Getting Started

  1. What browsers will work with HubPages?

    HubPages should work with any modern browser, including Firefox 1.5 and above, Internet Explorer 6 and above, Safari, Opera, and Chrome. However, Firefox is the browser that we develop against. So, while other browsers will work, Firefox may provide you the best HubPages experience.

  2. I’m trying to sign up, but the form doesn’t accept the funny characters I type in. What can I do?

    Check your browser settings first. Cookies must be enabled to sign up and publish on HubPages. Here’s how you can enable cookies on your browser. Then try signing up again.

    If you’re still unable to do so, your computer might be behind a firewall that doesn’t allow cookie enabling (this happens in many corporate computer systems). In that case, you should either try to use a different computer (like one at home), or contact us for additional assistance.

  3. Where do I get support?

    Consult our handy Starting Out Guide, which should answer most of your questions regarding signing up, publishing your first Hub, and interacting with our community.

    If you still have questions, feel free to post in the forums to get support quickly. You can also send us an email if you're experiencing technical problems. We'll respond as soon as we can.

  4. What's a Hub?

    A Hub is a rich web page that you write and design. Each time you want to write another article, you'll create another Hub. It's just like in a website, which has multiple web pages. You have the capability to add text, pictures, videos, and links in your Hub.

  5. What's a Hubber?

    A Hubber is anyone who creates a Hub.

  6. How do I make a Hub?

    There are four simple steps.

    1. Create: You’ll need to create an account (It only takes a minute or two.)
    2. Name: Pick a title for your Hub, and add some tags that describe it.
    3. Add: Create the content capsules of your choice (Text, photo, products, comments, etc.) and fill them with whatever you’d like.
    4. Publish.

  7. Do I own a topic?

    HubPages does not assign ownership of a specific topic to a Hubber. Anyone is free to write on any topic they like. However, by creating a high number of Hubs filled with original, useful content, you will boost your HubPages status and you may become recognized in the community as an expert.

  8. What should I name a Hub?

    Think of your Hub as an individual article. What you name it should be germane to the content of the Hub. We recommend using the main phrase in the title for how a person would search for the information in the Hub

  9. What's a capsule?

    When you create a new Hub, you’ll be working with capsules – what we call the building blocks of the Hub. Any kind of content you want to enter into a Hub requires a capsule. There are text capsules, photo capsules, RSS feed capsules and more. You can adjust the color of the capsule, and where it appears in your Hub.

  10. How do I add or edit a capsule?

    Put a Hub into edit mode. On the right hand side of the page, you’ll see a box titled “Add More Stuff.” These are the capsules you can add. Click on a type of capsule. It will automatically be added to the bottom of the page, where you can edit or move it.

  11. How do I move a capsule?

    Use the directional arrows on your capsule to move it. If you’d like to change the order of how the capsules appear, simply select the tool on side of the capsule to drag and drop and move the capsule accordingly. When you’re finished, be sure to click on the update button.

  12. What are tags?

    Tags are keywords and phrases that describe your Hub. Tags can be important for people using a search engine to find Internet material on topics. They alert the search engines that you have relevant material on the topic described by the tag.

    Let’s say you were creating a tag for this Help page. Your tags might include words such as “Help”, “FAQ”, “Questions”. It’s wise to combine words to make phrases such as “HubPages help pages.”

  13. On the HubPage's home page, why are Hubs designated Hot, Best, and Latest?

    Each explanation is based on different factors. Here’s the breakout:

    1. Hot – Hot Hubs are newer Hubs that have received a lot of recent traffic or comment activity, and therefore may be particularly interesting or controversial
    2. Best – The best Hubs are determined by HubScore, and are generally hubs that have proven themselves with quality and traffic over time. See the explanation of HubScore below.
    3. Latest – These are the most recently published Hubs, and they are of indeterminate quality. Help us keep HubPages clean by flagging inappropriate hubs and using the thumbs up and down buttons to indicate your assessment of the quality of a hub (but not necessarily whether you agree with what is says).

  14. What's a HubScore?

    We use this to determine the quality of individual Hubs, much like Google ranks popular pages. Many factors contribute to our rating scale of 1 to 100, with 100 being our top score.

  15. How is HubScore computed?

    HubScore takes into account many factors and will change over time as data about its performance continues to stream in. It will also fluctuate quite a bit, seemingly at random, and that is nothing to worry about. The most important HubScore components that you should be concerned with include:

    • Amount of traffic - including percentage from reputable sources other than HubPages
    • The reputation of the Hubber - your Hubber Score and contribution to the community
    • The response of readers to your hub - including comments, thumbs up, etc.
    • The uniqueness of content - copying content already available on the web will be penalized

    We reserve the right to change the factors used to assess a Hub’s HubScore as we continue to determine those that measure a great Hub. The bottom line is if you write original, useful content, your HubScores will reflect the quality and work you've put into them.

  16. What are Fan Clubs?

    You can build your own Fan Club of loyal readers. It’s an easy way to keep people connected with newly published Hubs. You can build your own Fan Club and join the Fan Clubs of fellow Hubbers.

    Membership in a Hubber’s Fan Club provides your readers with:

    • Email notification whenever you publish a new Hub, along with a link and short excerpt.
    • The ability to leave fan mail. Once you’ve approved the fan mail, it will be displayed on your Author’s Profile page.
    • Learn about your favorite fellow Hubbers. When you go to the My Account page, you’ll see a My Fan Clubs tab. There you’ll find your favorite Hubbers, along with data on how many fans they have, favorite Hubbers, HubScores, and the date and link of their most recent Hubs.

    You can invite people to join your Fan Club by clicking on “Invite people to join your Fan Club” link on the profile page.

  17. How do I join a Hubber's fan club or a category fan club?

    There are two ways to become a fan of a Hubber:

    1. On a Hub, you can click on the “Join (author’s name) Fan Club” link in the About the Author box on the right.
    2. On the Hubber’s profile page, you can click on the “Join (author’s name) Fan Club” link.
    3. Be careful though, becoming the fan of people indiscriminately can affect your HubScore

    There are two ways to become a fan of a category:

    1. On a category page, you can click on the “Join (category) Fan Club” link in the box on the right side of the page.
    2. On the http://hubpages.com/my/categoryfan page there is a place to search for categories to join as well as recommended categories you might like. You can also remove yourself from a category fan club on this page.

  18. What are Hub Groups?

    As you write more Hubs, you’ll eventually want to organize them so your reader can easily navigate through all your work. Hub Groups is the tool that can help you organize your Hubs and make navigation easy.

    Start by creating a group that includes Hubs that share a common trait. Follow the steps below to make your group.

    • Add New Group: To create a group, click on “Add New Group” button and name the group. You can choose if you want the name to appear on the drop-down box.
    • Edit Hub Group: Click “Edit” and you can rename the group, or change its appearance status on the drop-down box.
    • Delete Hub Groups: Click “Delete” to remove the group. This will not delete any Hubs that are part of the group. They will automatically be moved to the “Orphan Hubs” group that appears at the bottom of the page.

    After you’ve finished, a box will be displayed on the page of any Hub that is part of groups. Inside the box is the title of the Hub you’re currently at, followed by an arrow. By clicking on the area, you can see all the related Hubs in the group. You have the option of including a name for the Group that appears in the box.

  19. Do you have any banners or widgets for HubPages that I can embed in my blog or website?

    We do! We have a nice assortment on our banners and badges page. Pick whichever you like, and simply copy and paste the code below it into your blog or Website. You can even embed them into your MySpace, Facebook, Friendster, Bebo or other social community site profile. Remember, you can also insert your URL tracker into the embed link in order to earn a lifetime referral bonus.

  20. Who owns the content that I post on HubPages?

    The content is entirely yours. We simply provide the technology to support it. You may add a Creative Commons license to your work if you feel it’s necessary.

    If someone on HubPages has used your copyrighted content without permission, please see How do I file a copyright complaint?

  21. What do those little red and blue triangles mean?

    In your Hub Traffic Statistics, you might have noticed small red and/or blue triangles next to some of your Hubs' titles. These simply mean that traffic to this particular Hub is trending upwards (red) or downward (blue). They simply give you a quick visual indication of how a Hub's traffic patterns are changing.

  22. What is Hubtivity?

    Hubtivity tracks all the activity on HubPages by you, the Hubbers you are a fan of, and the tags you're a fan of. New Hubs, new comments on Hubs or in the Forums, new requests, Milestones and related administrator actions, all show up in this feed.

    You can change your settings to show exactly the types of site actions that you care to track by clicking the edit preferences link under Hubtivity Settings to the upper-right of the Hubtivity page.

    If your Hubtivity is empty or you would like more things to show up, then we suggest joining other Hubbers' fan clubs (look for the link below the Hubber pic and bio in their Hubs, or on their Profile pages), or choose some favorite tags on your My Tag Fan Clubs page.

    Milestones are displayed in Hubtivity as a way to signify and recognize specific levels of accomplishment that are achieved by some hard-working Hubbers. These accomplishments are based on reaching certain amounts of Hub views, Hubs published, Fans, Requests, Forum posts and yearly HubPages anniversaries. The thresholds for the different Milestones are as follows:

    Achievement 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th
    Hub Views 1000 10,000 100,000 1,000,000 10,000,000 100,000,000      
    Published Hubs 10 50 100 300 500 1000 2000 5,000 10,000
    Fans 100 300 500 1000 2000 5000 10,000    
    Forum Posts 100 1,000 10,000 100,000          
    Requests Answered 10 50 100 300 500 1000 2000    
    Hubs Published From Your Requests 50 100 300 500 1000 2000 5000 10,000  

    Please note that there may be a short delay between when you achieve a milestone and it appearing in your hubtivity. They are calculated periodically, not instantaneously.

  23. Where can I read old newsletters?

    All the newsletter Hubber interviews are online, and available in the HubPages Newsletter Archive.

  24. What are HubMetrics?

    When you "view stats" on one of your hubs, you can see some additional information on the HubMetrics tab.

    • Word Count tells you the total number of words included in the text capsules and photo captions on that hub.
    • Revenue Potential measures on a scale of 1 to 5 the approximate earning potential for the subject and keywords you're writing about.
    • Incoming Links measures on a scale of 1 to 5 the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to the hub.

  25. How do I find out more info on the different capsules?

    One of the best resources for finding out more information on the different capsules is checking the HubPages Guide. To learn more about the different capsules, click here.


Making Money on HubPages

  1. Can I make a living with HubPages "Royalties"?

    We consider the program to be a nice bonus, but it should not be the main reason why you participate in HubPages. There are revenue generating opportunities with HubPages, but we are careful not to over-promise any results.

  2. How does the program work?

    The HubPages “Royalties” provides you with an easy way to take advantage of the Internet’s top ad revenue and commission generating tools.

    • You can set up affiliate accounts with Google, Kontera, eBay and Amazon. Once you hit the minimum earnings, you will get paid directly by Google, eBay, Kontera and Amazon.
    • Google automatically displays ads in your Hub that are relevant to your topic.
    • eBay and Amazon products can be featured in your Hub – you decide which products to highlight.
    • Kontera contextual link ads can be turned on or off either on all your Hubs, or on a Hub-by-Hub basis.

    HubPages earns its revenue from these ads, so we split the impressions with our writers.

  3. What are impressions?

    Impressions are what drive revenue generation. An impression occurs whenever an ad appears on a Hub. HubPages earns its revenue from these ads, so we split the impressions with our writers.

  4. How do impressions generate revenue on HubPages?

    After you’ve joined the affiliate programs from eBay, Amazon, Kontera, and Google, ads for these companies appear on your Hubs. Any revenue generated during one of your impressions (a click-through with Google, an actual purchase with Amazon or eBay) is 100% yours.

    HubPages splits the impressions with you in the following way:

    1. Your own Hubs: Hubbers receive 60% of total impressions.
    2. The HubPages Affiliate Program: You can refer new writers to HubPages and if they become Hubbers within 30 days, you receive an additional 10% of their Hubs’ lifetime impressions.
    3. Traffic Referral Program: If you send traffic to any Hub, you’re entitled to either 9% or 12% of total impressions. You’ll receive 9% if the Hub you’ve referred people to already has impressions allocated to an Affiliate. If there are no Affiliates, you’ll receive 12% of the total impressions.

    Whatever is left from the splits above goes to HubPages. Note that these splits apply only to Hubs and User Profile pages. On all other pages, such as a referral to a Tag page or the HubPages home page, you’ll receive 30% on a traffic referral, with HubPages getting the rest.

  5. How do I sign-up for Google Adsense?

    Getting signed up with AdSense is easy. Please follow these step-by-step instructions (Also includes a troubleshooting section if you're running into problems).

  6. How do I get an Amazon affiliate ID?

    You have to sign-up for the Amazon Associate program by visiting Amazon.com. If you'd like to sign up, start here.

    You’ll be asked to fill out information about yourself, such as name, address, payment information. You’ll also be asked what your site – in this case, HubPages – is about. The entire process is very quick.

    We then provide you with step by step instructions, including text that you’ll need to cut and paste into appropriate places. Once you’ve been assigned an ID, simply add it to your HubPages affiliate settings so you can begin earning commissions immediately.

  7. How do I get an eBay affiliate ID?

    Like the Amazon program, you’ll need to visit eBay to sign up for their affiliate program.

    Follow our step by step instructions to sign up, then enter your affiliate ID on the affiliate settings page of your account. EBay is fairly strict when they approve applications, so be sure to have some quality product related hubs on your profile before you apply.

    If you have questions about the impression sharing system, send us an email for further clarification.

  8. How does the Traffic Referral program work?

    You can drive traffic from oustide of HubPages to the Hubs of other Hubbers and receive a percentage of the overall impressions. The traffic referral program works the following way:

    1. We start with Unique Trackers

      Every HubPages account has its own default referral tracker – referred to as a Unique Tracker. You can create additional referral trackers as you organize your link campaigns.

    2. Use the Unique Tracker to link to someone’s Hub.

      Before you can link, you must be signed in to HubPages. Then, when you’re at the Hub you want to link to, look at the bottom of the page (or click the green share it button). There will be two boxes marked “link to this page” and “email this page”. You can click on these links and choose the Unique Tracker you want to insert in the email, URL or HTML code we will generate for you. From that point, you can either send the mail, or cut and paste the URL link or HTML code and place it wherever you’d like outside of HubPages.

    3. The Traffic Referrals is guaranteed to be yours for 120 minutes.

      If someone clicks on your link to a specific Hub, you are entitled to the traffic referral impressions for 120 minutes. We set this limit because there may be multiple Hubbers referring people to a particular Hub. No other tracker can replace yours during that 120 minute period. This is called the ‘first dibs’ rule.

  9. How do I check how much money I've made?

    Revenue updates from Google, eBay, Amazon, and Kontera can be checked via the links below. They house all the revenue numbers. Your revenue generation will not begin until you’ve: 1. Signed up for Adsense; and 2. Signed up as an eBay and Amazon affiliate and put your affiliate code into HubPages.

  10. How do I track the performance of Google AdSense on HubPages?

    The easiest way to keep track of your Google Adsense earnings on HubPages is to create a channel URL in your Google Adsense account. This will allow you to seperate your HubPages earnings from your other sites.

    1. Log in to your account at https://www.google.com/adsense/
    2. Click the Channels link below the AdSense Setup tab.
    3. Choose the AdSense for content sub-tab and click the URL Channels link
    4. Click Add new URL channel, and in the resulting text box, enter the URL that you would like to track (use "hubpages.com" to track all of your impressions on HubPages)
    5. Click Add channels.

    The new URL channel will begin tracking data almost immediately.

  11. What is the Flagship Hubs Program?

    The Flagship Hubs program is an elite program for the very best Hubbers. It grants $25 for the completion of a Hub that meets strict standards, and must be written on a preapproved topic. There is an additional $10 bonus if the Hub gets at least 10 visits from each of 10 non-HubPages sources within 30 days of publication.

    The Flagship Hubs program is limited to Hubbers who have published at least 5 high-quality, non-promotional Hubs. You can read more information about the program here.

  12. How do I sign up for Kontera?

    HubPages now offers the option of adding contextual advertising with Kontera. Click here to sign up. Please note that Kontera has a minimum payout threshold of $100, and therefore may not be appropriate for Hubber's with relatively little traffic. A good rule of thumb is to consider signing up for Kontera when you are earning at least $50/month from AdSense on HubPages.

    To signup - just follow our step by step instructions, and place your Kontera affiliate ID in the appropriate field on your affiliate settings page. IMPORTANT: In the Kontera signup form do not enter hubpages.com as the website URL, instead use the URL to your HubPages profile page.

    Kontera is off by default for all hubs. You can enable or disable it for individual hubs by editing them, and changing the Kontera setting next to Ad Level. You can also turn it on or off for all of your hubs at once on the affiliate settings page. The text link ads will only appear to readers that are not signed in to HubPages.

    Read answers to other users' Kontera questions here, and check out the Kontera Knowledgebase for additional information.

  13. I've activated Kontera on my Hubs but I don't see any ads?

    We only show Kontera ads to visitors that are not signed in to HubPages, so try signing out and viewing your hub again. Further, based on ad inventory Kontera may not be able, or choose to display ads on a particular page at any time. This can be based on the content of the page or the geographic location of the visitor.

  14. Why are ads not appearing on my hub?

    There are a few reasons why ads may not appear:

    • The ad level of your hub is set to none. To check this navigate to the hub, click edit, and check the ad level setting near the top of the page.
    • The AdSense bot has evaluated your hub, and feels that the content may be in violation of the Google AdSense Program Policy. If this happens AdSense ads will not appear in your share of the impressions or the HubPages share of impressions. If your hub is in violation of the policy, you are also in violation of HubPages rules and you should unpublish your hub or correct the violation. If you hub is compliant the with AdSense Program Policy, by changing the title or some of the language in your hub you may be able to get AdSense to display ads again.
    • If you see frequent blank spots where ads should go, and no impressions or revenue appear in your AdSense reports, then you probably have not completed the Google AdSense PIN Process.

  15. The ads on my hubs are inappropriate or do not match the content

    Google considers a number of different factors when they match their ad inventory to a particular page, including contextual information about the page and site and the geographical location of the visitor.

    In order for keyword based targeting to work, Google has to have crawled and analyzed your page. Unfortunately, it is impossible for them to maintain a complete set of data about every page on which Google AdSense has been installed. Because of this, from time to time on lightly trafficked pages ads may be displayed that are not relevant to the content on the page. This is unavoidable.

    However, they do offer some control over the category of ads that will appear, and you can also eliminate ads for specific sites using the competitive ad filter. You are free to use these tools to shape the types of ads that appear on your hubs. However, changing these setting will only affect the ads in your share of impressions.


Account Administration

  1. I'm not getting HubPages emails. How do I fix that?

    You should safelist hubpages.com, which means you designate us as a trusted sender. That way, our emails will not get stuck in your spam filter or junk mail folder. You can safelist by following the instructions here. Also, another good way to make sure that the HubPages emails get delivered would be to add the email address editor@hubpages.com into your Yahoo! or any other of your email accounts contacts (just make the name 'HubPages Newsletter' or something like that).

  2. How do I stop getting email from HubPages?

    If you do not want to receive email communication from HubPages or other HubPages users, it is simple to adjust your email preferences. There are three options:

    • Allow HubPages to contact you? - uncheck this if you do not want to receive the HubPages newsletter, or other non-essential communications from HubPages.
    • Allow other users to contact you? - uncheck this if you do not want other HubPages users to contact you. This will remove the "contact [your username]" link from your profile page and Hubs
    • Receive email from your favorite authors? - uncheck this if you don't want to be notified when Hubbers that you are a fan of publish a new Hub

    In addition to the settings above there are a couple of other places where you may have indicated an email preference:

    • Comments Capsules in the Comments Capsule you can configure whether you want to receive an email notification when you get a new comment. By default, the capsule is set to email you for each new comment.
    • Hub Requests when you make a hub request, there is a checkbox that says "Email me when Hubs are published for this request". If you checked this when you made the request, you can prevent new emails by closing the Hub request.

    Please note that you may still receive an email notice if an administrative action has been applied to one of your Hubs, Hub requests, or forum posts. There is no way to turn off these critical communications.

  3. How do I close or delete my account?

    If you would like to close your HubPages account please sign in to the account that you'd like to close and send us an email request with the subject "close my account" and the username of the account you'd like to close in the body of your message (for verification). Note that:

    • Account closure is permanent and unrecoverable
    • The username of a closed account will not be made available again.

    If you would like to close a different account, something other than HubPages, you've come to the wrong place. We are not affiliated with any other Website or company and we can not help you.

  4. How do I change my username?

    You can not change your username. If you'd rather publish under a different username, you can simply abandon your old account, and create a new one (using a different email address).

  5. Can I monitor traffic with Google Analytics?

    If you want to dig deeper into the traffic trends on your Hubs, you can track your pages on HubPages using Google Analytics. Simply sign up for an analytics account and then enter the UA- code they assign you on your HubPages Affiliate Settings page.

    These are the settings we recommend that you use when you sign up. You can use a different time zone if you like, but the data we report at HubPages is based on Pacific Time.

    Website's URL: hubpages.com
    Time zone country or territory: United States
    Time zone: (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time

    Be warned that the page view and referer data from analytics is never going to match up precisely with what we report. The method they use to collect data is different, so you should expect small discrepancies.

  6. Why have my Hubs been deleted?

    HubPages will never actually delete your hubs. We may unpublish your Hubs for violations of our terms of use, but they are still available to you under your statistics page. All of your Hubs may be unpublished at once if we notice a pattern of violations, or if your account is banned.

  7. Why can't I publish Hubs?

    If you receive an error stating that you no longer have permission to publish hubs, it is because your account has been banned. Usually, an account is banned for repeated rules violations, or for creating large numbers of accounts solely for promotional purposes.

  8. Can I have multiple HubPages accounts?

    You may have more than one account, as long as they are used in the spirit of contribution to the community. Creating large numbers of accounts for solely promotional purposes may result in all of them being banned.

  9. How do I reset my password?

    If you have forgotten your password and cannot sign in, click here. If you are signed in, and would like to change your password, you can do so on the edit my profile page of your account.

  10. I never received a verification email.

    To have a new verification email sent to you, edit your profile. Check that your email address is correctly entered. If it is not, correct it and hit "save changes." Then (or if it is correct) click the blue verification link under the email field to have a new verification email sent to you. Be sure to check your spam and bulk folders in case your email provider mistakenly filtered out the message.

  11. I have forgotten my log in information, and can't sign in.

    You can sign in using either your username or the email address you used to sign up for your account. If you have forgotten one, you can always use the other.

    If you cannot remember either your username or the email you used to sign up, check your browser history to see if you can locate your profile page in the sites you have visited. You can then see your username, and use that information to sign in.

    See also how to reset your password.

  12. Remove AdSense ID from account

    If you wish to remove your AdSense ID from your HubPages account, send us a request to that effect. Please note: this will not disable AdSense ads from being displayed on your hubs.

Hubs

  1. Generally speaking, what am I allowed to put into a hub?

    All hubs have to meet the site content guidelines set forth in the Google AdSense Program Policy, in the HubPages terms of use, and detailed below.

    Our objective with HubPages is to support authors that have the desire and intent to develop a readership on the HubPages site, and to contribute in a positive way to the HubPages community. If your intended use runs counter to this objective -- for instance, if you're sole purpose is to get back links for other sites or to promote or sell dubious products through your hubs -- then please stop using HubPages.

    If you're hubs are flagged for violations, we generally will give you an opportunity to correct the problem and republish the hub. However, repeated violations will result in your account being closed and all your hubs being unpublished. If you are unsure if your hub meets our policies, we will be far more sympathetic if you contact us for clarification before publishing the hub.

  2. I want to write about adult topics, what is allowed?

    Adult content is not allowed. Below are some examples of prohibited adult content. This should not be interpreted as exhaustive list of what is prohibited. If you are unsure if your content is allowed, please contact us for a clarification before publishing your hub.

    The following are not allowed:

    • pornographic images
    • links to adult or pornographic sites
    • discussion or promotion of sexual aids or toys
    • detailed descriptions of sexual acts or practices
    • excessive profanity

  3. Am I allowed to create hubs about gambling?

    Hubs that promote or link to sites that offer or promote gambling for money are not allowed. Discussions of gambling rules, strategies, or events are generally all right. If you are unsure if your gambling related hub is ok, please contact us for clarification before publishing your hub.

  4. My hub was flagged as substandard, what does that mean?

    Substandard simply means that the quality of the hub does not live up to HubPages standards. Below are some common reasons that a hub may be flagged as substandard:

    • "Test" or otherwise unfinished hubs
    • Very little content
    • Unoriginal or purely personal content
    • Contributes nothing new in a heavily saturated topic
    • Many broken links or links to low quality sites
    • Links with deceptive or inaccurate link text
    • Missing videos

  5. My hub was flagged as overly promotional, what does that mean?

    Purely promotional offers and Hubs designed only to promote other sites or businesses are not allowed. In particular, the following actions are likely to get your hubs flagged:

    • linking repeatedly to the same site within a hub or across many hubs
    • including links to a page that contains largely the same content as your hub
    • linking to products or services unrelated to a Hub's content
    • including more than 2 links to any one domain
    • short "teasers" with links to "read more" at another site
    • including promotional links on content that is unoriginal (i.e. not exclusive to HubPages); promotional links can only be included on content that is exclusive to HubPages
    • linking to the same domain in the body of the text AND in an RSS feed

    Please note that promotional links are links that you have any interest in promoting (your blog, your Website, affiliate offers, etc.). Links to well-known Web resources which you don't have any personal interest in (like Wikipedia, news sites, encyclopedias, open directories, etc.) are exempt from this limitation.

  6. My hub was flagged as deceptively tagged or titled, what does that mean?

    The title and tags of your hub must accurately represent the contents of the hub.

    The standard a chosen tag must live up to is "Would a fan of this tag be interested in your hub?" -- if not, do use that tag. In particular, tagging your hub with a lot of very general tags, such as 'travel', 'entertainment', 'food', and 'music' when your hub is not specifically about these topics is liable to get you into trouble.

  7. My hub has been flagged for duplicate content, what does that mean?

    Your hub's content has been detected on another site and has incurred a HubScore penalty as a result. You are allowed to post content on HubPages that is also published elsewhere, like your own site or blog - but you cannot place any promotional links on that hub.  Only you can see the alert message at the top of your hub and a pattern of publishing duplicate content will negatively affect your HubScore, as we like to reward authors who publish content unique to our site. It does not matter whether or not you are the original author of this content.

    If your Hub is truly unique to HubPages or simply quotes another Web page in a reasonable manner, please request a review of the hub by clicking on "learn more" at the top of the hub. An exception is typically granted only when quoting is done to a minimum, or some commonly-used, public domain, or historical phrases have triggered the duplicate content detector. If your hub has been certified as original by the administrator it will appear at the top of the hub. Once certified as original no HubScore penalty will be applied.

  8. Why don't you allow hubs in languages other than English?

    At our current size we don't have the resources to properly create or administer a HubPages site in other languages. We hope to be able to offer our services in other languages in the future.

  9. What does commercial mean?

    Commercial hubs are required to have an ad level setting of High. Your hub is considered to be commercial if it meets any of these conditions.

    • it is monetized through a non-hubpages affiliate mechanism
    • it contains links to other commercial sites
    • it promotes a for profit business, especially a business that you have an interest in

  10. How do I report rules violations or inappropriate content?

    To report a Hub you believe violates our rules, scroll down to the bottom of the Hub in question to the grey bar that gives you the option to print, share, or rate it. There is a blue link on the far right titled "flag this hub." Once you click it you can choose the reason you are flagging, and write a short explanation, if you feel it is needed.

    We manually review every flagged hub and will take the appropriate action when there is, in fact, a violation of rules.

  11. I have fixed my Hub(s) and want to republish.

    If your Hub has been flagged for rules violations, and you have taken the necessary steps to bring it into compliance, you can resubmit it for publication using the button on the hub itself. It may take up to 48 hours for your hub to be republished and the flag removed.

    If you get an error message stating that you no longer have permission to publish, this is because your account has been banned. You may write to us requesting further clarification.

  12. I am having technical problems with my Hub.

    If you are experiencing technical problems with your Hub, try holding the SHIFT key while clicking the REFRESH button on your browser. If this does not help, check the Report A Problem forum to see if anyone else is having or has had the same problem. If nobody else has posted about it, start a new thread explaining the problem, including any error messages you may be getting, as well as what browser you are using.

  13. I want permission to use text or an image from a Hub.

    All the users on HubPages agree to only publish content to which they have the necessary rights. If you wish to use some text or an image that appears on a Hub, use the contact link under the profile picture of the user who authored that page.

  14. Can I use pictures/text from other sites on my Hubs?

    When you sign up for HubPages, you agree to use only content to which you hold the necessary rights. Basically, this means that if you did not create the content yourself (write the text or take the picture), you must have permission to use it from the person or organization that did. There are many hubs about where you can find photos that are free to legally use in your Hubs.


Answers

  1. What am I allowed to ask in questions?

    Requests allow you to ask other Hubbers to answer a question for you in the form of a Hub or a brief comment. You can request a specific Hubber to field your request. When a Hubber has answered your question, you can receive an email notifying you.

    You can ask almost anything you like, provided it’s not adult, obscene, promotional, or in any other way in contradiction with our Terms of Use. Keep your question short and specific, and use the additional details section to provide more information. Good examples include:

    • When is a good time to visit Vietnam and why?
    • Where’s the best place to buy a used guitar?

    Please note that questions are not to be used for soliciting very short answers or conducting a poll.

    If you just want to make friendly conversation, please visit our Hubber's Hangout instead.

  2. Can I answer a question more than once?

    You are only allowed to submit 1 short answer to a question, but you can create as many hubs answering a question as you like.

  3. How does the voting on answers work?

    HubPages members may vote an answer up or down depending on how well they feel it answers the question. Every answer starts with a single up vote (by the author of the answer). The answers with most points will be listed first. Answers that receive enough down votes will not be displayed on the page, but can still be viewed by clicking a link.

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