Welcome to HubPages! If you are new to this wonderful online community of writers, you may want to read these suggestions before you set up your account. When you set up your account, you will need to choose a Hubpages username. Your Hubpages username and Hubpages Profile name are one and the same, and it will be the world's window to your writing on HubPages. So it is important to choose a name that captures the essence of you.

Important: You cannot change your HubPages user name after it is created.

What is a HubPages Profile?

On HubPages you will have a public profile page. This is kind of like a public home where your friends can find you. The profile page includes:

• Your HubPages username
• A short biography written by you
• Your profile picture, sometimes called an avatar
• Links to your hubs, as you write them.

Here is the link to my profile page, as an example:

http://hubpages.com/profile/wannabwestern

YOUR profile link will appear exactly as mine, but replace "wannabwestern" with the name you select when you join Hubpages.

Your user name is essentially your byline. What is a byline, you may ask? In the good ol' days of print newspaper publishing, the byline was simply the author's name. Some people on HubPages publish on HubPages as their given, legal name while others choose creative pseudonyms.

Many literary and children's authors use pseudonyms too. Dr. Seuss was a pen name for Theodore Geisel, and Samuel Clemens was the real name of Mark Twain. A few authors who sign up on HubPages (or HP for short), do so with the mistaken idea that their user name is like a secret account number, so they choose a name that looks like the password to their bank account.

Not so! Your profile is in fact your public statement to the world of who you are. Your name, your biography, and your photo should represent the tone and topics that you will be sharing as an HP member. You want your bio and profile picture to appear on page one of the HubPages Hubbers section, so you want your name to be memorable. Avoid name combinations that include your first name and your birthday, which isn't memorable and it can give away private information which can undermine your password security on other online sites.

When choosing your HubPages user name, you may want to consider using word play (not to be confused with WordPlay, that name is already taken), double meanings, your HubPages content, and your interests and philosophy.

A Few Things to Keep In Mind

Since we don't get to select our own names at birth, the feeling of power we get from selecting our own profile name can go to our heads. I know personally as a writer, I sometimes suffer from an acute sense of wry personal irony. Writers after all are a creative and intense lot. But try to keep your HubPages name appropriate to your content. So here is where I get on my soap box.

Now for an example: at HubPages, many writers love to actively participate in the forums. Usually, people who have very long profile names or names that end it long number combinations end up having their name shortened. Most people call me wannab or western. That's fine by me. So say, just for the sake of example that you choose a profile name like Schnauzer Lover. Your name will probably be shortened to "Schnauzer" but who knows? 

Likewise, using the names of serial killers, celebrities, or other famous people is discouraged.

Most Hubbers (that's the name we HubPages authors like to call ourselves) use a personal photo of themselves. I try to vary my profile picture by changing it from time to time. Currently I'm using a macro-photo of a beautiful fall-blooming Lantana that I took outside of my house on my picture. By the time you read this I may have changed it. Sometimes I use a picture of myself from my toddler years in the early 1970s, because many of my articles are child-friendly book reviews and parenting articles. I try to keep my articles lighthearted and my profile picture reflects this.

What you want to avoid is posting a profile picture that makes you look like you are writing from the state penitentiary or like you are a candidate for America's Most Wanted. If the only photo you can rustle up makes you look like you are taking a mug shot at the local police station, think twice about posting it. Pictures that have poor quality lighting or pictures that make you look sullen, angry, or unhappy are probably poor choices for your profile photo.

At the other extreme, you may want to be wary of using pictures of beautiful people who simply aren't you. if you are fortunate enough to look like a supermodel or be married to a dentist, then by all means, post your glamorous photos of yourself. However, please avoid using photos of celebrities. This is a misrepresentation of who you are and most Hubbers who have posted on the matter all agree that this route makes you look a little bit egotistical.

Also, please remember the HubPages policy of no erotic or sexually explicit photos on your profile picture. I am not the HubPages police but I might as well mention this policy since you are new.

Add a personal introduction to your profile page gives you the opportunity to tell something about yourself, your areas of interest, or even your philosophy of life. Do try to capture the essence of your profile information in your first sentence, because this text will be reproduced on the HubPages Hubbers section. This is section is kind of a directory of HubPages writers, and is a useful way to explore the writers you want to read on HubPages.

New HubPages Writers like to share information about their personal lives, their professions, or their areas of interest. Once you have published HubPages articles called Hubs here on HP, you can link to them too.

I'm not the poster child for writing HubPages profile pages, but I never miss an opportunity at a little shameless self-promotion! Do check out the intros of other HubPages authors. Unlike your HubPages username/profile name, you can change the content of your profile page anytime you want.

Many authors who have accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites include links to their accounts on those sites from their profile page. The profile page is also a place where you can promote your online business.

Now that you know about profiles and usernames, go ahead and sign up!

Click here to sign up for a HubPages account and start earning money as a Hubber Extraordinaire. It's fast, free, and painless.