The A-Z of hubpages (A-C)

When I first joined hubpages, just over a year ago (at time of writing), I have to admit when I did so, I had very little expectation. I had been an enthusiastic writer for some time, but was completely new to the concept of sharing my work and I was eager for some exposure. I just wanted to get my work published for people to read, whether it happened to be online or in print, I was hoping for some feedback (to see if, in fact I was actually as good at it as I thought) and I wanted to use this platform to practice the craft that I had desired to pursue for many years, only now rather more seriously.

I was also a fairly new Internet user at the time, I had not long had an email address and was still a little baffled as to what I was to do with it, I had recently invested in a new computer of which had more functions then you could shake a stick at, and I was now a surfer at the mercy of the super information highway. It was as confusing as it was exciting, I had this whole new universe at my fingertips, millions of wonderful sites just waiting to be explored, all from a single click, I was amazed.

After I spent copious amounts of time online figuring things out, I finally got round to buying and selling some stuff on eBay, (even though it was a bit of a challenge as I didn't have a land line,) I roamed amazon, played some games and took a look at some social networking sites, I eventually found hubpages and decided it was a place I wanted to be part of, I signed up, published a hub and then for four whole months, I did absolutely nothing else here.

After the four long months of inactivity I received an email from the nice people of hubpages informing me of the 30 day challenge and in my infinite wisdom, decided to give it a shot. I failed spectacularly, not even managing 10! But that did not matter in the slightest as I had not as first assumed failed, but had begun to succeed.

After I took the time to look around the site and discover how this writing and money making medium worked, things soon started to pick up for me. With in a year I had hit a number of milestones, without even realising.

• 10,000 views,
• 300 followers,
• 1000 comments,
• a 100 hubber score,
• Payout!
  

I have achieved far more from hubpages then I could have imagined. (Yes I know I'm gushing.) However as I am now the proud recipient of a check for all my hard work, I have realized I had underestimated hubpages and all it's potential. I am not unique in this respect either, if you put the work in and have a little patience, readership and earnings will follow. Here is my alphabetical rundown of hubpages and a few of the things I have learnt since I have been here, I hope you find it useful and wishing you all the best of luck with your hubpages journey.

AdSense; Is googles' magic system that is one of the ways that allows us to earn through our hubs, when someone clicks on an add that has been featured on your hub, and it is on your 60% of display time, you get the value of that ad click. However do not click on your own ads or anyone else's in the misguided attempted of trying to make them or yourself money. This may well land you and them in trouble and could result in both of you losing your accounts. Similarly make sure that you have signed up for an AdSense account, because if you don't have an AdSense account you can't earn any money from the ads shown on anything you write.

Amazon; No not the river, the website. By placing related amazon products on your hubs, you can earn a percentage of commission, from any products that are bought from amazon via one of your links on one of your pages. I have yet to master this and as of this moment have exactly $0.43 in amazon earnings, however do not let this deter you, many other hubbers make good money from amazon. I would also like to reiterate what I said about making sure you have signed up for an amazon account, because again if you do not have an account you can not make money.

Avatars; Even online your appearance can be important, your avatar can help or hinder you. I have fiddled around with mine a few times, depending on when you're reading this it could be a cartoon character, one of my random photos or if your lucky actually the real me! Be aware that if your avatar is seen as rude or offencive, your profile will probably get flagged pretty quickly, because this is after all,a family friendly site.

Back-linking; There is some mixed feelings amongst hubbers on this issue, some have not felt the need to back link any of their hubs and for them it has not been a problem, they still achieve good page rank and get lots of traffic. However there are then those that back link religiously and feel it pays of hugely. Personally I'm an inbetweener, if I have a hub with lots of high paying keywords in it, I will back link it fairly generously as I find the extra traffic pays off. The rest I leave to the fate of time and the search engines and actually in time I find that they get pretty good, regular traffic all by themselves. Well that's all very well but what exactly is back linking anyway? Well a back link is a link that leads back to one of your hubs. Like this. (14 tips to help your child eat more healthily)

You do this by highlighting a word or sentence relating to your hub and adding the hubs URL, on hubpages you can add a quick link or a link capsule, which also shows your hub summery or a selection of your text.

Comments; Mostly these come in the form of nice, positive supportive words of kindness and encouragement, however there will also be unfortunate, maybe even uneasy times when people leave something less welcoming. In times such as these there are the wonderful buttons you can use to deny and delete, a simple no nonsense solution. It is also good for you and the hubpages community for you to write the odd comment on someones hub, if you like what you've read, let them know, it will make their day.

Community; Hubpages has a great, very active and loyal community. Full of diverse, talented and mostly like minded people. Intelligent, friendly writers who for the most part will do their up most to help a fellow hubber out. I am very comfortable here and have received some very useful advice and much appreciated assistance, I also very much enjoy reading the interesting and varied work of fellow hubbers.

Challenges; The 30 day challenge is probably the most participated in by hubbers, the challenge is to write thirty hubs in thirty days. It is not a competition and there is no closing date or prize, however there are many benefits in undertaking this challenge. One is that you get used to writing on a regular basis and as with anything the more you practice the better you get, this is especially helpful for new writers. The other major payoff for the challenge is a build up of hubs, usually resulting in more traffic and the potential to earn more money, which is always nice. There is also a thread dedicated to this challenge in the forum, for a bit of extra support and advice. The other challenge is to write one hundred hubs in thirty days, which is honestly beyond me, however many dedicated and talented hubbers have achieved it, it can be done. I have yet to finish a challenge, however I am not beat yet and will attempt another one again soon.

Competitions; These are run every so often on the site and do harbour prizes for winners. I have participated in a few, but as yet have not created anything prize winning. However again I am undeterred and will certainly keep giving them a go. It is free to enter, there are many opportunities to win and even if you don't win, the hubs you publish for the competition may still earn you money!

Well I hope this first instalment of the A-Z of hubpages has been useful, I am off to work on part two and hopefully I will see you then.