NOTonHubPages
Why HubPages is Unethical
Ever since Seth Godin announced that HubPages was "acquiring key content," HubPages has continued to operate unethically and unlawfully.
Ever since Seth Godin announced that HubPages was "acquiring key content," HubPages has continued to operate unethically and unlawfully.
Provide proof to the FTC about the Squidoo-HubPages transaction and provide water for Californians. Yes, I've decided to put my money where my mouth is. When I began to write online, I split my royalties 50% with charity. HubPages has kept my identity, profile, and 277 of my articles on their site (without my permission).
The truth travels fast and far online. I was thrilled to learn that HubPages lost 1200 authors in one week. The main reason? The Edmondsons admitted to "editing" the content of abandoned (aka "inactive") accounts. Paul Edmondson confirmed: by posting your content on HubPages, you've granted them the right to modify your work (without your permission).
Both Squidoo and HubPages broke the law when author content was sold and bought without the express permission of each content owner. I've written numerous articles detailing what was morally and ethically wrong throughout this business transaction. Today, I felt it was wise to focus solely on the legalities.
It saddens me to see stellar authors used and lied to by Paul Edmondson, the CEO of HubPages. As an outside observer, I can clearly see the impact the Editor's Choice program is having on subdomains. All of the evidence, along with over a dozen testimonials, points to the HubPages domain being massively downgraded by Google.
HubPages requires your updated tax information (including your SSN) before you receive payment. The first email former Squidoo writers received from HubPages perfectly fits the description of a phishing email. I followed Google protocol and reported it.
As predicted, the tension between Hubbers and former Squids has writers scrambling to find the spam on HubPages. Many people still believe that Paul Edmondson was telling the whole truth when he stated that Google had put a manual action on a couple of subdomains for pure spam.
I was disappointed on January 15th to discover only a few of my articles were unfeatured on HubPages. For a sec, I thought I might be able to post my content on InfoBarrel where I earn 90% of the ad share. Guess I wasn't spammy enough.
I finally understand the HubPages business model. Only the top content is meant to benefit HubPages, not the writer. But hey, after five Editor's Choice awards you'll get a fancy accolade on your profile. I've been wondering why Paul Edmondson isn't concerned about all the negative SEO attacks on authors (especially those who came from Squidoo).
HubPages has done an about-face and is now featuring former Squidoo work that was unfeatured before. What on earth could be behind this latest business decision? When I pieced together what Paul Edmondson has stated with what writers have shared, I concluded that the HubPages Terms of Use is the reason why some questionable articles remain on this platform.