Some questions about Hubtivity - I would love your feedback!

1. 59

   Ryan Hupferposted 15 years ago

   
   
   After seeing Hubbers announce certain milestones such as view numbers, first $100 payouts and HubPages anniversaries I thought that it would be really cool to create a more automated and easily broadcast way to let other Hubbers know these milestones by sending them through the Hubtivity.
   
   I am creating a first draft list of milestones that would be great to let other Hubbers know about, but I wanted to get each of your thoughts on what you'd like to get notified about as well.
   
   Here are a few milestones that I have come up with so far and these are by no means a complete list. Please add your own additions to this list when you get a chance to think about it and we'll see if we can get it officially added to the list.
   
   Here's the list of milestones so far:
   
   - First $100 payout from Google (this may or may not be anonymous)
   - HubPages year anniversaries
   - Certain view-level milestones (5,000 - 25,000 - 50,000 - 100,000 - 500,000 - 1,000,00)
   - Hub milestones (10, 25, 50, 100, 200, etc. Hubs published with a minimal average HubScore)
   - Number of Requests answered?
   
   These are this first ones off the top of my head - please pitch in with any other ideas that you may have. I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with and thanks for helping out!

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   1. 61

      B.T. Evilpantsposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      How about milestones for number of fans?

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      1. 59

         Ryan Hupferposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         I likey...added to the list. Thanks B.T.!

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         Jerrico Usherposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         that seems kind of vaine doesn't it?

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         1. 73

            Maddie Ruudposted 15 years agoin reply to this

            The whole idea of milestones is to celebrate successes.  Different people count successes in different ways (eg fans, traffic, comments, earnings), and different users excel at these different things, so we'd like to celebrate them all.  It's part of the philosophy that anyone can succeed on HubPages, and different people count success in different ways.  There's no one "right" measure, make sense?
            
            I don't think it's vain to celebrate the things you've achieved.  I think it's a great way of reinforcing healthy self-esteem, and encouraging the individual to continue striving for their next goal.

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               Jerrico Usherposted 15 years agoin reply to this

               Yea that makes sense Maddie, I personally don't see fans as an achievement as anyone can go out and spend a day adding themselves to others fan base and statistically speaking about 30% will add you giving you a new fan in reciprocation (I did this a while back and now have 350 fans of which 200 were practically instant).. Don't get me wrong, all of my fans are valued, I get ALOT of comments now on my hubs because of all those peole seeing them, my reason for wanting fans was to have a buit in readership, essentially I write on hubpges mostly to express myself, then to make money, but its nice to have fans who like your work.
               
               I do see the value of this to some people
               
               I didn't meanto imply that it was a bad idea, I just wanted to express my views on it, I'm actually on the fence as to weather it is a milestone or not based mostly in the reality that one can amass fans in great numbers with relative ease.
               
               I will prove this as well with my new SamurWriter account as  will spent a week becoming 100 people's fans every day. I am not just going to nor did before randomly add people I actually spend a moment reading their profile, and scanning their hub for quality. It is a good way to find people who produce hubs that I know I'll like and were on the same page (no pun intended), but when they add me they will also like what I write..
               
               I want to add that I've discovered some incredible hubs thanks to being a part of over 500 fan clubs, In doing this experiment I realize the power of hubpages fan program (from the angle of being someone elses fan) as it becomes planting a seed that one day a hub in hubtivity will sprout needed insight.. many of my last 20 hubs were inspired by my friends/people I've become fans of...
               
               and one final note... when I asked all my fans last week to add themselves to my new hubpages account samurwriter, I did so becaue I value my fan base and love their work and wanted to have them aware of my other account work (still my writing) and I wanted to add myself to their fan club again by reciprocation. I appoligise for starting all that hub bub in the forums, I lost my cool and appoligise.
               
               Jerrico

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            2. 86

               Dorsiposted 15 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks Maddie- yes it is healthy. I know when I reach 500 fans I'll announce it- and it's not a vanity thing for me- it's a grateful thing that that many people would want to be my fan!

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         2. 61

            B.T. Evilpantsposted 15 years agoin reply to this

            Actually, my thinking was this: I am not familiar with every hubber, here. If I see someone who is getting a lot of fans, I will check them out. I work a lot of hours, and don't have the time to keep up with all the new hubs. As far as vanity, that's not my game. I'm actually in shock that I have as many fans as I do.

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   2. 56

      Jerrico Usherposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Ryan I thik this is a great idea, it would definatley support a sense of morale for the team and jumpstart more competitive natures to reach the milestones... it would also give the writers/team a sense of belonging, of reward for their efforts (on hubpages people just love that attention and acknowledgement)...
      
      I think the fan one however is pushing it, fans are not suppod to be trophy's no more than your beautiful wife (not yours just a saying) should be put on display, it in my opinion would borderline vanity and shouldn't be included.  I appreciate the suggestion though and understand that it would have some interresting benefits for the author in the way of pride and ego but it really wouldnt help anyone else and could send the wrong message that were not cool unless we have 300 fans or something.
      
      This is of course just my own views. I love the milestone idea, this is a grand idea.. I think you should take this a step outside of hubtivity as well and generate a page on the site like your newslettes to show off the milestones (for newbies to know who's been here awhile and who would be best to ask questions of) you could also add this to your newsletter with stats such as for example:
      
      2,330 Authors have reached the 100th hub milestone (with a link to view said authors here)
      2,003 Authors have reached the 200th hub milestone
      and other stats in the miletone arsenal
      
      Jerrico

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   3. 60

      Encouragerposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, its a good idea to record milestones.  One of the first things I noticed when I joined hubpages how quickly I started getting hits.  So certainly the number of hits encourages others.
      Yes, earnings from Adsense is good, but I notice that it varies a lot.
      How about the number of comments?  On one of my pages I had over 200 comments!
      Thats all I can think of considering its 3.45am!
      
      Blessings.

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2. 73

   relacheposted 15 years ago

   I don't mind milestones becoming part of Hubtivity but only if users are allowed to opt-in to only those milestones they wish to share with everyone else.
   
   If that's not the case, I don't think they should be part of hubtivity.

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      Jerrico Usherposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      I second that, although I love the idea being just open and automatic, I am well aware of many people wanting their privacy and whom may not like the publicity.

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      Maddie Ruudposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Duly noted.  Thanks, Relache.

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3. 71

   Shirley Andersonposted 15 years ago

   I love seeing people announce their milestones, it means they're excited.  Sharing good news with good friends is a great feeling, and the congrats from fellow hubbers adds to the excitement and feeling of support.
   
   My vote is yes.  I too like the automatic inclusion idea, but agree that it would be nice to have an opt-in system for those who are opposed to having their stats made public.
   
   Ryan, things haven't stopped happening since you got here.  It must be busy in your head.

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   1. 73

      Maddie Ruudposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      With only Paul, Jason, and myself on the team, pretty much all we could do was maintenance.  Since Larry and Fawntia came on, we've been able to get old features improved and some new features in the works, and since Hup got on board, we've been able to get more interactive activities going on, like the HubMob and the blog.  The team's still small for such a big site (only 5, what with Jason moving over to work on YieldBuild), but you'd be surprised how much more you can get done with 5 people than with just 3!

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      1. 71

         Shirley Andersonposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         Wow!  Do you guys have time to sleep??  There always seems to be one of you online late night, too.
         
         Cripes, I have enough trouble with one little, non-interactive website.  I don't know how you do it!  I'm even more impressed with this site, now.
         
         Thank-you to all 5 of the hard working HP team!!!!!

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         Jerrico Usherposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         This site has become a phenominon, marketers, writers, and all have seen it and it seems to be on the lips and blogs of just about anyone who writes or builds adsense sites, I for one think its an amazing accomplishment for just 5 people to keep this thing so well fed!
         
         To keep the site this amazing and getting better I applaud you guys... You inspire me. Do you realize people think you guys are millionaires?
         
         Jerrico

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   2. 59

      Ryan Hupferposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Well, just like Maddie said - now that we have more people, we can really start doing some amazing stuff...we just want to keep making HubPages better and better and better and...well, you get the idea.
      
      Oh, and I found a good image of what the inside of my head actually looks like.
      
      
      
      Yeah, there's an awful lot going on in there...

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         Jerrico Usherposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         That looks like my head too... lol.. great picture

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4. 67

   Anamika Sposted 15 years ago

   Milestones and Accomplishments.......... a great idea to celebrate.

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5. 72

   Inspirepubposted 15 years ago

   Ryan,
   
   The $100 payout milestone is problematic, in that many people are running Adsense on multiple sites, and may have reached their $100 milestone before even joining HubPages.
   
   Also, Adsense is only one of the revenue streams - if you are going to report a milestone there, you should probably report equivalent milestones with Kontera, eBay and Amazon.
   
   Jenny
   
   P.S. How about a milestone for forum posts? I have seen some acknowledgement of the people who reach 1000 forum posts from time to time.

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   1. 56

      Jerrico Usherposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      wow that one missed me! lol, didn't realize that adsense was (just didn't think about it rather) more than one source of income (beyond hp) but realistically speaking, it doesn't matter if you make the 100.00 on hubpages or off hubpages its still a milestone and as a part of the community I think it should be included still as we are a cluster of people trying to make money and not just on hubpages (many hubbers make money on several sites, i.e. squidoo, other writing sites like eHow etc..).. still deserves a mention even if the money comes from other sources.
      
      I like to think of hubpages as an omnipresent income derivitive site, in other words were here as a community to learn to bank from the internet and to write (which we enjoy) so milestones are milestones weather they happen here or because of our lessons here.
      
      Personally my off hubpages income is over 3,000 dollars a month but hubpages earnings are barely 200.00 after a year but it was BECAUSE of lessons learned on hubpages that I can make this money- also the ONLY reason I haven't hit 2,000.00 a month on hubpages is until recently I had no idea what I was doing and none of my hubs are monitized, seo'd correctly.. but watch me pull an adsense rabbit out of my hub
      
      Jerrico

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6. 84

   kerrygposted 15 years ago

   I agree with Jenny that the AdSense milestone is kind of problematic (HP makes me the most money, but it's not the only site I'm running ads on) and not necessarily info I would want to share anyway, but I do like the idea otherwise, as long as it has an opt-out option. I tend to be uncomfortable with "tooting my own horn" (which is probably one of the reasons I haven't hit $100 yet!) but I do enjoy celebrating accomplishments!

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      Maddie Ruudposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Well, obviously we can't see into your AdSense account, so we would be estimating it from traffic and the click-throughs we register on our share of impressions.

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         relacheposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         Given the (sometimes huge) inaccuracy of estimated earnings and the fact that HubPages removed that info from the referrals page, doesn't it seem a bad idea to then take those same data sets and make an estimated money milestone out of them to be announced to everyone?

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7. 82

   jimmythejockposted 15 years ago

   I love this idea, but wouldnt it work better if there was a new page added to hubpages, where people interested in joining the site could read of the success of existing hubbers, you could include all of those stats in it and update it as more people achieve them, linking the new page to a roll call of the hubbers who have reached the levels, it would also be nice to add a Hubpages hall of fame page for the hubbers who have reached the Ultimate Hubpages Milestone, I am only saying that lol because I was the first one in there .....jimmy

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      WHoArtNowposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      That was exactly what I was going to add!You beat me to it Jimmy!
      
      Great idea Ryan and It'll work well. I do however with Kerry G about the announcing the monitory side of it.
      
      Its also great to see a site which has no fears of asking its members for some suggestions, really adds to the 'community' feel. Also a great site for only 5 staff!! Keep it up!

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         Jerrico Usherposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         I hope you guys have ADT and a Carbon monoxide detector in the building, I hear in SF that CM is a big problem (always hearing about busted gas pipes and such around that area of Cali) because if a CM leak got out and all the hubpages staff were put to sleep, where is the backup team? lol

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   2. 56

      Jerrico Usherposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      That's a fantastic idea, kind of like mine but the hall of fame page would be better than what I was thinking of.. kudos for this idea jim- er- guy in the picture
      
      J

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   3. 83

      Whitney05posted 15 years agoin reply to this

      I like this idea much better. In a way, wouldn't it be better for HubPages to decide what is a milestone, but for a person who has been a member for 10 months to write their first hub 7 months later, that may be a milestone, but in that instance, is everyone's first hub a milestone? I wouldn't say so. And, on that note, one person may say 50 hubs is a milestone, whereas others 100.
      
      I like the idea of letting the hubbers choose what milestones to consider, but in a way, it leaves way too much up to opinion.
      
      I like the idea of having a separate tab for milestones and having them per category with the hubber's name and the date to which the milestone was accomplished.
      
      Maybe even a miscellaneous area with first capstone/flagship hub published (with a link to the capstone), most flagships/capstones to date (with hubber and the number published), etc. This area would be pretty set except the person with the most capstones/flagships may change. Unless you were to do everyone's first flagship/capstone, then that could get lengthy.

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8. 60

   allshookupposted 15 years ago

   I think if it was an opt-in option that it would be a good thing to do. It's nice to see what others are doing and it encourages us to keep on hubbing.

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9. 61

   JamesAlanposted 15 years ago

   I just like the idea in general and mostly like the milestones of number of hubs published.

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10. 59

    Constant Walkerposted 15 years ago

    Three of the most amazing things I've seen on HubPages (there are many more, but for me, these stood out) are a piece by JReuter which is worthy of National Geographic:
    http://hubpages.com/hub/My-Adventure-in-the-Aleutians
    
    A video hub by Jonno.Norton which is either completely insane or the most important human information ever published.  Either way, it merits by seen:
    http://hubpages.com/hub/My-Adventure-in-the-Aleutians
    
    And pretty much anything written by R. Martin Basso
    
    For me, these were milestones.

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11. 71

    cflynnposted 15 years ago

    I think its a great idea. it would be another way of discovering new writers and mixing it up abit. personally i'd open a bottle if hit any of those numbers. would some or just one lower target be a good way of upping new (good) hubbers?? maybe 10 hubs over a certain score?? gets a mention?? something like that?

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12. 59

    Ryan Hupferposted 15 years ago

    Also, I just wanted to take a minute to say that these are all really great ideas everyone and that all of us here at HubPages are very lucky to have an awesome community of Hubber like all of you who honestly care about our site and what we're up to next.
    
    That is all...

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13. 65

    Trekkiemelissaposted 15 years ago

    Like what some of the others have written about opting in or out, I like to have that choice.  I'd probably at least want to see once I hit 100 hubs or something like that.  Either case, I am cool with the idea of adding to the hubactivity.

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14. 60

    MrsEmmaLeeposted 15 years ago

    "Personally my off hubpages income is over 3,000 dollars a month but hubpages earnings are barely 200.00 after a year but it was BECAUSE of lessons learned on hubpages that I can make this money- also the ONLY reason I haven't hit 2,000.00 a month on hubpages is until recently I had no idea what I was doing and none of my hubs are monitized, seo'd correctly.. but watch me pull an adsense rabbit out of my hub"   Jerrico
    
    Maybe, if you guys could perhaps write a page on exactly what all that stuff is....   for people like me.  I'm Sooooo confused.  Maybe a simply glossary? 
    
    On topic, I have no problem with milestones being noted, but as there are those that seem less interested in ALL their business being aired out on the hub-line, I would hope we could all respect that and make some type of opt-in/opt-out button availiable.
    
    Thanks for everything everyone....
    WIshing love and laughter

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       Lissieposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Maybe this hub I prepared earlier might help: http://hubpages.com/hub/Make-Money-Onli … Depression

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       Jerrico Usherposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       I have a site in the works for this reason. But meantime I have written over 40 hubs on everything you could want to know about hubpages and earning money online in general (my site will actually just extract these hubs into an orgainzed format really since nobody else wanted to participate.(well a few did)... You can also find a wealth of hubs on this by going to the search box and typing in seo or making money online or making money with hubpages or hubpages terms

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15. 60

    MrsEmmaLeeposted 15 years ago

    And there you have it Folks...  The reason Hubpages is so cool...  it's also Very encouraging and helpful...  Thanks Lissie and Jerrico....   
    
    Wishing love and laughter

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16. 87

    Marisa Wrightposted 15 years ago

    I'm not sure I like the Hall of Fame thing.  I do like the idea of these milestones being in Hubtivity - it means they get mentioned, but they're not "in your face".  As they're only a transitory mention, I wouldn't be worried about opting in or out of them.

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17. 78

    Sally's Troveposted 15 years ago

    There might be two things going on here...HP acknowledging Hubbers' excellence in terms of milestones, or HP publishing Hubbers' testimonials.
    
    In the first, milestone achievement needs to be defined by HP and an opt-out is required.  In the second, Hubbers can say what they want about themselves and their successes on HubPages, obviously with preview from HP staff or a community control system similar to flagging.
    
    I wouldn't mind seeing a testimonials page.  Seems to me that HP's best advertising and promotion, let alone documentation, is coming from its Hubbers.  Why not provide a venue for Hubbers to shout their successes to the rooftops?
    
    On that testimonials page, input could be organized by Best, Hot, Latest, like it is for Hubs, which would keep consistent the way people navigate HP.

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