The Value of New Writers - Why Older Hubbers Should Check Out the Newbies on HubPages

Okay, so I’ve been on HubPages for nearly a year now. I’ve read a ton, learned more than I knew I didn’t know, and have written more than I ever thought possible. I was a scared newbie once, someone who had no clue, someone who had just heard about HubPages, who checked it out but was scared to death to actually get started.

After hearing about HubPages at a training taught by a local Lela Davidson, who has written at HubPages for years, I was inspired to sign up--about five months later! Lela inspired me, as she told about her journey of leaving her accounting job to pursue freelance writing. HubPages gave her a start, and she was successful at it as well as other endeavors, including a parenting website. Since then, she has become a published author. And, yes, she still lives locally.

As a newbie on HubPages, I was scared. Scared to death. I was trapped in a full-time job but knew that I had always wanted to be a writer. Wanting to start somewhere, I researched HubPages for about five months after my class with Lela before signing up. I visited the HubPages Learning Center and read other hubbers’ hubs about how to even create a hub! I had no clue how to even start. I read so many hubs about how to put a hub together and how to add pictures. I was clueless.

I finally got the courage to finally hit that publish button. I had no clue what my first hub could be about, but I felt free (and kind of clever!) when my first hub was entitled “How to Get Over the Fear of Writing Your First Hub.”

I attracted a few readers and was encouraged. I started slowly adding hubs, reading hubs, and getting to know other hubbers. I was so appreciative of the hub greeters who made me feel welcome. I had lots of topics I wanted to write about, and sharing my boxes of closet poetry was the last thing on my mind I planned on sharing. I started with writing about saving money, about pets, or about grammar. After a while, when I started sharing poetry, too, imagine my thrill when poets such as Epigramman andVincent Moore, formerly known as SaddleRider, made comments on my poems to encourage me!

And so the story goes. I can’t believe I’ve been at HubPages nearly a year. The time goes, the experience grows, and we gain followers, skills, and confidence. As we gain more followers, we get to know the hubbers that we interact with regularly. At some point, as we grow, we can no longer call ourselves newbies, even though there is always, always so much more to learn. Believe me, I am still learning about things. I just recently was stoked when I learned how to use RSS feeds to link my hubs and save time in manually inserting links.

Perhaps as a growing writer, and maybe, too, a freelance writer who begins to get really busy in writing from home full-time, sometimes there is less time to read and respond to comments and hubs. I know that many hubbers like to try to read a hub of someone who leaves a comment. It is tempting when one is busy to just respond but not visit that hubber, too. That is understandable.

Still, I remember how I felt as a new hubber, and how thrilled I was when a seasoned HubPages writer visited and commented on my hub. When I get a thoughtful comment from a hubber I haven’t heard of, or a newbie on one of my tutorial hubs—those about tips on hubbing—I now make even more effort to click on that hubber’s profile and look to see if they have hubs that I can relate to.

Sometimes, it might not be a mutual connection. That hubber may gain value from what you, as a seasoned hubber, are sharing, although they may not choose to follow you further. That may be the same with the seasoned hubber, too, as you look at the newbie, and they really have no hubs yet, or they write on a topic that holds no interest for you. There are times if the writer has no hubs and little to say about my hub that I will wait to see if I get another visit from this person, if the newbie is following me because of a like for my hubs. If I see the name again, I will usually check out this new (or "older" one that I haven't met before) writer.

There is no reason to follow anyone who writes about things that don’t interest you, but I think we owe it to ourselves to check out new names who appear on our comment sections. That’s the way we find new writers on HubPages whose writing we enjoy, that we relate to. It’s how we perpetuate the awesome HubPages feeling of community and support. It’s how we network and find new friends.

Newbies, I hope you find hope in this, as HubPages is a great place to get started, a great place to network, to build your portfolio, to be “discovered” online for more writing gigs, and to find really, really good friends. Seriously, you will. And for the long-time hubbers, it’s a way you also find new writing friends, because you have checked out the newbies who leave comments on your hubs. No matter how busy you are, I think most of you would agree that if you hadn’t checked out that newbie who appeared in your feed because of a related topic or who had commented on your hub, then you would have missed out on a talented, interesting writer, and a perhaps lifelong new friend.

I know that’s true for me. I am grateful to the “old” hubbers who took a chance on me, as I am glad I checked out some newer hubbers who I now consider friends. And I’m hoping that I will never get too busy to keep checking out those newbies who have similar interests and show talent as writers. I hope this hub helps to remind all of the “older” hubbers, as well as myself after a year, to remember where we all started and how important and invaluable the support and encouragement of other writers is in getting started for newbies on HubPages.

Let’s face it, hubbers. We ALL need the support!