Multiple Changes on Hubs

1. 92

   Jean Bakulaposted 10 years ago

   I have finally completed my 3rd 8 hour marathon of bringing my hubs up to the current standards. I feel angry, but am going to try not to be nasty. I understand you want written hubs of quality, and feel that I have delivered that, since all of my hubs are featured.
   
   But these changes have been much too time consuming. Couldn't you make them retroactive, so if a person was writing on HP for several years, they would not have to continually go back and keep fixing things up? When some people begin online writing, they have a huge learning curve. I did. So all of my pictures weren't attributed correctly, and I've been gradually fixing that. But it takes long to find good photos, especially for someone who writes about metaphysical topics. All of my hubs are long, I take long to express myself verbally and in writing. Thankfully none of them were too short.
   
   When it comes down to getting a "tip" that I have a subtitle that is in all capital letters, I think you are crossing the line from correct form to nitpicking. Obviously, a subtitle in caps is meant to be that way to stand out, especially in a hub that already may have many pictures, videos, and a lot of color in it. Also, I have hubs that feature people of certain groups, like singers or writers, and one Amazon item is not enough of a selection, especially if you are still pretending the Amazon capsules are supposed to help us make more money. If I have 5 different singers, obviously one CD cannot represent them all.
   
   So as far as I am concerned, I have finished my corrections, and will not even consider making any more. That's it, I'm done. I did read a "tip" that said there was a place to opt out of making any changes, but I never did see this. Probably because of my throbbing headache.

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   1. 69

      Matthew Meyerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Style tips are recommendations and as such are not requirements.
      Authors have the latitude to take the style tips into account and apply these suggestions as they deem they are relevant to their Hubs.
      
      Retroactively making design changes to Hubs is more complicated than it may seem on the surface.
      
      We explain our reasoning behind creating the style tips in more detail here.
      The LC: http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/HubP … iting-Tips
      
      The key thing to remember is that the style tips are not requirements, but suggestions

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      1. 92

         Jean Bakulaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Hello Matthew,
         Thank you for your reply. I did understand that although the tips were not strict requirements, nobody is completely sure why Google is not our friend at HP lately. So if we do not try to see how we can get back in their good graces, we would only be hurting ourselves if our hubs don't get read enough.
         
         Hopefully in the future other search engines will become more powerful and will give Google a better run for their money. I also see TimeTraveler2 recommended keeping the amount of hubs under 100, which is a good idea. I think I will even out my hub number (I'm not taking any down) and leave it where it stands, unless I see my traffic getting even lower. Take care.

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         1. 72

            Barbara Kayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Jean, At this point suggestions are a wild guess anyways. Google may like them and Google may not. It does help to keep things updated though and I know for a fact Google likes that.
            
            I'll admit that I have been a little ticked when first they said Amazon and eBay capsules shouldn't have more than 2 offerings and then changed it to just 1. I don't have all day to keep changing hubs either.

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      2. 0

         calculus-geometryposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I think the concern is that today's suggestions are tomorrow's mandates. As in, HubPages will suddenly idle (unfeature) hubs that have graphic dividers, all-caps subheadings, etc.

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2. 74

   brakel2posted 10 years ago

   Dear Jean  I am sorry you had to spend so many hours fixing your hubs. When you have so many hubs, it is so time consuming. You have my blessings for better days ahead.  Hugs.  Audrey

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3. 78

   LeanManposted 10 years ago

   The problem is as I see things is that not so long ago you could have as many adverts, links, amazon ads or anything else on your webpage either here at HP or elsewhere and it would have no effect on your ranking with google. As long as you had the right keywords stuffed into your page and enough links with the right anchor text google would keep throwing visitors your way.
   The trouble is it became a contest to see who could stuff in the most keywords and get the most links from anywhere and nothing to do with the content on the page; so google had to change how it decides if a page is worth visiting and not rely on these measures quite so much.....
   So the guys at HP with millions of pages to experiment with and gather data from have noticed that having lots of ads to Amazon is detrimental to a page's performance - so to help us they are suggesting that we only have one ad attached to a block of text. To help the site overall they are enforcing it - because too many bad pages drags down the whole site. then they have made more observations and made more changes and on and on and on......
   
   So while we may be cursing HP, it is really Google that is causing the problem or to be more accurate ourselves for trying to game the system to earn more money and forcing Google to get smarter!
   
   So yes things change.. and we have to change with it or we will vanish from the search engines like a prehistoric species of internet writers......
   
   But yes it is a pain in the posterior region!!!!!

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   1. 92

      Jean Bakulaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Audrey,
      I am very lucky to have your hugs and blessings. It's just taken so much time to fix it all. When I came here, my computer skills consisted of email and being the treasurer of my local Democratic Club, which required a balance sheet and ledger, things of that nature.
      
      I always wanted to write, and finally had time to do it. I still love to write, and understand Google is mainly responsible for these changes. I don't really care about the money that much. But Hubpages is not taking rational steps. You need to change one thing at a time to have a control. If you change too many things at once, as they are, you cannot see which issue in the group is causing the problems. As LeanMan said, a lot of people were gaming the system when I came in at the very end of 2010. When no duplicate content was allowed, that took many people out of that game.
      
      I have not hub hopped in the last few days, I've put a lot of time in here. I think the overall quality of writing is good now, compared to what it was.
      
      Technology changes fast, and it's hard to keep up with it. But after you have a body of work, it really is a pain to keep it up to date. Now when I write on other sites I know a lot more. They don't vary a lot, but for some reason Hubpages does have a loyal group of writers. In spite of my tantrum, I still do like it here. I'd just like to write one piece, and then go on to the next, without revisiting hubs I haven't looked at since early 2011. I'll calm down, and hopefully we will get more answers. The "Title in All Caps" thing was flat out stupid.

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   2. 72

      Barbara Kayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      LeanMan, The truth is that Google likes links that take you to good information on the subject, but they don't like lots of ads. Try typing in Google search "Free Crochet Doll Patterns" and see what the first results are. They are all pages of links.
      
      Google Adsense wants you to limit links to 100 per page. You need to count the links to other hubs and ads. I know Hubpages is telling us this, but in some of the categories that I write, Google likes the links.

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      1. 92

         Jean Bakulaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Barbara,
         It sure is a wild guess. I tried to work on the changes little by little, and there are many people who have a lot more hubs than me. I thought I was done, but no. I have a group that has Part 1 on here and Part 2 on my blog, and for some reason the links were all messed up. I have a bad habit of making these changes late at night, when I apparently am not at my mental best.
         
         I've learned a lot on HP, and still like writing here the best. I was just feeling cranky. Yet here I am again tonight. I think I'm finally caught up now. If the next round of changes does not sound worth it, I won't do it. Thanks for weighing in!

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4. 87

   Victoria Lynnposted 10 years ago

   That's frustrating! One of my "tips" was to get rid of the dividers I had between sections. I thought they looked cool. I've seen some pretty decorative ones on hubs, and I like them. I think that's nit-picking, too. Some of the tips have been okay, though, and worth looking at, I guess. :-)

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   1. 92

      Jean Bakulaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Victoria Lynn,
      What I meant to say was maybe changes could be "Grandfathered" like in real estate. It really is a chore to go back to hubs that are a few years old and change them. I do that sometimes anyway, if I happen to be on an old one and know more now so I can make it better. Of course, if we choose not to comply with the changes, we do so at our own risk. If people don't read our stuff, then to a degree we have brought it on ourselves.
      
      I've seen some hubs that have dividers and thought they looked good. The format gets boring sometimes and you need a change. Somebody once called me out on putting all my photos on the right side, but now it seems you need to unless you want gigantic photos. If you want a dramatic ending to your hub, put a giant photo at the bottom. It may look normal when you find it, but due to the photo change they are really big. And the old ones come out looking too small. I truly feel this is the most annoying issue, and can't see how resizing photos will make Google care any more or less about HP. I still maintain that one change at a time is the only way to isolate the problem or problems. Thanks for the sympathy though! Take care.

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      1. 84

         TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         All of this stuff is exactly why I try to limit my article count to around 100. More than that becomes burdensome and time consuming.  Even 100 can be problematic.

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         1. 84

            TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            BTW  I have always tried to keep my hubs at that approximate level.  Doing so may mean fewer page views, but it also means less tedious work like the things you are talking about here, Jean.  I could probably cut my numbers in half and get just as many views as I'm getting right now with 100 or so!

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            1. 92

               Jean Bakulaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Hi TimeTraveler2,
               I did get to 100 or so hubs a long time ago, and then began exploring writing on other sites. Plus I took a year to build up content on my blog. So lately I just had some time, and got an idea for a new Astrology thing, and they usually end up in groups of 12, because once I get going, I like to cover all 12 signs. It's so OCD, I know.
               
               I need to write one more for a topic I've been working on, and have some pieces I want to put on another site. You are right, I'd never want to have to go back and do all those changes with even more hubs. Plus I didn't even make the payout in August, when I did for a whole year. So I have to see if things improve, but even then I think your advice is good.

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