Things I Have Learned About Hubpages

This one might need a sticky when I'm done, as I think what I'm about to share could help many hubbers - new and old alike ...

First off ... Where's all of the money? I hear this time and time again how some hubber wrote excellent articles and made nothing ... zilch ... nada. Hubpages is a ripoff, right?

Wrong!

First off, Hubpages isn't a site that pays you for your writing - the affiliates do. And if you aren't making money from the affiliates then they are to blame - not Hubpages!

And how does one make money from affiliates? By writing articles that appeals to things the affiliates can market. It goes without saying ... if the affiliates can't profit from your works here than neither shall you!

Oh, but I hear how certain articles make more money on Ask.com and Helium. Very true ... and those are sites based on offering info ... not for writing poems, stories, or nearly anything you like. Try publishing a non-fiction work on either of these sites and watch it get torn off the wall.


While we're on the subject of content, let's discuss how Hubpages marks hubs as substandard, promotional, or not allowed. Who are they to say what we can write?

Well, *they* are the owners, and they don't do it to show their godlike powers. They do it to keep us in favor with our affiliates.

Has anyone but me read the rules for Google adsense? I know some have, but the majority hasn't or no one would cry in their oatmeal over content.

Google has *very* strict rules over content on adsense pages and when we try to bend these rules we aren't just affecting ourselves - we're affecting everyone on this site.

How? Hubpages places Adsense ads on our pages (40% of the ads) and has ads on the right pane. These help pay the bills here. Now, if we get out of control and get Hubpages Adsense account banned guess what - no more Hubpages!

And so, they aren't being nazis - they are just abiding by the rules for Adsense (and Amazon, and Ebay, and Kontera).

Sure, Hubpages could turn a blind eye and let people do as they pleased, but once Google kills your account you're done - end of story. Don't believe me? Check out the forums here to see what has happened to several members who lost their Adsense here - when it's gone - it's gone!

I have my own site, and I can tell you from firsthand experience that Adsense tells you what you are allowed to write, where you can place your ads, and what kind of links and content they won't accept on your pages.

So, Hubpages isn't being prudish - they're only enforcing the rules enforced upon them by Adsense and the other affiliates.


Next topic ... The forums are filled with trolls!!

Well, there is some truth to this. I have seen where some hubbers will seem to bait others into arguments, but if you look below the surface you will find that these same hubbers are victimized elsewhere and are just passing on the sour milk they just received.

The political forums and the religious forums are a battleground, and much of what happens there spills out into the other forums, making for some discomfort for many.

My strong advice ...

1)  Don't post in the forums to seek out like-minded individuals. By that I mean, don't write something expecting everyone to agree with what you have to say. With over 131,000 people on-board, dissenting opinions will occur. It's natural!

2)  When you're having a bad hair day, walk away from the keyboard. Trust me, it's not self-therapy when you go off on someone, just because things didn't go well in the real world. Just go off and drink a cup of coffee, stave off the poison, and return when your mind is in a better state - it prevents the need for apologies, which many can't bring themselves to deliver, for fear of saying they were wrong for logging on when they should have been stressing offline instead.

3)  The forum has *no* text to speech capabilities, so don't expect people to automatically *get* what you are saying. So many arguments start here because person A said something, and then person B misunderstood and went off on a tangent.

4)  Everyone has a right to an opinion - no one has a right to verbally assault one another. There are laws against this which revolve around slander, and yes, I have heard of people being sued over what has been said over the internet - as well as websites being taken down for refusing to remove the slander that was being spread. It's okay to disagree, it's okay to tell someone they are wrong - but it's not okay to go overboard and assassinate the character of the person behind the words.

5)  The forums exist for people to interact and people do this in many different ways. What some consider inane babble others consider cordial chit-chat. As such, be tolerant of those who came here to have fun and be tolerant of those who are looking to have meaningful conversations.


And finally, I have heard that Hubpages sucks!!

Really?

Well, if that's the truth then I want my website to suck as well, so I can be more successful outside of Hubpages. For you see, I have learned a lot from Hubpages and I am currently using my own site to write articles which I feel wouldn't be a good fit here. *that's right, I actually scoped out this site to see what works here, so I know what I can write about here and make a profit from - as I use this site to monetize my other ambitions.*

I have my little Google plugin watching my earnings right now, and I just made some more cash. So, Hubpages doesn't suck, provided you take the time to understand how to make it work for you.

Many hubbers have worked hard to provide info that will definitely work, if given a chance: Mark Knowles, Relache, Sunforged, myself, Nelle, Darky and others I have forgotten to mention (sorry, I can't remember every helpful name, but I didn't omit anyone to slight them).

I haven't made a dime off of any of the articles I have written to help others, nor have the others to my knowledge. So, why do we do it? Come up with your best conspiracy theory you want and then I'll bring you to the real truth ...

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Ready for the awful truth? Because we love this community and want to give something back. Believe me ... These people slaved over these articles for a reason - to help you learn the easy way what we all learned the hard way.


And I did hear someone recently say that making money on Hubpages is a lot of hard work. Well, guess what? Any writing you do for money is a lot of hard work. Ask anyone who writes articles for a newspaper how hard they work. Ask anyone who writes novels how hard they work. Ask anyone who writes scripts for TV shows how hard they work.

Writing is a difficult profession that takes a lot of dedication and time to hone to perfection. If you came here because you had a dream that writing was a profession where you could make a million dollars by writing anything that came to mind then you were sold a lie ... and I do offer my open apologies to those who were duped by the unscrupulous banter of *make money quick* schemers who sold you this lie to get you to click on one of their ads.

There is no quick money in writing - none. *However* for someone who is willing to endure the 'trial by fire' there is a definite income that grows over time. And if you work hard and stay true to your path - you will experience success - no million dollars, but enough to pay some bills.


And for my final topic, I will speak of those who left ...

We argued with them to stay. We wept when they said goodbye. Then we felt betrayed when they never returned.

How callous are we that we could ever feel the need to contain people where they obviously didn't want to be?

Hubpages doesn't work for some people, and I understand and respect that (at least I do now - a admittedly didn't back then). If someone wants to leave, offer them your blessing and know that they might someday return. By weeping over them as if they were passing on, we make it all the more difficult for them to ever return, should they decide to do so.


I don't know how you all feel about me, but I know how I feel about all of you. You're my extended family - all of you - without exception. And I have no favorites as I don't play that line. So if you don't see me coming to wag my tail when your in a pickle with another hubber it's not that I don't love you, it's that I respect your ability to fight your own battles and I know you'll prevail if given the opportunity to do so.


So, having said all of that ... I would like to give a fine welcome to all of our new members, a pleasant howdy to all of our older members, and an olive branch to anyone I might have offended with this message, as it isn't my intent to cross anyone with what I had to say. I merely wrote this to express some feelings I have had about the site for some time, in the hopes that it might spark a renaissance where we could all see things differently, through better eyes.

And the last thing I want to say (I promise) is that there are those who write here for the love - not the money. And these people should not be seen as any less than our other members. While they might not make any money doing it, that doesn't make them any less in our community. In fact, they add to the community by giving us all something to read that was written only for the premise of our own enjoyment. Now, I don't know about you ... but I like these articles, as they often offer me a break from the woes that life throws at me. So, keep writing them!


Okay, enough from me as I've wasted another 20 minutes of everyone's lives with another long post (sorry, I just get caught up in things sometimes) ... I'm interested in what others have to say.