Greekgeek's Online Odyssey - Hubpages and Online Article Writing Tips

An Extended Riff on SEO as Poetry

Or at least, keyword-based search engine optimization, which isn’t the sum total of SEO any more than backlinking is.

Under a vague sense of “buy low, sell high,” I thought I might give Hubpages another go. Some years ago, I was so discouraged (and annoyed) after they locked all my well-trafficked, educational hubs on ancient Greece for being “overly promotional” that I abandoned HP for years (It also didn’t help that I kept getting idiot comments like ‘u wrote it wrong it wuz better in the movie’ when I was recounting myths based on ancient sources). But despite the frustration over all that work down the tubes, I do understand that you’ve got to submit to the rules on a publishing site, or publish elsewhere. So I did. I moved that content to Squidoo and Mythphile.

However, I’ve been keeping a closer eye on Hubpages since Panda. I think I might learn something by experimenting there and trying out different SEO approaches, niches and/or writing styles on a site that’s built just a little differently than Squidoo. I have a hunch Google traffic will come back over time. I want to see if my hunch is right. Also, since they favor non-practical creative pieces over there a little more than on Squidoo, I thought — hey, let the inner writer off its chains and cut loose a bit.

This is triggered partly by a previous post on Squidbits and partly by seeing a writer over there divide the online publishing world between virtuous writers and SEO black hatters. I fear it’s preachy and a little arrogant to be teaching, but I wrote a hub that’s a tutorial on keyword optimization using the paradigm of writing poetry.

3 Comments

  1. Flynn says:

    Is that the right link? It goes nowhere.

  2. MiMi says:

    Was really wanting to read your poetry/trickery comparison, but looks like Hubs has struck it out.

    1. Greekgeek says:

      No, I think this time it was my bad. i didn’t realize that Hubs go back into WIP mode (unpublished) if you edit them at all. At least, mine did. I don’t know whether it’s because I’m considered a newbie, or because of the new spam crackdown.

      It should be live now, after a moderator approved it AGAIN. I will stop tinkering with it now.

      I’m a compulsive nitpicker, always tweaking and editing posts after I read them and realize I could phrase something better (or more succinctly). Having to pass an editorial process after every tweak won’t work for me!

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