JudiBee Interviews Wilderness
How one Hubber rose from the Forums to great HubPages heights
One of HubPages’ most handy Hubbers is Wilderness. If you want to know how to shingle a roof, make a gymnast’s balance beam or choose an electric screwdriver, he’s your man. However, there’s more to Wilderness than just home improvements. Meet one of my favourite Hubbers: Wilderness.
What brought you to HubPages?
Interestingly, and rather comically, I signed up with HubPages in order to post in the Forums. The thought of writing a Hub myself was too scary to contemplate and I had no idea you could actually earn money by writing. Eventually I did write a couple of Hubs on controversial subjects, just to see what comments I might get, but somewhere along the line I ran into Forum references about making money and the rest is history.
You’ve been with HubPages for two years. Did you have a goal when you started? Have you reached it?
Once I discovered the earnings potential of the site I did formulate a goal, yes. Retirement wasn’t far away and plans for that period of my life had taken quite a hit from the recession. I set a long-term, 3-year goal of earning a consistent $300 per month of passive income from HubPages. While I’m no longer sure that the term “passive” is really applicable today, the earnings portion of that goal was reached some time ago.
What goals are you hoping to achieve in the next two years? New sites, blogs, EBooks?
At this point it is only thinking, but I’d like to make my own site. Something I can design myself, making it look the way I want it to. A site designed and limited from the ground up to a specific topic and niche. No EBooks – that just isn’t something I’m interested in at all. I’ll never be a JK Rowling.
You started out training in Chemistry, then became an electrician and now you’re a writer. Which has brought you the most satisfaction?
While being an electrician was satisfying – I enjoy building things – I would have to say that writing has given the most satisfaction. When I get a comment that I’ve helped someone to build or learn something, it makes it all worthwhile- whether I’m actually earning anything or not. Those comments are rare, as few organic visitors will leave a comment, but they do happen and are much appreciated. Many Hubbers leave kind and complimentary comments, but when someone tells me that I helped them ace a difficult test, or have convinced them to turn their life around somehow, it is special.
Most of your Hubs focus on your “niche” of home improvement, but I notice that every so often you sneak in a Hub about our society or ethics. Is this an area you would like to write more on?
Yes it is, and I expect to, although probably not on my main account. I prefer, I think, to leave that account pretty well dedicated to home improvement topics. Google is so picky today and does such unexpected things that I would be concerned that filling that account with low traffic, low earning Hubs could damage it one day in the future.
When I look at your home improvement Hubs, I’m often amazed at the detailed instructions and photographs. Do you think of a Hub title and do the project, or do you start a project and then turn it in to a Hub?
The project nearly always comes first. Once in a while both the idea of a Hub and that of a project work hand in hand right from the start, but usually not. One exception is
a Hub on making a toolbox for Dad with which I was looking for a project to do with my grandkids that could also be turned into a Hub, but for the most part there is a project that needs doing and I merely take photos as I do the work.
One of my favorite Hubs of yours is your Lake Bonneville Hub. I also know that you like to go away in your RV. Can we expect more Hubs about places you visit in the future?
Well, I’m retired now and some travel is in the works, so yes, there will probably be some travel Hubs coming. We have a trip to the Oregon coast planned for this summer; we want to visit the nation parks in Utah and plan on returning to Yellowstone one day as well. To date my travel Hubs have not performed well but I enjoy writing them and, with more practice, perhaps I can learn to do better in that niche.
Which of your Hubs is your favorite? Why?
That’s a tough question, not because there are so many, but because the reasons for liking them are so varied. A
Hub on RLS and the drug Mirapex is probably the most soul-satisfying, as it has received comments that people were actually helped from my efforts.
A set of Hubs on cataract surgery in which I tried to not only inform, but to communicate my own fear, anticipation, and satisfaction may help and appeal to the most people. The Hub you mentioned
about the Bonneville Flood was not only fun to write as I travelled to the various locations and did extensive research, but ended up with some gorgeous photos.
A
Hub on the meaning of Christmas, judging from the comments, seems to have touched more people than anything else I’ve written. Any one of these could be considered what I like best, then, depending on how I’m feeling that day.
How was the Apprenticeship Program for you?
I found the program itself valuable, but not perhaps in the sense that many others have. I had already spent a good deal of time in the Learning Center and the program presented little that I wasn’t already familiar with. It did encourage (force) me to write more, but it did not result in very much change in how or what I write.
The interaction between Hubbers in the program, on the other hand, was invaluable and has resulted in some friendships that I cherish as well as new information and tips. Just examining and dissecting the writing styles and formatting efforts of others can be extremely helpful as those things can then be incorporated into our own work, and I have done just that.
What would be your top tip for a new Hubber?
Go to school. Go to school in the
Learning Center, go to school in the works of other Hubbers and go to school in the Forums, participating there. Learn everything you can about writing online and about writing on HubPages. Hubbers that are only new to HubPages, that have written extensively elsewhere, still need to learn how to effectively use the tools supplied by HubPages.
Hubbers that are new to online writing need to learn everything. I started writing on HubPages as a total newbie and spent two thirds of my time “going to school” and learning everything I could – it paid off when my first $100 AdSense payout came only 5 months after getting serious about writing. HubPages is not a “get rich quick” scheme, but it will be a “never get rich” endeavour if we just slap words down without learning how to do so effectively.
If you were put in charge of HubPages for a day, what one change would you make?
My first choice would be to get rid of the trash on HubPages that we all know is there. Un-publish old Hubs that don’t fit quality guidelines and stop any new ones from being published. Unfortunately, that’s somewhat of a pipe dream; HubPages is a business, operating in the business world, and there will always be financial constraints that make such a sweeping activity very difficult to implement.
In the real world, then, I would like to see more raw data from HubPages on the types of Hubs that are successful in garnering traffic and earnings. Management provided some of that recently with recommendations for the number of words and capsules, but I would like to see far more; data that is collected from hundreds of thousands of Hubs rather than the hundred or so that is available to most Hubbers. What kind of time-on-page numbers do high traffic Hubs see? What’s the bounce rate for high traffic Hubs? Do subdomains with limited topic choices see better traffic? Is there a correlation between the number of Amazon capsules and traffic? We have a lot of very smart Hubbers here; Hubbers that can not only draw conclusions from such information but make use of it as well.
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