Have Hubpages gone too far?

1. 84

   sparksterposted 11 years ago

   Have Hubpages gone too far?
   
   I have just had yet another hub automatically unpublished and the reason is claimed to be because of unrelated links/capsules.  As far as I can tell all the links and capsules are definitely related to the content of the hub.  It seems that HP are getting too strict, to the point that I am seriously getting discouraged from writing here.  I am starting to understand Bard Of Ely's frustration with the site.
   
   What really annoys me though (ironically) is the fact that I am making a decent income from Hubpages yet I now have no intention of writing any new hubs for fear of wasting my time.

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2. 60

   ib radmastersposted 11 years ago

   Hp has to be more specific when they unpublish a hub. This is especially true for a long hub. How is the author supposed to guess where they need to look for the problem, much less fix it.

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      sparksterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Well, I tried updating the hub and submitted it but received the same email claiming it's against their t&c. Ah well, thats the end of Hubpages for me... At a time in my life when everything else seems to be falling apart too. Just what I needed!

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3. 0

   RobSchneiderposted 11 years ago

   As far as I can tell, Hubpages is trying to avoid being a victim of the Penguin update, which was particularly hard on anything that smells like link spamming. Did the text you attached the link to relate directly to the link? Were the articles you linked to commercial? If so, you may be suffering from guilt from association.
   
   Personally, I'm in favor of Google's algorithm changes. They're trying to eliminate automated services that spit out spammy content in order to get page ranking. There do seem to be glitches in the system, though and many sites that have never used grey hat tactics are suffering. Traffic to one of my sites has cut in half and I'm slowly going through my posts and trying to make my links more Google-friendly. I'm not alone. I'm getting tons of editing work right now - most of it fixing links.
   
   You can have a lot more control over your own website or blog and the income you receive all goes to you. I know you've gone to a lot of effort, have attracted a big following on Hubpages, and don't want to start over from scratch, but you can always start a blog and use Hubpages as a way to advertise it.
   
   Just curious - how many page views do you get per month?

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   1. 84

      sparksterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I have several of my own blogs and websites which receive almost as much traffic as I receive here at Hubpages but my most successful blog has made a whopping 12p!  And that's after a couple of years hard work on it!

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      RobSchneiderposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      That's really interesting. I'm just the opposite. I'm a complete loser on Hubpages, but make a little money on my blogs.

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   3. 84

      sparksterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah it seems one things works for some but not for others. I do receive tens of thousands of page views here every month and reach payout every month. I have had the hub republished but not until I removed ALL external links and capsules.

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4. 39

   Watford786posted 11 years ago

   I agree that this is definitely a problem and that they are over strict. On my old Hubpages Account (on which I was earning close to a $1 a day) I had a Hub entitled 10 Facts about the Pyramids of Giza unpublished as it had a deceptive title despite the Hub including 10 facts.
   
   The matter was made worse when I sent them several e-mails but only received automated responses. Finally, my account got permanently banned as I tried to re-publish the Hub without 'making significant changes to the Hub title'
   
   This is a complete joke - If they unpublish a Hub they should have people actually reading it instead of doing it automatically.

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   1. 84

      sparksterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I remember seeing that hub, I can't believe they banned your account over it. That's real harsh! Some ppl are making a living here, having their accounts banned in such ways after spending years building up a portfolio of artistic content is crazy.

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5. 79

   nanderson500posted 11 years ago

   Yeah, I think they definitely need to do a better job communicating with us. The moderators seem to sometimes take pleasure in being extremely strict.

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6. 92

   MarleneBposted 11 years ago

   I almost packed up my hubs and left, because I'm like that - the minute something goes wrong, I just want to pack up and leave. But, this one time in my life I decided not to be hasty. I went online and did some research and discovered that HubPages is not the only company making changes. It seems that everyone is at the mercy of Google and when Google makes a change, so does anyone else who wants to stay in the game. Sometimes, it is clear what needs to be done, and sometimes it's a shot in the dark. We try a little of this and a little of that, we throw this and that up against the wall and see what sticks. I think HubPages is going through the "Let's see what works" phase. Unfortunately, since we rely on HubPages staff to do all the behind-the-scenes stuff, we are at the mercy of whatever they decide. All-in-all, I think they are striving to get it right.
   
   I don't think HP is doing things on purpose to make us fail. I put my faith in them and truly believe they are trying their best to make things right for us all. It's just a matter of time and hopes that Google lets things settle for a while before they make anymore changes.
   
   The thing about the unrelated links... yeah, I've had that happen, too. But then I contact the HP team with an email to ask specifically what is wrong. The next thing I know, everything is alright. Suddenly, the links are OK. I don't know what happens, but it seems like whenever we can get a human involved, things seem to work out fine.

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   1. 84

      sparksterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      TBH I've been having a hard time lately and when this happened it was just the icing on the cake, so to speak. I guess I was a little hasty and I will probably continue to write here though will be a bit more cautious in the future.

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   2. 92

      MarleneBposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      sparkster, I know how you're feeling.It is a real effort for me to be patient. I am very cautious of what I write now and I don't write as much here anymore. I don't want to spend all that time writing something only to have it rejected.

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7. 69

   Joan Kingposted 11 years ago

   I think that the main problem with HP unpublishing a hub is the lack of communication and information. Perhaps the decisions are also made through the automated process and not by a live person actually reading the content. I have had similar experiences recently where I was told that an image did not relate to the content when it did, which would have been obvious if someone had taken the time to read the content and the image description. However, I simply replaced the image after  protesting. No point in fighting with automated responses and actions. Unpublishing a hub seems a bit extreme, rather, the author should be given an opportunity to make changes or state their case. After all, we are all adults here and most of us take direction very well.

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   1. 84

      sparksterposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Agreed.  I've actually just had another hub unpublished.  What annoys me is the fact that these hubs have been published for the last year with no problems.

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8. 61

   LoisRyan13903posted 10 years ago

   I had a different account with HP a few years back and had the same problem after about six months of writing hubs.  I got so frustrated, I canceled my account.  I rejoined earlier in the year and so far so good,  I had one hub unpublished because it was substandard.  And I did find some typos and I fixed and no other problems.

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