Go Freelance Writing Articles on HubPages

Writing articles is a great opportunity for those interested in becoming writers. You can test your ability, receive feedback, make a lot of friends and even earn some money. And there is no better place than HubPages, where you can learn the basics of being a freelance writer with little effort and in a friendly atmosphere.

Joining HubPages has been one of the top five intelligent decisions of my life. I've been extremely lucky when joining as I've been greeted almost immediately by my first fan, yes Kirsten, I'm talking about you; and Maita you have been the second, with Lady_E good third. Here I must stop because I've received so much help from my friends that I should write at least 20 more names of kind and supportive writers.

And then I've been lucky again as I've found almost immediately some good hubs to learn from. And many good writers who gave me, and still give me, tons of advices about writing articles better, how to present my hubs in the best way for the readers to appreciate them, and many other hints.

This is not the definitive guide to being a freelance writer, nevertheless I think it will help you to begin in the right way.

Before beginning keep in mind that I'm just a writer, these are only my opinions and I'm in no way part of HubPages.

1. Wait. Don't write your first hub, don't even join HubPages. Look at the Home Page and read all the hubs there, if they are featured there then there is a reason for it. Look at how writers organize their hubs, titles, how many pictures, how they use links, where they put Amazon's capsule, rss feed, comments...... Try to catch the reasons why they are on the Topics Page. And look at the subject too of course! Then from the Topics Pages look for the HubPages section and go to Getting Started With HubPages and have a look around, especially the Tips and Advice section. I know it could seem time wasted but this is Article Marketing and you must know what works and what doesn not. I know you just want to start writing, but this will save you a lot of time in the future, and probably you'll avoid rewriting your first hubs, as I had to do.
2. Join HubPages and follow the Tutorial, all of it. And everything on the Learning Center. Then from time to time read it again as there is always something worth revising again there. I know it seems a bit boring but it's needed to be a good freelance writer here.
3. Write your first hub about a subject you know pretty well using all the hints you've learned up to now. Don't care too much about AdSense and keywords now, you'll have time to hone your hub later. Just write the first paragraph with keywords and SEO in mind, but then go with the interesting stuff. At the end your readers want informations and possibly written in a fluent, smooth way. They don't like much to find your keywords every two sentences. Let your writing flow. Look at what other writers do.
4. Avoid for now things like the Hub Challenge; unless you are already a good writer you risk to end up writing 30 low quality hubs in a month which will bother people so much that they just won't read them. If you want a great start it's much better to go to the Forum at the Hubbers Hangout section and check for the HubMob Weekly Topic. Here you'll have the chance to know many writers and to receive a lot of useful comments on your hubs.
5. For now avoid the Forum, well, beside the Hubbers Hangout. There are many good informations there, but you risk to get lost. You've already learned a lot from the hubs you've already read so it's better to stick with your writings and let the Forum for the future. I know it's important for your hubscore, but I think you'll receive much more from reading and commenting on hubs. And if you stay too much on the forum you'll simply not have enough time to write hubs. And if you don't write you're not a freelance writer but just a freelance reader or commenter.
6. Now that you have published your first well done hub you'll be probably greeted by a hubber who will introduce you to this great community. Go back to the hubs that you've found more helpful for you and say thanks to them with a comment, an interesting one please, not something like "Interesting Thank You" or "Thanks for Sharing". You can do it later with a writer you know as he/she knows that sometimes it's hard to have enough time to write longer comments, but as an introduction to others a short sentence like one of those it's worthless, and somewhat even offensive. If your comment is interesting and to the point there are good chances that the hubber will go checking your first hub and even follow or fan you. That's how I made 130 followers in just two months, and writing pretty un-commercial hubs.
7. Don't fan too much. I know, I know, you join and think it is a great idea to follow every writer with a score above 90. Wrong. Fanning everyone could flag you as a kind of spammer, and what's more it is said that following a lot of people without them following you back affects negatively your hubscore. I don't know if this is true, but it could be. Also be pretty careful to follow writers with a low score, less than 50, better 60. If their score is so low there is a reason, and this too could also affect negatively your personal author score. Start following those who reply to your comments and those who leave good comments to your hub. Another thing to look is the ratio between hubs written and followers. There is a difference between a hubber with 50 hubs and 200-500 followers and one with 2000 hubs and 1000 followers. It's only my opinion but this ratio is linked with the quality of hubs.
8. Always reply to comments, even if you arrive at being a very successful hubber with thousands of followers. In that case it will be pretty difficult to check all the hubs of those who follow you, and that's pretty clear. Nevertheless every time someone leaves a comment on your hub you receive traffic, the money of the web, and from my point of view it's pretty ill-mannered to get something without at least saying "Thanks for your kind comment". I know it seems strange but there are some who do it, receiving without giving. On the other side there are many great hubbers who will always find the time to say thank you, and these are the ones to follow. You want to learn from the good ones right? Not from the traffic suckers. Read the comments on hubs. And the replies of the author. This will give you a better idea about who the author really is. Some topics like AdSense are discussed by many writers and at the same level of quality I prefer to follow and comment on those written by people who at least answer to my comments, even if they don't follow me. Nothing is so ill-mannered than not replying to comments, at least if you are interested in keeping your followers.
9. Try to write at least one, better two, good hubs a week consistently, so that you have a better chance to land on the Topics Page and you could even be chosen to be a HubNuggets Wannabe, one of the coolest things on HubPages, which beside the honour can make wonders for your traffic. It doesn't seem too much, but how many writers to you think can create 50-100 good hubs per year?
10. Whenever you have an intelligent question ask to one of your fanned hubbers and you'll surely receive an intelligent answer. If you're following the right people they'll be pleased to help you. If it's relevant instead of using the email drop a comment, so you'll give them also some traffic. Be prepared to make some very good friends here.

Never, ever, reduce Quality in favour of Quantity. If you're here to be a good writer, of course.

Now join HubPages and became part of this wonderful community of freelance writers.

Well, this is the end of this little guide on writing articles at HubPages, I wish you to become one pillar of this great community and see you hubbing.And if you write good hubs I'll follow you. :)

If you like this hub please leave a comment, rate it and share it.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.