This is what the hubchallenge was all about for me....getting more content written and published!

And I have to thank Darkside for encouraging me to do just that!

I signed up for 30 hubs in 30 days. But my personal goal was 35. Thirty-five new hubs would bring me to a nice round 100 total published hubs.

I made it to thirty - I had no doubt I would. I'm a classic procrastinator, but I love a deadline. Give me a deadline, and I'll get 'er done. (oops...probably ought to mention I have a redneck streak in there with that writer-wannabe-gene. Don't shoot me - those redneck hubs are doing purty good for me so far!)

I asked on the forums if I should just be done with the challenge after 30, and darkside encouraged me to just keep tagging my hubs with "hubchallenge" until the end.

At that point, I only needed 3 more to meet my personal goal.

You are now reading my 100th Hub on Hubpages.

Not that darskide needs my recommendation, but I think he's a great hubber, and a fellow-conspirator in the challenge, so knocking out a hub starting with a "thank you" to him makes the writing easier to me.

It is definitely one of the things I like most about hubpages - the encouraging community.

But let's face it folks, "friends" on hubpages are not what makes the money!

Believe it or not, I do have some technical ability. I've programmed telephone systems for a bunch of years now. Back in the day, I was the "computer coordinator" for a small department at the University of North Carolina. It happened by default, really. I had to learn what to do after I formatted the hard drive on the only computer in the the department that had a hard drive, on, like, my second day on the job.

I think I do have a bit of a knack for combining the technical and the creative, and it has served me well in my careers.

But my dream has always been to be a "writer", a "job" that means different things to different people, and a job that has indeed meant different things to me at different times in my life. Participating in the HubChallenge has helped me define what being a writer, and a hubber, means to me now.

Am I here to make money? Well, sort of. Yes. I guess I am. I took the challenge, didn't I?

But I'm here to make money doing what I love to do. I love to write. I especially love to write when it comes easy - like it has in spurts over the last 30 days.

Do I love to tweak my hubs and do keyword research? Well, lucky for me, I don't mind it. I like it enough to do it now and then when I can't find my "muse." But I don't love it enough to call myself as an internet marketer rather than a writer.

At hubpages, I love being able to write and publish whatever I want, depending on the mood that strikes me.

Some of my hubs will never get much traffic. They are just silly poems I've written along the way - but poems I kinda like, poems I'm glad I wrote and glad someone reads now and then.

Then there are a articles I wrote a lifetime ago, when I thought I might actually make a living at this. I was paid pretty well for them when they were first published, but that's money long gone. How cool to be able to recyle - even if just for a few pennies - those words that already earned me some money, once upon a time.

And there's the stuff I like to write now. Not everyone will want to read it. But it seems a few do, here and there. And when folks read what I write, I experience a validation that I seldom have in my "real job."

I love the comments at hubpages. I love the stats. I loved hitting the 100 profile score during the challenge for the first time (that I noticed anyway). I love seeing red arrows on my account page. And I love hubbers as successful as darkside offering their encouragement and their expertise to others.

And I gotta tell you, I love the prospect of that first google adsense check, and the next, and the thought of monthly checks that increase exponentially. And someday, I'm gonna learn all this keywork/SEO stuff and retire to a country home in eastern North Carolina where I can have a garden, and maybe some chickens, and sustain my household by writing what I want to write.

Yep. That's my dream. That's why I hub. That's why I'm glad I participated in the HubChallenge.