Hub Pages....And Why I Think There Are Better Options

Let me start out by saying that what follows is my personal opinion of Hub
Pages from 3 months of using them. I think that's long enough to get a feel
for how effective they can or can't be in comparison to other platforms.

For starters, the rating system is a joke. For example, I went to one hub
page that had hardly any content on it at all that was rated a 62. Granted,
a 62 is nothing to write home about.

But then I went to another page that had the most comprehensive article
on the subject you'd want to read.

It too was rated a 62.

While I can't prove this, my gut tells me that the ratings are similar to
Squidoo lenses. It's not so much the content but how much traffic you
generate.

Which leads me to why I feel there is a better way.

As you may or may not know, Hub Pages is VERY strict with links to
outside pages. Don't even think of sending people to a commercial page
in the attempt to make a sale. They'll yank your page in a heartbeat and
may even close your account.

In a word, they're strict.

So, since you ultimately have to get traffic to your hub page in order to
get it ranked higher, why bother sending people to say, a review of a
product at Hub Pages when you can easily just direct traffic to another
medium where you don't have to worry about what links you have or don't
have on the page?

Yes, I have found that in the SERPs, hub pages DO rank higher than other
sites. But I feel the benefits of this are killed by the restrictions that hub
pages puts on your content.

In short, my hub pages aren't ranked any higher in my chosen niches than
my Wordpress blogs, Blogger blogs or Squidoo lenses...all of which allow me
to actively promote my chosen product. So why use them?

I am curious as to how others feel about Hub Pages.

Am I missing something? It's been 3 months and I have received absolutely
no benefit from them that I can see.

Of course maybe I've been too strict with my own self censoring of my
content there simply because of the horror stories I've heard of hubs
being trashed because of any kind of promotion.

Is it true? Is it made up?

If it is true, again, what's the point?

I'm a pretty bright guy but I just don't see the benefit of putting your
content on a medium where essentially the only thing you can do is have
your name.

I'm open to other opinions, ideas, ways to make hub pages profitable, etc.

So far...I just don't see the point.