What is your top piece of advice for people new to hubpages?

Jump to Last Post 1-10 of 10 discussions (17 posts)
  1. lottiedot profile image51
    lottiedotposted 7 years ago

    3 weeks in and a few hubs created, can you help me to get the most from hubpages and give back to other members too. What do you wish you knew when you started out?

    1. chef-de-jour profile image100
      chef-de-jourposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Think niche, write niche..... and persist. Then persist some more.

      1. Jean Bakula profile image88
        Jean Bakulaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

        Write about what you love or know a lot about. Also, read all the rules before you dive in. You have to be patient, you won't make money for about six months, but once it begins it's steady.

      2. Marisa Wright profile image85
        Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

        I disagree about the "niche" advice.  If you are able to concentrate on one niche and write knowledgeably and well about it, you'll be FAR better off starting your own website or blog.  The beauty of HubPages is that you can write about a variety of subjects and HubPages has already created the niche sites to host your various writings.

        1. DavePage profile image61
          DavePageposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          I agree with this comment from Marisa, if you know your topic, start your own site, that exactly what I did and it worked perfectly!

        2. WryLilt profile image86
          WryLiltposted 7 years agoin reply to this

          Absolutely agree. I started a niche site 4 years ago and it's excelled beyond my wildest dreams.

          I now use Hubpages for either quick time based viral content, 'testing' a subject before creating a site, guides, or 'homeless' content I'll never write more than one article about.

    2. Sherry Hewins profile image86
      Sherry Hewinsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      If you're going to write on the Internet, you have to learn to roll with the punches. We are at the mercy of the search engines, and they are fickle creatures. The article they loved last month suddenly becomes poison.

      The first time I was getting good traffic and the bottom fell out, I was totally despondent and didn't write anything for quite a while. Now I know that it's to be expected. It's kind of like playing the stock market.

      Try to write good, useful stuff and keep doing it no matter what your numbers say. For HP, I think the thing that saves me is diversity. One niche tanks, and another rises.

  2. Marisa Wright profile image85
    Marisa Wrightposted 7 years ago

    It's hard to answer "what do you wish you'd known when you started out", because the things I needed to know then, are not the things newbies need to know now.  So much about the site has changed.

    The main thing you need to know is that HubPages is not one site, it's a suite of sites, and your goal must be to write Hubs that will be transferred to the niche sites.  Otherwise you are probably wasting your time.

    Your profile says you're experienced with Google search so you'll know that Google strongly favours specialist (niche) sites.   That's why all the big generalist sites have closed down, except for HubPages.  HubPages was also failing, and that's why they created the niche sites, using the best Hubs from the main site.

    They are still trawling through the main site to select more Hubs for the niche sites.  Also, every new Hub that's published is considered for the niches. Obviously, the end result will be that the main site will eventually consist only of Hubs that don't make the cut.  As you know, when Google ranks an article, it considers both the innate quality of the article plus quality of the whole site it's on, so you can see there won't be much point in having articles on the main site in the long run.

    To write articles that make the cut - look at the Stellar Hub guidelines in the top corner when writing, and try to tick as many boxes as make sense (you will never tick all the boxes because polls, tables, etc are not relevant to every subject).  Take a look at my Hub the Basic Rules (you'll find it on the slider on my profile).  I'd also suggest reading the one on Etiquette, because the notion of "giving back" to other members is erroneous.

    The social network on HubPages is fun and motivating--but it's a myth to think that by following, reading and commenting, we're somehow helping each other. The activity of our small community is a drop in the ocean and makes virtually no difference to our traffic or our earnings.   Recently, HubPages has started featuring some of its top earners on the front page (you have to log out to see it, try it), and everyone has been surprised to see they are Hubbers we've never heard of.   That's because they focus on writing good Hubs and networking outside HubPages, to attract a paying audience.  That may seem anti-social, but in the long run it does all of us a lot more good than patting each other on the back in our own little circle!

  3. lottiedot profile image51
    lottiedotposted 7 years ago

    Thanks for your detailed and concise reply, very useful information that I will be using going forward. I did submit my first hub to the relevant niche site, but have not heard anything - I assume this is what happens if it not considered right for the site, do you receive a message if a hub is moved to a niche site such as hobbylark?

    1. Marisa Wright profile image85
      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      All new Hubs are automatically considered for the niche sites, so you don't need to manually submit them.  The manual submission process is for old Hubs, or substantially revised ones.

      If a new Hub is considered suitable, it will be moved within a month after publication. If it hasn't been moved in that time, you can assume it wasn't deemed suitable.  In that case, there's no point in submitting again UNLESS you revise it substantially to improve it.

  4. lottiedot profile image51
    lottiedotposted 7 years ago

    Thanks, very useful information.

  5. WryLilt profile image86
    WryLiltposted 7 years ago

    Poetry, creative writing, essays, spam and saturated topics (weight loss, making money online) will almost never make you money.

    Your participation in the site (forums, hub commenting, following) has no impact on earnings.

    As long as you don't write spam, hub and profile scores should be ignored and have no impact on earnings.

    A good hub is written like a magazine article - stands alone, informs, has an easy to read layout that includes clear subtitles and images to break it up into bite size chunks.

    Your hub title is the most important part of your SEO, as that's what helps Google decide which searchers to show it to.

    People Google answers, not questions (thanks to Cardisa for that one).

    Writing in topics with low competition (ie, Google results show not many relevant answers), can get a lot of traffic.  So can lists.

    Creating images with titles on them (MFP - Made For Pinterest) is a great way to generate traffic from Pinterest.

  6. lottiedot profile image51
    lottiedotposted 7 years ago

    Thank-you for sharing your advice and ideas.

  7. profile image0
    Robilo2posted 7 years ago

    After you share your hub links via social media etc, keep an eye on the Stats - Traffic Referrers.  I added Pinterest Boards last year to support my hubs, and some other related hubs I found here.

    Surprised to find that Pinterest is the 2nd highest referrer of traffic (google.com is #1) to my hubs.

    So if you have not already created a Pinterest account, you may want to do so now.

  8. profile image0
    Robilo2posted 7 years ago

    Side note - for my own website - Pinterest is 3rd highest traffic referrer.

  9. lottiedot profile image51
    lottiedotposted 7 years ago

    Thanks for the advice and suggestion, I will look into creating a Pinterest account.

  10. davidlivermore profile image82
    davidlivermoreposted 7 years ago

    It could take years to earn money.

 
working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)