Friday 16 November 2012

Hubpages Apprentice Program

I haven't updated this blog for a while because I was taking part in the Hub apprentice program which I would recommend to anyone who likes to write.
The Program is hard going but if like me you will put in with a group of people who are supportive and helpful and push you on to write the required 8 hubs every month.
The program helped me massively improving my writing, teaching me about marketing my Hubs and most importantly it taught me about keywords and the importance of choosing the types of  topics that I should be writing about for maximum impact.
I had the added bonus of being paid by Hubpages for every Hub that I wrote during the program which boosted my earnings and helped to keep the wolf away from my door.
If you are considering applying for the program I urge you to do so, you will meet new friends and learn the ins and outs of successful writing.

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Losing Visitors on Hubs

In the past few months I have lost over 3000 visitors a day on my entire Hub account normally I wouldn't worry too much about losing visitors as after a while they always come back.
This time though I am not so sure that my visitors will come back, unless I work my butt off and do something about it.
I have been watching my account over this time and I think that I may have found a solution that will hopefully bring my visitors back and hopefully even more.

Looking and studying my statistics over the past couple of months has been an eye opener for me, normally I would just have a quick glance at them just to see if the numbers were increasing or decreasing, but because of the drastic drop this time I have been monitoring them to find patterns.

Which Hubs are losing visitors, which Hubs if any are gaining visitors and which Hubs are keeping a constant flow of visitors.

My Hubs that are losing the most visitors are single Hubs, what I mean by single Hubs is that I have only written one Hub on a certain topic or category.

Hubs that are holding steady are Hubs that I have written in the same category or topic but I have only written 2 or 3 Hubs in that topic or category.

The Hubs That are doing best are Hubs where I have written at least 5 times on the same category or topic, on some of those I have noticed an increase where as others are a constant source of traffic.

The Upside is now that I have found a pattern to my traffic loss it can be fixed it will take a bit of time but it should be worth it in the end, I just have to look at all of my Hubs and write more in the same topics and categories.

There are a lot of Hubbers out there who instead of looking for a solution to dropping traffic go into the forums ranting and raving. For every problem there is a solution, why not check out your Hub Stats and see if you can find a pattern on your Hubs that are losing traffic, Don't waste your time shouting in the forums, if you have a problem find a way to solve it.




Sunday 8 April 2012

Hub Thefts and a New Layout

Stealing Hubs

There is a Buzz amongst the Authors at Hubpages this week, Hubs are being copied and pasted onto another website, which I will not name here, why advertise theft?
In my experience at Hubpages this has happened before on a few occasions and it will all blow over, it may take a week or 2 but if Hubbers keep filing DMCA complaints against the site and against the site hosts the site will cease to exist, it may not be soon enough for some but it will happen.

New Hub Layout

Hubpages have rolled out a new Hub layout, a big change to the way hubs look and I for one think it is an utter shambles, Fashion and beauty Hubs were the first to be changed to the new format and it makes me wonder what in the hell the Hubstaff were smoking when they decided that it would be a good idea to plaster the bottom of the Hubs with Hundreds of pictures of so called related Hubs, I want to help other Hubbers as much as I can but at what cost to me?, with all of those links to choose from and even more related Hub links at the right hand side of the Hub the ads on my Hubs have very little chance of getting clicked on. Come on Hubpages I am losing visitors and money already don't make me bankrupt.

Thursday 5 April 2012

JimmytheJock

If you know about Hubpages then you will probably know me from the site, I write under the name Jimmythejock and I have been writing on Hubpages for over 5 years now.
I did keep a blog in my first couple of years on Hubpages but because of work commitments and additions to my family, I let it go by the wayside and slide into the internet archives.
I am now working as a writer full time, forced into it in December 2011 when I was made unemployed.
Don't get me wrong, I started writing as a hobby 5 years ago not even thinking that I would make any money for my efforts but after a few months writing on Hubpages, to my surprise, I started to see real money going into my account.

I have started this Blog today, which I have called the Unofficial Hubpages Blog, To offer advice and help to New writers on Hubpages, to highlight some fantastic writing by fellow authors on Hubpages in a section which will be called featured Hubber of the week,  I plan to add a lot more to this blog which hopefully you will have as much fun reading as I do writing it.

If you are a Hubpages Author feel free to shoot me an email if you have any Hubpages questions you would like answered here or if you would like to be one of the featured Hubbers of the week.....Jimmy