.

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    quotationsposted 13 years ago

    I took a look at your hub titled "Corrections Officers Salaries in Maryland" and it gave me some ideas of what you could do differently in order to attract traffic. Here are some suggestions.
    
    Your title is too specific on a question of very limited interest. It seems to suggest that the only question that your hub will answer is how much will a corrections officer earn in Maryland. So if I wanted to know how to become a corrections officer, or if I lived in another state, I would ignore your hub in any search results. Or even more likely my search query would not pull up your hub because I would not be entering "corrections officer salaries, Maryland" in the search engine, but something like "how to become a corrections officer"
    
    Your hub will have only limited interest to people in Maryland who want to know what corrections officers earn. Probably not that many. You are therefore leaving out the broader interest topic of what the qualifications are for becoming a corrections officer, even though your hub actually talks a little about that.
    
    I would recommend picking a topic and title with much broader appeal. For example: "How to Become a Correction Officer".
    
    I would also add that it is difficult to get a lot of traffic with very few hubs and even when you write good hubs, it is very hit and miss. In my own case, I am proud to have received over 479,000 visitors to my hubs since I joined three years ago. But almost all of those hits were generated by 5 (so about ten percent) of my total hubs. Many of my hubs, like yours, get almost no traffic. There is a certain element of luck involved. I would recommend that you keep writing about things that interest you and focus on creating titles that are likely to attract visitors rather than only limited interest. You will find that even if you do everything right on every hub, some will simply not attract much traffic. Keep writing, hone your skills, and hopefully eventually some hubs will take off.

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    Spirit Whispererposted 13 years ago

    It sounds like your adsense account is not properly set up.

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    Cheeky Girlposted 13 years ago

    I have hubs with over 3,000 words and they get lots of comments. Make the writing engaging and topical and build a rapport with readers. Ask yourself what would they want to read and want to know.
    
    You might to fine tune a few small things about your hubs. Hub Pages is about Quality articles and reliable informative reads. They are loved by the search engines.
    
    I hope you do well on Hub Pages. The people with a passion for writing here do well. Cheers!

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