What to Do When You Are Burnt Out on Hubpages
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YOU ARE NOT ALONE
Many writers, including Hub writers, sometimes feel that no matter what level of effort they expend on their work, they are not making headway. If you've ever felt this way, or are feeling this way now, read on, for this Hub will try to make you feel just a little bit better about your abilities, and maybe even give you a few hints as to what to do.
What's Wrong With My Writing?
Most likely, nothing. You've read the forums, you've read the Hubpages tutorials. You've enlisted the help of fellow Hubbers, you even learned about SEO. There are THOUSANDS of things that can affect your popularity, from Google hating you, to simply no one searching for your topics. Take heart, this isn't a reason to quit, it's a reason to hone your skill.
Go Through Older Hubs and Revise
Dust off those Hubs you first did when you were a Hubpages nub. Get in there and triple check the spelling, grammar, and modules. Check links to make sure they're not dead. Cleaning up and revising Hubs is a great idea to get you working, and get your mind into "fixing" mode, rather than crying mode. When you are done revising, ping your profile page by going to www.pingler.com and letting it tell the world! Just try not to do it more than once a month; Google hates that.
Comment and READ other Hubbers Work
You will read Hubs you love and have to comment on. You'll also read some that are so absolutely horrible, you'll wonder how the heck they even got published. This exercise serves two purposes. The first one is it gets your name exposure to other Hubbers, and secondly, teaches you what NOT to do in a Hub. Make sure you Hub Hop every once in a awhile; the amount of garbage you'll see is enough to make you feel better!
Post in the Forums: Ask for Help
There's no shame in having someone else review a Hub for you. The Extreme Hub Makeover section in the forums is there for all of us to use, to get creative feedback from our peers. Use it when you aren't sure why something is not working out, or just for general assistance. Many Hubbers are happy to help out. Remember, the overall quality of Hubs is EVERYONE's responsibility.
Don't Leave in Anger
You tried it all. You're done. You want no part of Hubpages anymore because no one likes your writing. If you decide to leave, leave your account and Hubs in place, and check on them every few weeks. You may just be surprised if Google suddenly decides you are awesome. A published Hub is a chance to earn traffic, an unpublished one is nothing.
Build a Network of Hubpages Friends
Facebook. If you aren't using it to assist in your Hubpages adventure, you should be. Facebook is an important tool to spread your words to not only fellow Hubbers, but your friends in real life. Same goes for Twitter. Don't be afraid to try these, because the only result can be more traffic then you're getting now.
DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP!
You've worked too hard and struggled to give up now. While you may need a break, or need to work through a mental block, you don't want to quit. A hiatus is healthy ever now and then, but don't give up. Write for you. Write for your friends. The traffic will come in time. Remember, HubPages is one of the best profitable business ideas out there today.
Let's get some comments here and build us a good ole fashioned feel good Hub!
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Good advice. It always amazes me the new stuff I learn from reading hubs. pingler.com is a new one for me. I've resisted Twitter so far, but maybe I need to bite the bullet and sign up.
Great info, jeffriestube! I've been busy and not so motivated lately that I haven't been writing much. But I won't give up! I didn't know about the pinging thing. I'll do that. Good job on this one! Voted up among other things!
Oh, another thing. I just looked up pingler. Is there a free pingler.com account? Or does it cost every month no matter what.? Is it worth the cost?
Thanks all! I figured rather than cry about, to take action. And out came a Hub!
Oh no, Pingler is free. Scroll down and on the left side you'll see where it says "Ping for Free"
Okay, I'll try that. Thanks!
Great article
Oh, I see! I just overlooked it. What do you put for the keyword before the URL? Profile? or your name?
For Title, I put "Thejeffriestube@Hubpages", then just add the URL for your profile, and select "Other" for category. Remember all, not more than once a month!
I thought it said five pings per day. I watched the video on there....?
Oh it may let you, but trust me, don't do it. Google really doesn't need too much help finding you, but excessively doing this is bad.
Okay. What about pinging our hubs? Is it the same thing? Only every 5 days? Sorry about all the questions. I'm intrigued and want to get it right!
Yes, you absolutely can ping just a single hub, BUT, I would still be wary about doing it too often. What can happen if it's done excessively is that the URL's will become blocked by the services that get updated by Pingler, and if that happens to your profile page, well, it's a bad day.
Great motivational and encouraging hub. Voted up.
Thanks! Believe it or not, it helped motivate me as I was writing it!
What a wonderfully informative, and indeed uplifting Hub. Thank you for sharing you information, and I will certainly try out this Pingler website. thanks!
Awesome advice. I would highly recommend HubHoppers on Facebook...it is a group of hubbers that share their work there...it is growing everyday. I have bookmarked this hub for future reference for the next time I get burned our on hubpages. Voted up and awesome. Nice to see a fellow Hampton Roads hubber....I am from Chesapeake.
Some excellent advice, here--thanks much. I do need to go and re-work some of my older, original hubs. A lot of them are just poetry, which does not have a big market, but I think I need to take some photos to go with them, then look up the instructions someone gave me about how to force HP to keep the extra white space I use to visually format many of my poems for emphasizing the phrasing.
Voted up, useful and interesting.
Great hub that I really needed to hear right now! I am so glad you shared about pingler, and also glad you shared about only using it once a month. I went to there site and their service says it will ping every three days. It is amazing the things you can so easily do that will hurt yourself.
I'm very glad I'm not the only one who needed this advice. It makes me feel great that I can help other Hubbers out!
Very useful information, Dave. Everyone needs to be reminded of your pointers. Thanks for publishing this.
How about "leave hubpages for a week and then come back." Great advice. Voting this Up and Useful.
Hi,
I voted up and awesome because it is a good and informative hub. I feel it has helped a lot of people as so many have commented. I did not know about only pinging once a month on Pingler, because I always ping my new hubs there. But now I know--thanks so much.
Have a great New Year.
Bobbi
Very nice tips! I have hit the four month wall and have been very reflective of what I've done and what I need to do. I'm going to bookmark this hub for further reference. Thanks for the pingler link. Great comment thread too! :)
Voted up!
Perfectly said! Dusting off old hubs is something many of us old souls can work on. Thank you for the reminder! :)
Great advice, although I don't think I will ever understand hubpages. I did a new hub a day or two ago and then another and had several visitors; even new ones, (one shot up to number 4 in my hubs too!) I asked a question, answered a couple, worked most of a day here on old hubs sprucing them up and my score has dropped 4 points. That is not too encouraging.
For me, it is all about getting my poetry read--this may sound easy, but often times it is not--hubpages makes it easier---I often revise old work although by the time it makes it up here, I may be done revising--but I love reading other people's work--I find it inspiring in many ways--hopefully that will help me over the humps--great hub!
Absolutely one fantastic hub! A good pep talk always helps. Thanks for the support.
This is such a great hub! I go through the occasional periods in which I get bored with Hubpages and just writing in general. That's for the motivational boost! Voted up!
Thank you all for the support. I feel all Hubbers, new and old, need a periodic pep talk to keep them going.
This hub is an inspiration for those days when you wonder, why am I doing this? Yes, it's nice to have friends but what about hub popularity? You've put all that in this hub and make it known that we are all in the same boat. Sometimes the water gets rough but if you keep the boat in shape you won't sink. Definitely will try out pingler! Voted up, useful and interesting.
P.S. Came to this hub from one of your Tweets!
Good old Twitter! It does have a purpose after all! Thanks for stopping by. There's some helpful hints on Pingler in the comments above too.
All of what you posted is true...DONT give up! Sometimes a certain topic gets searched in spurts. So your traffic on a hub might drop for a month and then that same hub will spike suddenly. When I get discouraged about my writing and traffic I write something quirky. Believe it or not sometimes my quirky hubs bring in more non-hubber traffic than my SEO/keyword hubs! So just have FUN :)
Thanks for this very inspiring hub! We all need some encouragement now and then, and it is good to now that more hubbers feel the same:)
Voted up, useful
Tina
This is exactly what I needed to read today as I am feeling a little uninspired.
Then I am glad I wrote this. I find you to be an excellent writer; I love reading your stuff. And I want more. Now go write more!
Very sound advice Dave. Many people don't realize what they are up against when they come to HubPages and begin writing, myself included. And when they do find out, they shouldn't let it intimidate them either. A new person needs to remember that they are new and that there are more experienced people out there that can help. The Extreme Hub Makeover forum is one of the most helpful aspects of HubPages and to this day I still see veterans use it from time to time. Voted up and useful! :)
thejeffriestube...I can echo all the comments above! I needed this nudge and then some. It IS time to do some minor tweaking on prior hubs....and at the 6 month point, my bio need serious overhaul. I Thank you, Sir! All of your info is VERY helpful. Your good deed is a success.
Thank you for an uplifting and re-invigorating hub, thejeffriestube. I'm going to put some of your advice into practice now, before I go deeper into a sulk.
I'm glad I could help you with this! The comments alone are helpful to all of us. It shows that we are not alone in this adventure. Cags, you are spot on with the intimidation factor. I think alot of people go through that, myself included.
Thanks for writing this .. it's a good shot in the arm. After publishing about ten hubs in my first four months, I stopped paying much attention to HubPages for a while. Six months later I resumed my "Hubtivity" and started publishing again with renewed enthusiasm. I'm still not much more prolific, but I'm planning to ramp it up at least a little. Voted up and useful, by a new follower.
Thanks for your kind words, Brian. Glad it inspires you. My advice is if you have a little free time, think about the things you yourself did not know, and decided to Google. Then write a Hub about it.
Great hub with a lot of excellent tips and plenty of encouragement. Even those of us who love to write can hit a slump or rut. Thanks for all your excellent advice!
I did want to leave comment to Jackie Lynnley:
Stop worrying about your Hub score. It is ever-changing, and as long as it stays above 75, you're ok. You have some great Hubs, and maybe you just need some more exposure.
Seriously, read some of Jackie's stuff after you're done here: http://jackielynnley.hubpages.com/
Great advice! It should be shared with newcomers, and as I can see in the comments, many of us who have been here a while can benefit from it too! I didn't know about pingler; I'll have to check it out.
Thanks for sharing these tips! Voted up and sharing!
Thanks TPM, I really think new Hubbers could really benefit from this kind of information as well!
Thanks. I'm pretty new and found it useful.
There truly is a hub for everything LOL. Great job!
Joelipoo, glad you found it useful. That makes me happy! And Chelsea, you'd be surprised at some of the Hub topics you find here!
Great thoughts on Hubbing. I am a newbie but I will keep your suggestions in mind. Well done!
Tammy , I wish you luck, and if you ever get stuck, and think "Why am I wasting my time?", come back and read this!
I wanted to add a word of warning to this one. DO NOT PAY FOR TRAFFIC!! There are so many organic and legitinate ways to get traffic that paying for it should never be an option. Consult your fellow Hubbers for advice!
...well Dave that's when I open up the kitchen shelf door and say hello to my good friend 'Jack' lol - actually this is a timely hub subject for me because I have been feeling a bit burnt out lately (not that anyone would notice) but there are some personal issues in my life which do affect my time and work at the Hub in several different ways - it's called being distracted by life itself - I'm only human - and I really thought this hub was very helpful and informative and supportive too which is why you will see it proudly posted on Facebook with a direct link back here.
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Epi, I'm glad it found you during a time it can be mopst effective. And trust me, we do notice. And we don't like it. We rely on certain people in our community here to be the pillars upon which we all stand. And you Sir, are one of those pillars.
Dave,
This is great information and timely for me as well. I haven't actually felt "burned out" but more frustrated at times. I realize after 10 months here that it is so true that you have to keep pushing and not give up. I have learned so much and do the things on your list except for participating in the forums (mainly because it's difficult to find the extra time). Thanks for this great hub!
Sharyn
Thanks for stopping by, Sharyn! It's all about sticking with it and pushing through the tough times. When your traffic drops to almost nothing, that's when you have to get back on the proverbial horse and keep writing!
I've already commented on this, but wanted to say "Thanks for SHARING."
Voted up and awesome, we all experience times of burn out, but your suggestions are good alternatives to writing hubs that benefit everyone.
Thanks for SHARING.
Thanks Brett! Consequently, it's time to take my own advice.
Great hub, and needed, every writer gets discouraged, then inspired. Thanks for the boost!
Great Hub, very inspiring to keep plugging along! Very true about the hub hopping too, you can find some gems, but sometimes it takes a while. Will check out this pingler. Voted up and useful!
Thanks for this! It's comforting to know that others feel as uninspired or disillusioned as I do at times. I really need to get round to completing a summary for each of my hubs too.
Tara, I'm so glad you found this then! Don't give up, just keep writing. Write what you feel, even if you don't think it's any good. I guarantee there are people out there interested in your work.
Excellent advice. I think all hubbers have been there at one point or another. I stayed away from hubpages completely for about 9 months because I became frustrated with my apparent lack of progress. I realized the error of my ways though and now I'm happier than ever to be here. :D
Melissa, thanks for stopping by! I've read some of your work already and all I can say is I'm glad you're back!
Thanks so much for writing this. I can't seem to complete my latest hub and another hub idea just won't come to me:( I think I will ping a little and fix my other hubs. Judging by all the comments there are lots of us that needed a boost:) Voted up. Thanks for SHARING
Great encouraging words!! Will keep writing...must keep writing...write onward, ho! I'm sitting here right now contemplating my next topic. I know what I want to write about, but for some reason, my fingers aren't typing. This hub has made me want to do that. :) Voted up and SHARING.
I thought this was a superb hub 7 weeks ago and I still do!!:)
Dave, well put together hub. Although I have not personally reached any burned out stage and doubt I will, I agree, don't give up. It's a slow motion process and you just need to be patient. It's like losing weight--don't expect to lose 20 lbs. in two weeks--it's not healthy or really natural. Thanks for your encouraging words too. Thumbs up.
This is amazing, especially as I'm definitely starting to feel a little burned out! Encouraging words, and great advice! Thanks so much for sharing this! Clearly, YOU are not burned out! ;)
Great article and reminder to keep going. Time is my biggest enemy...trying to fit all these activities in a day. However, lately I have been realigning my priorities so I can achieve my goals, one of which is becoming a better writer. Thank you for sharing these great tips and reminding us all to press on!
Great pointers for those who are at a wall. I know that sometimes I get a block so I just find something else to do till I come up with an idea for a hub. Great Job.
Thanks all! This is definately one I re-read myself from time to time, and if I can help others get through their block, that's great!
Thumbs up and awesome. I never have been burned out with HubPages. It takes a lot of work and patience. I would also recommend Pinterest. Your hub was well-written and organized. Like so many things in life, it takes some sacrifice to create awesome hubs. Thanks very much for throwing support out there.
The pingler.com site is interesting, but I think you have to pay to participate although it is free to register.
Great tips here! The writing journey can be a slow one but slow and steady wins the race :)
Great advice! I especially agree with it being alright to take a break from HubPages every now and then. Good job, thanks for writing it!
Sunshine625 Level 8 Commenter 4 months ago
Excellent hub Dave! Very useful for other hubbers! I'm glad you wrote this. Voted UP and shared!:)