Fairly new. Any advice or tips? All is welcomed!

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   Hannah Herreraposted 6 years ago

   I am new-ish to hubpages. I've written three articles so far, but i feel there is so much i need to learn. So i wanted to ask for advice from more experienced users!
   
   Thank you.

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      theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Hi there,
      
      You can find out a lot if you read some of the articles in the Learning Center: https://hubpageshelp.com  Then come back here and ask your specific questions.
      
      Meanwhile, the best tip I can give you is to write top quality, evergreen articles with titles that people are searching for.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      You can start by properly using the word "I" which should always be capitalized.  This is the type of mistake that can lead to problems with your writing here on HP.

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         Ivan Hernandezposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         I second that comment.

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   Hannah Herreraposted 6 years ago

   Thank you! What are evergreen articles?

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   Marisa Wrightposted 6 years ago

   Evergreen articles are articles that don't go out of date.   
   
   For the average Hubber, if an individual Hub earns $2 per month, it's doing well.  That may not sound like much - but consider that if you sold that article, you might sell it for $30.   Whereas I have a Hub which has been online for eight years, earning about $2 per month, which means it has earned me about $190.
   
   However, if that Hub had been about a current news item or a fashion trend, it would've gone out of date after six months, and would have stopped earning.  So I'd have been lucky to make twelve bucks from it. 
   
   That's why evergreen is important.
   
   The learning centre (which Raggededge referred you to) has lots of useful information, but it can be a bit overwhelming.  I have a Hub about the Essential Rules which summarises what you absolutely must know to get started - you'll find it on the slider on my profile.

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      RTalloniposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Great points here to keep in mind and share with others.  Reviewing our goals every so often helps us keep our perspective and expectations in line with reality.  Remembering to keep up with updates from HP headquarters is important...preaching to the choir now. 

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      Ladybird33posted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for sharing, I have written on here for about 8 years, off and on.  So getting back into the world of writing.  This is helpful.

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   mchllhwgtposted 6 years ago

   I am beginning to see that evergreen is best too. Although I'm only on my 10th hub I signed up 9 months ago and find that my article on a certain mobile game is now a bit useless and defunct. It was new, fresh and current but now better people than me have written about it and it really old news.
   
   There's a fine line between looking at search trends and writing about topical issues that will be able to be updated seamlessly in time.

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   Hannah Herreraposted 6 years ago

   Thank you guys so much! This is great information.

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   Kierstin Gunsbergposted 6 years ago

   Hi Hannah! The three things that I've learned here that have helped me the most are:
   
   -To rework my titles once or twice a year to make sure that they are relevant and that they are easy to search
   
   -Share my articles on sites like Pinterest
   
   -Write whenever possible. I have two little kids at home and a I also am in college. I know that if I had more time to write I would make more money. Hubpages has been an awesome source of extra cash for my family

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      RTalloniposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      These are great tips.  Going to look to see if there more of them from you on your profile page. 

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   Aristotle Juniorposted 6 years ago

   wow, I'm a new Hubber too, and this helped a lot, but I write my articles in a story format... Is that a bad idea?

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      theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Kind of. You might need to categorize them as 'Creative Writing' and they are unlikely to attract much traffic. Put it this way: there are far fewer people searching for short stories than there are people looking for answers to their questions.
      
      When you create a hub you are posing a question (that you hope many people are asking) and then proceeding to answer it. Does that make sense?

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      Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      It depends what your goal is.  If you're hoping to earn money here, then fiction will not work.  Stories and poetry do not do well here, generally, because it's not known as a site for fiction.   Our traffic comes overwhelmingly from people seeking answers on Google to their problems and questions.
      
      If people are searching on Google for fiction or poetry, the results they get will always be the big story and poetry sites, not HubPages. Try it and see!

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         Aristotle Juniorposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Well, that's a depressing thought, but I guess I'll submit a fact based article once a week and see how it goes. Thaanks for the explanation, guys

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            RTalloniposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            It's always nice for HPers to search the site for stories and poems and share them for each other to help get the word out that there is a neat variety of them here.

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   Hannah Herreraposted 6 years ago

   All great information, I am in the processing of brainstorming my next article.

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      RTalloniposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Good for you!  Each new piece is a useful learning experience.

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   PGupta0919posted 6 years ago

   Hi Everyone,
   
   I am new here as well. All these comments were of great help
   Can someone help me with Google Adsense? Is it necessary that one has 10 Featured articles before applying?

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      Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, definitely.  15 to 20 is safer.
      
      Also the oldest Hub needs to be at least a month old. If you live in India, you have to wait six months.

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    VirginiaLynneposted 6 years ago

    My best suggestion for writing articles that get a lot of views is:
    1. Write "how to" articles which solve a problem that you can't find a solution to online.  My "How to Cover Popcorn Ceiling with Plaster" was exactly that.  I actually published the first version on my blog, which I then stopped looking at for over 6 months.  When I finally went back to see it, I had gotten thousands of views.  That made me realize I had an idea that could sell.  At about that same time, I discovered HubPages and re-worked the article for publishing here.  I've had a number of Hubs do very well that were the same sort of situation.
    2. Write really great content about something you are an expert on.  Google your competition and make sure what you offer is better than anything on the first page of the Google search.  I am a writing teacher and have about 100 hubs on writing, which are about 80% of my traffic.  I re-work these Hubs to improve them once or twice a year.
    3. Try out a bunch of different topics that you like to write about.  I've found that some of these did really well and others have never caught on.  If you do find one that gets good traffic, then write more articles on that same basic issue.
    4. Don't get discouraged if some great articles don't get much traffic.  Rework them a few times but just know that sometimes you can't beat a bigger entity that writes on that topic.  I have about 5 really good articles about caregiving for Alzheimer's.  I have personal experience with that topic and did a ton of research.  I know my articles are better than the competition, but I still don't get the views because there are groups like The Alzheimer's Association that gets a boost from Google.
    Good luck, and have fun!

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    thatsprettygoodposted 6 years ago

    Hanna, I love that name. Well , it helps that you're cute though that alone isn't all it takes. Anyways.  How to does well. I do a lot of those myself. Distinguish yourself and don't be scared to challenge norms.  Click bait works well, if you have the ability to record you can start linking youtube and hub pages and double the income potential from this.  Far as starting adsense , it took me almost a year and a half to get mine approved.  As you grow in popularity and you should consider starting you own WordPress blog and splitting content between that and here.  Ever Green topics are the bread and butter of many but I see a lot of top earners writing click bait articles.  You can do both.  I've seen poorly written articles about gay marriage and god on here get entirely too much attention. I would suggest you be real and honest, just let everything awesome about you flow.  Don't be scared to write about things that haven't gone great.  I wrote an article about marriage a few days after a recent divorce.  I did it just to recap the last 8 months of hell lol now that it's over.  Shockingly, I am getting a very large amount of traffic to it. I even got some subscribers and fan mail from it.  I would read articles from others as well and stay active when you are not writing.  How To Get Rich From Home is probably the most popular 'How To" and articles on "religion, travel, history" are probably the best ever green articles you can have. Don't be afraid to dive after more attention but try not to write rhetoric or fallacies in your articles. If you need any help on the technical side, software, hardware whatever. Just send me a message. I am a computer scientist and I help everyone I can with software tools.

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       Ivan Hernandezposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       i have some tips for you. as mentioned by a lot of hubbers, i suggest giving your article a user-friendly title. I recommend SEO titles. eg, "5 Ways Technology is Changing Our Planet" instead of "How Technology is Changing Our Planet." (im not very good at making up SEO titles). Just go with what interests you, and you'll be fine. use proper grammar, spelling, punctuation, as well as sentence structure. dont be afraid to ask for help. always be positive.

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    poppyrposted 6 years ago

    Hi, Hannah! Welcome to Hubpages.
    
    What are you looking to get out of this site? Meet new people, write about what you love, make money, or all of the above?
    
    My main advice is write about what you know on topics that are unique. For example, a particular solution to a problem or instructions on an unusual recipe.
    
    Use good grammar and spelling, and avoid text speech and emojis (in your articles - using slang and smiley faces in the forums is fine).
    
    People here are generally nice and have good thinks to say. Follow a bunch of people and get involved in the community.
    
    Three articles is a fantastic first step. Hopefully the first of many more!

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       Ivan Hernandezposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       three articles, including an article on a niche site, is an extremely phenomenal start to your career. look at my profile. you could turn out like me, or like the more experienced hubbers. its up to you. in fact, youre already past me, hannah.

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    poppyrposted 6 years ago

    Don't let the negative people get you down, either. Perfect grammar isn't essential for the forums.

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       TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 years agoin reply to this

       Poppy:  The comment I made was constructive, not negative.  Poor grammar may not matter on the forums, but it is extremely important for hubs.  Someone who uses poor grammar on the forums is telling me that they don't know enough to write effectively.  Yes, some people get sloppy on the forums...I've done it myself, but it's a bad habit to get into.
       
       Of all the grammatical rules there are, knowing enough to capitalize the letter I is one of the easiest to use...so why wouldn't someone use it?

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    Author Cherylposted 6 years ago

    Make sure you sight your sources, add about the author to your hubs and put links in your sources section where you got your information from.

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    ryanscorerposted 6 years ago

    My biggest advice would be to jump right in and write! My articles were originally based on gaming but now I'm branching out and finding more good topics which I find interesting.
    Always write about topics you are passionate about and try to interact in the community as much as possible!
    HubPages is more than just an article site - it's a community and the best things you can do is interact with your community, find people with like-minded interests and follow them!
    
    On a more earnings based note, your articles should be quite niche to beat other similar articles in the traffic rankings, but not so niche that no-one searches for it to begin with! Try using free keyword tools like SERPS.com to find good keywords to use in your article to appear higher in the page rankings!
    Also you should wait a few months until you have around 20 featured articles before you apply to Adsense to avoid disappointment.
    
    Look forward to reading you hubs!

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    Dolores Monetposted 6 years ago

    I would suggest patience and research which are real go togethers. Read the best hubs and see what they have to teach you - how they are formatted, how they are titled, etc. I looked at one of your hubs. It was about climate change yet you put the Hulk into the title and as the first image. I think that every word in a title should reflect the content of that article. People looking for the Hulk may see your article but not be interested in climate change.

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       Ivan Hernandezposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       your title should be SEO titles. the first impression really matters. the hulk on a climate change article doesn't fit the article. my articles are at least relevant to the first picture, and no, im not self promoting. please get a different image for your cc article

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    Sawilemposted 6 years ago

    very good words

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    Jeremy Gillposted 6 years ago

    Welcome and good luck Hannah. Ha, I'd offer advice but everyone else has you covered.
    
    Poppy, your comment has really got me thinking--how important is grammar in the HubPages community? One side of me says incredibly (after all, you can attract fans here), the other says not very, as this is (theoretically) a more-relaxed environment.

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       theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       It's not so important, yet if I see someone ask a question about their hub and it is badly written (not just typos), I'll usually ignore it. You just know it's going to be too much hard work

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          Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          Grammar is critically important on Hubs, because Google looks at grammar as part of their ranking. 
          
          Grammar doesn't matter on the forums - except that, as Raggededge says, it leads us to make assumptions about the Hub.  If someone posts asking for feedback and they can't express themselves well, we tend to assume they did the same on the Hub, and may not take the time to look at it.

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             Ivan Hernandezposted 6 years agoin reply to this

             I second that comment very well. Grammar is crucial to a hub's success, whether on Hubpages, a niche site, or Google. Great grammar equals a higher ranking on Hubpages. Bad grammar, and Hubscores are in the low 40s, or worse.

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