PROMOTE YOUR HUBS WITH LINKEDIN AND GOOGLE+

Hubpages is great. It gives me a creative outlet to write on topics that I enjoy, while at the same time generating some much needed income. But to get that income, we all need traffic to our hubs. There are tons of techniques for getting that traffic... Facebook posts, Twitter, good SEO and the like. Recently, I started using the discussion areas of both Linkedin and Google+, and I have to say I've seen a huge jump in my hub traffic.

I had been a member of both Linkedin and Google+ for some time, and I always posted links to my most recent Hubpage articles. However, until recently I had not thought about posting in the discussion areas. What I found was I could generate a huge burst of traffic, far more than by simply posting to my Google+/Linkedin profile.

For those who aren't familiar with Linkedin, think of it as Facebook for professionals. Launched in May of 2003, it has grown to over 200 million members in over 200 countries.

Google+ is a multinational social network owned and operated by Google, Inc. It is the second largest social network in the world, bested only by Facebook.

For both of these networks, membership is easy and free. Linkedin does have upgraded plans, but unless you have a need for national (or international) business networking, I see no reason to upgrade.

Both Linkedin and Google+ have niche discussion areas. In Google+, they are called communities, while Linkedin simply calls them groups. (For simplicity, I will refer to both as groups for the rest of the hub.) Take some time and browse through the available groups, and think about who would be interested in reading your hubs. Also take note of how many members are in each group; some have thousands, but others may be just a few individuals. I also take a look at some of the posts before joining a group. I try to stick with groups that have a lot of discussions going on, simply because if there are lots of members discussing an issue, then you should get lots of hits on your posts.

Posting to the groups is simple and easy. Both Linkedin and Google+ allow you to attach a link and give you room to write a few sentences. Since we are trying to generate a conversation, I don't just post a link with the caption “read my Hubpage article.” Instead, I try to write a few sentences that will generate some interest and (hopefully) a lively discussion.

For example, I recently wrote a review of the writing software Scrivener. I am a member of several writing groups on both Linkedin and Hubpages, so I thought this would be a great discussion starter. Here is what I posted along with the Hubpage link:

“I just finished my review of the writing software Scrivener. Has anyone else in the group tried it? What did you think?”

Since I am a member of several writing groups, I posted to a few (but not all of them). Checking my stats, that hub received over 100 hits from Linkedin and Google+ the day it was posted. Even today, I still continue to receive traffic to that hub from those groups.

An important part of getting the most from the influx of traffic is providing links to other hubs that may be of interest to the members of that group. So if you aren't adding links to your hubs, you need to start! No need to overdo it; three or four relevant, related hubs should do.

While this is a great technique for generating hub traffic, please do not throw a ton of posts up on the groups and not participate in the discussions. Most people regard that as spam, and after some time, your posts will be ignored (or you'll get yourself banned from the sites). Besides, the discussions can be both fun and educational. Even though I am very busy, I try to add to the discussions daily, even if it is just a short comment or two.

I hope you have enjoyed this hub. Please feel free to leave comments below. Thanks for reading!