My Fiftieth Hub

It seems as though it is somewhat of a tradition for some hubbers to commemorate their having reached the fifty hubs mark (and 100, but that's a ways off for me). I decided as I am quickly approaching my deadline for my self-imposed Thirty Hubs in Thirty Days HubChallenge and need six more hubs to finish that I would also mark this occasion with a commemorative fiftieth hub. To be honest, I've half-read some of the others out there, so I'm not exactly sure what is supposed to be included. I assume most hubbers reading this would care to hear about achievements, so that is mostly what I will do here.

Before getting to that, though, I want to thank all of the great hubbers who have helped along the way. Some of them have helped me directly with answers to my questions, but the majority of those I mean to thank are helping the entire community through various ways. Some like darkside, relache, and Mark Knowles get their names mentioned a lot and are very deserving, mostly due to either their very helpful hubs about hubbing and making money online, or through their helpful forum threads. There are others who are not as high profile or well-known that have offered up some of their knowledge in a hub or forum comment also, and unfortunately, remembering names has never been a strong point, so I would like to thank everyone of you hubbers who offer help. A few more that come to mind, though, are sunforged, Nelle Hoxie, and Misha as the advice they have given is never wrong. So, there you have it, any newbie hubbers reading this. Go look for those hubbers and listen to what they tell you. They know what they are doing. I am sorry if anyone else feels left out. As I said, there are many others who have helped me personally and are just all around helpful and supportive. Just because I haven't gotten technical knowledge from you doesn't mean you weren't helpful. Supporting other hubbers achievements or responding to their requests for advice with all sorts of issues, including personal ones, shows what kind of really good characters that abound here on HubPages. I am proud and honored to be here.

I also want to thank all of those who have found it within them to follow or fan me. At the time of this writing there are one hundred and fifty-eight of you, and I appreciate every one, whether you are commenting or not. That is another great thing about HubPages, that you can write something and get feedback from the community. I have tried to give back through a few of my hubs and in some forum threads where I feel I can offer some advice, but much of my hubbing has been primarily focused on building up a passive residual income. I am seeing some benefit, and I am positive that the hubs that have been produced in this Challenge will also bring fruit. I plan to give more back to my fans, though, and will be writing a little more creative writing fiction. I have had trouble finding the time to do so, but I owe this to my fans. I also have the ulterior motive of getting some feedback in return, as my confidence in my writing is still a bit lacking. My fans are great, though, and I appreciate any honest feedback you have given or are willing to give.

I joined HubPages in late September of 2009, and it is now late January 2010, so I have been here for four months. My first hub was just a test to see if I could figure out how to use the tools here, and so on September 28th I published my first hub The Heckler & Koch P7 - A Most Unique Modern Pistol. To date it is one of my most consistent traffic performers bringing an average of 10-15 views per day almost since day one. It's not been much of a money maker, but that is fine. I plan to write some more reviews of firearms I own in the future, just because of the results I've seen on this one. This month of January will see me more than double the number of hubs I had written previous to starting the HubChallenge. My first HubChallenge attempt was in November, and I only managed twelve. You can see how I progressed in January's Challenge by checking out my Thirty Day Challenge Journal.

One thing I wish I had done was to record milestones as they occurred, but I know I am just a short few steps from 10,000 views. I am a little more than thirty dollars from reaching my first adsense payout. I reached one hundred fans two months ago. My first hub with one thousand views was Playboy Magazine: Marge Simpson Playboy Pictures. It reached that number faster than any other hub, but I now have four hubs with over one thousand views. I have received a total of 331 comments across all hubs, and the odd thing to me is my first hub has never gotten a single comment. I know that may not seem like a lot of comments to some readers, but I haven't really written about anything that controversial. I actually figured I would get the largest backlash about writing about firearms, since some people are so automatically fearful, but it just goes to show that it's hard to predict what will happen here at HubPages.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my short time here so far, and I'm not going anywhere. I intend to remain a contributor here.

Any newbie hubbers reading this far, first of all, thank you for making it this far. I will offer what little bit of advice I can to you now.

• Stay out of the forums if you plan on getting a lot of hubs written. The forums are the single biggest factor in keeping me from doing other, more productive hub activities, but they are a fun place to be. Just have your ducks in a row, or at least don't be thin-skinned.
• Make sure you read ALL of the rules and guides so you know what you can and cannot get away with here. HubPages is a quality site with a great community and both users and staff are passionate about keeping it that way. Don't get all huffy when someone corrects you.

Thanks again for being a fan or at least for reading, even if you aren't "following" along. Thank you to all of the HubPages staff for putting together a great community site and keeping the needs and requests of hubbers in mind and also for keeping the place clean and high-quality so we can get some of that good Google love and make some money to boot!