folowing on the new sites

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   Lionrhodposted 8 years ago

   I just TRIED to follow a person on Pethelpful. Couldn't figure out how - no buttons for it. So HOW is this done and WHY isn't it easy?

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      Christy Kirwanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Profiles and community functions still exist only on HubPages.com, not on niche sites, though we do want to build community features for those sites in the future.

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         Lionrhodposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         right. so we follow...how?

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            Christy Kirwanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Clicking on a Hubber's profile on a niche site should still take you to his/her profile on HubPages.com where you can follow him/her as usual.

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               Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Christy, it's not working the way you just described. I tried it both signed in and not signed in on the niche site. In both cases clicking on the Hubber's profile simply shows a pop up of their profile description from HubPages.com. It does not provide any way of following and it does not bring one to the profile on HubPages.com.

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            2. 97

               EricDockettposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Christy: As Glenn noted, clicking the Hubber's name on one of the niche sites only brings up a pop-up with profile text. You then need to click on the Hubber's name again (in the pop-up) to get to their actual profile where you can follow and see the rest of the their work.
               
               It seems unlikely that many visitors will click the second time, thinking instead the pop-up is all they are going to get.

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                  Lionrhodposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks! I would never have figured that one out! And if I was just a casual visitor, not a hubber, I wouldn't have gotten as far as asking.
                  
                  Needs a bit of fixing? Yeah, I think so. The new sites aren't supposed to LOSE our audience, right?

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               Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               Christy, I agree with Eric. It's unlikely that visitors will click a second time to get to a Hubber's profile. I didn't even realize that was a way to get to their profile until I read what Eric wrote in his comment. I'm the kind of person who experiments with all possibilities, and yet I still missed it. I doubt visitors will know that. And they definitely will not experiment. It should require just one click, as it is on HubPages.com itself.

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                  Christy Kirwanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks Glenn and Eric, it sounds like this might be a bug. I'll look into it.

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                  Christy Kirwanposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  I checked in with the rest of the Team and the overlay still links to the Hubber's profile (which is how you would follow him/her). We open the mini bio in an overlay in order to have a consistent user experience where the reader is not taken to HubPages out of the blue when that person was under the impression they were browsing a particular topic-specific site.

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                     paradigmsearchposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     Not to mention the fact that doing a link from the hub to the HubPages domain would have resulted in PetHelpful having over a 1000 direct links to HubPages; definitely not a good idea. When I killed off 95% of the HubPages links on my website sometime back, my website traffic literally doubled within a month and has remained so ever since; I kid you not. Yep, multiple links to a Panda embargoed site is indeed a screaming SEO no-no.

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                        Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        paradigmsearch, Good point! Based on Christy's reply and your explanation with SEO concerns of links back to HubPages, I think the design of the niche sites has been well thought out.

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                        ryanpugsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        It shouldn't be a problem if the links have the nofollow attribute. It would be a big problem if they are passing juice.

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                     Lionrhodposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     Yes, but if you need to click more than once to follow (or even find out that's possible)...bad move.
                     It's an internet standard that you NEVER force someone to click extra times to get them to do something you want them to do.

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   paradigmsearchposted 8 years ago

   The niche sites are for the search engines, the whole search engines, and nothing but the search engines. The rest of it can basically go hang. Such is my take.

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      SmartAndFunposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      So succinct. Para, you do have a way with words!

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   Will Apseposted 8 years ago

   On a different, but niche-related note, I sincerely hope 'bellatory' has some kind of meaning to Americans or to some significant group. I wouldn't even know how to pronounce it.
   
   My associations come up with:
   
   battery
   belatedly
   a beast from a medieval bestiary
   
   edit: Just found this is in an ancient tome:
   
   'A Bellatory ravaged the lands of Thrace in that year and the people fled before it'

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      Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I'm worried about the domain names too! It's not that hard to find decent ones if you put in some effort, seems HubPages hasn't.

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         gerimcclymposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Perhaps hubbers who write on beauty or fashion (or even hubbers who don't) and aren't happy with the current name for the niche site can propose other names...
         
         I don't currently have any hubs on beauty or fashion, but I propose....
         
         Bellísima 
         
         Other suggestions....?

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            Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Bellatory is live, there's no way they're going to change the name now

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               gerimcclymposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               In this case, it would be great to be given a say in the new niche site names before they are live. I would love for us, hubbers, to have the opportunity to vote among various names proposed by HP for each new niche site OR to offer our suggestions for the new niche site names and then vote among the options. I will contact HP directly with this suggestion. Perhaps this has been brought up in another thread...

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                  Lionrhodposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Excellent idea. With names like "Bellatory" (whatever the heck that's supposed to mean) it seems like the folks in charge need a bit of marketing help. Then again, I suppose it depends on what domain names are available too.
                  
                  I might work on a few articles for the pet site, but much as I love pets, that's not my main focus right now in my writing.
                  
                  As for tattoos...I don't have one, don't want one. Can't imagine writing about them.
                  
                  Question - IF you plan on writing for a specific site, is there a way to submit TOWARDS that one as a preference?
                  
                  I hope they get around to some niche sites that are more relevant to my writing AND AREN'T OVERDONE every other site on the web ( such crafts, travel, cooking, etc). A pagan site? A writing site? (Guess I won't hold my breath.)

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                     gerimcclymposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     yes, the domain availability would matter, and I think Bellisima is taken anyway. Another hubber suggested BellaMia which I think sounds appropriately beautiful (and fashionable) but in any event, Bellatory it is...
                     
                     I don't know if we will eventually will be able to submit our hubs directly towards specific niche sites...it would be great if we could, and I suspect this may have been addressed at some point. It's hard for me to keep up with all the changes...
                     
                     
                     Also, to address your concern about niche sites that are more relevant to your writing topics, I believe that HP has indicated that there will be niche sites to cover most (if not all) topics currently covered on the main site.
                     
                     We'll have to wait and see how things develop...

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                        Lionrhodposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                        Glad to hear about the niche sites covering everything. I agree that it'd be great if we could submit directly, though that might be HP's method of quality control for the niches. Keep everything on HP that isn't the best and the niche sites may do better. And eventually phase out HP itself?
                        
                        Hate to see that, but it could be a possibility. As Google may de-rank anything that doesn't end up on the niches, and writers who want their articles to rank well and may well move them to their own sites. Leading to a further downslide.
                        
                        I don't mean to be the harbinger of doom, but I could see it playing out that way. Maybe it won't.
                        
                        I realize that they're starting out by looking at newer hubs. I hope that eventually older hubs could at least APPLY to go on the new sites..

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                           Solarasposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                           You "apply" by updating your hub. Then it may get a look see.

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                     Solarasposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     I don't know about a pagan site, but a paranormal site that included pagan, wicca etc might be possible.  There used to be a lot of paranormal traffic here.  I don't know if it still draws the way it used to.

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         Bronwyn Joy Ellioposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         You seem surprised by that, Marissa.

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      gerimcclymposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Lol. Yes, and it also brings to mind "predatory" and "territory".
      
      Not an appealing name for a niche site.

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         WriteAngledposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Bella-Tory = beautiful Tory
         Well I suppose it might appeal to those who support David Cameron, and similarly will probably repel those who hate him...
         
         I read that our beautiful Conservative features "skin, hair, and fashion mavens"
         Maven is one of those odd words that practically nobody uses except when playing Scrabble
         Certainly I have never heard it said by anyone in more than 60 years of life.

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            Will Apseposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            There were once Whigs and Tories in the US. The Whigs were the insurrectionists and the Tories were the loyal Royalists during the American Revolution.
            
            I would be amazed if 1 per cent of Americans have ever heard of a Tory, though.

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      ryanpugsposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      In fairness to Hubpages, fashion is probably one of the more competitive niches so probably pretty difficult to find decent available domains.
      
      I did contact Paul Edmondson and offer my assistance (free of charge), because I basically move in domaining circles and would have been happy to put feelers out to see what I could find at wholesale / trade prices.
      
      He replied that they'd already acquired domains for most niches.
      
      Ultimately the domain name isn't going to matter from a search perspective, and the short term goal is to clearly try and lift some content out of whatever algorithms are currently holding the site down.
      
      But in terms of a longer term strategy of developing a following and these sites standing on their own two feet as individual and distinct brands with  a regular readership..... I think it certainly does matter then.
      
      That said, if they succeed and hubpages finds that it can spend some money then changing the domain name for the more successful sites isn't going to be all that difficult, presumably the redirects from hubpages just go to the new domain and then any links leading to the current niche domains are also redirecting to a new domain.
      
      Perhaps the point here is that Hubpages is going to launch dozens of niche sites, and then allocate their time time and new capital pro-rata into those which prove successful. Understandable really.
      
      Perhaps those which work will evolve and those which don't wont.
      
      Google robots aren't going to care less about the domain as long as its a .com and not a three or four word exact match domain.

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   Lionrhodposted 8 years ago

   Bellatory? Is that an actual suggestion or a joke? Bellisima is far better, I agree, though I personally am not the person to talk about fashion or beauty or anything close. Unless gray hair and broomstick cotton skirts suddenly becomes fashionable.
   Meanwhile,can we hope for some sites that are relevant coming up?
   Fashion,travel,finance,TV, music, painting your nails, anything that is OPTIONAL and costs more than $20. NOT freaking relevant in my life.
   Food, pets, writing, yes, relevant.

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