The Main Mistakes that New Hubbers Make
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When people first join Hubpages I have noticed they often make a lot of very common mistakes. I decided to compile a list of these in order to guide newbie hubbers so that they can avoid making the same mistakes when they are starting out. In the process I would like to clear up some misconceptions that a few pick up early on as to how to be successful here on Hubpages, and what they believe they should be aiming to achieve.
In order make these errors easier to follow I shall list them one by one. Some of you will immediately recognise mistakes or even rule breaches you are guilty of, but this information should help you to be able to make changes, and hopefully you will pass on this hub to other newbies as a guide to how they should start out their new hubpage writing hobby or career without inadvertently alienating other hubbers or finding their own hubs unpublished or flagged.
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1) Going on a 'following' spree. This is one of the most common mistakes a new hubber tends to make. Naturally they start their time on Hubpages with zero followers, and it goes without saying they want to accumulate some followers quickly as they believe their hubs aren't being read otherwise. In fact the other misconception is that they think they need lots of followers in order to be successful and make money. The newbie hubber often wants to dramatically speed up the whole rate it would normally take to get genuine followers of their writing, so what do they do? Well, they go on a 'following' spree, in other words they spend a lengthy period of time simply following hubber after hubber themselves, maybe by checking out the main hubber list, and then following one after another until they get bored or run out of time. They mistakenly believe that this will result in a large chunk of these hubbers automatically reciprocating and 'following' them back. The reality is that most experienced hubbers will check out the new hubber's profile, see that he or she has just 'followed' a large group of hubbers all at once, realise that the new hubber probably hasn't read a single word they have ever written and they will quickly click the back button to return to what they were doing before they checked out their latest follower. One thing they are very unlikely to do is 'follow' their new 'follower' back.
2) 'Following' other hubbers before writing any hubs themselves'. There are occasions when new hubbers read some hubs written by others which they genuinely enjoy, at which point they opt to 'follow' the author. This is great, but if they haven't yet published any hubs of their own they are unlikely to find the hubber they have 'followed' will choose to 'follow' them back. The problem here is that the author of the hub may well check out the newbie hubber's profile to see if they might be interested in 'following' their writing too. It is impossible for them to determine if they like the new hubber enough to 'follow' them back if that hubber hasn't yet published any hubs of their own, so no doubt they too will hit the 'back' button and quickly forget they have a new follower. This mistake is also made in the case of #1, only difference being they not only 'follow' multiple hubbers randomly, but they also fail to have published any hubs of their own prior to doing so.
It is nice to have followers of your work of course, but the above two mistakes are not how you should try to accumulate them. Far better to interact on the forums, write good quality work, read other hubber's hubs and comment on them if you like them, even 'follow' the hubpages author if you like their work enough. The hubbers who choose to 'follow' you after this will be genuine fans of your writing, they will comment on your hubs and recommend you to other hubbers. In other words they will be 'quality followers' and this better than 'quantity' every time.
Remember, there is only a minimal benefit to having loads of 'followers' as hubbers rarely click on the adverts that make you your income. What you want is viewings from outside of Hubpages, as these readers are the ones who are actively looking for the topics you have written about, therefore they are already a potential 'clicker' for one of your adverts.
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3) Posting links to their own hubs in the comments box on other people's hubs. This is a definite no no, as not only is it considered very rude, but it is also against Hubpages rules. Unfortunately many new hubbers fail to read the rules properly, and equally they ignore the wording below each comments box which states clearly that "Comments are not for promoting your Hubs or other sites". Sometimes they misunderstand when they read Hubpage articles that state that this is a good way to gain viewings because of the 'link' in their comment. These articles are usually referring to the fact that the authors name will appear above the comment, and this name will in itself be hyperlinked back to their profile page. They are not suggesting the commenter adds a further link to one of their own hubs as well.
In certain instances if you believe your hub topic to be relevant to the hub you are reading, you might choose to contact the author of the hub and ask if they would mind you adding a link to yours in a comment, or if they would mind adding your hubs link within their hub. This is polite and will not cause the offence posting your link without asking will. Another way is to mention within your comment that you wrote a hub all about 'xyz' too, and then leave it up to the readers to decide if they want to track it down and read it for themselves.
A forum thread on the whole issue of hubbers linking to their own hubs on other people's can be found here, and you might be surprised at how strongly feelings run on this subject. I list a couple of my favourite quotes from this forum thread below:
Shadesbreath said "Bottom line is, don't be linking crap on people's hubs. NOBODY likes a salesman, especially one that barges in without even knocking on the door."
Having heard of a rather abrupt response I got from a new hubber when I emailed him to nicely point out why he shouldn't have done this on my hubs, (the response included him saying it was the hubbers own responsibility to approve or deny comments on their hubs and that he had followed the rules to a 'T'):
Spryte then said .."it would be like me taking a crap in your yard and telling you that if you don't want it there it's your responsibilty to pick it up and dispose of it."
and lastly
Mighty Mom said "I fear the person who wrote that to you is misinterpreting the HP suggestions to promote your hubs.
The
comments section of someone else's hub is part of THEIR hub. It is to
leave a relevant comment, generally in support of the person's hub --
but certainly can be use to correct something you(the commenter) know
know to be inaccurate, to expand upon a point made in the hub, or even
to state that you disagree.
It is the prerogative of the owner of the hub to accept or deny your comment.
It
is NOT acceptable to go around commenting on other people's hubs with
links to your own hubs, ESPECIALLY if the links are to hubs unrelated to
the topic.
If you wish to link your hub to someone else's, you can
a) use the "Suggest Links" feature (which may or may not pull up that person's hub as a possible link)
b) Ask the hubber to put a link capsule linking to your hub in their hub (and reciprocate, of course)."
*******
To determine the exact stance Hubpages took on such matters I contacted them myself, and the response I got confirmed what I already suspected. They said:
"You have not misunderstood the rules. It is indeed against the rules to post a link to your own Hub in the Comments section of another person's Hub, unless the link is crucial to understanding said comment."
*******
4) 'Following' a hubber and then leaving fan mail asking the hubber to 'follow' them too. Most hubbers are rather irritated by receiving fan mail that simply says something like "I am following you, now follow me too" or "Great Hubs, now read mine". This not only wreaks of desperation, but it comes across as a demand, as well as making it blatantly obvious that all they are trying to achieve is a large fan/follower base. They are probably cutting and pasting the same comment into loads of fanmail boxes, and it is unlikely to result in the hubber gaining new followers who go along with the demand/request. Fan mail should be far more relevant and not expect an automatic 'follower' in return.
5) Publishing hubs that are full of spelling and grammatical errors. This happens far too often and it is not doing the new hubber any favours at all. Their writing will never be taken seriously, or be respected if the author can't even spell check what they have written before hitting the publish button. They are unlikely to gain followers, or make an income if no-one stays on their hub long enough to click on adverts or to even finish reading it. The new hubber should spend time not only checking their spelling and proof reading their hub before publishing it, but if necessary getting a trusted friend to proof read it too and point out any errors they have missed themselves.
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6) Using 'text speak' in hubs. Usually this happens when a new hubber signs up who is actually under age to join the site (18 being the age limit). Occasionally it will also happen with a new hubber who is over 18 joins up though. Apart from being incredibly annoying to read, it looks tacky and unprofessional and has much the same problems as mistake #5. Text speak might consist of words used such as 'coz' instead of because, 'soz' instead of sorry, 'y r u' instead of why are you and 'wot' instead of what. The result will probably be that the hub is flagged as substandard, and Hubpages may even unpublish it until it has been revised to a good standard.
7) Writing their hub as one huge paragraph or in one text capsule. Often a new hubber will make the mistake of writing what might be a very good hub, but because they don't break it down into paragraphs and text capsules it puts the reader off and they don't read the entire article. To keep the reader interested it is important to break the hubpage article up into 'bite size' pieces. Make the paragraphs a readable length, then put a space between that and the following paragraph. Use plenty of text capsules to break the article into sections, and then insert video's, Amazon advert capsules and images that are relevant to the topic. Doing this will make the hub easier on the eye on not seem like such a daunting read. It will also ensure Adsense can get all of their adverts into the locations they like to use.
8) Filling Hubs with pictures only. You only have to spend a few minutes going through the published hubs here on Hubpages before you start to come across the 'picture only' hubs. These consist largely of multiple pictures of famous people, often Indian actresses. The trouble with these hubs is the lack of text. They are lazy hubs, usually just photos copied from the Internet and pasted into a hub. It is hard to gain any kind of popularity or following when the best you can do is paste photos on to a page, plus, without text how can Google single out that Hub from all the other Internet articles about the same people that do include text and useful information, never mind putting it anywhere in a search result where it is going to get loads of traffic?
9) Asking questions on forums that have already been answered multiple times in hubs or in the learning centre. Don't get me wrong, hubbers don't mind answering questions, that is why there is the Hubpages Help Forum. The problem is that it does become rather frustrating to keep seeing the same questions asked again and again when the answers are already there for the newbie hubber to find. Avoid any slightly sharp answers from the respondents to such questions by checking out the learning centre first, or just do a 'search' of the site using the 'search' box and entering a relevant question. This simple search should direct the new hubber to hubs, forums etc where the question has already been asked or covered previously.
10) Not responding to comments made on their own hubs. It may not sound like much, but if a hubber has been nice enough to leave a genuine comment on another hubber's hub, then it is only polite to respond to that comment on the hub in question. There is a good chance the original commenter will check back to see if their comment has received an answer from the author of the hub, and they might just feel a little bit taken for granted if the author has simply ignored their comment without so much as a thank you.
11) Leaving meaningless comments like 'nice hub'. The reason this is a mistake is because it really says very little, and a cynical Hubpage author might view this comment as simply a way for the commenter to get themselves noticed by other hubbers, plus having the advantage of their profile now being hyperlinked in a new location, i.e. within their name above their post. This type of comment produces mixed reactions from hubbers. Some say any comment is better than no comment at all, but others will say they would rather have a comment that actually shows the person who made it actually read the hub. My advice is only to say something that contributes or is relevant in some way to the hub in question.
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12) Publishing hubs that are barely written in English. One of the rules of Hubpages is that Hubs must be written in English. Sadly some new Hubbers don't have English as their native language, and whilst to some degree this can be overcome by spell check, the problems start when their command of English is so limited they rely heavily on language translation programmes. Frequently these programs are not particularly accurate, especially if they are the free online ones such as Babelfish. The hubs end up coming out as complete nonsense, and the new hubber wonders why their hubs get little traffic, make no money or get flagged for being substandard. The best advice is to get a friend who is more fluent in English to check the article over prior to publishing it, either that or they shouldn't join Hubpages until their English has reached a more advanced level.
13) Expecting immediate income from their hubs. Many new hubbers are surprised when after several months they still haven't made any significant money from their hubs. This frequently comes up on the forums, and the newbie hubbers seem to expect to see the cash rolling in when they have only published four or five hubs a matter of weeks earlier, often all on the same kind of topics, and when they themselves have only been Hubpage members for a very short space of time. The new hubber needs to realise that it is a mistake to expect too much too soon. If they write lots of similar hubs on the same topic they are not spreading the net wide enough to bring in new readers, and the odds are the same niche of people interested in that one topic might read all of their hubs, but that is only a very tiny percentage of the potential reading (and clicking) population as a whole. Write on all different topics and attract a wider audience, this is what will maximise the chances of a good income. It takes several years for a hub to reach its optimum earning potential, so to expect it to make lots of money in a matter of weeks in at best unrealistic. This is a waiting game, but the income figures will creep up as the hubs rise higher in the various search engines.
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14) Copying articles from other sites. A new hubber may make the serious mistake of copying articles or large parts of them from other websites and then publishing them on Hubpages as their own work, (which in some cases it is if they previously published the article elsewhere, but in other instances it is stolen from another author or site). Either way this will soon be picked up on by Hubpages who will flag the hub as 'duplicate content'. The score of that hub and the hubber will both be affected, yet frequently the new hubber will go on to the forums and adamantly deny they copied it at all. The fact is that if a large portion or all of the article is written elsewhere on the Internet, even if it was your own work originally, it will quickly be discovered by the Hubpages software regardless of whose work it was originally. My advice to new hubbers would be to say, before you start spitting feathers and getting irate that your hub has been labelled as a duplicate, think about it carefully. If you already wrote the content yourself, but published it elsewhere prior to Hubpages, then it is a duplicate, and its effectiveness has been diluted as it appears in more than one location. This means the duplicate label is correct, likewise If you know you did pinch it from someone else, then quietly delete it and don't make the same mistake again.
15) Treating Hubpages as purely a means to drive traffic to their own website. I have seen new hubbers get quite upset when their hubs are flagged as 'overly promotional'. This usually arises because they are treating Hubpages as purely a means of driving traffic back to their own commercial websites, and what they fail to realise is that by linking to the same commercial website more than twice on one hub, or linking to it many times across their various hubs, they are breaking the Hubpages terms and conditions. Hubpages offer a publishing medium for free, it it only fair that they make a profit to make this worthwhile. We cannot blame them for not allowing us to join the site simply in order to spend our time trying to take traffic away from it. It is also worth bearing in mind that linking more than twice to affiliate sites such as Clickbank will also result in the hub being flagged as overly promotional.
- Advice for New Hubbers on How To Begin
I wrote to a friend who had just published her first Hub giving her advise with making her writing on HubPages a success. Then I realized it could be useful for any new writer. This is what I sent her...
I hope this hub will prove beneficial to many new hubbers and that it will help them to avoid making these mistakes themselves. If I have missed any relevant mistakes or rule breaches from the list I am sure some of my fellow hubbers will quickly add them in the comments section below.
If you are reading this and you haven't yet joined Hubpages yourself but fancy making an extra online income, I promise you it is a very rewarding experience and I hugely recommend you sign up here.
Another excellent hub I recommend for new hubbers can be found here: http://hubpages.com/hub/advise-for-new-writers
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A great hub , so useful and thanks for sharing.
An useful/vote up here.
Take care
Eiddwen
This is an excellent list of hubber "no-no's," misty. Now if we can just get hubbers to read and act on them!
Wow... you made this very "clear", my friend. I hope new hubber would love to read this hub and they want to learn before start hubbing or writing a hub. The rule is important, better to obey the rule and do the best. You have collection about what should we do and what we shouldn't do. Learning is never useless, especially to others who have experience. I give much time doing research before make a new hub. And I thought we need hard work and passion to be success in HP, right. Vote up. Good work, my friend.
Love and peace,
New hubbers should have to read this hub as an introductory! Great work!
Thanks for taking the time to put together this very useful "blueprint" for hubbers. As a newbie myself I shall be employing the ideas within my own hublife. Cheers
Hi Bob, I too made that mistake, but I did go back a few weeks ago and have a massive 'unfollowing' session. Sounds harsher than it is as I 'unfollowed' only the hubbers who I noticed hadn't written a hub for many many months, those who had very low hub author scores such as 40 or less and the ones who I know I have never read even though they were on my list for 2 years or so.Thanks for the visit and the comment, I always appreciate your taking this time for me :)
Hi Eiddwen, thanks so much for the 'up' vote. I am glad you liked this :)
Hi drbj, that is the tough part, getting them to read them or seek them out. A shame Hubpages doesn't issue new members with a list of hubs they recommend they read before they begin publishing. Glad you liked this hub and thanks for the feedback :)
Hi Prasetio, thanks for your lovely comment, you are such a sincere and warm person, and this is so well known on Hubpages. I really appreciate the vote up too :)
Hi Triplet Mom, thanks for the feedback, I would love to see all new Hubbers read this, but not sure how it could be achieved.
Hi strich56, I am delighted this hub will be of use to you in your new Hubbing life. It makes it worthwhile having written it in the first place. Thanks for the feedback :)
I'm new to Hubpages and I was looking around to find out what not to do before posting my first hub. Thanks for the useful information :)
You are very welcome sheerplan, I am delighted you plan to follow the advice here. Welcome to Hubpages :)
I myself was guilty of #7 when I first started, wish I had had this thorough explanation then. This is great information for new hubbers.
I'm another new hubber guilty of #7- thanks for the advice! I find it somewhat difficult to switch from blog-mode to hubber mode, where your writing is squished around advertising. *Sigh*, the things we do in the hope of extra cash...
voted up and useful! Very well written and factual. Great advice and should be 'required reading' by all hubbers...
very good points for newbies and intermediate hubbers. BTW, nice hub :).
No seriously, I agree with what you wrote and its good to see comments that are more detailed and help others.
Moreover, the babelfhish-jibberish content makes the bounce rate pretty high. Maybe in the future it will become more strict like E-how or Demand Media.
Thanks for commenting Bail Up, I think many new Hubbers are guilty of #7 and it is a shame they didn't know before this kind of info before they published as it would save them so much time going back and breaking all the text up again. Glad you liked this hub.
Hi Jessica, thanks for your comment too. Don't worry, it soon becomes 2nd nature to break your text into capsules, and there are plenty of helpful hubs here that explain the best length for your first few capsules in order to guarantee maximum adverts are included in places where they are most likely to be clicked upon.
Just take a look at other hubs here and you will see what I mean, plus you will see how much easier they are to read when broken up into nice sized chunks of text.
Thanks Samsons1 for the lovely feedback. You never know, one day Hubpages might make certain hubs like this 'required reading' although I am not totally sure yet how they could make this happen. Glad you liked it.
Hi ocbill, thanks for the feedback, it is so important that newbie hubbers read stuff like this soon after joining (or at least I believe it is). I tried Babelfish a few times for my own purposes when translating Spanish documents etc, and even when only asking it to translate one sentence it was coming back with jibberish. God only knows what it would do to an entire article put through it, never mind what the results would do to Hubpages reputation if published.
I`m a new hubber and thought i`d do some research before starting to write. Thanks for the great advice
Thanks WildWildWomen, you are right to do your research first, I only wish more new hubbers had the sense to check out this kind of information as you have done. Welcome to Hubpages.
Not only is this a useful hub about hubpages, it is also a great hub on publishing on the web altogether. I would say "nice hub", but I don't want to violate rule #11. :)
LOL, thanks Warlock, I am flattered by your feedback, and I guess 'nice hub' is okay when accompanied by the previous text ;)
Love the clarity and simplicity of your hub,am new to hubpages and i'll take your advice seriously
Thank you ckimani, I am really pleased this is helpful to you and wish you a great future here on Hubpages :)
Thank you, Misty. I need all the help I can get as a new Hubber. :)
You are very welcome Vickie, welcome to Hubpages, you are going to love it here :)
Good detailed summary of the main mistakes that new hubbers usually make. This hub is must read for every newcomers. Thanks Misty.
Thanks TopUniverse, I hope they read it too :)
Wish i saw this on my first day. Now i understand the usefulness of multiple text capsules.
Without doubt the best hub I have read on this topic so far.
I have been meaning to write a hub on this exact topic but after reading yours I don't think I'll bother, I can't top yours. Well Done!
There's probably a lot of other Faux Pa's of Hubbing but you've covered the most common ones.
One that I regularly see though is someone with 36 Amazon Affiliate products on their hub, most of which are totally irrelevant to their hub topic or content theme.
What newbies don't realize is that from an SEO perspective is that having such a large number of outgoing links is like having a ship made of swiss cheese.
No matter how much you backlink your Hub is just not going to hold any link love.
Besides, Amazon is not a great earner on hubs anyway unless you have really done your homework on a specific product.
Anyway congratulations an a truly exceptional and valuable hub.
Hi NnekaO, it isn't too late to go back and break up your text into capsules though, annoying, but possible, so not all bad news. I am glad this hub helped bring this to your attention and appreciate your leaving me feedback.
Hi Dablufox, so glad you liked this hub. I totally agree with you on the Amazon products, and the other bad habit people have is to whallop about 10 of these products centrally between text capsules. Very distracting even if they are relevant adverts, so much better to align less adverts to the right hand side of a text capsule, making sure the adverts don't go on below the length of the text itself.
Thanks for you feedback :)
wow this hub was deffintely really helpful and i appreciate your help, Ive seen this happening many of times although i am a new hubber i'd never want to break the rules and honestly i just love to write so when the money comes it will happen eventually and will be a nice award for puting in the effort like you hubbers who have been here for awhile!
Excellent! As other readers commented, your Hub should be mandatory reading for anyone starting out on HubPages.
Every one of the 15 "mistakes" occurs for this reason: failure to become familiar with the terms and purpose of HubPages before publishing. Jumping in here without getting this information is like investing in real estate without doing your homework, an action more likely leading to failure than success.
Rated up and useful, needless to say! (If "essential" were an option, that's the one I would I would have chosen.)
Hi Ellarose, I am really pleased you found this hub helpful, and trust me, you are taking the right attitude with regards to the not breaking rules and being patient regarding income. It will happen, it just takes a little time. Welcome to Hubpages.
Hi Sally, thanks for that wonderful feedback, the thumbs up and the 'useful' rating. I agree, these mistakes always arise as a result of newbies being in too much of a hurry to publish without checking out the rules, advice hubs etc.
Perhaps Hubpages should introduce an 'essential' option to vote for at the end of hubs too, but perhaps only Hubbers who have been here for a year or more would be allowed to select that option :)
This was useful. Thanks
You are welcome Mrs. J. B.. hope you can utilise it .
Yes I can since I am a new hubber. I hope my hubs improve because of your advice. Thanks again
Welcome to Hubpages, you will do just fine I am sure :)
It is super bowl sunday so I am in between either plays or commercials
No worries, will look forward to seeing your work on Hubpages in the months to come :)
I do have a few hubs out there but they are nothing like what shadesbreath, you and so many others can create.
Don't worry, practice makes perfect, just keep on writing, and reading educational hubs. Never be afraid to ask questions either, (assuming it hasn't already been well covered previously and can be found on the site with a basic search).
i rite hub for u in engleesh frum now on.
yur prittie. r u mareed?
LOL Joe, what are you like!!! Great to see you here, one of my very favourite hubbers :) :) :)
(This guy is well worth following everyone, especially if you enjoy a good belly aching laugh).
Thanks. I appreciate all your help.
Well said. New hubbers should really read this and learn from it. It's already a long list, I know, but I think there are more mistakes that new hubbers can learn to avoid making. Will there be a sequel to this ? :)
Thanks for this hub! I'm a newbie and thank goodness I haven't made even of these goofs so far! Very helpful.
Hi, thank you for this hub it is very helpfull. I too am a new hubber and although I have read alot of things from the learning centre, it is easy to forget a little as there is so much information. I think I am guilty of point seven in my first one or two hubs and hopefully I havent made too many mistakes.
I am wondering about what you have said regarding following hubbers, I have made comments on a couple of hubs that I have found interesting and informative, especially ones educating me on hubpages, is there another way to keep track of these hubs apart from following the hubber here?
you are right with some of the common mistakes new hubbers make, I made mistakes and hello I am still learning. It is good that you toke time to put all the mistakes on a hub. great job on the hub.
Well presented, clearly stated, and useful. Excellent advice for newcomers like myself, very helpful! I was under the impression that our work would appear as "duplicate" even if the work in question that appears on other websites is ours.
I believe when I looked at the FAQ it said something like, "it doesn't matter if you are the original author. If it appears on other sites, it will be marked as "duplicate" because we want to reward hubbers who submit original content". According to your advice here though, it appears as if I misunderstood the wording on this issue. I will be happy to rectify this in my own hubpages! So, thank you very much!
Hi Ingenira, I am pleased you found this useful. I wasn't planning to do a sequel, although there are other mistakes hubbers make. I shall have a think about it.
Hi DIY weddingplanner, that is good to hear. Welcome to Hubpages.
Hi Lissa101, well if it just that particular hub you want to follow, (bear in mind it is not a blog, so the only thing that is likely to change is the comments), then I would simply bookmark it in your favourites on your computer. You can also check the box under the comments box which states "email me when the author of this hub posts their next comment", but you will need to tick this box again each time you visit the hub after a comment by the author has been posted.
Welcome to Hubpages by the way.
Thanks Glen619, I appreciate your feedback.
Thanks bugslady8949, A great compliment, glad you approved :)
as a relative newbie to hubpages i found this hub informative and useful i will try not to make some of the mistakes on here :)
Hi Entwife, actually you might be right on that. The situation that happened to me was slightly different, and someone actually stole my hub and published it as their own, ironically they were silly enough to publish it here on Hubpages, along with several other copied Hubs, (one of which belonged to a senior member of Hubpages staff). It was easy for me to prove it was my own work because Hubpages had dates for the publication of both my hub and the copy, so they issued me with an 'exemption from the duplicate content penalty' and also stated 'this hub is a certified original'. To this day the notice stating this appears to me only, at the top of that hubpage. I am not totally sure if they would do the same if the work was your own and remained published elsewhere, because its effectiveness is diluted if it can be found in more than one location.
Hi carli_tv, good luck here on Hubpages, and ideally try not to make any of the above mistakes as opposed to just not making 'some of them', as that way you will go far in your future here :)
This is a very useful Hub, which I have voted up. I think some of the points are a good reminder for 'old' hubbers as well as new ones.
I'm really pleased that you included my pet hate: hubbers who add us as a friend, and say in the comments box "please add me". My automatic response is "no". (Actually if I'm having a bad day my response is a bit rude.).
I would add another tip for new hubbers. If you find yourself with time to write, but no inspiration, go back and review your existing hubs. You may pick up errors or find that you can add some relevant capsules. I have found that sometimes it is possible to achieve a better division of capsules after a bit of examination of an old hub. Most of my changes have resulted in an improved hubscore and some more viewers.
I think I should conclude this comment by writing "nice hub".
I am going to use your helpful tips as I get ready to write my next hub. Should be ready to publish by tomorrow.
Hi 2Patricias, great to see you on my hub as always :) Thanks for adding that very useful tip as well. It is always a good idea to periodically go back and update our hubs, make adjustments to improve them etc.
Hi Mrs. J. B. Excellent, hope it turns out to be a good one for you :)
Thank you for sharing your insights. I am very new to hubpages and have so much to learn. As a newbie I value the advice. I have been unsure if I should write within a narrow field of topics or a broad one. I prefer writing on a variety of topics. Glad to hear that this is the right way to go.
This was a great hub, it helped to put the hub rules into perspective for me. It also gave me a lot of insight on how my hubs should, and shouldn't look. Thank you, a great help!
Well written hub and chock full of information for both new hubbers and the "old timers." I have fallen victim and learned from putting all my text in one capsule instead of breaking up for better flow especially in regards to longer hubs. The reader will most likely grow bored not so much from the content (hopefully) just the monotonous flow. Thanks for publishing this hub.
Great hub! Thanks for clearing up many of these issues for our new hubbers.
I would like to clarify one point that we have received a couple of emails about already. The issue of duplicate content on HubPages is completely separate from issues of plagiarism or copyright. All that it means is that we found text very similar to what is contained in a Hub elsewhere on the Web. We will not waive duplicate content warnings from new hubbers hubs. It takes a great deal of time and a large number of high-quality published hubs before we are confident that a hub that is duplicated was not posted by the author.
Hi MrGreywolf38 I am really pleased you found this hub so helpful, and thanks for posting your feedback. Good luck here on Hubpages :)
Hi Keisha, Thanks for posting, I am happy to have been of help to you. Welcome to Hubpages :)
Hi KJS411, really pleased you enjoyed this and thanks for posting your feedback here. :)
I have not yet written anything in Hubpages I found this to be very useful and will read more of these Hubs for beginners.Thank you so much it was very informative and useful.
++
Hi Norah,
Thanks so much for posting here and for clarifying that point. It just shows even established Hubbers like myself can still be under some misapprehensions over certain parts of the rules. I shall be amending that section of this hub to clarify the matter for newbies.:)
Hi learningtolove, welcome to Hubpages. You will do very well here if you follow the advice in many of the quality Hubs for beginners. I am pleased you found this hub useful and wish you well in your future here :)
Thanks for giving me a few hub things-to-avoid.
I want to make hub pages the site I use most and any tips how to get the most out of it are welcome.
You are welcome Miss Behave, and I wish you well in your future on Hubpages :)
Thank you, I only wish I had read this before creating my first hub... my first hub was 99% photos, 1% words... not from the internet but my own photos... I have learned a lot since! Thanks again!
I'm a noob and happily didn't do any of that : ) Nice read for sure though!!!!
I haven't read all the page coz it's like so long man.. but yeah great hub obviously. I keep my pages short coz words are a bit boring. You done loads of writing here which is good and I wish I could put a link in coz peeple might need a break and look at sum pictures or something. I am not writing this to attract followers (wink,wink) just because I am genuine person who is also kind to cats. Or dogs depending on what you prefer.
Sorry, good Hubber tips, wish I'd known them when I arrived but on checking I don't think I messed up too bad. Still, there's plenty of time for that.
This is a very informative article. I have made some of the mistakes you have listed. Thank you, will put this information to good use !
Hi mannyrolando, thanks for the feedback. I too wished I had read a hub like this when I first started out, but luckily I didn't make more than one or two of the mistakes I list here. We all learn in time I guess :)
Hi Jessemcduffee, thanks for commenting, and well done for not having made these mistakes even without first reading this hub :)
Hi Mark, Thanks for your very cleverly worded and witty comment. I simply had to laugh at the effort you had put in to break as many of the rules as possible. Lovely to see you here :)
Thanks for commenting Christine Vianello, I am pleased you will be able to put the info in this hub to good use
This is a great hub for new hubbers. I needed this when I started as I am guilty of some of them. It is amazing how quickly you learn though as there are so many helpful hubbers on this site. Thanks mistyhorizon, great read.
Thanks MPG Narratives, I hope this hub will be found by new hubbers before they make such mistakes. Fortunately as you say, there are also many helpful hubbers on this site. glad you enjoyed this :)
Well done Misty, couldn't have said it better if I tried. Points 10 and 11 are probably the most irritating, especially knowing they have not read what they say they did plus nobody is home when you try to make a person feel welcome.
Nice Hub :P
I just joined less than an hour ago and this is really helpful. I think I already did a few of the mistakes you mentioned (So embarrassing) :(
Its a good thing I found this before doing any others. Thanks.
Hi Jewels, I couldn't agree more. Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting :)
Hi batzmaru, welcome to Hubpages. I am pleased this hub was helpful to you, even if it is a little late for one or two mistakes. As you say, it will stop you making any more of them at least :)
Many Thanks. I am new to hubpages and this helps a lot. I think I had better try to reformat some of my hubs.Also to figurer out the protocol of being a follower and having followers.
Hi marshacanda, welcome to Hubpages. I am very glad this was helpful to you. The protocol of being a follower and having followers is very simple. If you read a few hubs by a fellow Hubber and you like their style and the subjects they write about enough, follow them. If someone follows you it should be for the same reason.
The idea is it gives Hubbers a chance to be notified each time that Hubber publishes a new Hub, that way they don't 'miss' it, and ensure they get to read it as soon as it comes out. Occasionally you might see a new Hubber state they have an interest in topics you too are interested in, and that they intend to hub on those topics. You might also choose to 'follow' them based on the potential they have to interest you. If later you decide their writing isn't that great, you can always 'stop following' them again. I hope this clarifies things a bit better.
Fantastic Hub. It's bookmarked in my must read folder. Thanks for taking the time to pull together all these Hub no no's. I'm constantly challenged by this community so quick to lend a hand a correct a course. Voted up and rated. Looking forward to diving into your Hubs.
Thanks for the wonderful compliment saintodd, I am so pleased you are going to be able to use this hub, and that you have voted it up and rated it. Thank you again :)
Hi mistyhorizon2003,
Great article, I enjoyed reading it. You have a great deal of good advice. I am a new hubber this week and the more time I spend on hubpages the more I am enjoying it. I am not a big book reader but I do enjoy articles like this one. I am guilty of one issue; I did copy a tutorial from MY website and posted it in a hub; it was read by several people. I do not intend to use this hub as a promotions site. It was a useful article on computers and I think hubbers will enjoy it. Well happy reading: Thanks again....
Best look of your hub page
Thanks Larry, I am glad this was useful to you. Welcome to Hubpages :)
Thanks henry1robertson, not sure what you mean, but thanks anyway :)
This is a very important topic for new hubbers. I see many of the same mistakes made by newbies as those you mentioned. Your points are so well explained that I added a link to this hub from one of mine (Funny I made sure I follow the same rules you mentioned in item 3).
Thanks Glenn, I am delighted you liked this so much, and grateful you followed rule #3 too ;). If you want to email me the link I shall check it out and then add it to the links section assuming it is relevant to the topic of this hub, which I am guessing it is :)
Great information here. I particularly agree with the issue on bad grammar and broken English. I can't click away fast enough when I see that. I have to say that I followed a few people before I published, but didn't expect a following in return. I had no idea it could be interpreted that way. To me, it was more about liking that person's topics or style of writing.
Anyway, thanks for all the help.
Hi Lady Blah Blah, it is okay to follow someone if you haven't yet published yourself, especially if you genuinely like their writing, but what often happens in reality is people follow before publishing anything of their own, and follow multiple hubbers all at once, basically still trying to gain followers.
Of course it would be nice if you followed an author and they could then check out your hubs in case they wish to reciprocate. If you haven't yet published any this would be a missed opportunity for you, not frowned upon so much, just a lost chance to showcase your talent.
Thank you for this tid-bit of information. Being a new Hubber i can use all of the help I can get. Once again thank you!
Ms. Brandylynn, really delighted you can use this. Welcome to Hubpages :)
Thanks, mistyhorizon2003, for this information. I am guilty of one of the above. I have left a link in the comment box if it pertains to a hub I have just written. NOW I KNOW and will not do it again no matter how much I am tempted to do so. Unfortunately, there is no way I can go back and delete the few I have already done. As Maya Angelou says, "When you know better, you do better."
I am sure your early errors are long since forgiven revmjm. Most people made some mistakes when they started out, and it is only by passing on the benefit of their experience they can help others to avoid making the same mistakes as they did. I can see you are already teaching people how Hubpages works and giving them good advice on your recent hub:
http://hubpages.com/hub/What-I-Have-Learned-About-
This is a very good hub new hubbers should read too.
I can't wait to read more of your hubs! I think these informational hubs are great and also like the links you have posted. I am looking for all kinds of ways to make money writing and this is helpful.
Thanks erinb62, I hope you enjoy more of my hubs, as I write on a wide range of topics. I am sure with your kind of attitude you will do very well in your writing here on Hubpages :)
Thanks for publishing this hub. I am new to Hubpages, so I went through the whole hub making sure I haven't messed up too much. Thankfully, I think I have managed to avoid most of the mistakes you listed.
Well done Jeannieinabottle, and may I be one of the first to wish you every success here on Hubpages :)
hmmm...perfect indication...very useful info, well done!
Thanks Kamran, and welcome to Hubpages.
Being new to Hubpages, I appreciate all the guidance I can get. Your hub not only warns what not to do, but explains why not to do it. It explains things in a simple, inoffensive way to us newbies. Thanks!
I am really pleased you found this information useful and not offensive to newbies 'your cybersister'. Welcome to Hubpages and just enjoy yourself.
Found this hub thanks to Glenn Stok's advice for new hubbers. I've been on for a while, but appreciate what you write as I still have so much to learn.
Is it proper to do the following in a comment to a hub? (Or should I just comment, then link it with no mention of the link?)
"I would like to link this hub to my HP milestones hub. If you have any objection please let me know. Thanks!"
It seems polite to ask, but I am wondering after reading this, particularly as a result of Mighty Mom's good comments. I'm still in the process of learning the mechanics of much of hubbing and these type issues sometimes get by me. I do understand how inappropriate it is to use other hubbers just to promote one's own work.
I believe it is perfectly acceptable to make such a request in a comments box, as you aren't hyperlinking to your hub within the box. Most Hubbers will be delighted to get an extra backlink from you, so will thank you and say yes. If you worried you may get bad reaction to naming your hub in the comment, you could always use the 'contact' icon under their profile image to email them and ask the question that way, although I really don't think this is necessary unless they haven't inserted a comments section on the Hub itself.
Good Luck, I am sure you will great here.
Thanks kindly.
If you have no objection, I would like to link this hub to my HP milestone hub. :)
LOL, of course you can R Talloni, No problem, and thanks very much :)
Your advice is great and you've covered common mistakes very well. I'm new and going slow because I've been reading various hubs that have provided help and answers to the many questions I have. I'll be writing more hubs before I really attempt to jump in. Your answers in the comment section clarified a few other questions. I've learned a bit more, thanks!
Thanks Auntie D, I am sure you will fit in just great here and I am glad to have been of help :)
Thank you for such an informative hub. I'm new too and hopefully won't make too many of the mistakes you identify.
Welcome Ameliejan, I am sure you will do just fine here if you follow my Hub's guidelines :)
thank you so much.i am new to hubpages and i have made some of these mistakes.thanks again for this useful informations.i promise i will never repeat any of these again.
You are welcome Shana Yasmin, good luck here and I am sure you will enjoy yourself and fit in well :)
This is really an nice hub. I felt enjoying it. As i am new here I have done some mistakes that you have mentioned in your hub.
Really this is an informative article.
Thanks masroor6298, I am glad it helped and welcome to Hubpages :)
I am new on HubPages and I can see that hubs like this is crucial in my future "hublife".
Thank you very much for the information.
Cheers.
Welcome Nelma, glad you found this useful.:)
Oh my gosh! i am very thankful i happened to stumble upon your hub. If not, i might be doing the same mistake as mentioned on your hub. I am new in hubpages and honestly, i really don't know what to do. i thought that making hub more likely the same to my article in other website wouldn't matter....
Really, thank you for your informative advise... it is very helpful for us beginners...
You are very welcome Izlpio90. I am gad you have found this useful and am sure you will enjoy yourself here on Hubpages.
Great advice for newbies! This was a very useful article and I will take your advice to heart as I start to make my own name on Hubpages =)
Glad to hear it kml285, with such a good attitude I am sure you will be very successful here :)
Nice hub.
er, uh, actually I was going to say that although I know better, I am guilty of one or two of the things you've listed. I'm terrible about responding to comments on my hubs and I know I've asked questions that have been answered like 1,000 times. I'm blaming it all on time (far too little) but it doesn't change the outcome, does it?
Depends on what you want as an outcome I guess Mulberry1. If you want readers, followers and therefore viewings that raise your Google profile, then I think it does matter. If you simply write just to write, regardless of whether or not it ever gets read, then no, it probably doesn't matter! Take your pick!
I wish I had read this before I started writing Hubs, but even at this point, I will try to improve. I enjoy "Hub Hopping" just to read other Hubs. Thanks for info.
Not to worry mary615, it is never too late to change the way we do things for the better, and I am sure you will love being here on HP although I see you have already been here for 6 months so you must like it :)
I decided to check out this hub to see if I might be making any of those mistakes after two years. Glad to say it's the other way around. I don't approve comments when they have a self-promotional link, and I always look to see if people who follow me have just followed a ton of other hubbers in less time than they could have read them. Two important points you've made. And suddenly as I was reading I can across your recommendation of my hub. So I owe you a big thank you! :)
LOL Glenn, you are one of the good guys, why wouldn't I recommend your Hub ? ;)
Thanks so much for posting a comment here too :)
This is a great hub! It provided useful information. I have been especially guilty of just saying "nice hub." I don't want to repeat what others have already said. I am usually not at loss for words, but still want to express my appreciation for the hub. I will make a conscious effort to be provide better information when I comment. If just one of each hubber who reads this makes one change, I think the hubs will improve with time.
Thanks for the great comment Carolyn2008. I am really pleased you found this so useful and I hope it acts as a helpful guide for newbies :)
Thank you!
You are welcome Acheolis :)
Thank you very much for this information. I must say that I have done at least three of the things you listed here. Post links to my own page in other hubbers hub comments (done). Post half-decent articles (done). Follow only for the sake of gaining followers (done). To be honest, when I first started out, I wrote much higher quality hubs than I do now. In fact, my very first hub reached a hubscore of 89 not too long ago (that is very impressive for me). Luckily, I happened to accidentally read your hub just in time as I have only started making these mistakes this past week. Again, thank you very much. I voted up and useful. By the way (I hope this is allowed), the hubber whose article I read that led me to yours was written by "glennstok" and there is a link of it below. It was also very helpful.
Thanks kripkrip420, that is a very honest comment and I admire that. Glenn Stok writes some excellent Hubs and is a great source of advice and information. I have no problem with you posting his link here, although it is already at the end of the hub because I too was very impressed with the same article on a previous occasion when I came across it whilst writing this one.
This is a very educational hub. It's quite blunt and direct. It seems to analyze a new hubber from a psychological perspective. I hope it can be understood however that not all new hubbers are accomplished writers. Remember we make honest mistakes. But gladly we can take the criticism as means to improve our writing. I hope this is also understood by Hubpages. I made an account several months back and unfortunately its only now that I have time to work on my writing. I'm still a new hubber and I'm doing the best I can. I hope to improve with more practice and persistence. Not everyone will find that this is for them. It's just the way it is, but its important to put your writings out there. Everyone has their own unique ways of expression. I welcome all negative or positive responses. I hope anyone who reads this will still be encouraged to write even if it seems to paint newbies in a negative light. Thanks for the input though and the reality check of what we need to consider before submitting a comment and what we shouldn't expect when writing a hub. Happy writing to everyone!
Thanks for your thoughts gabgirl12. I certainly didn't intend this as a psychological analysis of new hubbers, simply a list of common mistakes I see and many other hubbers see who have been here a while. This is not to say ALL new Hubbers do these things, it is to prevent those who are thinking of doing these things from doing them. On the plus side a lot of new Hubbers will read this and feel suitably 'smug' that they haven't done any of these things themselves. Those who have, will hopefully stop doing these things. End result = Better quality hubs and hubbers.
Think of this as a text book or a manual for new hubbers, not a psychological analysis of them or an attempt to 'paint newbies in a negative light', (that would be ridiculous as we were all new once).
I think this advice is great for new Hubbers. Perhaps you'll write a Hub on how you obtained so many followers!
Thanks for the compliment Writer Fox, but I won't be writing any hubs on how I gained so many followers because this is not important if you want to make a living online, and to be honest I didn't even try. Followers here on HP do not equal success, so I strongly recommend you ignore the amount of followers you have and concentrate on writing large amounts of quality content, as this is what will generate large amounts of viewings and will ultimately pay your bills!
Good Luck
I didn't read all of the comments made, so I might copy some. Sorry. *blush* I am running out of time. I thought this hub was very well written and gave great advice. I am glad I read it. I am equally grateful that I (actually) managed to miss some of the mistakes written about. Thank you.
Well done for not being 'guilty' of some of the mistakes BrokenDreamer. I am sure you will do well on Hubpages :)
Wonderful pointers. Far too often, we don't read the rules. In addition, it irks me when someone's hub is full of typos, spelling errors and grammar mistakes.
Thanks peramore20, I hope this helps to prevent many hubbers making these same mistakes. I even see some very seasoned hubbers guilty of many of these, especially the 'going on a following spree' one.
Hi mistyhorizon2003 ,
I am new to hubpages ..... Thanks to your wonderful article , I have acquired what to do and what not to do ... was doing mistake of no. 10 ....
Thanks
learned so many things /....
Keep the good work up ....
Glad this was helpful to you Java Programs. Welcome to Hubpages :)
Thank you so much for this. I have only been doing this for eight days and learned more from this article than from any other source so far. The last thing I want to do is aggravate the community and this gives me some guidelines for not doing that, plus other useful information. I have done eight hubs and still not been indexed by Google, so I have become frustrated but finally read somewhere that it takes 2 to 3 weeks sometimes. I don't follow very many people because I thought "following" meant reading their work and I don't have time to read very many, so your comments made me feel better on that issue too. Thank you again for taking time to write this informative hub for new writers.
Marsei
Welcome to Hubpages Marsei, and thanks for the great comment. I am sure you will love it here and do well with the positive attitude you have already shown. Don't worry about the Google indexing, it will come in time, and it might take quite a lot of weeks. Remember articles can take anything up to 3 years to reach their peak potential, so 2-3 weeks is no time at all. Concentrate on writing good quality hubs and the rest will follow naturally :)
Thanks for the helpful tips! There are some things I knew and some I didn't here, but I always appreciate a good review! Voted up!
Thanks Dubuquedogtrainer, glad this was helpful to you and cheers for the 'up vote' :)
Thanks this tips are very useful for me. Have just started fixing my mistakes. :-)
Glad this was helpful laflat7 :)
Misty thank you so much for this great informative hub, it is all thanks to the wonderful hubbers like yourself who provide the help and advice we all need to learn. I started a month ago and still am learning what I should do next. There's a lot to learn - but hopefully we all improve hub by hub. Again many thanks.
You are very welcome Pannonica, I hope you find some useful tips here for things to avoid doing, and if you haven't done them yourself you can pass the tips on to other new hubbers too :)
Uh oh.... I may need to clean up my text speak, particularly in the comments section. Amazing what habits we get into. Thanks for the Hub.
You are very welcome BuyaBiz, glad this was helpful to you :)
A very detailed bring up but I have already committed many of these mistakes.
A very detailed bring up but I have already committed many of these mistakes.
Well at least you know not to do them again Yaduvanshi, and can pass on the word to other new hubbers.
diogenes Level 7 Commenter 15 months ago
This accurate, logical and useful critique of some of the problem areas for new hubbers caressed my eyes like a kiss. This needed saying, Misty, and it is very timely. I wish I hadn't made some of the impulsive moves you comment upon, such as following too many indesciminately. I did it because of their contacting me most of the time, but I have gained a lot of clutter and wish I had waited. Once you follow someone it is hard to justify "unfollowing" them. Up and useful...Bob