Purpose, or Purposeless?
Is your online time invested well? When it comes to cyber community and activity, are you overjoyed at your pumpkin harvest, filling your virtual account with cyber coins? Or do you invest your time in online activity which will produce tangible rewards? Do you obsess over crops? Or stats? It doesn't much matter the venue, there are plenty of addictive internet games and activities to go around. Read on for a comparison and contrast of HubPages writing community and Facebook Farming games.
I have spent more than my share of time online the last couple of years, and like so many others, find myself overly intrigued by online communities which revolve around an activity or goal. For several years, I was content with my own little blog, with a small community of friends and readers, until someone sent an invite to join this oddity known as Facebook. I didn't even join right away. Then there was a debate, and a news agency asking viewers to weigh in with their opinions on the Facebook page. That was just the beginning.Re-connecting
At first, it was just a simple venue for connecting with old friends, and wow, even some family members. Then, these strange requests began to show on my homepage. Accepting farm requests and gifts, I found myself constructing my own little virtual farms, societies, and communities. I found myself looking for new neighbors, in order to level up. I found myself waking at strange hours in order to harvest crops before they could wither. Hours invested in something that produced no tangible reward, merely that sense of accomplishing something in a virtual world.
Facebook games are fun, but when I turned my games over to the teenagers in the house, I was relieved not to be tied to my farm, my neighborhood, my cafe, any longer. Meanwhile, I discovered HubPages.Writing Online, Earnings IRL (In Real Life)
When folks aren't building their virtual lives, they also use the internet to find information. They use their computers to track down hints and tips and ideas. They research things that concern them, whether it is health and fitness related, travel related, you name it. If you would search for it, chances are good, that others would. Most searches are related to purpose, curiosity, interest, need. Most of us have a knowledge of areas of our own interests. Online article writing is a means of sharing your interests, expertise, or hints and tips. HubPages is a writing community which provides a perfect venue for such writing, while allowing for the use of rich content such as photos, videos, news, links, polls, tables, and even advertising capsules. While my teenagers tended my virtual homestead, I ventured into the realm of online article writing. 9 months in, I have potentially invested as much time as I previously invested in my virtual game activities on Facebook. However, the rewards that add up in HubPages world come in the form of Google Adsense and Amazon traffic, whereby royalties are earned on your writing. My first Amazon payment was a mere $26, 5 1/2 months into my HubPages experience. By the end of August, my total Amazon earnings had reached approximately $80. At the end of August, I reached enough money in my Google Adsense account to receive a payout of more than $100 at the end of the following month.
In my 9th month writing with HubPages, my Amazon earnings have exceeded $400 for the year, and my second Adsense payout is within grasp this week. Compared to millions of virtual farm coins, which will buy me nothing but an "atta boy" from my circle of friends, I've found that the HubPages time has been a little more productive. Interaction
Both HubPages, and Farming applications in Facebook, allow for social interaction, and even commenting. Both allow one to invest time in an activity, and both permit earnings of sorts. Both allow one to establish a circle of friends, and both allow opportunities to earn recognitions within the respective communties.
The difference, of course, is a matter of activity and purpose. Whereas one is mainly a way to pass time, the other provides an opportunity to benefit others in search of anything from recipes to gardening insights. HubPages success depends on learning some basic search engine optimization techniques (seo), while the farming apps of Facebook depends on learning the specific rules of the game, and times needed for crops to mature. Increasing your expertise and ability and activity with HubPages often results in tangible rewards, while virtual farming leads to virtual recognitions.Replacing one obsession with another?
It's often said that it doesn't solve an obsession or addiction to replace it with another. However, in this case, I found a more productive way to invest my time, and I don't have to worry about missing a deadline and losing my work, as I did with farming apps.
Farmville, Farm Town, and other Facebook apps can be a fun way to pass time. However, if you find yourself getting up at odd hours to check your strawberry crops, you may want to examine a different source of online entertainment. You, too, can obsess over your stats and traffic, rather than make believe strawberry crops! HubPages may be just the thing!
No comments:
Post a Comment