Reading an old book is interesting because you know the writer is long deceased. The book is like something frozen at one point in time, the story will never change to reflect the modern use of cell phones and you can't ever contact the writer on Twitter to offer a review of their book.

I do like to look up writers when I am reading their books. I like to see what kind of internet presence they have, do they make use of their Twitter account (if they have one) do they keep their blog/ site updated about upcoming books and give readers tidbits about past books? Do they write a bit about themselves, telling us who they are and why they wrote the story they wrote? I like the odd note about their journey to get the book researched, written and then published.

You can't do all that with a book written 100 years ago. The writer isn't going to be answering your email any time soon. It's a funny feeling, a little eerie/ spooky. Kind of sad too.

What was the last book you read which was older - so old it was written before you were born or more than 100 years ago? If you have never read an old book, why not?

Books get broken. Some can be repaired. Some aren't worth repairing but could be repurposed/ upcycled instead. Book art is nice to see but, I think it needs to be practical so we aren't just creating clutter but something useful too.

I don't have many hard cover books these days. I miss them.

When you buy a book now it's either a paperback or a bigger sized paperback book. Very few books are published and distributed as real hard covers any more. In stores they seem to think those big sized paperback books are the new hard cover books. They're wrong. I think they just don't want to reduce the price. But, do they really think we are that easily fooled?

The old hard cover books, the real hard covers, needed some extra looking after once in awhile. The old bookbinding sometimes came a bit unraveled if the book were well read many times. We would recover the book. We used wallpaper left over from a home decorating project, drawing paper from architectural drawings my Dad didn't need any more, or plastic which was intended as drawer liners but worked very well as book covers too.

It wasn't just book covers that took abuse. We taped up pages and made home made repairs to the book spines too. Tape wasn't the best choice for fixing pages though. After time the tape would get yellowy and sometime after that it would eventually lose its stickiness and fall right off as if it were just an ordinary piece of plastic. I guess, by that time, it was.

Books Beyond Saving Can be Upcycled

Not all old books can be saved.

Sadly I lost a few boxes full of books when the water heater tank leaked and eventually cracked down in our basement at one house. No one noticed right away. So there was water on the floor awhile. The boxes were in the same room, sitting in the water. The water was soaked up into the cardboard box and into the books.

The books on the bottom were the worst off. Some were mildewed and I wasn't even able to pick them up due to allergies to mould and mildew. Books in the middle were water logged, thickened with wavy pages. They couldn't be saved. No store would have taken them in trade and I couldn't keep them due to the allergies. Most of them were past being readable anyway. Some books on the top were not too bad. But, I was so disheartened I wrote them all off.

We burned them all. At that house we had a large backyard on the edge of a small rural town. So burning out in the back garden was ok.

Burning isn't the only option for books beyond saving. If the pages are okay still you can do a lot in creating book art. Books in bad shape can still be used, just in different ways.

Be Creative but Practical Too

I think there is one very important thing to keep in mind when we repurpose books or anything else. That is to keep the repurposing functional. Yes, a lot of the book art is cool or interesting to see, but where will it be a year from now even? Will we still like it, want to keep it and want to give it space in our home - or will it just become one more piece of stuff we have around adding to the clutter?

There should be new value added to anything we repurpose. If we are just creating mindlessly or for the joy of the moment then are we really repurposing and upcycling at all? Or are we just giving the book a temporary stay of execution?

I think it's very important to find new uses for old things but they should actually be useful.

If you can't fix them... repurpose them!

Besides journals (diaries) and of course, books,  writers tend to keep:

• scrapbooks
• found objects
• photographs
• quotations
• newspaper/ magazine articles

Which of these do you keep as a personal interest or creative inspiration, or both?

Note: This was originally posted on the HubPages site, June 2012. I have stopped writing at HubPages but still recommend the site for new writers or those who don't want to set up their own site or weblog.

I was thinking about what I get out of writing for HubPages and decided it would actually make a good post. Other writers should know the benefits, the less obvious benefits, to writing for HubPages or other networks.

Yes, you get paid. But, yes... you actually do get paid.
You get to practice in front of a live audience.
You get your name out there, on topics relevant to you and your interests.
You get to dabble in blogging without opening a site or buying anything.
You can work on your spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Meet other writers and other people sharing your interests or interested in you.
Promote yourself on social media by linking back to your accounts on Twitter and etc.
If you have a site you can give yourself back links and interlink between relevant posts.
Learn from the guides, tips and rules on the network. Watch for changes to how they do things and find out the reasons behind them.
Get fresh, new ideas from what other people are posting. Use the ideas in your own way.
Making Money at HubPages

My time writing for HubPages is a bit skewed. I opened an account and didn't start using it until about 3 years later. So my results are different from what your own may be. Of course, no one is going to have the exact same experience anyway.

However, when it comes to my time here versus my money earned, things are a bit complicated.

Still, as far as being paid by HubPages. I am getting paid and I am making money here. I signed up for other writing networks and did not get any money for my work and my time. In fact, I've only been paid for work on my own blog (which is outside of any writing network) and HubPages. None of the other networks have paid me a thing in the past year. So, of course, I am putting more into HubPages and my own sites.

My first payment from HubPags was just over $50 and I am halfway to a second $50 payment. Due to my own efforts - choosing topics, writing headlines, writing content and finding context, etc - I have made $25 in three months.

Now, if you look at your cost of living that doesn't seem like much. But, it's pretty good for a writing network. I know others are making more money in different ways. I'm not comparing apples and oranges though. I'm quite pleased with the money from HubPages.

Of course, the secret is time management. Don't over do it. Keep your time, work and the returns you get in balance.

There's More to Writing for a Network than Money

People always want to know about making money. But, as a writer, there is more you can get out of writing for an online network than money alone.

Don't forget the importance of feedback, building up your skills, learning how things work and building a reputation/ creating an online presence for yourself. Those are all real things you can get from writing for a network like HubPages.

I also like HubPages because it gives me a goal to work towards. When I write for myself I have no boss, no one looking over my shoulder or keeping me on track. I sometimes go off on my own and daydream about some new idea or write a post because it appeals to me, just me. Having a bit of a task master at HubPages is a good thing. You need to keep your focus, watch how and what you write/ post and you can see the results and set yourself goals to improving based on the numbers HubPages tracks for you.

Right now I'm working on getting traffic numbers up. I want to go from 10K to 100K around the end of this year. It may be too much to reach for. But, I'm past the quarter point. Progress, even if I may fall short at the end, I can still see things might work out. I'm pushing extra buttons by promoting my posts, linking to them and continuing to write new posts.

Why Not Give HubPages a Try?

I'm not going to stick in a referral link here. If you do join I would appreciate the referral but I'm Canadian and I'm just not comfortable asking for something for myself.

But, if you have read this and think writing for a network is a good idea, try HubPages. You don't have to pay to join, you don't even have to start writing right away. Think about it, consider how useful it could be for you and then give it a spin.

Send me a note when you make your first post. I'll leave you a welcome comment.

*Note: This was originally posted to HubPages, February 2012. I'm no longer writing at HubPages but the advice to people who write for network sites is still true and worth knowing. *

To my fellow HubPages writers,

I've been writing with HubPages for a few months. I had joined years ago, but I wasn't writing Hub posts until recently.

My writing experience online comes from other sites, other writing networks and my own sites which I create, maintain and promote. I have moderated forums, email lists and newsletters. I have guest posted and I have accepted guest posts. I have begun working as a content curator. In the past I have been a web directory editor for The Open Directory Project and a less well known directory, BOTW. I have written for known and unknown sites like LockerGnome, Suite101, BackWash, have any Hub writers heard of these? Chances are you have not.

HubPages has become it's own little microcosm, it's own little closed in and sheltered world. The traffic here is mainly from inside the network or Google. This is not really a good thing.

Google is like a bird, picking at bits of food in a huge log on the forest floor. The Google bird just snips up one snack at a time. It doesn't dive in and find more or tell anyone else to come and see what great snacks there are in this tree. Everything Google finds becomes part of its database and someone has to search for it in order to find you. In Google, your content is just a little bug waiting for another bird to dig for it, with the right words.

There are so many other sources for traffic! Most Hub writers are not usingTwitter, for instance. Twitter is simple to use. It would also let Hub writers talk outside of HubPages which is a good thing because it promotes HubPages - outside of HubPages. Twitter is only a beginning... StumbleUpon, Tumblr,Pinterest, Snip.it, Flickr... Are these foreign lands to you? Then it's time to set your eye on the horizon and explore them.

You can promote your Hub posts in so many fresh, new places. Places you will enjoy exploring, places you will find new ideas to write about, meet new people with your interests and interesting sidelines to your interests.

Start your own blog on WordPress.com or Blogspot. It's free in those places. Link to your Hubpages account, post links to your lastest Hub article and invite discussion. Yes, you want people to comment on your Hub, but they have to get there first. Post the best Hub comments on your blog, as a way to lure readers from the blog onto your Hub post where they can add to that discussion. However, don't use your blog or any social media as just a way to promote your HubPages account. That is a slippery slope.

It takes time to use social media or a blog well. They should never be used as just a feed for your Hub content. Why would someone read a carbon copy? Have original content, things you don't post at HubPages. Post ideas you find and may write about. Post updates to old Hubs you have written and, of course, link back to the original Hub content. Post about a bad day, post about your new achievements and goals you are setting for yourself.

Each place you land in, establish a presence in, will bring you new readers and give HubPages new life outside of itself. This will bring traffic from outside of HubPages, those places where most people have never heard of HubPages or think it's not worth visiting. Reach out there and change their minds.

I don't know if there are rules about posting traffic stats on HubPages. I don't mind to share mine, to show my work.

My Hub traffic reaches out past Google. I get traffic from my own blog where I have added a link to my HubPages account right along with my Twitter, StumbleUpon and etc. accounts. I put in time on Scoop.it, content curating for topics which relate to the Hubs I write. While I do link to my own posts there, I also link to some of yours on HubPages and other sites.

On my blog you will see a wider variety of traffic sources. Some of these come from comments I have left on other sites and blogs. Some are networks I have joined. I also exchange links with other bloggers, web writers and friends online. I even get a little traffic from a writer's network which is now abandoned by the owner.

So you can get traffic from a lot of places, even those which aren't especially active. The key is in the focus of the site, especially in the case of a small or inactive site. People wind up there, with the focus of whatever the topic or niche is. If they find your link, chances are you will get clicked on because they came looking for your kind of content.