Using HubPages to Boost Website Ranking

I'm a professional writer. That means two things.

One, I don't have a lot of spare time. The paradox of being a freelancers is that you have no boss and therefore completely control your time meaning that you have unlimitted free time. On the other hand, the only limitation on your potential success and earnings is you, meaning that every minute you are not working, you are wasting valuable time. In other words, you have no free time. The reality, of course, is in between, but like most Americans, between work, family, friends, sleeping, and a little fun time, I don't have any time to waste.

Second, it means that I can either get paid for writing for someone else, or I can get paid for writing for myself. Obviously, the latter is more fun. It is also tougher to do and takes longer to build. But, thanks to factor number one, I don't have the spare time to go about trying to make money writing the wrong way, or the slow way.

One of the fastest ways to make money writing for yourself is to build up money making websites. Monetizing a successful website isn't difficult. There are numerous options ranging from the virtually effortless Google AdSense advertising network, to much more complicated, but potentially more rewarding, affiliate programs, commission programs, or do it yourself sales.

In the end, building a successful freelance writing business depends on being able to keep those two factors in mind, and being able to accurately analyze how any given opportunity fits within the factors.

Which brings us to HubPages. HubPages allows anyone to write whatever they want to. In that respect, it means that writing for HubPages is writing for yourself. However, HubPages does not pay for your writing, so in that respect it is a hobby or fun time, not useful work.

HubPages does allow writers to monetize their content through various means, including advertising, including Google Ads. However, the HubPages system ensures that any writing published on Hubs also generates income for HubPages, which means you are not completely writing for yourself.

If the analysis were to end here, a professional writer would come to the conclusion I came to over a year ago; HubPages is not a good enough venue for a professional writer to pursue.

If one takes the analysis of HubPages value to professional writers a step further, an altogether different conclusion will be reached.

In writing a Hub, the author makes more published writings available to readers. The author may, depending upon how their account is setup, use this either as a way to write materials that would otherwise be unfavorable to have linked to the writer's name or business, or to deliberately link Hubs to the writer's name or business. The former allows a writer to write on topics they find interesting or compelling without any threat of blow back by current or future clients. The latter allows a writer to reach even more readers, and perhaps, even more paying clients. Yet, this additional value is not enough to tip the scale in favor of a professional writer writing Hubs on HubPages.

That value comes from being able to link quality, compelling, useful, publications to the author's other websites. Whether it be the author's home page, business website, or one of the professional writers monetized websites, these links provide powerful incentive to write useful Hubs.

Each incoming link to a particular web site or web page incrementally increases the webpage's value in the eyes of Google and most other search engines since search engines rely heavily on how many links are pointing at a webpage to determine its value. Even more importantly, these links are under the author's full control. They can be linked in a precise manner, targeting specific pages or keywords, and can even be adjusted later should a more useful target arise. Thanks to the immense size of the HubPages domain, links coming from it provide solid credibility so long as the actual hub they emminate from is of sufficient quality.

Taken together the benefits of making passive income with a monetized Hub, expanding the number of locations a writer can have their work published, and the potential power of incoming links generated by well written Hubs, makes HubPages an intriguing option for writers to use.