Warning: there will be no pictures or frilly bits in this Wizz.
I am a calm and thoughtful man.
I rarely get angry.
I get annoyed when people are less than courteous. I do not suffer fools gladly.
I acknowledge good things, and when I am wrong. I do not try to scam the system.
I am reasonably intelligent, have a good grasp of the English language, and unfortunately for an on-line writer, I meticulously check for spelling and grammatical errors (missing them sometimes). But...............
Things I Love About Wizzley: No Hubpages Bull
by humagaia
Wizzley has a great atmosphere about it. There are no undertones of animosity. Everybody feels as though they belong. The staff are polite and helpful. What a change from Hubpages!
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Wizzley vs Hubpages
Why this article, now?
I have a background in computer science, know how to design, program and test computer programs and systems. I also have a growing knowledge of how things work in search engine algorithms and I test theories I have, gaining evidence as I go. I expect to be treated with respect, until such time as I fail to meet expectations. I follow the rules.
So what has caused me to write this 'letter'. We Brits are famous for it. We get so angry that we feel we need to write a 'letter' to the Editor. Now is that time for me.
This morning, a reasonably pleasant morning in the leafy suburbs of a market town in the beautiful county of Lincolnshire, England, a little message arrived. I had alighted from my bed early: to get a Wizz written, whilst the thought was in my head. I had half-completed it. The message: an e-mail actually, drifted silently into my consciousness, unannounced or foretold.
And it read, as follows (the emboldening and italicization are mine):
The HP E-mail
Dear humagaia,
Your Hub has been identified as promoting sites or products unrelated to Hub content.
If this is the first time you've gotten an email like this, don't worry! You'll have an opportunity to fix it.
A link to your Hub: http://humagaia.hubpages.com/hub/Google-India-google-co-in-Google-IN-India-Hindi-English
To rectify: Remove all links or Amazon/EBay capsules unrelated to your Hub's topic. You might consider adding more original content, and relevant, legitimate links to other online resources that complement this Hub's topic.
Your Hub has been unpublished, giving you the opportunity to edit it and make it compliant with our Terms of Use. When you are ready to have HubPages review it again, please edit it and click the "Submit for Publication" button. We will then review your Hub, and publish it if it abides by our Terms of Use. You will then get an email saying that the Hub has been republished.
Here are a few examples of high-quality Hubs that are compliant with our Terms of Use:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Ideas_for_Tattoos
http://hubpages.com/hub/PC_Tuneup
http://hubpages.com/hub/St_Regis_Bora_Bora
Please note that repeated violations might result in the closing of your account. We encourage you to familiarize yourself with our Terms of Use before publishing again.
http://hubpages.com/help/user_agreement
Sincerely,
The HubPages Team
How I Felt
The e-mail 'bombshell' crash landed on my thought processes at 06:20am UK time. And I knew the nightmare was beginning all over again. My train of thought, for the Wizz I was producing, was decimated, interrupted by new synapse sparking's that lit the scan red.
Memories flooded back: how much time and effort had I wasted last time, for nought? How much time and effort will I have to expend this time?
Nothing that HP has implemented into their TOS has made one penn'orth of difference. We are back to the same position as we started from at the outset of the last round of 'inquisition'. HP had it so good, for so long, thinking that it was God's gift: the Big G's gift. And foundered when it found that it was an outcast, banished into the 'sandpit', to struggle to extricate itself whilst pulling all around them into the pit. Matter not - keep struggling, keep pulling. 'We will get out!'. Riiiight!
My Responses
Well, I considered my options. And meekly decided that I would comply with the vague demand that I comply with the TOS. The same TOS that I had complied with for the previous 22 months at HP.
I might add here that I had no previous indication that there was anything untoward in the hub in question. Just the e-mail. Just the removal from publication of a hub that had received over 20,000 hits to date, for which 2,000 were in the last month (the time period during which the problems arose from another Google 'adjustment'). I know, not a great deal, but the numbers had not fallen appreciable, and certainly not to any great extent due to the 'update'.
What then does anything contained in the hub have to do with 'keeping the Big G happy'? It cannot be that the contents are not to their liking. The hub ranks well, and it attracts click-throughs, obviously.
On amendment of the hub it dawned on me that there were:
- No Amazon or E-bay modules
- No affiliate links of any kind
- Links to Google sites related to the information contained in the hub
- Links to related information available on sites I own
- Links to related articles on Hubpages
- Links to other articles that I had written, and contained in an RSS feed generated from the RSS feed module made available to me
So I can only assume that it is the latter that is the offender. I had taken similar modules out of many other hubs, previously. However, this one was still present, but due to the wording of the e-mail (Note the bit about 'repeated offences'), which I might add does not specify the offending links, I removed ALL links.
Now to the nub of the matter. Hubpages unpublished my hub without giving any previous warning. They have a facility that checks and highlights hubs that have violations (a little red skull appears on the stats pages against the offending item) - none had appeared: I check regularly.
They send me an e-mail telling me of this at 11:20pm EST. I am in the UK and receive it at 6:20am BST. I adjust the hub. I send back an e-mail saying that I have resubmitted it, having resubmitted it for moderator approval. I know nobody will see it, or do anything about it, until at the earliest 9:00am EST, 4:00pm BST. And, if the routine follows that which happened previously, the hub is likely to be flagged as not to TOS, for a completely different reason. And the cycle will go on.
This time, if that happens, I will remove it and publish it elsewhere. Guess where?
And that will go for any hub that is flagged and unpublished in the future. I am not in the mood to play silly games that have no benefit to man nor beast, ever again.
It is the un-joined-up-thinking, the shotgun approach, the amateurish implementation of a frankly flawed strategy, that irritates those that have written at Hubpages, and that irks me so. And that is where Wizzley is so much different.
The Wizzley Effect
I hope you have read Katiem2's heartfelt Wizz about her experience of Hubpages the last time a witch-hunt occurred. If not, go read it [Why Writers From Hubpages Like Wizzley So Much]. I did not have as hard a time as she. But with the latest round of 'duckings' and 'trial by water' where one is guilty until you repent and kowtow to the 'necessary' changes to ones 'violation', I can envisage it happenings to those that are left.
Wizzley
I publish. If there is anything untoward I am warned at the time that I try to save. Part of my publishing empire revolves around articles about the various offerings from Google. It is likely that I will use the same words occasionally to describe similar functions that I encounter. Google does the same. They do not get penalised for it, within serps algorithms. Neither should, or do, I.
If Wizzley finds an amount of words that are contained in an article I have published, as well as the article I am about to publish, I get a warning. I go check. I find that it is the noise words rather than the differentiating subject matter that is at fault. I adjust where necessary. I publish. No hassle.
The Wizzley platform has been put together with SEO in mind. That means that once written in the 'white hat' format available, your Wizz should stand the course of time, unphased by Google algorithm changes. There are no modules that will come back and bite you in the bum. Everything is optimized for you to deliver the baby, healthy, into the arms of G, for it to nurture, grow and become an upstanding member of society.
Things I Love About Wizzley Series
Conclusion
No conclusion. Just the end of the rant. I have expunged my feelings: until the next time.
The matter is closed: full stop.
What I love about Wizzley - No bull.....
Write at Wizzley
Don't put up with the bull
Follow on Article
Some comments have been deleted from below and transferred to:
Updated: 02/05/2021, humagaia
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Comments
What you are saying makes me glad that I do not write on Hubpages. I write on but few sites, mainly Wizzley, which is my favourite site because I like the people who write here. I am in the happy position of not needing to make any money from writing, as I live on my pension, some examining and my allotment. These sources allow me to write on the site on which I really enjoy writing.
I do not get Hubpaes emails, just have articles not be featured. Apparently if an article has little traffic, as happens with seasonal articles, they unfeature it. I have had a few unpublished for unspecified reasons. I started on Squidoo, had over 300 articles sent to Hubpages, spent a lot of time removing any not to their tos and revising the others. When I finished, I had dropped to just over 100 articles by my decision, most because they were too short. Word count was less on squidoo when I started, so some short articles were in the group, too many. They ones I wanted to save went through, or did so with minor changes. Then, randomly, articles became unpublished. I initially tried to "fix" them, which too often resulted in going to unpublished after adding words and removing products. So, I went to Zujava, leaving my account on Hubpage as it was. I rarely visit it, and now I have just a few, less than ten, published articles, with the rest unpublished. One day I will move some of them here. I just have to figure out how to deindex them first.
Well my 2013 comments for sure require an update as Bubblews bit the dust a good while back! Many other social sites that promise to pay also came and went like Tsu. My 20 HUBs are still online, most of them featured and my Wizzles are still here. Happy to report I have not been banished from either site. Counting my blessings. :) Have you tried myLot.com?
Some sites are pain with their own illogical algos. Writing is a tough task especially whence conforming to the unreasonable. Writer friendly sites see how the articles make readers happy and how much of use to them they are....
Found you on Bubblews. I was already there so I connected to you. You must have your profile set as a Blogger. I tried Informer. But went back to Blogger. I like the look of it.
My pleasure. It does seem that Bubblews has the potential for authors to build an amount of income over a period of time, I reckon after a year one should have enough of a following to make it worthwhile spending much of ones time there for instant monetary gratification - as long as you follow the rules, produce good copy, and a good hook in the title. There you are reliant on your own capability to gain followers, rather than relying on the unreliable Google. On Bubblws you get paid for all interactions rather than waiting for a click-through.
For those that don't know about the site:
http://www.bubblews.com/?referral=51e...
and connect with me there, I'll connect back.
I follow you much better. The whole darn thing is really frustrating to me. I searched years for a legitimate way to work from home and finally found ways with free sign ups. No sooner than I find them, all this other crap starts happening! If I were a person who used cuss words, sailors would be covering their ears right now! :)
Thanks for the intelligent feedback @humagaia.
I can always tell when I'm not talking to myself. :)
I follow you, but your thoughts are not based on the logic of the situation. A sub-domain can never reach the authority of the overall domain. Once the rubbish is removed, or more relevant, is never allowed (as on Wizzley) any article will rank better under the umbrella of a TLD rather than a sub-domain. This is pure logic and common sense, as the TLD receives the authority of all, rather than a sub-set. HP did their testing on a false base, they had all the dross to contend with. Only once that is flushed can any data be deemed to be significant.
Why do you think Wizzley, having been instigated after all the upheaval elsewhere, has never even considered sub-domains for their authors? My guess, they know that each and every one of us would be worse off should they have decided so to do.
@Humagaia - I have heard others say the very same thing. The switch to subdomains dropped their traffic. But there were also complaints that somehow bad HUBs were taking away from either their traffic or just the overalltraffic, and I guess the HUB Team figured they had to do something to keep good writers from being "punished" or "penalized" (?? I guess).
But to hear others say their traffic suffered when HP switched to subdomains doesn't make sense. May seem illogical but can't argue with the reality. Right?
HP says they did thorough tests to monitor the impact and in the end, it was decided FOR subdomains. It seems logical that the cream should rise to the top and if the subdomains that are the "cream" so to speak can be readily identified (- and I was kind of thinking they were identified by the organic traffic -) why not sort of reward them by giving them their own subdomain. You follow me?
I've heard HP explanation of sub-domains. Thy were semi-relevant in the first place to delimit good writers from bad. However, then as now, the long-term demerits are significant. Since you do not have any traffic, you are in a lesser position to realise the impact on those that have traffic. Unfortunately the move to sub-domains has now meant my traffic is 10% of that it once was on HP. Fortunately, my income is still 50% of the highest it became. Many have lost significantly more.