Who here writes magazine style articles for hubs?

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   darksideposted 14 years ago

   Hopefully people know what I'm talking about. Hubs that wouldn't look out of place in a magazine. A mix of entertaining, educational, informational and not straying from the point.
   
   Have you written many?

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      Lisa HWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      It depends on which magazine.  I can think of a couple/few that would be considered, "general magazine style".  A lot more that I've written may not be too different from stories that are in magazines that include personal stories.  A LOT of them wouldn't be magazine-worthy, that's for sure; but I don't usually write with the idea of "just fooling around" either.  If I were writing for a magazine I'd be more careful than I am on here.  I'll admit that.

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      Uninvited Writerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I like to think most of my hubs are written that way

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         Marisa Wrightposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         Me too

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      Lily Roseposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I think quite a few of mine could be considered "magazine style" articles...

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      lxxyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I don't know what to call most of my articles. They're sometimes verging on "magazine" style, but maybe it should be "iPad magazine" style.

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         darksideposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         How well do hubs display in an iPad? Any formating issues?

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   darksideposted 14 years ago

   I probably should have mentioned "general magazine style" because there are certainly a lot of specific styles which can get quite involved, such as scientific or medical journals.
   
   But mainly the type of magazines one might expect sitting in the doctors office, so you can pick it up and have a casual read. Something that piques your interest, makes you think, but doesn't tax the gray matter too much.
   
   Article titles starting with Whys, Hows and Whens usually work well.

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      Lisa HWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I'm definitely one to stay away from "how's".  I pretty much don't know how to do anything any better than anyone else does. (But then, I don't read "how" articles either, because I don't want to know how to do anything I already don't know how to do either.      )  I think if some of my Hubs were cleaned up a little they might kind of work in some women's magazines. 
      
      So, I probably have to go with "no", for the most part.  Your question, though, kind of highlights something for me  (and it isn't that Hubs are supposed to be "magazine style").  More, it's that if I were to start thinking in terms of magazine articles I'd be thinking up better stuff to write about.  I realize that I've always kind of thought in terms of, "how to write about whatever I feel like writing about in the most magazine-style way that's going happen with this particular subject".   
      
      Of course, another angle to that is that there's really only so much time I want to spend researching a "real" magazine-style article that I'm most likely not going to get magazine money for.   

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   darksideposted 14 years ago

   You'd be surprised just how many people start a search query with "how to..." (how to invest, how to build a shed), "how is..." (how is paper made, how is ice cream made), "what is..." (what is philosophy, what is management), "what does..." (what does an accountant do, what does the large intestine do), "who is..." and "who invented..." to name a few.

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      Lisa HWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      Your thread has made me think.  I just went through my Hubs quickly and was surprised to find a bunch I'd say are "magazine style".  I'm bad with titles (good with "magazine-style" titles, but bad with Internet titles).  Something else I noticed was I have a bunch of "how to's" but didn't give them "how to" titles.  Instead they have titles like, "Finding your personal style".    Anyway, this thread has highlighted quite a few things.  Then I have a giant bunch of them that would otherwise be kind of magazine style if they weren't written from a first-person point of view (even if that point of view was based on research).

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      lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      No kidding. eHow has made gazillions with articles on "How to" do just about everything.

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   ryankettposted 14 years ago

   Yes I would say that plenty of my hubs fall within those categories, especially the 5 which were subsequently published in print magazines. Including the one which you helped to put together
   
   Most of my hubs in the past few months have been sales pages though, as I attempt to move away from a reliance on AdSense to exploit the potential of Amazon.....

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      darksideposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      I think sometimes an Amazon product is a solution to a problem.
      
      So if you can identify the problem, and discuss it, then introduce the product (or product choices), then it could be a match made in heaven.

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         ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

         I am working on trying to maximise my Amazon exposure on existing hubs, one by one. At the beginning on never used Amazon capsules, and then when I began I would use a single product.
         
         So for now I am going through each and every hubpage, starting from the earliest, and really thinking about the products displayed, where they are displayed, etc etc. It is also giving me an opportunity to notice small errors, ineffective tagging etc, and I am giving each hub a backlink in the process.
         
         I am now up to hub 136, and I have seen my conversion rate effectively double from 1% to 2%, with about 50% more traffic through my capsules. With no impact on AdSense I must add... (I know that 2% is still a poor conversion rate!, but at this rate of progress I should get myself up to 4%)
         
         My portfolio has become a beast which is getting hard to manage, so I felt that I should maximise the earnings potential from everything that I already have before exploiting new ideas. Once that is done, I will give your suggestion a proper crack...
         
         So basically you mean something like "how to stop your laptop from overheating", during which I discuss several techniques, but focus heavily on the benefits of a laptop cooler? (I have already done this with different titles) and then recommend a couple of good laptop coolers at the bottom? I do like that idea.
         
         My increased Amazon performance at the moment is actually coming as a result of monetising non-sales pages. For examples, I sold 2 footballs the other day on a hub about a historical football player.
         
         Anyway, sorry about the essay (you were once used to those!), I am enjoying seeing the growth in my Amazon anyway.... this is the first time that I have hit the 6.5% threshold within the first 14 days of a month (although I know that isn't all that impressive), my aim is to hit that threshold within a week once finished..... and then move on with spending another year attempting to become Mark Knowles

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            darksideposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, like that.
            
            Other methods can work well in selling. But I think that slips under the radar of people who avoid an obvious sales pitch.
            
            Off-topic Mini Essay: Mind you, I do advise using a good laptop cooler. My last Australian summer before getting one saw my brand new notebook shut down because it was so damn hot. I got a stand with three fans in it and haven't had a problem since. I think if people want to get a computer to actually sit on their lap I suggest getting a netbook with the flash drive, rather than the mechanical HDD. I had to choice between a Dell netbook with 16 gig space and, it may have been an ASUS, with 160 gig, and I went with the Dell. No mechanical drive so no heating up so no need for a fan on it. My notebook never leaves my desk (too many things plugged into it... scanner, extra external HDDs, speakers and dual monitor set-up) and if I'm out and about or feel the need to recline on the couch I'll use the netbook. Or I would, been too busy playing with the new Kindle.

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               ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               I know Darkside, my last laptop got so bad that it would shut itself down if it wasn't sitting on top of a laptop cooler! I got a cheap and cheerful aluminium one, with two fans, it was about £15 ($22.50usd), and it worked a treat..... never overheated again...
               
               And then I spilt coffee all over the damn thing. I have a desktop now, there is something attractive about being able to spill coffee over a keyboard without it being the end of the world...

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                  ryankettposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                  I can see great potential in a Darkside hub discussing the pros and cons of different types of online sales techniques

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                     darksideposted 14 years agoin reply to this

                     Making money from soliciting donations will be all cons.

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            lrohnerposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            You should easily be able to surpass the 4% mark, I would bet. My Amazon conversion rate is never less than 6% and is usually 10%+. You just need to test a few different sales methods and find out the one that works best for your writing style.

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            Spacey Graceyposted 14 years agoin reply to this

            Ryan - ignore me if I am telling you something you already know - but you could also use phrases like 'my laptop is making a funny whirring noise', 'my laptop keeps shutting down', 'my laptop is hot'. Darkside is dead right that tons of peple search for 'how do i....', but there's also a good few desperate souls who just  type their problem. And you already have the answers for them. So every person who has a problem where the solution is a laptop cooler, can they all find your laptop cooler hub easily, without knowing that a laptop cooler is what they are looking for. They might not even realise their laptop is overheating - I didn't.

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               Polly Cposted 14 years agoin reply to this

               There is a lot of truth in that - I am one of the people who types my exact problem into the search engine, word for word!

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   darksideposted 14 years ago

   Lisa, I think you've got some good magazine titles on some of your hubs:
   
   * Why Men Are Often Reluctant to Seek Help from Physicians or Mental-Health Professionals
   
   * When Anxiety Attacks
   
   * Ways to Help a Newborn Sleep Better
   
   Strictly speaking as a human being and not a search engine, they are titles which will attract real readers.

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      Lisa HWposted 14 years agoin reply to this

      There's some "disconnect", though, between my occasional good title (the ones you mentioned aren't what I'd say are "magazine-style" articles") and my "magazine-style" articles, many of which have bad titles.    It's as if there's something wrong with some aspect of just about every Hub I have   .

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   darksideposted 14 years ago

   There was 32 seconds between our posts being published, safe to say I hadn't seen what you had written while I was writing mine

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   travelespressoposted 14 years ago

   Several of my travel article would work well in a magazine. 
   
   However, I'm pretty hopeless at producing eye catching titles.  In the past editors, who are very good at making excellent titles have "saved me"!

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   Lisa HWposted 14 years ago

   What I find I'm faced with on here is often the decision to go with a "magazine style" article that may not be unique, and that isn't going to be based on anything other than research; or a "sort-of-magazine-ish" Hub that's unique to my personal knowledge/experience (and will therefore have a first-person point-of-view but may offer something different).  Sometimes I'll go with one.  Sometimes I'll go with the other.  By going with personal knowledge/experience there's "unique", but a person has to throw in that first-person factor in order not to create the impression the material comes from research.  It always seems to me that the researched, "professional", kind of article/Hub is ideal - but then there are things I think I really could share (based on personal knowledge/experience) that may actually make the Hub more useful. 
   
   So I live in a chronic state of dilemma (at least on HubPages).   

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   earnestshubposted 14 years ago

   I believe some of my "How to" auto repair hubs could be considered to be magazine style.

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    Pcunixposted 14 years ago

    I have written some of this and some of that.
    
    Too often I neglect the 'what would someone use as a search phrase if I wanted them to find this' question. 
    
    In fact, I guess I always ignore it and just get lucky now and then.  That's really  something I shouldn't be so relaxed about, but I doubt I will change,  because I do well enough being sloppy.  I have tried to psych myself up and get enthusiastic about these things, but my heart just isn't in it.  Oh, well.. 
    
    Oh, and I have a cooler.  And I have spilled stuff.  Not coffee, but milk, and it ruined my laptop keyboard and I had to buy another, but even so it still has problems so I had to plug in a USB keyboard :-)

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    Rafiniposted 14 years ago

    I'd say most of my hubs are magazine style - those that aren't a story or poetry, anyway. (all of my hubs on my second account are - but I haven't published anything recently)

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    Jaggedfrostposted 14 years ago

    I imagine there a lot of people here who try at that kind of ready to read style.  I have seen a lot of writers here including many who have already answered your inquiry who have a good flow to their work and a poetry and a brevity to their articles.  Usually if you can understand their posts, and they write copiously enough eventually a magazinesk rhythm begins to develop.  Trying to find us really depends on now diligently you are willing to look and how much you are willing to wade through the other stuff to find good articles.  As for how you should write, know that there is tons out there and if you don't have anything consist to say then you probably will not be read very often. If you don't have provocative titles you probably will have a hard time getting noticed.  If you aren't dedicated to spelling, grammar and increasingly more complex but logical formats people may write off your articles as spam and you may get some interest at first but it will drop off rapidly.
    Keep writing though and eventually it will come to you.

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    Joy56posted 14 years ago

    i have had several articles published in different magazines. I have never got it together on Hubpages to write articles, mainly because of laziness, and not knowing how to link up etc.  I think i may have a go, you have encouraged me.

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    chigoiykeposted 14 years ago

    ve done that with some of my hubs

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    Joy56posted 14 years ago

    anyone give me a thread to a magazine style article that has proved succesful for you

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    KCC Big Countryposted 14 years ago

    Many of my hubs are written in a magazine style.

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    rmrposted 14 years ago

    I've written a few that are magazine style, although my titles are usually terrible. Some even have links from print magazines' websites.

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    Jane@CMposted 14 years ago

    I wish I could write magazine style

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    rebekahELLEposted 14 years ago

    I think some of mine would fall into magazine style. Informational, educational, yet easy to read.
    
    
    my son said his best performing ($$) hubs are his how-to hubs. he wrote them after he had to figure out how to do something and assumed others would be searching also.

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       darksideposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       The hands on approach definitely benefits the writing from the experience of getting in there and doing it yourself.

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    Joy56posted 14 years ago

    going over to look at some of these mag. style hubs thanks

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       Jaggedfrostposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       Isn't it funny how everyone who posts here covets the style to write for magazines or claims to write that way.

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          darksideposted 14 years agoin reply to this

          Well the question was "Who here writes magazine style articles for hubs?" not sure about you but I didn't expect any poets or short fiction writers to turn up.

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             Jaggedfrostposted 14 years agoin reply to this

             true but they might venture anyhow to write something of the sort because everyone wants to be just like the professionals in any craft. Writing is no different.

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    MalcolmKlockposted 14 years ago

    I've only written a couple hubs, but they're definitely magazine style. They're certainly informative and I hope good reading, but I fear I may sometimes be being a little longwinded for the internet  attention span. Wondering if my more hardcore filmmaking advice is perhaps better suited to a less general venue than hubpages.
    
    Ah well, love the community, definitely sticking around.

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       darksideposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       By the way, your Make Great Films On No Budget hub is excellent. I've read it twice and have posted a link to it on my Facebook wall.

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    Bard of Elyposted 14 years ago

    Some of my hubs had already been published in magazines and I am writing for hard copy magazines anyway as a source of income. Just been paid by Feed Your Brain magazine and have an article confirmed for Kindred Spirit.

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