My First 3 Days with Hubpages: Views, Earnings and Random Thoughts

So, it has been just three days since I joined HubPages, and since then I've barely put down my typing fingers. Even though the advice I received from other members was to take it slow, don't push too hard, and exercise patience, I ignored it all (I'm a stubborn idiot, as you'll learn if you continue to read my work) and went full steam ahead.

After three days on the site I've published 18 hubs, all on my chosen speciality subject of travel tips for Asia. Here, then, is what I think of HubPages so far.

Why HubPages?

First, lemme tell you a little about why I chose to come to HubPages in the first place.

For the last five years or so I've been living very well as a freelance writer on the revenue earned from a single, laughably lucrative client. It's a long, boring and unnecessarily complex story, but five years ago I managed to land a dream job that consistently pulled in earnings into the high tens of thousands of dollars per annum in return for... well, in return for a minuscule amount of work. I used this improbable windfall to travel Asia, along the way falling for a wonderful Mongolian girl while living for a few months in Ulaanbaatar; a girl I then convinced to join me on my travels.

Unfortunately, when early 2011 rolled around (shortly after we had moved to Chiang Mai, northern Thailand) the Google algorithm update from hell sent my client crashing towards bankruptcy. My stellar online income plummeted overnight to just a few dollars a day, and I was left to painfully reminisce about the glory days over a bottle of the finest, cheapest Thai beer.

Eggs. Basket. Sub-standard weaving. Yolk everywhere.

The first few months of my fresh poverty were spent wisely - I hired an agent in the UK to help me establish an eBay business through which I trade used camera equipment, drawing on a hobby of mine for a little extra income. Four months later and business is booming, with profits set to hit £10,000 by year's end.

But... learning from my previous mistake, the one that saw my income fall to almost zero in a single 24 hour period, I hit on the idea of diversifying. Several small revenue streams are much safer than a single large one, so I decided to go back to my true calling: typing random words in vaguely pleasing arrangements in return for currency.

But Why HubPages, you Meandering Mook?

Well, my first foray back into the world of pounding the keys led me to Squidoo, a web 2.0 pretender that seemed, in my limited experience, to promise a new and exciting way of presenting information yet delivered the sort of sites we had in 1996, only with prettier colours.

A week of working with Squidoo taught me that ours was not to be a healthy relationship. Every time I attempted to post something new I was met by the friendly neighbourhood spam filter. Every. Single. Time:

'It appears that you're attempting to post content that is too commercial' (or something to that effect - I forget the wording)

By now my laptop sported fashionable crush marks on either side of the screen, each fresh crack a monument to the infuriatingly picky automated filter.

'My writing isn't in the least commercial!' I yelled at the screen. 'I write how-to guides for hailing taxis in Bangkok!'

My screen failed to respond to my liking - though on the third day, as the wall beside my desk smeared crimson with bloody knuckle marks, a nattily dressed barman appeared to offer me a little red rum.

And so, in a fit of swearing that left my girlfriend fleeing the room in terror, I deleted my Squidoo lenses and set fire to the laptop. Once the firemen departed with a stern warning I used my singed fingers to join HubPages.

Hey, just think: after reading that screed you'll never get those few minutes of your life back. I'm sorry.

So... Heeeeeyyy... Calm Down. How's it Goin' So Far?

Swimmingly. Just swimmingly.

My first few hubs, a range of quickly penned tips about applying for visas in Thailand, driving to Mongolia and a few other choice subjects, began life with hubscores in the low- to mid-forties. My initial hubberscore (my personal hubscore) was 20-something.

I continued to write, discovering along the way that I already had a Google AdSense account that had gone unused since I set it up long, long ago. Five hubs went live, then ten. I filled out my profile, uploaded a photo and configured my ad accounts. Fifteen hubs, sixteen, seventeen. My hubscores continued to climb, up into the 60's and 70's. Right now my first article, How to Get a Thai Visa, sits at 76. My personal hubberscore is 53 (not bad, not great, but I'm looking ahead).

It's now been three days, and so far I'm just blown away by how much I adore HubPages. My knowledge of SEO could fit on half a stamp, but thanks to the considerable authority of the site I already have several hubs listed in Google. My page views topped 400 about an hour ago, and they now sit at 428. 15 comments. 17 'usefuls', 'awesomes' and 'interestings'. Nothing yet coming in from Google, but I'm optimistic.

Best of all is the HubPages Ad Program earnings. In my 3 day tenure at the site I've made a whopping - whopping! - 5 cents. Booyah. Who'd like a drink?

Now of course 5 cents is almost too little to give to a hobo without feeling like a cheapskate, but I'm looking at the big picture. 428 views in 3 days will grow. As I keep writing about what I love, as Google indexes more of my hubs, as I - hopefully - build a small following of lunatics who like the way I write, the information I provide, this will grow.

Honestly, I don't think I'll ever make a good chunk of change from HubPages. I'm not the kind of guy who has the patience to spread the word. I don't network. I don't promote. I'm not really sure what Twitter is (it's a type of fish, right? With horns?).

Forget that, though. I love writing. Always have, always will. I want to impart information, and I want it to be read - maybe not by millions, but by the few who need that information. I want someone - maybe not every day, but just occasionally - to stumble upon a hub of mine and find something he's been searching for for days.

And so, if I want to have a shot at helping some guy or gal apply for a Thai tourist visa, find a good restaurant in Ulaanbaatar or book a train ticket to Cambodia, I think HubPages might just be my last best hope. Thanks for reading, and if you're ever in Thailand... I don't know, buy me a coffee. I'm pretty poor these days.