Hubpages: Suggestions and Tips for Success

I have written over 160 Hubs to date, and I have a confession to make. I was not diligent in learning all I could about Hubpages and marketing my writing in the beginning. In fact, following statistics, watching my traffic and fretting over earnings was not even a priority until my second year. I was busy doing ‘pay-per-piece’ content writing and didn’t take the idea of making money with Hubpages seriously.

When I started to prioritize it, I humbled myself to learn a little bit more about Hubpages and about marketing the hubs I had written. There was still resistance to the learning process, though, so for a while everything just creaked along. I hit my 10,000 views marker sometime in the beginning of my second year, and right around this time something else happened; I reached absolute burnout with writing content for other people.

Suddenly, I realized I wanted to turn my HP pennies into HP dollars. I had to make it work or be stuck in the anonymity of piecework for others. This was when all the walls started to crumble. I was ready to learn and discover the missing pieces.

Here are the steps I took:

1.) Confirm there is money to be made.

Yes, there are many testimonials to demonstrate earnings potential here at HP, but I was skeptical. I needed to convince myself that it was being done. It seemed that only a scant few were doing ‘well’ and the rest were either not able to make it work or were working too hard for pennies.

As I found out, both of these were true, but if you look at any industry you will find the same pattern. It is Pareto’s Principle, the 80/20 rule. It states that 80 percent of the results come from 20 percent of the efforts. Or, 80 percent of the success comes from 20 percent of the people doing the thing in question. These days, the 90/10 principle may be more appropriate, but the idea is the same.

It was time to set skepticism aside, however. In the end I would only know if I employed similar strategies as these successful people and learned all I could about Hubpages. Besides, I was making some money, so it seemed the real issue was trusting myself.

2.) Review Successful People/ Review Hubpages Tips.

This is an important step. The successful people here at HP have no problem writing about their success and the techniques they used to become successful. There is an abundance of well written information on HP, so this was an obvious and overdue step.

Great hubs and hubbers do not always spell out everything for you, but by studying a few of their hubs, you can learn a lot. Notice the overall style of a hub. Many successful hubbers consistently use maps, polls, and extensive linking and resource sections relating to the hub. Others, take extra time to find legally usable, original images with specific ties to the hub’s content.

All of the most successful hubbers cover the subject with an introduction, 3+ paragraphs with subheadings and a strong closing section. They all use good English, proper grammar and spelling.

These steps are covered even by people who claim that good writing doesn’t pay the bills, with few exceptions.

Quality is important. While a popular entertaining subject with shocking photos may grab attention in the short term; useful, timeless, and thoroughly informative articles stand the test of time. If they are entertaining and cover an exciting topic, all the better.

3.) Believe in Social Media

Embracing social media does not have to mean bombarding your friends and family with every hub you have ever written. If you find a gem, send it to your friends and family. Otherwise, use services like Stumbleupon. Shetoldme, Digg, Redgage, Redditt, SocialMonkee, Pinterest and so on.

Sharing with these networks can increase traffic exponentially, and it is so easy to do. Simply sign up for an account, then make it a habit to share with these networks every time you publish.

4.) Send your hubs to rehab.

Look back on your hubs from time to time. If you are like me, your first hubs were not your best, even if you thought they were at the time! As you peruse the oldies (or any for that matter,) ask yourself:

-Can I add something to this to make it complete? Better?

-Did I cover this subject well enough to look like an authority?

-Are my images out-of-date? Are there better images for this subject matter?

-Is the information in this hub up-to-date? Does it need an upgrade?

An easy way to identify those hubs most in need of help is to take a look at your stats. Start with the one that has had the least views over the longest period of time. Do some keyword research on the subject matter, and go over every hub using the HubPages title tuner.

5.) Use the Google Keyword Tool (or similar) every time.

This is such a simple step, and should be done for every hub you write. It takes less than five minutes to pull up several, not one or two, but several keyword search terms that apply to what you are writing. Look for low to medium competition keywords that have a relatively low search volume. For me, less than 1,500 is too low and more than 20,000 is too high; but this is just my general guideline. I have had hubs do well and break these rules.

These are some personal habits I sometimes implement when writing. I do not do all of these, all of the time. In fact, there are times when too much review or reflection will alter the message or tone of what I am writing. The only step I do every time is to edit for spelling and grammar. Every time.

1.) Selectively post to friends and family networks; but post

For a couple of years (and before HP) I have had a blog. I used to post every blog entry on Facebook, much in the way I might post a photo or a funny video today.

When I started trying to make money online, I felt guilty doing this and stopped completely. Deep down I probably knew that my efforts were amateurish and intrusive.

When I stopped doing that, I lost a lot of traffic, and pennies a day turned into pennies once in a while. This wasn’t necessary. Instead, I could have applied the same Hubpages techniques to my blogger account, and not been ashamed to post something once in a while.

Note that last part, ‘once in a while.’ Unless you have a separate business page, posting everything you to your Facebook wall every time might get old for your social network. To avoid becoming white noise, instead of throwing up an article everyday, pick a favorite to post once a week. This brings me to the next tip.

2.) Write and illustrate articles you would not be ashamed to show to everyone you know. Be that good, every time.

My first attempts to earn money online were with affiliate marketing. Adsense and Amazon were still a mystery to me, and it seemed like dumb luck had as much to do with making money this way as anything. Instead I wanted the big bucks! Affiliate marketing, yeah!

Well, I had some sales early on and it was indeed better than waiting for pennies to add up.

However, the sales game took over and it was not long before I was just another guy writing unadulterated pitches for their product on the internet. Sales died, and I realized I had made those original sales not because I was a great pitchman, but because I had earned the trust of a few readers.

Being honest and straightforward in my demonstration and assessment of the product, while remaining true to my blog’s theme, is what had won them over.

In the meantime, I had stopped sharing my blog through social media outlets because I didn’t want to be a pushy salesman to people who knew me.

Then I realized, ‘If I write something interesting and entertaining enough that I wouldn’t be ashamed to show it to my friends and family, it will be good enough for faceless visitors as well.’ After all, what are friends and family besides a microcosm of people everywhere? Once I returned to writing for my niche, not for my product, I noticed more interest in my blog again.

The same is true on hubpages. Blatant sales pitches do not work here. If the subject is interesting, and the hub is useful and well-written, it has a greater chance of success.

3.) Let an article marinate overnight.

When you have written something you are really excited about, you can’t wait to get it out there! It’s exciting to see how it will be received, to read comments on your work. You have created something and you are proud of it!

The next time you write a hub you are excited to publish, try waiting a day before publishing it. I’m not talking about a first draft. I mean write a final draft, get your hub ready to publish, then stop. Wait until the next day, take another look at it with fresh eyes. Ask yourself:

-is this as interesting as I thought?

-If it is not, what does it need? Photos? A map? An extra section?

-Is the information accurate? (Very important. Use more than internet sources.)

-Does it read easily? Does it flow? (Grammar and spelling too, of course.)

-Does it have too many words? (Stephen King said that you should be able to chop 10% off of any writing. Have someone do it for you if necessary.)

-What is my marketing strategy? Know which networks you will share it with before you publish. Need to sign up for shetoldme, redgage or stumbleupon? Do it before you publish so you are ready.

When you have done all of this, then publish. Sure you can go back later and fix up your hubs, but why not do it right the first time?

4.) Start an ideas folder.

When I was writing website content, I sometimes had 50-70 orders to complete in two weeks. A technique that helped me write faster, without sacrificing quality, was to start several articles at once and store them in a separate file on my hard drive.

This is easy to do when you are writing on similar topics. I simply did a small amount of research on the specific article topic, wrote an introduction paragraph and sometimes a short outline. This took about five to ten minutes and made completing the article later much easier, and faster.

I have a similar technique with Hubpages. Whenever I get a hub idea, I email my gmail account. As I write this I have two or three emails with hub ideas and notes about improving existing hubs. The idea might come from a forum question, a news story, or a sudden desire to write about something I am interested in. I type it out, sometimes with a short outline or intro paragraph and send it. Now I won’t forget it!

Summing up the key points for writing success on hubpages:

1.) Believe. Believe it is possible, and don't give up.

2.) Have excellent English grammar and vocabulary. Edit or have someone edit every time.

3.) Learn the Hubpages rules, follow their tips and suggestions.

4.) Study successful hubber's techniques.

5.) Do good research on keywords and subject matter.

6.) Use social media sparingly, and sign up for social news sites like Digg, Shetoldme, and Stumbleupon.

7.) Review and rehabilitate older hubs. Use the tools and gadgets made available by hubpages.

8.) Work hard. Think of this as a business.

There is a lot of information available on how to get the most out of Hubpages, so take full advantage of it. Try the methods listed above, and discover what works best for you. More than anything, believe in your efforts. It’s for real, but it takes a lot of work to be successful. Start counting yourself among the top 10 or 20 percent today!

If you found this hub useful, do take the time to:

-Vote it up

-Share it with your networks

-Leave me a comment or suggestion.

Thanks!