Strategies To Make Money on Hubpages - My 50th Hub and 1 Year Anniversary!

A year ago I was reading an email from a person who I had just met on one of Yahoo's groups. At the bottom of her email, she advertised making money by writing blogs. I had never had a blog, but I have always wanted to have one. I figured if I could make money at it, why not do it now? I followed the person's link, but the link was very confusing and I could not make heads or tails about it. On the link, I saw another advertisement for Hubpages. I clicked on that one which started a year long journey!

I loved the way Hubpages was set up with capsules. When I made my account and started writing my first hub, I did not need to know rocket science or be a computer genius to figure out how to add pictures,links, and even advertisements from Amazon. The capsules made it easy to arrange my article the way I wanted it to read.

Even though, it was easy, I did make many mistakes in my very first few hubs. When I go back now and read them, I cringe. Then I laugh and realize I have come a long way! I considered deleting those first hubs, but I have decided to leave them for a little while longer. I had a goal of getting to 50 hubs and they are helping in that pursuit. Plus, it really does help to see how I have improved.

When I first started writing here, I was mainly doing it to have fun with the "hopes" of making money. I was very skeptical about the money making part! There are so many scams out there.

My first goal was to write. I have always wanted to write, but have never had the chance or the nerve. Within six months, I felt that I had achieved my goal of having fun writing. I now wanted to concentrate on making money.

My strategies for making money here on Hubpages have been simple. I have been doing and adding one new thing at a time. My first priority in life is to take care of my growing family and when I get a few minutes in a day, I will work on my writing. I was six months pregnant with my 8th child, and homeschooling the rest when I found Hubpages. This makes my online time very limited. Once I got serious about learning how to make money, I started seeing my Adsense grow. In the past six months it has been slow, but steady. I am sure that if I had more time to invest I would see my Adsense grow faster.

• Read, read and read some more! -I started out by reading more experienced hubber's hubs about SEO (search engine optimization), keyword research and back-links. I went to the library and found books on these subjects as well. I started learning all I could about them and I am still learning! I did not realize this was such a big subject and how important it is to know it to be able to make money writing.
• Linking - I have learned how to link my hubs together. It has helped get more traffic to some of my slower hubs.

• Read & Comment on Follower's Hubs - I read hubs from people who follow me and leave them comments. I like the new homepage setup with widgets. I have a widget of new hubs from my followers at the very top of the page. Every time I log in, I look at the subjects of the new hubs and if it is interesting to me I will read that hub. I also will read a new hub as well as leave a good comment on anyone who has recently read and commented on one of my hubs. (It is very important to leave comments!)
• Read New Hubs - My goal at this time is to read at least 10 hubs a week from people I do not follow or follow me. This helps to get new followers. This might be a small number of hubs, but I do have a very limited time to spend on my computer. I like to choose my hubs by searching a subject or hub hopping. Another way I try to find new followers is by reading comments on other hubs and choosing someone who has made an insightful comment. This tells me that they may read my hubs as well. I will click on their profile and read it with at least one of their hubs and leave a comment. This is another reason to make good comments. Someone might see your comment and be curious about you. Then they may want to read more of your writing and become your follower.
• Reciprocate to Others - Anytime someone new visits one of my hubs and leaves a comment, I always return that visit and read one of their hubs. This usually ends up with me following them and leaving fan mail.
• Write - Another goal has been to write at least one hub per week or an average of one per week. If I get more than that, I am ecstatic!
• Quality Writing- Write good quality hubs that are informative and hopefully interesting. One of my goals for this coming year is to go back over some basic grammar rules. I really liked grammar in school, but it has been quite a while since I have studied it.
• Increase Traffic -I have increased traffic by having accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Shetoldme, StumbleUpon, and Gather. This has been one of the hardest things for me to do since I have such very limited time. I would prefer to save all my time for hubpages. Even though it increased my traffic when I first joined them, I am starting to realize that one of the reasons my traffic slowed down is because I am not a social butterfly on these social sites. This next year, I am going to organize my online time to include doing more on those sites as well.
• Join Contests and Forums -Some of my most popular hubs have been the ones that I did for contests and the Hubmob. Not only are they fun, but you get a lot of exposure from them. I am not very active on the forums, but when I have a question, it is a good place to start. There are many experience good hubbers on there to help you out.
• Listen To Family Members - Family members have good suggestions for ideas on what to write and good criticisms on your writing. I have found that they can be the hardest ones to please!
• Editing - Let family members help with editing. they may even find mistakes you did not know you made. I have used my older kids to help with editing. It gives them confidence in their writing, while learning grammar. When we have a question about a grammar rule, we have fun proving each other wrong. The main thing is that I am taking the time to edit my work. Yes, it is time consuming, but well worth the effort.
• Leave Comments -I like to leave good insightful comments! I cannot stress this enough. I notice that there are times when others will read my hubs and not leave a comment and some will even become a follower and not leave fan mail. If comments and fan mail are not left, I am not able to return the compliment. This is the way others hubbers get to know and appreciate you. I know I have several who comment on almost all of my hubs (you know who you are!) and I really appreciate them!
• Keep At It - I have found that to make anything work, I need to be consistent and persistent. I go with the ups and downs and try not to get discouraged.
• Patience -I think the main thing I have done and the main advice that the more experienced hubbers give, is to be patient. The Bible says patience is a virtue. It is one of the hardest things to do, especially in our society. We want things now...food, fame and fortune!

These are "my" strategies that I used to get through this past year. Do you do anything differently? Do you have suggestions for me for the next year? I would love to hear your strategies and learn from you too!

I cannot believe a whole year has passed already! I remember as a child listening to my parents talk about how much faster time was going by since they were older. I thought that it sounded silly because we were in the same house and time was going by so slowly for me. Now that I am older, watching my own children grow up, I am seeing how right they were about how fast time flies!

I am looking forward to my second year here at Hubpages! By then I should be able to tell you about my future Google Adsense payouts and how I much money I have made on my hubs.