The Big 50!

Before you lovely lot leave me lots of birthday wishes, I'm afraid it is not my birthday, and I'm not afraid to say that I am not 50 ... yet.

This is my 50th Hub, which for me has taken some time, squeezing in writing and marketing wherever I could between a full time job, my websites, and a social life (yes, I have managed to keep one lol). However, I've finally made it and so thought it apt to write about my experience on Hubpages and give some insights.

First of all, I have to say that you are all a great bunch!! From day one, I have received feedback, support and advice that has really helped me online and in the real world. There are not many sites that have this kind of community, where instead of just saying you 'like' someone, you actually interact and have intelligent communications.

Now, for a run down off almost 12 months on Hubpages (I know my profile says longer, but it took me about 3-4 months before I actually got started):

Total Reads: 6226

Reads in the last 30 Days: 1119

Followers: 208

Comments: 645

Awards: 1 year, 50 hubs, 100 followers, read 1000 times, questions inspired 50 answers, answered at least 50 questions, level VI commenter, popular among readers, discussions in comments, community contribution, engaging hubs.

Best performing Hub for Views:

More account-activity leads to Adsense for Everyone @ Http://www.WebAnswers.com

Best Performing Hub by Rank (Hubscore ):

How to Make Money with Webanswers.com - Part 1

(The above are at the time of writing)

As you can see, it has been a fairly busy year ... at least for a newbie. I have promoted my hubs on numerous sites, including Triond, Redgage, Digg, Stumbleupon, Twitter and others. However, the best move that I made was to submit my Hubpages URL to all the major search engines (if you need the links, I have a hub about it HERE. These took a while to kick in, but I have now had MANY readers from search engines alone!

All this organic traffic is invaluable, as if people are searching for your subject, they are more likely to read it through and far more likely to click on your adverts ... earning you money! Now, if you decide to do this, don't forget to link to new hubs from the sites I mentioned and also ping your new Hub's URL to help search engines index it faster. I personally use:

http://Bulkping.com

Why do I use BulkPing? Well, instead of just pinging my article to the main search engines, I list all of the backlinks on Bulkping (the other sites I have linked from, like Redgage, Dig etc) and then ping them all. This means that my Hubs get indexed and also my links get indexed, giving them more authority and increasing the different ways readers can find my articles.

Of course, although organic traffic is important, on this site, there is nothing more important than your followers. Hence, I have always tried to interact with you guys as much as I can, time allowing of course. If you make a comment, I will try to take the time to read and comment on your work, if you follow me, I will of course follow you, and if you help me, I will also be sure to thank you.

However, as a Hubber, I also like to sometimes share other people's interesting Hubs. Hence, if I read your hub and thought it was amazing, not only will I leave a comment (and a few votes), I will often share that hub with my followers too. This helps everyone, as more readers can mean more followers, more comments, and more traffic (as each comment is not only a backlink, but also new content to the writer's Hub!!). So, why not spread a little HUB LOVE today; share someones hub with your followers (make a comment and share it). If every one here did this, we'd all have an easier time getting lots of readers and followers! :-).

I have not only really enjoyed a year on Hubpages, but also feel that I have learned a lot and made some new online friends. The people here really are great, and although my earnings are not very high yet (but, are increasing), I have no plans to leave. In fact, I will be aiming for 100 hubs over the next few months.

Thanks for taking the time to read, I am happy to have made 50. Any advice or comments, please drop me a line below, as I am always open to tips/feedback.

© Copyright 2011. Brett.Tesol - Full terms available on Brett.Tesol's profile page (click the blue link for profile, failure to read the Copyright Contract could be expensive. The act of copying this work means that you accept the full terms of the contract, regardless of whether or not you have read it).