Different Types Of Hubs - For Different Types Of Success & Traffic

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   Suzanne Dayposted 10 years ago

   OK, I want to talk about different types of hubs and how they work regarding traffic and success. Here are some types I've identified below:
   
   1. It's interesting or funny. It's eyecatching and has brilliant photos. It is something at least half the world wants to know about. This hub does well on social media (Facebook, Pinterest, Google+, Reddit etc).
   
   2. It has keyword rich words and sells useful stuff. People want to go there because there's no information on what to buy and what does the best job. This hub does well in organic search results because it answers questions not currently answered correctly. No social media needed.
   
   3. This is a brand, like the famous Billybuc. People love the writing and follow the author, who is well known. They want to read it because it emotes something in them. They just want more and more. No keyword research or social media needed (though it helps).
   
   I'd love to hear about any other types of hubs and how they traffic best. The three examples above are what I have observed.

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      rohanfelixposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the enlightening information Suzanne! People like me, who are trying desperately to make a mark on HubPages will find this very handy.

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         Suzanne Dayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Rohan. It's not exactly rocket science, but hopefully can save you many hours of frustration where not needed. If you have a very social style of hub, why torture yourself for hours with keywords when it will perform better on social media? And if you have an answer to an important question....why put it on social media and bore people to death when it is better off being ranked for Google?

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            rohanfelixposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Very true!

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      Ilona1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for the checklist of what makes hubs popular. The comments helped too.

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   grand old ladyposted 10 years ago

   Oftentimes EricDieker writes about interesting topics and he writes them well. The topics aren't the type you would think will gain popularity, but somehow you realize they are things you can identify with and they work. Dunno where this category fits in, though.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Ericdieker himself admits that his Hubs don't get much traffic, so I don't think they qualify in this category.

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         Suzanne Dayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         You're probably right Marissa, I wouldn't put him in these categories. But I would maybe put him in a different category of "Unusual Individuals" who can attract people by being out there, quirky, interesting, sometimes controversial and definitely colourful. The world would be a boring place without them!
         
         I guess though that today I am thinking about the putting all the eggs in one basket thing. I notice that Pinterest has blocked Hubpages overnight, which means that social media hubs would need to have other elements in them as well as just the social media to survive social blocking.
         
         Having said that, it can be fairly easy for good Google ranked hubs with quality backlinking to still be slapped down by Panda-like algorithm changes, any changes to the importance of backlinks or they could just be beaten by bigger competition at any time.
         
         So it all boils down to writing interesting stuff - to make the most of it all. I'm not really keen to start my own blog or anything at this point, so making the most of Hubpages is where I'm at.

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   Suzanne Dayposted 10 years ago

   And I guess there's people who have mastered all 3 items - FlourishAnyway and GlimmerTwinFan come to mind - they do all of the items.
   
   It just makes sense that different types of hubs will perform best in different areas of promotion or marketing or function. I have been testing it out a bit, and the three I've come up with certainly seem to work well most of the time when marketed in the way they need.

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      FlourishAnywayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      That's a nice compliment, Suzanne.  Thank you.

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         Suzanne Dayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Your hubs certainly seem to tick all the boxes - they're interesting to read, travel well socially, seem to be relevant to organic search in many ways, are of human interest, and people want to read more of you because you're an interesting and creative writer! (Plus you do the marketing of both yourself and others quite well and are a positive influence for your followers).

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   susi10posted 10 years ago

   Great list Suzanne! I guess as a member here my hubs would rely mainly on organic traffic, a little from Pinterest and from my followers. I have thought of two more:
   
   A stellar hub with over 1500 words and beautiful pictures which covers a topic not covered online yet and will get a constant stream of traffic each day.
   
   A hub which has a Made For Pinterest graphic as the cover image and gets a lot of traffic from Pinterest.

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      Suzanne Dayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for your suggestions. Yes, I forgot about Stellar hubs!

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   jansharesposted 10 years ago

   Great observations, Suzanne Day. I defintely see those categories with several hubbers and understand why they work so well. I would add this  category from my experience:
   Hubs about universally irritating issues that people encounter everyday will do well with Google and garner a lot of organic traffic. You don't have to promote them on social media because people all over the world are constantly looking for ways to deal with human experience.

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      Suzanne Dayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I agree, hubs like fixing household appliances and relationships etc do seem to do well in organic search once properly researched.

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   bn9900posted 10 years ago

   Well being successful also means really enjoying the topic you are writing about, because then you know the topic inside and out.

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      Suzanne Dayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      +1, plus you also feel like writing over 1000 words with a few synonyms thrown in. And I think it just shows in the writing when you feel passionate about something.

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   Suzanne Dayposted 10 years ago

   Here's another category - you come up with something AMZINGLY BRILLIANT and out there, like "top 10 weird noses on space creatures" and while no one may search Google for it, if you have a big enough social circle, you can get it happening. These kind of things MIGHT turn viral (if they're share worthy). Usually there's not much competition in Google, but you run the risk of no one seeing it if it isn't shared extensively...

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      Suzanne Dayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Have a better example for this one. Remember the viral pics going round with cats in them with captions? (I think they're called LOL cats). Imagine coming up with something unique like that in a hub!

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