I signed up when I read that Hubpages was free, and it was for writers. That was important for I’d been paying quite a substantial sum annually for the right to publish articles, and I liked the idea of being in the company of others who were writing for pleasure.

        While ESL tutoring for several years, I had encouraged students from other countries to write, and after editing their stories had published them in a blog called StoriesfromChina to their great satisfaction. Not being able to do that on Hubpages was a drawback, but that could be circumvented by starting a site for each of them, too.

        In signing up, I realized that some of the participants would be participating with the aim of earning money in that way, and, of course, that would be nice, but it wasn’t the prime reason I joined. It was almost certain that the management of Hubpages was involved for financial reasons, and I’d try to help them if I could.

        Getting started was easy enough, as I used only the text capsule, but that was soon followed by using photo, too, and the score of my hub started to rise.  Watching those numbers increase has become a compulsion ever since.  I’ve always been an achiever, and in my desire to see my score rise to 100, I’ve spent hours trying to decipher what makes the numbers rise and fall.

        There are so many factors that could go into the determination of an appropriate score.  Frequency of submissions must be high on the list, but content must certainly be considered.  The relative rarity of the topic might be a factor, use of capsules, length of the article, numbers of readers, comments, fans, the amount of money the hub makes – it’s impossible to figure it out.

        I’ve thought often that I should ignore the hub score and just write for the pleasure it gives me in sharing my thoughts with my friends.

        But not understanding the process is a nagging kind of thing.

        I’ve now become more adventurous about using the capsules, and have had success with news and videos, but still have questions about them.

        Is there a site that lists videos that can be viewed?

        How can the news capsule best be used?  Do you just print it at the end of your article?

        Instruction in the use of rss and links would certainly be helpful.  I’ve read articles on those two by hubbers, but still have questions.

        I spent hours yesterday trying to contact various directories that will channel readers to my site.  Their addresses had been listed by a hubber, and that was very useful.  I found, however, that some of the sites were no longer in operation, and the last one I tried to hook up with required pasting html on my “template”.  Let me tell you more about that:

        I’m barely computer literate, but am keeping a record of steps in each procedure and the definitions of terms after I get them on the internet.  After I learned the meaning of “template”, I tried everything I could think of to open that part of my site without success.  When I went to the Hubpages Search for an answer, I was referred to an article describing how to do it.  A problem occurred, however, in that after I spent quite a long time learning how to paste the html appropriately, I learned that the process didn’t relate to Hubpages and was of no use to me.  I still couldn’t (and still can’t) figure out what to do. 

        My son tells me that it’s quite possible that the template on my hubpage can’t be opened.

        Search on the Hubpages had been helpful many times in the past by referring me to articles written by hubbers.  I’ve had less success when I’ve searched for site information.

        During these two months, I’ve been at the computer so much that I’ve scarcely opened a book, and I used to read 4 or 5 of them each week.  I’ve stayed up late trying to sort things out so that I’d be utilizing as many of the tools for good hub-making as possible.  It’s the first thing I do in the morning before I leave for a morning of tutoring.  I keep wondering if I really want to spend this much time this way.

        The whole process could be so much simpler.

         While serving as the CEO of a large corporation, I was in constant search for problems we were encountering so that solutions could be found.  I think the management of Hubpages should do the same by assigning someone to review the information that is provided to new hubbers and updating it using all the information that various hubbers have included in their articles.   

        We’d all be eternally grateful.