The Law of Nines, and My Nine Year Anniversary on HubPages.
In numerology number 9 has the qualities of all the numbers 1-8. If you add 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8 you get 36 and if you add 3+6 you get 9. Number 9 is highly emotional and spiritual.
Nine-Year Anniversary on the HubPages Network
Recently I was surprised to receive an email from HubPages which said as follows:
"Hi Jodah,
You have hit a pretty impressive milestone—your Nine-Year Anniversary on the HubPages Network! Thanks for gracing us with your creativity and unique perspective these past nine years. HubPages wouldn't be the same without you. Happy Hubbiversary!
Fun fact: Nine-year anniversaries are frequently celebrated with gifts of pottery. If you decide to celebrate by making a cool clay pot for your garden, or by buying a decorative bowl for your kitchen, be sure to write a how-to or review article about it!"
Well, I knew nine years must have been approaching but I'm always amazed at how fast time moves. Anyway, thank you for the suggestion HubPages, but I am not a potter, unfortunately, and though I may consider purchasing a decorative bowl for the kitchen I don't think I will be writing an article about it. Instead, I chose to write this article celebrating the nine-years here, so I hope that will suffice.
My Early Years at HubPages
I joined HubPages on 9th October 2009 and published my first hub on that day How to Become Self-Sufficient (or as Close as Possible). I had no followers at this stage and knew no one in the community so I thought of this simply as a place Online where I could store things I have written instead of having piles of full notebooks cluttering up my desk and office.
I think I had one comment on that hub the first year and a total of four after two years :) In fact, I didn't publish my second hub until more than a year later on 31st December 2010: Ways to Win (a Simple Numbers System to Help Beat the Bookmaker).
This was followed a few months later by my first poetry hub The Valentine Tree - a Poem for Valentines Day. This hub also only had one comment until five years ago when a wonderful lady named Nellieanna Hay stumbled across it. Well, the rest is history as Nellieanna began to read my work and encourage me to write more. She gave me tips about how to use HubPages and introduced other hubbers to my writing, as well as welcoming me into the community.
Getting Addicted
So after a very slow start, and due to Nellieanna's encouragement, I began to write new content as well as resurrect stuff I had written years before, allowed only my closest family to read, and filed away in my archives. In 2013 I published 54 hubs, an average of one per week.
Now I was becoming addicted. I was starting to get readers and comments and meeting wonderful people from all over the world. I was starting to realize my dream that I may be able to soon call myself a writer. Admittedly I do look back on some of my early work and cringe a little, but usually, with a little editing I can improve it and make it a passable read.
Then in 2014, I wrote an incredible, for me, 113 hubs. and was humbled to receive the accolade as Poet of the Year, voted by my peers, in the annual Hubby Awards.
At this time we had a few more features available to us then we do today. There was the ability to vote hubs up or down, funny, informative etc. There were also accolades like Hub of the Day and Editor's Choice, which have all now been discontinued. Anyway, winning a Hubby award meant more to me than the others because they were chosen by other hubbers and not the administration. Who couldn't be inspired by the wonderful community here?
Community, and Sense of Belonging
Many people are attracted to HubPages as a place to write articles on popular topics that will be read by thousands and generate a nice income with the help of the ad programs, Amazon sales etc. I, however, was a member for four years before I even signed up to Adsense. I was just looking for a place on the Internet where I could store my writing, and act as my portfolio if you like.
I admit now, that since the introduction of the niche sites my views and monthly income has tripled from what it was previously, and that is a nice positive, so I am in no way begrudging people whose main aim here is to make money. I am just saying that was not, and is not my predominant reason for writing here.
Personally, the best thing about HubPages is the community. I find this a much better and supportive environment than any of the social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. I guess that is chiefly because most of us have something in common, we are writers and lovers of the written word.
I have now written 354 articles and could count on one hand the number of negative comments I have had. So to all my followers, and those who take the time to read what I write, and comment, a big thank you. I can't start mentioning people here who inspire and encourage me continually or I'll never stop and I would be bound to miss a few, and I don't want that.
Suffice to say I have gotten to know a lot of fellow writers here that I now am proud to call friends. You know who you are. Nowhere else on the Internet gives me such a sense of belonging as HubPages.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Well, I have already listed most of the positives as I see them.
- community
- online portfolio
- source of income
- niche sites
- ease of use
It is also a good place to have your work critiqued if that's what you are looking for. Just invite readers to give you feedback and critique your articles, either in comments or via email. Otherwise, post a link to your hub in the relevant forum and ask for help on improving it.
Cons
- HP has not always been supportive of poetry, fiction, and creative writing (having LetterPile as a niche site has somewhat changed that)
- Forums can sometimes be unwelcoming and become abusive
- Placement of advertisements can detract from the appearance of an article or be irrelevant
- Changes are sometimes difficult to adapt to (though most are probably to ensure the site's flexibility and resilience where many other content sites have failed)
- No longer allowing links to other articles in a series etc.
- The abolition of voting system on hubs
On the Fence
- HubPro
- Editbots (seemed to correct mainly grammar and typos in comments and, then, not always correctly)
- The name of some niche sites and the categories grouped together within them
- Joining the Maven group
The Number Nine - Nine Popular Idioms
- "To go the whole nine yards"
- "Working 9 to 5"
- "A cat has nine lives"
- "On cloud nine" means happy, euphoric or 'high'.
- "A stitch in time saves nine"
- "Found true 9 out of 10 times"
- "Possession is nine-tenths of the law"
- The word "K-9" pronounces the same as canine and is used in many police departments (world-wide)to denote the police dog unit.
- Dressed "to the nines" is dressed up as stylishly as possible.
Nine Cool Facts About Number Nine
- Rounders and baseball are all played with teams of nine players.
- A game of squash is won by scoring nine points.
- Golf courses often have nine holes.
- The expression to the nines means to the highest degree.
- Redivider with nine letters is the longest palindromic word in the English language. A palindromic word reads the same backwards or forwards.
- Only about one-ninth of an iceberg is visible above the water. Nearly all its bulk remains hidden beneath the surface.
- There are nine major planets in the solar system
- Beethoven wrote nine symphonies
- In French the word neuf means both nine and new.
Off the Shelf
With the length of this hub/article you, the reader were probably not expecting it to be part of my Off the Shelf series ... but I assure you it is. I was originally also going to write a poem to include but due to the length of the article, I decided against that.
This article was inspired by the title of the novel The Law of Nines by Terry Goodkind.
Here is an excerpt:
"Your mother was twenty-seven years old when it came to her. Now you're twenty-seven, and it's come to you."
The skin on Alex's arms tingled with goosebumps. By her twenty-seventh birthday insanity had come to his mother...
The Law of Nines is quite an epic novel in length at 502 pages but is a riveting read.
Terry Goodkind is an American writer. He is known for the epic fantasy series The Sword of Truth as well as the suspense novel The Law of Nines (2009), which has ties to his fantasy series. The Sword of Truth series sold 25 million copies worldwide and was translated into more than 20 languages and turned into a TV series called The Legend of the Seeker. (source: Wikipedia)
© 2018 John Hansen
Comments
John
Belated congratulations.
Wow! Nine years already! You have shared many hubs in that time and I have enjoyed reading your work.
I think the number 9 is cool; the law of nines is quite spooky! You've covered lots of aspects of it as well as telling us about your progress on HP.
Congratulations on your 9th anniversary, John! You've certainly written many great hubs in that time and this is no exception. Your writing covers such a large range and is always entertaining and well-written.
Here's looking forward to reading your hubs for the next 9 years!
Ann
Congratulations on your nine successful years on HubPages! I enjoy reading your interesting and enjoyable articles. In spite of all the changes here, the community of friends still exists to inspire each of us.
Hats off to you...keep on writing, John. I am not here as often as I would like but try to visit you as often as possible. The tidbits about 9 are fascinating to me. It is very interesting to read of your journey. Your voice calls out to me as I read your works. As I have said to a few others, when your writing causes me to read on, it's a hit with me. Angels on the way this morning. ps
John, I would love to see you write more about Australia. I'm reading a really good fiction about some folks who immigrated from England to Australia in the 1920s. Speaking of the occult, I've been thinking about reincarnating my next life in Australia. I just may do it. LOL
Congratulations! I joined about the same time as you, and I miss the features you mentioned as well. They drew the community together. Also miss being able to share hubs I particularly like. That feature helped us find the better hubs out of so many in the feed.
Keep writing. You are a writer.
Congratulations, Bro. I'm close behind you, perhaps.
You seem occultic too. You're into numerology? Lol.
Well, Bro. HP looks after its own interest and then tries to accommodate us, but I know what you mean. I have long since felt that they should have some really cool poetry categories and prizes: the romantic, the esoteric, modern traditional or exquisite … sonnets and Haiku's and so forth Other things to keep them busy, I suppose.
I like your idioms and the holding hands reminds me of Bill's Humanity One World. Have a great day. Enjoy!!
Congratulations on your nine years and impressive portfolio of hubs. Creative writing probably will never make as much money as other hubs, but does enrich Hubpages, adds a further dimension and attracts a different community of writers. Hope the next nine years are just as fruitful
Happy Hubbiversary! You are among my favorite poets on HubPages! Thanks for revealing the importance of nine. Thanks for so many other facts I have learned from you. Best going forward to the next nine!
”Jiu Tian/ 九天” means nine heavens. Nine heavens means boundless heaven or universe.
Congratulations!
Congratulations on achieving this wonderful milestone John Hansen!
Honestly, you are an asset to the HubPages community and I feel honoured to be your friend.
This is a great article, which highlights the pros, cons and other details of the HubPages. I agree with your thoughts and observations about HP.
Regarding number 9 —You have provided some interesting facts and details. Some of it, I was aware of, but thanks for educating me further.
Number 9 is considered auspicious in Hinduism. It signifies wisdom and is believed to have the characteristics of all the numbers from 1 to 8.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful article. It was indeed a pleasure going through the details.
Once again my heartiest congratulations and wish you all the best for the future as well.
Wow! Jodah, you're a real "old Timer" here!! LOL Congratulations! I wish you 9 years more, send you 9 hugs and thank you for all the inspiration, dedication and entertainment! Peace, Paula
John, first, congrats on nine years. Wow!
Secondly, the ending to this wonderful trip down HP evolution was such a surprise. Brilliant weave to a tale well-spun my friend!
I see the first article you posted on HP now has over 80 comments. It's nice to see the oldies goldies don't die, huh?
What a milestone but also what an achievement. You were very productive in your last 9 years and they are articles and poems worth reading. I appreciate your being part of the community.
John, congratulations, you've been here longer than I have, although it took me several years to find you. I'm so glad I did. I guess it took awhile because I'm not big into poetry. I say all the time, "I'm not a poet and I know it." But someone has to have that talent, and you really do. I do enjoy reading yours. I also enjoy reading anything anyone on HP writes about Australia.
I salute you and I hope you are here for 9 x 9 more years, my fine friend.
Thanks for the history and your presence here on HubPages. God bless you.
Congratulations, John, on your 9th Hubbiversary.
A good article on number 9. I regard 9 as an auspicious number. And, now we are celebrating the Navratri that is for 9 days worshiping Goddess Durga in 9 forms (one on each day).
We celebrate one more Navratri that starts with the first day of Spring and culminates with the birth of Lord Rama on the 9th day (which also happens to be his marriage day as well as his coronation day in subsequent years) as per our Hindu faith.
I am very happy to be associated with you since 2014.
Interesting article, John; I am a Number 9 under Numerology, and so I can appreciate the significance of this piece. I have kept a diary of my life since age 12, (now almost 58) and I always read the last diary of 9 years previously, one day at a time, from January 1 to December 31. I find that there are often some stunning 'correspondences' of repeated things coming up in my life. Our lives run in spirals, and I believe we repeat 'history' in our personal lives and in the greater world, in such cycles. Thanks for this reminder! Best wishes, Steve.
Congratulations John!!! I found wisdom with your article! Thank you and thank you for sharing your experience.
I will always thank HubPages that I found you and can call you brother, my dear friend John "9 fine years gone, 99 more to come" Hansen! Proud of you!
9 is a Godly number! In my youth, when I played basketball in my town team, I used number 9!
9 times 9 to be the brilliant ideas you'll have every 9 days!
Sean
PS: I missed the poem! Ha! Ha!
Congrats. You have done good work here.
Congratulations for the 9 years...it's a pretty long time! I have also felt that HP is not that supportive of poetry and that's the reason I removed all my poems from here and reposted them on my own blog. Can't really comment if letterpile has changed it as I no longer post any poems here.
Wow, you've been around longer than I have. That makes you an old man at HP! lol Congratulations I guess...I know I, for one, am happy you are here.
Congratulations on your 9 years on hub pages. As always, you have found a way to make even a boilerplate email from the Hub powers that be the inspiration for an informative, entertaining article.
I agree with your pros and cons (oh those niche sites! I love mine but what a strange amalgam
I hope you have a wonderful day.
Aren't we supposed to party like it is 1999. I hope to be hanging here on your 99th. My favorite thing about 9's are the multiplications. Nine x's 9 is 8+1 81. x's 3 is 2+7 27. x" 5 is 4+5 45. But then again I have an 8 year old and he is starting to think of being nine.
It has been my pleasure to have known you for much of your time here. As a last question -- Didn't seargant Shultz yell Nine all the time?
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