What would be next to learn after the learning center?

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   tsmogposted 8 years ago

   Having been on HP now for more than four years while kinda' inactive for the last two I am looking more closely. I have cleaned up my portfolio from over 100 hubs with low views to now about 10. I had a lean of writing more for self than as a business venture seeking a niche. Now, I am looking more closely at successful Hubbers to learn from the best as I 'listen' in the forums.
   
   My plan at this stage when time allows is to begin anew firstly by rereading the learning center and the TOS. However, I really know little of SEO practices including how large does social media following need to be. For instance how many follow my accounts at Twitter or Facebook. A disadvantage could be is I do not own a smart phone or tablet. Do any feel that would be advantageous for success with views for Hubs being marketed with social media?
   
   Or, is the success of a hub seeking views largely stand alone. The success with views is the result of Hub's niche, SEO practices with the Hub aimed at the niche, and/or also having a blog or website with that niche. Another question is how long in general until a Hub of quality may receive substantial views? I have heard it may take a year or more.
   
   Thank you for any replies. I am sure those will have both worth and value.

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      NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I think most traffic, especially sustained traffic, comes from using the right keyphrases in the title of the article; meaning you've researched search volume and competition of that keyphrase, use it in the title and write good content on the subject matter. The keyphrase has to be in demand, you have to supply that demand and the competition has to be in some way "weak".
      
      If you've done all that, traffic can become significant within 3 months, 6 months, 8 months, even a year or more, depending. Not exactly certain why some take longer than others, except I'm sure it has something to do with the factors mentioned: search volume (demand) and competition.
      
      I think social media is important mostly in the sense of people finding your work in the search engine and sharing it, naturally. Google primarily wants natural backlinks and sharing.

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         tsmogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Thank You NateB11. I have been pondering what I am an expert of. I think a good idea is to research the market with key phrases based on that at first. Social media I really am not looking forward to a lot of followers except maybe Twitter, Stumbleupon, or others. I do not wish for a large following at Facebook being more family & friend orientated.
         
         If I understand backlinking that is when another site or someone links to the article. Is that where there is value with having a blog comes in?

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            NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, backlinks are links that go to your article. Google tends to like natural backlinks, meaning someone just reads your article and links to it. As opposed to you the writer going around and placing links to your own articles.
            
            The value of the backlink depends on the authority of the site that is linking to your article.
            
            Google penalizes for too many unnatural backlinks, that's what the Penguin algorithm update is about. I don't think it's damaging to put some backlinks out there that bring in some traffic, but I tend not to use backlinks too much. Interestingly, if your article is out there people will naturally link to it.
            
            All of this, by the way, is why some sites don't allow backlinks or limit them. It can be a problem in terms of ranking with Google on the results pages.

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               Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               I am learning a lot from these discussions. I use some keywords at times, but am not sure whether they are most searched or not. My traffic is very low with 5190 views in all these 15 months. I share all my articles on Facebook and G+ and most on twitter also. But my followers are very few, within 50.
               I do not understand backlinking. How do they do it?

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                  NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  A backlink is a link, somewhere on the Web, to your article; it could be from a blog, for instance.

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               tsmogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               NateB11 . . . what does a nofollow mean? I really do not understand what it is or the value regarding the Hub?

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                  NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  nofollow links are links that the search engine won't count when it comes to ranking in the results pages. The value of nofollow links is that you don't want some links to count as far as the search engine goes; like affiliate links and even some other links on a website; for instance, I think some people make their privacy policy page nofollow.
                  
                  I think the main value of having nofollow links is that too many outgoing links can look bad as far as Google is concerned. Making some of them not count can improve SEO. Those outgoing links are supposed to have a purpose in terms of value; giving the reader some kind of necessary information.
                  
                  Internal linking is generally good. It helps the reader navigate a site.

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                     tsmogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     Thank you NateB11! How does being less than 85 meaning links will be a no follow mean. Does that mean the hubs internal links to another hub is not active? And/or are only links external the hub and hubpages not followed? I get the jest of what you shared, but I am always reading the rule of 85 and do not understand how that affects me as a hubber with hubs.
                     
                     Again, thank you very much for sharing this very, very valuable information with great worth of least for me. :-) Sharing is I have at one time had over 100 hubs, however I wrote some 2 years back at the brink of the trend toward a 'different' quality of hubs. I don't remember which panda or penquin hit then. At that time my life changed dramatically as well leading to inactivity here. The 'new' learning process is both challenging and fun too!!!

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                        NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        When your Hubber score is below 85, it means any links you have on your profile and Hubs will no longer count in the search engine. Many people put links to their own sites/blogs in Hubs because HP has good authority with Google, so a link from HP is considered valuable and could have a positive effect (help the position of your own blog/site in the search results). This, of course, can get abused and some users will exploit HP to use it as a link farm and then HP gets hurt by this because Google doesn't like link farms. This is why, I think, HP restricts outgoing links to the same domain on Hubs. Also, people could be using Hubs to funnel traffic to a site where they sell stuff, which is a no-no with Google too.
                        
                        Score should be differentiated from featured and unfeatured status. When your Hub is unfeatured, it means the search engine no longer sees it and it will not be indexed (seen on the search engine).

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                           Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                           What about the buttons on our profile page? We have buttons linking to our facebook, twitter and own website on the right hand top side of our profile. They are not affected by no-follow, I hope. You must be referring only to links that we put to divert people to our own articles. That is not accepted or highlighted to visitors.

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                              NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                              No, those are just social sharing buttons, pretty much all websites have them. backlinks are usually on blogs and forum threads.

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                                 Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                                 Thanks for the clarification.

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   ChristinSposted 8 years ago

   Regarding Facebook
   
   Set up a separate page from your personal page.  Log into your FB as normal, on the lefthand side look for the "pages" link.  Click it.  In there is the option to create a page.  Create a page for yourself as a freelancer and post your article links there.  You can invite whoever you wish to "like" your new page and get followers that way. 
   
   With your new page devoted solely to you, the freelancer - join groups that center around your niche writing topics.  Without spamming - share your and other helpful information around the same niches as per the rules of that particular group. 
   
   Pinterest
   
   This depends largely on the subject matter of your hubs!  Hubs that are very women friendly (cooking, crafts, how-to's, DIY, home improvement, fashion, humor, entertainment etc etc.) can do well and keep sustained traffic from Pinterest if you dedicate some time to it.  The biggest thing with Pinterest is to develop Pinterest friendly images - there are numerous hubs on how to do this.  You don't have to be a Photoshop master - you can use free things like PicMonkey for example and develop custom images that are Pinterest friendly.  You'll find if your material appeals to the Pinterest crowds you'll get a lot of people who read and pin your hub. A little more than half of my 1,100,000+ views is from Pinterest due to my taking time to create great title images and creating amazing Pinterest boards around specific themes.  (The boards themselves often rank quite highly in Google)
   
   A great Pinterest board title would NOT be "Cool vintage stuff I like" but a good SEO board title that is very specific "Vintage Victorian Graphics with Animals" for example - create boards that are very specific and keyword phrase oriented then pin not only your material - but other resources that others would find valuable. 
   
   You can start group boards on Pinterest as well where you allow other people to also pin to that board.
   
   In regards to SEO the best "keyword research" doesn't have to be that involved in my experience.  I use my browser and up top I type in the main subject of what I'm writing about and see what kind of suggested searches drop down.  Those suggested searches give me ideas of what people are specifically searching for regarding that topic. 
   
   Once I have an idea of a few phrases, I Google those phrases to check out the competition - if it's something I will absolutely never rank for, I probably won't write about it, or if I do choose to go ahead, I will make sure it is a piece that is written more for "social media" (Pinterest) than for search engine ranking.  I've done well with this strategy. 
   
   As for Twitter - my humble opinion is it sucks and is not worth the amount of time it sucks up.  I rarely get any traffic from Twitter because it's all a bunch of people seeking retweets and not really sharing like they do on Pinterest with the idea of sharing things others find useful.  It's more shameful self promotion, everything whizzes by really fast and people never see it so why bother? 
   
   That's my 2 or 3 cents on the subject for what it's worth

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      tsmogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Wow!! Christin S . . . Thank you So Much! :-) The FB strategy I had not considered and will look into that for sure. I knew I could set up a new FB account with a different phone number, but was not aware of creating a 'New Page'. That makes good sense and I can see its value.
      
      The info on Pinterest is very complete and immense. More than 2¢ worth . . . closer to a 'saw buck'. :-) The perspective of gender specific and niche specific is something to ponder and focus on. I have been inactive there for about two years as well as writing hubs here. My goal with pinterest is sharing my work, which I never really did. And, sharing friends works not necessarily Hub related. For example friends at FAA and Zazzle maybe.
      
      I will look into creating images for Pinterest too! Pondering I think seeking a Niche for Pinterest offers value as you strongly suggested for a Niche here at HP. I can see where a strategy for focus comes alive. Thank you again!!!

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   jansharesposted 8 years ago

   When I first came to HP the motto was "keep writing." I thought this was cliche but now I understand. In my experience here, the more you write, the more you learn. The more quality hubs you have, the more successful you can be.
   I also believe in the value of looking at the work of successful hubbers, particularly formatting and use of the hubtool. Of course writing technique is very individual, writing style is developed, which makes the hub unique and interesting.
   I wish you luck, tsmog, as you transform your subdomain. Peace.

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      tsmogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I agree and thank you janshares! I have always bent an ear listening to you in the answer section :-) as well as now. I think you are correct. I have been reading 'Editor Choice' hubs on the topics I am interested in writing within.
      
      A lot of my recent looking about is realizing what a niche 'really' is vs. an opinion/explanation article with the first person perspective. I did too much of that style of writing in the beginning with too many hubs. When to use that perspective is important and seems to be less is better. However, I did learn how to 'Format' a hub.

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   DrMark1961posted 8 years ago

   You are getting some great advice here. After reading the learning center, I have found that reading the forums have been most useful for gaining tips and being successful. That takes a lot of time but the effort is worth it.
   I have done well here and want to point out that Nate´s tip about keywords is the best way to help potential readers find your hub, but the best way to get more readers and plenty of backlinks is by writing original and useful material. When people read your material, they will link to it and your rankings on the search engines will also improve, giving you more readers. It is a good circle.
   I am not sure if the links on social media are as helpful but they are a great way to get started. I have one hub with over 35,000 readers from Pinterest, almost that many from the various FBs, but only about 300 from Google.com. They might see that most of those readers come from a few sources and are not as likely to rank the article high on the SERPs. An article with a lot of different backlinks, however, seems to rank higher. (I do not bother using FB but do post all of my hubs to my Pinterest account since I enjoy looking at different images of dogs and know those I post on there are shared often.)
   Good luck following all of these strategies. Keep on reading!!

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      tsmogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you DrMark1961 :-) It is apparent understanding keywords offers great value. Its usage and how to use the tools in my view are where a focus should be placed. Pinterest appears to be in the 'Gold Zone' per se vs. others. I have not really seen much on others here in the forums - Stumbleupon, Twitter, Reddit, and even FB.
      
      How does anyone feel about Twitter having value as a means for sharing with followers as an announcement specific to a 'Niche Topic' at Twitter. For instance DrMark1961 your niche. Looking up Dog Accounts I see there are 102 accounts in that category whereas German Shepard has only 15. I am interested in NHRA drag Racing and it also has 102 for NHRA and 102 for drag racing while a great many repeat. A niche within of interest to me is the 'ProStock' class having only 6. At twitter is a photo category on the header marque too for accounts. The photos offer a hashtag link with it. Any thoughts?

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   DrMark1961posted 8 years ago

   I wasted some time setting up contacts on Twitter with interests in dogs, but I think Christin is correct and that site is really a waste of time. Even on a hub that gets a lot of outside readers, I am lucky if I see 25 or so from Twitter.
   People might say they are interested in NHRA, for example, so you follow them and they follow you back. You put up an article about NHRA for them to read but very few even bother. Most of them will just put that down as an area of interest just so that they can get more followers, or, what is worse, market something that they think you care about.
   I used to bother adding hashtags so that my photos would have exposure on twitter also but now do not even bother.

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   Renee Abbottposted 8 years ago

   This is excellent, as a great source of information. I too have been inactive for a couple years, while working on short stories. I have saved this, so I can come back to it often. Great question, and wonderful responses. This is pleasing to see.
   
   Renee

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