Reasons Not to Give Up on HubPages - My Two Year Anniversary

Okay, so the title is misleading, as I am writing this hub about ten months after my two year anniversary. My three-year anniversary hub, should I write it, is only a few months away. Still, I feel compelled to mark another year on HubPages with a commemorative hub, no matter how late it is.

In my defense, I've been busy--but aren't we all? I'll admit, too, that it was rather disconcerting when traffic fell drastically last summer--for many months. For the first time since I started getting a monthly payout, I didn't make it one month--and my monthly totals actually went down after going up every month the previous year. I had been really excited to write about my one year progress. Perhaps my tardiness in writing my two-year anniversary hub was affected by the disappointment in dropping traffic at the time that second year rolled around..

I've learned some things since that first year. I learned that summer views dropping seems to be the norm around HubPages, so, as I face another summer coming up, I"m not as freaked out about it. I figure traffic will come up again at some point.

So the bottom line? Yes, money can be made at HubPages. The totals each month may fluctuate, and the amount wil surely be more for some writers than for others. But money can be made. And it is being made.

There are many reasons to give HubPages a chance--and to stick with it.

HubPages is a great place to start a freelance career. When I unexpectedly lost my daily grind of a nine to five job (Who am I kidding? I was set free!) I decided to do something I have always wanted to do. Write, So I decided I was going to be a freelance writer. Through a freelance writing class I went to, I discovered HubPages.

Of course, just HubPages wasn't enough to make a living, but it was a place to start writing and publishing my work. With some part-time teaching and tutoring, plus other random freelancing gigs, I was able to get by. Along the way, I discovered, too, that my freelancing didn't have to evolve around writing, but I could add in other things, such as tutoring, which still allowed me to work primarily from home and write as I wished.

I continued to write on HubPages, regularly, to build my repertoire. The articles I published even helped me get other freelancing gigs. I was contacted by a few different coupon sites over the years to write regular articles. The first one didn't pay a lot--but quite a bit more than a lot of content mills do. The second gig was through Elance and paid well. I was actually contacted by both of these sources as a result of my hubs on HubPages.

At some point, I was also contacted by a law website to write an article advertising their services. This was just a short article for a quick fifteen bucks. It was something different, and I enjoyed writing it. It's neat to see what writing at HubPages can lead to.

HubPages is definitely a place to start writing, learning, networking, and building. . . .

Aw, yes, building . . . .

Over time, writing on HubPages builds a portfolio of writing. I've used some of my articles as samples for other jobs on Elance and other places.

A benefit of writing articles on HubPages is that these articles always belong to the writer. Writers are free to take down their articles and move them somewhere else. This is a great advantage, as writers have created ebooks from their hubs or have even published their work in print. I'm planning to eventually move some of my own hubs into ebooks in different areas. I have lots of hubs on my favorite topics: saving money, cooking, pets, English and education, grammar, and poetry. Different topics can be grouped and used for other projects. HubPages is a great place to keep writing articles until you're ready to do something else with them.

I mentioned networking with other writers, but have I mentioned how many of them have become my friends? Some of them better friends than those I know in person? There are some incredible connections out there to be made. I have made many.

I've found men and women that I have a lot in common with--aspirations and goals, fears, and a myriad of other issues. I have friends all over the world, in the U.S. and beyond, and can usually find a friend (often in a Facebook group) about any time of night if I want to.

I have friends from HubPages all over the country that I hope one day to meet in person. Some hubbers have met in person over the years. I hope that happens to me.

Anybody who has written at HubPages for just about any length of time knows that networking with other writers is a huge part of HubPages. The community is a big part of HubPages--one of the most important aspects, really.

When I first came to HubPages, I was greeted warmly. Over time, with sharing hubs back and forth, my following grew, as well as those who I followed. I felt like a newbie for a long time, but I still felt very welcomed by the HubPages community. There are many important reasons for the old-timers on HubPages to pay attention to the newbies who come along.

Besides building relationships, networking with other hubbers has led me to other jobs. Sometimes other hubbers will post about different websites, different opportunities a fellow writer might be interested in, or someone might even contact a hubber personally that he or she knows would be interested. Personally, I have also contacted and referred other hubbers to gigs that they ended up taking.

Hubbers can learn from other writers as far as their writing styles and knowledge of resources. Writers can exchange information. They can find illustrators for their books, proofreaders and editors (a function I'm currently serving as on a project with other writers), or other services through their connections on HubPages.

With many things, there is always hope. The same is true for that darn HubPages traffic. I started writing at HubPages in late July of 2011. I heard horror stories of Google's Panda updates when I started. It didn't affect me as much as the old-timers, as it appeared views were going up again. A year or so later, when Panda hit again, it did hit me, but I hung on until traffic came back up.

Maybe those Panda updates help us out over time? I don't know, but I do know that a lot of hubbers who have been on the site longer than I have do keep hanging around. Or they leave only to come back.

There's always hope. At least, I think so. I keep writing now and then, and, when I'm not writing, I revise and tweak my old hubs. It can't hurt.

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Yes! While income may be up and down, based on updates, the aligning of the stars,and other unknown factors, income is still income. Many hubbbers certainly make more than I, I'm sure. Perhaps they've found the great secret of SEO or keywords. I guess I haven't, but I am still getting a monthly payout almost every month since March of 2012. I'm still building, still learning,, still writing what I want to write.

And, yes, after two years, it's nice to make money on work I've already done. A payout nearly every month, whether I try too hard or not.

I would definitely recommend HubPages to a friend. For all the reasons above. It's a great place to network and build a portfolio. It's a place to start, a jumping pad, if nothing else. Being a part of HubPages is totally worth the effort.

I will say this: no matter where my freelance career goes, I will always consider HubPages my home base. It's my start, the place I come back to, my writing home. I'm sure that many other hubbers would agree.

Whether you are a long-time hubber or fairly new on the site, I would love to hear your comments on your own feelings about HubPages. Thanks for reading!