is HubPages for me?

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  1. John Serrano profile image60
    John Serranoposted 12 years ago

    Hi, I'm completely new to freelance writing and I thought I'd give it a shot because writing is second nature to me and it's something I really enjoy. But I'm not sure if a website like HubPages fits what I want to write about. It's been suggested to me that blogging is more up my alley. What I want to write about (and pretty much the only thing I can write about ) is movies. I've been thinking about doing articles that are an analysis of the filmographies and techniques of some of the more prominent figures in the classic era like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Jimmy Cagney, Frank Sinatra etc and maybe even more contemporary filmmakers like Richard Linklater or David Fincher or possibly foreign filmmakers like Michael Haneke or Jean-Luc Godard. It's been suggested to me that blogging would be better suited for that, seeing as hubs aren't meant to be 10,000 words long and that they also aren't meant to be read in a series (if I were to split up the 10,000 word article.)


    My problem with blogging is that I'm not sure I want to go through all that effort trying to get my blog noticed. It seems like a lot of work and I'm not sure if my heart's in it. Mostly because I don't have much confidence in my writing ability. But I think that I'm fairly decent, so that's why I thought I'd give it a try. But then again, I'm thinking that it might take just as much effort to get my hubs (or any other articles I write on another site) noticed as well. I've seen people who have been members for years and still don't have much success. I realize that whether I pursue blogging or hubpages, that I won't become rich overnight, but I'm just not sure if any of this is for me.

    I'm thinking that maybe active income is better suited for me. But then again, I don't really like being told what to write. I can't write if I'm not interested in something or passionate about it. Also, I have zero experience so I imagine I would have difficulty trying to land freelance gigs. I don't really know what to do. Does anybody have any advice? Thank you.

    1. Barbara Kay profile image76
      Barbara Kayposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      It sounds to me that your writing would fit right in with Hubpages. I've tried other sites and they all take some time to make money.

      It doesn't hurt to try different things at the same time. If you need the money use some of the sites that pay right away. The trouble is they pay so little.

      Sites like Hubpages take time to earn, but once you start earning it continues for as long as Hubpages exists. My prediction is for years. You'll earn more money in the long run this way.

  2. WryLilt profile image87
    WryLiltposted 12 years ago

    Each hub is basically a standalone high quality article.

    I don't like active income because it means that once you get paid, that's it - you've lost the work and never earn another cent from it again. Revenue sharing, on the other hand, means that the longer you leave your articles, the more you can potentially earn.

    It took me about 6 months to earn $5 when I first started. But now I'm earning a couple hundred per month just from this account (and I write on several sites plus have quite a few websites.)

    It is worth it in the long run IF you are willing to treat it like a real part time job, not a "now and then" hobby.

  3. Marisa Wright profile image85
    Marisa Wrightposted 12 years ago

    I'm going to give this thread a bump because I'm the one who's suggested to you that your material on classic films, which runs to tens of thousands of words, is big enough to justify its own blog.

    I understand your hesitation and I hope a few more people jump in to give their opinion!

    A couple of years ago, I'd have said without hesitation - start writing on HubPages because Hubs get noticed all on their own, without you having to promote much.  Much easier than a blog, no question.  But that was when HubPages was one big site - each of our Hubs belonged to a huge, highly-ranked website and therefore was automatically picked up by the search engines.

    We now have sub-domains, exactly like the blogs on Blogger and Wordpress.com are sub-domains.  The only difference is we have cross-linking between sub-domains here which doesn't happen on blogging platforms, but I'm not sure if that's enough to make a significant difference (some people say it hinders). 

    What we really need is a Hubber who has started a substantial blog and a HubPages account at the same time, to tell us which one got attention more easily!

    1. John Serrano profile image60
      John Serranoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Hey Marisa! I thought I'd find you here. big_smile Anyway, thanks again for all your and everybody else's help but I'm still at a loss at what to do. Right now I'm leaning towards posting my article in a blog and then posting a summary of the article here on hubpages with a link to my blog. That seems like a good idea. Or maybe the opposite. I'm still unsure of which I should stick to, blogging or hubpages.  I guess I got some thinking to do. Thanks again everybody. I hope to get some more replies to help me make up my mind.

      1. WryLilt profile image87
        WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

        John, I'm leaning more towards what Marisa has said.

        Hubpages and other revenue sharing sites are a great place to start out and learn about online writing online, but in the end YOU don't own the site and if they go broke or change rules etc (which has happened in the past), you have no control over it.

        That said, I find revenue sharing sites still bring me decent money and are a good way to promote your own sites.

        Plus you can learn a lot from hanging around in the forums smile

  4. hospitalera profile image61
    hospitaleraposted 12 years ago

    I would go for building your own blog, no doubt, Hubpages are ok if you want to write about a variety of things but if you know that you will write only about one topic, having your own site / blog is better! You are in full control of what you write about and keep 100% of the income. Setting up your own blog is not that difficult and far more rewarding in many aspects. If you need help with that you can send me a pm ;-)

  5. Dame Scribe profile image56
    Dame Scribeposted 12 years ago

    I wrote a series 'article' tongue it was a huge job, mostly about 'anatomy of a wind turbine lol nothing wrong with whatever style YOU choose to present it. Just keep in mind you're writing to a audience wink inject your personality into it so people learn your 'voice' smile I don't think there's anything wrong with your choice of topic either. I find it rather fascinating. When are you starting? big_smile

  6. Lissie profile image76
    Lissieposted 12 years ago

    There's no advantage to Hubpages over your own site, both require the same amount of promotion these days. So don't rent space here -control your own space on your own site. Hubs don't rank quickly in the search engines they way they used to. There are other sites that still do - but if I mention the site I have in mind it will probably get snipped - PM if you want to know.

    If you have a single theme though overall I'd go with your own site, and don't both with multiple articles from here all linking back - not worth it for SEO

  7. Cassie Smith profile image61
    Cassie Smithposted 12 years ago

    I think you should write some short articles on Hubpages so that you can build up an audience and direct them to your blog for the meatier stuff.

  8. IzzyM profile image82
    IzzyMposted 12 years ago

    I would agree with Marisa that your own blog would be better, but make sure you title is correctly.

    You have a choice, set up a free blog at blogspot or any other free blogging platform that allows advertising.

    Buy a domain name and host it for free at blogspot.

    Buy a domain name and pay for private hosting (about $10 a month).

    There might be other options but none spring to mind at the moment.

    Get a domain or url that closely relates to what you are writing about, and is a search term.

    Use the same keywords in the title.

    Put all your articles up, as you write them. I would definitely split 10,000 word articles in part 1, part 2 etc.

    Then once it is up and running, open a new account here at HP using your blog title (or similar) as the username, and write short blurbs (up to 1000 words) about your posts, with a link back to the post, or write separate but related articles and link them back to your own blog posts.

    That way, you have the best of both worlds smile

    1. John Serrano profile image60
      John Serranoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      A lot of great replies here, thanks everybody! IzzyM, I was just wondering, what's the difference in the first two options you wrote there?  (i pasted it down below)

      "Buy a domain name and host it for free at blogspot.

      Buy a domain name and pay for private hosting (about $10 a month)."

      Marisa Wright had also suggested it to me before, but I didn't really understand the difference.

      1. IzzyM profile image82
        IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

        You can go to Godaddy or whois.com or whatever site you go to where you can see if   a dot com is available.

        Suppose you wanted films.com - for certain without even looking, that is taken.

        But just imagine it wasn't, and was still up for grabs.

        Then you can check at those sites that it is available and if it is you can buy it.

        It's in the region of $10 a year for a dot com address.

        Once you register it, it is yours until you forget to renew or something.

        Hosting is how it gets on the net.

        I use hostgator but there are a thousand companies out there who will host your site, and they have made it easy for us by providing us with software in which to write our sites.

        Blogger or blogspot, same place, is owned by Google and they offer free hosting but you have to use their software and it has limitations.

        Having said that, I like blogger.

        You can of course find your chosen url from blogger for free, but it will end up being [for example] films.blogspot.com not films.com.

        For SEO purposes it makes no difference, that I'm aware of.

        1. John Serrano profile image60
          John Serranoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks for the quick reply. So, is the only difference that I have more freedom to make my site however I want? I'm not really picky about that kinda stuff, and I don't really know anything about HTML markup and stuff. Or is it much simpler than that?

          1. IzzyM profile image82
            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            You don't need to know html, both of their softwares takes care of all that stuff, but yeah having your own domain name gives you a lot more freedom. You can initially host it on blogger, then later change to your own hosting company if you decide it's too restrictive.

            I can't help thinking you might be as well starting on blogger, with the free url that comes with blogger, then expanding into a site when you have found your feet, then you can use your blogger site to provide backlinks to your own site as well.

            I mean you must have a million topics to write on within your niche, so there is plenty of scope for having the two.

            1. John Serrano profile image60
              John Serranoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

              Sounds like a plan. Thanks again for your help.

              1. WryLilt profile image87
                WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                For an idea of the difference between hosting and a domain name:

                -The domain name is like the number on your letter box, letting people know your address.
                -The hosting is like the house and furniture and everything at that address.

                You can't have one without the other. smile

                1. mistyhorizon2003 profile image89
                  mistyhorizon2003posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I just love that explanation Wry, it sums it up so perfectly smile

                  1. WryLilt profile image87
                    WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                    Thanks. smile

                    Actually I should say the hosting is like the house, and the page and actual content is the furniture?

  9. hospitalera profile image61
    hospitaleraposted 12 years ago

    As for the difference in using free / paid hosting, a domain name is around $10 / year and hosting can be bought for less than $100 / year. So if you can invest that amount of money I would go from the beginning for your own, self-hosted site. Even if you can transfer a free blog later on, that is always complicated and comes often with a loss in search engine rankings, at least for a time.
    Setting up a site / blog doesn't need to be complicated, most hosts have now Wordpress one-click installs, in less then 5 min you have your own blog up and running.

    1. WryLilt profile image87
      WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Agreed.

    2. John Serrano profile image60
      John Serranoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      what about the difference between buying a domain name or just using a free blog like on blogger?

      1. hospitalera profile image61
        hospitaleraposted 12 years agoin reply to this

        Apart of the cost? With your own domain and hosting you are in full control of your own site and can do, more or less, what you want with it. If you use a free platform you have to obey to the rules, plus, there is always the real risk of your blog being shut down if you fail to do so.

        1. John Serrano profile image60
          John Serranoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

          so, am I correct in saying that the only real difference from all these options (free blog, buying domain name, private hosting) is how much control you have of your site? It doesn't affect how much traffic you get or affiliate revenue or anything like that?

          1. IzzyM profile image82
            IzzyMposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            They say having a dot com address is best for ranking with, but I have a couple of blogspot blogs that rank as highly as my domains. I like them better obviously, because they are free.

            I honestly think because you are just starting out and learning the ropes, it would be easier to have a blogspot blog and buy your domain at a later date when you know what are doing, but that's just my opinion.

            Freedom to do more with your site are just words when you don't know what they are.

            I'm still learning too, so don't pay too much attention to me.

            1. John Serrano profile image60
              John Serranoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

              "I'm still learning too, so don't pay too much attention to me."
              That made me laugh.

              Anyway, thanks everybody for all your help, I have a much clearer idea of what I want to do and of the options available to me. Thanks again.

              1. WryLilt profile image87
                WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                I do like Blogspot. But that said, if you have a year old blog there that you want to change to your own paid hosting, you'll lose that year of "age" you've got with Google when you transfer the data.

                1. John Serrano profile image60
                  John Serranoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  what do you mean by "age?"

                  1. WryLilt profile image87
                    WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                    You may notice that when you Google some things, top results are from pages or forums created years ago (2002 or 2004 for instance).

                    As sites/pages get more backlinks and age more, they also go up higher in Google search results. So if you transfer them all to new URLs, that age and all those backlinks will reset to 0.

                2. Marisa Wright profile image85
                  Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  ...there's an easy solution to that. Use Blogger, but buy your domain name now and use that instead of the .blogspot address.  That way, if you want to upgrade after a year,  you can move elsewhere with no loss of age, because you still have the same "address".

                  1. John Serrano profile image60
                    John Serranoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                    how do I use my domain name instead of the blogspot address?

                  2. WryLilt profile image87
                    WryLiltposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                    Marisa I might be wrong but...

                    1. There's no way to redirect pages from Blogspot (or is there?)
                    2. If you transfer the data to a wordpress site, you couldn't have the exact same page name so Google would see it as either a duplicate or new page?

                    So yes, your domain is aged, but the pages have to start over.

  10. Dame Scribe profile image56
    Dame Scribeposted 12 years ago

    There is a lot of valuable information right here on HP smile use the search bar at top right wink also can't forget videos big_smile

 
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