I hope everyone is having a great spring and really focusing on making this the best year ever for your Freelance writing career. We want to help you as much as possible so if you have questions or want us to look into a specific company, let us know.
The company I’m reviewing now, HubPages, has been around for several years and has a great online reputation. It only takes a few minutes to get started writing for them and the rewards are well worth it. According to the website, 48 million people discover HubPages every month. That’s a lot of traffic.
HubPages is primarily ad driven but don’t let that scare you off. Their partners for making money are some of the top names on the Internet. It’s simple to get started and the rewards can last for a very long time. Once you set up your account and get busy writing you are well on your way to earning some high value residual income payments.
What are HubPages?
HubPages are rather like a personal blog but set up a bit differently. A Hub is a single article on any given topic. These are displayed as a group on your HubPage. When a reader visits your HubPage they will see your spotlight articles (more on those later) as well as thumbnails of your Hubs. You are not confined to a single topic on HubPages; feel free to write about whatever you wish.
Getting Started
Getting started is quick and easy: You just visit HubPages.com and sign up. That’s it and you are ready to start writing. It’s a good idea to look around a bit and the best place to start is with your Dashboard.
Your Dashboard is very simple and easy to navigate. On the right side of the page is a list of categories that allow you to see everything about your account in a single click.
Setting Up Your Profile
As with most residual sites, a profile is extremely important. You need to connect with your readers and keep them engaged. The best way to do this is to let them know who you are.
When setting up your profile use the same photo here that you have used on other writing sites. This is not unusual for those who use a logo but those using a headshot should remember that it’s good to have continuity.
After choosing and uploading a photo, you can insert a short bio. I have to say that the bio portion of this profile is one of the best that I have seen. It’s a great text box that allows you to play with the text and get everything just the way you would like it to be.
In a totally unique manner, HubPages allows an option to choose a background image for your pages. There are several to choose from or you can drag and drop your own graphics. This enables you to personalize your page for maximum effect. As an example, if you are writing about astronomy, you can use a space background to tie everything together.
After setting up your background and bio you can link to any particular spotlight articles (I’ll get to that soon, I promise) as well as link to your social networking sites. The linking to social networking is extremely important so don’t skip this step.
A rather interesting part of your biography is that you can also blacklist up to three HubPages. This blacklist will prevent specific HubPages from being shown in the section that recommends similar pagers to readers. This can be useful if your Hub keywords are triggering a recommendation for something that you find offensive.
Payment
After you finish your profile, click on the tab for earnings. You will want to set up your account for all of the earning programs. The three programs are Google Adsense, Ebay and Amazon. Just click on each one and follow the instructions. It only takes a couple of minutes and you will want this in place before you start writing.
Payment is monthly through Paypal so be sure to specify your Paypal email in the space provided.
Writing Your First Hub
On the top of the login page you will see the option to start a Hub. Click on it and select a descriptive title. Then choose the appropriate categories. Finally, choose an article format. You can write an article, post a video or submit a recipe. When you are done, click on continue.
This next page scares many people for a second because there is a lot to see. It’s actually very simple. You will immediately see that on the right you have several options for what to include in your article.
You really need to remember 3 important facts here for creating a great Hub:
- Include at least 3 photos
- Write at least 1200 words
- Write a good summary
All of these things engage the reader and in the case of article length, help with Google indexing. You also want to be sure to use the writing box to give your article a pleasing format with subheadings and links when applicable.
You have the option of including quizzes, polls, maps and videos; make use of these options whenever possible.
When you have the article and the photos or whatever else you wish to include formatted to your liking, preview the page. Please don’t skip this step. It’s really embarrassing to have to go back and fix a live page. Once you have previewed the Hub hit the button at the top of the page to publish it.
You have now published your first Hub and are officially a Hubber (a person who writes Hubs or who engages others on HubPages.)
Editing
There isn’t any. This is a self-directed site and you will do all of your own editing. Your articles are published immediately.
Moderation
There is some moderation here. The process is simple and rather painless. If a reader or spot check or computer autobot happens to find something questionable then the Hub is flagged. A human reviews the matter and then either ignores it (most common when dealing with controversial issues and a reader that didn’t like your point of view) or unpublishes it and sends you an email telling you what the issue happens to be. You can then edit it and republish it.
There are content standards here. While they are extremely liberal, they are enforced. A normal adult using common sense will have no problems here. But for those people lacking in common sense, they are going to get hit. You can be controversial without being nasty. Duplicate content, plagiarism and such are not allowed. In the years that I have been associated with HubPages I’ve never actually known anyone who had an issue. If you wonder whether or not an article, photo or video crosses the line, then it probably does. You can always contact HubPages and ask.
What Happens Next?
Immediately after publishing the Hub you need to begin promoting it. If you have linked your social networking sites then you can easily promote your Hubs on your social networking sites.
It’s also good to start getting involved with similar Hubs to your own. Visit other Hubs and share them with social media as well. Those in the community will likely return the favor.
Comments
HubPages get a lot of comments. You can participate or not as you see fit. You may also be notified via email if someone asks you a specific question. It’s always good to stay engaged with your readers. Participation will also improve your Hubber Score.
Spotlight Articles
Spotlight articles are those articles that you want highlighted for one reason or another. One good practice is to spotlight your most recent articles for at least a week. Then put your newer articles in the spotlight. These articles get more notice and thus tend to get more traffic. It’s extremely important to update them frequently because many readers will only look at the spotlight articles before moving on. This is especially true later on when you have a large number of Hubs.
Creative Writing
For those of you who are looking for an outlet for your creative writing or poetry, this is a great place for you. Unlike most writing sites that will only allow non-fiction, HubPages not only allows fiction and poetry but they actively encourage it! You can publish your poems, short stories and even your own videos here.
Scores
There are two scores to pay attention to on HubPages: The Hub Score and the Hubber Score.
The Hub Score is the individual tracking score of a particular article. The higher the score then the more likely it is to be featured and promoted by HubPages.
The Hubber Score is your individual score. It’s made up of all of your Hub Scores and your overall participation in the community.
You also get badges and recognition for completing certain Hub goals. Things like, first Hub published, 10th Hub Published, so many likes and so on. Just little goals to help keep you motivated and make the site more enjoyable. You have the option of displaying these badges or not. You can turn them on or off in your profile.
That’s it for HubPages. As with any residual site it can take time to build up a following and start earning decent money. HubPages makes it fun and allows you to write about things that might not interest direct clients but still have value to readers. Enjoy writing for this site and within a few months you should start reaping the rewards.
Happy Writing!
