In my last article, I have written on how to be able to land your first writing job. I mentioned in the article that to be able to apply easier to online writing jobs, you should have an online portfolio that can easily be accessed by your clients. One platform I thought might help you like it did to me is Hubpages.com. In this post, I will be sharing step-by-step guide on how to write and submit featured HubPages articles.
I have been writing for HubPages for already four years now. It wasn’t that hard to get approved in the platform in 2012 when I signed up for an account. Just lately, I found out that you must have to publish at least five featured articles (pass the Boot camp) in order for your new posts to be automatically published live (it is not automatic really because it will still be submitted for quality assessment before it goes live). So, if you are ready to publish your posts, here are some guides to submit an article and get featured on Hubpages.
Familiarize Yourself with the User Interface
- Go to: http://hubpages.com and sign in to your account using your registered user name and password. If you do not have an account yet, click on Sign Up and start creating your account.
- Once you are inside your account, click on the Start a Hub menu on the upper right side of the user interface.
- You will be directed to a page that will look like this:
***Tip No. 1: Write a specific title for your article that will likely summarize its contents in just 120 characters or less
- After entering a title for your hub or article, click on the textbox for Hub Topic. Automatically, the system will generate suggested topics for your hub basing on the title you entered. For this demonstration, I typed my Title like this:
The most appropriate topic for my title is that one with a red line: Hubpages Tutorials and Community/Help for New Hubbers so I will click on it. I will leave the Hub format as is and I will click on the Continue button.
- I will then be directed to the Hubtool that will look like this:
Please be guided by the use of the tools on the right side:
- Text – this box will contain pure text only
- Photo – if you want to add relevant photos, use this box
- Videos – you can also embed videos (Youtube or Vimeo videos) using the URL of the video you want to add
***Tip No.2: These are the major components that a hub or an article must have. If you will observe the readymade template, there are at least four text capsules, three photo capsules, and 1 video capsule. If possible, follow the template to have a more professional looking hub and to submit featured Hubpages articles. You can also do your own experiment and add three text capsules, 1 video capsule and 2 photo capsules only. It depends on the structure of your article.
- Add contents using the capsules ( text boxes, photo boxes, video boxes, etc.). To add contents, just click on the Edit button located on the upper right side of each capsule as shown below:
Use the arrows to place your textboxes accordingly and use the “x” button to delete the capsule if you already have enough capsules. Do the same when adding photos, videos, and other components.
***Tip No. 3: Write subtitles according to the contents of your supporting paragraphs and separate them into different text capsules. Use the Capsule Subtitle textbox for your subtitles. Like writing the title, make sure it is related to the paragraph/s and is relevant to the main title.
- After adding your contents, do not forget to click on the “Save” button or if you do not want to save it, the “Discard Changes” button. Once all contents have already been added and you are contented with how your hub looks, you can click on the “Publish” button or to save it first as a draft, click the “Save Unpublished” button. See photo below:
How to Get Featured on Hubpages
There are guidelines on how to submit featured HubPages articles: https://hubpageshelp.com/features/Learning-Center-Featured-Hubs.
They have more helpful guides there too because I actually do not know how my articles are getting featured but my observations are as follows:
- I write titles that are not less than five words. I always check for the best title that most suits my hub and will attract readers too.
- I use at least three text capsules and two photo capsules and I write relevant captions to my photos.
***Tip No.4: I download my photos at pixabay.com or by using Google images and filtering photos without copyrights. You can also use your own photos if you have something relevant to your topics. DO NOT use just any image you see on Google because it might be protected by copyright.
- I add relevant videos but see to it that you have the permission of the owner before sharing or embedding it to your blog.
- I write at least 500 words for each hub. The more words you can add, the better chances of getting featured.
- Make sure your hub is free from grammatical and spelling errors.
Those are so far what I am doing when publishing hubs on HubPages. I actually have 69 published hubs but only have 26 featured Hubpages articles. You can actually edit your articles and once you publish them until it gets featured.
Here are some links to my featured hubs if you want to have an idea:
- http://hubpages.com/animals/How-to-Train-a-Dog-with-the-Underground-Dog-Fence
- http://hubpages.com/health/Proven-and-Healthy-Secrets-to-Having-a-Younger-Looking-Skin
- http://hubpages.com/health/Pregnancy-Comforts-You-Can-Have-Indoor-and-Outdoor
- http://hubpages.com/technology/Caring-Tips-and-Tricks-for-your-Galaxy-Note-7
- http://hubpages.com/health/The-Power-of-Collagen-Powder-and-What-It-Is
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