Time to get out of Hubpages?

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   Page1 SEO tacticsposted 11 years ago

   djdaniel has some really great points about knowing how the Internet works and earning money on it,  I went to school for this stuff, so there really is truth behind his words.

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2. 59

   emilgen2011posted 11 years ago

   Sorry to see you go Gaizy...
   
   Hmmm why not try oDesk and test your writing skills there... this is a place where you can find clients, though the competition here is stiff and its quite difficult at the beginning to erect your reputation and credibility...
   
   But still, for me HubPages is the best, and I keep on coming back to write hubs here. I tried Infobarrel, Squidoo and Wizzely, but nothing comes close HubPages, for this site is always the place I can call home online... The people here are great, amiable and helpful and the traffic I get makes me feel so good whether they come in droves or not...

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3. 88

   mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years ago

   There often seems to be confusion over the overly promotional rule. HP states the rule as follows:
   
   "Purely promotional offers and Hubs designed only to promote other sites or businesses are not allowed. In particular, the following actions are likely to get your Hubs identified as overly promotional:
   
       including more than 2 links to any one domain
       linking to the same domain in the body of the text AND in an RSS feed
       short "teasers" with links to "read more" at another site
       linking to sites/pages/Hubs that are unrelated to your Hub's topic
       including links to a page that contains largely the same content as your Hub
   
   Please note that promotional links are links that you have any interest in promoting (your blog, your Website, affiliate offers, etc.). Links to well-known Web resources which you don't have any personal interest in (like Wikipedia, news sites, encyclopedias, open directories, etc.) are exempt from this limitation."
   
   Basically if I write a hub that explains how to grow vegetables in containers for instance, and then include a link back to my personal vegetable growing website then that is perfectly okay. My article is relevant, the article wasn't written solely to promote my website and it isn't a 'teaser' article article either. If the links are to sites like Wikipedia etc you are not limited to two links but can have as many as you like. I frequently link to my vegetable growing website, but only on articles I write here about various aspects of gardening. It has never been a problem or broken any rules. The key is in the first sentence of the HP rule "Purely promotional offers and Hubs designed 'only' to promote other sites or businesses are not allowed."  therefore writing an article and linking back to your own relevant website is perfectly okay providing you don't fall foul of any of the 'overly promotional' crimes on the list above, e.g. linking more than twice to the domain or linking your own site that is on a topic unrelated to the article here.

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   1. 0

      Billie Paglioloposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      My husband and I created an educational software program for teachers and parents.  I wrote a hub about how to use that software and linked to my site.  I think I included other free sources as well, but to be honest, I was hoping that someone might purchase our product. My hub was deleted for being overly promotional.  I can understand why and I can see why corporations shouldn't be able to do that,  but I would love to find a community like hubpages where SMALL businesses would have an opportunity write an article and link to a site. There's truly a need out there for this.

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      1. 88

         mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         The problem was that your article as you describe it was written 'only' to promote your product, and that is where you unfortunately fell foul of the HP rules. Perhaps if you approached it a different way and wrote an article that explored the educational problems teachers and parents face today etc, then you could state that one great solution was a new software program blah blah blah, and then hyperlink the relevant text back to your website.
         
         I should also add that my hubby and I run a small fishing lake, and I have linked to our website in my articles on 'How to Build a Fishing Lake', 'How to Fish for Carp' etc etc, and not had any problems with that either, so it is possible to find ways to promote your own small business without breaking any rules here.

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         1. 0

            Billie Paglioloposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks so much Misty.  I'll check to see how you did that.  I thought I added other resources to my hub, but I can't remember and it's off completely, so I don't have it.  But I'll try your suggestions. Again, much thanks.

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               mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

               You are welcome, I am glad to be of help

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      2. 60

         djdaniel150posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Wow Billie, You create games, software? Hmmm Maybe we could put some of your games on my website. Are you still trying to sell the educational software? My site is educational. I could throw up a banner for you somewhere for free, I have plenty of space.

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         1. 0

            Billie Paglioloposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Daniel, (I think, right?) My regular email is leftpawedpuppy@gmail.com.  I'd love to exchange banners and information.  Networking is dynamic.  Thank you. Just put djdaniel in the subject line.

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      3. 86

         Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Did you write an article saying how great your educational software program was and why people should buy it?  That's a press release or an advertorial, not a magazine article.   
         
         As Misty says, take a less direct approach and you'll be fine.  For instance, discuss the problem that the educational software seeks to solve, then mention the product as a solution at the end.  Do a review of a variety of software programs including your own. 
         
         I notice you haven't added your website link in your profile - you should do that.

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            Billie Paglioloposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I didn't think we could add our website link to our profile.  Thanks!

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            1. 88

               mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

               You can't any more, only links to your Facebook profile, Twitter Profile etc. Annoyingly we can't even add referral tracker links to our profile now, so you can't even make extra money from recruiting new members on a profile. Shame really, it was a good marketing tool for those who utilised it, (personally I only had a referral tracker on mine, no personal websites.)

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                  Billie Paglioloposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                  oh boy.  Confusing.

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                  1. 88

                     mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     It really isn't that bad so don't worry. If you go to edit your profile page the boxes for your Facebook, Twitter etc profile links are clearly labelled, and all you need to do is insert the link into them where relevant. Don't worry about the referral tracker stuff, you can insert those links on your hubs if you want to try to recruit new writers in order to make extra income.

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                  2. 86

                     Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                     It is confusing because Misty is actually wrong (which is highly unusual!).     You can put your website link in the "website" field - it's under  "Links" when you edit your profile.  It will then show up in the top right hand corner of your profile where it says "also follow me on..."

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                        mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                        You are absolutely right Marisa, and what is worse is that when I just went to double check I realise that I had already added my website link to my own profile at some point. I can only apologise to Billie and blame it on the two or three (or maybe four) glasses of wine I had consumed when I typed my answer out last night. Good job you had your eye on the thread Marisa or Billie would have been none the wiser. 

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                        1. 0

                           Billie Paglioloposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                           You two are great.  I just joined weightwatchers so my wine just got limited unless I want to run 5 miles   I'm not expecting any improvement in my errors, however.

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                              mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                              That must be depressing Billie. Can't you get someone to drop you at a bar 5 miles away, then you can drink some wine and run home afterwards?

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                                 Billie Paglioloposted 11 years agoin reply to this

                                 I LOVE it!  I need T-shirts printed up:  "Will Run for Wine"

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                                    mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

                                    LOL, good plan

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4. 75

   Robert Erichposted 11 years ago

   Hey man, I'm sorry to hear that. My viewership dropped a lot too at the beginning of this month, but is has slowly picked back up. I would give it through next month before totally throwing in the towel.
   
   Something that may help you out is looking over your old hubs and editing them. Sometimes a few nasty grammar errors or poor organization can cause problems with the search engine. Lastly, make sure that you have relevant "tags" for your articles. Use the Google keyword tool to add tags that people are searching for - this has helped shoot up my views quite significantly.
   
   Good luck man!

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5. 83

   Marcy Goodfleischposted 11 years ago

   I haven't read through the entire thread yet, but in case it hasn't been mentioned, Paul E told us back when the views dropped in September that it would take 5-6 weeks or something like that for the corrective measures HP took to kick in and take effect.  I agree with Robert - give things more time. Google is always messing with the system, and it appears the things they do heavily affect sites that host multiple writers. And, of course, the glitch where our Q&A posts were churned through as web pages was a problem. 
   
   The site always demonstrates it is hard at work to create a good venue for publishing, and that they're working hard to improve quality and rankings.

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   1. 84

      AlexK2009posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Agreed, we should always be reviewing whether to stay here or not. I am seeing a  lot more red arrows than before but  my earnings have not recovered as fast.

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6. 74

   brakel2posted 11 years ago

   Snippets of Hp articles were stolen and are still up - maybe 200?  of them, as they linked back to HP but with a dead link. They have our hub titles. Mine was right there next to the scraped site. It was all reported. You can't win.

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   1. 60

      djdaniel150posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Sue them! That's what I'm planning to do! Anyone who steals my content will end up homeless in the street eating from a trash can, and I will have no sympathy for them when their paycheck is deposited to my account every time they get paid. This is what judgments are for! The fact that people are still stealing content on the internet proves just how stupid people really are. Google does not allow for duplicate content at all, and they will grade sites lower because of it. Google has made it so that there is no point in bothering to steal content anymore. Once it reused, its worthless.

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      1. 88

         mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

         As I understand it from some top web experts I know, many of whom are also top former hubbers here who left in disgust at the way HP treated them when they offered excellent advice around the time things began to go majorly wrong (and were ignored), Google ONLY care about duplicate content if it is all on the same site, and are totally not bothered about it being in multiple places otherwise. The common misconception is that they DO care at all. Trust me, these people get paid thousands a month for their advice and this is their main profession, not writing simple articles for a living like the rest of us.

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            djdaniel150posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            Definitely wrong misty! Duplicate content in any form is bad news! Look up "duplicate content" from your Google webmaster tools account, or on Google webmaster central. Yes, Google takes into great consideration duplicate content posted to multiple sites. Paying people for advice doesn't mean its good advice. HP has their own SEO team I'm sure, and they obviously haven't a clue as to what they are doing. In my opinion I'd estimate that about 99% of SEO specialists couldn't optimize my cats litter box much less a website. They all claim to be specialists, yet none of them seem to know HTML or CSS, and this has alot to do with SEO, ALOT!

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            1. 88

               mistyhorizon2003posted 11 years agoin reply to this

               Quotes from the following 'Google Webmaster Central Forum'. Might clear things up a bit:
               
               "Let's put this to bed once and for all, folks: There's no such thing as a "duplicate content penalty." At least, not in the way most people mean when they say that.
               There are some penalties that are related to the idea of having the same content as another site—for example, if you're scraping content from other sites and republishing it, or if you republish content without adding any additional value. These tactics are clearly outlined (and discouraged) in our Webmaster Guidelines"
               
               "Duplicate content on a site is not grounds for action on that site unless it appears that the intent of the duplicate content is to be deceptive and manipulate search engine results. If your site suffers from duplicate content issues, and you don't follow the advice listed above, we do a good job of choosing a version of the content to show in our search results."
               
               "This type of non-malicious duplication is fairly common, especially since many CMSs don't handle this well by default. So when people say that having this type of duplicate content can affect your site, it's not because you're likely to be penalized; it's simply due to the way that web sites and search engines work."
               
               " If you're a webmaster of beginner-to-intermediate savviness, you probably don't need to put too much energy into worrying about duplicate content, since most search engines have ways of handling it.
               
               You can help your fellow webmasters by not perpetuating the myth of duplicate content penalties! The remedies for duplicate content are entirely within your control."
               
               
               
               Link: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot. … nalty.html
               
               I do not condone duplicate content in any form, but it does appear to be a mistake to assume that this is why a site is apparently 'penalised' by Google, especially if you simply happen to have your own article on two sites by your own choice.

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