Is Hub pages Now Becoming a Social Networking Site?

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   Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years ago

   Okay, so now there's this whole new thing of increasing one's traffic by helping each other. So it's advocated by some that when we see something that we think our followers will like, we 'share' it.
   
   There are several problems.
   
   a) Anybody who is genuinely reading those people that they follow will only be following a few people. If all their followers now start advocating other hubs, it's not always welcome. There is no ways that anyone knows what someone else wants to read, and there is also no way of switching off the ability of having hubs shared with someone.
   
   b) Perhaps it does increase hub traffic, but mostly  the hub traffic it will be increasing is the traffic of other hubbers. As other hubbers are not allowed to click on one's ads, it doesn't add to one's earnings.
   
   c) This is a writers' site, and maybe writers would prefer a writers' site and not another social networking site. At least, there has to be a way of opting out from receiving 'shares' from other people, and where one can comment on someone else without suddenly receiving any new hub they wrote. I don't necessary want to follow someone just because I espied a particular hub of there's
   
   Whatever joy I had in reading my home page has now completely vanished. I might as well remove links to the few people I follow because they are drowned out in the cacophony of 'noise' that I'm now receiving from the masses of over activity I now receive on my home page.
   
   Anyone else feel the same way?

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      sofsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      LOL I was thinking on similar lines... cacophony is the word... or maybe I am wrong again!

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         Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  
         
         This hermit, introvert is not alone!!! Yay!!!!       

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      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Ugh.  As you say, we follow specific Hubbers because we like their work, not because we have similar tastes.  I may follow Relache but there's a good chance I won't be interested in Hubs she likes and "shares".  So I agree, that feature is just plain annoying.
      
      HubPages clearly wants to be a social networking site - it has been steadily increasing its social networking features for the last couple of years, to the point where I observe many new members see it more as a networking site than a site where one writes for the wider public.  The smart ones eventually get the message that to earn real income, you have to reach outside the community, but it takes a while.

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      Cardisaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      @Sophia, I agree with you. We should have an option to turn off the share.

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      Trsmdposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I got benefited by this cyclical sharing comments. My hubber score went Dow from 80 to 65 and after participating through techniques, I am back to my original hubber score..regarding earning, I don't see much difference..

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         Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Well, of course, you aren't going to see any difference in your earnings. You're not increasing web traffic. You're increasing hub traffic. I have about 2% hub traffic and 98% search engine traffic. That's what you should aim for!

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            Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            A perfect example of what we were talking about - the social networking features just mislead newbies into thinking that's what HP is all about!

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            Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Yet it is the hubbers who (generally) leave the best comments, at least early on..

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               Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               and the point of that is...?

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                  livelongerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Thoughtful feedback on what you've written, knowing you haven't written in a vacuum.
                  
                  Something probably not lost on someone who's posted over 8,800 times in this forum alone.

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                     Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     livelonger. I think it depends on whether you're writing for money, or whether you're writing to get feedback. Getting feedback, for the most part, has very little to do with earning money. My best money makers seldom, if ever, get comments.

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                        livelongerposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        Sometimes. I personally think comments and genuine interaction with commenters reflects well on an article's author. I often scan them to make sure the author knows what they're talking about.
                        
                        And, more broadly, there are people who are solely interested in earning money: they usually don't converse anywhere, including the forums.

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes, but PC's comment was in response to Sophie, who was pointing out that the social networking side of HubPages doesn't do a lot to get you the traffic you really need.
                     
                     I'd be the first to admit that I'm addicted to HP forums - it's the place I come to avoid work!! - but actually, I rarely comment on other Hubs and don't get a lot of comments on my own, and it doesn't bother me.

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                  Pcunixposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Comments can add to the value of a hub as seen by Google.   Hubbers are the first to arrive; if they leave good comments, the hub gets a boost.

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   WryLiltposted 12 years ago

   New (or inexeperienced) members have always advocated internal sharing, following and commenting. They just keep finding new ways of getting internal traffic.
   
   Older members realise that search engines are more important and interact with the site out of interest, not in an attempt to get views.
   
   I personally rarely, if ever, look at the news feed on Hubpages.

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      Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      thanks, wrylit. I guess I'll just give my home page a miss from now on.

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   LuisEGonzalezposted 12 years ago

   Sharing others works or hubs may increase internal views, postings to social sites may increase referral views. But ultimate the more views  ie; visitors, the more traffic that can be generated. This works much like as in networking... so this could end up being a good thing............

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      Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Luis, increasing internal traffic is pointless if one is here to earn money, which I suspect the vast majority are. Posting links on social networking sites might bring in one or two readers. I have more than a 1000 followers on G+ and I might get one or two clicks on the hub I'm posting. I've been doing this for more than a year now, and, with all due respect, one or two clicks is hardly worth the effort.
      
      A few weeks ago, one of my articles was topping close to 10,000 hits a day. That's called traffic. That comes from search engines like Google, AOL, Yahoo, and Bing. Only between 2% and 5% of my traffic comes from HP. And when I have high numbers of hits from search engines, it's about 1%.
      
      That said, there might be another dynamic here. Every website, in order to remain in business, needs a certain element of 'stickiness.' This means that one has to keep its people on the site. That kind of interaction would work well. And, of course, it's in all our interests that HP remains a viable option!

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         LuisEGonzalezposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         You are right and  I agree, I just think that is just one more way of getting traffic and more exposure, after all I do not see how it can hurt.

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            Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            It does hurt, because some people that don't want other people's hubs on their home page. There's a reason we're allowed to select the hubbers we want to follow.
            
            Also there are issues with what a good or interesting hub is.
            
            For instance, if someone has a thousand followers and he thinks that an article on men on the moon might be an interesting topic. Two hundred and fifty might agree but the other seven hundred and fifty will be somewhere between highly irritated and just be relaxed about it and ignore it.
            
            The point is that I think HP should give us an opt out button where we can opt out of being shared with.

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               paxwillposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Shares only show on the actual feeds page, which outside visitors never see.  Your profile has a less extensive feed at the bottom that only shows when you start following someone, someone follows you, or you when you write a comment/question/answer/hub or whatever.  But I've never seen others' articles on my profile page.
               
               Nevertheless, I agree with you that the sharing needs some opt in/out controls.  As it is now, when someone over-shares to the point of annoyance, I simply stop following that person.  A few weeks ago I stopped following a member who shared every single freaking hub he wrote.

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  It's just rude to share new Hubs with your followers, considering they already get a notification.  I can see the point in sharing an old Hub you've substantially updated, because there's no other way to let your followers know.

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                     Cardisaposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     I know, I feel bad because a did the same thing a couple months ago. The person shared about 30 or more hubs per day, it got to me. I was really frustrated with it. Now I have another dilemma of someone I really like sharing every freaking hubs they read and it's a lot! I don't mind a few hubs like two or even three or four, but sharing all the hubs you read is just overwhelming!

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                     Richieb799posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     I share a hub once every several ones I make if I think its educational, I might not do that if it upsets people. How do they see a hub shared anyhow? I still haven't found out how to get that RSS feed at the bottom yet

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                        Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        Bear in mind, if someone follows you and wants to get notified of your new Hubs, they've already received an email notifying them.  If they've chosen not to get emailed when you publish a new Hub, then obviously they've made a choice and you should respect that, don't you think?

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                           Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           And, that, Marisa, is the point exactly!

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   innersmiffposted 12 years ago

   I say only share it if you actually believe the article to be worth reading, no more, no less. What's the point if the same average articles are being shared around all over the place? Where is the incentive to improve your articles if all of them are being shared and are getting lots of views anyway?
   
   Maybe I'm give you all too much credit and you just want to make money

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   soni2006posted 12 years ago

   Do you know I am getting just 1% to 2% of my traffic internally. I am bringing unique visitors from outside the site. Least involvement internally due to my busy schedule but I am trying to increase my internal traffic again so that I can earn more from HP Ad program.

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      Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      soni2006, what you just said doesn't make sense. One doesn't earn from internal traffic. One earns from external traffic. Or am I  mistaken over here??? Does HP traffic refer to hub traffic as well?

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         LuisEGonzalezposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         No, you are right. We earn through external traffic but all sources are counted as far as traffic

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            Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Traffic is irrelevant if it isn't earning - unless one is just interested in fame, friendship, etc.

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         WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         HP has never actually released information on whether internal views get paid per impression or not. I considered the same question but can't find a clear answer.
         
         I assume they filter out our own views of our hubs, but what about other hubbers?

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   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   My site interaction is for fun, friendship, and messing around only.
   
   Then again, I have initiated some mutual traffic building projects.
   
   Might be time to do another one of those...

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   awareposted 12 years ago

   a lesson in traffic

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   relacheposted 12 years ago

   No one makes you have to read Hubs or follow people or link to other people's Hubs.  If you don't want to do those things, then just don't. 
   
   I tend to eschew the whole social thing and my traffic and earnings just keep increasing year after year.

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   awareposted 12 years ago

   traffic lesson

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    awareposted 12 years ago

    who wants traffic
    ?

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    Greekgeekposted 12 years ago

    Yeah, I'm very conservative on whom I choose to follow, and just had to unfollow one chatty soul who is a sweet fellow but is definitely treating it as social media.
    
    Nearly every website is jumping on the social media platform. Livejournal, which was a place to share and post writing and art long before anyone had heard of social media, has driven away most of its loyal base of the last 10 years by trying to become more like Facebook. Squidoo added activity points and trophies and all that *bleeping bleep* using Farmville as a model, because social games tend to keep people active on a site (which Hubpages does in a more dignified form with badges). I think Dreamwidth is the only writers' site resisting the trend.
    
    I simply bookmarked my Hubpages "account" page showing daily traffic and a list of hubs, and go there to login to Hubpages, bypassing the activity stream. Now and then I check it, but it's usually a way to procrastinate rather than get writing done. I have a suspicion that the more we writers succumb to social media, the less time we'll find we're actually writing.
    
    Question: is there a way to turn off the numbers in that green square up top? I want to be notified of comments on MY hubs that I need to moderate, but I don't want to feel like i've got "unfinished business", click on that number, and let myself get distracted.
    
    As I just did, oops!

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    sunforgedposted 12 years ago

    Its doubtful that HP would filter out ANY views for the HP ads program, A viewer is a viewer is a viewer to the brands running impression ads. The HP advertising material clearly showcases the user base as part of the draw to advertising here.
    
    
    but, that's just a technicality, Its hard to imagine the internal traffic will add up to anything worth smiling over in hpad impressions.
    
    I also skip the feed as I have all the important links stuck in the online writers toolbar.

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       IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       I just found out that they do.
       
       I started a new subdomain recently that focuses on a pretty high-brow topic. I'm not chasing a keyword here, because it doesn't pay highly - at least yet.
       
       I get maximum 10 views a day, well its early to tell, for 2 days I had no views, then 3 or 4, does it matter because according to HP there were no impressions, so no earnings.
       
       All the views up till now have been from Hp and they have all been discounted.

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    IzzyMposted 12 years ago

    Getting back to the OP's point, HP has always been a kind of social network, encouraging others to comment on hubs and leave feedback.
    
    Look on it as backlinks, which help you and them.
    
    Nothing strengthens the site more than having this interaction between users. It's for your benefit too!

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       Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

       Izzy, I'm really doubtful that being socially active on HP will raise one's PR.

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          IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          No it is more than being socially active, but some part of that activity does raise PR.

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             Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

             Izzy. How?

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                Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                Any activity on a website is a good thing, Google doesn't really care if it's internal or external.  For instance, the forum on HP gets a lot of activity - and even though it's not paying traffic, it enhances the site in Google's eyes.
                
                However, I think you'd have to be awfully active in getting comments and views within HP to make a significant contribution to your sub-domain's PR.

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                   Sophia Angeliqueposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                   "However, I think you'd have to be awfully active in getting comments and views within HP to make a significant contribution to your sub-domain's PR."
                   
                   Which is precisely my point. The flame isn't worth the candle. Better invest my time elsewhere. The only reason I come to the forums is to talk - not for traffic.
                   
                   However, the point is that we now have quite a bit of hub traffic we didn't ask for on our feeds...

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    awareposted 12 years ago

    Social? Or antisocial?. Aren't those the only two choices?

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    rebekahELLEposted 12 years ago

    Let each hubber decide how they want to use the site, it's for everybody. Some enjoy the social aspect of it, and obviously anyone starting threads enjoys the interaction and feedback. There's nothing wrong with using the features that HP has provided. And if one doesn't want to use them, that's fine also. Social networking can be beneficial, just ask anyone with a hub that went viral or those whose hubs have picked up decent traffic and backlinks from a simple tweet or a FB like.

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    awareposted 12 years ago

    This society and many of its citizens . Have solid ideas on how  to hone  this civilization  to better fit all.  Social ,civil, interaction  between all of the personally   vested is needed for betterment.  i dont do face book or twitter. i write  here and push  my ideas in   political , literature, and religious chat rooms.   is it possible for us all to build a better hubpages? or  is it set in stone? thats a question?
    for jason

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