My favorite words on hubpages are publish online with easy to use, non-techie tools. They are my favorite words because they afford me the opportunity to live my dream. The fact that the tools are non-techie we do not have to be experts in order to publish photographs, videos or anything else for that matter.

You see, I always wanted to be a teacher, writer, journalist, publisher, photographer, videographer, musician, archeologist, child care provider and air stewardess. Yes, I know it is impossible to be involved with each career at the same time. Yet with hubpages I can do all the things I always wanted to do, all at the same time.

I can fulfill all my dreams on hubpages, by simply using all the tools hubpages has to offer. I gave up the desire to become an air stewardess many, many years ago, when there was an increase in aviation accidents. In any case, my desire to become an air stewardess was for the wrong reasons. I wanted to be able to travel to other places, see new sites, meet other people and learn more about the world. I really had no interest in being a glorified waitress which I was told best describes an air stewardess.

In addition, my cousin's wife was an air stewardess and she did not seem to be thrilled with her job description. The good news is that I can have the benefits of traveling without leaving home now. I can read the hubs of others, especially those living in different parts of the world, and learn more about their culture and view their photographs without paying a cent. In any case, flight delays, hijacking and layoffs as well as other problems associated with aviation careers caused me to lose my attraction to seeking employment in that field years ago.

From my early days, my first dream was to be a teacher. I have taught for decades and I will never get tired of teaching. I refer to it as my higher calling because of the fulfillment it offers. I can even continue to teach to some extent through hubpages. In other words, I am passing on information to others which supports a partial view of what teaching is all about. The gratification is in the research I am able to do, the satisfaction of seeing the fruit of my labor and reading the comments people leave for each hub.

I also wanted to be a writer. I did write in my school days. I got high grades for writing assignments. My teachers saw potential, but the dream to write was never fulfilled, until a friend of mine introduced me to hubpages. As fate would have it, I have not stopped writing since. I anticipate visiting the website daily, and I enjoy reading the hubs of other hubbers. I know there are other websites which encourage people to use their services to write and to publish through them. I have signed up for a few of them. However, none of them are as gratifying to me like hubpages.

Perhaps one of the most fascinating aspects of hubpages is the ability we all have to utilize our hobbies or creativity while we write. My hobbies include photography, videography, reading, listening to and playing music. I can do all those on hubpages and more. I can take photographs knowing that they will not be merely stored in my computer. It is inspiring to choose sites that will be snapped with a potential hub in mind. I know I appear to be crazy to onlookers, because I can tell from their stares. I am also a videographer. I may use my own clips, or choose from clips provided by YouTube or other sites. I am so excited about the opportunity I have to use my gifts all at the same time, and at the same place.

I never had the experience of being a journalist, but hubpages has offered me an experience which is as close to becoming one as it gets. In addition, even though I will never really be an archeologist, I am doing so much research now, which makes me feel like an archeologist. I am saving the fees I would have otherwise spent on traveling while I do my research on the internet and at local libraries.

Even though hubpages does not have a capsule for songs or music only, we can post music videos which is actually more effective, because we can actually see people or groups performing while listening to the song.

I admit that one of the reasons I joined hupages was to earn extra money. I have not earned much money as yet, but I have enjoyed partnering with Amazon and Google. Sometimes I feel like an online store owner, since I can decide which products to advertise. I am glad we do not have overhead costs and we do not need to store these products in our homes.

I have been learning how to make money, and I am confident that I will join the ranks of other hubbers who are being paid for their work. Meanwhile, I am satisfied with being myself at hubpages. I am thoroughly enjoying what I am doing. I do what makes me happy with the hope that at least other people like my work.

For the first few weeks after joining hubpages I thought I would be the only hubber on hubpages without any fans. When the first person became my fan it was unbelievable. I was literally overjoyed that someone even knew I existed on hubpages.

Fans are fun. They make being a hubber worthwhile. It shows that someone cares, and he or she will take the time to read my hubs. In addition, there are readers who read my hubs, but they do not actually become my fans. I still love to read their comments too. The interaction with other hubbers is worth more than all the money in the world. It is a great compensation for not making money. Money slips through our fingers easily, but people tend to stay with us longer.

People may join my fan club for various reasons. Some do so to merely have their fans return the favor. I choose to be fans of people who are like minded or those who I can learn much from. There are so many hubbers that have taught me so much. I doubt they even realize the impact they have on me and on my writing. Regardless, I would like to take this opportunity to say to all my existing fans and potential fans thank you so much for taking the time to become my fan. Thanks especially to those of you who have left fan mail. I really appreciate the encouragement. You are very very special to me and to my success here at hubpages.

Hubpages is a network that encourages writing, but it is also ideal for socializing. It has similarities to facebook, MySpace, twitter and other social networking sites. Like twitter, it has a language of its own. The writers on hubpages are known as hubbers. The articles they write are called hubs. The friendly notes hubbers write to each other are known as hub love.

There are other words adopted by, or created by hubpages. Hubbers also have a forum where several topics are discussed, and new hubbers get to ask the experienced hubbers questions.

Basically, hubpages is a community of writers who have much more to offer each other than tweets (as in twitter) or comments (as in facebook and MySpace). Each hubber receives a score, but their individual hubs are also scored. The scores are not permanent, they may be rated up by other hubbers or rated down. Each hubber aims for the highest score, which is of course 100. The focus of every hubber is to attract as much traffic as possible. The topic chosen, as well as the content of the hub, usually determines the amount of traffic. Outstanding hubbers are featured periodically, and of course, this helps to increase their traffic.

There are so many things about hubpages which make it so exciting. There is no point in recreating the wheel. All the facts are available on the hubpages site itself. However, I would like to add that there are challenges which encourage hubbers to write more hubs in a specific period of time. This is purely voluntary, but participation does improve the hubbers traffic and eventually the scores. I had the opportunity to participate in a 30 hubs in 30 days hub challenge. It was an enlightening experience. I have outlined my experience below:

I get to publish my writing free of cost. Did you ever dream of writing and publishing your work? Did you think it would be merely a dream, because you had no money to pay a publisher? Perhaps you thought that even if you had your work published you would not have an audience that would be interested in reading your writing. Hubpages has solved that problem for you. You can publish online... free - no cost, nada, nil, and you are guaranteed an audience free of cost. You will get fans who will read your work, and may even leave helpful comments for you on your hub.

It even gets better. You can make money by selling products for Google, Amazon and eBay as well as by Kontera by merely opening accounts with each company and agreeing to follow the guidelines they stipulate. Hubpages even shows you how to do that. Hubpages has been a dream come through for me. It can be a dream come through for you too.

My son expressed his views don't tell me that the sky is the limit when man's footprints are on the moon. He is a go getter. If he believes in something he will not leave any stone unturned until he accomplishes his goal. I am very proud of him and how he views life.

I am also proud of the founders and the team at hubpages. They have created a network which is exceptional. As a result of my experiences here, I can now write the book I have been meaning to write for years. I may even start with an e book.

I can do things that I have always wanted to do. The boundaries and limitations that I perceived in the past have gone. They do not existent as far as I am concerned.

Now I can fulfill everything I wanted to do and be who I am supposed to be.

Thank you hubpages!

Perhaps you have been thinking of writing for years, but you never took the time to write. This may very well be your opportunity to pursue the hobby or launch a writing career. The only requirement needed to get started is to join hubpages. Why not get started by signing up as a member of hubpages today? It is very easy to join. You will not be charged anything at any time. As I wrote in the beginning, you can publish online with easy to use non-techie tools. Click on the green link at the top right hand corner of this hub to get started.

Once you have joined hubpages try to be a successful hubber. It is best to follow the advice of more experienced hubbers in order to avoid common mistakes. I suggest you join now then read the following hubs before writing your first hub: