Down and Dirty with Hubpages...Our Two Years Together

Well there I was wondering how to fill that yearning space deep inside me that screamed out for creativity. Like so many other people my 'must be done' list far outstrips my 'craves to do' list. As I turned to the all seeing, all knowing Google I found my answer. A writing community called Hubpages. I felt it was my chance to walk the hallowed line of choosing my words not for purpose but purely for pleasure.

That's when I first met Hubpages...and in the time honoured tradition of kiss and tell here is the torrid details of our first two years together.

There I was, a girl with enough written work to fill a small library but still I had that familiar unease of sharing my work so publicly. Was it good enough? Would people like it? Was it interesting? Tentatively I skinny dipped my little baby toe in the Hubpages pond. With a Scottish finger ceremonially hovering over that publish button and the eyes of a woman focusing on her first born, I stalled. My quirky little 16 line poem was suspended in the space between my mind and the World Wide Web. The knowledge that the world would be given a full frontal view of my imagination was enough to send me racing for the lock screen. After much strong coffee and confidence chiding I finally hit that sacred button and my poem hit the internet for the first time.

Well after I hit that publish button I found out Hubpages big secret. The people. The very lovely Audrey Howitt left my first ever comment. Being not only kind but also encouraging. Just what a new girl needs. I have now published over thirty poems on Hubpages so I suppose you could say it kind of opened my word laced floodgates.

Should poems be published here? Is it worth publishing them here? I hear you. I know that it is a bit of grey area and I ain't talking as in shades! No, the grey area is whether you can actually make any money or get any traffic from poetry. Not to mention the ever discussed hub scores for them?

Now for the down and dirty lowdown. The discussion of actual scores is strictly forbidden and off course I would never divulge our intimate secrets, however let me whisper quietly to you. Out of my published poems there is a double figure difference between some scores and others. So yes they can score highly and stay high even after a long time. One of my poems have more views than some of the factual articles. Some don't have many at all. Poems are an amazing expression of creativity and absolutely should be published here. So hit that publish button.

After I found my mojo for publishing my poetry, I then moved on and shared a number of short stories. They are longer word counts than my poetry so the scores they were given was higher on the legendary Hub scale. They received constructive comments and kind words from my fellow hubbers but external traffic is slow. Lets be honest, no-one searches for a specific story title so after the initial flurry of reading they will be sitting pretty, waiting for attention like wallflowers.

So the down and dirty lowdown on the short story shenanigans is that they can score well and the loving hubbing community will provide feedback, which is always good to hear. However don't plan your retirement on their profits and remember they need to meet the guidelines of acceptable content. Definitely worth writing though and great practice for longer projects.

Writing about the topics you know and instructing on the things you love are the most viewed paths on this site for me. The hubs I have scribed in those areas have the most views and the highest scores consistently. They seem to sustain traffic much better than the beautiful words of poetry or the thrill of fiction. With this type of factual writing there is a lot bigger scope to add enhancements to the writing with the use of maps, polls and quizzes making it a much more interactive experience for the reader.

The down and dirty lowdown on the factual writing is that is does do well here and this site is set up to make formatting your work into something pleasing for the eyes. If you are up to speed on your SEO then I am sure you could make it work very well for you.

I have found that each type of writing has a place here and that there are benefits from sharing each of them. It is good to write, it is great to share and it is even better to be able to help or entertain others with what you create.

There is no wrong or right and never a correct answer. As long as your spelling and grammar are correct and your aren't crossing into off limit territories then you have pretty much a free reign of your content.

So go with the flow and write just what you feel like writing at the time, there is no limit to the amount you can publish here, only the constraints of your time.

What was the biggest surprise for me? The people. You know who you are! Everyone has been very nice whom I have encountered and I haven't experienced any negativity. The site is lucky to have a supportive and interesting collection of individuals.

At no point before going on the site did I I realise that I would be so interested in reading another writer's gripping paranormal tale, a rallying call for social justice for the voiceless or a funny and clever story about gravy! Who knew? The topics are as diverse as the writers and I just wish I had more time to read their work.

Hubpages allows not only a platform for your own work but also a very comfy seat to read, learn and grow as a writer because checking out other people's work allows you to improve your own.

That all elusive feedback can be harder to track down than an ice-cream in December. The way to receive comments and feedback is to give them. I don't mean random little 'nice work' or 'great hub.' No, we can do better than that. Reading, ingesting and questioning the diverse and wonderful world of the other writer's work is a real pleasure. I don't have time to read and comment often but when I do, I read it properly, and I question, and I try to leave specific and helpful comments.

Relationships work both ways so just like in real life Hubpages is a place where respect is strong and interesting people pop in to colour your life.

Well that is it, the bare facts. Hubpages is a good platform for whatever your chosen genre. Poetry and fictional prose have a home here. In truth it is a flat rather than a mansion but a home nonetheless. We all know that with writing it is 'how it makes you feel inside' not 'how much it make you' that matters. Although the Adsense programme does slowly trickle some revenue your way so it is worth setting it up. Factual writing is a more visited genre and luckily you can write about anything that is close to your heart so the scope there is pretty wide.

The site provides a good platform and makes it easy to construct well formatted and presentable articles. They provide the frame and all we have to do is fill it with a well crafted masterpiece.

As the legendary Mr Holland says it is the people who are the biggest asset of Hubpages, and I feel the platform isn't too shabby either. It isn't going to bankroll me, I won't find a book deal here but it looks the part, it is easy to use and the people here with their eclectic and very interesting works really do make it a pleasure to visit. So Happy Anniversary Hubpages and thank you for the last two years.