We all want more people to read our Hubs, right? And if you'd like to make a little money off those visitors, the more traffic from search engines (like Google and Yahoo), the better (because searchers are generally more likely to click on your ads than regular visitors). But how do you convince the search engines to send you more visitors?

The key is backlinks, or links from other sites to your Hubs. The quantity and quality of backlinks is, in large part, how Google judges the usefulness of your Hub relative to the hundreds, if not thousands or millions, of other Webpages on the same topic. If 10 people think your Hub is useful or interesting enough to link to it from their Webpage, while only 1 person thinks another Hub on the same topic is worth putting a link to it, then Google figures your Hub is better, and will probably send it more visitors. (Google is just a machine; they don't have human judges deciding what page is useful and which isn't)

How do you get backlinks?

1. Link from sites you control. Have a blog or homepage? It doesn't matter if it's on MySpace, Wordpress or LiveJournal, or any other platform. Put a link to your Hubs in a blog entry. It doesn't matter if only 5 people read your blog. The idea is to put links to your Hubs to convince Google and Yahoo that another person with a Website thinks your Hubs are worthy of a link. They don't know that that other site is yours.

2. Ask friends or family members with blogs to link to your Hubs. If you follow the blog or Website of someone close to you, ask them to put links to your Hubs. Ask nicely!

3. Don't have a blog/homepage and don't know anyone who does? Create your own. It's easy, generally free, and while you probably won't make much money off a blog itself, links from your blog to your Hubs will have a more sizeable impact on your Hub earnings. You can start free blogs with Wordpress, Blog.com, LiveJournal, MySpace, Yahoo Geocities, Friendster, or Blogger.

Check out this Hub for more ideas on how to get backlinks and traffic to your Hubs.

Dig into these excerpts of great Hubs you might have missed this past week:

HubNugget 1: The history of chocolate

"Archaeological records indicate that the Mayans of Central America were consuming cocoa as far back as 600 B.C. or earlier. When Cortés conquered the Aztecs he was introduced to cocoa by the Emperor. But the cocoa consumed by the Mayans and later the Aztecs was not like our modern chocolate. Cocoa itself is bitter tasting and the Mayans and Aztecs consumed it as a drink in which dried cocoa was mixed with water and possibly some chili peppers..." Read more »

HubNugget 2: Careers for video game fans

"All of these job fields comes down to a few key aptitudes that video game fanatics develop, and can apply to virtually any field. Video game players train themselves to finish tasks: completing levels, saving princesses, vanquishing boss monsters. They have an eye for details acquired from hours of searching for hidden doors and items. And when a video game fanatic is passionate, he or she is dedicated to being the best..." Read more »

HubNugget 3: Stretching 101

"The after-workout stretching period is best done on a padded mat someplace quiet and out of the road of other exercisers. Try and perform at least one stretch for each muscle group, being sure to hold your positions for 20-40 seconds (or longer if you choose to). It is very important that you are not jerking at all with your movements, as that is a very good way to tear a muscle or ligament and wind up injured. Slow and steady movements are what you are looking for, ones that will move you into position and then gradually push you further..." Read more »

HubNugget 4: TV aspect ratios

"One of the most common questions about televisions nowadays is a simple explanation of the differences between fullscreen and widescreen formats. In television, the aspect ratio of a picture is defined by the width to the height of the image shown on your screen. The most common forms of aspect ratio in the world today are the fullscreen and widescreen formats. Fullscreen format has dominated American television for more than two decades. This is the common 4:3 standard that stretches the picture across the width and length of your entire television set. Widescreen, on the other hand, is a 16:9 standard that generally creates the illusion of black bars on the top and bottom of your television essentially framing the picture. Those black bars are actually the unused portion of your television screen. The latter format has become popular over the last five years as a rise in television technology has introduced high-definition television (HDTV) to the better part of the United States..." Read more »

HubNugget 5: Love poem

I will not claim thee mine.

Though better day, with wiser way

We may yet close entwine,

Until that dawn, can but await

A fair and sure divine...

Read more »

Have an idea for a HubNugget-worthy Hub? Show us what you got:

Did you know?

1. What has Gloucestershire Airport in the UK used to frighten away birds?

a) scarecrows along the tarmac

b) sounds made by the bald eagle

c) a bright light flashed every 20 seconds

d) music sung by Tina Turner

2. In which direction will a person look, generally, if he/she is lying?

a) straight ahead

b) to the upper-left

c) to the upper-right

d) directly to the right

3. What was used as a blood plasma substitute for emergency transfusions during WWII?

a) coconut water

b) fish blood

c) sea water

d) cactus sap

4. How much food is wasted in the U.S. every year?

a) 8 million lbs

b) 216 million lbs

c) 1.8 billion lbs

d) 96 billion lbs

5. What was Malcolm X's original last name?

a) Smith

b) Little

c) Clay

d) King

Answers: 1 d, 2 c, 3 a, 4 d, 5 b