What Every Hubber Needs To Know About Visiting HubPages

Whatever the reason for joining the HubPages community, whatever your motivation to stay, there one thing that every Hubber needs to do.

Perhaps we are motivated by the financial aspect, perhaps we have an important message to spread, perhaps we just want our voices heard.

Whatever the reason for being here, it's vital that we support one another. Syndication will only work if everyone is doing it.

It's important that we Hubbers support each other. So when you come across a great Hub, what should you do?

Everything has already been included for you. It's a simple as as click of your mouse.

You need to vote - if you found a Hub especially informative, then you should vote.

Make a comment - it helps to add authority to the writer.

You need to share - Facebook, Twitter or jot down the address and include it in an email (don't forget to add your tracker and you'll be rewarded for doing so!)

Become a fan - By following your favourite authors and sending them fan mail you are reinforcing their status.

Write some fan mail - When you write your fanmail, consider that people who read it may not be hubbers. Those people are looking for reassurance that the author knows his/her "stuff". So include a brief sentence about why the authors hub(s) have helped you or why you support them.

Example? "[Name]'s years of experience as a financial advisor has helped me to understand investing and now I'm taking charge of my money. Thanks [name], couldn't have done it without you!"

Don't follow Hubbers you don't know - Following random Hubbers doesn't do you (or your HubScore) any favours...you are in essence putting your good name to somebody who could be a notorious spammer.

Don't follow just to be polite - You should only follow those with whom you share common interests - if you don't care about anything else then care about your HubFeed. I only follow a few people and I choose them very wisely When my feed says that Hubber X (somebody I follow) is now following Hubber Y then I know that there is some new talent has been discovered. There are those who attempt to boost their own following by following others - from what I can understand this does not improve their own scores but harms them.

Don't vote up if the Hub doesn't deserve it - Again, you don't want to damage your good name.

Don't forget to mark spam - if you come across a Hub that is in blatant violation of the rules...don't let them get away with it. You should flag a hub as spam for the following reasons:

^Adult

^{Overly Promotional}

^Mature

^{Unrelated Links or Products}

^{Purely Personal}

^{Deceptive or Miscategorized}

^{Watermarked or Pixelated}

^{Copied Content}

^{Spun or Poorly Translated}

^{Not written in English}

^{Low Quality}

^{Alcohol or Drug Sales}

^Gambling

^Abuse

^{Weapon Sales}

^{Hate Speech or Personal Attack}

By filtering out these weeds we are doing ourselves a favour. They conflict with the public proflie that HubPages stands for and they are DAMAGING OUR STANDING WITH GOOGLE.

Nobody really knows the formula that HubPages uses to determine our Author Scores - much less me - but through trial and error and speaking to my fellow Hub family I have learned this...

You will increase your (author) HubScore by writing high quality content and being involved in the HubPAge community HONESTLY.

That means no fake fan mail. No fake following.No leaving comments like "great hub"

Which leads us to wonder:

"How do I write a great comment?"

• Make sure your comment is relevant
• Be sure to include keywords (to boost the hubs standing with Google)
• Feel free to sign with your name (even though it is already included)

For example...if I were writing a comment about a How to Get Pregnant Hub I might write something like this:

^{I love your conception tips here and totally agree that there is a lot of pressure for women who are trying to get pregnant. You make a good point about relaxing (I know..it's hard) because stress is a huge barrier that interfere's with conception. I voted and have shared with my sister (she's thinking about getting pregnant) Great hub. Artist-for-hire.}

See what I did there?

1. I have included the most important highlight that I took from the hub - this allows the author to understand the target audience, to zoom their focus in on key points and write even better hubs next time (or make changes to this one).
2. I have encouraged the author - remember your first piece of positive feedback?
3. There are subtle inclusions of keywords that Google will pick up on. Please don't force them, they should flow naturally.
4. I also re-signed with my name so that other readers who like my comment can come and find me too.

This is how you increase your own (author) Hubscore...by making a valid and helpful contribution to HubPages. Contribute in the forums. Ask questions. Answer them. Vote. Flag spammers.

In other words...

Be a productive member of the HubPages Community.

You may be inclined to ask...how does this benefit me?

So glad you asked!! It seems to me that once the wheels are in motion the benefits come rolling in.

From what I can tell...when we ask questions, they seem to be arranged by the Auther Score - those with higher scores seem to have their questions at the top of the list. Anyone else noticed this or am I sorely mistaken?

Which means more people answer and more people check out your profile and Hubs.

If everybody votes, makes useful comments, marks spam and makes their contribution to the HubPages community then

1. HubPages enjoys an even better page rank with Google (and therefore all of us by extension)
2. Those who have quality Hubs (like I'm sure you do) will benefit from more traffic (which equals more money for those who are watching their bank accounts!)
3. We have a better status in the eyes of visitors looking for info (imagine if your first visit to HubPages was to a Hub full of useful info and the author had beautiful appraisals from tonnes of fans....you would be back wouldn't you?) This is a big deal and you should use your power to bestow status very wisely.
4. We develop meaningful friendships with fellow Hubbers by following the writers and topics that are important to us.

Need I go on?

Regardless of why you are here we all have a common goal - page ranks.

The higher our pages rank in the search engines then the more traffic will visit us. That's our goal isn't it? To have our message heard? Or perhaps to rope in as many potential customers as possible?

By no means leave a comment at every Hub. By no means follow just because you can or just because you have been followed.

At the start of this Hub I mentioned that there is one thing that every Hubber should do?

Give credit where credit is due.

And now you know how to give that credit properly.