Why I Love Writing And Publishing On HubPages

I first heard about HubPages while browsing my Facebook feed. I noticed an ad in the side bar that mentioned writing and publishing. I can't remember the exact wording, but it was something to the effect of 'make money writing blogs'. I had recently been searching, 'make money writing blogs', and lo and behold, the Google gods were tracking my dreams and aspirations. There it was nicely displayed at perfect eye level and I took the bite and clicked on the HubPages sponsored ad. The story now begins.

I was taken to the HubPages.com site and found myself immersed in pages of unimaginable delight for any writer, as the topics were many and the publishing platform was so user friendly that I couldn't wait to begin writing. I wrote my first hub before doing my homework, (more about that later). After I wrote it, I decided to take a more thorough tour and learn the ropes. I read a number of hubs which I found both informative and humorous. Some of these people really know how to write, I thought. It was engaging fun to see the various avatars and the accompanying screen names. I remember clicking on the Hubbers category and reading hubs from the Best category. A few of those hubbers would become my unofficial Hubpages mentors. I read all of darkside's HubPages related hubs, then moved on to another prolific, best hubber named relache.

I have to admit, I had no clue what some of the 'lingo' meant. My only knowledge of making money with Google adsense was from watching a Youtube video by some 'young thing' sitting in front of her computer talking about the thousands of dollars anyone could make by readers clicking on google ads. I thought it was nothing but a scam, something that only certain kind of people would bother making videos about; how simple it is to make ridiculously large amounts of 'passive income' from blogging.

So my introduction to writing and publishing on HubPages was from reading darkside and relache, and by reading the HP guidelines which can be found in the Learning Center, which is accessible at the bottom of each page. I read the brief bios of the HP team and read all of the related hubs to hubbing by the CEO, Paul Edmondson. I figured if anyone knew how to write and make money here, it was the top dog. I still go back to these three people's hubs whenever I need clarification or need to be reminded of a specific function or tip. Yes, there were and are many other hubbers I have learned from, and their knowledge has helped form my HubPages foundation. If you haven't read their hubs, I highly recommend taking the time to make their hubs part of your 'homework'. They are successful hubbers and their hubs are top notch.

As mentioned above, I wrote my first hub before understanding exactly what I was doing. I wrote it more as a journal entry, or like a blog. It is about sitting in a park outside of Paris, France. I was yet to understand that it's not really a blogging site. What I did find amazing was the ease of writing and publishing. Although my first hub was written directly into one capsule, I would recommend first writing a draft on Notepad or in a separate word processing document. Then all one has to do is copy and paste the article into separate capsules. It helps to have separate capsules to break up the reading, to place photos aligned with capsules, and to give the capsule a sub-heading which contains keywords.

I didn't receive my first comment or fan until 3 days later when I published my second hub about Parisian women. I was so excited that someone read my hub and commented! Then she became my first fan (follower)! And the comments slowly started appearing on my first hub as well. Now I didn't feel so alone in the big HubPages community. I wouldn't even venture into the forums with only one fan. Some of them had hundreds, even thousands of fans. I read from a distance and wasn't ready for the 'HP forums', which sometimes remind me of the forums of Gladiator days!

Most of my early hubs are about my trip to Paris, France, and French culture from an American perspective. People always love to read about Paris and the French culture, so I have enjoyed writing and sharing on this topic. I had read that it was best to write about subjects that you know well, so I started writing about early childhood education, parenting, music, health and fitness, among others, since I have experience and knowledge with these subjects. These are evergreen topics which will always be searched from a global audience. I want to focus on subjects which all people may have an interest in searching.

My teaching background has been very helpful in presenting a topic and writing a structured hub which is easy to read, informative and hopefully interesting enough to keep the reader's attention. We all know the attention span of many is centered around small bits of fragmented sentences, so holding attention is key in online writing. But I have observed that those who are interested enough to search for some of the topics I write about generally have a longer attention span than those searching for which product to buy. Product hubs and comparison hubs need to be shorter in length and structured in a way that make it easy for the reader to find pertinent information. Informational hubs can be longer, but still need to be formatted for ease of reading. I have a few that probably need some tweaking in that regard. But in reality, who among us, have perfect hubs?

Another way I find topics is through inspiration. I scan major ads in the New York Times and notice headlines for subjects that are important to me. I may not be thinking of a specific topic, but when that 'bell' goes off and inspires me to take a second look, I write down the topic in a notebook if I think it would make a great hub. One of my most successful hubs was inspired by an article in the NYT. It proved to be a good move on my part to write the hub before the product was released. I had enough information to inform the public and hopefully make sales once the product was released. Trending can be extremely successful if it's something that can have evergreen interest and value. The key is using strong keywords, writing adequate content and writing as soon as the topic is presented. You can add more content and update later if necessary.

It took a while to get those first few clicks. And who in the world would imagine that making a few cents could give cause to celebration and so much excitement, that some have posted threads about their first clicks? What is even stranger is that other hubbers get just as excited, and congratuate each other on their first money producing clicks, encouraging them that their dreams are starting to unfold.

My full-time job is not online writing. When I reached my first payouts with Google and Amazon, I was very excited. I was amazed at how those pennies and dollars could add up. And it is true what other hubbers say; once you reach your first payouts, subsequent payouts come much quicker. I like to record monthly income with statistics of how many clicks, which hubs are producing 'nice' clicks and which search words are bringing productive traffic.

It's such a satisfying feeling knowing that someone bought something from one of the Amazon capsules, and I always feel a sense of accomplishment that a viewer found what they were looking for while visiting my hubs. Hopefully they will return or visit another hub for further reading. Some of my hubs are not written primarily to make money, but I almost always monetize the hub because you never know what will inspire someone while reading.

Since I first published this hub, HubPages has added its own ad program based on impressions. The advertiser pays a certain amount according to number of impressions on the page. It's a great way to add supplemental income if your hubs receive a lot of traffic. It's also a great incentive to produce better quality hubs since HP has also moved to sub domains. If your sub domain receives decent traffic, it's great to group relevant hubs together and capitalize on ad impressions as an additional source of income. I recently read of one very prolific hubber (over 800 hubs) earning $1000.00 from the HP ad program alone, in one month!

HubPages has also introduced Ebay into their HubPages Earning Program. More information is available in the Learning Center. Another reason to love HP, they're constantly innovating along with the quickly changing online, content publishing world.

I can't bring a close to this hub without mentioning the benefits of being an active part of the HubPages community. Whether it is by reading and commenting on other hubs, rating up great hubs, answering questions, visiting the forums at times, Hub hopping and helping to flag obvious spam, meeting new friends from around the globe, participating in contests, etc. I have found many amazing fellow hubbers and broadened my appreciation for respecting the different cultures and beliefs represented.

We live in an increasingly smaller global society which brings us closer together, and understanding, or at least attempting to understand the many faces of belief and issues which confront us all continues to inspire me and is among the reasons why I love writing and publishing on HubPages. Thanks to the fantastic staff, all of the hubbers and a special thanks to those who follow my writings!