Tracy Lynn Conway interviews ktrapp
One of HubPages' most promising new Hubbers shares more about her background
Please tell us a little about yourself.
My husband and I have two almost-grown children, a son away at college and daughter about to graduate high school. The latest addition to our family is Ruby, our little beagle who stole my heart in an instant. I am a native of Connecticut– New Fairfield to be exact, a very quaint New England town a few miles from the border of New York. I have a business degree in marketing that I received in Texas – that was culture shock to say the least. The job I’ve held the longest is being a stay at home mom for twenty years and counting. Overlapping ten of those years, I had a web design business, as well as training classrooms full of pharmaceutical sales reps – I loved that job! Currently I live north of Chicago, a short train ride away from a fantastic city, and am working as a web master for a local high school. But secretly I wish I were home all the time doing all the things I love, especially writing on HubPages.
What brought you to HubPages?
As I said, I had my own web design business for more than ten years, which allowed me to work out of my home 99% of the time. It was a great “gig” that met my needs to work and parent, but in time I became increasingly bored with what seemed like recreating the wheel on a daily basis. I decided to no longer take on new clients and instead put my abilities to work for myself. In the process of developing my own article-based website focusing on one niche, I came across a personal finance article about online writing. HubPages was mentioned. I followed the link and here I am. After writing just a few Hubs, I noticed a couple of them ranked fairly high on Google quite quickly. I was first amazed and then hooked. I was able to accomplish something at HubPages that I was well aware would take eons longer with my own domain. My goal is to complete my own website in time and write some informative Hubs linking to it, but HubPages will remain my focus.
Describe the driving force behind your writing efforts.
It just so happens that I love writing and I love the cat-and-mouse game of climbing the ranks of Google. There’s a big part of me that is creative and an equal part that is analytical. Those forces have often tended to pull me in different directions, but at HubPages they come together. Writing, analyzing stats, making adjustments, waiting to see the results, analyzing more, and so on keeps definitely keeps me motivated. I do tend to write about subjects that I am most familiar with and some hubs do tap into my web knowledge. Of the 59 Hubs that I have published, about 52 were written with the Internet-searching audience in mind, six were written specifically to help fellow Hubbers, and one was purely for myself.
Which one of your Hubs is your favorite and why?
I hope it’s OK if I give you two because I am having an impossible time deciding. The two Hubs that are my current favorites are each inspired by my children:
Discectomy: Spine Surgery for a Herniated Disc and
Motherhood Poems: The Ladder. For anyone reading this that follows me, you’ll recognize that “The Ladder” is a huge departure from what I typically write. This would be the one Hub out of 59 published that I wrote for personal reasons.
Some of your strongest Hubs are on the topic of increasing traffic to a Hub. What made you decide to start writing on this topic?
Ironically, when I began writing at HubPages I vowed to myself that I would never write about SEO or anything web-related. I was looking for a real change. I thought I could do my writing thing and then continue on with my day. Little did I realize that there are some really nice people floating around HubPages. Often, when I would read the Hubs of some of these talented writers I was a bit pained knowing that their Hubs would probably struggle to do well in search engine rank – not due to a lack of good content, but due to easily-remedied keyword omissions. I granted myself permission to write one SEO Hub about how to put keywords in all the right places, which led to at least five more. These Hubs have been very well received and it thrills me when I see that someone has implemented what they have learned.
If you could impart one piece of advice to a new Hubber, what would that be?
I would have to say, “Work smart, not hard.” It’s good to go ahead and publish a few Hubs and learn how the HubTool and various capsules work. But step back and take a little bit of time and learn. Read through some of the Hubs in the Learning Center. Read through the Hubs of some of the HubPages success stories; notice patterns. If the goal is to make money, then the Hubs have to be found on Google. It’s easier to get it “right” the first time around than to go back and make changes to a large number of Hubs later.
I noticed you were in AEvans' list of 100 great new writers of 2011 and have a number of Hubs that were awarded “Hub of the Day,” what does this mean to you?
Honestly, I was really surprised and thrilled to make the 100 great new writers of 2011 list. Being recognized is always nice no matter the occasion, but when it comes from peers it means that much more. I’m equally as proud each time I’ve been selected for Hub of the Day. It’s as if the boss is saying, “job well done” and it always propels me forward to keep writing.
What do your readers have to look forward to with respect to your future Hubs?
I can’t say for sure what subjects I will be writing about in upcoming months, but no matter the topic there will be a lot of my own pictures. I’m becoming quite obsessed with taking photos lately. I also am planning on doing a number of Videos when that feature becomes available.
Tell us something that we'd never guess about you—surprise us.
I’m five feet tall, I cry when I laugh, and I giggle at everything when I’m tired.
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