Hubpages is making many changes, as it tries to keep its head above water. It is hard to say how that will work out in the longrun. what I do know is that in the meantime, my scores on articles are in a downward spiral, with a very large number relegated to unfeatured status. More than half, I’d say, of those in temporary and permanent status. This also has translated into a deep drop of money earned. Perhaps by two-thirds.
My approach at this time is:
- Taking off and deleting any article which seems doomed on hubpages (i.e. just not what they want). I am revising them for the sites for which I use them. This is both the way the content is written and how the style is arranged (photos, amazon products, etc). Like remodeling and old house, it sometimes is more work than if I had just started something brand new.
- Trying to figure out what in the heck Hubpages uses as criteria. I don’t know who is unfeaturing my Hubs, or how they are scored. I no longer have any idea what kind of writing does well there. I am still trying to figure it out and will give it a chance for a few more months.
- I am revising and deleting whole portions of older articles. I delete lots of links because those seem to degrade the articles in Hubpages eyes. I delete and update amazon and ebay modules.
Issues With Hubpages
One issue I have found is that my writing seems subject to editors. Not sure what governs that, but I wonder if some of them have English as a second language. How my writing ends up with severe grammatical errors that are usual for ESL writers (the subject and verb don’t agree, for example), or in worse case, nonsensical. That might come from moving modules around, but some seems to actual re-writing. This is a major problem.
I am not ready to give up on the site as yet, but it is not user friendly right now and I wouldn’t recommend it to new writers.
I have never found the people there as very helpful as a whole, although there are exceptions. For me, Squidoo was always more fun and better as a community. The earning potential of Hubpages is difficult to assess at this time, but as I adjust and notice beneficial results, I will report on them here.
Meantime, the garden pages are going to Ilona’s Garden, the latest is the Perennial Tulips post; and I have moved several to My Reflecting Pool.
Changes Online
The truth is that there are many changes I will need to make with all my online sites and writing habits, if I want to make it as a viable business. All sources have gone in a reduced direction, across the board. I do not take this as failure, but as a flag to learn what works in creating an internet business.
I am sorry to see such opportunities as Hubpages sidelined and Squidoo closed, but it underlines the fact that everything online changes very quickly. Much of the blame is on the doorstep of shameless opportunists who made a career from spamming, and who ruined many types of blogging for the rest of us.
There were real problems with useless content at both places (and they weren’t the only ones, or even the worst of them). Every type of site that is used for online earning has tightened up the ship and made major changes. Zazzle is another example.
Going Forward
The challenge for those of us who genuinely have determined to offer writing and products of value for others is to learn the new formats and do our best to create. I, for one, am returning to doing what I enjoy and creating for what I like and stop chasing elusive popularity.
Learning marketing and how to produce for others was an experiment. Gaining those types of insights has been beneficial, generally. The trouble with it for the creative is its limited satisfaction value. After awhile, motivation decreases (unless trying to be successful by others measurements and gauging that in dollars was the goal).
I also want to keep learning about technological details like “longtail” concepts, using keywords, writing more specifically (i tend to be a general topic sort of blogger)… so I will keep reading, keep using different kinds of social media, and keep reporting on how it all works out. Like the Periscope video below:
Right now, I want to have more fun. I want to be my own judge of whether my efforts are worthwhile. Everyone has their own set of motivators and goals. Those are mine.
What are yours? Have you been trying to write and earn online?
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