New Members Guide To HubPages Features
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New Members Guide To Hub Pages
Welcome New Member,
I've had thoughts about writing this type of Hub, but had postponed it up till now. As a member of two years out of the five years Hubpages has been around and a consistent presence in the forums, I figured I'll do what I can to help New Members.
One thing that will not be mentioned in the rest of this hub is the 30 Hubs In 30 Days Challenge. It's not actually a feature, but it is something you can try to do. The 30 Hubs In 30 Days Challenge is a self test of your ability to write hubs. The object is to write 30 Hubs, one per day, for 30 days. Now, you don't have to write one hub per day and if you can write more, then that's good.
This particular challenge is something you can do, when you think you're ready. Many have tried and failed attempting 30 Hubs in 30 Days, so don't be surprised if you are unsuccessful on your first try. The object is to produce quality content and quantity of content. Usually what happens is that quantity of content becomes all that matters and quality suffers.
Well, let's start with the most basic question.....(a) Why are you on Hubpages? You're either here to write for the love of writing or you're here to write for money. If you came to Hubpages to publish chapters of a book? Then you're writing for money and not the love of writing. If you came to Hubpages to write poetry? Then you're writing for the love of writing. If you're curious if poetry makes money? As far as I know, no poetry doesn't make money because it's a small fan based topic overall. It appeals when appropriate and searched for, which isn't much.
What Is HubPages?
Hubpages is a publicly traded company, based in California. Hubpages was designed to be a very easy platform, which allowed writers to publish on the Internet. You don't need a degree from anywhere to write. Hubpages is open to the public and anyone18 years or older can write "Hub" based articles. A Hub is similar just that of any ordinary single page website. You use Hubpages platform to host your articles. It doesn't cost anything at all. Completely Free.
However, Hubpages also includes a community atmosphere through the usage of the forums. You can interact with other hubbers and follow along many different topics. Make sure you read the forum rules before you even post your first post. Also, if you've NOT read the (TOS) Terms of Service for Hubpages, then I suggest you do. If you get into trouble because you didn't know? Well let me just say this- ignorance isn't ever justified.
Hubpages Features
Hubpages features
- User Friendly Platform For Publishing on the Internet
- A Useful Community Support via the Forums
- A Search Engine For Hubs, Hubbers and Forums
- A Built-In Learning Center
- A Built-In FEED System(covers almost all activity on HP)
- Multiple Streams of Earning Generation
- Weekly HubNuggets
- Monthly Contests For All Members
- Daily Emails about Hubbers Publications
- Weekly Newsletter(includes community news and own weekly stats)
The features above is everything you receive as a member. How you choose to use them is completely up to you, as the individual. There's one feature about Hubpages, which I really don't see as a feature, which is why it's not listed above and that would be the Question and Answer sections. You can check out all the different questions asked and answered. As a member, you can vote up or down responses. It's a choice.
Most questions can be answered in the Forums, which is why I see no need for the Questions and Answers section. Many people post ridiculous questions and not to mention they don't read the rules for posting a question to begin with. Questions that can be answered with either yes or no are not allowed. Yet people post such questions. You could find some valuable answers to some questions, but before you do, please post to the Forums to verify what you find.
Hubpages Publishing Platform
As an author writing on Hubpages, you have access to a user friendly software created for the sole purpose of easy self-publishing articles on the Internet. Hubpages hosts your articles. The affiliate programs Hubpages has for choices, in this present day(as this hub was written) are helpful to creating revenue/earnings, which can result in residual monthly allotments. You can literally create re-occurring month incomes, but do not expect to make millions overnight because it's not going to happen. You can realistically build a six figure yearly income, but you will have a lot to learn before that happens. Not to mention, you will have to put a lot of effort into your writing to make it happen as well.
A Hub page is not a blog, so please do not look at it as such. A Blog is a page that consists of hundreds of smaller posts. A post on a blog is usually about 300 words long and has a link that will lead elsewhere. Your blog will or could have hundreds or even thousands of small posts. A Hub page is a single page article which is similar to that of a magazine article. If you do not understand, then please pick up a magazine and check out one of the featured articles it contains. You will notice that the article takes up a full size page or more, depending on the topic of the article. This means that your Hub page isn't going to have 300 words and be done.
Your article will have more like 500-2000 words detailing the topic you choose and be very informative. If you don't give your reader value for their time, then you will not be successful. If you only write something that is already on the Internet, then Hubpages administration will not let you publish your article. Please make sure that you read the FAQ's page, visit the Learning Center and Terms of Service of Hubpages, before you even publish your first article. Not doing so will only lead to frustration, anger and probably a few other emotional responses.
Below: Hub FEED, Forum List and Hub Announcements
Hubpages Features: FEED, Forum List and Announcements
Okay, this can be a lengthy discussion and quite confusing to some. However, I will certainly do my best so as to not to confuse you. The Hubpages FEED can be accessed by clicking on the Hubpages Logo at the upper left corner of every page. When you click on it, you will be led to a new page, which should look like the first photo to the right ----->
You can access almost everything Hubpages from the FEED. At the top of the FEED you will notice that there's a white box and it's empty. You can use this white box to communicate with the community. More specifically, you will be communicating with anyone who is watching the FEED. No one else will see what you put into that white box. You can do a search from here as well. There's a white box in the upper right hand corner, which never disappears, except when you hit "Star a New Hub" or Edit an existing hub. Above the the "status/question/forum" white box at the top of your FEED, you can see the word "filters". If you click on it, you will notice on the right hand side of your screen a list of other command for you to use or navigate using.
The Forum List which is the second picture, is a complete list of all forum threads that are presently active, as well as, on the left side of that picture are the categories for all topics available. Every time you refresh your screen while on that page, your Forum List will update, providing posts have been made to any thread. If no posts were posted, then only the time measurement of each thread will update. Clicking on any Forum Thread will open in the window in which you are working. If you right click on the Thread's link, you will be give several options. One of which will allow you to open the Thread in a New Tab. Thus, granting you the ability to keep your Forum List in tact.
The Announcement Threads, as shown in picture three, are always in Blue. Any Announcements from Hubpages Staff can be found at the TOP of the Forum List. You will from time to time run into Announcement Threads not in Blue. Why? I don't know. Ask Staff. However, you will also locate any Contest Thread and/or HubNugget Threads in Blue. Contest Threads are led by Hubpages Staff and usually are only for a specific period of time and on a specific topic. The HubNuggets Thread is a weekly contest, which the community of members can vote on specific hubs written for specific topics. The hubs chosen for the HubNuggets are selected by a specific group of people. The HubNugget Hub you find in these weekly threads are written by other hubbers. Such as LadyJane, Patty Inglish, RedElf, among others. Once you have read the HubNugget Hub and voted, be polite to leave a comment in the thread itself and on the writer's hub, letting them know you voted. It's not required, but would be polite. You can only vote for one Hub per category selected. The Winners are announced in the thread and in the Weekly Newsletter you receive in your inbox.
Email and Other Miscellaneous Settings
Daily Email of Hubbers You Follow
You can set up your Hubpages account to receive a daily email of Hubbers you follow. That means, you will receive a list of Hubs that were published by a specific time, the day before and it's based on the Hubbers you follow. You can change your settings as you see fit. Click on "my profile", then click on "edit profile". After which, you will have to click on "email settings".
Now, if you haven't already set up your security questions, then you will be prompted to do so. Please write these things down somewhere accessible to only you and keep them in a place you will not forget where they are. Once you have done that, you will be granted access to a bunch of settings and one of them will be about receiving daily emails.
Yes, there are a bunch of other settings within that area, but I'm not going to go into detail about these because each person will set them differently.
How I set mine will most likely not be the same as you set yours. You will also find settings for topics you follow, questions you follow, forum posts you follow and you can change these things however you choose.
Thank you for your time and I certainly hope you enjoy your experience here at Hubpages.
Raymond Choiniere - Cagsil
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Excellent article. Very detailed and very helpful. Thanks a lot.
Nice one Ray. I'm quite surprised that after 5 years no one has thought of doing this before. Well written and voted up:)
Well, I'm not a new hubber anymore,but Hubpages keeps adding new features. I see the questions and answers section -when used properly that is, which it usually *isn't* - as ideas for possible hubs. Sometimes I don't have a long enough answer so I don't write a hub about it. I haven't done the 30 hubs in 30 days challenge, although I have often published several hubs in a row one per day before not publishing for a while. Those tend to be poems. Articles take much longer to write. Although I doubt there has been a month where I wrote exactly 18 hubs, that's the average where I currently am. I'm quite busy with rehearsals for Christmas concerts, so this is slowing down right now. I could easily write 30 hubs in 30 days if I only wrote short poems like Haiku. But I like to have some variety in the style of poetry I write and I wrote non-poetry hubs too. You should get a lot of traffic with this hub. I recently had my first hub pass the 1,000 view mark and it was a hub about Hubpages.
Hi Cagsil, if I was a newbie and read this I would certainly understand HP better. I am sure the new hubbers reading this will definitely feel more at ease using the site.
Thank you RealHousewife. The TOS is something you should have read a long time ago. LOL! But, reading it now would still be helpful. LOL! Well, to be honest, I should have written this hub a long time ago, but never got around to it. :) I appreciate you reading and commenting, as well as your compliment. :)
Thank you southernwriter for taking time to read and comment. I also appreciate the compliment. I'm glad it was helpful.
Thank you Brian Slater. As far as I know, there have been a number Hubs written attempting to help new hubbers. However, I just chose to take a different tactic with this compared to the ones that I have read helping new hubbers. I appreciate your compliment also. :)
Hey Flora, I only added the 30 Hubs in 30 Days aspect because I originally figured that this hub would be part of a 30 Hubs in 30 Day Challenge and didn't want to completely delete it from this hub, so I changed it a little bit. I wanted to give people a little bit of the idea to try, but wanted them to be careful doing so also. Thank you for reading and commenting. Much appreciated. :)
Thank you Cardisa. I certainly hope it helps quite a few people as they come into Hubpages. I did what I could to explain as much as possible about Hubpages, without going overboard and writing a 5000 word article. LOL! This article is almost 1800 words as it stands. I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment. I'm grateful. :)
Cagsil - I know! When I joined hub I got all excited and just jumped in and started writing. Now I can make sure I'm breaking all the rules too! Thanks! Lol
This a great hub for newbies. I will recommend this to new hubbers to read. Awesome, useful and of course UP :)
Hey RealHousewife, I know the feeling about the excitement of getting started. It was several weeks and after my first ban did I read the TOS and the rules to the forums. LOL! I broke the rules without having a clue what the rules were. LOL!
Thank you very much Just Ask Susan. I'm glad you enjoyed the hub. I'm honored that you would recommend it to new hubbers, but then again that's what it was written for to begin with. LOL! Much appreciate for the UP and marks. :) :D
Excellent source. Bookmarking as well.
Cagsil - I'm with you. I did not read the TOS until I had my first hub unpublished due to links. oops! :)
RealHousewife - I hear ya! I wrote wrote wrote and then suddenly I was like - rules? what? LOL
Well, I am new to Hubpages and I found this to be useful. Thank you! And I do write poetry and it is a small fan base--but satisfying nonetheless.
I totally agree that at least half the questions asked in the Q and A are either
1. pathetic, stupid, and with no true answer to be found anywhere
or
2. already asked and answered a thousand times over.
You know what I do like about Q and A?
I like that I can see if my submitted answer was useful or at least approved....or possibly hated. I like the up and down votes. I rarely ever vote someone's answer down, but I flipping hate the folks that answer a question with something like
"it's in the TOS, read it, dumbass."
I'm not sure that that's very useful or helpful at all - TOS things are nearly always written in a legalese or lawyer sort of way that most folks either can't understand so well, and always feel as though they are non human - and so they want an actual human being to answer their question.
I dig that. So it's a craving for human interaction or socialization that causes folks to ask questions already addressed in the TOS. TOS is basically just "cover thine ass," the eleventh commandment in a corporate world.
Thank you kindly Missolive for reading and commenting. I also appreciate your compliment. I'm ve glad you found it helpful and bookmarked it too. :) Yeah, I didn't read the TOS after my first hub was unpublished. I didn't have to because staff quoted it. LOL!
@AudreyHowitt- I'm very glad you found it to be useful and you're welcome. It's not a problem that you write poetry...I have some myself. However, if you're here to earn, then poetry will not bring you much due to the fact that it's fan base is too small. Yes, it's satisfying to write it and the release from writing it is so comforting, but it won't earn, which is all I was pointing out. :)
Great information for a beginner. I wish I would have come across it a few weeks ago. Thank you for sharing. Voted up!
Thank you Wesman Todd Shaw for reading and commenting. I appreciate your input. However, you would be correct in the TOS being a 'cover your ass' legal document, but it still should be read. Any questions can be addressed in the Forums and not in the questions section. The questions section wasn't meant to be a place where dumbass questions are asked and await an answer, which Hubpages should actually clarify. Asking questions is about provoking people to write hubs which is misunderstood by almost all of the community except for the veterans. But, thank you again for stopping by my hub. :)
Thank you Jennifer Essary. I'm glad you found great information here for a beginner. It is a hub that I should have written a long time ago, but just never did. I appreciate your compliment and vote up. :) It's also a pleasure to meet you. I do hope you enjoy your time at Hubpages. :)
Oh and BTW - I admired you so much when I found out you were banned! LOL. You're my hero! Haha! Laurel is here now she said to tell you thanks for fixing her picture! Ok I came back to share this.
Informative and resourceful hub! Voted! Shared! Tweeted! Pimped! Commented! :)
Admire me? For being banned? Oh Wow! LOL! Hero? I'd hope not. LOL! Well, Laurel said thank you already, but you can tell her it's not a problem. I always take pleasure in helping people. And, thank you for sharing the hub too. :) It's a pleasure to have met you and your family. :) :D
Thank you very much Sunshine. I appreciate all your kindness. :)
pimped?? What is that?? Pardon my ignorance
Thanks for consolidating this stuff in one place. I book marked it. You should have thrown in a joke. I checked all but funny.
Hey Audrey Howitt, it's not a problem. She was just letting me know that she was going to share it with a massive number of people and that is what she calls "pimping" a hub.
@WD Curry 111, you're welcome. :) I appreciate you reading and commenting, and bookmarking. I could have thrown in a joke, but didn't have one come to mind at the time, but I'm grateful for all the other marks though. :)
Success! This hub made the Daily Hubber Newsletter on Twitter:)
Congrats!!!
Thank you Sunshine for letting me know. I didn't know that. :) YAY! :)
Thank you kindly AudreyHowitt. :) Much appreciated. :)
Fabulous hub! This will be extremely useful for the new hubbers. Thumbs up :0)
Thank you very much Jamie Brock. I appreciate your kind words and the thumbs up. :)
Great article for someone just starting out. Even though I have been around Hub for awhile, one of the things I never got into was the forums. Some of them just get to lengthy for me. I would rather read hubs and work on hubs. However, this is very imformative! Voted up and well done!
Thank you barbergirl for reading and commenting. I appreciate the compliment. I'm grateful for the vote up too. :)
Congrats Ray, the value you add to the HP community enhances the overall experiance.
Thanks for sharing your useful insights on the importance of reading the TOS.
Be well and prosper.
Thank you very much Mike. I'm honored and humbled by your kind words. I'm very glad I add value to anyone's HubPages experience. :)
The pleasure is all mine:). My family is a bit cuckoo, huh? All sassy girls:)
Yeah - I figure if you get banned you got the power:) LOL. I mean you must have stirred some nerves! Now that's good writing!
I'm honored and humbled yet again. :) :D
Very, very good, Cagsil. Instead of reading the entire TOS, I learned by trial, and error, and asking "stupid" questions. A hub like this one I would have read in it's entirety, as I just did, when I was a newby, and could have learned quicker how to navigate the site. So I hope others will learn from some of our mistakes, and read, read, read, before writing. Again, excellent hub, voted up, useful, awesome, interesting.
Thank you Fastfreta very much. I'm grateful for your compliment and vote up, as well as, all the great marks. :)
Hi Cagsil -- I've been on Hubpages 2 years and still wasn't all that familiar with some of the things you wrote about -- thanks so much -- very informative and well written Hub. Best, Sis
Hey Angela, it's great to see you. :) I'm glad that my hub even helped out a veteran such as yourself. Thank you for stopping by, reading and commenting. And, you're welcome. :) :D
Very useful - voted up!
Thank you Julester for reading and commenting. I appreciate the vote up too. :)
Useful hub for us newbies! Thank you!
Thank you Beth Pipe for stopping by, reading and commenting. And, you're welcome. I'm glad you found it useful. :)
hey Ray. well, I'm definitely one of those who tried the 30 hubs in 30 days challenge. I think I only got till the 10th or 11th hub and that was it for me. But then again, that was a good exercise, I just ran out of time. I'm hoping to get back to it again.
By the way, this is a very good hub, easy to read and understand. Where were you when I was just starting in HP? LOL j/k
Hey Emie, it's great to see and hear from you. :) Thank you very much for reading and commenting. As for where was I? I was just starting out like you considering we've been here 2 years ourselves. :) I'm certainly glad to hear it was easy to read and understand. That was what I was striving for. :) I've done the 30 hubs in 30 days and I guess I was lucky enough to get it done. :P Thank you again. :D
Very informative! Thank.
Thank you very much ScottiesRock. I appreciate you reading and leaving a comment. And, you're welcome. It's a pleasure to meet you and Welcome to Hubpages! :)
Very, very helpful hub for us newbies. I appreciate your generous help. I look forward to reading more of your work and I must say, your Facebook page is incredible! If all people think like you do, this wonderful country would get back on track. Thank you so much new friend!
This is a very nice resource for brand new writers to HubPages. HubPages makes it so easy to sign up and begin writing that people start writing immediately - write now, learn later. Information, such as you present here, is certainly a nice primer for those just getting started.
~voted up and useful~
Thank you very much Tammyswallow for reading and commenting. It's a pleasure to help out anyone whenever I can. I'm grateful for your kind words about my Facebook Cagsil page. If more people opened their eyes and stopped worrying so much about themselves, then yes this country would get back on track.
@ktrapp- thank you for reading and commenting. I appreciate your compliment. Thank you also for the vote up and useful mark. I tried to cover details that I didn't think were covered before. But, you're right HubPages makes it very easy to sign up and write, then learn later. :)
Very good hub! Lots of good information for us beginners. Voted up!
Thank you Sgbrown for reading and commenting. I appreciate the compliment as well. Welcome to Hubpages! I also thank you for the vote up! :)
Thanks for posting this Cagsil. It will help to pass along to those in my family that just recently joined. I remember reading the TOS when I first signed up, but need a refresher on it. I think I spent two months reading other people's stuff before I finally got the nerve to post my own. Great tips for those just starting out! I will be sure to vote up!
Thank you very much Tlpoague for reading and commenting. I also appreciate you passing it along to whomever you choose and the vote up. :) It's always nice to see you and I hope things are going well. :)
I am pleased to see that some of my followers are making it here after I featured you in my hub luv. This hub is so awesome. Great job!
Thank you homesteadbound. I appreciate the compliments. :)
They are well deserved!
*smiling ear to ear* :) :D
Awesome Cagsil. You packed a lot of vital information in this hub. Any newbie or oldbie will benefit from reading it. Up, awesome, useful, and interesting.
Thank you KoffeeKlatch Gals for the compliment and for reading, and commenting. :) I appreciate the Up and other marks. :) I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
Very informative an helpful.
I am planning to write on hubpages am very lucky to have stumbled upon this page . I sure will read up all rules and regulations and then write. Thanks once again
Thank you Scorpio. I'm glad I could help. There's a lot of not useful stuff on HubPages. I flag Hubs daily. I participate in the forums, so I see a lot of junk written because people don't know the rules HubPage requires from their Writers. This isn't a social networking site. Very few members buy anything from another member. The forums has a community of about 100+ members(I think that's pushing it too). I hope you enjoy your time here. I appreciate you reading and commenting as well.
Thank you Cagsil. As a newbie I found this to be a very helpful source of information. Voted up!
Thank you FrugalandFab for reading and commenting. I'm very glad you found it helpful and appreciate the vote up! :) It's a pleasure to meet you. :)
That hub helped me as a newbie more than you know. Voted up and book marked!
Hey Tammy, I take it you came back to re-read it? I appreciate your return to let me know how much it helped. I also appreciate the vote up and you bookmarking it. Feel free to share it with any member. I don't mind. :)
Very informative HUB -- and written so anyone can understand it -- even me. I've always been a bit confused on "feeds" although have now been on Hubpages for 2 years (slow learner). Thanks so much for writing this! Voted up (for sure). Best, Sis
Thank you Angela Blair. I appreciate the vote up. :)
Hi I am a new hubber. I read your new memnber guide. Very useful. I have successfuly published two pages, all thanks to your guide. As I write this a few lines have just popped into my mind just for you
Happy New Year,
All the Very Best too
May all the dreams that you dream,
Always come true.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
Thank you Vellur. I'm very glad you found it very useful. And, thank you very much for the rest of your comment as well. I hope you have a safe holiday season. :)
Hi, This is great! there are so many things that even after writing on here for two years I need to learn, or review. I never attempted the 30 hub challenge yet, but I may just give it a go one of these days. Its not the writing that takes ages with me, its the links and the photos,etc, drives me mad! lol! thanks!
Hey Nell, I'm glad you found it great. :) I'm sure you'll do well attempting a 30 hubs in 30 days challenge. And, yeah I can see how the links are what drives you nuts. :) Thank you for reading and commenting. :)
So much valueable and helpful information here for newbies and also for review. Very kind of you to share your knowledge with us.I find that re-reading hubs like this to also be motivating and inspiring. Makes me want to "step up" a notch. :) Voted up!
vocalcoach~
Thank you vocalcoach for voting up, reading and commenting. I'm glad you found it motivating and inspiring as well. :)
I only have one hub published.But I will try again.
You are a good guide.
Thank you beijing driver. I appreciate the compliment. And, you haven't a need to rush to create more hubs. You might consider checking out my latest hub- How To Create a Hub : Hub Creation, before you write your next one. It might be of some help to you. Write hubs at your own pace and do it with quality in mind. I appreciate you reading and commenting. Thank you again. :)
I really enjoyed this hub because it explains in plain English many of the things I've already read in the TOS or the learning center but was still trying to decipher.
You have a very straightforward, easy to follow writer's voice that leads the reader through the information in a systematic way. In fact, this was so easy to read and so enjoyable that I was shocked to read in the comments section that it was 1,800+ words. It certainly did not "drag on" the way some writing does:)
I bookmarked this for my future reference and voted it up. I also want to thank you for your graciousness in your reply to my try at using the forums. You made me feel welcome to the community and I really appreciated it.
Thank you DonnaCosmato for stopping by, reading and commenting. I'm very glad you enjoyed the hub and that it was easy to read. I appreciate you bookmarking it for future reference. And, you're welcome. :)
I tend to read all the comments (in case I get something I missed or did not know) such that by the end of reading the, I have to go back to the top of the page and remind myself what I have just read. lol.
This site has generated quite an interest among my peers especially when I share on social sites. At least now I have more information and am off to read your hub 'How to create a hub' and maybe I can finish off the hubs that are pending publication on my profile. You are a great tutor. Another hub I am bookmarking. Thanks, voted up and every other icon except funny (the joke must have been stuck on your keyboard. lol.)
Thank you yet again tendo for reading and commenting, as well as your compliment and vote up. Plus all the marks. :) And, yes the joke was stuck to the keyboard. LOL! :)
I've read this twice. The first time was to make sure I had all the right information and the second time was purely for joy!
I love to help newbies and this will be a helpful link to send to them. Thanks so much and voted UP!
Thank you vocalcoach. I appreciate you sharing this hub with others. I'm grateful for you vote up and compliment. :)
RealHousewife Level 8 Commenter 5 months ago
Awesome Cagsil - and I'm even going to review the terms of service because I might understand it better after having been a member for several months. All great advice I wish I'd known all about earlier.