How can I improve this hub

1. 80

   lbsf1posted 10 years ago

   Hi guys
   
   I'm not 100% sure if we are allowed to ask questions like this on the forum, if not then sorry to the mods, just close this topic.
   
   I have written a hub that I think is of good quality, it includes lots of useful information and advice, however it doesn't get featured due to quality. Other "quality" hubs that I have written get seen by the powers that be and are featured however this one doesn't. Every time it is rejected I go through it, reread it and make sure its the best it can be and then edit some stuff if I see something that could be reworded or optimised. The thing is I have now ran out of ways I can think to improve it at all. It is difficult to include media for this topic so I simply have one image, the hub is over 850 words long.
   
   The hub is about helping people make the correct choices for their A-levels (aged 16-17 year olds in the UK), I'm currently nearing the end of my A-Levels and when I help out at open days parents and students always ask me about advice on choosing subjects, so I thought I would write a guide on how to make a good informed decision on what subjects to choose. However it doesn't get featured so won't show up in search engines and thus won't  reach my target market.
   
   The hub is here http://lbsf1.hubpages.com/hub/Choosing- … l-subjects if any experienced hubbers could give it a quick read and give some advice on how I may be able to improve it.
   
   Thanks
   Luke

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2. 60

   paradigmsearchposted 10 years ago

   Get rid of the bolding in the first capsule. Add 3 more pretty pictures. The hub will then pass.
   
   HP likes pretty.
   
   I'll spare everyone another one of my QAP rants.

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3. 0

   Natasha Petersposted 10 years ago

   As paradigmsearch said, you could add more pictures (and source them properly! If you're not sure how, read this: http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/legal-image-use). You could also add a few interactive features like polls.
   
   Also, perhaps you should break up your paragraphs into different text capsules instead of just bolding a line as a heading when you have something new to say. I would also comb through your writing and ensure it flows - some of your grammar is a little disjointed.
   
   Hubpages has its own advice and tips available at the learning center.
   http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/How- … y-of-a-Hub
   
   Good luck!

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4. 83

   belleartposted 10 years ago

   HP now have the little thing up at the right corner of your hubs in edit mode that show you what you should add to your hub to enhance the chances of becoming featured.  Such features include Pictures-of good quality, polls, videos and other stuff like this.  You only have two pics at the moment, you should only need 1 more, then add a poll or question and your hub should be featured.  Separate your hub into pieces (which you have done but I mean in different capsules, rather than under different headings).  This will look like there is more content, when in fact there is the same amount.  Its definitely a great hub, informative and concise so I don't see it not being featured if you add these changes. 
   
   Good luck

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5. 90

   Millionaire Tipsposted 10 years ago

   As someone from Ohio, I have no idea what an A-level course is.  I would recommend starting off explaining what it is and what country (countries?) it applies to. I am assuming from your hub that sometime after you are done taking your required courses, you are then allowed to choose what additional classes you want to take (in high school?) We're allowed to take electives too, although you can take them anytime instead of just at the end, so you may be able to expand the hub more globally if you want.
   
   Having no idea what it is, I did skim it and It also seemed really general to me.  Tell me specifically what types of courses are available - or at least give examples. How do you choose balanced subjects? How can you recognize "bad advice"? I can't see how recommending more math is bad advice.  At this point, the advice I see from you is to take at least one respected course and let the rest of them be fun courses. Not knowing your definition of "fun" for a course,  I'm not sure that is what I would recommend to my daughter.

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   1. 80

      lbsf1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      The UK education is quite unique and I was only really going for the UK target audience, I will put at the beginning of the hub that it is only really applicable if you from the UK.
      
      In short at 16 you finish your "general" education and then most people go to sixth form to study A-levels (recently however there has been a push to get more people to take vocational courses), A levels are taken for 2 years, there are no compulsory subjects you can chose exactly what courses you want to take. There are a huge range of courses/subjects so its not really practical to go into details on each one (different sixth forms also use a selection of different exams boards whose exact content varies).
      
      I haven't gone into detail about the system in the hub because schools do a good job of explaining that part to students, schools don't however do a good just at providing advice for making the best decision for that student.
      
      The bad advice I was talking about is teachers who tell you that you "need" to take their subject at their sixth form, when in reality other subjects or sixth forms may be better suited to you. For example there were lots of people who had no interest in going into anything maths related however my teacher was telling them that they needed to take maths A-level. I know lots of other people with similar stories about teachers bias advice.
      
      I will try and explain the bit about "fun" subjects better in the hub. However A-level courses are generally very demanding and if you don't enjoy the subject they you simply won't have the motivation to put the work in (my computing coursework is over 50k words and 250 pages so far this year, and that excludes the actual program I have to create.). Lots of people do take the 1 serious subject, 2-3 enjoyable subject route and it can be a sensible idea. Also UK university courses are very specific and often require you to have taken certain A-levels, thus the advice about research being key.
      
      I'm trying to keep the advice general enough that it is good for most people, however at the same time specific enough to be of use.
      
      It's a bit difficult to explain to someone who isn't from the UK I will be honest as your system  is quite confusing with students required to make large choices at 14 then even larger choices at 16 which both effect their whole future.
      
      Thanks for your advice however, I didn't think about how confusing the hub could be to those outside the UK and thus will amend it to make sure that its obvious the advice is UK only.

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6. 94

   Beth Eaglescliffeposted 10 years ago

   It may be useful for you to look at your Google Analytics to see where your hub views are coming from. Unless you have a hub that goes viral (and if you want to earn from writing on HP that is), you may do better if you write your hubs so that they are relevant to as wide an audience as possible (i.e. not just UK).
   
   For example, I'm in UK but 90-95% of my views come from people in US, so I try to make my hubs more appealing to my audience by using US spellings and quoting US as well as UK statistics (if relevant).

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   1. 80

      lbsf1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Cheers for your advice. I will bear that in mind when writing future hubs.
      
      I forgot completely about google analytics and the amount of stuff it can do (I have been using youtube for quite a while and their software), being a physicsy mathsy guy I love my stats, hehe.
      
      So far I have 24 hits from the UK and 6 from the US since I started 4 days ago (After my 2 year hiatus), I'm not sure how many of those are from me and how many are from other peoples though.

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      1. 94

         Beth Eaglescliffeposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Toggle the Google Analytics to show you towns rather than countries. If you find that a large proportion of those views are from your home town, you can assume they were made by you as you edited and constructed the hub (and therefore should be removed from your calculations).

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         1. 80

            lbsf1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Cheers. You are a star!
            
            Only about 10 are from my direct area, so 14 from the UK in 4 days doesn't sound bad at all.

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7. 84

   psycheskinnerposted 10 years ago

   Your advice could be more specific or perhaps give examples.  Right now it could be distilled down to: choose stuff you like and that you might need for your degree/career.

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8. 80

   VictoriaSheffieldposted 10 years ago

   Since I have been on Hubpages, I've had a few like this and no matter how I change the Hubs they still won't feature them. Sometimes I feel that they just do not want to feature them at all for some reason. So what I do in this case is transfer them to my personal blog then delete them.

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9. 80

   lbsf1posted 10 years ago

   It's been featured now!
   
   Thanks for all your help everyone.

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   1. 90

      Millionaire Tipsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Congratulations! When I read your article, I figured it was good enough to be featured. The next step is to keep working on it so that it will be highly read and profitable!

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      1. 81

         Moon Daisyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Ah, I just saw that your hub's been featured.  That's great!  So feel free to ignore my post, looks like you had enough good advice already!

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10. 81

    Moon Daisyposted 10 years ago

    Hi Ibsf1, I would echo what other people have said about grammar; there are a lot of grammatical points that could be improved on to make it read better.  For example using apostrophes. When you're shortening "it is", it should become "it's" rather than "its".  And arn't isn't a word, it should be aren't.  You're also using very long sentences.  It would be easier to read if you broke these up into several smaller sentences, and also used more commas.
    
    Sorry if this is being pedantic.  I know that grammar's not the be all and end all.  It's just that if something's easier to read then more people will read it!
    
    You've included a lot of useful information and it's nicely ordered and well thought-out.  But it's worth bearing in mind that this is a subject that's already been written about a lot.  So you're competing with a lot of similar stuff on the web, and you'd probably need to have a unique angle to be heard amongst all the others.
    
    I also think that you're writing for a very small audience.  Like you say, this subject applies to people in countries where they study A-levels.  (This isn't just the UK btw, as you can see here, but it's still limited). 
    
    Despite this, (or maybe because of this..) I'm not sure I'd keep the underlined disclaimer at the top.  You don't want to turn people away from anything that you write!  It might stop people from reading who may actually have enjoyed it.  Some people may be interested in education systems in other countries, and some of the advice and considerations may well be transferable to other education systems.
    
    Just my two-penneth!

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