Tag Archives: exclusives

Exclusive Titles to Be Retired

Howdy, Hubbers! I have a quick announcement. HubPages Exclusive Titles will be retired today. Exclusives were unique, niche titles intended to cover subjects that have not already been exhausted online. Sadly, we’ve found that these titles did not perform as well as we hoped, and they will no longer be available in the Hub Title section of the HubTool.

Why are Exclusives being retired?

  • We found that Exclusive Titles did not perform significantly better than non-Exclusive Titles
  • The restrictive nature of Exclusives made it too difficult for Hubbers to tweak and optimize their titles
  • Exclusive Titles were frequently misunderstood to be a guarantee of search traffic rather than an opportunity to write about something not covered on HubPages
  • Exclusives were not a significantly helpful tool for Hubbers in overcoming writer’s block

What does the retirement of Exclusive Titles mean for Hubbers with Exclusive Hubs?

The good news: if you’ve written Exclusive Hubs in the past, you are now free to edit their titles. You’ll no longer need to email me to request changes. Our Learning Center guide on Creating a Successful, Search-Friendly Title is a great place to start if you want to give the titles of your Exclusive Hubs a bit of TLC. For now, the “EXCLUSIVE” icon on your My Account page will remain visible to indicate which Hubs were originally Exclusives, but we intend to remove that icon in the near future.

What does the retirement of Exclusive Titles mean for Hubbers without Exclusive Hubs?

The Hub Title drop-down menu in the HubTool will soon disappear, so when you create a new Hub, you will no longer have potential titles suggested to you. But if you’ve never used Exclusive Titles or written an Exclusive Hub, the retirement of Exclusives should have very little effect on your experience.

Exclusives and Topics and Rising Stars, Oh My!

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As Simone has mentioned, she’s leaving HubPages at the end of this month to work on her new business at Gigaverse. The HubPages Team wishes her the very best, and we’ll miss her terribly!

I wanted to take this opportunity to inform the community that I’ll be assuming command over some of Simone’s programs when she leaves. The weekly Rising Star competition, the Topic Expansion Initiative, Exclusive titles, the HubPages Weekly newsletter, and social media sharing are a few projects I’ll be working on. Please feel free to email me with new Topic requests, Exclusive title issues, potential Hubs of the Day,  and of course, shameless flattery.

Here’s a little about me: Some of you may already know me from the old Weekly Topic Inspiration program. I’ve been part of the HubPages Team since July of 2012, and I’m also a dedicated and enthusiastic fellow-Hubber. I’m very proud to have just completed the Apprenticeship Program. I have a History degree from UC Santa Cruz and I’ve been a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area for the past 8 years. I’m delighted to have the opportunity to work more closely with the community! Oh, and I collect robots.

The Marvels of March Exclusive Titles

We just love this great Hub by Sunday Best from one of our favorite Exclusives last month. We can’t wait to see what you come up with for these, so keep up the great work, Hubbers! Here are our top 10 favorite March Exclusive Titles:

  1. Curing Your Family’s Addiction to Reality TV
  2. How to Make a Wish in a Wishing Well
  3. How to Look Good in Guyliner
  4. What Is an 80s Power Ballad?
  5. How to Respectfully Disagree with Your Priest
  6. How to Eat Vegemite
  7. The Various Headbands of Taylor Swift
  8. What Is the Orange Fungus Growing in My Mulch?
  9. How to Live Comfortably in an RV with Kids
  10. How to Choose Artificial Office Plants

 

I hope you will consider creating a Hub using one of these promising premises. I know I’m particularly curious about the orange mulch mystery fungus, and who doesn’t love 80s power ballads?

Want some inspiration? Here’s a little taste of what talented Hubbers have been doing with Exclusives this past month:

Remember to check out HubPages Exclusives guide in the Learning Center should you want to give Exclusive Titles a try and not be familiar with the feature.

The Faves of February Exclusive Titles

We’re super excited that prokidwriter made this awesome Hub on How to Be a Tooth Fairy for Your Kids from one of our Top 10 January titles! We especially love the original drawing and the app suggestions for modern, tech-savvy parents.

This month we’ve got some real winners. Without further ado, I give you the February top 10 Exclusive titles:

  1. How to Sight and Observe a UFO
  2. How to Date a Loser without Getting Teased
  3. How to Create Your Own Ninja Mask
  4. Tutorial for Growing Bioluminescent Algae in Your Own Home
  5. How to Make Homemade Christmas Cards for Non-Crafty People
  6. How to Deal with Your Boyfriend’s Outrageous Hairstyle
  7. Biography of British Engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel
  8. How to Make it through a Boring Party
  9. Healthy Baked Ferret Treats Recipe
  10. How to Look Good in Ugly Clothes

 

We LOVE to see your own original pictures and drawings in Hubs. Number 6 is just begging for some brilliant photos of silly hair, and step-by-step photos for Number 3 would be super (I really, really want to learn to make my own homemade ninja mask, so share your knowledge, secret ninjas!). If you haven’t written an Exclusive Hub yet, check out HubPages Exclusives in the Learning Center to find out what Exclusives are and how they work.

Below are a couple examples of stellar Exclusive Hubs published in February. Keep up the great work, y’all!

The Gems of January Exclusive Titles

New Exclusive titles are constantly being created for tons of diverse subjects spanning every Topic at HubPages. If you haven’t written an Exclusive Hub yet, check out HubPages Exclusives in the Learning Center to find out what Exclusives are and how they work. In brief, Exclusives are unique, high-potential titles that can be claimed by talented Hubbers. An Exclusive Hub with high quality content and media has a good chance of becoming a success on HubPages.

We frequently create titles that look particularly fun, fascinating, and funny. We hope they will find good homes with Hubbers who are as excited about them as we are! Here are our absolute favorite top 10 best-of-the-best January Exclusives:

  1. How to Be a Tooth Fairy for Your Kids
  2. Mastering Form VII: Juyo, the Ferocity Form of Lightsaber Combat
  3. How to Tune a Lyre
  4. Tips on Drawing Ugly People
  5. Yummy Ways to Eat Spam
  6. How to Properly String a Recurve Bow
  7. How to Celebrate a Non-Lovey-Dovey Valentine’s Day
  8. How to Handle an “Uninvitation” or Being Uninvited to an Event
  9. How to Choose and Install a Motorcycle Helmet Mohawk
  10. Mori Girl Fashion Tips

Most of these gems are currently unclaimed, so keep an eye out for them in your title bar. We can’t wait to see them flourish as entertaining, successful, quality Hubs! Since we love to see how Hubbers flesh out our favorite Exclusives, here are a couple examples of January Hubs with fun Exclusive titles and great content:

Extra! Extra! Read All About HubPages Exclusives!

While it is fairly easy to create high-potential titles with a bit of research, we know that many Hubbers (HubPages staff included) would prefer to focus mostly on Hubs themselves- not their titles. We’ve also heard again and again that if there’s one thing Hubbers would like more of, it’s writing prompts and title ideas.

Having worked long and hard to find an optimal feature to address these preferences, we are happy to announce Exclusives: high-potential titles that appear right on the Create a Hub page.

Exclusives are available to Hubbers with a Hubber Score of 80 or above, so once you reach that level, you will be able to access these titles by typing a keyword into the title bar of the Create a Hub page. Though you will only be able to hold on to four drafts of Exclusives at one time, there is no limit to the total number of Exclusives you can ultimately claim and publish.

The body of Exclusives from which you can draw is continuously growing, which means that you’ll see new and different titles over time. If you don’t like the Exclusives that pop up, you can rest assured that in a couple of weeks, there will be new titles draw from.

If you have a HubScore of 80 or higher, we hope you enjoy this new feature. If you’re not yet to 80, here’s another reason to build up your HubScore- you can do so by regularly publishing high quality Hubs. For some tips on doing so (and some inspiration), stop by our Learning Center guide to creating a stellar Hub.