How many backlinks are enough?

1. 86

   CyclingFitnessposted 13 years ago

   After 6 months on the site i've started the really wonder how many backlinks is a reasonable number to any hub, and really to a hub becoming successful?
   
   Or is it simply a lottery.
   
   What kind of figures do other hubbers consider?

   replyreport
   1. 89

      wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I find that providing 0 backlinks works for me.  All organic links accepted with gratitude.
      
      Others will disagree.

      replyreport
      1. 78

         Greekgeekposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         This.
         
         A page needs enough backlinks so search engines can find it. If you publish on a user-generated content site or blog, search engines will find it even if you post no backlinks at all, because those sites are crawled often.
         
         Then it comes down to relevance, quality, usefulness and user experience.
         
         There is no way to know which links a given search engine counts as relevant and important to a particular search query. Nor can you tell whether Google rates the site linking to yours as significant. The 0-10 pagerank toolbar is not the internal pagerank Google's algorithm uses, by the way, and pagerank is just one of 200+ factors in its algorithm.
         
         Most of those who advocate high numbers of backlinks are chasing fool's gold. Which links actually count?  Google, Bing, etc won't tell us. The only reason the JCPenny "carpetbombing the web with backlinks" strategy works is due to the Blind Squirrel effect: sooner or later, a few of the backlinks being thrown around will count -- until Google wises up and discounts them.
         
         Most of us don't have the kind of money lying around to start a JCPenny campaign. Instead, we simply have to make content worth linking to. If it's not, we probably can't trick search engines into sending it traffic.

         replyreport
      2. 58

         Gina Cooleposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         There is so much contradictory advice about SEO.  Much of it based on what worked pre-Panda. I'm with Wilderness. I've given up planting phony backlinks.  I spend my time writing hubs instead (much more enjoyable).
         
         To quote from a Field of Dreams, "If you build it (and the content is good) then they will come!"  People say without SEO you get no paying traffic but some of the biggest earners here do little if any linkbuilding. They just write good content and wait for the traffic to come

         replyreport
         1. 75

            Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            YUP!!!
            
            It's a huge waste of time creating backlinks when you could have spent that time writing something interesting and useful.

            replyreport
      3. 59

         vietzayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         how come man? according to google all site need back link to generate traffic and ranking

         replyreport
         1. 84

            NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Because Google will lower pages in the search engine that have unnatural backlinks.
            
            Kind of glad you bumped this thread though; let me see that some of those who gave shoddy advice and false information three years ago are still doing it today. Funny stuff.

            replyreport
         2. 76

            psycheskinnerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Three year old thread, guys. 
            
            If you are still interested in the topic maybe start a new thread.

            replyreport
   2. 56

      Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I've never created a single backlink to my hubs in 440 hubs- and my account just slowly took off in earnings by virtue of playing to the HP algorythm (participation in the site, writing hubs, writing hubs that people will link to anyway)... I have a hub in this matrix that has 1,066,400 page views and over 1k backlinks to it none of which are mine, it's a high earner too- that's the beauty here- you don't have to promote, although it does help.
      
      Where are you creating your backlinks? I think the best place ever is EzineArticles.com you can create one article a month and in time your hub will take off (it will anyway but faster with this). I don't reccommend spending too much time creating backlinks. If your writing is pimpl they will come. I get instant traffic to my hubs (from non hubpages sources) when I publish them. One thing I realized is that backlinks to other hubs (naturally occurring not my work) help ALL hubs in your subdomain. But that's just my experience (not creating bl)

      replyreport
   3. 52

      janderson99posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Backlinks ARE vital for generating traffic.
      Despite what people say Google PR is still a very important part of getting your page to rank => get traffic.
      If you want to give your page a kick-start, so it gets noticed, build several backlinks youself using the Social networks (fade quickly) and other classic SEO technques - aim for about 4-10 quality backlinks.
      Remember that what Google really notices is when <U>someone actually clicks on these external backlinks</U> - a few of you own clicks is a good idea!.
      
      Sure organic ones are great but it is going to take a long time to get a reasonable number of them if you don't kick start the process.
      
      Shhhhhh! I cheat here - I have a number of my own external websites that have reasonal rankings. After I publish a new HUB, I simply add a link to several of these sites that is most relevant. This works for me! Some links, even of doubtful relevance, are much much better than none. You need get get some traffic to help attract organic links.
      
      So Keep on Linking Baby, till the Night is Gone. On and On and On!

      replyreport
   4. 58

      SuperheroSalesposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I once read that providing consistent backlinks is more important than a huge quantity.  For example, 10 links in one day isn't as good as 1 link each day over a 10 day period.  I haven't been able to prove or disprove that fact.  Does anyone else know if this is true?

      replyreport
   5. 60

      Nexusx2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I think depending on the PR rank of the site that is ranked first position, you would need to at least double your backlinks to get get there and have a little buffer. It may be considerably easier if you get PR 5 or higher backlinks.

      replyreport
2. 75

   Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years ago

   I might do five to ten myself - but over time I see all kinds of backlinks that I did not create myself - and that is when satisfaction comes in.

   replyreport
3. 60

   Nexusx2posted 13 years ago

   Back linking is apart of off site seo. I would suggest learning onsite and offsite seo. I would also learn how to research your keywords and how to analyse your competitions website. If you don't then you won't get much traffic on the search engines. This first question needs research. Your Title's keyword could be in a niche high in competition that first place on the search engine may have over 5,000 back links.
   
   There are some variables involved in creating a  successful hub.
   Here are some things I do to unsure that I write a hub over 70.  write at least 1,000 words. Don't publish the article until it gets to at least 65-70. I add polls, amazon, images, youtube, links, and any other capsules  possible to increase the hub rating. Once the article is complete  use link karma and add links to other hub writing that are around 85 - 90. Next publish it and then do some off site seo. I comment on other blogsites and use my title keywords as my name.  I'm also very active and read other peoples hubs and comment on their work.

   replyreport
   1. 89

      wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Why do you insist that hubscore be 70 before publishing?  As long as it is above 40 the links can be dofollow and it always starts above that.
      
      Probably more important in creating dofollow links is to keep the hubberscore (on your avatar) above 75 - without that ALL your links will become nofollow.

      replyreport
      1. 56

         Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I notice the hubscore marinates in time and faster when published due to the activity of the intitial hubbers checking out and flagging your hubs. You can also, however marinate them without publishing them. They generally start at 50 and in 4-6 days can reach 70 but if you build the hub correctly it will start at 70 and go up. I feel it works much faster if you publish it right away. Using every tool they give you is going to be a hgiher hubscore, I did notice the poll and other tools I never used did raise the HS just adding it- just put in a simple question and a few options.

         replyreport
         1. 89

            wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Oh, I am fully aware that the hubscore will go while sitting there unpublished and doing nothing.  I let one sit while I gathered information for 2 months once; within less than a month of publishing it rose into the mid 70's without me even visiting it.
            
            My question, though, is why bother?  Hubscore does absolutely nothing for you as long as it is above 40 and publishing when written will provide that.  Why wait, then?  Go ahead and begin getting visitors and earning from it!

            replyreport
            1. 76

               QuestionMasterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Agree with Wilderness.
               
               If you wait two months with an unpublished hub to get the score you want you'll miss out on:
               
               -Two months of aging on your hub.
               -Two months of slowly building traffic.
               -Two months of organic backlinks.
               -The chance that the topic you wrote on suddenly had a spike in views which you missed (such as a news topic or social event.)

               replyreport
            2. 56

               Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               While I agree with QuestionMaster (great answers throughout the site by the way), I have to say that the hubscore is one of the most misunderstood features of the site- it's like the Google ranking system and with that ranking comes benefits like internal traffic. Although the hubscore is not something to obsess about too much- it is a VITAL part of your internal traffic consumption ability- in other words, ignore it at your own "leaving money/traffic" on the table dismay.
               
               There are many things going on in  the background I don't think you realize where the HubScore is concerned... hubpages rarely creates a feature without some sort of currency backing it, especially one that's dynamic like the hub/author score. I wrote a whole book about what I've learned- just saying that there is more than meets the eye... don't take it for granted but also don't just let a hub marinate for the sake of a higher hub score as this is likely just a "the hub is more than a week old" kind of bonus in the points, but there are far more rewards AFTER the hub is published.
               
               The hub score is based on activity on the hub. An unpublished and sitting hub is still active in the sense that it's aging, it's been likely updated by you or edited, or just the aging thing. Published hubs get activity that drastically raises the hub score, especially if your expiditing it's traffic in some way... try some experiments with hubs about hubs and see what I  mean.

               replyreport
               1. 76

                  QuestionMasterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Exactly why I recommend that a hub should be published as soon as possible, instead of leaving it for ages (unless it's a work in progress).
                  
                  As for internal traffic - views from other hubbers don't bring you money, clicks or backlinks OR continuing and growing traffic.
                  
                  The main point of scores is to stop spammers getting dofollow links.

                  replyreport
                  1. 56

                     Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     You misunderstand me QM, I'm not speaking on internal "Hubauthor" traffic.
                     
                     Realize that this site gets upwards of 30 million hits a month (current projects mentioned by CEO) and that is 30 million EXTERNAL hits from search engines. This traffic is floating around inside the hubpages site. I heard someone once say that that traffic rarely moves about to another hub but this is simply not true.
                     
                     That traffic enters from a search engine and likely will read a hub or click into a "suggested" hub on that page if it doesn't nail what they were looking for and another simular hub DOES. Many will even stay on the site for hours bouncing around. Many also leave after that hub proves useless but enough stay to warrent paying attention to the hub score and recieving that traffic by virtue or syndications all over the site.
                     
                     Hubpages has cracked the code to preserving traffic entering the site from many sources (hubbers who create it from backlinking, search engine traffic both promoted (hp) and unpromoted (hubs being good quality to google, bing, etc...).
                     
                     I have to respectfully disagree that this traffic doesn't bring click, backlinks, or continuing traffic because it does. These same people can be marketers who write to other sites or even are looking for new material on a topic on their own blogosphere- they then may add a link to your hub to continue their own blogs information and many have contacted me about a link exchange (be them internal traffic or just google landing I can't really distinguish where they came from but many I've asked and they said they came to my hub from another hub).
                     
                     Don't leave money on the table by ignoring what's important. Most hubbers think that internal traffic is just hub authors- that's probably a quarter of it, the rest is search engine traffic bouncing about like a pinball machine ball.

                     replyreport
                     1. 56

                        Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        I said "(current projects mentioned by CEO)" I meant "projections" not "projects"

                        replyreport
                     2. 76

                        QuestionMasterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        I'll let you have your opinion then.
                        
                        One point however - if there is so much bouncing traffic, why do so many hubbers report a bounce rate of over 90%?

                        replyreport
                        1. 56

                           Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                           I can't say with conclusion, as you pointed out, it's just an opinion made based on an educated guess really- too many variables I can't validate or even see, so yes it's just my opinion nothing more. I'm partially basing this (and my opinion changes easily when new information is introduced and I can validate it, I'm in no way rigid that's ascinine I'm basing this on my own hubs success, what I have found, and cause effect relationships in my hubs and those that did ask for hub exchanges i.e. where they came from tells me to some degree. It's more that most of the people who've asked for link exchanges were from other hubs but not from hubpages itself. I'm just trying to infuse people to think about it not to state facts so much... I really enjoy reading your interjections, and appreciate your challenging my views- that's where the real butter comes from (so long as the exchange is respectable).

                           replyreport
                           1. 56

                              Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                              "hub exchanges" was supposed to be "link exchanges" lol

                              replyreport
                           2. 76

                              QuestionMasterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                              Link exchanges do have their value (although they're a "grey area" with Google.) Although I'm sure you know one way links are much better quality.
                              
                              One reason I like the "suggest a link" tool. All the newbies are probably giving me free backlinks.

                              replyreport
                              1. 89

                                 wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                                 

                                 replyreport
                        2. 89

                           wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                           That would have been my comment as well.  A 90% bounce rate of 30 million visitors per month leaves 3 million to be distributed over more than a million hubs.  Not worth going after, and certainly not worth waiting a month to publish.
                           
                           To each his own, though - I'll continue to publish early.

                           replyreport
                           1. 75

                              Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                              I personally have to go to where I find value in most all of your comments, Sir Wilderness!
                              
                              You're a bright bulb! 
                              
                              (secretly glad his bounce rate ain't in the 90's I am!)

                              replyreport
      2. 60

         Nexusx2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I don't publish the Hub until is hits high 60's or 70 because when the hub reaches 70 it gets a bonus in the search engines and becomes a do-follow link.
         
         I also don't publish until that score because I think of my articles as a grade. If I publish my article and its a 40 then well thats an F and I didn't do my job as a writer. Once it hits 69 - 70, hubpages tells me that my work is a C. Once I publish it, its on me to make it a B or an A. Even though I show people on hubpages love, many might not return the favor so I have to depend on offsite seo to get it to the first page as quickly as possible. Once its at the top my score slowly increases with traffic outside of hubpages.  My visitors will naturally backlink it for my site.
         
         I don't let it set unpublished for two months. Maybe 1 or 2 days. What I am saying is I bring up the score of the unpublished Hub with content and anything I could add to the hub.
         
         One of my hubs was published just resently. I waited until hit hit 70 and then published it. Then I backlinked it to sites that were inside the niche and before the end of the day I was #4 on bing and #5 on yahoo. So far I have gotten around 450 hits in the past 7 days. 505 in 30 days.

         replyreport
         1. 76

            QuestionMasterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Um incorrect. You HUBBER score needs to be over 75 to turn all outgoing links to dofollow.
            
            Your HUB score needs to be over 40, in conjunction with your over 75 HUBBER score to turn your links dofollow.
            
            Search engines can't see the score, and so the score is worthless to the search engine ranking. PLUS, you don't need dofollow links unless you are linking out to your own websites - otherwise it won't affect you whether outgoing links are dofollow or nofollow.

            replyreport
            1. 56

               Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               QM, I also think people have this idea that "no follow" links are useless but in reality they aren't. No follow links may not get followed by the SE but the SE still sees the link, it's url, and it's destination- it may follow it indirectly in attempting to resolve it's quality check! I've also heard many of the experts talking in length about no follow links being valuable just more likely of not being followed- it doesn't even have to be followed to provide value by the way... but that's a long story...

               replyreport
               1. 76

                  QuestionMasterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  I'm aware that nofollow links do have their uses - for instance other search engines, in some cases, do follow them.
                  
                  However my (badly made) point was that it doesn't matter, as far as I'm aware, if all the outgoing links from a hub are dofollow/nofollow. That doesn't help the hub in question - that only effects sites the hub LINKS to. In fact, having the links on the hub (or site) as nofollow is considered by some to be a way to keep the "google juice/love" on the page.

                  replyreport
                  1. 56

                     Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     good point. (did I just see the same post twice or was I supposed to be wearing my linticular glasses for a 3D post?) lol

                     replyreport
         2. 56

            Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Nexus, I respectfully understand what your trying to do, but I also respectfully say that's insane!
            
            Your leaving money on the table for what, a do follow link that will come anyway in a few more days AFTER being published? It could take a week of marinating to raise the hub score to 70 from 50 in that way but published you could see that happen in hours, even days.
            
            Marinating a hub unpublished for nothing more than that hub score is not only a waste of time, it's ascinine in the scheme of things- The hub score raises faster when it's published than in unpublished "marination" mode-

            replyreport
            1. 60

               Nexusx2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Jerrico, I don't really marinade my hubs. I actually add more content until its a higher score. so yeah your right, once I publish it, the hub score goes up another 10.

               replyreport
               1. 56

                  Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  I do that too, well sort of, I build them (to perfection) then I publish it. I then go back and add more content as I proof read it (I wait to proof it till the next day because writing it makes my brain a bit numb to seeing mistakes), this way also as I  make changes, fix grammar etc... it's literally "refreshing" the page. I think google bots hit our hubs much faster and more instantly than other i.e. our off HP sites...

                  replyreport
      3. 56

         Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I may be wrong but I believe it's the hub author score exclusively that determines the "do follow' or don't follow of your hubs, but it may be also the hub itself but likely at a lower level i.e. hub score of at least 50 (not 40 from my experience)...

         replyreport
         1. 76

            QuestionMasterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            If your author score is below 75, then all links are NOfollow.
            
            If your author score is above 75, all links are DOfollow.
            
            However in the second instance, any hub with a score below 40 will turn back to nofollow as well. So it's FIRSTLY dependant on author score and SECONDLY dependant on hub score.

            replyreport
            1. 56

               Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               makes sense... I freak out if a hub goes below 70 or hub author below 90 but I'm a perfectionist of a sort

               replyreport
   2. 56

      Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thats very good advice Nexus. You know your Chit

      replyreport
4. 86

   dungeonraiderposted 13 years ago

   As many as you can find that will land people that use and enjoy your page.

   replyreport
5. 76

   QuestionMasterposted 13 years ago

   Well it obviously depends on keywords and saturation.
   
   For instance if you want to rank on the first page for a keyword like "acai berries" you'll probably need thousands of links.
   
   On the other hand, you might only need 5 quality links to rank number one for a term like "red striped hats".
   
   Of course a lot less people will be searching for the second term.
   
   It's also important to remember the difference between a quality link and a spammy one. For instance thirty links from sites like shetoldme will be close to worthless compared to say a single quality link from a .gov site.
   
   Getting backlinks at random is close to pointless; the best type are those that use anchor text that exactly or closely match your chosen keywords to help you rank for those keywords. Using anchor text such as click here will achieve practically nothing compared to using anchor text that says, for instance red striped hats.

   replyreport
   1. 56

      Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      again, great answer QM, also don't forget about the highly respected domains .edu, .gov (you said), and there is one more I just can't remember what it was!!!
      
      The reason these links get mad respect is the same reason Google loves HP, because they don't just let you post any dam thing on them
      
      The way you get those links can be as simple as visiting an .edu site and leaving a comment that links to your hub or by writing something on one of those sites and writing a hub about the answer to likely a question someone had that went unanswered. You write an article there or comment and tell them you wrote a hub that answers it- you don't have to leave a link as that won't likely fly anyway- but if someone there who wrote that page (who has a .edu site) gets intrigued, they will email you for the link- then they will put it on the article and bam you have a backlink more valuable than 100 crappy ones.
      
      Great tip on the anchor text- far underutilized feature of SEO on page... every step counts and synergizes in the algorythm, Google first sees the link- then the anchor text- it takes that info (anchor text) and goes to the page it links to, it then guages if the site (overall) based on ITS on page SEO is relevant to your anchor text (of which "click here" is never!), if the two mesh google (at the most topical level) sees that this is relevant and a good link- it then checks the pages PR or value, then checks YOUR pages value and calculates the two- much more than we could know is going on in that google brain but this is basic SEO conceptualized.

      replyreport
      1. 76

         QuestionMasterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         ""The reason these links get mad respect is the same reason Google loves HP, because they don't just let you post any dam thing on them.""
         
         I think quite a few people would argue with you on this point [HP not the sites]. Otherwise I agree.

         replyreport
         1. 56

            Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            probably, but that is just one of the thousands of reasons these sites are respected- likely an insignificant one but none the less something to think about. Even insignifigant steps/points/reasons in the alg that alone may not be valuable become "tweaking" points that could change everything relative to other things and actions and reasons... I take nothing for granted none the less- regardless of how other feel, I test test test to aquire my results, I listen to other for input- input is merely a starting point- information to validate and use towards a new test But thank you for your comment

            replyreport
   2. 60

      Nexusx2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Questionmaster: I agree with you. I do keyword research and I don't pick a topic that I can't place #1 in. Some times people will pick a topic that gets a ton of traffic but who is going to see that hub besides hubbers? I think its useless to compete with everyone on a topic thats hard to rank.
      
      I want to be able to publish my hub and then rank the very next day.

      replyreport
      1. 56

         Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         hell yea, wouldn't we all! LOL, I love your enthusiasm, and in reality that's not an impossible task- just one you have to figure out. Hubpages is fairly predicable if you chart your progress. I did.

         replyreport
      2. 56

         Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         do you also make sure your topic although currently number 1 in google is also timeless? The reason I ask is that although terms number one today make you more money in the now, they could be dead earners in the later- I've written hubs that took off like magic with nothing but my intrest in the topic and writing just to write (for the fun of it). One hub in this after a year turned out to be number one on google but by virtue not of my efforts but the comments- the page also has far more than a million page views... I try to mix it up with both researched/keyword specific topics and things I simply like to write about. You never know but the one criteria I ALWAYS follow is the hub cannot be a topic that's a fad that will die after a time, it needs to be something that will be as important now as it would be 50 years from now.

         replyreport
6. 86

   CyclingFitnessposted 13 years ago

   I'm struggling to see any logic whatsoever in sitting on a hub to wait for it to have a high huscore before publishing amd i've personally read hubs with high hubscores which are absolutely pants
   
   My current strategy is slow but steady backlinks. Social media, social bookmarking, blog posts, links in article directories and i'm sure it does work in bringing extra traffic particularly in higher competition keywords- all specific to the topics and never anything i'd consider spam

   replyreport
   1. 56

      Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Your strategy (IMHO) will work well if you keep at it. Personally I have many more irons in the fire than HP, it's one of my passive income generators so I treat it as such for the moment, but know how easily I could turn it into a powerhouse- but shared profits are shared profits and my efforts as far as promo are better vested in off HP ventures where my efforts are rewarded 100% by my returns (ROI). HP is great for making money and learning IM concepts at the core- but your still sharing almost half your profits so doing all that work in backlinking etc... is pushing your profit margins down (as your putting in more work that you should be paying yourself for but likely aren't).
      
      But on the merit side of the concept you mention- it will definately work to steadily add backlinks. Make sure your using article marketing if you do that- it's the most powerful concept ever and EZA (ezinearticles.com) is the best one to post to- you get both organic and non organic traffic to your hubs that way and when the hub takes off you can remove those article and turn them into hubs (or leave them if you like- I remove them as the other things keep it going and I can create a new hub from a proven topic). Sometimes I just rewrite the eza article and leave it in place.

      replyreport
      1. 60

         Nexusx2posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I agree that im sharing my profits but when I consider the fact that I have to buy a domain, web hosting, and get it to a PR of 5, it doesn't seem worth the cost. Plus thats only for one money site. If I had 20 different niches it would be very costly.
         
         This way I can pick my niches and write my solutions and use hubpages PR 5 to get me to the top faster.

         replyreport
         1. 56

            Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            EXACTLY!

            replyreport
7. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 13 years ago

   If you have different niches, how different from others are they. Consider using a host, and domain company that will allow you to have multiple subdomains which you can play off of the main one for free.  Also, look at host plans that give you more than one website, some give multiple, others unlimited depending on the company.
   
   As an example, Weebly, gives 2 free sites.  You can buy domain name from them, and a hosting package separately that will give you 10 websites to use.  One domain, and the others will be a subdomain.  T

   replyreport
   1. 56

      Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I use hostgator because I pay 14.00 (I hear you can get the same now for 8.00) and I can put thousands of domains on that one (using virtual subdomain). I have 60 right now actually. I use Super Apprentice for building my basic sites (and just like HP I always find ways to boost the page look and feel with synergy tactics so my sites are different (formatting etc...).
      
      Never use a free hosting service for your money sites or any site you build to make money- pay the 15.00 for hosting and 8-12.00 for domains- it's well worth the expense.

      replyreport
      1. 56

         Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I use godaddy for ALL of my domains- just easier to sell the site/transfer it, and although they love the ads while signing up for a domain name- it's one of the easiest systems (for me) to navigate- and customer service is amazing in the last 4 years of my using them exclusively (I've tried others like 1&1 and a few other with frustration)...
         
         Also I've never paid more than 7.69 for a domain name through godaddy. When you go to buy one always open a new tab, google "godaddy coupon codes" and try all the codes. Realize many are domain extension specific so you may need to buy your domains by extension. i.e. if you want 3 .net's 4.com's and 2 .org's don't bulk buy them, do them in seperate orders and find a .com, .net. .org coupon code and purchase them at the lowest price possible- in my experience only once could I not find a coupon code that lowered my cost to 7.69, although there were times with renewing a domain that they trapped me into their price- but there are renew CC's too (coupon codes).
         
         Gatorhost is amazing because they also have good customer service and rates are good.
         
         My biggest and only "extra" expense in building a site is the domain fee- host gator I'm already using I am just creating a new section/folder for the new domain and it's seamless- nobody knows your domains are on the same server. they go to www.yourdomain.com and they land there no subdomain bs like subdomainname.yourdomain.com
         
         Hope this helps

         replyreport
8. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 13 years ago

   I don't think there is a number of backlinks.  The more the better, no matter if it is a hub, an ezine site, a blog, website, etc.

   replyreport
   1. 56

      Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      actually it's not a number but rather a number of quality backlinks.
      
      As for the numbers importance it's not the mere having of that many backlinks alone that means something but rather relative to other competitiors for any given term/niche.
      
      For example, lets just keep this to a two hub competition for a nich for simplicity:
      
      You write a hub about something and in a year gather or aquire 100 backlinks
      
      I write a hub about the same thing and in a year gather or aquire 100 backlinks
      
      We're essentially even right? NOT NECCESARILY.
      
      If you have 30 HIGH PR (site it's coming from) Backlinks and I have 10 and the bulk of the rest are just junk backlinks (from sites google thinks are crap or that don't have any intensity based on their current algorythm and grading)- then YOUR site would be the one with the higher index position and mine would come second.
      
      If I went out and aquired 20 more HIGH PR links, quality in other words, and you were to go out and get 100 more, but none of them were high PR or quality (based on their grading)- then although you'd have 200 and I have only 120, my site would beat yours out in ranking/index position.
      
      The competition part where count is concerned is based on quality links more than collection amount- although having MANY more junk links may give you slightly more power than having 1 new quality link if those junk links are medium quality for example- you may supercede me but not likely.
      
      SO it's not more that counts but quality.
      
      Many people try to compete with others sheer amount of links (whcih they can't possibly know nor can the person as google and other sonly show you a fraction of the actual links you have as to deter you from figuring out their algorythm). But the real thing to chase is QUALITY links/backlinks not quantity.
      
      Think of it in the basis of a corporation- you can have 100 employees that just do their job or you can have 20 that excel and complete 100x the work- if you were to hire one of the two companies which would you want? One with more employees that takes more people to do the same job or the one with 20 who can do the same job but you have less chance of problems... although my example is on a different realm from  backlinks nature I say it this way to illustrate how value is calculated and why less equals more in terms of quality vs quantity.
      
      What Google and any SE is looking for is quality as that is what drives people to use THEIR search engine. The one with less crap sites coming up in their search (more quality and efficiency to the user) is the one on top- I suspect that some of the lesser respected SE's use the quantity over quality as part of their overall check- and that may be their downfall- but it's also why no follow and do follow links can be both good and bad.
      
      Good as in Bing and others may follow them anyway ignoring the tag, while bad, as Google won't pass the tag so on google it's bad but you can still bank on the other SE's that have although less traffic still valid traffic.

      replyreport
9. 72

   LeanManposted 13 years ago

   All those people that say that backlinking makes no difference should check their hubs.... The beauty of the structure of HP is that it automatically generates you tens if not hundreds and thousands of backlinks. Internal links are as important as those you gain from other sites! So when your hub appears in the related hubs box on the right it is a link, when someone links using the find links tool you get a link, when you add to groups you get a link between your hubs, etc...
   
   When you comment on a hub you get a link back to your profile, when you comment in the forums you get a link..... your profile then links back to your hubs...
   
   Think about all the links...
   
   This used to be one of the reasons HP did so well, but Google devalued the number of links; looking more at link diversity (the number of sites (IP addresses you get links from). Changing to sub domains added back some juice to our internal links as each subdomain is considered a separate site!
   
   So your hub on a popular subject may have 20 or 30 links from other subdomains on HP boosting it.... now think about adding another 10 from other reputable sites and see what happens to your position in the SERPS.... (Not much point if you are already at no.1 in the serps but if you are on page 2.....)
   
   Of course I may be wrong .......... no one really knows what google does (does google?)

   replyreport
   1. 56

      Jerrico Usherposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Yes there is a lot of truth in what your saying, and although the links inside HP may be less valuable than they were as far as ranking (google) is concerned, the reality is still there that those links get ORGANIC traffic (clickers) to your hubs- be them hubbers or traffic to THEIR hubs that decides to check out YOURS...

      replyreport
   2. 68

      KBEvolveposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I thought that might be how it worked, but it is nice to have confirmation.

      replyreport
   3. 89

      wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      WMT is showing nearly 23,000 links to my subdomain from HP, and you're right - these are all counted as external links.  It also shows from 6 to 40 internal links to each hub.
      
      Out of the 23,000 links, some 7,000 are to my profile; the rest are to hubs.  That's 16,000 links going to 120 hubs, or about 130 per hub.
      
      Google won't verify, of course, but it seem obvious that those 23000 links are a part of what made the subdomains valuable.

      replyreport
      1. 76

         QuestionMasterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         A couple of months ago there was talk of Google implementing a "subdomain interlink fix" which basically lowered the value of links between subdomains on the same main domain. Not sure on details though... there was a big thread on it.

         replyreport
         1. 86

            CyclingFitnessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I would have thought that google would have integrated that years ago!
            
            Surely google reads the web address of the link and see's how it starts- if their are a large number of links saying http://subdomain.hubpages.com/ you might assume that google sees that their all from one specific source

            replyreport
            1. 76

               QuestionMasterposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Hubpages was one of the first sites to attempt to fix the panda slap using subdomains, followed by other sites. And Hubpages only did it a few months ago, so it wasn't as if it's been happening for years.

               replyreport
      2. 61

         john-doe7posted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Awesome! You are making how many $1,000s now? At least 10k a month - right? Impressive

         replyreport
         1. 89

            wildernessposted 13 years agoin reply to this

              Don't I wish!  The month I break 10k the celebration will be heard 'round the world, I'm sure.

            replyreport
         2. 75

            Wesman Todd Shawposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            I have to say from looking at your HP score and your comment - you're flipping nuts.

            replyreport
10. 60

    LindaSmith1posted 13 years ago

    My research on subdomains is that it may take awhile for Google to index them, but Google does not penalize subodmains as long as they are not duplicate content of the main domain.

    replyreport
11. 58

    codehubposted 13 years ago

    can you actually get a google wmt account to verify for hub sub domain?
    
    
    I didn't know that

    replyreport