Is it bad putting too many hub links on your profile page?

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   Dorsiposted 12 years ago

   I just updated my HubPages profile a couple days ago and in my profile linked to some of my favorite hub topics that I wrote about. Is this bad to do this since on the profile page we have those same hubs randomly come up below? I just don't want overkill but like the thought that I've got my favorites in there.
   What do you think?

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      That Grrlposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I don't  use my profile space to link to any Hub posts. But, everyone has their own feelings about that. Some don't even have a profile.
      
      It also depends on whether or not you have other projects off of HubPages I think. People who have their own blogs and want to link to other Hub writers on Twitter will add those links to the profile here.

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      suzzycueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I thinks it is great to link to your profile page. The more good links the better. I just wish I knew how to do it better. This linking ,I am still learning.

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         Website Examinerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I think the thread is about links from the profile page (placed on the profile page, linking to hubs and other destinations).
         
         There is not much reason to link to your profile page, since everything you do on HubPages automatically includes a link back to your profile. If you want to link further to your profile, then you could primarily focus on sites outside of HubPages.

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      tom hellertposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I may only have one ut Im not judging ...if there is no rule against it....why not Im sure the HP PD gestapo would tell you otherwise-Hakuna Matata...no worries in my view...

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      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I think it's overkill.  I agree with Izzy, your Hubs are set out attractively on the page already - people are more likely to click on the pretty pictures than a boring list of links.
      
      If you have a few favourite categories, why not write a Capstone Hub for each of those categories and link to those from your profile?  That's much neater. 
      
      As Izzy said, your profile is a valuable place to link to your other blogs or websites too.

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         Dorsiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         What is a capstone hub Marisa?

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            Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Oops, sorry Dorsi - you've been here almost as long as I have, so I thought you'd remember.
            
            A Capstone Hub is a summary Hub.  It was originally a program offered by HP but I think it's a great way to pull together all your Hubs on a particular topic.
            
            Here's Darkside's Hub about the original program:
            
            http://darkside.hubpages.com/hub/capstone
            
            However I have to admit, I don't really like the way Darkside does his "Capstone" Hub, with simple links to each of the other Hubs.  I do mine more like Bard's:
            
            http://bardofely.hubpages.com/hub/Thirt … -challenge
            
            With a link and a unique description for each one.

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               Dorsiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I like that idea Marisa. I've almost done something similar to that in a couple of my hubs. I actually just went into my profile and ditched my favorite hub links. Just one scroll down and my hubs are there so I am getting close to seeing my bio on one page. Tweak tweak tweak. Just takes time to get it the way I want it. I appreciate everyone's advice.

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2. 86

   Ms Deeposted 12 years ago

   Hi Dorsi! I use a number of links on my profile page. It helps traffic see other categories of hubs I have; more than what is displayed at any one given time at the bottom of the profile page. This is helpful since I've written on a number of topics.

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3. 62

   Lisa HWposted 12 years ago

   The following post is kind of the Hub that I've had the urge to write over recent months, but that I haven't written because I don't want to write another "how to do stuff on HubPages" Hub (mostly because I'm not sure anyone, particularly I, really knows who some things "should be" done anyway, but also I don't think a lot of the "how to do things on HP" Hubs do their authors much service most of the time (and who knows, may even hurt some authors sometimes)...
   
   Dorsi, before sharing the unsolicited, Hub-length, bunch of thoughts on profiles; my personal opinion about the links in your profile is that they might look nicer if you listed the name of the Hub/link first, and then followed it immediately and on the same line with the subject in parentheses. 
   
   You make it nice it clear in your profile what those links are, because you've put them under the heading that you have.  I think, though, that maybe giving the reader that "favorite Hub" first gets the reader to the point (and what he looked under the heading for) faster.  Also, I think (again, just personal opinion) that having the links (and their blue color) lined up at the margin would look neater.
   
   I can see why you may think telling the reader the category of the subject first may be helpful to him; but I think if I were aiming to offer the reader the categories first, I might change the heading to something like "Samples of Subjects I Write About" (or something worded better than that) and maybe put the subject in bold and/or italics (or whatever) to make it stand out beyond the blue links.  Then, I might put the titles/links in parenthesis and/or on the line right underneath, as a way of separating the category from the actual link.
   
   In other words, I don't necessarily think you have too many.  I just think, maybe, they could like like even fewer if they were presented in a slightly different way.
   
   Maybe I'm all wrong.  It's just food for thought (if not yours, then maybe for others who have a lot of links to their Hubs).  (I'm not sure my own approach to my own links isn't a big time-waster for anyone who sees my profile, but I'm afraid to change it too much at this point.)   People's ideas are all so different.  I think we have to do what we think is right and what looks good on our own profiles. 
   __________________________________________________
   
   Everybody has his own ideas about what the profile page should have, and then there are the general recommendations from HP (one of which, but the ONLY one, that I've had my own reasons to ignore: The one about how people shouldn't have to scroll down to get to someone's Hubs).  Then there are the "whatever-everybody" (a lot of people) think a profile should be. I pretty much ignore the "whatever-everybody-else-thinks" ideas.  LOL  I most often try to go with what HP suggests (as long as it's a suggestion and not a policy), and only occasionally do my own thing.  HP has recommended taking the profile fairly seriously, and I don't think a lot of people really do take them seriously enough.
   
   The points here aren't really a matter of my thinking people ought to do what I've done.  I thought, though, that at least raising the points that can go into creating a profile might offer some people some ideas about things they may want to consider with their own profiles when they're doing them their own way.
   
   Anyway, here are my own thoughts on profiles.  (I've recently considered opening a thread about profiles, because I think, maybe, too many people don't realize how important they really could be; and I think a lot of people's profiles look like they just slapped up some words (and often try to be kind of humorous or clever when they do) and/or some people's profiles don't really look as if they've worried about an overall organized, "polished", look.  How much any one profile helps or hurts one person or another, I obviously don't know.  I know that my own profile hasn't hurt me (before or after Panda and/or subdomains). 
   
   I know some people prefer a "not-so-serious" flavor to their profile, or even a goofy or otherwise colorful one; and I don't think that's necessarily something people shouldn't have.  I just think they should present their "goofiness" in a polished way that doesn't say, "I plain old don't take this site, my writing, or my profile seriously at all; and I'm oblivious to the concept of "looking polished and at least somewhat professional".    (Even humor, goofiness, and "attitude" can be presented in a way that looks polished, as opposed to a way that looks like someone just "didn't bother".)
   
   I have a lot of links to the Hubs I like best, but that's where I took my shot at trying to be "clever".  I put them within the context of saying what I write about.  The section I have that on is more "clever" and "playful" than I'd otherwise prefer, but I'm at least more comfortable with that than with feeling like I'm "too thrilled with" my own stuff and/or trying to "sell" it.  (That's my own problem, I know.  I'm not the "selling type", so I'm often uncomfortable with even appearing to be.)
   
   Anyway, the profile has a relatively brief section about me, focusing on what applies to writing and/or writing on here.  Then there's the "what-I-about" section that has a ton of links in it.  That at least gives me the chance to have what I think are my better pieces of writing on the profile.  The profile pages has "whatever" on it at the bottom; and I'm not always happy to have some of my stuff show up there.  (That house-cleaning we've been hearing about does go on for me, but there's more work to do.)
   
   Then I added a small section, "Incidental Other Info" and have a few things like my Google+ profile and a few other things.
   
   The one, main, thing I aimed for with it (and always aim for with whatever I write) is attractive spacing and a neat, organized, look.  My HubPages writing isn't "day-job" or "career" writing for me.   With the kind of writing I do on here, I didn't want to go with a heavy-duty professional look, but I didn't want my profile to look like I don't know the difference between "professional" and "just hanging out and saying whatever".  My think is that no matter how casual someone's writing or HP "personality" is, whatever he has will always represent him better if it's done with a little awareness of looking a "polished".
   
   A lot of people may hate my profile (or me, maybe), or a lot of people may think it's way too long; but I don't think anybody would think it's "just any-old-words slapped up willy-nilly, without my paying any attention to at least aiming to come across as if I take readers, HubPages, or my writing seriously.
   
   I'm not saying my way is the only way.  I'm just saying that my own profile hasn't hurt me, and I think, maybe, it helps. The reasons are I don't see reason to think my profile has hurt me are:    I earn pretty well (not phenomenally, but pretty well considering what I write and the time I spend doing it).  I'm heading on my third million in traffic (not phenomenal for four years and a few hundred Hubs, but not too bad either, considering my efforts, or lack of them in some ways).  I'm kind of superstitious about saying what's never happened to me, so let me just say that I have yet to discover "the joys" of being sandboxed.  In general, I do about the same earnings-wise with HP Ads and whatever AdSense as I do with Ad Sense alone (not counting the last two days, which have been very weird).
   
   Something else that's really, really, common on here are profiles with grammatical errors or typos in them.  There can be a short bio and little else (or else a bunch of links), and in a few lines there'll be two or three punctuation errors.  Running the profile text for errors would eliminate a whole lot of those things that may be even more noticeable in a short bio/profile than in a long one.  Eight lines of bio with three punctuation or capitalization "issues" doesn't present the best first impression. 
   
   My own thinking with my profile was this: (addressing anyone who runs into it)  "Here's a reasonable-length bio section if you're interested, and that I hope gives you a rough idea of who I am/where I'm coming from.  Next, here's a sampling of the Hubs I think are my best, if you're at all interested.  Third, here's a section that will show you how to get in touch with me, find other stuff I've written, and/or find out more about me (if you're at all interested).
   
   Then I threw in my own "quote" (can a person quote himself?) about writing as a way of offering something a little more personal on my own thoughts on writing, itself (and which I hope lets people know I do take writing seriously)"
   
   From there, I added the Amazon disclaimer because we're supposed to.  I didn't add a copyright notice (which I used to have) once I added the Amazon thing, because at that point I just thought enough stuff is enough stuff.  The copyright notice does little good as far as I can tell, and it should go without saying that my stuff is my stuff and not being offered for use by anyone else.
   
   Something I've done from time to time is copy all the text (and links) from my profile in MS Word in case I want to use them again.  Then I may modify the profile or even more drastically change it, see how it seems to go and/or see whether I like it for a short time; and then decide whether to put the old one (or the shorter or longer one - whatever) back.
   
   In the meantime, I'm sick to death of my own profile but kind of afraid to change it too much; because I've noticed that changes (even only in the picture) seem to throw off the Google earnings (could be a coincidence, I suppose) for a couple of/few days) even if the change seems to result in an a longer term improvement.

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Only you, Lisa, can write a hub length forum post! LOL
      
      The advice about not having to scroll down to see your hub list that Hubpages put there, is the one I listened to as well.
      
      The whole point of having those hubs there is encourage the reader to go to them. They are nicely laid out and include an attractive photo from the hub.
      
      Some people only see what is 'above the fold' and will not scroll, for whatever reason.
      So while it is nice to give the reader loads of info about you, or your works, I think it is better to keep it short to minimize scrolling.
      
      But that's just me and what do I know?
      
      I have a couple of links to my own sites, and even at that just a fraction of the sites I actually have, because for SEO purposes, and with my profile being a PR3, it is well worth it.

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         Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Izzy, I know     or should I instead add the .   I tend to let the urge to discuss one thing or another build up over a period of months, and then - well, embarrassingly long posts that make give me the urge to go hide the under the woodwork for a few days. 
         
         My thing with my own profile is that some of the Hubs that show up at the bottom of it aren't Hubs I even want to see there.  I know I could solve some of that problem by writing Hubs I like better, but a lot of mine are from when I first started here and just wrote Hubs in reply to questions.  I've been trimming them out, but (contrary to advice or even good sense), I kind of want them hidden below the screen. 
         
         I guess my "plan" has always been to try to detour people with the links to my better stuff, higher up on the profile page.  Makes no sense, I know.  (My latest "plan" is to aim to keep stuff off first pages in searches, so it isn't stolen.     So, obviously, I may not be someone anyone wants to pay much attention to. 
         
         In all seriousness, I do think people really need to do what they've seen, for themselves, works best for them, the kind of stuff they write, and their own aims.  I do think, though, that a lot of people need to be very careful about just taking the advice of "everyone else"   (which is really the only reason I thought mentioning some of "issues" associated with creating the profile might at least be worth some people's thinking about.).  Some people have some really good Hubs, but then they'll have a two-liner profile (or something).  Maybe a more complete, polished, profile wouldn't help.  Maybe it would.  I don't think a more complete, polished, profile would hurt anyone who now does OK with their two-line bio.
         
         The profiles I mostly have in mind are this kind of thing that you see once in awhile: 
         
         "Yeah.   i'm lividlisa.  I have twelve kids and im gonna write wether you like it or not.  here's my blog and a bunch of other links.  read my stuff and vote for it up."   
         
         (I don't know how important a good profile is, but - really - that kind of thing can't possibly help even someone who otherwise has fine Hubs. )
         
         My thinking is that if someone found their way to say, a Hub on shoes, and decided to go to my profile; he could scan and see if it looked like I had other stuff on shoes, other stuff he might want to read, or nothing that looks interesting to him.  He'd see that I'm a miscellaneous (not shoe-only) writer in that second paragraph I have.
         
         If someone instead found themselves on my profile first, I give them a fairly brief bio and reading on who/what I am in that first paragraph.    If they're interested in what I write (for some reason) they'll probably be willing to look at whatever shows up and consider click on it. 
         
         If they were just curious about who wrote one of my Hubs they'd get what they wanted in that first paragraph.
         
         I pretty much don't expect anyone to go beyond that first paragraph, but I figure that it's there if, for some reason, they're still interested and want to see what else is there.
         
         I guess, because I'm not a niche person, I think it's more important that my better stuff be highlighted (if anything's going to be highlighted) than for me to think anyone who came for one subject Hub or another to be likely to find another Hub on that same subject (and connected to my profile).
         
         If I wrote only about shoes or cars (or something) I'd focus on those and what went into my writing about those.  As a "miscellany writer type", the only thing I really have that ties anything together is the writing, itself, and the fact that I'm the only thing my Hubs have in common. 

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      aHappierLifeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Great forum thread, finally I found what I was looking for, thank you all for sharing your comments and advises
      
      However I am still confused about if it is allowed or not to place a link back to an own website, in one of your hub or a profile page?
      
      For example,if I write about food recipes, am I allowed to place a text link to a website i own, where I also, among others, sell food recipes and classes?
      For example, Marisa Wright, I went to see your hub, about dancing, (great hub) but I cannot see a link back to your own site, did I miss it?
      
      Bottom line, are we allowed to place at least one link (which has similar content to hub) back to a web site we own, even if this website may be a business?

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         Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Actually, this thread is now irrelevant, because it's no longer possible to place a list of links in your profile.  You can link to one website by using the small icon, but that's it.
         
         
         
         Yes you did!  There's at least one link to at least one of my websites in every one of my Hubs about dancing.  I'm not sure if you're aware that there are TWO good reasons to place links in your Hubs.  One is so that real people will see it and click on it, and the other is that Google likes to see links.  Google likes to see a diversity of links, so rather than put a repetitive "for more info, visit my website at .....", I mix it up by using contextual links (e.g. I might refer to belly dancing, and I'll make that a hyperlink to my site).
         
         
         
         Yes, you are.  You can have a maximum of two links to the same domain in every Hub.  It doesn't matter whether the website is commercial or personal, so long as it's on the same subject as the Hub. 
         
         So for instance, in my Hub about learning to dance, I have one link to my belly dancing site, one link to my ballet site, and one link to my flamenco site - that's allowed.  But if I had one big general dance site, and linked to the section on belly dance, the section on ballet, and the section on flamenco, that wouldn't be allowed - because that would be three links to the same domain.

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            aHappierLifeposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            WOW, what a clear and well explained answer, you  clarified all my confusion and finally I understand how this works, I have not found this information, written so clearly, anywhere on the site.
            Thank you Marisa, I really appreciate it
            by the way your hubs are really cool!! I am going to go through them again I want to see how you embedded your links in the way you wrote above!
            Thanks

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4. 86

   Dorsiposted 12 years ago

   That Grrl) Yes I added my other blog and social networks as well. I think that helps us stay connected too.
   
   @suzzycue) It took me awhile to get linking down too. Now I can link pretty fast. Like they say, practice, practice practice lol!
   
   @Ms Dee) Nice bio Dee! I fanned you too. Love your work - that hub on Revelation was great!
   
   @Lisa HW) Lisa, you always have such great info to contribute. I totally agree with you about putting the links first - I'm going to do that. And I think a hub on profiles would be great written by you. I don't think some people realize how important their profile is! Like a good friend used to say to me  "You only have ONE chance to make a FIRST impression"  And in this case, our profile is sometimes that first chance!
   
   @Website Examiner) No I mean linking to favorite hubs.... sorry if I didn't make that clear.
   
   
   @Izzy) What's a PR3?

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      Website Examinerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      No problem, that was what I understood. The post I responded to (not written by you) talked about linking to the profile page, not linking from it.

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      IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Page rank 3. Your profile is also PR3 which is like 300 times more powerful than a PR0. It helps Google decide where to position sites if they have high PR links pointing to them. Not that 3 is that high (the numbers go right up to 10), but it better than the numbers below it.

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         Dorsiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Wow that's interesting Izzy. I want to know more about that - I had no idea. So I'm a PR3 too. Cool (I think lol)

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            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I've got SEOquake for Chrome running in the background and I can see at a glance the PR of every site I open, or every site I see in search.
            It's free, go for it! (available for Firefox too)
            PR measures backlinks to a domain or page.
            I have heard that Google largely discounts them because so many people have tried to game the system - with artificial backlinks etc, but it still counts when it comes to giving pages or sites a boost.
            I had one hub held up in a highly competitive search by a single PR 5 backlink that someone kindly gave me.
            Just recently it disappeared, along with the traffic to that hub. So yes it still counts.

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               Dorsiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Wow I learn something new everyday. I did tell myself that SEO and the technical stuff was something I needed to tackle this year. Thanks for the lesson Izzy!

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                  IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  De nada, it's you who could teach me how to write viral hubs lol
                  
                  That was amazing what you did, congrats again. I hope traffic has held up!
                  
                  Getting back to PRs again though, would someone care to explain to me the point in paying software to get 1000s of PR0 or PR n/a backlinks, when they could go post (once) on a PR 5 or above forum and get the same benefits?

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                     Dorsiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     I was going to ask you about that after I did a crash course in PR 2 minutes ago (lol) 
                     
                     So would an example of a good backlink is say, I write about shipping container homes an then I go a to designers site with PR5 and leave a great comment along with a link back to my hub (and tell them I have linked also to their site) Does that mean then Google loves that and will raise your PR?
                     
                     (And the viral hub, it's dropped back in rank but still getting a thousand hits a day - plus there is a lively group of people coming back every day and commenting daily - it's been real interesting) It hasn't done anything for my earnings (it's only rated one on the money scale) but that's OK - it's been fun!

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                        IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        The best way to get that vital backlink is to find a high PR forum that allows you to put a link in your signature, then everytime you post you are creating a backlink without appearing spammy.
                        
                        A lot of those sites will require you to use html, but just do a quick search on Google and you will soon know how to write it.
                        
                        You don't need to tell them anything, and you certainly don't need to offer them a link in exchange, in fact it could even be harmful to do that because Google doesn't like two-way links.
                        
                        Dot edu sites are great as well or dot gov, as Google sees them as authoritative sites.
                        
                        Glad to hear you are still getting 1000s of hits. Hope you are running Hubads!

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                           Dorsiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           Thank you Izzy. Question: When leaving a comment at another site that allows the signature, do you link back to your profile or the particular hub that you want to create the back-link for?

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                              IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              You link back to the hub you want to get the backlink.
                              
                              This is where it becomes a lot of work, especially when you have a lot of hubs, and those high profile sites will delete comments that don't actually add anything.
                              
                              So it's almost like joining a new community, you have to put a lot of sensible, well-thought out comments up, before one hits gold and sticks.
                              
                              If you have 100s of hubs, which you have, it becomes a mountain to climb!
                              
                              It will also leave you no time to get on with other things in your life.
                              
                              Like writing new hubs, and we are writers here first and foremost.
                              
                              So, yes, it is the way to go, but it's hard work!
                              
                              I gave up a long time ago, and resist now putting spammy summaries up to the social backlinking sites, because Google isn't stupid.
                              
                              It worked for a while, though.
                              
                              Now, you either go the comment way, with sensible comments, not the total spam I see on my own sites, or you don't bother.

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                                 Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                 ...and that's exactly why most Hubbers graduate to their own websites at some point.  Time spent creating backlinks to your own website is far more productive than creating links to your HubPages account. 
                                 
                                 Yes, I know you still need to link to individual posts or pages - but unlike HP, once you've got a visitor to arrive at one post, they're more likely to look at a few other pages before they leave:  whereas on HubPages, you do all the work of enticing them to one Hub, then they're more likely to click on a Related Hub (which isn't yours) than browse around the rest of your account.

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                                    IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                    +1

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                                       Dorsiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                                       I've had a few websites in different forms. I have one that is going to be my non-profit ministry that I've been sitting on for a few months. I just can't seem to get a website together that I really like. Sigh....I need to revisit all this this year. Learning curve for tech part here I come.

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               Richieb799posted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Does SEOQuake still show backlinks because last time I checked it wasn't on account of Yahoo Site Explorer being shut down. I really liked SEOQuake, but Ive become quite fond of Chrome recently because its faster and you can't have SEOQuake on Chrome.

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                  IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Richie, I specifically mentioned I run SEO Quake for Chrome.
                  
                  And yes it still shows actual backlinks, but I never look at them

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   IzzyMposted 12 years ago

   I also meant to add, PR 3 is great! Hubpages is a PR 6, and the highest profile PR I have seen in any hubber is PR4, but that is rare.

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      Dorsiposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      That's so good to know. That's a nice little perk for the day Izzy!

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   Website Examinerposted 12 years ago

   Judged by her output, Lisa HW is a genius.

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