Do you use your best highest quality content for your hub, or do you use "filler" content, older sets, vids, etc ? Some folks use alot of sponsor content which makes sense because it's usually high quality. If you are upselling to your own paysite or premium site, shouldn't it reflect the "high quality" content that you are trying to upsell. Most hubs that I see dont seem to be too interested in the quality of the content.
Also, is your hub on it's own domain ?
Last edited by Huskyhunks; 04-21-2005 at 06:03 PM. Reason: add info.
Artist/Painter and Webmaster of Huskyhunks.com.
IMHO, you shouldnt use ANY content on your hub.
Just link it to all of your existing sites and sponsors.
There is an article in the 'Articles + Tutorials' section about creating a hub site if you want some more insight
Regards,
Lee
Lee, thank you for responding. I was referring to everything under the "umbrella" of the hub which includes all of your content that you use for free sites, avs sites, or tgp's etc. I believe I know the architecture of a good hub, but I've seen hubs with paysite quality content and some with mediocre content.
Artist/Painter and Webmaster of Huskyhunks.com.
You see lower quality in the supporting players on a hub, ie the freesites and tgps simply because linklists and tgp sites want fast loading pages. Many even dictate what the maximum size a large image can be in both pixel and file weight. Some people even say right on the gallery, "these are optimized for a free gallery, want the hi res - join up" type thing.
Hi Bec,
That's true about tgp's, it's very competitive out there and owners dictate what stays and what goes. It makes sense not to give away the good stuff on a tgp. I personally would prefer to see a 5 or 10 second high quality clip then a minute long piece of ****.
I think that a standard 50 image avs site could serve as it's own hub. Fill it with banners, links, etc, make it interesting and filter traffic and upsell. It could do the same thing as a hub and eliminate an extra step in the selling process.
Last edited by Huskyhunks; 04-21-2005 at 08:06 PM. Reason: add indo
Artist/Painter and Webmaster of Huskyhunks.com.
An AVS is only one more tool in the marketing toolbox. A Hubsite is free to access. AVS basic sites are not. If you want to show quality in the AVS and upsell to more content at the paysite - that's cool. As to all the banners and links you'd see on a hubsite being inside an AVS - you'll find most AVS's have rules just like the tgp and linklist sites and will limit just how many outbounds you put inside your AVS site.
A hub made sense 4 years ago. Creating a matrix of sites, marketing them as such. I understand that. But today, there really doesn't seem like there is an advantage to building upteen million avs or free sites to create a hub. It seems to rely too heavily on volume. I see that as a drawback now. Volume means generic sites, overused sets, same old same old. I guess this is more of an issue of relevancy. I don't see hubs being that relevant in todays market.
Artist/Painter and Webmaster of Huskyhunks.com.
Imo, hubs are excellent for SE's and bookmarkers... still very relevant.
HH, you know as well as anyone that narrow niche surfers are very loyal. And if your hub is for AVS sites, you want surfers to see that you are continuing growth in areas that they like. It helps with rebills on Premium AVS sites.
Hi X,
You know I sat down to make a new hub, then asked myself ... why ? It seems redundant to try to upsell surfers the same content that you are using on your sites.
It would make more sense to use small 50 image avs sites, pad them with sponsors, and package them individually. Submit them individually to the search engines and the linklists, then you can upsell front end sponsors as well as the back end. (sounds nasty
The shelf life of a site is so short now that it seems hardly worth it to build 100 sites that yield 1000 hits a day then to list 1 site every couple of days and yield that same 1000 hits.
Artist/Painter and Webmaster of Huskyhunks.com.
Agreed.Originally Posted by Xstr8guy
They are also invaluable tools in finding out just how much you can fuck with a surfer before you start losing sales
On one of our hubs several years ago we literally littered it consoles, almost every link that got clicked launched a console, sales increased for about a week until surfers started to get pissed at which time we removed the consoles back to more 'normal' levels.
The BEST thing about a hub though is that in effect it is your own linklist (for want of a better word) where you can make and break the rules as much or as little as you want and nobody can do a think about it
I still play with a couple of hubs every month or so to see whats currently working so far as generating new traffic streams.
Regards,
Lee
Hmm..
I have a feeling you are missing the point of having a 'hub' site.
It isnt to build sites for the hub.
You build sites like you normally would, AEN, free, galleries whatever and just throw a link to THOSE sites on the hub.
Your hub is basically one page full of links to the rest of your sites, you dont build sites specifically for the hub.
Sorry if i misunderstood what you meant but thats what it sounded like
Regards,
Lee
I totally get what your saying Lee. We just have different philosophies on how to use hubs but I agree with you on their function. I like your way better :francais:
Artist/Painter and Webmaster of Huskyhunks.com.
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