Author collaboration forum

1. 96

   Lovelli Fuadposted 6 weeks ago

   This has been on my mind for quite some time. I know that there are no rules against authors working together with other authors to create hubs on HP, but there is not really much encouragement for collaboration.
   
   Everyone is just competing against each other in "a healthy way", and in that way we are actually already supporting one another because we have the same goals in mind.
   
   If HP could just create a small little forum that encourages collaboration, authors will feel less alone and a bit more empowered. Maybe name it "Official HP Author Collaboration" or something and group it under the HubPages Community, so that we can create meaningful engagements between authors here..
   
   In the forum people can post stuffs like "Need someone interested in children's illustration to pin with me on my new Pinterest board" or maybe "LOOKING FOR SOMEONE to write and edit for my Quora blog!!!" I know we can randomly create these posts now in the HP forums and probably find someone eager to help, but this isn't really that kind of help.
   
   PS: Thanks Margaret Minnicks for creating a writer's board that has inspired me to thiiiiiiiink through this.

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   1. 97

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 6 weeks agoin reply to this

      You misunderstand the concept of this site.  We are not competing against one another.  However, there are millions of people submitting articles to the internet every day, so we ARE competing with THEM in that sense.  I don't see any way that writers here can collaborate because money is involved and you can only have sites in your own name.  We help one another via the forums and private emails, and that usually is enough.

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2. 88

   Kenna McHughposted 6 weeks ago

   TT2 points are valid. We have collaboration in the forums, and I work with other Hubbers within an email, Twitter, and FB. So, collaboration is happening. I encourage you to reach out in the forums and post those examples you've offered. This post you posted is a collaboration. : D

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3. 96

   Lovelli Fuadposted 6 weeks ago

   Exactly! That's why we need our collaboration acknowledged and encouraged. Help each other on things that don't involve money, like pinning together on Pinterest, etc. Or help each other on things that involve money, such as writing together on a Quora blog.
   
   We also need to make sure that if people are competing against one another (or NOT competing against one another) they do it in a healthy way. Congratulations by the way to those who won the Hubber awards last year!

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   1. 96

      Jean Bakulaposted 6 weeks agoin reply to this

      Do you use Quora often? It looks like you can make some money, but have to build a following? I began answering some astrology questions, but got over run with people asking the same ones over and over. I already have that here in the Q&A, which I've decided is also a waste of time.
      
      I do see a person or two sometimes on one of the questions I answered here, but it's not enough money to make it worth the time I spend on it. I see people who don't read the article, and skip down to the question area and ask what was answered in the article. I decided to ignore the feature this year, unless it's a decent question.

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      1. 96

         Lovelli Fuadposted 6 weeks agoin reply to this

         Yes, I do. I use it to find ideas for my articles, Jean. Many people have come to me to consult on topics I have written there and I charge them for that. I do get asked the same questions again and again, too.
         
         But to make money on the platform itself, Quora has been slowly compensating people for asking and answering quality questions in its Quora Partner Program - currently by invite only.
         
         Probably don't want to ignore it. The partners are making quite a lot, hundreds to thousands of dollars a month! Can't wait until the program is launched to the public.

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         1. 97

            theraggededgeposted 6 weeks agoin reply to this

            I started doing that but Quora's recent security breach caused me to delete my account.

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4. 84

   psycheskinnerposted 6 weeks ago

   We are competing with each other and everyone else, but also cooperating with other hubbers. To show a need for such a subforum I would suggest starting specific threads -- like, pin the post above you.  A thread where people with relevant boards would pin the previous post and then add their own hub for pinning.

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5. 97

   Natalie Frankposted 6 weeks ago

   I'm a member of the program but almost no one actually makes much money.  They encourage people who they have invited by posting the top earnings per week and month. But if you look at the average amount earned for questions you'll see it's a matter of cents. With 100 questions over three weeks I've earned about $4.  You don't earn from your answers, the person who asked the question does.  So you earn nothing without answers and even with them it's unclear what warrants ads.  I have a number of questions with tons of views and no ad impressions which haven't earned anything.  Several have tons of ad impressions and have still earned nothing.  Actually about half of my questions haven't earned anything.  One question has earned $1.40, one has earned .60 and 50 or so questions have earned between 1 cent to10 cents each.  The other thing is that you can request up to 25 people answer your question a day and if you want another answer on someone else's question you can request answers as well.  A small number of people they are letting earn for the answers that result from their request on someone else's answer.  I am not one of those people but they can still ask for answers on all of mine and when someone answers they get some of my money from my question. I've noticed  tons of requests on all of my questions daily and this is likely why even questions that have answers to and which have a lot of views are earning me zero.  Additionally, these people can request answers on any of the old questions as well and get paid strictly for asking for an answer.  This despite the fact that you don't get paid for writing any questions before last April, and no one answering gets paid for the answers.  Finally, questions only have the chance to earn for a year after which Quora keeps 100% of all earnings.  I've slowed down on participating mostly just asking something that comes up when researching article for HP.  I figure I'll see if it picks up any but will likely taper off before much longer.

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   1. 96

      Lovelli Fuadposted 6 weeks agoin reply to this

      Oh bummer, so that's how they do it. The person who asks the questions get all the sweets.
      
      I've not answered any new questions for weeks, and I do seem to be getting quite a number of questions. I now think questions are overrated. I thought people are getting paid for views on their questions.
      
      It's a good thing you were already on the program, Natalie. I hope it picks up for you, fingers crossed.

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6. 91

   Jodahposted 6 weeks ago

   I know this isn't exactly the type of collaboration you are talking about Lovelli, but I have collaborated a couple of time with another hubber here to write co-authored short stories. We take turns at publishing them under each others name but give acknowledgement to the other.

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   1. 96

      Lovelli Fuadposted 6 weeks agoin reply to this

      I don't really have a specific collaboration type in mind, Jodah. My suggestion is to have HP create some sort of an author collaboration forum, just a space to encourage talks and discussions on collaborating with others.
      
      Writing short stories and taking turns publishing them is an excellent example
      
      I've never done anything like that. I'd love to know more about co-authoring..

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7. 97

   Natalie Frankposted 6 weeks ago

   That sounds like fun!

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8. 97

   Natalie Frankposted 6 weeks ago

   They did say that in the coming months they will be introducing new ways to get compensated so maybe they'll introduce compensation for the best answer per question.  Though I guess that could just turn into a popularity contest.  There's also a bunch of complaints because they have a top writers award with the people who run the site choosing them.  This year there were something like 750 winners and they introduced a "winners store" where you can buy t-shirts and stuff saying Quora top writer.  People felt like it was just another way for the site to make money off of the writers.  I'm wondering if they'll introduce something in their TOC saying you aren't allowed to remove any of your content which you can do now so at the end of the year they are the only ones to earn from what you wrote.

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9. 97

   Natalie Frankposted 6 weeks ago

   Lovelli I think it's a great idea.  People could ask for things like guest posting on blogs or websites or someone to start a new website with.  It seems like it would benefit us as well as HP since it would increase visibility of the writers and lead to potential back links to HP articles.  It might also make it possible for other folks to have a site to be able to join Maven if they choose and with several authors and the possibility of a guest post every now and then the daily publishing requirement would seem less daunting.

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10. 96

    Lovelli Fuadposted 6 weeks ago

    Yes, it should be Maven-related... From seeing on the forum, hubbers are all ears about what's going on with the Maven coalition. moving forward, HP should definitely choose to act on this idea.

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