Hub Number 50! What I've Learned From HubPages So Far...

Greetings and welcome to FatFreddysCat's fiftieth HubPages entry!! I joined this fine site in April of 2011 and in case it's not totally obvious, I have been having an absolute ball with it. HubPages has proved to be a great place for this longtime wanna-be writer to get his feet wet, and I've tried to make the most of it, posting as many articles as I can about my geeky pop culture passions (do ya wanna read reviews of obscure "B" grade horror movies or forgotten heavy metal bands? I'm your guy!) as well as some occasional "Random Slices of Life" entries about whatever pops into my head at the time (I guess this qualifies as one of those...!) I've met some very cool people through discussions in the comments sections of various Hubs and in the Forums, and I've answered my share of bizarre questions as well. Even after all this time on the site, I'm still learning new ways to better my writing and expand my horizons, which I guess is the whole point, isn't it? I guess I must be doing something right, because in my relatively short time Hubbing I've been nominated for a HubNugget Award and also had one of my pieces chosen to be the Hub of the Day. In honor of how far I've come since joining HubPages, I thought I'd share some bits of random wisdom that I've picked up in my Hub travels. I hope you'll find them entertaining and perhaps enlightening.

It seems like many people join HubPages, set up the appropriate affiliate accounts, post a few Hubs...and then they sit back and wonder why they're not instantly making "hundreds of dollars a month" off of their writing like the folks whose success stories are showcased on the site's front page. I learned very quickly that HubPages is merely the vessel for you to get your writings out there. In other words, once you post a Hub, the entire Internet is not going to beat a path to your door all by itself. HubPages provides you with the tools and the space to display your skills, but it's still up to you to do the legwork. Let's say you've composed the most thorough and authoritative essay ever written in the history of the world about plastic bag technology during the 1970s. That's all well and good, but unless you spread the word about it, nobody's ever going to see it. You're gonna have to learn how to give your Hub a catchy title that (hopefully) gets it picked up by search engines. You'll also have to post links to your Hubs on Facebook and other social media sites, on internet forums, and basically seek out every possible nook and cranny you can find around this World Wide Web of ours in order to say, "Hey people! Here's something I wrote, would you mind checkin' it out?" and (hopefully) build an audience. Learning these tricks is an ongoing process (and one that I am still figuring out all these months later - Shoot, when I first started here, I thought "S.E.O." was a guy in a suit who worked for a large corporation) but you can find more than enough tips and helpful hints in other Hubs, Forum posts and blog entries right here on this site to get you started. Don't walk in here expecting to win the Lottery right off the bat and you'll do just fine.

When I first heard about HubPages, I thought "Cool! Finally, a forum where I can write articles about my twin geeky passions, horror films and heavy metal music, and get PAID for it? Where do I sign up?" Before long I had a healthy collection of Hubs on display and was droppin' links to'em left and right, but I learned pretty quickly that my chosen subjects generally tend to be some of the lowest performing in terms of drawing in web traffic. Wow, sucks to be me, right? I suppose if I were smart, I'd start writing about guaranteed high yield, big money, mega-traffic subjects like diet pills, Kim Kardashian, imported automobiles, expensive champagne, and gold Krugerrands. Unfortunately, I know nothing about such topics and they don't interest me in the slightest either, so even if I tried jumping on the trends of the day (which change far too quickly for this old goat to keep up with anyway), the writings would sound fake and I'd end up feeling like a sell-out. Thus, I decided early on to simply keep on truckin' writing about my favorite things and see where it went. Judging from the comments I've received on my Hubs and by keeping an eye on my page views, that seems to have been the smart play, because things have been slowly pickin' up steam across these past eight months and I'm still enjoying the hell out of it. OK, so maybe I'm not rakin' in Tha Mad Benjaminz, but there's been enough progress to keep me motivated, which means y'all are going to be stuck with me for a while, whether you like it or not.

Many Hubbers seem obsessed with finding out how to keep their general HubScore above a certain number, how to increase their number of followers or comments, or they're stressing over whether or not they have enough Hubs, how many Hubs is too many Hubs, ad infinitum. My advice: don't worry about it. Many of these numbers have to do with things that are outside of your personal control anyway, so there's no point in getting all O.C.D. about them. Write when you feel like writing or when inspiration strikes. If you start crankin' out stuff just to reach some imagined "plateau" or a certain number, the quality of your work is going to suffer, and Hubbing is going to become just another job, which would be a drag.

When someone comments on your Hub, make sure to post a reply, even if it's just to say "thanks for stopping by." Read Hubs by other users and if you like what you've read, leave them a comment to say "nice work." Feel free to "follow" users whose work you enjoy. Explore the forums, answer some questions, or post some of your own queries. HubPages has a rich community and a widely varied user base, consisting of experts in just about any field you can think of. There are a lot of nice people here, and it certainly doesn't hurt to get to know some of them.

Even though I've been trying to carve myself a little niche here on HubPages as the horror film and heavy metal music guy, it turns out that my highest ranking, most viewed piece to date has absolutely nothing to do with either of those two subjects. Figure that one out. The moral of the story, I guess, is that you never know which of your Hubs will resonate with the most people until you write it. Who knows, you might have the next million-hit viral sensation that will be Tweeted, linked, and forwarded around the world percolating away in your brain right now and not even realize it!

Apparently I joined HubPages right after something known as the "Panda Slap" or "Panda Massacre." I have no idea what I ever did to offend the Panda, but apparently it hates me and everybody else on HubPages. I offer this advice in the immortal words of Mel Gibson in "Lethal Weapon," "Hate him back. It works for me."

Above all, take time to enjoy the writing process. Pick your topics carefully, write your Hubs with enthusiasm, and take pride in seeing your work turned into a real live Web Page thingy for the world to enjoy. It beats digging ditches.

OK, so this is probably not the most informative or useful Hub I've written, but I hope you enjoyed it. If I gave you a chuckle then I've done my job. When you tune in next time I'll be back to Hubbing about carnivorous zombies, dragonslaying power metal bands and whatever else pops into my head but before I return to my regularly scheduled programming I want to say "thanks" to everyone who's ever stopped by my humble little corner of HubPages and I wish you all continued happiness and successful Hubbing!