Questions and Comments to Express

1. 0

   JimLowposted 14 years ago

   I have several things to post about, so I'll just do so, in no particular orderly fashion.
   First, I noticed lots of my Amazon links to my personal ebooks dropped off my articles with most now only showning one link or none. I'm going to show some ignorance here but I believe I remember seeing HubPages policy being that lower number ratings cause less link availability and less prominent placing of Hubs on the site. I wonder if this may be why my Amazon links dropped because I know for a fact the products still have live/active links available to them. Also, my rating has not dropped below the 80s and I've watched it pretty close but I may have overlooked what that number needs to maintain for links to remain. If administration dropped the links for another reason, it would be nice to hear from them, as to why they did so. I eagerly await with eyes open.
   This brings me to a suggestion for HubPages Administration: I have 244 hubs published here and I feel such a large base should merit the rating not dropping below a minimum. I realize they must nudge members to publish more but the rating being able to drop even with Hubs in the 100s seems a bit unfair (respectfully). I noticed just this week that when my rating was 86, I publisged a new hub and replied to several posts and my rating dropped from 86 to 81. These type fluctuations which I've seen before sometimes do not make sense.
   How about it administrators, any chance we who have 100s of hubs could keep a bare-minimum rating, so we don't lost significant ad-availability or placement?
   If my ads falling off was a fluke, I apologise for pointing a finger at administration but I still want my minimum-hub-minimum-rating suggestion considered please. My work schedule since the recession with two sales companies has become incredible and so I have to concentrate more of Hub publishing than on posting comments. I'm pretty sure the site revenue and for us members is more-so in the Hubs that in comments that might direct a few more readers to Hubs.
   Thanks for the opportunity to express this and nothing was meant in disrespect. I appreciate this site!

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2. 72

   relacheposted 14 years ago

   The no-follow policy only kicks in if your Hubs score below 40, and your author score drops below 75, and relates to link capsules or links inserted into text capsules.  There are numerous places on this website that details this policy.
   
   What you are describing sounds more like a problem with the product feed from Amazon.  HubPages can't always do something to fix that as the issue can sometimes be entirely on the Amazon end.

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3. 0

   JimLowposted 14 years ago

   Thanks for the reply.
   I knew similar policies apply at other sites and I write for several others personally including HowToDoThings and Suite101 but the rating system here fluctuates like no other site I've seen. I'm not saying that is a bad thing if it works for them.
   
   I tested using different ways to post those dropped Amazon links and they will not post regardless however, I know how to do more troubleshooting in regard to that.
   
   My rating here has been above mid-90s at times and I suppose I could do like some Hubbers that have far less articles but do lots of brief commenting and keep the rating up. My point about the rating not dropping below a certain point for authors with high-numbers of hubs is because articles are where the adsense goes, not on comments and 100s of article contributed takes many hours of work. I realize it's a two way street and we benefit as well as the administration if not collectively better, I just feel a minimun status for numbers of hubs at 100 or more (for example) would be reasonable.

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4. 83

   Whitney05posted 14 years ago

   I don't think I understand you...
   
   Because you have a hubber rank in the 80s, you feel that is causing google ads to sometimes not appear?
   
   The ads are from Google, so if they can't figure out what is relevant, then you may not see ads.
   
   As for the amazon products. Are you using links or the ASIN or ISBN number? You only need that number to post a product.
   
   They use a table to to figure out hubber rank. http://hubpages.com/faq/#authorstatus

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5. 0

   JimLowposted 14 years ago

   Whitney,
   Google ads haven't been affected whatsoever. It's my Amazon links which I am set up to post and have been doing so for two years. I have used all methods for posting Amazon links, including ISBN #s and key words. Posting them has never been a problem. This is a first in two years.
   My suspicion is that either my rating caused this to happen or possibly administration thought I was promoting my own Amazon ebooks too much. If that were the case however, I would love to have heard from them before my ability to post Amazon links was blocked. I'm a comply-type-person and have always honored site policies unless inadvertantly at times I've broken a rule here and there. It's possible it's a problem not related to administration but the links had to be manually taken off and now, even when I try to post Amazon links that aren't to my own ebooks/audios, I can't do that either.
   I've looked in my admin-area and my approved amazon affiliate number is still posted correctly. It's definitely not Amazon blocking my linking because I can still do so on other sites. Right now it's a mystery and I was actually hoping someone with administration might come along and reply on this thread. My experience has been that they are pretty much silent when contacted directly and may be due to very high number of contacts they get. Emails I sent in reference to questions I had the first year or so I published here also didn't receive replies, so I stopped attempting email contact.
   Again, I'm almost certain the ads were blocked but I have no idea why. I also haven't posted more than 4 or 5 Amazon links per Hub and never the same one twice on one article (although audio & ebook titles can be very similar on same subjects). I'm stumped to be honest with you.

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6. 79

   Uninvited Writerposted 14 years ago

   Have you checked to see if those cut ads are for items that are still available?

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7. 72

   livewithrichardposted 14 years ago

   Are you saying that you posted anchor text links to your personal amazon products inside the body of your hub instead of using an amazon capsule?  I'm pretty sure using the amazon capsule instead of text links will prevent this from happening no matter what your hub or hubber score is.

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8. STAFF

   Fawntiaposted 14 years ago

   So, to be clear, you are using the Amazon capsule and for some reason the products you are expecting to be displayed are not showing up. Is that correct? Can you give me a specific example? I.e., which product is not showing up on which hub?
   
   Your hub score has nothing to do with what is displayed in your Amazon capsules.

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9. 0

   JimLowposted 14 years ago

   Thanks everyone.
   
   (Also: Fawntia, I see you are with HubPages Admin, so if possible please let me know anything additional you might find out. Thank you!)
   
   I think maybe I'm not being as descriptive as I should be.
   These are not discontinued Amazon products/links, in fact I can use keywords to post related links and this too is blocked. Even if the block is a bug, it should not have caused Amazon links to disappear on all 244 articles (actually 245, I just posted a new Hub). Does that make sense?
   I always use the capsules and have never done else-wise.
   My affiliate setting in my account-area is posted fine, so I have no idea why Amazon is disallowed on my Hubs.
   
   Also, I've been editor of websites, have created several of my own, have been trained in HTML. It's not something I'm doing incorrectly. Maybe it's a virus?

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10. STAFF

    Fawntiaposted 14 years ago

    JimLow, I see Amazon products on your hub entitled "My Diagnosis Of Thyroid Disease And Adrenal Fatigue/CFS," including in your share of impressions. If you can point me to a hub that has a problem, then maybe I will be able to help.

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11. 0

    JimLowposted 14 years ago

    I also thought about taking my Amazon affiliate number out of my account to see if they will post after that. If they do, I'll know it is a problem with Amazon.
    I really don't care if I get the referral fee on my personal Amazon products, I just like being able to promote them on Hubs.
    
    I'm off to test this right now!
    
    Whoops Fawntia, our posts crossed eachother! Anyway, I'll just say that my audios that are available through Amazon's CreateSpace division are the only ones that stayed on my Hubs, the other hundreds of links all dissapeared, literally from every Hub I have here.
    
    I'll let you know what happens when I test posting without my Amazon affiliate link in my admin-area.

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12. 0

    JimLowposted 14 years ago

    Fawntia,
    
    My affilliate link-area won't let me "cancel" my Amazon number to test my theory to see if it's a problem at Amazon.
    
    I'm honestly at a loss but may have to settle on posting the CreateSpace Amazon products, which will be fine with me.
    
    It's really a strange phenomenon because literally hundreds of Amazon links simply disappeared off my Hubs.
    
    At my guest-editorship site at BellaOnline, my links there have not budged. Here's an example page, where you can see some of the same links I've posted here (that disappeared) that are still live and active there>>
    http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art58084.asp

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13. STAFF

    Fawntiaposted 14 years ago

    It may simply be that Amazon has decided to remove those items from their associates program. There are some items (fancy chocolates, for example) that Amazon chooses not to include.
    
    If that is the issue, which I'm beginning to think it might be, then I'm afraid that there isn't anything we can do about it. That is my best guess at this point.

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14. 0

    JimLowposted 14 years ago

    Fawntia, even if they did remove them from the associates program, it's strange that it would cause the links to be removed. That didn't happen at the above link-example I provided from BellaOnline Thyroid Health.
    I feel like a gremlin has struck (LOL)!

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15. STAFF

    Fawntiaposted 14 years ago

    Ok, well if your links are still appearing on other sites, then perhaps I am wrong. All I know is that we are getting no results from Amazon when we ask them for links to certain products that you have chosen, so I think that it is probably Amazon's side of things (especially since other hubbers do not seem to be having problems).

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16. STAFF

    Fawntiaposted 14 years ago

    This is what Amazon is telling us when I try to grab the item with ASIN B00275EWUA: "This item is not accessible through ECS." ECS stands form E-Commerce Service. Basically, Amazon is saying that we can't use that item. Maybe Amazon can give you more answers.

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17. 0

    JimLowposted 14 years ago

    Fawntia,
    
    I believe you are right and it's beginning to appear to be a problem at Amazon. I've done further testing of links and these titles are available at Amazon but my associate number added, causes them not to appear.
    Very strange because at BellaOnline Thyroid Health I click the adds and the link in the brower shows the affilate code!
    
    Very, very wierd!
    
    I apologise to HubPages for originally wondering about this as being related to rating etc... Sorry about that! I did want to look at all possibilities, trying to figure this out.
    
    Here for example is the link to my Hypothyroidism ebook and shows it live on Amazon.>
    http://www.amazon.com/A-Complete-Look-a … B001D49E5Y
    
    I'll just move forward from here and post those it allows me to!
    
    One more think I'll mention is that I've sold 23 ebooks this month which is considerably lower than previous months but would seem to be a reasonable number. It could be that some titles are dropped from the Associates program if sales don't meet a set minimum. The thing that hit me hardest was seeing hundreds of links drop off I spent many hours posting. Oh well.
    
    Thanks so much for your help!

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18. 77

    rider_tigerposted 14 years ago

    Dear Jim,
    I believe you would like to suggest that people with a lot of hubs (at least a hundred) would be rewarded with a minimum rating. They actually addressed this problem by saying that no can do Here is the actual note, and it pretty much answers your question on that:
    "Note that simply publishing a lot of Hubs won’t boost your Status. This is to prevent spammers from simply dumping loads of content on HubPages. Spammers tend to pack content full of keywords just to drive traffic to their site. Our HubScore algorithm alerts us to these people, and we automatically lower their HubScore (Note the designation on the chart below labeled “Stop” and “Spammer”, and the corresponding low HubScore.)
    
    To boost your Hubber Score, your content must be original and useful. A lot of high HubScore Hubs will lead to a higher Status. And if you have a high status, HubPages will help drive more traffic to your site. High-Status Hubbers bring great value to the Internet community. They reflect well on HubPages, and will be rewarded for their efforts."
    Of course, don't take these personal, I am sure they don't mean you personally.

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