Quick Tips to help new writers get started here at HP

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   TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years ago

   With all the changes due to the merger with Squidoo, I thought some of the incoming writers could benefit from a few tips to help them get started with writing here.
   
   Pay attention to the little writing guide in the upper right hand corner of your Hub Tool when you are in the edit mode.  It will let you know what you need to add or if you are having a problem or need to change something.
   
   Make sure you have at least one quality photo on your article (more is better)
   
   Use capsules when writing and title each one.  Those titles should more or less tell the sequential story of what you are writing.
   
   Keep the main title less than 55 characters. 
   
   Make sure your ads are appropriate to what you are writing and limit the number of ads you use so that you do not get a warning for being overly promotional.
   
   Add at least one video.
   
   Add a poll, questionnaire or map.
   
   Keep capsules as short as possible.
   
   Hopefully these tips will help get you started.  If you have questions, feel free to ask.
   
   Good luck.

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      Michael-Milecposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for " quick tips"  TIMETRAVELER2, though I've red carefully, my problem with 'publishing" remaines  due to not understanding  some terms and procedure. (

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      1. 78

         TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Michael-Milec:
         
         All you have to do is ask!
         
         There is no shame in not understanding...certainly there were (and sometimes still are) many things I do not understand.
         
         Asking questions is how you learn and grow...so ask away, my friend.
         
         I'm here for you as are many others.
         
         I have been waiting and waiting for you to publish because I know you have information we want and need.

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   2. 84

      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      TT2, I wrote a Hub listing the basic essentials that people need to know to get started - as you know I'm not allowed to post a link here but it's on the slider in my profile.

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      1. 78

         TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Marisa:
         
         Yes, one or two others have done the same, but I thought if I put this in a forum other HP writers would chime in and add other suggestions.

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         1. 84

            Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            In that case, it would probably be good to link to those Hubs here, too. 
            
            I found a couple of Hubs debating about the move,but none with tips or advice except Relache's one:
            http://relache.hubpages.com/hub/hubpages-squidoo
            
            It's a must-read because Relache has years of experience on both sites so it's full of important information.  It covers the bigger picture whereas mine was more about the itty bitty detail of how to get set up and started.

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            1. 78

               TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Marisa:
               
               I think if people read the Relache hub it will give them all they need.  If others want to add to what I have written here, that will also be helpful.
               
               Thanks for providing that link!

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   3. 59

      Ben Aidooposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I'm one of the newbies from Squidoo going through the initiation to publish on Hubpages. Have you noticed that most of the high quality photos are for sale, or am I looking in the wrong places?

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      1. 78

         Greekgeekposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Ben:  Photo sources
         
         Morguefile - released to public domain
         free images (formerly Jupiter Images or Stock Xchng) - free, some photographers ask you for credit but you should do that anyway according to Hubpages' rules
         Commons.Wikimedia.org - Creative Commons images ask for credit. Search bar at upper right on that page, easy to miss.
         Clker - free public domain clipart
         Getty Open Content Images - the images in Getty's "Open Content Images" database are free to use
         freedigitalphotos - free for webpage use; paid if you want to distribute them as templates or print them on things like Zazzle t-shirts
         US Dept. Fish & Wildlife public domain image library
         
         Tip: To search for images on a particular website, add site:[domain] to a Google search. For example, go to Google Image Search and type:
         
         site:nasa.gov jupiter moons
         
         Images owned by the U.S. government and government-funded agencies including the USGS, Department of Fish & Wildlife, NASA and NOAA are owned by the American people so they are public domain. However, sometimes images on their websites are originally from some other source, "used with permission." So, when you find a picture, look at the image credits to see if it's really a NASA picture and not "here's a great photo some private person shared with us."
         
         (Watch out, many free image sites have a strip of commercial stock photos listed above or below the gallery of free photos, supporting themselves with the revenue from the paid photos. Make sure you're getting the free ones.)
         
         ... I'm waiting for my lens of "where to get free images" to transfer over; I've listed dozens of sites. But I usually don't have to stray past morguefile, wikimedia commons, stock xchng, and NASA/USGS. The only problem is that it's hard to find free celebrity photos.

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            Ben Aidooposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks for the free photos websites and tips.

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            runningexpertposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            This is really helpful. The images I've in my hub are not counted as images because the quality is too low.

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      chateaudumerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Excellent tips. Is it really necessary to have more than 700 words in your hub? This is my 13th day. So far I have written 4 hubs, but views on my hubs have not been really great. How can I improve traffic to my hubs?.

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      1. 84

         Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         No, it's not compulsory to write more than 700 words - but if you want to do well here, you should be aiming even higher than that. 
         
         Take a look at the checkboxes at the top right hand corner of the Hub.   The more boxes you can tick, the higher your scores will be and the better your Hubs are likely to do (those two things are unrelated, by the way). 
         
         That's not to say you should add padding or waffle to your Hub to make the minimum word count - what it does say is that if you don't have at least 700 words to write about a subject, perhaps it's not a suitable subject for HubPages. Remember they say they want information-rich, magazine-style articles. 
         
         As for traffic - HubPages is a long-term investment.   If you socialise (i.e. visit and comment on Hubs, participate in the forums), you'll attract followers who will visit your new Hubs, but they're only a tiny part of your audience.  Most of your visitors will come from people searching on Google - and it can take time for Google to decide your Hub is good enough to rank well.   It may take several months for a Hub to get much traffic.

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            chateaudumerposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Hi Marisa, thanks for the quick response. Your answer makes sense. Have a fantastic day!

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         Millionaire Tipsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         A lot of people ask this question about the minimum number of words that will be accepted.  My advice is to not worry about the minimum number of words. This is not a homework assignment that you turn in to pass.
         
         The goal is to get traffic and earnings.  HubPages has determined that longer, more informative, hubs tend to make more money.  Focus on writing the best, most informative, most entertaining hub with pretty graphics that will provide the best experience for your reader. Always keep your focus on your reader.

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   5. 58

      peg2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for your tips for new hubbers

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   6. 48

      sosownposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Hi, thanks for the tips.  Do I have to place ads by my article, and how do I do that?  Also, how and where do you get the pictures to use?  Do you just get pictures from photobucket?

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      runningexpertposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Do videos, polls or quizzes really benefit your Google ranking? I think these features are more important for your hubscore than Google rank, am I right?
      
      I write on a similar site in my own language, but there are pictures etc not important. Text is really the most important. I have many articles ranked first without a picture in the text part, only one picture at title/intro part.

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         relacheposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Do you wish to engage your reader-visitors so they stay on your page longer? Media-rich content is a great strategy.

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   Writer Foxposted 10 years ago

   I think many of the people transferring content over do not know about the link limits here.
   
   On a single Hub:
   
   1.  You cannot have more than two links to another website, unless it is a MAJOR authority site like Wikipedia.
   
   2.  You definitely cannot have more than two links to your own blog, or other website which you control.
   
   3.  Link limits include image credits.
   
   4.  Link limits do not apply to links pointing to pages on the HubPages domain.
   
   5.  You cannot link to other webpages which show porn, gambling, etc.
   
   6. You may exceed the link limits for products displayed on Amazon or Ebay, provided that you have at least 50 words of text for each product displayed.  However, the products must be directly related to the content of your Hub.
   
   Even though the Squidoo people are to be given a four-month grace period to fix their Hubs, people can still report your Hubs for violations.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Writer Fox:  I think this will help newbies a lot.  Thanks.

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3. 68

   sunilkunnoth2012posted 10 years ago

   Good tips. Informative and helpful. I appreciate your helping mentality.

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4. 48

   sosownposted 10 years ago

   Hi, I am new to Hub.  Do I have to find  adds to add to my article?  Is that you it works?

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      runningexpertposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      No, the ads will appear automatically when you have a featured hub when the ad programs are "installed" On this page https://hubpages.com/my/earnings/affiliate/ you can "install" ad programs.
      
      Also check the learning center: http://hubpages.com/learningcenter/contents
      
      Good luck!

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