Ornate and easy to use, HubPages reaches out to the general masses
HubPages, along with Squidoo.com helped popularize the concept of revenue sharing in websites. Squidoo may have brought it to wide attention, but it wasn’t until HubPages came along that revenue sharing became an internet rage. While Squidoo was the innovator who introduced the audience to the idea, HubPages took the idea and brought it to the masses and articles writing services. The former may still lead the market in terms of popularity and rank, but the latter is one of the few revenue sharing enterprises that managed to give it a run for its money.
Today, HubPages is one of the most visited websites in the world and one of largest article directories in the internet even though it does not cater to articles writing services directly. In our last entry we reviewed squidoo.com. It is only fair that we review the only other site that can make Squidoo shake in its tentacles.
Strengths of HubPages for Articles Writing Services
HubPages boasts of a whopping Alexa rating of 327 and a very significant Google page rank of 6, which places it as one of the top five online article directories. The reason for HubPages’ instant popularity, when it was unveiled in 2006, was that its interface was much more convenient when compared to Squidoo.
Much like Squidoo’s lens and lensmasters, HubPages has ‘hubs’ and ‘hubbers’ (hence the name). The pages also offer added liberties in posting content. The site goes to good lengths to make sure there is ease in posting and accommodates all sorts of media. The hubs are intended to retain a magazine like appearance.
HubPages is also distinct in its system of categorizing its content. The sub categories, as they should be in any good article directory, are really diverse. It is this factor that gives every site its own brand of content. The categories moreover are well placed at the end of the page and are easily noticeable. Furthermore, the page really draws attention to how gracefully ornate it is. This further helps in attaching links and various media to your article.
The site also advertises its authors by having a section about the various success stories that the site boasts of. You may even find some owners of articles writing services there. Inspirational or not, the authors do manage to find themselves a good following. The site also has an apprentice program for an improved online portfolio, in addition to offering learning programs to help users improve their writing skills.
Weaknesses of HubPages
HubPages may revel in how neat and ornate its pages are, but fails to do the most important thing required of article directories; pushing its content. A sliding tab on the top advertises a handful of popular content along with another section in the sidebar, but there a new user will be clueless about the various kinds of content that exist on the site. On the part of articles writing services, this is an acute shortage in incentives (apart from the revenue you gain). The site has to help users attain a following.
If the sliding tabs are your only outlet to be advertised amongst the users, you really have very disconcerting odds to play with. Moreover, the site also has a 60:40 revenue sharing ratio. Not that this makes for an infirmity but rival sites offer over 50%. But all things considered, the margin of difference is miniscule.
The Opportunities with HubPages
The variety in topics will help you to reach out to your desired target audience better. In addition to this, diverse sub-topics really help in distinguishing content and further streamlining it for articles writing services.
The liberties in adding media and business links (a more restricted feature in other sites) in your articles provides leeway to advertise your content better.
If you fashion your content professionally enough i.e. with same standards as maintained by technical writing and content writing services, you could advertise your business without compromising the quality of your page.
The Threats (issues) with HubPages
Since the site won’t advertise your content much, you might have to go the extra mile to ensure you page is conspicuous, which means more innovative and professional content.
This can add undue pressure on articles writing services to experiment with their content. However, you can try hiring ghost writers to improve your page and maybe even engage in some report writing to improve the relevance of your page.
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