HubPages The 365/365 Hub Challenge: I Did It How About You?

I began on HubPages on January 6, 2012. I actually signed up on the 3^rd and wrote my first Hub on the 6^th, for those of you who are into exact details. I believe I wrote ten Hubs before a rare snowstorm hit the Pacific Northwest and we lost our power for seven days, at which time my Hub production went down the toilet.

Shortly after the restoration of our power, I saw a Hub that talked about the 30/30 Challenge; in other words, write thirty Hubs in thirty days. Well that seemed doable, since writing was my full-time job, so I decided to give it a go.

I finished that task and then looked around for more challenges. Finding none I decided to make my own challenge; thus was born the 365/365 Challenge. I decided in late January of last year that I would write 365 Hubs before my one year anniversary, and I am quite pleased to report that I have done exactly that.

Here are the cold, hard numbers that I accumulated over the span of one year on HP:

· 365 Hubs

· 133,737 Views

· 1,231 Followers

· 29,646 Comments

· 1 Poem

· 364 Prose

· 1,300 Average Words Per Hub

Well, the easy answer is because I am a writer, and writers write! I love to write. I have a passion for writing. I also believe that the more you write the more you improve your craft, and since I had the time there was no possible excuse for me not writing.

Having read several Hubs about HubPages, I also knew that in order to make passive income, one had to have a body of work, and that work had to hang around the internet for a number of months, in order for one to make any money on HP. Since I had the time and desire, I decided to make my body of work as large as possible in one year.

It should also be noted that I love to challenge myself. I enjoy focusing on a goal, and I really enjoy meeting that goal. I get a feeling of accomplishment when I meet goals, so this particular goal was not as far out as one might think.

The only real difficulty that I had was in making sure that each and every Hub was of high quality; that it was worthy of publishing. My Hubs are a reflection of who I am, as a writer and as a human being, and as such I wanted them to meet my own high standards.

There are only two Hubs that I really am not proud of, and those were the first two that I wrote. Of course, I could go back and re-write those, but I prefer to keep them around as a reminder of sloppy work that is unacceptable.

Did I make any money? Well yes, as a matter of fact, I did make money. I received my first payout after four months, and have received a steady passive income since, but nowhere near the kind of money some people on HP are making. Truthfully, the kind of money I make on HubPages in no way justifies the amount of time I spend on HP, and that can be best understood by looking at the types of Hubs that I write.

While it is suggested that writers on HP write “evergreen” Hubs, I have chosen, for the most part, to write social commentaries, or homespun ramblings about life. Believe me when I tell you that this is not a recipe for instant riches and fame.

On the other hand, this is the type of writing I prefer, and it is my voice at its best, and I choose not to change at this time. With each piece that I write I add to my portfolio, and hopefully, some day, someone out there will care enough about what I write that they will pay me decent money for it.

In the meantime, I am raising social awareness about topics that are important to me, and I refuse to compromise those standards just to make an extra $50 per month.

Well, I’m not leaving HubPages so you can set that concern aside. I do, however, need to spend more time promoting my work. For one year I have built my portfolio; now it is time to see if I can get someone interested in that portfolio. In other words, it is time for self-marketing.

I will keep writing on HubPages, and I will keep supporting my many friends, but I cannot spend as much time on that site as I did in 2012. It is time to shift my priorities a bit. In 2012 I spent 90% of my time writing and supporting others, and 10% of my time promoting my writing. Now I need to see if I can make that closer to a 50/50 split. Maybe instead of seven Hubs per week I’ll do three or four per week, and the rest of my time will be spent getting my work out there for more to see.

HubPages and writing are my comfort zones; promoting is not! Since I enjoy a challenge, I need to step out of my comfort zones and push myself to do that which I do not enjoy.

I also need to devote more time to promoting H.O.W., an organization/movement we began to promote making a difference in this world. It is important to me and I want to give it the time it deserves.

Can you do it? Do you want to do it? 365 articles in one calendar year requires a bit of doggedness, and also a bit of tunnel-vision. It is not for everyone! I know of one writer who I am quite certain has done this and that is Austinstar on HubPages. There is one other writer, Karen Hellier on HP, who is about to finish the challenge. I’m sure there are others but I am not aware of them.

How about you? Do you think you can meet the challenge?

I know for a fact that it has made me a better writer. Meeting this challenge has forced me to take my craft seriously, and for that I am grateful.

Now it is time for a new challenge, and I’m looking forward to that as well.

Thank you, all of you, for a great year on HubPages. I may not have made much money over my first year, but I more than made up for it in the friendships I gained, and those friendships will last a lifetime. What is the value of those friendships? Priceless!

2013 William D. Holland (aka billybuc)