I'm taking the 30 hubs in 30 days challenge...again!

Ok, so you may know (or figured from the title) that I tried the '30 hubs in 30 days challenge' once before. It was back in August and I was doing great the first 2 weeks, but then life got in the way with a pile of day job work and it all fell apart. I made it to around 20 hubs in the 30 days which wasn't great but was better than I had been doing. And of course it still helped me build my number fo over all hubs. You can see my first attempt here!

That last reason is part of the reason I am trying to do this challenge again. I had challenged myself (personally) to write 100 hubs by the end of the year and get my first payout. I should hopefully (fingers crossed) make the $50 limit this month, but unless I start getting out some more hubs I may just miss the 100 hubs I want. I currently have 71 (I think!) so only need 30 more in 2 months, but since I have only managed 6-10 each of the last 3 months I need to focus a little better. I am thinking this 30 for 30 challenge may be just what I need. It has taken me a few days to decide whether I should really go for it or just trundle along and hope I make it to the 100 by New Year, but I finally made the decision that I should. So I officially started the challenge on the 1st November 2012 and hope to have 30 new hubs up by the 1st December 2012.

I'll be using this Hub to track my progress through the challenge as the month progresses. Posting links to the new hubs and some stats of views and earnings. I have noticed a bit of a drop off in views recently so I am hoping that is nothing major and it will naturally pick up again, but we shall see if frequent posting (and the odd backlink) can help this a little too.

This months competition and the weekly forum challenge has been helping give me ideas for hubs, so I am hoping that will keep me going all month. And it gives me an extra spur on to keep going in the hope that I may win one of the daily prizes or even better one of the bigger ones. Now I do have a tiny confession though - my hubby will be helping me just a little! He is writing some gadget reviews for me to post as part of the competition too, but I still have to proof and set them all out on hubpages, he is simply doing some of the writing. But most of the posts will still be mine.

Right so on with the posts!

Here is the list of hubs I have written so far in this 30 hubs in 30 days challenge. Please check some of them out, and let me know what you think.

• Hub 1: A Great Professional Nikon Lens - Nikon 24-70 AF-S f2.8 ED
• Hub 2: My Fim Review Challenge (Another Challenge!)
• Hub 3: Surrogates Film Review
• Hub 4: This Hub! I'm taking the 30 Hubs in 30 Days Challenge...again!
• Hub 5: The Easy Way to Make Soup - The Cuisinart Soup Maker
• Hub 6: Prometheus Film Review
• Hub 7: How to Make Baked Alaska Dessert
• Hub 8: How to make Slow-Roasted Lamb Shanks in a Red Wine Gravy
• Hub 9: How to make Mildly Spiced Yogurt Potatoes
• Hub 10: Coco Before Chanel Review
• Hub 11: Zio Pin Italian Restaurant Review
• Hub 12: Can Zaman Restaurant Review
• Hub 13: Perfect Anti-theft Camera Bag for Travellers - The Lowepro Flipside 400 AW
• Hub 14: Buffet Restaurant in Cardiff - Red Hot World Buffet Review
• Hub 15: A Hairdressres I won't be visiting again! Ania's Hair in Beauty in Cardiff
• Hub 16: My Mum's Parker's Beef Stew Recipe!
• Hub 17: Bettina's Bay Beauty Review
• Hub 18: A Great Little Chinese Restaurant in Bath - Hon Fusion
• Hub 19: A review of the Nikon SB-700 Speedlight Flash
• Hub 20: Freezer Crockpot Cooking - Chicken Teriyaki Recipe
• Hub 21: A Review of Cash Generator on Albany Road, Cardiff
• Hub 22: Coffee Shops in Cardiff: Tea & Cake, Roath
• Hub 23: COOK frozen ready meal store in Cardiff
• Hub 24: Great Homemade Christmas Gift Ideas
• Hub 25: Great Christmas DIY Craft Ideas for the Home
• Hub 26: Freezer Crockpot Cooking - Pork Loin in Sour Cream Sauce
• Hub 27: Smarties Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Mix in a Jar
• Hub 28: Honey Sesame Chicken Recipe for the Slow Cooker
• Hub 29: Hearty Pork Stew Freezer Crockpot Recipe for Couples
• Hub 30: Non-Spicy Chilli Recipe for the Slow Cooker

And 1 for luck!

• Hub 31: Garlic Chicken Recipe for the Slow Cooker

NOTE: I have since removed the film related hubs and moved them to a dedicated blog.

4.11.12: It is the 4th of the month and so far I have got 4/30 hubs up (including this one). Which puts me pretty much on track, which is a good start! I have been working on 2 others today which should be sorted and ready to post out soon, hopefully tomorrow. So all is good at the moment. Tonight I will be posting out some backlinks in the hope to bring in some more views.

5.11.12: Ok I've got another few up 6/30 now, so I'm a little ahead. Plus got a few more worked on today which should be ready to go up soon. May actually manage it this time!

6.11.12 Well onto day 6 and have 10 hubs up so far and 2 in the pipe line. Feeling good - fingers crossed this good start will help keep me on track! It gives me a little breathing room in case life gets hectic at any point.

8.11.12 I got another post up yesterday so thats 11 in 7 days. Not too shabby. Got a busy few days ahead so not sure I'll manage many more before next week. Glad I got a bit of a head start early on. My views aren't really climbing much at the moment though, I was doing a bit better last month to be honest. Just gonna have to wait and see - really want to reach $15 by end of month to make payout threshold.

10.11.12 10 days in 12 hubs down, the views are really disappointing me at the moment though, seems like Hubpages is struggling with traffic in general. Not gonna make that $15 if I don't start getting some major views. Still on track for my challenge though so at least I can be pleased about that.

12.11.12 Well managed to get another one in so far today taking me to 13 hubs in 12 days, glad I had that head start as I haven't had time to do much for last 2 days really. Views have finally started to pick back up again although think that is probably to do with me getting in some backlinks on my blog today! Also finally learnt how to use referral tracker, so hopefully that may start working to help bring me some extra views and earnings too!

14.11.12 Well I've managed a few more today - I feel like I have cheated a little though as some of them are articles I wrote for an old blog. It just doesn't make sense them being on a blog I no longer run when they could be over here on hubpages instead, at least with the possibility of helping me earn. So with that in mind I am shifting over some old articles to consolidate all my better work in one place!

19.11.12 I'm still going with the challenge and still keeping up with my hubs luckily! Again got a busy few days to get through, then 2 days off and a busy weekend, so kinda hoping I can make the most of the 2 days off and get some extra hubs out. Sadly the views just arent going they way I was hoping. I had figured the more hubs the more views I would accumilate, but it's not really happening that way. Even though I am doing the same backlinks as I have done with all my others. Weird! Anyway I am not put off, I shall keep going and fingers crossed it'll pick up!

23.11.19 Ok so last few days haven't gone well hub wise! Not managed to add any new ones as been to busy with a huge proofreading job. Will hopefully still manage to catch up though, as I refuse to fail this challenge for a second time! Earnings have picked up a little though which is nice. Not going to hit the $15 I don't think, but I should get closeish I think!

26.11.19 I managed to get 4 hubs up yesterday! Yay! 1 new recipe and 3 articles moved from other websites - ok they arent new but I would rather have all my writing in one place, and if it helps with my challenge and my earnings then all is good! To make the payout thresh hold at the end of this month I need precisely $14.36. Now I didn't think I was going to hit it after the start of the month was slow, but the end of the month is picking up, so fingers crossed I could still technically make it. Especially if I get up a nice last batch of hubs to reach my 30 in 30 days. But even if I don't make it this month I will definitely hit it next month so not too much to worry about really.

28.11.12 Eek only got 3 days of writing left and I still need 7 more hubs. I better get on it really, just been busy with proofing jobs and had some personal family issues this week, which stopped me being able to work for a little while. But I still have faith that I can get the last few up in the next 3 days. Views have been rising nicely the last few days, so I'm happy to say I will make $10 but probably wont break the $15 barrier to get my payout, but I am happy in the fact that I will definitely hit the $50 threshold in December so get a nice little payout in January. Yay!

29.11.12 Ok I actually managed to do 5 hubs since last night, they were ones that I had partly worked on before or had started preparing to post, so I think I did pretty well to get 5 up in 24 hours! Plus that means I am only 2 away from reaching my 30, yay! and I am pretty sure I can get both of them up tomorrow, on my final day of the 30. That will also mean I am will only be 2 hubs away from my 100 by New Year Challenge! Very pleased with myself. I wont hit $50 thresh hold at the end of this month, but guaranteed it next month so not too bad.

30.11.12 Oh yeah!!! It is 8.52pm in the UK and I just posted my 30th hub for my 30 hubs in 30 days challenge! yay! Totally did it, in fact I have almost finished another hub so I might even manage 31 in my 30 days. hehe! So proud of myself. And my ratings have really started to boost in this last week of the month. I don't know if its algorithms or down to my hubs exactly but either way I don't particularly care, it's good news for me! I am also about to publish my 100th hub a whole month before New Year and my personal deadline. Very happy.

So my 30 days are over and I managed to get 31 hubs up! yay! My final earnings amount was $13.02 which isn't too shoddy and added to all my other monthly earnings means I was just $0.44 from hitting the $50 threshold to get my first payout. Now that the hubs from last month are starting to rank on google and recieve some natural traffic there has been a bit of a raise in views and in turn my earnings, so I made that 44 cent on my first day in December! That means I'll be having a nice little payout in January. 1 week in and have managed to make over $5, if it continues like this I shoudl pass my $15 goal and be heading closer to a $20 mark, which would be nice!

What I learnt:

• That it takes a bit of time, patients and focus to keep writing on a daily basis
• Keeping a list of ideas when you think of them is very usefull, I carry a notepad anyway so just wrote a little point and some ideas whenever something occured to me
• You may not notice the benefits of the work you do straight away, or even in the same month (in terms of views and earnings) It takes time for the backlinks to accumilate, to start to rank on google and generally age a bit. So your efforts may not pay off for a month or 2, but in the end they will.
• Don't just focus on writing, you still need to particiapate on the site and post some backlinks if you can. I usually only use Twitter, Facebook, Pintrest and occassionally Stumbled
• Don't get down on yourself if you fall behind or fail your challenge in the end. If life genuinely gets in the way there is nothing you can do about it. Simply challenging yourself is a start to push yourself that little bit harde, you will be surprised how much you can spur yourself on just by doing that.
• Whatever you do - ENJOY writing and hubbing, if it becomes a chore and you dont enjoy it you wont be driven to do more, and you will not produce your best work.