Preserve All the Old Links

A few months ago, I  wrote of how links from my HubPages website had fallen off dramatically and how the loss of the RSS feed from my hubs had not seriously affected viewing figures.

In recent days though I have seen yet another switch in viewing figures. Possibly due to changes both at Google and HubPages recently, HubPages has now made a dramatic reappearance on my link source for viewers on most of my blogs.

We are talking dramatic changes in figures here. From 0 to 20   or 30 viewers per day over the last seven days have been coming via old HubPages links.

In the recent past I was talking to a friend who also had a presence on HubPages, he had seen a fall off in views after the Panda changes and had deleted many of his hubs, feeling them to be useless in driving traffic.

I explained to him that I would just leave my hubs alone, mark time and see what happened. I felt my hubs were worthwhile and they were still viewed, just links to my hubs didn't seem to be actively tracked any longer.

Plus add to this some grudging state that having worked hard to create hubs I didn't want to delete them willy-nilly.

So here we both are a few weeks later and he was fuming on Saturday when I told him about this latest increase in traffic.

He having deleted his hubs now has no old mature links to his websites and blogs. I due to vanity and laziness, it takes work to delete stuff, have all my old and mature links feeding my blogs again.

So the moral of my tale is keep old mature links for as long as you can. You never know when they will reawake interest in your other work.

Talking of links why not take a look at our latest MP3 Website.

Placing Links in Comments. Should we?

A few days ago a question was asked, "Should you post a link in someone elses comment capsule?

It seemed to get a resounding yes from many of those who answered.

Personally I say, NO! You should not assume that the author of a hub will automatically accept your comment which is merely a possible plug for your own hub or website.  To do such a thing is plainly spamming the Hubber.

By all means you can mention that you have a similarly themed hub, a hubber may ask you to provide a link or may go to your hub and link to it themselves. If they do, be fair and reciprocate.

Do not though post a hub link into a comment capsule. HubPages doesn't allow it and it is not really proper etiquette for the site.

Google Searches or Links? Which bring You MORE Views?

We have all heard the cry "How do I get top ranking on Google searches?" Maybe you have even asked that very question yourself?

Well I know I used to ask that very question. I bought the books advising on Search Engine Optimization and How to promote your sites.

They were useful in that they talked about building links and creating an RSS Feed etc. But over the last year I have come to realise that Google search engine page location is not all it is made up to be.

I regulary look up my stats on my blog, they show some very interesting figures. Of all views only 3% come from Google searches.

1% come drom other search engines but a massive 96% come from posting links to places such as HubPages and Yahoo! Voices, The largest source at 70% of all traffic comes from HubPages and my RSS feeds there.

So that tells me that people who have read my content on HubPages are clicking through my RSS feed to come here.

OK So I don't get any revenue because I don't advertise on my blog. I don't mind that, this blog is to share information with you.

But in that there is opportunity for you. If you have a monetized blog, link it to your hubpage hubs on related subjects and you will gain traffic from people who already enjoy your style of writing.

Also link back to other hubs to drive traffic back there so you can benefit from your HubPages CPM revenue.

Remember. Google ranking is not the only way to gain traffic. But once you have your reader keep them reading your pages by linking to your own work when you can.

Be patient though. building a network takes time. You won't see a difference overnight, it has taken me one year so far, unless you hit a hot topic. The idea is to plan for the  long term. Then over time you will see a marked improvement in traffic.