The Secret Sauce to Hubpages Marketing!

Have you ever been to a great looking website and thought “wow, this is exactly what I needed”? I know I have, and almost every time I either bookmark it or share on Facebook and Twitter.

But what about bad websites, what do you do then? Typically, if you’re like me, you probably hit the back button within seconds, recognizing that you’ve found a Made For AdSense (MfA) site, or that you aren’t going to find what you need.

So if we understand our own behavior, then explain to me why we don’t think about this behavior when creating Hubs on Hubpages?

The difference between a helpful, resourceful, and useful Hubpage and one that’s made to sell something is tremendous, and often times, if you survey Hubpages owners, you’ll find that the ones actually making money are not the ones that built a site in 5 minutes but that spent as much time building their Hub as they do their other websites.

It’s like this – Hubpages marketing is no different than any other form of online marketing, so don’t treat it that way. Instead, spend time building a Hubpage site that rocks. If you do, I think you’ll find that the reason Hubpages hasn’t been working for you isn’t that it doesn’t work, but that it doesn’t work for spammers.

The Ingredients of a Proper Hub

1. Clearly Segmented Content

Take a look at some of the top Hubs and you’ll notice that they don’t just copy and paste a 500 word article and call it a day. They break up their page into multiple sections, each with a different piece of information.

Think of a Hubpage like the front page of the New York Times. Hit people with the hard hitting headlines so they can choose which posts they’d like to read and then break it up so that they can easily browse the page.

It’s not that difficult to make content both compelling and easy to read. It’s the extra 10 minutes required to do it that separates the good marketers from the lazy marketers.

2. Cleverly Placed Links

Placing a bunch of links in a resources box or on a sidebar isn’t going to help you, and the chances are high that your audience won’t click them anyway.

Instead, bury the solutions inside of the content, and be sure to make them relevant solutions. That being said, don’t stuff links that aren’t relevant, don’t trick people, and don’t abuse the HubPages guidelines.

3. Provide Real Solutions

I get really tired of seeing Hubs that are nothing more than contrived content used to stuff affiliate and blog links into an article. These don’t help anyone, and if you aren’t helping, then you aren’t going to see results.

The reality is that you can’t provide the solution to every problem, and you shouldn’t try. What I’m trying to say is that you should include links to real resources that are just as useful to your reader as your own affiliate links might be. If you help them, they’ll likely backtrack to bookmark the Hub and eventually stumble onto your links.

Hubpage marketing isn’t difficult, but it takes time to do it well, which is why so many people do it wrong. Stop trying to skimp on content and solutions and think of yourself as a publisher, like a newspaper, rather than a late night infomercial. I promise you – this matters.

What do you think? Am I off my rocker, or do you agree? Let me know in the comments