Writing On Hubpages.com: Getting To 500 Hubs In 17 Months

HOW TO WRITE 500 HUBS IN 17 MONTHS

As happens so many times in my life, time flies when you're having fun.

Here I stand on the brink of 500 hubs and in all truth, it seems like just yesterday when I started.

I did some calculations and if I joined hubpages 17 months ago and am completing my 500th hub today, that means that I have produced roughly 1 hub per day for 17 months.

Of course that isn't true because some days I produced 5 and some days 0 but you get the drift and the concept that I'm averaging.

I was going to use my 500th hub to write one of my funny stories and let it just slide by unnoticed but then I rethought it and just couldn't do it. I needed you all to be with me when I congratulated myself for the effort!

WRITING ON HUBPAGES

So what have I learned in all these 17 months? What wisdom could I possibly share with you all to give a flavor of my feelings about my first venture into writing somewhere other than emails and letters?

It's been a ride. Much like so many things in my life - I've had the time of my life. I had friends tell me for years that I should write a book (they still do and I'm working on finding the time there). I've also had friends over the years who loved hearing from me whether by letter or email just because they loved my writing. But that was as far as it ever went. That and writing the occasional poem or little "ditty" for my family.

At the urging of an old high school friend who came to visit me 18 months ago, I decided to give it a try. He is a writer for Huffington Post so I figured he probably wouldn't be saying that I should write unless he meant it. Besides, I'm much too old for him to try and flatter me with a lie! So I sat down and decided to just take the plunge.

MY EXPERIENCE WRITING HUBS ON HUBPAGES

I've never been sorry for one moment of the ride....well, there were a few rough patches when some people said some very insulting things to me on the forums at the beginning of my journey, but I got past it thanks to the other caring folks I met along the way.  Most especially thanks to the fantastic encouragement I received then and have continued to receive. 

Even on my darkest and down days, I have only to sign into my account and read something someone has said or something someone else has written and my spirits are restored. There is a powerful magic in that.  Writing on hubpages and having such good friends has made me feel that I could write anything and that is truly a gift!

I've gone from frightened or unsure of my writing to feeling like I have a voice....not because I'm so good at it but just because I'm valued.  It is a niche in my life that makes me smile from ear to ear because it's ALL good.  There is nothing bad about it or anything that I would change. 

As I've been on hubpages these past 17 months, I've gone from "okay" to wonderfully pleased in terms of my earnings, too.  Now that was something I didn't expect! It's just one more plus in a long line of things that I add up all the time in my life and I can say "Aren't I the lucky one?"  To be doing something I love, albeit not full time as I wish I could, to have friends and make money....it's all just a beautiful gift I unwittingly gave myself!

LEARNING TO WRITE ON THE INTERNET

I do worry sometimes that one day I'll not be able to think of anything to write although I doubt that will happen....only because in my real life, I have so many interests and love so many things it's hard to keep up with all the "me's" in my life.  

I also worry sometimes that I write across too "many" venues but then again, that is what keeps me coming back.  The variety of writing about anything and everything is just too good to pass up.  I have so many passions that it's hard not to expound on all of them in some form.  I am most thankful for the arena in which to do this...and the fact that I still have followers! 

I am finally down to about 15 hubs left that I wrote during my "vacation" week in December for the Personal Finance Contest.  In my insanity, I figured that I could do the allowed 5 hubs per day and increase the odds of my winnings.  Little did I realize how difficult writing 140 hubs would be as by the end of it, my arms were absolutely killing me....more than usual. 

Then I began the ardent task of posting up 5 per day.....that did not last long.  I ended up doing maybe 2, sometimes 3 per day though gave it a good run the last few days with 5 per day.  All this said, I was happy that I could write so many hubs on a subject I felt I knew nothing about! 

I mention this to illustrate that if you expand your mind and think outside yourself, you can learn a heck of a lot and on top of that, you can even teach a heck of a lot in your own way.  If someone like me, who knows relatively zip about finance can come up with 140 hubs, I think anyone can do it on any subject!

Over my time on hubpages, I've been lucky enough to make enough money and win enough money to buy things I never would have gotten probably....or may have had to wait down the road to purchase.  

I enhanced my life with my little netbook for typing which is a fantastic tool.  I bought accessories for my camera work such as photo boxes....and I bought my first sled.  I christened it HP for hubpages.  I look forward to running it this next season with my two pups. 

THE BEST PART OF WRITING HUBS ON HUBPAGES

That brings me to the best part of my writing income on hubpages....I earned enough to buy my Griffin's niece, another malamute. Meet Gabby, my next new project and I'm sure love of my life.

I've also earned enough to buy some of the equipment I needed for her. I'm looking forward to yet another chapter in the life and times of me and my dogs but thanks to hubpages, it was all that much easier to afford.

I can't explain how lucky I feel to have been so blessed to write freely and express myself but to also be able to afford extra things is just to coin a word...priceless.

Looking forward to more hubs coming down the pike on Gabby and Griffin (and Denaya too), and wondering where the next 500 hubs will take me. Now that I've rounded the bend on 500, it seems like a long, long way to say 750 or 1000 but think I'll get there.

Thanks to all of you who have always supported me and been such great friends and inspirational writers. I could never have done it without ya'll and I look forward to the next 250 or the next 500...or whatever!

There are so many of you to thank that I'd feel I was disregarding someone if I named names but I hope you all know how much you mean to me individually and as my special group of friends that I simply could not do without!

Sometimes my Bob reads my comments and is just amazed at how wonderful everyone is to me....not that he doesn't think I'm brilliant of course! He has said though on more than one occasion that to have folks in your life like that is truly remarkable and to know that you have praise like that must make me feel really great...and ya know what? It totally does!

Here's to the next hill for all of us! Cheers from the little old lady musher in Central Oregon.

Most fondly,

Audrey