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The Best Tips and Tricks for Online Writers to get Better Article Traffic.

Updated on April 2, 2020
Don Bobbitt profile image

Don is a Writer and a Storyteller. He has published over 9 books on varied subjects along with many articles and commentary on his blogs.

The web parasite himself.

Source

I am a Web Writer and a Parasite.

HP recently updated what I call my "Seniority Badge".

If you go to my Writer's Host site and look at my profile page, you will see that i now have over ten years of experience as a writer on the web.

Whoopee! LOL!

Looking back, I realize that at the beginning, then, those who ran y Hosting site didn't know a lot more about what it was doing as a web business, than I did as a burgeoning web writer.

That's what we are you know, WEB WRITERS.

I can't put it any simpler than that; we write articles, stories, recipes, poems, political rants, and more. But we write it on and for the web.

Very few of us Hub Writers are professional full-time journalists, poets, or novelists who make a good living without involving the web.

So, I, along with the rest of you, are web writers.

I write on the web and exhibit my works for others to read and enjoy. And, as I tell my friends, I make a buck or two doing this.

Oh sure, as my profile mentions, I have published nine books on Amazon in both Paperback and Kindle formats, and i run a number of Blogs on both Google and Wordpress. But, essentially, I am just another web writer.

I evolved along with my host site

If you have been around on a hosting site as long as i have, you will remember how they operated back then, they were running in a business mode that was pretty open and free.

Open that is, to the power and control that Google would place on them and subsequently on their corral of budding writers.

Looking back, I remember reading, whenever Google stomped its foot and shook up the search engine world, seeing such phrases as; Oh, Google changed "X" but are promising to implement "Y" soon, so just wait and don't worry. Or, we have no idea why Google did "A" to everyone, but we think that if you start implementing "B" on your articles it will make them happy. ad nauseam!

And do you remember when all of the hosting sites regularly instructed us, the writers of the articles, about other such confused corporate reactions designed to present our works so that the great Google would like them better.

Now, we both know how to lick our wounds from our encounters with Google, on the web, and we are both a lot wiser than we once were.

In essence, we have both accepted our place in the Parasitic world of Web Search Engines,

The world of Search Engines is a Parasitic one

Yes, that's what I said.

We writers on our hosting sites are parasites! Electronic Financial Parasites!

Come on! Even if you didn't already know this to be a fact, you had to have at least suspected it to be true.

Sure, we write things on the web, but the whole host's article structure, even the tiniest formatting requirement, is designed to make the article not only interesting, but also to make it more commercial.

Yes, I said COMMERCIAL!

Let me explain.

The Parasitic Money Tree of Search Engines.

I.m not going into some long diatribe here on the history of search engines and the companies that own them.

Just let me say that I know of NO Search Engine management company that is a non-profit company. Each and every one of them exists to make money for their owners.

So, how do they make money?

Well, Google, premier among other search engine companies realized a long time ago that if they provided an accurate and dynamic engine for allowing the world to search for information, they could make money providing this. And they could even charge other companies and individuals to have their sites and products elevated in their list of search results.

Let me explain to the Search Engine Novice. We have all logged onto Google at one time or another, and searched for information on something.

And, Google happily provides you with a list of sites that have all kinds of information about what you wrote down as your search criteria.

Google, the Money Parasite.

This is where it gets good.

You see, that list provided to you can often include thousands of sites that you can go to, each of which has at least one or more of the words you typed down as a search criteria.

So, what made the first site in the list deserve to be first, over the second one, or even the one-thousandth one?

It was money. You see, there are actually multiple ways for a site to be listed closer to the top of their list. One way is to literally pay Google for a better position.

Think about it. Let's say I own a company that sells blue widgets. If I want to sell some on the web, I generate a site of my own and list my blue widgets for sale.

But, I end up in a very low position on the list of hundreds of blue widget sellers in the world. So, I also know that Google will happily move my site up the list, if I buy into their system of elevating site access.

Now, Google does have a relatively complicated way to compute the positioning of my blue widget site versus other blue widget sites, even if I pay for a better access, but simply put, Google is living off of the publics need for information and charging the sites willing to pay the most for their place on the generated list.

My Host and Me! The other Parasites.

So, why are we parasites? We're just writers, right?

Honestly, NO, we're not just writers, we are writers who want to make a buck off of our writings.

And, don't argue with me with your purist, "I am an Artist" sentimentalities. If you were a purist, you would just set up your own site, distribute the address to your dearest friends and write your works for your own entertainment.

Sure, you're a great writer, but you use your Host for the wider access to more people. And, if I go look at your articles, I am pretty sure that you have placed Ads in them. So, come on and admit it you're a web parasite too.

OK, so you don't like the term I used, but if you write on a host's site, you already know that they provide your article among the thousands of others they manage, to search engines, especially the great Google for their use.

You also know that the whole Hosting article structure is designed to force you, the writer to construct an article that provides good reliable information to the world, via Google, and to top that off it also provides advertisements to "hook" the reader into purchasing specific products.

And, you already know that the host gets a cut of every "blue Widget " sold on your site by Google. And in turn, the host shares a cut of of the money from Google with you.

And, honestly, I don't know about you, but I have not turned down any of the checks my host sends me.

And this my friend makes me a web parasite. I survive on money I get via the Search Engine money chain from the advertisers to Google, to HubPages to me.

This system is so successful that other companies utilize it for increasing profits, companies such as Amazon, eBay, Pinterest, and many others also provide you with an opportunity to be an "Affiliate" But that is a subject for another time.


If you are going to be a Web Parasite, do it right!

Accept it, we are the epitome of modern online commercialism, using our creative works to make a buck without ever leaving our comfortable chair at home.

So, when you use a Host site and its templates, use them to their maximum potential.

I mean, if you want to display your favorite recipe, use the provided templates and capsules, and use them properly. It is the Host' best guess at what the great Google wants Recipes to look like. Provide not just a recipe, but great pictures, clear directions, and ingredients that your audience can easily find.

Add a couple of videos, your own or something relative from YouTube or elsewhere, include some pertinent Amazon ads, and make your recipe stand out for its commercial value, as a parasitic money-making article for search engines.

And make some money.

Do this, and your recipes, poetry, short stories, and everything else you write will be desirable resources to those paying the bills to search engine companies like Google.

How do I use my Hosting site

So, back to me. That's what its all about, anyway, ME!

I am not a top earner on my Hosting site. And, this is because I just don't want to spend the time to be a full-time artcle writer.

You see, in this changing world of information access, there are just too many changes, occurring far too often, that will always be required of existing Hubs, for me to handle.

I have certain personal writing constraints that I follow. And, within these constraints, I make enough money through my Host for my wife and I to go out to dinner a couple of times each month. That's good enough for me.

The table below list some of the things I do with my Hosting site. Use them or not!

Some Valuable and Necessary Hosting Constraints

Here are the constraints I exercise on my Hosting site when I write or manage an article.

Article Quantity

I personally try to keep my number of active articles within a limit of 150 to 175. This turns out to be the most articles I can personally (or desire to) handle and keep fresh.

Read more below to see why I only keep a certain quantity of hubs active.

Article Layout Template

I use my own Article Template (or layout).

By that I mean that i structure EVERY article I write with the same layout of Capsules.

I rarely vary from this format, because it requires the least amount of work for me to maange changes. initially, I write my articles on a word processor, and clean them up there, long before I eventually place one into an article.

Oh, I do vary from my standard template for certain other subjects like; Photos, Travelogues, Recipes, and such, but they are few and far between.

By standardizing my Hub template, whenever (and this happens every few months) the great Google determines that my articles (and yours too) need a change, i am at least structured enough to make the appropriate changes quickly.

You might want to do this with your articles and evolve over to a standard that fits your writing style.

Word Count

What can I say? How many words does it take to say something? Well, in my opinion, you want to consistently use at least a little more than 1000 words in your article.

Remember, a successful article must impart useful information for the web searcher.

A Green Article must include enough information to remain Green for years. The simplest way to stay green is to meet the informational needs of a broad range of searches.

For instance, you can write an article about a type of DC Voltage fuse.

Or you can write your Hub about the world of DC and AC Fuses along with a couple of reference tables and other hard to find fuse information so that not just a simple search for the words DC Fuse gives your article a "Hit".

In fact with a Green article, numerous other searches about Fuses, their construction, their designated ranges, their shapes, their potential replacements, and more ,should be described in your Hub, using the appropriate and highly ranked Keywords.

You don't do this in 200-300 words. It will easily take 1000 or more words to write such a useful and informational article.

ADs, placement and format

I always place my Amazon or other ADs to the right of the article's text capsules, at half-width. This keeps my multiple capsules of text a continuous thing for the reader.

Some of my text capsules are full width, and some are half-width to allow for Ads and such, but they are contiguous.

You see, the reader should not finish reading a capsule of text and then have to search through multiple pictures, videos, and ads for the next capsule of text. Remember, again, your WHOLE Hub should be written in a easy to read and continual flow.

You don't want the searcher to stop reading because he got lost

You want them to stay on your article and read the whole thing, quickly and easily and not say "to Hell with this" and jump out and over to another site in the Google list of sites

Pictures and Videos

I try to place at least two or more videos in my article that are pertinent to the main subject. And, i place these at the bottom of the article, just before my Comments section, which nearly all Hosts places last.

I see a video as providing supporting information that the reader can sit back after reading my article and then watch it at his leisure before moving on. I do not want to give my reader a chance to leave my article. I want to keep him captured by my information. He can leave after he has finished. not watch half and run off.

And, like my Ads, I place my pictures, at half-width and to the right of the text. From my perspective, if the reader likes the pictures, he can click on it for a larger view.

The only picture exception I make is the first picture. I lead off each article with a full-width high quality Picture.

My ideal is to use a picture that tells the whole story of the article that I have put into words, just below the picture. This is hard thing to do, but it is a goal.

Featured Articles

I try to keep at least 95%-98% of my Hubs actively Featured by my Hosts. I know, it should be 100%, but I always have a few that are no longer Featured that I just haven't gotten to, each of which needs repairs or freshening.

Remember," If it "Aint Featured" it Aint really Out there!"

Host's Scores and Reads

An article writers overall article Score is one of those mysteries that are not adequately explained by your Host. And, over time, these requirements are continually changing.

But, the number of "Reads' an article gets is an important statistic to watch and manage.

I have my own system of watching a combination of; Article Score, Weekly and Monthly Reads as well as the number of comments for each of my articles. I try to manage these through judicious editing and improvements to the most neglected articles, before I get to the others.

Green Stats

An article that is a year or more old, and has only a few reads over it's short history, is essentially a useless Hub. Sorry, but that is the reality of HubPages.

If no one is reading an article, why is it there. You may love it, and your Mother might like it; but if it isn't being read then why have it out there? Fix it, or move it!

You see, I also manage several subject specific Blogs. This is where I move my "not so popular" creations and, like it or not, you will have some of these. On these other sites, they can be displayed for the public's enjoyment, and my ego is still happy with having created them.

This leaves me with only GREEN Articles. Green Articles must constantly prove that they include useful and desired information for the web searchers of the world.

And i continually make at least a few cents a month from each of my Green Articles.

Links, Good and Bad

I do insert links to other sites into my Articles, but I have one constraint that I follow. If I place a link into my article, it will be a "Happy Link" to Google. By this I mean that it will not be a site that expounds on a single subject and goes nowhere else on the web.

No, I will include the best link I can find for the desired information, but it will also have several links to even more sites. This seems to make Google happier with my Links.

Refreshing Articles

The longer they stay out there, your older articles become stale in the world of fresh information. One of the things I look at myself, when I am searching for information, is how long ago the article was written.

In this age of technology and change, I want the latest version of things, not some old article written even a few years ago.

So, I will refresh an artile for a couple of years whenever I see its numbers start to sag. But, eventually, I will pull the old article, update the information, including the title, and write it into a new article.

Hey, it works.

Don't just write, you need to manage your Articles.

Of course, as the great writer that you are, you write good articles, regardless of the content.

But if you want to make money with your articles, expending the minimal amount of work, I recommend that you manage yourself and how you manage your articles.

And, by the way! This article will not be a Green or profitable one. It is automatically doomed to oblivion. First of all, it is about my Hosting site and inherently has a very small potential audience. Second, everything on the web s=changes with time and it is highly probable that what I have written here is already out of date.

But, i have been here, on HP for over five years, and I wanted to toot my own horn for a bit. I will keep it around for a few months before I trash it.

I hope it proves useful to some of my fellow article Writers.

DON

The Four Simple Rules for Writing

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

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