How can I better my writing?

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   CaityBugsMommyposted 13 years ago

   I am new to HubPages and so far I am enjoying it. I would like for some constructive criticism to make my hubs better. Any and all mistakes you find if you could point them out, would be helpful. Most of my hubs are recipes, and all are about food in one way or another. I am just sticking with this topic for a while until I feel comfortable with my research skills and knowledge of other topics.

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      liljen23posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Hello Caity and Welcome to HP!! I have a few suggestions for you and even know I am not expert, this is something I use to make my hubs. Most of my hubs over that are over 400 words, I try to use more text capsules, link capsules, and amazon capsules to make the hub more colorful and full of information. I break down most of the topics included in the hub with keywords related to my title. I make at least 1-2 long paragraphs for each section. This makes the hub more targeted for traffic because you have so much information included in your hub.. Cagsil is right about the tags/keywords, you should have at least 9-15 but I usually complete a bit of research and work with keywords related to my title. I suggest using the Google Keyword tool to help you with keywords and making good titles for your hubs. I hope this helps..
      
      Jennifer

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      1. 61

         CaityBugsMommyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         So you are saying to
         1.) make my hubs more "colorful" or entertaining. Make them longer and break them up more?
         2.) as Cagsil says, create more key words for my hubs relating to my title?
         
         This does help, I just need a little more clarification. Thanks so much for responding.

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            liljen23posted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Caity, to clarify I will say to break your topic down into categories to make your hubs longer. Have at least 4 text capsules with each hub and at least 1 paragraph per text capsule. The more words the better your ads are, so you can bring in more revenue.
            
            What I mean about "colorful" or entertaining is saying that most readers like to see more things than just a bunch of words when they come to hubs. People get bored easily and if you have a few amazon capsules, photo capsules, and link capsules this will catch their eye. This will keep them on your hub longer, which is a plus. Make more text, photo capsules, link capsules, and amazon capsules and this should catch the search engines attention. This is something you will get better at with time, so take your time.. I hoped this help

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               CaityBugsMommyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               That is all great. Again, thank you for your help. I've also read a few of your hubs and have learned a little more. I greatly appreciate you taking the time to help me here.

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                  liljen23posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  You're welcome Let me know if you need any help in the future, I'm always here on HP, lol..

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   Cagsilposted 13 years ago

   Welcome to HubPages Caity!
   
   However, I would like to point out that you have come into the Extreme Hub Makeover forum thread, but apparently unsure about the usage of the thread.
   
   I only say that, because you are to post a link to a hub you would like critiqued or reviewed by others.
   
   You cannot expect one person to go through every hub you've written so far. That would be unfair.
   
   Please post a link or two, so we know which ones you prefer to have checked first. If you would like more checked after, then that would be fine also, but the reason for this forum thread is to get advice on a couple of hubs, make adjustments, get more critique after adjustments and then when all set, proceed onto others.

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      CaityBugsMommyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I apologize and thank you for letting me know! Here are the links of the two I'd like read over the most.
      
      
      http://hubpages.com/hub/Cooking-Around- … Restaurant
      
      http://hubpages.com/hub/Healthier-Eatin … r-too-much

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   Cagsilposted 13 years ago

   You're Welcome and Thank you for posting links. I'm off to check you out.

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   Cagsilposted 13 years ago

   This hub is a great topic, however, there are a couple of things.
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/Cooking-Around- … Restaurant
   
   (a) It is too short. A typical hub should be more than 400+ words. And, some veteran writers, other than myself will tell you that 1000+ words is best.
   
   (b) The tags/keywords are not enough. A hub should have no less than 9 keywords/tags. The average hub should have targeted keywords/tags between 9-15 or more depending on length of hub.
   
   I'm sure there is more, but then again, I'm not the best person to talk to about SEO techniques, for which, are needed to make money from writing.

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5. 70

   Cagsilposted 13 years ago

   This hub needs a couple of things also.
   
   http://hubpages.com/hub/Healthier-Eatin … r-too-much
   
   (a) It needs to be longer, because it is too short.
   
   (b) Plenty of keywords/tags on this hub. No need to change, unless you learn more about SEO techniques.
   
   (c) Utilize more text capsules, like you did in the other hub. Why you didn't in this hub? I do not know.
   
   Otherwise, you have a couple of good topics.

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      CaityBugsMommyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you so much Cagsil. I will go back through and fix these before I start publishing more.
      
      I am still learning about SEO and trying to see what other hubbers have to say about how to utilize it efficiently. Its a lot to take in. :-) I will work on making my hubs longer.
      
      As for the healthier eating hub, this was actually one of my first so I was unfamiliar with everything that was offered. This is one of my highest rating hubs. (I figured that if I knew what to fix on my best hubs I could better the lesser ranking, and the future ones)
      
      Again thank you for your help. I truly appreciate it :-D

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         Cagsilposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Hey Caity,
         
         Here are some hubs to read....
         
         Darkside wrote many helpful hubs on HubPages. All worth reading.
         
         http://hubpages.com/hub/how
         http://hubpages.com/hub/capsules
         http://hubpages.com/hub/howhubworks
         http://hubpages.com/hub/Hubscore
         http://hubpages.com/hub/hubpages-works
         
         Sunforged is the "guru" on SEO techniques. Also worth reading.
         
         http://hubpages.com/hub/Writing-for-mon … nt-revenue
         http://hubpages.com/hub/Get-Website-Tra … -earn-from
         
         Relache wrote a great hub about earning generation.
         http://hubpages.com/hub/Improve-Your-Hub-Earnings
         
         That should get you started.

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            CaityBugsMommyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks so much Cagsil. It was very kind of you to go out of your way to post these links for me. I will start going through them ASAP.

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               Cagsilposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               You're welcome. Those are very useful and please do not rush your learning process. Always learn at your own pace. Don't force it.

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   donotfearposted 13 years ago

   Without reading the links yet, I will say that learning how to write is important.   One can learn the best writing skills ever taking the college course English Composition & Rhetoric. I had to take all three...I, II, & Advanced Composition. This is where I learned to write. It was fun, too.
   If college is a bit much, you can order lots of study guides,
   including the English writing guide on Amazon.

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      CaityBugsMommyposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      This is more of an answer that I was looking for. While the SEO information is incredibly helpful, I wish to know how my writing is actually coming across. I suppose I should have been more specific in my original post. However, I am still learning and have never been apart of a forum before.
      
      I do have some college books that I am trying to study on writing. Are there any that you would suggest specifically?

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         McHamletposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I'm glad you care about the quality of your writing and I think, from what I've seen, it's reasonably OK, although it could probably do with a clean-up.
         
         Just to take the start of the first hub you mentioned:
         
         "Sometimes you just want to have a healthy, cheap and easy dish with a different flavor. Going out, or ordering in can get expensive, there isn't always the healthiest option available, and sometimes the cuisine you crave isn't close by. So how can you make an “exotic” meal right in your kitchen? Well its easier than you think. Here are some tips and tricks to making your kitchen teleport to different parts of the world for a night or two."
         
         This would probably sound better written as:
         
         "Sometimes you just want a healthy, cheap and easy dish with a different flavour. But going out or ordering in can get expensive; also, the healthiest option isn't always available and the cuisine you crave isn't always close by. So, how can you make an "exotic" meal right there in your kitchen? Well, it's easier than you think. Here are some tips and tricks to help teleport your cooking space to a different part of the world for a night or two."
         
         That just involved a few changes in punctuation, sentence structure, and vocabulary. If you're interested in why I made any of the changes feel free to ask and I'll let you know. I won't go into an exhaustive analysis right now. In any case, as I mentioned in another post, as well as being aware of specific grammar or structural issues, it's important to read as much quality in the area you write in as possible and let it rub off on you so to speak.
         
         Cheers.

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