PWalker281's Best (and Worst) Hubs of 2011
67© Copyright 2012 Patrice Walker All rights reserved
On the last day of 2011, I decided to sit down and take a look at how well my hubs performed in 2011 and what I could learn from this. Okay, I admit. It’s also a nice way to get some additional page views for my hubs (that is if anyone decides to read them), but don’t tell anyone.
The easiest way for me to conduct this analysis was to look at my hub stats for the month of December, and reviewing my stats on the last day of the month made this fairly simple. This is probably not the most accurate way to do a statistical analysis, but for my purposes, it was good enough.
I did take a peek at Google Analytics (GA) to get an idea of where my traffic came from, but that was the extent of my use of Analytics. I’m sure if I did a more detailed analysis (and I probably will at some point once I understand what to look for in GA), I’d get more accurate data, but, on New Year’s eve, I just didn’t feel like it.
So, what did the stats reveal?
**Note: I probably should have gathered all of my statistics at one time, but I didn’t get “all time views” and hub scores until 1/2/12, so they are a little higher than they should be had I collected them two days earlier.
Best Performing Hubs – Crochet and Healthy Recipe Hubs
By far, my best performing hubs were the ones on the subject of crochet and one health-related hub. The hubs below are listed from highest to lowest December 2011 page views.
Hand-Made Christmas Gifts: Knit and Crochet Scarves with Novelty Yarns
- Published: 9/24/11
- December Page Views: 643
- All-time Page Views: 1,360
- Total No. of Comments: 14
- Hubscore: 82
Even though people didn’t have much to say about the hub, if comments are any indication, there were a lot of people checking it out. It could be because it includes easy patterns on how to crochet and knit novelty scarves that can be whipped up fairly quickly. I also note that half the hub views occurred in December as opposed to the other half which occurred over a two-month period. It will be interesting to see how this hub performs now that the Christmas season is over.
How to Create Crochet Patterns: A Ste-By-Step Guide
- Published: 1/28/11
- December Page Views: 335
- All-time Page Views: 2,311
- Total No. of Comments: 18
- Hubscore: 81
This was the first crochet hub that I published and, until recently, it was one of, if not the, top performing crochet hub. It has done very well in the search engine results pages (SERPs), and was one of the first hubs I spent time optimizing for a keyword, in this case, “create crochet patterns.” It took a good seven to eight months for it to reach the number 3 spot, outstripping even eHow’s take on the subject. So this keyword research stuff really works.
The “Told-to-Me” Sweater – A Free Crochet Pattern
- Published: 10/29/11
- December Page Views: 369
- All-time Page Views: 637
- Total No. of Comments: 35
- Hubscore: 89
I was surprised that this hub didn’t perform as well as I would have liked it to until … it was nominated for a “Hub-of-the-Day” award on December 27 (thanks, HubPages!). I think the number of comments and the hub score are a result of that nomination because before then, it was averaging around 10 to 15 page views a day. Now that the hub is no longer featured on the HubPages home page, page views have dropped significantly.
The Granny Square Afghan – An Easy-to-Make Christmas Gift
- Published: 9/11/11
- December Page Views: 332
- All-time Page Views: 1,061
- Total No. of Comments: 26
- Hubscore: 91
This hub has been extremely popular and remains so even after Christmas (22 page views so far today, 1/2/11). In the few short months it’s been published, it has garnered almost half the page views of my longest published hub on creating crochet patterns. I think it will do well long after the Christmas season because the pattern, in addition to being free, is an easy and versatile one to crochet.
5 Last-Minute Christmas Gifts to Crochet and Knit
- Published: 11/28/11
- December Page Views: 317
- All-time Page Views: 380
- Total No. of Comments: 10
- Hubscore: 81
Here’s a hub that I thought would do very well, but it had somewhat sluggish page views until just before Christmas, so I guess people took the title literally. But it’s done fairly well, given that it was published only a month ago. Again, this is another seasonal hub that I’ll have to keep track of to see how well it does over the coming months.
- Published: 4/4/11
- December Page Views: 316
- All-time Page Views: 1,593
- Total No. of Comments: 14
- Hubscore: 84
This hub has had steady page views since it was published. One thing I’ve discovered as I’ve been publishing hubs about crochet is that people LOVE free patterns (who wouldn’t, right?). This particular pattern has had some buzz on the Internet, but it has been somewhat inaccessible because the instructions are from a video narrated in Portuguese. So, perhaps providing instructions in English (and mine aren’t the only ones) has helped this hub’s performance.
How to Make a Healthy Protein Shake that Tastes Good Too
- Published: 11/3/09
- December Page Views: 261
- All-time Page Views: 2,133
- Total No. of Comments: 14
- Hubscore: 81
A hub that has started to do very well is one I wrote about the protein shake I drink. I think this is one of those hubs that needed time to mature because it has taken a while for it to start getting decent page views (50+ views on 1/3/12). I’ve also done some editing on it from time to time, adding a new ingredient and tweaking the format, so I think it will continue to increase in page views during 2012.
This Protein Shake Includes Some of the Ingredients I Put in Mine
How I Taught Myself Magic Loop Sock Knitting
- Published: 8/14/11
- December Page Views: 196
- All-time Page Views: 949
- Total No. of Comments: 45
- Hubscore: 90
Even though this hub hasn’t done nearly as well as some of my crochet hubs, it has the second highest hub score (today at least). It may be because it was selected as Hub of the Week a few months back. It also has a lot of comments, many of which came because it was highlighted in HubPages weekly newsletter.
Hub Performances That Has Surprised Me
The following two hubs’ performance really surprised me, but for two entirely different reasons.
Is the Movie Avatar Racist?
- Published: 12/23/09
- December Page Views: 261
- All-time Page Views: 2,133
- Total No. of Comments: 70
- Hubscore: 81
This hub’s performance should technically belong to 2010, but I thought I’d include it anyway just to show you what happens when you publish a hub on a current (as opposed to evergreen) topic.
I got the idea to write this hub after seeing the movie (which I loved!) and noticing some Internet reviews claiming that it was racist. So I thought I’d jump in and add my two cents’ worth.
Once the hub was published, I was completely overwhelmed by the response, receiving comments on a daily basis for a long time. It was a hot topic, and I had to use all the diplomacy I had at my disposal to respond to some of those comments. The hub still gets page views from time to time (2 so far today, 1/2/12) but it’s not comment-worthy enough anymore for people to bother.
An Overview of the New HubPages Ad Program
- Published: 5/5/11
- December Page Views: 116
- All-time Page Views: 641
- Total No. of Comments: 85
- Hubscore: 91
Despite the fact that it has only garnered 641 page views in the eight months it’s been published and often goes for days without getting any page views, as of today, it has the highest hub score and consistently ranks in the top three positions.
I suppose it could be because it has received 85 comments, many of which have been from new hubbers seeking information on the program. But I suspect HubPages may be boosting this hub’s score because it’s about a topic that’s dear to its heart. Mind you, I’m not complaining. I’m just trying to figure out what factors HubPages considered in granting this hub such a lofty score with its relatively low monthly page views.
Seekyt Hub's Poor Performance
Why do you think the “Seekyt” hub’s performance is so poor?
See results without votingWorst-Performing Hubs of 2011
The following two hubs performed poorly, but did so for entirely different reasons.
Add Seekyt to The Arsenal of Revenue Sharing Sites You Write For
- Published: 5/31/11
- December Page Views: 1
- All-time Page Views: 122
- Total No. of Comments: 15
- Hubscore: 63
In the same way that the hub on the HubPages Ad Program has an unusually high score, could it be that this hub’s low score is due to the fact that it’s about writing site other than HubPages? In this instance, I don’t think so because the stats for this hub are pretty abysmal. I wrote it partly to encourage people not to put all their "writing eggs" in one basket and write for several sites, especially if your intent is to earn an income from your writing.
Update: As of 1/3/12, this hub is now in the third from the last position (as measured by hub score), the last position being occupied by a rather cheesy poem I wrote about a relationship breakup.
Photo Essay – My 2004-2005 Trip to Hawaii
- Published: 11/16/11
- December Page Views: 10
- All-time Page Views: 65
- Total No. of Comments: 10
- Hubscore: 63
I should have realized even before I wrote this hub that if you’re going to enter a Photo Contest, you’d better have some darn good photos in your hub. All of the photos in this hub were taken before I owned a digital camera so they are scanned from prints. To put it bluntly, most of them suck. I did no keyword research when I spruced up this six-year-old essay for publication, so it’s a wonder people haven’t found it. Now, if I’d written about cheap ways to travel to Hawaii, I’d probably have a lot more page views.
What Does Google Analytics Have to Say?
The one Google Analytics statistic I wanted to check was to see where all of my traffic is coming from.
I’m happy to say that a good 74% of it is coming from the search engines. That’s a good thing and lets me know that I must be doing something write. I don’t do a whole lot of keyword research, so I can only assume that Google likes what I right.
Another 21% came from referrals, the highest referrers being HubPages and my crochet blog Finally 5% of my hubs’ traffic is something called “direct traffic,” which, after a bit of research, I discovered refers to traffic for which the referrer is unknown.
Going Forward at HubPages in 2012
This exercise in (rather shoddy) statistical analysis will help me formulate some writing goals for 2012, a few of which I’ve included below:
- Continue writing crochet hubs: I’ve got a whole series of hubs on modular crochet outlined that I hope to start writing soon, but I haven't decided 100% if I'm going to publish them here or somewhere else.
- Continue writing on “evergreen” topics: While the Avatar hub got a huge amount of page views in a short period of time, it’s clear that evergreen topics like the ones I present in my crochet hubs have the longest staying power.
- Continue to do keyword research: I only do a minimal amount of keyword research on my hubs, and I typically start it AFTER I’ve written the hub. This is because I typically write when I get an idea to write about something. I find it difficult to do research to find topics to write about. It’s simply not as much fun as writing about something that comes from inspiration. But I do try to take some time to see which keywords are ranking well for the topic and include them in the hub.
- Write more consistently: When I first started writing here, I’d publish maybe two hubs a month. Now that I’m seeing my income increase the more hubs I publish, I’m going to be writing a lot more consistently in 2012.
- Start writing a collection of hubs around some new topics (e.g., the tarot): When I first started writing here, I published a lot of hubs about the Law of Attraction. I’m thinking about venturing back into the whole metaphysics/new age arena, but I’ll have to wait for more inspiration to strike.
I could have said a lot more about the performance of some of my other hubs, but this is more than enough anakysis for the time being. I'm not sure how this hub is going to perform since I didn't do any keyword research before or after writing it. I think most of the traffic will come from HubPages, and that's fine.
vote upvote downshareprintflag
- Useful (6)
- Funny
- Awesome (2)
- Beautiful (1)
- Interesting (4)
CommentsLoading...
Very interesting!
@L.L.Woodward - Yes, how to get traffic to your hubs seems like rocket science sometimes. All I've figured out so far is to write original, high-quality content on topics people are searching for (based on keyword research) and do some backlinking. At least that's what I've done so far. Thanks for stopping by and commenting, and keep the faith. You'll figure it out soon enough.
@sagecarter - Thanks for taking the time to read and comment!
This is an interesting and informative article. I agree with you; keyword research and consistent writing are both important aspects for success at hub-pages. I Enjoyed reading your article.
I have always enjoyed your writing, and I think your Hubs on crochet have encouraged my return to the art of crochet. Thank you for this Hub. I don't have anywhere near your page views or anything else. At this point, all I do is write. I am old school journalism. I have to admit that stats take the fun out of online writing, but I am very slowly learning. Boomarked, voted up, and everything else.
Hey Coolmon, it's taken me a while to really understand keyword research. I do the bare minimum, but I think that has helped. Now all I need to do is start writing on a regular basis. Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Glad you enjoyed the hub.
Hey Arlene, I'm glad my crochet hubs have inspired you to pick up the hook again. Online writing takes some getting used to. And yes, the stats sometimes take the fun out of it, but in this instance, curiosity got the better of me. Thanks so much for your positive feedback.
It's good to know that I am in the right market. You have a lot of good crochet hubs and I will be bookmarking them and linking to them overtime.
As for keyword research, I feel the same way. If you can't write about what you love, then for me, there really is no point.
Well, I'm a believer now! This is so awesome. And what's more, I've always wanted someone to sit down with me and teach me how to chrochet and follow a pattern. So, I have 2 choices: )1 You come to Nashville (wow - love it)
)2 you refer me to your hubs
I think I know what YOUR choice would be - so you'll be seeing quite a bit of yours truly around your hubs. Don't get me wrong - I'd love for you to come here. What fun that would be, and I'd take you to the different clubs my son Randy performs in with his band.
I didn't mean to turn this comment into a novel :) Happy New Year! Big, huge, vote up.
vocalcoach~
Hey Rhelena, glad you found this hub. Glad you're finding the crochet hubs worthy of bookmarking.
I think one of the reasons they get good page views, besides the topic, is that they are pretty detailed, ranging from 800 to 1,500 words. I'm finding that the more useful info you can provide readers, the better. I also try to include at least one photo (usually more), one video, and one other capsule, in addition to the text and comment capsules. Lots of subheadings, bullets, bold, and white space, too, to make them easy to read. That's my hub formula in a nutshell.
And I do try to do some keyword research. I think it's important. You'll get more page views (and more Ad Program income) if you take some time to figure out which words people are using in their searches. The formula for keyword research is high search volume/low competition from websites using the keyword.
Thanks so much for stopping by and for your positive feedback.
vocalcoach, I would LOVE to come to Nashville to teach you how to crochet. I haven't been back on the mainland (i.e., continental US) in 5 years. I love that part of the US, and even though I lived for most of my life in the Washington DC area, I didn't get to travel south nearly as much as I wanted to, although I did make it to Nashville on a biz trip in the 90s and loved the city! And wouldn't it be cool to see your son rock the house down!! Oh well, who knows what 2012 will bring?
In the meantime, in addition to my crochet hubs, there are so many "how to crochet" videos on YouTube that will help you get started. Also there may be a chapter of the Crochet Guild of America (www.crochet.org) in your area that you could join to get some instruction. Finally, sometimes community colleges and adult ed programs offer crochet lessons. Just a few ideas to get you started; it's always good to have face-to-face instruction.
Speaking of comments turning into novels, as you can see, I tend to be wordy myself, so I love to read wordy comments from others.
Glad to have you as a follower (I'll return the favor), and thanks so much for stopping by and commenting.
Tis no surprise that your crochet hubs did well! :)
Thanks for sharing what you learned. I know I need to do a better job with the keyword search thingy...
RTalloni, when I first heard about SEO and keyword research several years ago, my eyes rolled to the the back of my head. I DID NOT want to take the time and didn't have the energy to learn what appeared to be a complicated subject. I didn't even know what a keyword was.
So it's only been in the past year or so that I've actually started learning and applying SEO to my writing. Learning and applying a little bit at a time was my method of conquering "overwhelm."
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting and for your positive feedback.
This is a very interesting hub. I liked seeing how you felt how your various hubs had done as far as what you expected and what actually happened. I am looking forward to being able to analyze my hubs the same way once I have been here long enough. This is an excellent example to follow. Thanks!
This wasn't the most accurate analysis I could have done, homesteadbound; in fact, in less than a couple of days, a lot of the hub scores have changed and what was once the number one hub is no longer.
So there's probably a better way to analyze hubs, but this one at least gave me a general idea of which topics to focus on in 2012. What I need to do is get better at analyzing Google Analytics data.
In any event, I appreciate your taking the time to read and comment, as well as your positive feedback.
This is really interesting to me, because I would have thought that hubs about crafts wouldn't be very popular. I do understand that crochet is getting an upsurge. I write about quilting, and those hubs aren't very popular, but maybe it is because I haven't gotten any free patterns on there yet. This was a very interesting analysis. Thank you for sharing it.
Hey Millionaire Tips, it is interesting about the popularity of the crochet hubs, isn't it?
One thing I will say is that it was when I started writing crochet hubs about a year ago that I also started doing keyword research. So I think that might also be a reason why those hubs are doing well.
So if you do some keyword research with your quilting hubs, you might start getting more page views. Just a thought.
Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!
Hi PWalker281! I thought you might like to know that I enjoyed this hub so much that I shared it in my latest Hub Luv series hub! Thanks! -Cindy
Thanks so much, Cindy! I really appreciate it!
-Patrice
I think your analysis on here is superb of your own hubs statistical data. You may have been a math major in years past or a CPA or something, because to display such accurate numbers in such a manner in a hub takes suck skill in my honest opinion. Well done!
Your an awesome writer as well @ Pwalker281, I hope in 2012 these numbers hit record highs, maybe even in the millions, you never know right. Voted up, up & away.
Well, CloudExlorer, your praise leaves me almost speechless. Actually, I sucked at math even though my dad was a mathematician. I do however obsess over details, so that might make up for my lack of math skills.
Thanks so much for your well wishes for me in 2012 and for your positive feedback. Millions of hits would be great, wouldn't it? And you're right, anything is possible.
Sorry for the typo up there @ PWalker, oh thanks for sharing with me, in my hub too. It was quite nice of you to return the favor, yup I feel we're all headed for great things this year indeed, millions of views for us all. Go hubpages! Go!
LOL! "Suck skill" is probably good for something. No worries, CloudExplorer. Oh geez ... that could probably be taken in the wrong way. I didn't mean to, honest!! Just trying to make the words make sense (okay, maybe I should shut up before I put more of my foot into my mouth).
I don't always read every hub that a person I'm following has written, but there are always hubs that I'm interested in reading and commenting on, yours included :-). Thanks again for reading and commenting.
Hi Pwalker281,
I'm doing the same thing now, assessing my 2011 hubs. I began hubbing in Nov of 2010, though I had submitted one poem before that, so according to HP I've been on longer. In the beginning I was writing 2 or 3 hubs weekly, but I have a chronic back problem and am at home, so I have time. People love my astrology hubs, they get traffic, but the comments make me think they don't really get it. Your idea of tarot is good. I wrote a long series on the Motherpeace tarot, and people loved it. Many views, but it's an obscure deck. Book reviews don't do well for me unless it's a metaphysical topic, and I've been wondering if I should put them on a blog. I have a metaphysical blog, but most of the books don't belong there. I think your tarot idea is good, and I'm not going to write on it. You may want to review some of the more interesting decks, both old and new. People seem to like it when you have a niche, like your crochet stuff. I don't make the whole payout each month yet, but I'm hoping. I am a follower now too! Best Wishes.
Hey Jean, thanks so much for the "tarot deck review" idea. I have literally over 100 decks and the Motherpeace deck at one time was my favorite (met the husband of the woman who created it at a metaphysical fair back in the 80s).
Your astrology hubs are fantastic! Very thoughtful and well written. I'm reading the one now about doing your own chart. Wish I had it back in the 70s when I was trying to do them by hand (made a lot of mistakes since math isn't my forte). Unfortunately, a lot of the public is stuck on "sun sign" astrology and don't understand that the chart includes more than just the sun (you commented about this in one of your hubs). I've heard it for so long now that it doesn't frustrate me anymore. I simply explain about all of the other factors that go into a person's chart. They're either interested or they're not.
I just received my first HP payout today! after two years on HubPages. I started earning a lot when they instituted the Ad Program. That's why I'm doing most of my writing here. My goal is to have 100 hubs by the end of 2012. And I'll probably use Google Analytics as my source of data for the next year-end review.
Thanks so much for the follow. I returned the favor. Looking forward to chatting with you more.
Congratulations on your earnings, I have always enjoyed your hubs and the way you write. Wishing you the best and many more in the future.
Hey CC, how are you?? Thanks so much! I've been focusing on writing here since I'm getting more page views and earnings thanks to the Ad program. Hope you are doing well at school, but miss your presence on the writing scene.
I have been doing really well Patrice, just not very motivated to write anything. LOL
I just finished a 5-part series on how to read tarot cards which I put a lot of energy into; now I'm in a slump. Don't know what to focus on next. Well I do. I just need a writing break :-).
Thank you for sharing this information and congratulations on finding a profitable niche. This is very helpful in figuring out what to do here at HubPages. Voting this Up and Useful.
Glad you found the hub helpful, Aurelio.
I commented on one of your Reddit hubs that I submitted one of my crochet hub urls in the crochet subreddit. Views have jumped from 23 to 100+ and still climbing, although at a slower pace. So I think over the next couple of weeks I'm going to focus on backlinking (plus, I'm just about "written out" and need a break).
Thanks for reading and commenting!
L.L. Woodard Level 6 Commenter 4 months ago
Found your analysis of your hubs interesting. I feel as if I need a "personal trainer" to aid me in getting more traffic to hubs and articles, because I just don't seem to be "getting it" on my own. I wish you continued success.