A Sincere Thank You To The HubPages Community

Imagine, if you will, writing 602 articles for a writing community called HubPages.

Now imagine none of those articles meeting the criteria for an Editor’s Choice designation.

Now imagine none of those articles being chosen as Hub of the Day.

Now imagine the writer not concerning himself with keywords or SEO or a recommended portion of capsules.

One would have to question the sanity of continuing, correct? One would have to at least consider suggesting to the writer that maybe he should try another hobby, that writing isn’t working out so well for him.

Now imagine that same writer winning Best All-Around Hubber Award for 2013.

Welcome to my life!

I began on HubPages in January 6, 2012, so I’m approaching my two year anniversary. I did not want to join this site. Plain and simple, my wife and my greatest advisor asked me if I was going to get serious about writing or continue to dabble on the edges. She explained that the only way I could improve as a writer was to become a part of a writing community, to put my writing out there for all to see, and to grow within that community.

I wanted none of it. I had no confidence in my writing abilities and I sure did not want to embarrass myself by having all of you read my tripe.

Still, Bev had spoken and I tend to listen to her, so I joined up and wrote some infinitely forgettable hubs over a two week span that garnered a grand total of five comments and a huge, collective yawn from the HP community.

I was done. Stick a fork in me because this would-be writer was roasting in his own juices. I was going nowhere, it was hopeless and I had no talent. Period!

So Bev talked to me again. She told me to quit playing around with keywords and SEO, the things that HubPages encourages, and she told me to write from my heart. She told me to not worry about making money from Adsense but to instead concentrate on becoming the best writer I could possibly be.

Almost two years later here I am, award in hand and so damn grateful to Bev and all of you, that I may have to have this grin surgically removed from my face.

So thank you! Thank you to Tammy and Linda and a handful of other experienced writers who took me under their wing and patiently accepted my work during those early weeks. Through their encouraging comments I kept at it, and I will always be grateful to them for sticking with me.

Thank you to all of my followers on HubPages. I really am blessed. I do not write according to the HubPages formula for success and still I have had over a quarter of a million views and over 53,000 comments. I am blessed to have such loyal followers.

And thank you to the friends I have made on this online community. Who would have believed it possible that this aging writer from Olympia, Washington, could have hundreds of friends from around the world? It is remarkable!

Of course you can. I have friends on this site who make hundreds of dollars monthly and who, literally, have had millions of views. They have learned the HP way well. They are excellent in using keywords and searching for great, SEO titles, and they have established a niche and made a name for themselves in that niche. Some of my friends are craft writers and do very, very well. Some are travel writers and some food, and one who does well writing all-time lists in sports.

There has been a great amount of grumbling about HP and believe me, I understand. Writers work hard to write hundreds of articles, and they play the keyword game perfectly, and their income increases only to have a new Panda show up and their income takes a nose dive. I understand why they are upset, and I understand why they are upset at HubPages….but….is it possible to make money here? Most definitely yes!

It is even possible to make money writing the way I write, without keywords or any consideration about SEO. I receive a payment monthly writing about life and struggles and happiness and hope. I do very little the HP way and still I make some passive income, so there is hope for anyone with regards to making money.

Oh my goodness yes! Let me qualify that answer just a bit. HubPages does nothing to improve your writing ability. It is a business designed to make money, and they can teach you, through their Learning Center, to write articles that will make you a passive income. In other words, the HubPages staff can make you a better Hubber….but….

Becoming a better writer is on your shoulders. Learning how to develop voice, to write with emotions, to use proper grammar and pacing and rhythm….that requires work on your part and no HubPages tutorial can help you with that. So yes, you can become a better writer on HubPages, and you do that by practicing your craft and by observing other excellent writers and learning from them.

Understand this and understand it well. HubPages is a business, and they make money on advertising based on views. As a business site they encourage writers to write according to their style. I understand that and I have no problem with it. They do not openly encourage essayists like me or poets because essays and poems do not attract great numbers of views. Again, I understand that from a business point of view.

I will never make hundreds of dollars on HP by writing the way I write and I am fine with that. My goal is to become a great writer and not a great Hubber. So if I don’t accumulate monetary riches here then what am I getting from the site?

Friendships!

I encourage all of you to become an active part of this community. Comment on Hubs. Get to know the other writers and form friendships. Those kinds of rewards are infinitely more meaningful than making the $50 payout each month….in my opinion. I have hundreds of friends who I have never met but who still care for me and I find that remarkable and priceless. It happened because I took the time to introduce myself and show them that I cared about them and their careers, and they reciprocated with their loyalty towards me.

If that sounds like something you would like to have then get busy. There is no better time to start than now. Reach out and become and active and supportive member of HubPages and you, too, will be as rich as I am.

Again, I thank all of you who voted for me. I consider this a victory for all the poets out there, all the essayists out there, and all the writers who are fueled by passion and love for their craft. Two years ago I was frightened and unsure of myself as a writer. Today I have the confidence and support to push forward and find out just how good I can be. I couldn’t have done any of it without all of you….and Bev. J

If I can ever be of any assistance all you have to do is ask. That’s how it worked for me starting out, and my job now is to carry on the tradition.

2013 William D. Holland (aka billybuc)

“Helping writers to spread their wings and fly.”