Can I Earn Money Writing On HubPages?

I first published this information as part of another article - on becoming a HubNuggets nominee. On revisiting that original hub, I realized it made far more sense to publish this as a separate hub. The information has been updated, and is worthwhile reading both for new writers on HubPages, and for anyone interested in improving their ability to earn money with their writing.

Earning money writing online - I thought only other people could do that. When I started on HubPages, I had little idea of what made a good hub, let alone how to choose and research a topic. "SEO" and "back-linking" were just words talked about in the forums. I wasn't a total "newbie" - I had been using computers since the 1980s, and writing for much longer - but I still had a lot to learn.

When I first started here, I signed up for an AdSense account, and asked many questions. Gradually, by reading every hub I could find on "writing online" and "how to make money writing online," and by asking even more questions, I learned a bit about researching topics, tags or keywords, and how to find some basic information in Google Analytics.

I have seen many new writers begging for help in the forums. Sometimes, their questions seem unnecessary, and they are answered less than gently, but I still remember feeling totally overwhelmed when I was told to "read the T.O.S." (Terms of Service), "search some hubs on the topic" or "check out the learning center."

One thing I did learn quickly was that just because I wrote an article, even a well-written article, did not mean I would immediately have scores of visitors reading my hub and viewing the ads, let alone buying anything I was promoting in my articles.

Choosing topics your readers are searching is the first task of any online writer. I use Google Trends as a starting point. Another great source is the Weekly Topic Inspiration in HubPages' forums, which also provides some general keywords that you can research further, and tailor to your individual hubs.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) makes it easy for search engines to find your articles. It will also benefit you to use search terms (tags, keywords) in your title. There are several tools to help. One of the best at the time of writing is the Google KeyWord Tool - and HubPages contains any number of hubs that go into more detail on SEO than this overview.

One of the most important things you can learn, after how to choose a topic, is how to create a catchy title for your hub.

Aim to engage your reader's interest. The title is the first thing a reader sees of your work - it is their introduction to your article. If your title does not grab their interest right away, you will likely be overlooked.

A commercial hub about vessel sinks, would benefit from something simple and direct that tells the reader exactly what you're promoting: Where to Buy Vessel Sinks Online. You can improve the interest factor by adding "unusual" "unique" "stylish" or even "beautiful" before "Vessel Sinks" and still make a simple, clear statement.

A title for a poetry hub, or for speculative fiction, will spring from the work itself, and grab your reader's interest for completely different reasons.

Whatever your topic though, your title should tell your reader what the hub is about. For example, the original title of my HubNuggets nominated hub was, "One Hub, Two Hubs; Red Hub, Blue Hub." A Dr. Seuss fan might recognize the reference to "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" and check out my hub.

I've made the article even more search-friendly to the casual reader by adjusting the title: "One Hub, Two Hubs; Red Hub, Blue Hub - Which is your favorite Dr. Seuss book?"

The URL is created when you type in your hub title, and will be the same as the title, unless you change it at the time of creation. I created a poor URL for my example hub - http://hubpages.com/hub/Dr-Seuss-As-Subversive-Literature - not great for a casual searcher.

To improve the URL now though, I would have to delete the hub, and republish it with a new URL - which means creating a new hub, copying the material from the old one, and then deleting the old hub. My example hub does fairly well for visitors as is, and, besides, by deleting the hub, I would lose all the comments.

Content is king! Even with the best SEO and back-linking strategies in the world, if you don't deliver the content, in terms of either a clear, well written article or the product you promised in the title and summary, or both, your reader will leave - quickly.

Your hub needs to be original, written by you, and as free of typos and errors as you can make it. Let me repeat - your hub needs to be your own, original work, and as free of typos and errors as you can make it.

The length of your hub is up to you, but anything under 250 words will be flagged as substandard. Most blogs demand a bare minimum of 200 - 300 words for a single post, many recommend 400 - 500 words (preferred Google minimum). To appear authoritative, most sites require at least 1000 words, and some recommend 1500 words.

HubPages articles, or hubs, are not blog posts, though. Depending on your topic, you should aim ideally for about 600 - 800 words to be considered a contender.

"Topical" articles versus "evergreen content" articles - there are benefits to both types. Topical articles certainly bring in traffic, but a hub speculating about which teams will play in the 2009 Super Bowl will not have many page views after 2009.

Seasonal hubs, such as hubs about Halloween crafts and treats, Christmas decorations, etc., will have more visits closer to the holiday they represent, but will often have far more visitors the second and even third year after they are written.

Evergreen topics, for example, articles about travel, pets, and jewelry, may not have as limited a shelf-life. Though styles in these areas will change over time, the relevant issues will remain constant and continue to bring in page views for much longer than a topical hub.

Both types of hubs will bring you page views if they are well-written and deliver what the summary promises.

Nothing detracts from your believability as a writer more quickly than spelling mistakes, and errors in grammar and punctuation.

If you are serious about becoming a writer, honing your writing skills, or earning money writing online, you owe it to yourself to invest in a good dictionary, a style manual (for punctuation), and a thesaurus.

Errors in spelling can be easily avoided by using the "Spell Checker" that most word processors contain.

The HubPages publishing platform includes a spell checker that catches most errors, and has a fairly wide vocabulary. Words the program doesn't recognize should be checked through a good dictionary, preferably Oxford English, or Webster's.

Typos, errors in punctuation, and grammatical "oopsies" can be caught with careful proofreading. One of the tricks I have learned is to read the article starting from the end and working my way back to the beginning. By reading the sections out of order, I find I am much more likely to catch errors.

As well, you can ask a colleague or trusted friend to read through your article. A fresh pair of eyes will often catch things that you might otherwise have missed.

Formatting hubs on the HP platform is easy once you get the hang of it. Use the arrows on each capsule to send them up or down, or to make them half-size on the right. A little experimentation and checking out the hubs of writers whose work you admire will help you align your capsules to best effect.

A good hub should include at least one relevant photo. Photos add visual interest and an attractive or emotive photo will enhance your reader's experience.

Adding a video can also increase the time that readers will spend on your hub. A carefully chosen video with an appropriate theme music, can add a humorous or emotive touch to your hub.

Adding links to relevant source material, particularly on a "how-to" or informational hub can be very helpful for your readers. Choose the links carefully, though, and make sure they are to solid, relevant, and reliable sites.

You may run the risk of them clicking a link and leaving your hub, but you are also making it easier for them to find information for which they may be looking - a fact they are sure to appreciate. Often, readers will bookmark a useful hub so they can return for more information.

There has been some debate over the usefulness of maps capsules, and whether any readers ever bother to check them out. Don't try to include a map capsule in every hub you publish, simply because maps don't apply to some topics.

Regardless, map capsules are a fun and intriguing element, where appropriate, that potentially add to your reader's enjoyment.

RSS feeds are excellent opportunities to include relevant links in your hubs. Simply add a specific tag to all of your related hubs, and create an RSS feed with that tag.

http://hubpages.com/tag/(your-specific-tag)/latest?&rss

Instead of using "latest" you can type in "best" or "hot" depending on the hubs with that tag you want to pull into the feed. Clicking the "Preview Feed" button after you change from "latest' to "best," and from "best" to "hot" will show you what articles will be pulled in with each different word.

The main advantage of using tags and an RSS feed to add your own hubs is that it will supply fresh content automatically each time you publish another article in that group, using that tag.

Another advantage is that the feed will provide links to your related articles. If your readers do leave your page to follow the links in your feed, they will be going to more of your articles.

As you can see from the examples in the feeds to the right, I have included the feed of a group of hubs on writing. It's important that the hubs you link together in an RSS feed are related to the hub you're writing. Otherwise your feed may be perceived by Google as a negative.

HubPages is a marvelous platform for writers because it allows you the freedom to pursue your personal writing goals, whatever they may be - whether to earn money, improve your writing skills, find an audience for your work, or seek out kindred souls and make some new friends.

In addition to being a commercial venture for its owners, HubPages is, first and foremost, a site for writers, where part of the ethos is the promotion of new writers.

Not a member? Why not join now? It's fun, it's free, and it only takes a few minutes.

© 2012 Elle Fredine, All rights reserved