How I Learn to Write My Hubs Over the Year - Tips for New Hubbers

Over a year of Hub writing, I have evolved to find my own style of putting Hubs together. It may not be the best way. So do not take this as any recommendation. I just want to share my reasoning for why I put together Hubs together the way that I do. Perhaps it will be of value to new Hubbers.  And if the reasoning makes sense to you, and if it fits your personal style, then you can do the same. I'm sure there are as many ways to do Hubs as there are writers.

I like to start my hub with a text block, not a photo. That is because I like to give Google AdSense a chance to be placed at the top (to the right of the first text block). The first text block should be long enough to have enough height for the rectangle Adsense block to come in.

I try not to write very short Hubs. Google likes a lot of text and medium size and long hubs tend to come up better in Google search results listing (with all other things being equal).

But instead of writing one long text block, break it up into chuck and text blocks. You can have one text block directly following another text block. And they don't each need to have its own title. Although if there is a good suitable title for a text block, by all means put that in. Sub-titles helps the reader read through easier.

The reason why you want to break the whole Hub into text block chunks is that you give AdSense a chance to be interspersed in between your text blocks.

With my consideration of AdSense in the choice of Hub layout, you would guess that I think highly of AdSense. And you would be right. If you are planning to monetize your Hubs, the best thing to do is to use make use AdSense. I think most Hubbers will agree that most of their revenues comes from Google AdSense.

If you want to add more monetization after Google AdSense, you can also use Amazon modules. I often will use them as well. Always hand pick your Amazon products to make them most relevant to the topic at hand. If a Hub is so generic (like this one) where no specific product comes to mind, you can put products that may be generally useful to people. A product with nice photo (or book cover) is good too. Alternatively, pick the latest hottest gadgets. For example, Wii Donkey Kong Country Returns video game is hot at the time of this writing. So I put that somewhere in the Hub (take a look to your right). I spread the products out within the text blocks. Sometimes I also have a block of 4 products (2 rows by 2 columns) of products at the bottom of the Hubs.

Amazon Kindle is a top selling item on Amazon. If you can not think of any products, just put that.

I don't use Kontera or eBay modules.

Not only do I think highly of Google AdSense, I think highly of Google as well. Afterall, Google is into almost everything.  That's why I write about Google in a few of my Hubs as shown here ...

It is good to link to your own Hubs in your Hub. This is permissible and is in fact encouraged by HubPages. That is why when you click the link icon in the editor, there is a droplist showing all your Hubs to provide a "Quick Link to Your Hub".

It is best to work your link amidst the conversation of your Hub. But if you can not, you can simply use the list module at the bottom of your Hubs and title it as "Other Hubs You Might Enjoy".  And then list some of your related Hubs there.

In fact, HubPages kinds of does something similar.  Have you ever seen at the bottom of a Hub, HubPages will have a left or right arrow to another Hub by the same author.  This will occur if the author has another hub within the same "Hub Group" as the current Hub.  That is why you should always group your hubs into groups as in "Account -> Your Hub Groups". 

Whether you add a Comment block at the bottom of your Hub and how you control comments is quite personal. And each person can do it any way they like to (afterall it is their Hub). Some people believe that one should always let all comments through because that is the freedom of the Internet. But the general consensus is that this is your Hub and you can control comments any way you like (including deleting the comments that you don't like).

My own personal preference is to add a comment block at the end of the Hub. Actually, you don't have to "add" it. It is already there by default. This implies that HubPages believe that you should have one. But you are free to delete the module if you like.

The advantage to having comments is that it boost your Hub article score and it make your content longer (and hence better for search engines).

I like to control my comments. There are a lot of spammers out on the Internet, that is why I checkmark both "Comments must be approved before they appear" and "Email me when new comments are posted".

If the comment is obviously spam, I don't approve it. Sometimes I go as far as checking what other comments the commenter had posted on other Hubs. Because some people simply post the same generic comment over and over many many Hubs (in order to gain exposure). If the comment is unique and the commenter obviously took time to compose it, then I usually approve it. Every case is different and there is no definite rules.

If the first commenter posts a comment that falls into a gray area where you have a difficult time deciding to approve it or not. And you don't want to hurt the commentator's feelings by not approving it, then one way out is to delete the comment module altogether. Then you don't have to decide. And when they question why you didn't approve it, you can say, "It's not you personally, I just didn't want any comments on this Hub". Even if the comment is not the first, you can still delete the comment module (but it will delete your other comments as well).

If the commenter is not a Hubber, they will have the ability to put in their own personal website link. Check out this website link to make sure it is not a spammy site or something socially objectionable or something that you do not approve of.

What if the comment is a good one, but the website URL link is to a spammy site? I avoid that situation by checkmarking "Only signed-in users may post comments". That way it links to their Hub profile and instead of their external website. You can also look at the comment Hubber's profile to see what they write about. This is analogous to checking out the external URL of an external commenter.

Some people like to write about controversial topics, because it gets a lot of attention and comments. For me, I am a conflict avoider.

So to avoid contentious comments, I usually write about mundane matter-of-fact topics like What is a Mersenne Prime and Who are the Turtle Traders.

Sometimes I write about deep topics such as What is the Universe Composed Of? and Why is the Sky Blue? Nevertheless, they simply state facts in a matter-of-fact kind of way.

I like asking "Why?" ...

Why Do Hoarders Accumulate Stuff?

Why Do We Have Leap Years?

Sometimes these "why?" questions make one think "Hmmm" ...

Why Dr. Tyson Got Angry Letters from Third Graders?

I think the brain is pretty interesting, so I write about that too ...

Your Brain Shrinks with Age

Cortisol Stress Hormone Kills Brain Cells by the Millions

How Exercise Improves Brain Health

To the Brain, the Number Seven is Special

What Happens to the Brain at Mid-Life?

Forgiveness of Accidnets and the RTPJ Region of the Brain (Yes, sometimes it can get technical. The brain is complex.)

and more.

What if someone had copied the contents of your Hub and published it elsewhere? Don't worry about it. If that happens, it usually means that your Hubs are good and you are getting a lot of traffic. Considered it a compliment.

Google will not penalize you because someone else copied you. Google will penalize the copier. Because Google knows who wrote the article first. The first published will usually show up on the search result and the copier will not. How does Google know who wrote it first. Google is constantly indexing the web, so it knows which content got into its search index first.

In any case, you can not worry about it. Because there is nothing you can do about it anyways. Be reminded of the Serenity Prayer which goes like ...

"God, grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference." [source: Wikipedia]

Whenever I quote something whether from a book or from the Internet, I always cite the source (with a link to it if possible). This is proper copyright etiquette.

Even if I don't quote but I state some fact that I obtain from some source, I will provide a reference to that source. For example, when I write about Relationship Between Money and Happiness - opinions from economists and psychologists I link to the sources so reader can see that I not just "making things up".

Similarly, when I write about Experts Tell The Keys to Happiness, reader will be able to link to or reference these expert sources so they can learn for themselves in greater detail than I can write.

It is okay to link to other sites.  In fact, sometimes this can be beneficial in your search engine rankings.  The reasoning goes like ...  If your Hub links to a lot of sites about happiness, then Google will be more confident that your topic of your Hub is about happiness.  But don't over do the links.

When linking, I use the "advance options" and set "target" to open destination link in new window.  That way, the reader don't loose your current Hub.

Most people do embed video in their Hub. I am an oddity in that I don't embed videos into my Hub. Although I might link to it. The reason is that there is a possibility of copyright violation (at least in the United States). United States has strict copyright regulations.

When embedding photos into your Hub, you should also make sure you are not violating copyright. See How to Determine If you are Violating Copyright. And see how to get free stock photos that you can use.

If you have the time, it is not a bad idea to add a photo (that is not copyrighted) in your hub. But not at the top module, because I reserve that for AdSense. You can even put the photo at the bottom.

That is because people like seeing photos. And having this photo will cause HubPages to use a thumbnail of the photo next to your Hub in the "Related Hubs" right column. If you don't have a photo for a Hub, then Hubpages will use your profile photo instead.

But I usually find that I don't have time. So that's why I don't have a lot of photos on my Hubs.

If the article is time-sensitive, I sometime will put a dateline at the bottom of my article (see Note section below). For example, "Article written December 2010 and content is opinion at the time of writing".

This informs that reader that content is only opinion. I can be wrong. Do not take anything I say as fact. And even so, what I write is only valid at the time of the writing. Opinions can change. With a date it, it is implied that content may be outdated by the time they are reading it.

Although, I try not to write about time-sensitive topics. I write about topics that would be valid for a good duration. People call this "evergreen topics".

If the topic is about health, then I sometimes put the disclaimer saying something like "Author is not a medical professional and this is not intended for diagnosis. Consult appropriate professional as needed."

If the topic is about finance, then I say I am not a financial advisor and that this is not advice (just opinion).

If the topic is about a product, then I disclose that "Author may receive revenues from Amazon, Google, and other third-parties via the display ads and links within the contents of this site."

This hub is kind of a year-end retrospective and is kind of a bit long. Did I mentioned that Google likes a lot of text?

Article written December 2010 and content are opinion at the time of writing.