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| Satirical cartoon of Paul Edmondson explaining how Hubbers are "too afraid" to ask if HubPages will be up for sale soon and how surprised he is that his TOU is null and void. © 2015 RoseWrites / All rights reserved (Click to enlarge) |
The same people keep chiming in (in the HubPages' forum) about how good it will be to have all these "silos" and that the reader is given more information by replacing the author's pen name with a category.
Weird – because the URL probably already contains the topic information. If I'm going to write about an automobile, you can bet that I'll put the name of it in my title (URL).
Oh and it looks like original authors will have less statistical information about their Hubs. Paul Edmondson stated:
"Hubbers will no longer see data about their content consolidated in GSC (Google Search Console), but they can add specific URLs if they choose."
Charming.
Oddly enough, only a couple of people have made mention of how much traffic they lost when their work underwent "editing" by HubPages or when their work reverted back to the HubPages domain via Editor's Choice.
Yes, now every Hub author is automatically opted-in to the Editor's Choice program.
Earlier this year, I wrote HubPages: The Truth Behind Editor's Choice and found a startling difference between what Paul Edmondson reported and what numerous Hub authors found to be true.
Main points:
- An average loss of traffic of about 50 percent
- Loss of income (related to loss of traffic)
- High bounce rates
- Loss of link juice from 301 redirects
- Inability to track the statistics for your entire subdomain
- Loss of author identity
- Loss of Google author rank
- NEW: Loss of having featured Hubs in a given category*
*Interestingly enough, I found out that only "a few Hubs are shown over and over" in some (all?) categories. Because when DrMark1961 inquired, Matt (HubPages' staff) replied:
". . . we do not show all Hubs on a subject, but only those that meet specific criteria."
Gee, I wonder what that "specific criteria" is?
I'm guessing it's the "Editbot-fixed abandoned content" that Robin Edmondson confirmed they keep on the platform. (The Edmondsons don't need to share any revenue with the original author on those).
Will HubPages Be Up For Sale?
I think it's definitely something that might happen. According to Wikipedia, as of December 7th, 2013 (before the importation of Squidoo content with and without authors' consent), HubPages had 73,969 published users.
Those published users, I'm sure, wanted to be paid. And since only "active" Hubbers are eligible to receive their deserved earnings, that meant over 70,000 people have surrendered their tax information to HubPages (who doesn't require it, according to the IRS).
Hmm, that's a "hot database" that I'm sure will command all kinds of attention and bids if HubPages is for sale.
Should Hubbers Try to Get Their Author Content Removed From HubPages?
Absolutely.
You can cite how once the law is broken (re: HubPages - Squidoo deal) that any contract you are entered into is null and void. You are not required to uphold any contract with a company that breaks the law.
In a post by Van Thompson titled Laws Concerning Unethical Business Practices & Breaches in Contracts, it states:
"An unethical business practice that is legally prohibited may be a breach of contract, but could also be a legal violation that nullifies all or part of your contract."
Which means: YES, you CAN remove author content from the Service. And YES, you ARE entitled to ALL of your deserved earnings.
2) You can also reference my complaint (NO: 61039505) which was accepted by the Federal Trade Commission on April 9th, 2015.
3) Call (it's FREE) the California State Attorney General's Whistleblower Hotline at: 1-800-952-5225 and explain the situation to them.
With all the flurry of changes left and right it' s a sign it is either sinking fast or gonna be sold. As you know I pulled all my material before it could be locked down by HP. We'll see what shakes out in the next several weeks.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I sincerely hope people get ALL their deserved income (including Amazon and eBay royalties). It would be wise to remove all author content (especially SSNs, full legal name, address, and date of birth) from HubPages too. Identity theft costs each victim thousands of dollars and years of grief. Here's an eye-opener: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit/high-cost-of-identity-theft.aspx
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