How long does it take you to write up a hub?

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   DanieleRobbersposted 6 years ago

   I was just wondering how long a hub takes you to write from concept to published? I am using hubpages as the start of my freelance writing career and I am working being more productive. I am also only doing my second hub now.  I have an editor now so that will add time to the process still curious what everyone else time frame for one hub is? what is your process?

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      Kierstin Gunsbergposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Also, when I'm being super ambitious I try to stick to a writing schedule and write 2-3 days a week. I'm also in college though and have two kids so lately I've just been keeping up with reader comments and checking in each day.

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         whereyouwatchposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Still very impressive...

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      Jean Bakulaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      It depends. Sometimes I feel curious about a topic and have to do more research on it. I play around with deciding what angle I want to take in expressing what I want to say. I have some ideas I never wrote about yet.
      
      Once I do write, it probably takes about 8-10 hours. I normally get to a point where I can get that difficult first paragraph down, get a whole piece that's better than a first draft, but not quite ready for prime time yet. I may switch up the paragraphs, or add or take away little bits.
      
      Don't rush to publish. I also suggest taking a day away from it before you proofread. I never realized what a bad proofreader I was until the standards got tougher. You need to look at your work with fresh eyes to make sure it's spelled right and you have no grammar errors. It helps if you have someone in the house or someone else who is willing to take a look at it too.
      
      It's sometimes hard to find legal pictures, though there are many sites that provide them. I like Pixabay.com and Pexels.com. Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons are good if you need people pictures.
      
      You'll find your pace. When I began, it was the first time in my life I had to devote to writing, even though I wanted to be a writer, it doesn't pay the bills! I was writing three hubs a week. I have deleted a lot of those, and my writing has improved. Lately, I have stalled, as I am trying to move a lot of older hubs to niche sites, and I still have about 30+ I either have to improve or delete.
      
      Plus I miss writing new material, the first new article I wrote was last week, and it felt great to push "Publish!" I am currently reading about another subject I want to learn about. So for me it's a journey of learning and writing, except for my main niche. I always write best when taking metaphysical classes or writing about some other hobby or situation that I am engaged in, even if I don't personalize it. My mind is more awake with possibilities and energy then. And write about evergreen subjects, not seasonal ones, they only get views in their seasons. Good luck to you!

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      jackclee lmposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      That is a good question for beginners on HubPages. I have been publishing here for about 3 years and I am experienced and have written over 500 hubs so far. Most of them are “featured” and about 5% of the hubs have been chosen to be moved to niche sites.
      It takes me on average, 3 hours to write a hub. This includes starting with a concept or a topic, choosing a unique title, creating the hub, adding some text and photo modules and actually creating the textual content. I usually write on my iPad so I don’t type very fast. Most of my hubs are on average 500 words in length and have at least 3 high quality photos. From my experience, these are the minimal requirements to pass the automated quality checking process.
      I will check for spelling and grammar errors by cut and paste it into Word.
      The spell check feature of HubPages are not very good.
      
      The most important advice I have is to write about something you know or have passion about...
      Good luck.

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2. 96

   Kierstin Gunsbergposted 6 years ago

   This is a wonderful place to jump start you freelance career! Just having the pressure of deadlines off your shoulders is super rewarding.
   
   I think it usually takes me around 4-6 hours to write an article and most of that is the research and finding photos that are legal and that enhance my article. The writing, after I've been researching the topic so much, comes easily after that.
   
   Welcome, I'm excited you're here!

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3. 78

   lobobrandonposted 6 years ago

   If I need to state a number, I would say at least 10 hours for a high quality hub. Writing is easy and quick, the research, structuring, SEO analysis of the competition, and finding the right images takes a while.

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      TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Just curious if you do that in one go. My different articles vary in the time they take. Some have taken 20 hours over four days while others have take four or five hours in one sitting.

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         lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Definitely not. It takes me weeks considering the busy schedule I have had. Also, most of my current hubs do not meet my quality standards. The only hub I am truly satisfied with right now is my hub: is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable (spent 2 days to completely re-write this one). I'm going to heavily edit most of the others.
         
         P.S: DrMark, for some reason I cannot reply to you on the other thread. The reply option isn't working there.

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            TessSchlesingerposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks.

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               Natalie Frankposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               I agree.  Maybe this isn't true for everyone but I think as we write for HP over time we come to learn more about what we need to do to create a strong article and there comes a point when we realize our early hubs are not what they could be.  Then it's on us to edit the hubs we need to strengthen which is usually more than a matter of grammar and structure.  For me, I'll be cleaning up hubs but mostly adding content in an attempt to make them better and deeper discussions of the topics.

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   FatFreddysCatposted 6 years ago

   It depends on how much time I have to prep and gather my thoughts. I've had hubs that I agonized over for hours or even days before deciding they were good enough to hit "publish," and others that were banged out in an hour or less.

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   Rupert Taylorposted 6 years ago

   It's sort of one of those "How long is a piece of string?" questions. Sorry, that's not very helpful.
   
   However, having scanned through your one article I'd suggest some diligent proofreading is in order.

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6. 93

   Kenna McHughposted 6 years ago

   It depends on the subject and how much research I need to do in order to deliver a worthwhile article. I would say on the average 3 - 5 hours.

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   jansharesposted 6 years ago

   Here are a few more answers; it varies from hubber to hubber:
   https://hubpages.com/community/forum/33 … er-article

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8. 71

   DanieleRobbersposted 6 years ago

   Wow, thank you all for your input. I love here where everyone else is not in a way to compare myself to but to relate too! Rupert Taylor, you are correct and that is why I got an editor. I will get back to that one article here soon but I want to finish the one I am working on first. I was very nervous and miss a bit and the person I had read it wasn't much of a proof reader.

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      lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I think you should use Grammarly. In your case, it may help as you tend to make grammatical errors and miss the important commas and at times even full stops.

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         DanieleRobbersposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you for your feedback! I do use basic Grammarly and as soon as I can I will pay for for the full features. I am also doing Khan Academy's grammar classes which I will keep taking over and over again. I have a learning disability that makes see little like that very hard. Even reading out loud my brain inserts the corrections most of the time. This is why even while I work on improving my grammar regularly I decided to hire a proofreader. I am blessed that this talented dear friend of mine will be willing to wait to be paid to tell I am making income. I am not letting my setbacks derail me. We will be working on that hub as soon as this next one is completed.

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            lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

            The basic free version of Grammarly is good enough Good luck!

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               EricFarmer8xposted 6 years agoin reply to this

               I use Grammaly as well. What I have found is if you click on the advanced errors number it will tell you what those errors are. I have been able to then go and fix them myself once I see what they are. Most of my errors are due to missing comas and I can find those.

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9. 59

   Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years ago

   Depends on how much research I have to do. Sometimes it can take me as long as two weeks to complete an article because I'm learning about the topic as I go along. I value quality over expediency, personally.
   
   The good thing about posting articles is that you can make edits at any time. It doesn't get locked in like forum posts. Sometimes I will have to go back to old articles to edit factual errors if I learn something new or find conflicting data.
   
   You never know how much better a piece of writing can be until you sit for a few hours doing nothing but revisions and editing. I don't do that for all my articles but it's good practice.

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10. 88

    wildernessposted 6 years ago

    I seldom write on something I need to research, or even find photos for (although I DO have to edit, crop, add text, etc. to my own photos.)  But given that somewhere around 8-10 hours to write it.  The a few more hours spread over a week or two to proofread and correct several times.  I find it helps tremendously to give enough time to get the hub out of my head before proofing it.

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    EricFarmer8xposted 6 years ago

    I am starting to take longer as I am spending more time on proof reading and trying to make sure I meet the quality guidelines. I want all of my work to be on network websites and this quite a challenge for me. I am now taking over a week to write one Hub for the time being.

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12. 71

    DanieleRobbersposted 6 years ago

    I am just getting my feet wet I would like the same. I am lucky though I have a friend who is willing to be my editor for free tell money comes in. I still proofread a lot and still miss stuff. I think it gets easier the more you do though right?

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    Wesman Todd Shawposted 6 years ago

    First 5 years I messed with this website I felt like if I started a page, then I should absolutely be finished with it before the day is over.
    
    Well, probably the majority of the things I've published here are no longer here. I moved most of them without them becoming unfeatured, but the point is, thinking something should be done in a day is an awful way to go about this. Take as much time as you need. Make it as perfect as you can, and then later you'll likely still find ways to make a thing better. Just don't hit publish on something sub-par.

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    Leland Johnsonposted 6 years ago

    You go girl!  What you posted here was clear and articulate. Good job, I wish you success. Remember what Winston Churchill said, "never give up. Never, never, never."

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    Natalie Frankposted 6 years ago

    Welcome, Daniele!  I'd say it depends on the topic and how much research I need to do.  It can vary from about 3-4 hours for a fiction piece, 5-6 hours for something lighthearted, and I think 10 hours is about right for an article that needs a lot of research and references.  I've started doing a lot of listing types of articles and those tend to be fun and much quicker.  Good luck in your endeavors and I hope you enjoy being part of our community!

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    Titiaposted 6 years ago

    It varies a lot depending on the subject and how much time I can spend on it.The writing itself doesn't take that long, but my problem is that English is not my native language and therefore I tend to make grammar mistakes. I spend a lot of time getting my text as right as possible.

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    MelRootsNWritesposted 6 years ago

    Writing is the easy part for me.  I've usually had something rolling around in my head that I just need to get written down. 
    
    Formatting is what takes up my time.  That can take several hours.  I can get nitpicky. At some point I have to say enough. 
    
    Then, I usually sit on the hub for a couple of days.  I let it settle and give it a reread before I hit publish.

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       DanieleRobbersposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       that is actually a good idea

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    Urbane Chaosposted 6 years ago

    I usually spend 3 to 5 days per article.  If I want a good ROI, I want to make sure that it's as "perfect" as I can get it before hitting publish.
    
    Before writing about a location, I'll visit it.  I ghostwrite for a number of different publications, so most of the time, I'm already traveling.
    
    When I get back, I make an outline in Word, then flesh it out with details. I may stew over it a couple days until it makes sense while collecting any more research I need.  At this point, I don't care if it's correct, it's just a draft.  Once I reach the end, I'll go back over it in detail.
    
    Once I'm happy with it, I run it through Grammerly to correct any mistakes, then run a Flesch-Kincaid test on it for readability.  Finally, I'll upload it to HP and add in the photos.
    
    If you have a good article then there's a lot that can be done with it.  Many times, I'll resell my articles for print media, so at the end, I want to make sure that they are sellable as well.
    
    Everyone's process is different, trick is to find out what works for you.

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       DanieleRobbersposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       Holly crap thank you!you gave me a ton to think about. I am using the free Grammarly, but I didn't know there was a program for readability. I will be googling Flesch-Kincaid and learning more! Again thank you

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       lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       Perfectly said.

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          DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this

          Hi lobobrandon, if I am interested in finding out the Flesh-Kincaid score on a few of my articles, what tool do you recommend I use? Thanks.

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             lobobrandonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

             I don't really bother with it, but this one is good: https://readable.io/url/ I am not sure how many searches you can use for free, as I don't use it much. Just a few clients who have asked about this and I gave them this URL. When on the page scroll down to find the green button to test a URL.

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                DrMark1961posted 6 years agoin reply to this

                Okay, thanks. I just ran my latest through there (cruciate ligament damage) and it has a reading score of about 10th grade. Based on the questions and comments I get, I would not want to write an article more complicated than that, so that gives me something to shoot for. (<<cliche: okay on the forums, not so much on our hubs?)

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       Jessie L Watsonposted 6 years agoin reply to this

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    Urbane Chaosposted 6 years ago

    There's a few free readability sites out there.  I usually use the one built in to Word, since it's already there.
    
    The main reason that I use it is that, with many of my articles, I write them also for print media.  Being able to market that helps make the difference from a $.03/word article vs. a $.17/word article.  Online, I don't think it matters much, but I'll use every tool that I can just to be on the safe side.

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    Mike Hardyposted 6 years ago

    I budget about 2 hours per posting.

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    1. 71

       DanieleRobbersposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       That seems like a good goal. I defiantly want to spend a good amount of time on them but at the same time, I am trying to launch freelance writing career as well as master hubs. I know my weakness like grammar it is due to a learning disability my mind fixes the typos so I just don't see them thus the proofreader. I also take grammar classes online when I have the time. I really think hupages and all the hubbers like you and the others are so wonderful. You all have to give me such great feedback and advice.

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