How to Improve your Performance on HubPages

You will gain the most satisfaction from daily activities ranging from your job to basic household tasks when you do them as well as possible.

This article is about writing for HubPages; the 5 simple strategies can be adapted to apply to almost any activity.

In order to gain maximum satisfaction from a project, begin by thinking about what you want to achieve.

We started writing for HubPages because we wanted to publicise our website. Our first few Hubs failed to achieve high scores, never attracted many readers and did not attract viewers to our website.

We did not regard those Hubs as wasted effort because we learned from the experience, starting with the lesson that it is important to define your goals.

We took some time to think about what we wanted to achieve by writing for HubPages. We now regard HubPages as an experimental area where we can find out what people like to read about. The HubScore for each Hub provides an opportunity to measure the quality of our writing.

In trying to improve our performance on HubPages, we have learned some strategies that we apply to writing for our own website. We also apply these strategies to other projects, and have found that they have led to improved outcomes and satisfaction.

This strategy is so basic that it is often forgotten.

For example, I recently decided that I would buy a sewing machine. My first thought was that I would go to a department store and buy one. Then I thought that I might find a cheaper one on the Internet.

However, about 5 years ago I bought a new cooker (kitchen range) and I still regret my impulse buy. If I had cooked even one meal on that cooker prior to purchase, I would not have bought that model. It was a very expensive mistake.

Instead of rushing out to buy a sewing machine, I posted a question on Facebook, asking if anyone could recommend a make and model of sewing machine. I asked a professional dressmaker for her opinion. I read reviews on the Internet.

In short, I carried out research before making a purchase.

How does this apply to HubPages? The answer is that there are a great many Hubs that tell you how to write a good Hub. We’ve included links to a few examples.

The front page of HubPages always features 3 Hubbers with ratings of 99 or 100; take a look at some of their recent hubs to see what a really good Hub looks like.

However, if you are really serious about writing good Hubs, the lovely people at HubPages have made it very easy to find a wealth of relevant information.  Simply scroll to the bottom of the Home Page (or your Account page) and you will see the words "Learning Centre".  Click on this and you will find guidance to help you right from start up to working up to that HubScore of 100.

I am going to use my sewing machine to make a pair of curtains. As a first step I have bought a book on how to make curtains – it’s the same principle as reading about how to write a good Hub.

When you have an idea for a Hub, think about who might be interested in reading it. How will you attract their attention?

The title of your Hub is like the sign outside a shop – but the Internet is different from the real world.

If you are walking along a street you can look into shop windows and get some idea of what is on offer. So a hairdresser can call their shop “A Cut Above” or “Thatchers” or “Topiary” and you will still know that they are selling hair care services.

When we started writing our website we thought that giving articles funny titles would attract viewers. We had the idea that people would see our quirky titles and ask “what’s that about?” and that we would have hundreds of viewers.

The Internet doesn’t work like that. If somebody is looking for a hairdresser, the most likely word they will type into a search box is “hairdresser” – not some phrase that might apply to cottage roofing (thatcher) or hedge trimming (topiary).

On HubPages a Hub with a funny title will possibly get some views from other Hubbers, but it will probably not get views via the search engines. We published a Hub "The Cat came Back" which has never got many views. We think the problem is the title because we have received positive feedback about this hub.

If you want to make any money on HubPages then you have got to get views via Google, Yahoo and MSN (the major search engines).

Think about what your hub is about and using an old-fashioned pencil and paper, write down a few phrases. Then spend some time on keyword research. There are a number of hubs that explain how to do basic keyword research.

Now this strategy probably does not apply to my curtain project because I am not planning to set up a soft furnishings business.

This strategy does apply to projects that you wish to develop into a business. In fact, if I was setting up as a hairdresser I would think about the name of my business from the point of view of an Internet user. So if I lived in a place called ‘Big Town’ I might consider calling my business ‘Hairdresser in Big Town’.

This strategy will help you to succeed in almost any project.

Here is how to develop and maintain relationships on HubPages.

Begin by reading hubs by some of the featured Hubbers.  If you like a Hub, become a Follower of the author.  Go beyond simply clicking “follow” by taking the opportunity to leave fan mail; write some lines to explain why you liked their hub.

You can follow links from one Hub to another to find more Hubbers.  You can only leave fan mail when you become a Follower, but you can also write a comment on every Hub that you like.  It is my policy to try to leave only positive comments, but sometimes I will write a suggestion as to how to improve a Hub.

You will see at the end of each Hub that there is facility to vote a Hub ‘up’ or ‘down’.  You can also leave an ‘accolade’ saying that the Hub was useful, beautiful, awesome or funny – use this facility.  It provides valuable feedback to the writer.

When someone takes the time to leave a comment on one of your hubs, respond by making a comment.  This usually improves the score on the Hub, and there is the possibility that the person who left the comment will return to your Hub to see if you have replied.

Go one step further by reading a Hub written by the person who has left you a comment.  Make sure you write a comment on their hub.  Become a Follower of that person (if you are not already on their list).

All of this is part of old-fashioned salesmanship.  If you were selling a product or service in the ‘real’ world it would be good business to keep in touch with your customers or potential customers.

This strategy can be applied to almost any project or business venture.  New developments can save you time or help you to produce a better product.

The people behind HubPages are very good at coming us with new ideas that can help you to produce better Hubs, and to achieve a better Hub Score.

Hub Hopping must be one of the simplest new developments to use.   It enables you to view the latest Hubs very quickly.  You will read Hubs that you probably would not have seen otherwise.

Some of the Hubs that I view using Hub Hopping give me ideas about how to improve the quality of older Hubs by the 2Patricias, or thoughts on how to produce better Hubs in future.

I have also used Hub Hopping to find new Hubbers to Follow, and gained a few Followers in the process.

Whenever I come across a Hub that I like using the Hub Hopping tool, I always take the time to leave a positive comment.

Another new development that is very useful is the Hub Love scheme.  If you link other Hubbers to your Hub, you can gain a very slight improvement to your overall Hub Score.  However, I think that what you really gain is an improvement in the quality of your own Hubs. 

When I find a Hub that is relevant to link to one of the 2Patricias Hubs, I always let the writer know that I am setting up a link by making a comment on their Hub.

 I think this contributes to good relationships with other Hubbers.  Sometimes the other Hubber will put a reciprocal link on their Hub, which has the potential to increase views of my Hub.

HubPages has recently introduced the facility to add a Google Map to Hubs.  This is not relevant to all Hubs, but I have tried adding them to our travel-related Hubs.

Like most people I am involved in many activities, and I want to do all of them to the best of my ability.

I know that to use my sewing machine to produce good quality curtains, I must spend some time in preparation. But the only way I will ever have a pair of curtains to hang at the window is to get on and make them.

With HubPages, it is important to improve relationships with other people, and to carry out research. Both of these activities can result in a good response to your output. However, it can be easy to spend so much time on these activities that you don’t really have time to be productive.

It is very easy to get sucked into the Forums or spend so much time reading and commenting on Hubs that you don’t have enough time to produce your own Hubs.

To succeed on HubPages, you need to get down to writing some Hubs.

Work out how much time you realistically have each week to devote to HubPages. Then make sure that you spend at least part of that time writing.

Try to use your imagination to get the most value for your time.

A while ago, HubPages set up a month-long competition that involved writing Hubs about food. There was a different topic set for each day of the month.

I read the rules for the competition and worked out that I would not have enough time to produce good-quality Hubs that fitted the theme. But I did not waste the opportunity because I decided to write a Hub that consisted of a grocery shopping template. I knew that I could use this as a base and then add in links to recipe Hubs.

This Hub ( Grocery Shopping List to Use as a Checklist) has had a good score from the day it was published, and has achieved consistently good viewing numbers. I used all 5 strategies outlined in this Hub to produce the ‘grocery shopping’ hub. Use these strategies and you too will see an improvement in your finished products.

Once you have published a Hub, don't just forget about it.  Set aside a bit of time to review the performance of your hubs.  You can learn from your successful hubs; you can learn more from any failures.