HubPages - A Beginner's Guide

You are a beginner at this web publishing thing. But your friend encouraged you to join this site called HubPages, saying that they are the top in what they do. So you joined through something called a referral url, and now you are a hubber.

"You just write," he said. "They will take care of the rest."

So you started on your first hub. You did your homework and crafted your sentences nicely. You made sure your spelling and grammar were flawless. And finally, you hit the "Publish" button and waited.

And waited...and waited. After 24 hours, you had a grand total of 6 visitors.

Okay, so nobody said it was going to be that easy. So you worked on your second hub and published. And then a third hub. And finally, after 5 hubs, you took a step back and reflected on your "progress".

It took you about 2 weeks to come up with 5 hubs, and those hubs yielded a total of 50 visitors. It is starting to look like this HubPages thing is not all that it is cracked up to be. And that so-called friend is nowhere to be found.

Don't worry, we have all been there. It takes a little time but just keep doing what you are doing and the visitors will come. And, HubPages is a community, and every community is unique in its own way. By understanding a little about how HubPages work, it will help you tremendously in getting more traffic to your hubs.

And that is what this hub is all about. :)

Comments
Commenting on a hub is a good way to increase your visibility as a hubber. But an absolute no-no is to leave comments like "Good hub!", or "I agree with you", or "Well done!". While it is generally acceptable if you do it once in a while, if a large percentage of your comments are of that nature, you are not going to make a lot of friends.

Spend a few minutes reading the content of a hub, and when leaving a comment, try to add value or offer a different perspective to that of the author.

And do check back to the hub to see the author's response to your comments, and respond if need be. If you are in the habit of making a lot of comments and finding it difficult to keep track of all the hubs that you have commented in, there is a handy link you can click on. When you login into HubPages, look at the menu on your right. Right at the bottom, there is a link that says, "Comments You Made" Click on that and you will get a list of all the hubs that you have commented in.

And remember that when you have nothing to say, you don't really have to leave a comment.

Become Somebody's Fan
But don't just become a fan of everybody you come across. Spend a minute or two to visit the person's profile, and look at the titles of the hubs that the person has published. Visit one or two of his hubs to get an idea of the writing style and content. And if you like what you see, become a fan!

As a fan, you will get an email every time that person publishes a hub. If you are fast, you can be the first to leave a comment. And if the person has many fans, you increase your visibility just that little bit. :)

And when you become a fan, don't forget to leave some fan mail. Even if it is a simple comment like "Good hubs!", I'm quite sure it will always be appreciated.

Forums
Forums are always a good place to let people know that you exist. :)

Stay a while there, ask a few questions, answer a few questions and socialize a little. And if you ask nicely, some of the more experienced hubbers might just visit your hubs and give you a tip or two!

Answer a Request
If you have writers block, you can always answer somebody's request. Not only will you get into the requester's good graces, which can result in a visit or two to your hubs, you will also get visitors from other hubbers after you who are looking to answer the same request.

HubNuggets
Each week the HubNuggets team read through more than a thousand hubs to come up with the 10 best hubs. The current HubNuggets hub will be announced in the forum and the HubPages community will vote for those hubs and the best 5 hubs will be featured in the HubPages newsletter.

I don't know how to get nominated but good content and attractive layout helps. Check out one of the HubNuggets hub and see if you can find out a thing or two about how to get nominated - and don't forget to tell me. And by the way, being a fan of the members of the HubNuggets team and saying nice things in their hubs probably won't hurt either. :)

Be The Best
Write good hubs and participate actively in the HubPages community and you can be quite sure of making it into the Best Hubs and Best Hubbers section.

Don't worry about writing like Mark Twain or Shakespeare. Yours truly is a case in point. I'm a writer wannabe whose only claim to fame is that I have pretty good grammar and I spellcheck most of my hubs. :) But I have made a 99 HubScore, although only briefly. But that will put me on page 2 of the best hubbers category, rubbing shoulders with the best of the best.

Okay, so it might seem that the HubPages ranking algorithm needs a little tweaking. But let's not tell them that. Let's make hay while the sun shines. Write good, informative and original hubs, publish regularly and participate actively in the community and I will see you at the top. :)

Be The Best
Write good hubs and participate actively in the HubPages community and you can be quite sure of making it into the Best Hubs and Best Hubbers section.

Don't worry about writing like Mark Twain or Shakespeare. Yours truly is a case in point. I'm a writer wannabe whose only claim to fame is that I have pretty good grammar and I spellcheck most of my hubs. :) But I have made a 99 HubScore, although only briefly. But that will put me on page 2 of the best hubbers category, rubbing shoulders with the best of the best.

Okay, so it might seem that the HubPages ranking algorithm needs a little tweaking. But let's not tell them that. Let's make hay while the sun shines. Write good, informative and original hubs, publish regularly and participate actively in the community and I will see you at the top. :)

Search Engine Traffic
I didn't realize it at first, but after signing up for Google Analytics, I found out that a large proportion of the search traffic that I am getting did not come directly from the search engines.

The visitor searched on the engines, found somebody else's hub and clicked through. They eventually arrived at my hub through the "Related Hubs" menu on the bottom right. They could also have arrived through my profile page which they found through the comments I made at the hub.

Your Hub As Real Estate
You won't buy a piece of property and just leave it, would you? You will maintain it, bring customers in and maybe even renovate or upgrade it.

Look at your hub as your real estate on the web, your little piece of the Internet. When you have just published a hub, do check back for comments and answer them. And don't just sit back and expect the world to beat a path to your hub. Get out there and promote your hub. And after a while, do check back to your hub to see if the information has become dated, and update it.

Conclusion
I hope I have given you some idea of what publishing on HubPages is really like and how to get a good start. If you like what you hear and have not signed up yet, why not give us a try?

Sign Up With HubPages