Advantages of Writing 30 Hubs in 30 Days - Benefits of This Writing Experience
My experience with completing 30 hubs in 30 days . . .
Wow! I did it! I was hesitant to commit myself to writing 30 hubs in 30 days, but I decided, along with about 30, (yeah, 30!) other of my buddies, to go for it. And I completed it. Yea! And yea to my wonderfully talented and supportive fellow hubbers who completed the challenge as well as the hubbers who cheered us on tirelessly!
Am I glad I did the 30/30 challenge? Yes, I'm extremely pleased. Was it difficult to do? Oh, yes. Yes. Very much so. Let me give you some advantages and disadvantages, pros and cons, of participating in the challenge of publishing 30 hubs in 30 days.
Advantages of the 30/30
There are definitely advantages to doing the 30 hubs in 30 days. Here are the ones I see:
1) Increase your number of hubs: Your hub portfolio gets a boost, as suddenly you have 30 more hubs than you did before starting. My average was publishing a hub or two a week--not seven a week! That's 30 more hubs that Google is now crawling around and searching for.
2) Traffic increases: My average traffic doubled on some days. I used to get about 200 to 400 views per day, but during the past month, I would get a minimum of 400 and up to 800. Will this traffic stay up? I don't know. But I also noticed that it wasn't only my hubs that I published during the 30/30 challenge that got the views. My other hubs also got increased views. That was a nice, unexpected benefit.
3) Revenue increases: My revenue in March doubled from that of the previous month. That was exciting to watch. I had started hitting $1.00 per day now and then, but in March I only had a few days below a buck, and many days were well over, some over $2.00 and up to $2.50 per day. I was very excited about this increase. Again, will this increase continue now that the challenge is over? I don't know. I'll have to wait and see.
Hubbers I Joined in the 30/30 Challenge
Check out the following 30/30 Challenge Hubbers. Some chose to do 15 hubs in 30 days due to time conflicts, while most did 30/30. Check them out and read some great hubs written over the past month. I know I have a lot of catch up reading to do!
iamaudraleigh.hubpages.com
With mine, that makes 30 of us who took off together on this challenge. 30 is an appropriate number for the group, don't you think?
4) Win contests: Several of us chose March as the time to do our 30/30 challenge since HubPages was having the Question and Answer contest. For the month of March, hubbers would win money for the questions they asked and answered. $50 was given for randomly drawn hubs, with $10 going to the person who asked the question. There were also larger prizes for the overall best chosen hubs. I was fortunate to win $50 for my Green Appetizers for St. Patrick's Day hub and $10 for my question that produced billybuc's hub: Lifestyle Changes: How to Deal with Constant Negativity. Coordinating the 30/30 challenge with a contest month gives you increased opportunities to win.
5) Bond with other hubbers: Going through tough experiences does bond people. This has been true in the past month. Hubbers have identified with and supported each others' experiences. I have bonded with many other hubbers and deepened the connection with this talented bunch of writers and compassionate friends.
6) What an accomplishment! I proved that I could commit to and finish this 30/30 challenge. That goal was not for the benefit of others, but for myself. I've had a rough few months--heck, past year--and I needed to feel that I could rise above difficult times and do something for myself. Working hard on and completing the 30/30 challenge gave me a sense of worth and value that I have only felt intermittently for quite some time. Personally, the 30/30 challenge process was an emotionally and mentally rewarding experience for me. I told myself I could do it! And I did...with a little help from my friends. (Do you hear the song in there?)
Disadvantages of the 30/30
I'm not going to give a numbered list of the disadvantages of joining in on the 30/30 challenge, because I believe that the positives far outweigh any negatives. I'll summarize a few cons. The challenge does take a lot of time. It has to be a priority. I was often working on brainstorming, writing, and looking for photos. I had limited time to read very many hubs, which also makes me feel bad and out of touch with some of the other hubbers. While focusing on writing 30 hubs, there isn't a lot of time to read. Sometimes I've felt out of the HubPages loop, in a way. But there will be time to catch up next month!
It might be a disadvantage if a person didn't have the time to commit to writing quality hubs, but I was fortunate in that I had the time to give at this point in my life. I'm hoping the hubs I churned out won't need much revising. Sometimes I wonder if hubs coming out so quickly get the attention that they need in order to get traffic, but I did get quite a bit of traffic, and perhaps the benefit of getting them out there and crawled by search engines will outweigh any possible chance of their getting lost in the mix.
I really don't have a lot of negatives to point out about the 30/30, as I feel that the positives far outweigh any negatives. I would recommend that anyone do the challenge at least once.
Join the HubPages adventure!
If you'd like to join this great bunch of writers, sign up here!
Would I do the 30/30 challenge again?
I don't know for sure if I will ever attempt to complete a 30/30 challenge again. It was a lot of hard work, and I may not have the time in the future to complete it again. I might do it. I might not. I've learned in life to "never say never."
THANK YOU to all the hubbers who churned out hubs day after day alongside me. And THANK YOU, too, to our cheerleader hubbers who encouraged us, supported us, and read our hubs! We had designated pimpers who would share our hubs with others. Thank you to Just Ask Susan and RealHousewife for doing this for me. I had some regular readers, too, who seemed to show up at nearly every hub, hubbers such as Sunshine625, teaches12345, ruchira, and billybuc, who said he would be my cheerleader--complete with pom poms, I hope! And of course, a big shout out to homesteadbound, missolive, and AEvans for the idea to do this challenge, the organization to pull it off, and the tireless encouragement.
I hope I've mentioned everyone I need to for now. There were many other hubbers, new and not-so-new, who read and commented on my hubs. I met a lot of promising new hubbers and ran into some older (not age-wise!) hubbers that I hadn't known before. To all of you, I plan to be reading YOUR hubs in April, as I slow down on writing and catch up on reading. Happy hubbing to you all!