100,000 HubPages views - the hard way
80As I begin writing this sentence, my total HubPages views stands at 99,981. I can therefore say with some confidence that by the time I finish all of the sentences that I plan to write here, the total will have crossed 100,000.
Sometime later - perhaps in a day or two - HubPages will commemorate this achievement by adding a little icon to my profile page. When that is in place, you can hover your mouse over it and confirm the truth of my claim.
It has taken me twenty months to reach this milestone. Some other hubbers reach it more quickly, and some reach it more slowly. My title here seems to imply that there are different paths to that goal, and indeed there are, though in fact all of the paths are hard in some way.
That's not so very much
Actually, there are people who see that much traffic in a single day on a single page that they have written. Even I see that much and more every month at my main website and would see it every ten days or so there before Panda slapped me down.
I don't know what the record is here at HubPages, but I know that 10,000 views at a single hub in one day has definitely been done. With that kind of traffic in mind, this checkpoint isn't all that important.
Still, we like to have goals, and people who have not yet reached those goals sometimes want to know the "secrets", so I'll tell you what I know about it.
Shotgun or rifle
If you search through the HubPages forums for "100,000" or "100k", you'll find plenty of people announcing their attainment of that particular accolade. You will notice that some did it very quickly - after just a few months, perhaps. Others took much longer. Some did it with a small handful of Hubs (pages at this site) and some had many more.
I see those with a small number of hubs as skillful hunters. They step into the wilds of the Internet seeking big game. They have prepared themselves with research and know where the prey they seek is likely to be found. They have also honed their marksmanship and when they have a target in their sights, they are very likely to bring it down with a single shot. Of course they will miss at times, but their preparation and hard work will usually mean success.
Those of us with a large number of hubs take a different approach. We pick up as much armament as we can carry and blunder about carelessly, spraying bullets in every direction. Once in a while we bring down some small game or lightly wound a larger animal. Once in a great while, by sheer luck, we bring down something big.
We aren't shooting rubber bullets
If we equate writing skills to the killing power of our ammunition, neither of us are shooting rubber bullets. If my noisy and random shooting finds a target, it may drop dead - in Internet terms, it may attract a lot of visitors.
Math is not the way to examine this. For example, right now I get about 13,000 page views a month here at HubPages and about 110,000 at my main website. I have 343 pages here and over 4,000 at my main site, so simple math might convince you that each page gets something like 30-40 views per month.
That would be incorrect, however. In fact, at both places, it is a small number of pages that are responsible for most of the views. At my main site, 25 pages account for half the monthly views and it is the same pages month after month. Here at HubPages, 30 pages account for half of those 100,000 views.
As I finished that sentence, I looked to check current stats - 100,001 right then.
So targeting seems the way to go..
It would seem quite obvious that I could have saved a lot of wear and tear on my keyboard if I had just written sixty very good pages instead of more than three hundred. As others have reached this plane with that number or less, the point is underscored heavily.
The problem is that I don't know how to pick those winning hubs.
I'm not sure anyone else just picks them out of the air, either. Oh, there may be some extremely talented people who simply know what will be popular, but I suspect that most of the "rifle" folk do it the hard way: research and preparation. While I am pounding out volume, they are crafting a skillful attack. We are both working hard.
So why don't I take the focused approach? Simply put, I can't. I dislike research and I'm just not a focused person. I'm the guy with a hammer as my only tool - the screws are a lot harder to get out, but by gum, they WILL come out!
The next one is easier
People who have passed that 100K mark sometime back will tell you that the next 100K is easier.
That's probably true, though my guess would be that it's easier still for those with focus. I would also point out that it's possible for stats to decline. I'm not the only person who was damaged by Panda and, in a generic sense, changes like Panda are always on the horizon. The next 100K might not be easy at all.
If you are not there yet
If you are far from that goal and are feeling despair, take comfort in this: it can be done. You'll have to take one approach or the other, unless you have tremendous stamina and can combine high volume with focused research - lucky you if you can!
Of course you need some writing skill. Don't fret about that too much though - many visitors are near illiterates today, so you won't need much. If you can write at a seventh grade level, that's good enough.
That's all I know: be a skilled hunter or blast away randomly until you hit something. Neither is easy. If you can do the former, that's probably better.
Good luck!
vote upvote downshareprintflag
- Useful (3)
- Funny (3)
- Awesome (6)
- Beautiful (1)
- Interesting (7)
CommentsLoading...
I know that it can be mystifying, but your numbers really aren't that low. I think that, like me, you are just unfocused. You therefore either need to focus or just write more - whichever is easier for you.
I write about half a million words a year -- closer to 400,000, actually -- but most of those words never make it online. Maybe I need to reconsider what I share.
Perhaps so. Is there a reason why you do not publish most of that?
This was great and informative. Thanks.
Welcome, Karen. It looks like you are off to a good start!
I am interested in establishing a name in fiction, and I'm working on several different projects simultaneously. That's the bulk of it, all stuff that I'm obsessively polishing. I also am brutal with what I write. I delete more than I save. If I had the opportunity to do it again, I would have obsessed/revised less and submitted more. This year, I plan a deluge of fictional output. I'm getting too old to wait.
I've written down a lot of my philosophical musings, but HubPages has helped me to realize that the audience for that is small, except for celebrity atheists.
Sometimes, I wish I'd been born an idiot, or a larger hypocrite, as I suspect I could have been quite successful writing Christian apologetics.
Congratulations -- that's quite an achievement and in only 20 months. Voting this Up and Awesome.
I know that temptation well :)
I am glad that I could help. I am responsible for at least 2 of your 100,000 views.
I don't think I could do that "being focused" thing you were talking with Chasuk about. That means I have to write more. That sounds like work. I hate work. I'm lazy.
I think I just thought of the lazy way to achieve the major achievement you just made, Pcunix. So, if everyone who has looked at Pcunix's stuff would please look at one hub of mine, today preferably, I would appreciate it. That way, I can hit 100,000 within a 24-hour period.
I'll buy everyone a text box and a photo opportunity with me.
I am kidding. So, don't hit me or anything.
We seldom hit.
For the life of me I can't recall the name of the hubauthor, but I personally saw a HP profile with an icon for THIRTEEN MILLION page views.
I'd know the avatar if I saw it - it's of a very attractive woman, go figure, right?
LOL!
That's a lot of page views..
Congratulations on your 100,001 page view. Of course I am sure it has gone up by now. I like and agree with your explanation or the two alternative ways to reach 100,000. Right now I am quite comfortable speculating on how many more months (maybe 4, maybe 8) it will be before I hit 10,000. Maybe, if and when I retire, I will set myself a fierce goal...no, probably not. I think I will keep puttering along. :) I am genuinely happy for you. :)
Congratulations Pcunix! A great milestone! I am a low man on the totem pole, numbers wise, but I keep plugging along. I have limited time to write as work is a priority at the moment with a lot going on there. However, I try to average a few hubs a week, minimum. Thanks for this most useful and interesting hub! Voted up!
It's still too early for either of you two to be worrying about how well you are doing. I'd expect to start seeing growth 6-8 months in. If it comes earlier, all the better, of course.
Congratulations, Pcunix! Impressive and suitable. It seems to me that your "hard way' would be the most fun way to achieve such results! Great smile, too!
Now let me confess my statistics, which I analyzed pretty thoroughly just now, which is actually the first time I've paid much, if any, attention to the stats.
On second thought, I'll spare the tiresome details & just briefly summarize what it turned up:
Time on HubPages = 23 months.
Total hubs = 149.
Average total views per hub = 218.
Average total views for all hubs per each of my 23 months in HubPages = 1384.
At this rate, it would take another 5 years for my hub views to reach 100k. I'll be 85 if and when it does! I can't honestly say I'd have preferred doing it any differently. It's gratifying that none of those hub views lack a majority of memorable quality comments and that I've been able to leave appreciable comments on many others' hubs, too.
Congrats! I think it really don't matter how fast you get there, just that you have accomplished it. For me I am sure I could have done what many suggested to back link, etc, it just didn't matter. I figured if people were meant to find it than they would. I guess I had someone once say do you just want a lot of people following and viewing your pages, or real followers that will read your pages. I know lots of people go on different sites adding tons of friends to get more views that aren't really friends, and sure you can have 5K of friends on one blog, but how many are really reading it, and by the traffic we can say we can tell where people are actually reading it from. I can do all that work on many sites, but I've always just added people that came to me instead of going to them. I guess I don't have 100,000 views in 11 months, but when you get there it should be in your timing and way. Perhaps it took you 20 months, but maybe actual readers that really like what you write. I think that is what is important. That they really like what you write. So Congrats for getting there finally. :)
Both Nellie and Hattie hint at something I didn't mention: fakery and trickery.
You can buy traffic. One of the more typical methods is to redirect expired domains to your site. Of course 99.99% of those "visitors" will have no interest in ever returning, but they will boost statistics.
You can also buy links and while it may not be 99.99% with no interest, the number will still be high and of course Google used to stupidly assume that a high number of links actually meant something good, so they'd boost you up and that might help get more visits.
You can join one of the numerous traffic exchange sites and play whatever game they are up to.
It's all crap and vaguely disgusting, but people do it. You'd use to find people bragging about all that in the forums here - I guess some still do, although post-panda most are keeping mum.
I'm with you guys: no games, let it be what it is and if it isn't, so be it.
I agree Pcunix, I just figure when I do get books published, those fake statistics are not the ones that are going to buy my books, but ones that find it and enjoy it. Thankfully I have a friend that has reminded me since I started on hubpages. She told me write for myself. If no one ever reads it, does it matter? Where I started almost a year ago, I have always followed her advice. I would have never imagined all the nice people I have met, and I have grown as a reader on hubpages. I've learned a lot from my fellow hubpagers. Probably the most important is the friends I meet more than the traffic. :) They are always to be treasured. Each one of them.
Pretty much my feelings. I have to write, so why not publish it? Oh, a litte money is nice and more would be nicer, but not so much that I'd compromise principles.
I think I know the thirteen million view person but she seems to have hidden the stat on her profile, so I'll keep quiet about it.
Interesting article, and angle on traffic - I like the blundering around shooting all kinds of small animals idea. I'm another prolific untargeted writer surprised by a couple of pages that do get some traffic, and another two hundred that don't.
Those traffic exchange sites will get you banned in a hurry!
Holy smoke, somebody ought to take the time to figure out what all sites are traffic exchanges and write about that.
I had no real idea what I was even doing when I first used one called "Plug A Link," and then "plugged" a few of my links.
I just sort of got a suspicion that something about that wasn't right though, and so I emailed Simone to ask about it.....Oh of course that's against both HP and Google's TOS to use "Plug A Link."
I'm just sort of dumb about some things - I'd heard of traffic exchanges, but didn't truly know what they were.
I don't think that you're dumb, I think we have so much to learn about blogs, and hubs, and it takes time. We have so much to learn about becoming writers, publishing, and where to go and where not to go. I found out there is a whole list of things I'm learning. :)
@Mark Interesting mind picture, blundering about shooting blindly :)
@Wes and Hattie: Yes, those things can can you in trouble. Unfortunately, you'll still see people recommending that kind of crap in the forums - not as much as we used to get, but it still comes up now and then.
That's one Amazing statistic is all I can say, and you keep blasting away, lol. I'm very skilled at targeting things that interest me, such as humanity, and crucial issues that help improve peoples outlook on their lives.
The numbers are important only to the machine counters, and number cruncher types I guess.
I care for looking at my stats to see if my hubs are achieving viewing pleasures by others, as well as looking to see comments, but the comments is what I value most. The day I hit 1,000,000 views will be the day I have truly felt I definitely did something right here on hubpages, even though 100,000 seems quite untouchable at this very moment. I'm still chasing 10g's right now hahahha.
Awesome hub and this one is getting voted up and out of hubpages as well, you got my vote, and don't forget who helped you get there, once you hit that 1 million milestone as well. We all in it together @ Pcunix, that's one thing for sure, congratulations on earning your new badge.
That million will be a good number of years :)
ha ha! Lord a million, you better start writing Pcunix 24/7 maybe get there 10 years to life! lol
Actually, it will be sooner that that. Even at current traffic levels, I'd be there in six years or less. If I wrote 24/7, it would be quicker still :)
Ha Ha, well I hope I'm writing books before than, but I"ll check in 6 years just to see if you made it! lol
I hope to still be kicking in six years.. I am getting older, so you never know.
I prefer the "shooting with a scoped rifle" technique as I write more for my own enjoyment than the cash it brings in--good thing with my being sand boxed presently--but then, each of us write for our own reasons.
Kick as long as you can Tony, even if it's only with one foot! :)
Randy SSSSS--member of Banned on the run! LOL!
I envy the sharp shooters.. I whistle the scarecrow song whenever y'all tell me how you do it.. :)
Actually Pcunix you'll hit the Million in no time, because the web is exponential unlike any other magnetic crunching machine, you will surely surpass that mile stone, in due time.
I've studied all of the Hubpages greats ones I could in these past 5 months, and many of them attained such a level within 3,4, and 5 years based on their accolades badges. So its much more than doable, it will happen mark my text words. Your headed there for sure especially if you hit 100,000 already, which you have, that's how I got here, from your badges release into the system & with this green +6 button yet a second time.
Ha! I didn't say I always hit the bulls-eye, Tony! I've been stuck at around 460,000 views since google roughed me up--since Aug. 10th. Hope reins supreme, though!
@cloudexplorer: As Randy's comment shows, external factors can get interfere. I used to pull a quarter million every month at my main web site - Panda cut that in half.
o.o hmm....intersting! How do they manage to do all this?
How does who manage to do all what?
google and panda mess up your views?
You can learn about Panda just by Googling for it. I talk about what happened to me at http://pcunix.hubpages.com/hub/A-Panda-Post-Mortem
ok! Thank you!
My gosh. I'd no idea that folks are that desperate for traffic or how representable the means to that end can be. From the sounds of that earlier bragging about these methods, it appears that some of those using them considered it more for the game than for actual attention or appreciation of the writing by readers. I confess it takes a big stretch for me to fathom it.
I've been more inclined even to avoid 'traffic' in favor of genuine interest, even though that is inevitably a trade-off between quantity & quality, - one I'm quite willing to make.
Truth is, I came here and started sharing my stuff because of interest in writing, rather than math or statistics. If I preferred to pursue those interests, I guess I'd go at it more directly where it fits.
Oh well. It's good to see that someone like you can accomplish the attention and win the stats without trading off the great writing and scout's honor!
And it's good to hear Hattie express a similar view about what does matter.
Thanks for filling me in on these other practices, Pcunix. I consider myself an optimistic realist and a realistic optimist. :-) I hadn't thought it a perfect world, even among writers.
Most of them think there is nothing wrong with what they do.. It is just a game for them. A money making game with no rules.
Heck, before panda I thought it really was a game - "He Who Hath Most Backlinks Wins All."
I got really encouraged after the Panda (sorry for your loses)...as it seemed like content mattered more than backlinks...
I don't understand Randy's deal at all - but It's sounding rather prolonged for my tastes now. Surely that can't last forever.
Congratulations on your 100,000+ views, Pcunix, and thanks for an interesting and informative hub. Good luck with working towards a million views!
I'm not working at it :)
Congratulations on reaching 100K. I am not to sure if calling your readers "near illiterates" is going to make attaining the next 100K any easier.
I'm sorry, but some hubbers here are exactly that. I doubt many of them are my readers though - I tend to appeal more to intelligent folks.
I've taken a scattershot approach, writing a lot of hubs on a variety of topics that interest me. My top producing hub (116,000 page views, 1,300 comments)is on a topic that I actually know something about. Current high unemployment has obviously helped generate traffic. My early hubs were pretty thin, and many didn't meet the tightened standards.
See? Speak of the (intelligent) devil and look who turns up!
Ralph is someone at the 1 million mark, by the way.. So scattered isn't so bad in his case at least.
Your description of yourself as a Hubber is more like mine. My Mom alwys said "If you throw enough s____against a wall, some WILL STICK" So, I just keep writing about what I like and enjoy and hope for the best! Kind of like Russian Roulette, I guess. I've got to stop writing poetry even though I like it. I think that is a time waster. What do you think about poetry?
That's a great analogy. Unfortunately, I am in the "blunder about carelessly, spraying bullets in every direction" camp. I would like to get a machine gun and wonderful aim at the same time so I can really hit all my targets!
@mary I don't "get" poetry. Very little appreciation, sorry.
@millioanaire tips I would too :(
I like the easy way you write, it's nice to read. It's interesting what you say about the skillful hunters. After I reached 100,000, I didn't anticipate how quickly the next 100,000 would come in. When I did take note that certain hubs were bringing in a decent volume of traffic, I decided to set a goal date. I had to change it twice to an earlier date and met my goal. I never, ever imagined that specific hubs would perform as they have, but now I have learned what to target. But something else I have learned is that each writer has to target what they know and are passionate about, and those views can help build referrals and organic backlinks. I'm happy to see you wrote about your achievement. Congratulations!!
It was your forum post that inspired me :)
Really?? WOW, well, I'm happy my forum thread inspired you, that was my purpose in posting! I hope it inspired others also. I was very appreciative of the comments and wanted to bring some encouragement and cheer to the forums. :))
I'm sure it did inspire others. In fact, I'm sure many of your posts have been inspirational. You stand out, rebekahELLE.
Great read and lots of additional value in the comments from the community. Currently half way there with a little over a hundred hubs, will keep working on it.
Sounds like you are doing fine.
I'd rather write about the things that I'm interested in, rather than write about something popular that bores me. Maybe the page views come slower, but that's okay. Congrats on your 100,000 views.
I so agree, Brooke. Some people can do that (though very few do it well).
You don't give yourself enough credit! What you think you lack in depth quality, you make up with a unique voice.
'sides, you're entertaining.
Well, thank you but I'll remain realistic :)
I assume you have your accolade now-- Another thing you have, probably because of your capsule headings, is ads with handguns on them.
Congrats on the 100K, Tony! :)
SSSSS
Ah, well, Rochelle, I never think about keywords or ads. Not on my radar, ever.
SSSS Thanks :)
A great hub and it was useful in that it confirmed my basic approach, which is run it up the flag and see who salutes. I write about things I am passionate about; I don't check google search or hot keyworks, I just write. Consequently I have the feeling this is going to take a very long time. Nice job and thanks!
Yes, it does take longer for most of us. Worse, you are competing with cheaters at times.
I hope you are getting salutes!
Chasuk Level 5 Commenter 3 months ago
I have 45 hubs, which have generated 12,243 pageviews, period. That's over 21 months. I'm not sure why my numbers are so low, but I have noticed that my best performing hubs are the ones which pander the most.