Hubpages - An Amateur Writer's Dream

You might be curious as to why you are reading an article about HubPages on HubPages. Isn't that kind of counter productive?

Yes... yes it is. To be frank, I started writing here very recently. For those unaware of how this works, a person is obligated to write a certain number of articles for the website in order to qualify for monetization. Am I writing this to put another notch on my belt and get closer to getting that bag? Inarguably, yes. Does this article have a point other than adding to my statistics? Yes again.

In this article, I will briefly go over what got me into this, how you can too, how it all works, and lastly and slightly cheekily, I might give some constructive criticism to the HubPages team, should any of them actually read this.

Writing for a large online publication was never something I set out to do with myself. I have always enjoyed and excelled at creative writing, but doing it for money, and getting published for that matter, never even crossed my mind.

But all of that changed when I discovered HubPages. As a movie buff, I had been looking for a way to review films as a means of earning a bit of passive income while discussing something I am passionate about. My very first article was a retrospective of the 28 Days, Weeks and Years Later franchise, and I have several visual media related articles on my mind currently, so stay tuned for those if you are into that sort of thing.

But enough about me, the writer. Let's talk a bit about HubPages, my publisher and online portal to all of you lovely folks.

Signing up to become a writer here could not be more easy. A convenient sign up page is listed on any search on Google containing the words "HubPages" and "Writer". Which is how I found it. Here is a link for those interested: https://hubpages.com/user/new/ .Once opened and on the website, you will be prompted to create an account and will be briefed on how exactly the process of writing and publishing works.

You will click on the "Write" box in the top right of the page, and will be taken to a page outlining the overall format, title and topic. Assuming your title is original and has not been scooped up already, you will then be taken to the meat-and-potatoes writing page. It is at this point that you can get creative. Adding pictures, text boxes, polls etc. If you can think of something, you can write about it on HubPages. There are options to add interactive content such as recipes, audience ratings and comments. Dynamic, brilliantly simple, and very creatively loose stringed. What more could an amateur writer ask for???

I very much enjoy writing for this website so please, HP Team, if you read this, don't shadow ban or outright block my account from publishing or monetization... Please and thank you...

Anyways, that said, the mobile website is a bit clunky. The site often locks the scroll onto ads to raise their interaction and view time. Whether this is a deliberate choice by the marketing team, or just an unfortunate and irritating glitch is unclear, but I personally tried to get a friend to read my articles on my phone and he gave up after 5 minutes. Generally it is good, easy to navigate, good for a quick check on your article stats or revenue, but overall the website will be easier to navigate on PC for most people.

The 5 article probation period for new writers is good, and I know it would probably take too many resources and too much time to hire someone to determine the baseline objective quality of articles being written. That being said, it would be nice to have some actual personal feedback post-publication, as well as a probation overrule should a particular writer show themselves to be capable. I realize that freelance work is as close to free labor as one can find and I don't have any moral problems with, but as a freelancer I think a website built off the back of other freelancers like me would benefit from being a bit more attentive with their writers and giving them more detailed feedback. Heck, if that job doesn't exist at HubPages, I will do it. I will sit at home and read bad articles all day every day if it means I can contribute. Ya'll know how to contact me...