This is part 2 of a 4 part series that I have researched and written about HubPages.

Part 1 can be found here: How HubPages Works

Part 3 is An Introduction To HubPage Referrals

Part 4 is on the sub-topics of Capsules.

And now, onto the main course...

Consider your hobbies. Favorite pasttimes. Interests.

What about sports? Your talents? Skills? Creative... technical... there are things you know that someone else would like to read about.

What about your job? Is there something you can share that will interest others?

Okay, don't answer that, because 9 out of 10 people will probably think their job is boring. But there may be some parts of it that will benefit others if they hear about how you go about your job. The more specialized the field the more interesting it's going to be. It's all in the way you communicate it.

Jot down your ideas. Use Notepad. Write down a whole bunch of them and think about which one would be the easiest to document, and start with that.

Someone out there wants to hear what you've seen or know. Just be sure to write it in such a way that others can understand and relate to.

It's lot like picking out a domain name.

What's the right name? What's the best name?

Lets say you want to write a lens about Soil Erosion.

You could get hubpages.com/hub/soilerosion

Maybe that's already gone. If it is there are other ways you could write it.

hubpages.com/hub/soil-erosion or hubpages.com/hub/soil_erosion

Search Engines will read soilerosion, soil-erosion and soil_erosion as "soil erosion", so don't be worried about a negative SEO effect.

Maybe they're all gone, or maybe they aren't, and you're spoiled for choice. And you don't know which way to go.

There's also hubpages.com/hub/soil and hubpages.com/hub/erosion to consider.

Decisions! Decisions!

Any of them will work. It may come down to a matter of taste. Your opinion. And also aesthetics. The one you think looks best. The one you think reads easiest.

Now if all those words are gone and indeed each of them are to do with the topic of Soil Erosion then you may want to consider whether or not you should do a lens on soil erosion.

If it's more than just a passing interest and you do have experience and inside knowledge into the topic then by all means go ahead with creating a lens. You will have something to new or fresh to impart to someone else seeking information on the subject.

So you've got an expert opinion on Soil Erosion but all the good simple soil erosion names are gone. Where now?

hubpages.com/hub/allaboutsoilerosion

hubpages.com/hub/askmeaboutsoilerosion

hubpages.com/hub/soilerosionnow

hubpages.com/hub/effectsofsoilerosion

hubpages.com/hub/soilerosion101

They're all possibilities. And they may not be quite to your taste because they look so long and almost unreadable so it would be advisable to break up the words with underscores or hyphens.

Before you decide on a name and lock it in consider the possibilities and alternatives. Type them out, check to see availabity and then make a shortlist of the best candidates.

And the title of your lens doesn't have to be exactly like the url of the lens. eg: www.squidoo.com/soil_erosion_now can be titled "Soil Erosion".

Whatever you do, don't waste the opportunity to involve some good topical keywords.

They help both the HubPages search and search engines to index your pages content.

Be sure to use appropriate words. Don't try and manipulate search engines into adding your page for keywords that have nothing to do with the content. The result will be visitors that won't find what they're looking for. And that's not quality traffic.

Each Hub starts with a Text Capsule, Photo Capsule and a Comments Capsule. You can re-organize or delete as you see fit. Usually though you'll want to add more.

You can sit capsules side by side or make it look like you've inserted an Amazon Capsule in a Text Capsule by "Toggling the Width".

There is so much more to explain about Capsules that I have drafted and plan to publish a Hub dedicated to the topic of Capsules.

I'll link to it from here once it's completed.

However... if you're like me and you write your content in Notepad marking it up in HTML as you go along (text formatting, hyperlinks, etc) then make your txt document into an actual HTML page. And then view it in a web browser, and then copy and paste what you see there into your Text Capsule. It'll bring the formatting with it. w00t!

Otherwise you can just add the hyperlinks and text styles as you go along. Which for someone who is proficient in HTML will find that method slower. But for a newbie it's a lot easier.

AKA Referrals or Tracker ID's

The system is unique. In that it rewards you. And in turn you are rewarding the Hubpage author by sending them traffic. How it works and how it benefits you is too much to explain in just one capsule, so I've dedicated an entire hub to it: How HubPage Tracking Works

Which is not a good thing. As it is a Google Adsense ToS violation if you have Adsense ads on a page with nudity or other mature content. Violations result in having your account banned.

It's not worth it.

Also from a HubPages point a view if you publish mature content, but don't mark it correctly, the HubPages system will eventually mark all your new Hubs as mature.

I'd go as far to suggest that if you wish to publish such content, that you register a seperate Hub Author account specifically for Hubs of that nature. It'll make HubPages safer for kids and others who may browse through your collection of other appropriate pages.

There are four ways to directly make money from HubPages...

1) Adsense. Adsense is a contextual pay per click advertising program. What that means is the ads that are served (shown) on your site are automatically in context to the content of your site. And you get paid for each click. The amount paid depends on how popular the keyword/s is and what advertisers bid for it. Of course that's the short story. It's a lot more complicated then that but Google have made it simple enough to implement and HubPages have made it even easier. If you don't already have an Adsense account you can do it through HubPages after you register a HubPages account.

Extra reading:

• www.squidoo.com/whatisadsense
• www.squidoo.com/clickfraud
• www.squidoo.com/adsensebeginnersguide

2) Amazon. Amazon is a good way to monetize your site by choosing products (books, DVD's and others) that are complementary to your content.

3) Ebay. It works the same way as Amazon. But instead of brand new products most of them will be second hand. Which also means you get to choose some rare, out-of-print and other hard to find goodies.

4) Affiliate links. Provided you don't go overboard a few select referral links will give you the opportunity to generate some sales.

Important to note though, revenue streams 1, 2 and 3 described above has a pageview split with you the Hub Author getting 60% of the pageviews.

The other 40% HubPages splits further, but without going into too much detail (more information on that will be in the soon to be published on Tracking/Referrals) HubPages derives it's own income from part of that 40%. That's how HubPages can afford to stay in business and provide us with these fantastic tools and platform in which to publish our articles. All for free.

How much money you can earn depends on how good (original and unique) your content is, how well you integrate the affiliate products, and how much traffic you can drive to your hubs. There are no guarantees for success, but if you work smarter and you're willing to learn you can make money while you're sleeping from this excellent residual income stream.