Professional Development for Hubbers

While writing and publishing on HubPages is free and easy to do, earning money from such publishing, on HubPages or other websites, is neither free nor easy.

By using the term neither free I am trying to get across the point that there is a cost to success and this cost can take the form of having to invest time, effort and even cash to learn both the necessary writing skills as well as other aspects of publishing and marketing on the web.

There is zero financial cost to using HubPages to publish one’s work and no cost to sign up for the HubPage ad program, Google Adsense program and the Amazon ad program.

However, to make money publishing on HubPages and other sites one not only has to know how to write but also know what topics people want to read.

No matter how good one’s writing is technically, if readers don’t want to come and read it there will be no one to click on the ads and the writer will not make any money.

A final thing to consider is that there is no guarantee that even good writers who write what people want will be able to attract readers as there are literally millions of other good writers also publishing on the web.

In addition to producing quality writing on topics people want, a writer also has to know how to market and let the world know that their articles are available for reading.

Now, before aspiring Hubbers give up in despair following my, admittedly depressing, opening paragraphs, let me say that the good news that follows in this bad news / good news Hub far outweighs the bad news above.

In fact, rather than a barrier to achieving one’s dreams of success on HubPages, the paragraphs above should be viewed as a small speed bump intended to get one to slow down and consider the wealth of resources available to help writers become successful on HubPages and other sites.

Training and education can enable one to overcome the barriers to the writing success that I described above. Even lack of talent can be overcome to some extent by training and education.

However, training doesn’t mean that one has to spend a small fortune and devote the next few years of his or her life getting a college degree in writing.

There is an easier way and it is free.

In the remainder of this Hub I will describe the large and continually growing body of free training available to anyone who visits HubPages regardless of whether they join.

And, while it is the hope of both the HubPage management and individual Hubbers that visitors will see the advantages of applying what they learn from the free writing and web publishing training offered on HubPages by joining the community and publishing themselves, being a member of the HubPage Community (membership is also free) is not required.

Anyone can freely partake of this training and use it anywhere even as a means of obtaining writing skills that will help one produce better written work in their present off line career.

The best place for anyone to start their learning and improvement process is the HubPages Learning Center.

To get to the Learning Center simply go to the bottom of any page on the HubPages site and, in the grey bar at the very bottom of the page, point to the words Learning Center and click it with your mouse.

In here you will find a well organized list of topics which is continually growing and with which anyone, from a newbie who has never written an article to an experienced and successful online writer, will find useful information.

While the focus and intent is to help Hubbers improve their online writing, much of the information is applicable to other online writing or even writing for traditional media.

The HubPages Blog is another place to gleen useful information. In addition to clicking the link at the left, you can currently find links to new blog posts on the HubPages homepage in the middle of the right column under the heading RECENT BLOG POSTS.

The blog is written by the HubPages staff and contains a mix of useful information including announcements of new features and other changes in the site.

I have found the blog especially helpful in trying to keep up with the changes and challenges that have occurred since the massive upheavals that have occurred following Google’s Panda Algorithm update this past February.

While I don’t make a point of reading all of the blog posts, every time I log on to HubPages I do glance at the Recent Blog Posts section of the homepage to see what, if any, new items have been posted.

Among other things that can be found on the HubPages blog is a growing series of short podcasts on different aspects of writing.

While these appear on the blog along with other posts in the order in which they were posted, you can also get a chronological list of just the podcasts by clicking on this link http://blog.hubpages.com/index.php?s=online+writing+insider&t=blog.

I have started listening to these podcasts regularly and have found them to be helpful in my writing.

For those who are members of the HubPages Community, HubPages provides the option to receive a weekly email newsletter appropriately titled HubPages Weekly.

This newsletter is sent to members of HubPages who have checked the first box (which reads Allow HubPages to contact you) in the Edit Email Settings section of their profile.
In addition to other correspondence from HubPages, checking this box will also result in your receiving the HubPages Weekly.

HubPages Weekly provides a quick update on the traffic to your Hub during the past week.
This is followed by a very short article that usually either announces a new feature or policy from HubPages or a new suggestion for getting more traffic to your Hubs.
The rest of the issue is an interview with a Hubber and then some other updates or news.

I can generally get the gist of the important (to me) points with a 30 second glance at the newsletter but sometimes take 3 to 4 minutes and read the entire issue.

While short, as well as quick and easy, to read and digest, the HubPages Weekly is a good example of one form of an ongoing personal professional development process and that is simply finding ways to keep up with what is going on in your chosen profession.

I don’t mean to minimize the importance of longer and more formal training which is also very important. But, like a diet or exercise program, small things also count and should be included as part of one’s professional development.

While HubPages is a great platform for writers and aspiring writers to publish their work, it is more than that.

HubPages is also a great community of writers.

Unlike traditional media where writers often find themselves competing with others for limited publishing space, this is not a problem on HubPages.

This is not the case with HubPages as I have found it to be a very supportive community with many members, including me, frequently publishing Hubs explaining how to emulate techniques and tactics that have helped them to be successful on the site.

A good place to begin looking for these Hubs is on the HubPages Tutorials and Community At the top of the HubPages homepage click on the All Topics link which is found a the end of the list of Popular Topics. Simply click on words HubPages Tutorials and Community and you will be taken directly to a page listing links for Hubs providing writing advice and instructions for a range of topics.

Professional development is an ongoing process of continually keeping up to date with one’s profession as well as learning new ways to do your chosen job better and more efficiently.

Anyone who has ever advanced and moved ahead in a job or career has done this in part by increasing and improving their skills.

In addition to getting ahead in our careers, professional development is also necessary to both prepare us for change, which is always occurring, as well as helping us to survive professionally when we are hit with sudden and unexpected change.

Google’s massive Panda Algorithm change a while back forced all of us on HubPages to choose between giving up or working to learn how to survive in the new search environment. Those of us who survived the Panda Algorithm did so by studying and learning the new environment and then adapting.