This is just a short post to inform the reader that Hubpages has launched a most innovative post-panda survival strategy to help check the slide in pageviews and search engine trust--they have introduced the .hubpages.com domain name and here is how they hope it will solve their traffic woes.
It is no secret that ALL the user generated content sharing sites have taken a major hit since Google introduced their new content quality based algorithm commonly referred to as Panda. But, while most other major players (most noticeably Suite101.com) are trying to upgrade their editorial process and weed out spammy looking content, Hubpages are trying to shift from an online content magazine to a Blogger style push-button publishing platform by offering each user a separate domain name like username.hubpages.com
At this point each user (or rather Hubpages account) can either shift to your reserved subdomain or continue to publish hubs as before. So should you transfer your Hubpages profile to .hubpages.com?
Advantages of Shifting to Hubpages Subdomain
- The main advantage of shifting to .hubpages.com subdomain is to slightly alienate yourself from the standard hubpages.com/hub/ URL and there by establish a separate existence in the eyes of Google. The major reason why Hubpages has taken such a hit is because some people are writing low quality article which is prompting Google to devalue the entire hubpages.com/hub domain. So, everyone's articles are feeling the crunch. Which means, if you are confident that you write above average hubs then this should help you get more search engine trust whereas if you are spamming only your subdomain gets blacklisted.
- If you are using Hubapges to gain leverage or as a portfolio for bagging freelance writing gigs then a subdomain of your own should definitely give more gravity to your bid compared to just a profile URL
- Apart from your profile and hub addresses everything else remains exactly the same with your homepage doubling up as your profile page. So you don't have to make sacrifices on the cool Hubpages user interface.
- You will be automatically shifted to your subdomain within the next month. So might as well take a head start.
OK, so you have now got a blog with a decent number pageviews every month. Now, the next important thing you want to ensure is that your readers are actually reading the stuff you have spent so much time writing for them and are staying on your site for appreciable periods of time(like may be a couple of minutes!)
In other words, now that you have gained quantity, it is time to measure the actually quality of your site traffic. And are you managing to hold on to your visitors and make sure that they read through the post and click your ads and affiliate links? A person leaving your site within just a few seconds will usually mean one of four things:
- You are targeting the wrong keywords and your domain name is irrelevant to your site content.
- There is something inherently wrong with your landing page (design, content etc) that is repulsive to your visitor.
- Your page is so clear cut that the visitor has found what he was looking for very quickly and has left.
- The visitor found something interesting in the top half of your article and has gone off to Google it.
While, the only way to solve the first 2 issues is to put more thought into your site, situation 3 may be a good thing and there is a high possibility the reader will keep visiting your site in the future or even start spreading the word about how good the site is. However, situation 4 was, until recently, the most difficult to solve.
But now that a program named Apture has solved the problem you just have to marvel at the simplicity of the solution.
What is Apture ?
Apture is a service that allows visitors to read stuff relevant to your content without ever leaving your site. All your reader has to do is highlight a piece of text on your article and then Apture will search through trusted sites like Wikipedia, search engines like Bing and even your own domain to pull out relevant excerpts, photos and videos, thus providing a ready reference for your readers so that he never has to leave your site to fill in the gaps of your content.
Apture can also sense if some words are generating more responses from your audience and then those become Hotspots, i.e.the Apture info box opens on mouse over.
Another, interesting feature on Apture is that it does not work on anchor texts so you may rest assures that your page links won't get messed up.
Additional Features of Apture
In addition to this enhanced value-added service Apture also offers the following services:
- You can use Apture to show Amazon ads and earn commissions through your Amazon Associate account when a purchase is completed.
- You can specify domain names (in addition to Wikipedia, Amazon etc.) from Apture draws relevant content.
- You can enable the trendy Apture side bar.
See Apture at Work
You can see Apture at work right here on this page. Simply select a piece of text and then click the Apture logo!
This is the third installment of my Get Paid to Write Sites You Haven't Heard of series (read Part I and Part 2) where I try to maintain an up to date list all the new and upcoming content sharing sites from which you can earn money (either upfront or passive revenue share) from your published content.
The main purpose of writing this series of articles is to empower the reader to think beyond the established sites like Factoidz, AC, Suite101, Helium etc which has a tendency of developing strategies and installing rules that can create issues for your work ethics, work flow and most of all creativity.
So, without further ado lets dive straight into the list:
Wizzley
Wizzley is a really impressive content sharing site developed by some of the Squidoo big boys (and girls). It has adopted the standard module based writer interface similar to Hubpages and Squidoo. Though it does not have as many module types as Squidoo (which quite possibly has several thousand modules), Wizzley does feature some very innovative modules like the Wikipedia module.
However, my favorite module there is the Download module which allows the writer to upload a file to the Wizzley server which the reader can then download. An absolute godsend people looking to offer freebies to their readers.
Minimum article length is 400 words. Editorial system is fairly strict but that might prove to be a good thing in the Post-Panda Cyber world. Wizzley allows you to place one promotional link per 50 words (approx.)
You earn through your adsense publisher ID and you get 50% of the ad impressions. You can also earn through Amazon Associates, AllPosters and Ebay.
DailyWiki
DailyWiki is another India based content sharing site that user the standard and super easy WordPress platform which means that if are familiar with this platform (ever owned a WordPress blog or written for Snipsly amongst other sites) then you can start churning out those articles in no time at all.
The minimum wordcount per article is a standard 300 words but you earn more points for writing longer articles. And 400 words articles have a better chance of getting search engine traffic. Articles must be unique. 2 Dofollow promotional links are allowed per article.
You earn points for various activities and win cash prizes of upto $100 every month in addition to adsense revenue!
RitePad
RitePad is a VERY new and slightly unprofessional (nothing bad, just amateurish) looking WordPress based content sharing website which offers 80% adsense ad impressions on your articles.
Seekyt is an upcoming content sharing website where author's can make some some passive revenue through Google Adsense.
Vital Statistics of Seekyt
Home Page Google Page Rank : 3
Alexa Rank : 69,072
Overview of Seekyt
Seekyt only accepts unique content of length 2000 characters or more. Your 3 articles will be moderated before they are published to ensure that it is not spam. But, provided your article is unique and doesn't have too many spelling errors (don't forget to use the Seekyt spell checker tool) your articles should have no issues whatsoever with their editorial system.
You earn revenue through Google Adsense ads placed around your article, but you must have a verified Adsense account to earn from this site. Seekyt offers 70% Adsense ad impression to the author and is significantly higher than most of its more established competitors like Xomba (60%), Hubpages (60%), Triond(50%) and Bukisa (60%). In addition, you can also earn through your Amazon Associates account.In additon to this, Seekyt offers a whopping 25% referral bonus!
Seekyt also allows you to place a limited number of dofollow backlinks to your articles and so may be a good place to market your blog or website or even try and sell your products.
My Thoughts on Seekyt
The first thing that struck me about Seekyt is how active their network is. Your article is sure generate some nice comments and get tweeted, f-liked and shared within just hours of going online and that is a big advantage Seekyt has over many more established content sharing sites.
Seekyt is also one of the very few content sharing sites that actually allows you to chose your page layout (placement of adblocks etc.) and this makes the site very flexible for content writers.
However, on the downside Seekyt is a pretty new and site and so it might take a while before you actually start receiving tons of targeted search engine traffic or get a high page rank. But, the decent Alexa rank (for a rather new site) does prove that Seekyt has quite a bit of potential and it might be a good idea to get in the ground level of so promising a venture. Join Seekyt now!
