What are you doing since the plummet?

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   charliegrumplesposted 11 years ago

   Just curious what others are doing. I've gone from around 500 daily hits to 96 just now and it's not been much higher for weeks. Whether it will come back, who knows but I wondered if people were still posting here, moving their hubs or just abandoning HP .... For now, I'm leaving my current ones but no new posts and if it stays at this level I'll move the better ones at least though I'll give it a few months to see if there's a bounce back.

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   1. 86

      IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      My traffic has never returned since it plunged last August.
      
      I continued to publish new hubs right through to earlier this year, and that was a complete waste of time. I also edited many, many hubs, changed titles, keyword density, RSS feeds, removed what I thought might be 'weak' hubs, had loads of childish forum hissy fits, and nothing has changed.
      
      My advice is to start new subdomains if you wish to continue writing, and leave your main account well alone, unless you know what caused the drop.
      
      My new subdomains are doing well, especially those on niche topics, although there is no evidence to suggest than writing in niches is the way to go.

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         charliegrumplesposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, I have two other subdomains which I rarely post to and they don't get as many visits but they haven't really been affected. The problem though is that the new hub programme relates to each subdomain rather than relating to your adsense account across all the hubs so that strategy only works if you don't use the hubpages ad programme sadly

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         1. 86

            IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I do use HP ad program.
            
            This month I expect a payout on two of my subdomains, and next month it should be 3 (fingers crossed).
            
            If you put a few keyword researched hubs out on each subdomain, you should eventually reach a state where each hits payout.
            
            The trouble with one big account, like mine, is that when it is slapped, ALL of your hubs lose traffic and earning potential.
            
            If I had split this subdomain into 10 or more new subdomains, I bet I would be getting a heck of a lot more payouts than I am currently.
            
            My new subdomains are paying out with less than 20 hubs each, so think what 500 could earn, spread across the board!

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               CASE1WORKERposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               I think you have the formula Izzy; oh yes and the time and the skill to do work this to your advantage!
               I do think they way forward is niche accounts- not ony that they are easier to write for- you know the main topic!

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               1. 86

                  IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  I'm working on a theory just now to try and fix this account. Unfortunately for me, it means editing each and every hub! If it doesn't work, I only have to wait another 3 months until the year is up, assuming I've been sandboxed.
                  
                  If, after that, there is no change, I will move all the hubs here to niche subdomains. That really is a last resort because I first have to track down and remove all the copies out there other people have stolen from me, else I won't be able to re-publish them.
                  
                  They will lose their age, but it can't be helped.
                  
                  Hopefully, it won't come to that, though.

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                  1. 63

                     ThunderKeysposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     Hi IzzyM I'm so sorry to hear that you've been having such a bad time with the Google changes.
                     
                     May I ask how you remove copies of your hubs that people have stolen and reproduced? I've had the same problem with some of my articles. What are the steps?

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                        IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                        Usually the first step would be to contact the webmaster, and ask them to remove it. There is usually a 'contact page' on the site.
                        
                        If that doesn't work, I file a DMCA through that Google form they have for it - you'll find it in webmaster's tools.
                        
                        If the copy is on a blogger blog, Google have another form for that too.
                        
                        It's not always successful because some foreign language sites reply to Google using the counter-allegation form, and Google then wash their hands, saying I need to employ a lawyer to take it forward!
                        
                        If I am lucky, the site them takes down the copy anyway.
                        
                        I had to rewrite one hub after a Chinese site stole it, and it was then copied by half of China!! That is not a word of a lie - it was a big news site that stole it, then everyone else copied it. There were thousands of copies!
                        
                        Google rubbed salt on the wounds by placing all those sites above mine in their search engine.
                        
                        I am pretty sure HP have a hub on what to do if you find your hubs copied out there on the web, in the Learning Centre.

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                           ThunderKeysposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                           Thank you so much for the detailed reply IzzyM. That is just crazy about the Chinese plagiarizing!
                           
                           I haven't had any hubs copied yet that I know of but I've seen my "the pro marriage counselor" blogger blog articles copy pasted into cheap advertisement pages. They even copy my "pen name" for the blog the pro marriage counselor with the article text. It's insane.
                           
                           I'm seeing an inordinate amount of traffic from the same unfriendly country recently. They always just search for my website address sometimes 100s of times per day from the same search engine.

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            2. 0

               Ghaelachposted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Hi Izzy.
               I followed Charlie's advise a few weeks ago and changed 95% of my titles and immediately got an increase in traffic. It did fall of again so I went back and did a keyword search and replaced with what I think is the best. Again I have an increase and hope this time it stays.
               A problem with a lot of people is that they don't understand how Keyword really works and I'm one of those, although I'm getting better at it. Keyword research is the Keyword and must be done right to have any success.
               LOL Ghaelach

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               1. 86

                  IzzyMposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  Yes keyword research and good, search-for titles are definitely the way to go, so that is excellent advice.
                  
                  Unfortunately, those changes do not help a slapped account.

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2. 53

   janderson99posted 11 years ago

   I've built 3 websites for articles in relatively narrow topics and I am now working on a 4th. Don't expect to yield much fruit from these for 3-6 months (2 are new URLs and 2 are 12 months old).
   Lots of baskets + lots of eggs on the way.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I agree with the basket and eggs - it's safer to have variety. Okay, you can run into trouble with spreading yourself too thinly, but in the long term, you can always keep the sites that do well and drop the poor ones -(the articles that appeared on the poor ones can often be recycled, so aren't wasted.)

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3. 95

   PaulGoodman67posted 11 years ago

   I generally go with what Izzy says, with the proviso that you should also focus on writing in different places, as it is not unfeasible that the entire HP could get hit at some point by Google (sounds drastic but it's happened before). I am therefore working on other projects in other places currently whilst I wait out my latest plunge and see what happens. 
   
   If nothing improves then I will start up another HP account as Izzy suggests.  My delay in setting up other accounts is because, firstly, it will take time to build up the income stream and reach payout with the new account, and secondly, I confess to having some uncertainties about HP's long term future.  Much as I love HP, I don't feel that I can afford to be over loyal to it and projects at other sites seem like better insurance than more HP ones.

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4. 39

   charliegrumplesposted 11 years ago

   interestingly, 2 of my hubs went back to approaching what they were and my overall just under half which is an improvement .. will keep my eyes peeled .. maybe we are coming out of whatever caused it.

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