My First year on HubPages

? I’ve been on Hubpages a whole 12 months and a highly enjoyable, interesting and educating experience it has been.

I have a friend who writes for Demand Studios and Helium. She told me about on-line writing and she makes a second income from it. I found the idea intriguing and I started writing for Helium then E-How. By the time E-How set up the policy that you had to join Demand Studios in order to keep publishing I had 24 articles there. I have yet to apply to DS but those 24 articles bring me a steady $2 a month without any promoting.

About a year ago I was reading through a “How To” by somebody when I saw a link to Hubpages. I followed the link, liked what I saw and signed up. I have no idea whose link I followed but here I am. One year later and 52 Hubs.

I’m very fortunate in having a good job that pays the bills with a bit left over so writing for money is not a big necessity. That gives me the freedom to write about the things that matter to me. It’s worth pointing out that in the area of not writing for money I have been extremely successful. I intend soon to start work on my first book. The plan is to use some of my Hubs, add and enlarge a little, write a few more chapters about my sideways look at the world and put it out there. If all goes to plan I’ll probably be just as successful at not writing for money as I have been here at Hubpages.

My first Hub was about something I came across back in Wales many years ago, a guaranteed way to win at the Casinos. The team who were working it were making a killing all around the UK and it wasn’t until they tried it on at at Vegas that the jig was up and they were kicked out of town. I thought it was interesting but nobody else seemed to.

My second Hub was about the unique doctrines of the Mormons. When I was 13 I met some Mormon missionaries back in Wales and after talking to them I went to my Grandpa, old Druid as he was, and told him that the Mormons said that Joseph Smith saw God in a grove of trees. My Grandpa said “When you are in a grove of trees, don’t eat the mushrooms.” Still their ideas fascinated me and in later years I took to examining them a little more closely. I found it interesting and unique but this Hub taught me something too. Instead of comments there happened a somewhat bitter debate between, mostly, two people. I have deleted the worst of the comments but not before the Latter-Day-Saint was chased off this site by a very unchristian Christian. I wouldn’t let that happen again, I know enough now that I would have firmly pointed out that the comments capsule is for comments, debates can be had on the forums. Then I was very much a newbie and I let it happen, today I regret it. Most of the comments are still there as a reminder to me of a lesson learned.

One day I may well go back to these and some other of my earlier Hubs and tweak them. So far I haven’t because by reading my early work here I can see how I’ve improved over this past year.

The most heartwarming moment for me personally came about because of a writer, ShadesBreath. I was never one for the Forums, too much unnecessary condemning and not enough uplifting it seemed to me. Too many pointless arguments and criticism just for the sake of pulling people down, so I never had many fans because most folks didn’t know I was here. Any promotion at all that I did was away from Hubpages any way so I wasn’t too concerned. The people I followed were all people whose writing I respect and who are always generous with help and advice. Some of the people that I’ve seen on the forums I wouldn’t want as friends anyway, if we met in real life I’d want to take that crap outside.

Then Shadesbreath stumbled on my Hubs and enjoyed what he read. In fact he enjoyed them so much he wrote about them on the forums. Suddenly my followers doubled almost overnight and I’ve met really interesting and genuine people. I now find myself in the company of those who value this craft and put it to good use. I receive worthwhile comments and excellent advice. I cannot begin to express how grateful I am to the generosity of Shadesbreath in “Discovering “me and letting others know. His gift is one I may never be able to pay back but I can certainly pay it forward and do for others what he did for me.

Other writers have been of great help to me in this past year, so much so that I wrote a Hub on “Hibbers who help me” The list is by no means complete and there are many left out. I need to either add to it or start a “Part 2” but there are more than those listed there.

My most popular Hub is the one on the Halo 3 ODST game. I’m not a gamer and I’d never even heard of Halo until I was approached by a production company in Santa Monica. They contacted me through the CelticArtsCenter in Los Angeles. They wanted me to write a Welsh song for the promotional video they were making. We took a contemporary Welsh song, “Lament” by a group called Light of Aiden, Gave it a more martial sound and released it with the video. I spent a day in the studio refining the lyrics I wrote and coaching the vocalist on pronunciation. Not that she needed much help Kathy Fisher is amazingly talented and picked it up immediately. The video went viral on You Tube and continues to be my most read Hub. My third most popular is a Hub I wrote on “Lament” and the group Light of Aiden. It attracted a lot of attention because of Halo and I was deeply gratified at the comment I received from Daniel.

“Lament” is my third, my second most popular is the one I wrote about swear words. I still am in a state of shock about that. That Hub is fast catching up with Halo in overall views. I wrote it as a fun thing to do when the weekly Hubmob was all about things English. It seems there is a lot more interest in cursing than I expected.

So now I begin my second year. It occurs to me that perhaps I should sell my soul to the Gods of commercialism and write purely for money. I think I know enough and I’ve certainly gleaned a great deal of free information. Mark Knowles once gave me the sage advice; “Don’t spend a dime until you know what you are doing.” I’ve followed that advice and I still don’t intend to spend in order to make. The gurus at Hubpages have shown me that there’s more real information here for free than I can get spending thousands of dollars on books. So my plan for the next twelve months is to open a second account and write for the money and see how well I do. I wonder what I will write at the end of the next twelve months.