HubPages for Dummies

I am writing this Hub in response to a request that I got to put together a guide for new Hubbers.  Now, I am not claiming to be an expert because I feel that I can always stand to learn more myself.  But, I do feel that I have a reasonable understanding of the process of making money by writing Hubs even though my ability to devote enough time to the process is limited by work and family commitments.  From what I understand, my eCPM and CPC is fairly high compared to the average Hub but that is due to the topics in which I am interested.  But you can still improve your earnings on almost any topic by taking a systematic approach to your writing.

I will try to keep this Hub as basic as possible and will not be publishing an exhaustive reference to everything that you need to know.  I will try to include additional resources that I have found helpful in my experience over the past year.  I would also like to offer encouragement to those of you just starting out.  Some of you may require the additional money for survival or for a desire to achieve financial freedom.  Others may be like me who are writing part-time but who also want to earn some extra money while doing it.  If you simply want to write for enjoyment, then you don't really need to worry about the information in this Hub.  But feel free, if you change your mind, to come back and check out this information.

The first thing I do is pick a topic about which I would like to write.  For me, picking a topic of interest is most important.  I need that motivation to actually sit down and write since there are many other things that I could be doing with my time like sleeping or golfing.  However, you may be able to write about any topic that comes to mind.  Regardless of your characteristics or how you select your topic, if you want to make some decent money, you have to do keyword research.

Keyword research is important for several reasons:

• Keywords are what people will actually use to find information in Google.  If you want to make money, you need to think like you would if you were searching for something.
• Keywords are used by Google to determine what your article is about and place it in the search results when people search for a particular topic.
• Keywords are what advertisers bid on and pay money to Google for in order to have relevant ads placed next to your content.

So, having a good working knowledge of keywords and keyword research is essential to being able to develop good content, stimulate appropriate levels of traffic, and make the greatest amount of money per click as possible.

The first thing I do to start my keyword research is go to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Usage of the site is reasonably self-explanatory. Now let me explain why keyword research is so important.

Let's say that you like small furry pets and are thinking about writing an article about hamsters. So, you could type "hamsters" in the keyword tool making sure that column for estimated average CPC is activated. Doing this reveals that the CPC for "cheap hamster cages" is $1.01 while "fancy hamster" is $0.05. Obviously, if you are writing articles for making money, writing about "cheap hamster cages" would be potentially more profitable.

What if you aren't all that into hamsters and would consider ferrets a fun article topic? "Cheap ferret cages" has a CPC of $1.66. (CPC stands for cost-per-click. This is the amount that an advertiser might be expected to pay Google when someone clicks on their text ad. You get a portion of this as commission so the higher the CPC, the more you stand to make with each click.  Also make sure you use the exact match for your keyword phrase.)

I use the Google Adwords Keyword Tool to provide me with ideas as to which keywords might provide a higher CPC. These may be keywords or synonyms that you may not have considered. It is possible to come away from your keyword research with 4 or 5 article ideas based upon your initial topic.

The best resource I have found on the web comes from Courtney Tuttle's website. He offers a free ebook for signing up to his mailing list. It is called "The Keyword Crash Course". Read and study this book and you will be well on your way to knowing quite a bit about keyword research.

I want to find keywords that have at least 3,000 monthly global searches. That would mean that 100 searches per day are being conducted on Google. If you can get to the first position, then you would stand to get a significant portion of that traffic with odds being that you could generate revenue each and every day with that article. Do this for several articles, and the monthly income will begin to add up. But, we have to figure out the odds of making that first position or even that first page of Google and that takes assessment of the competition.

Once you have figured out several keywords for potential article topics, then you need to assess the competition. I use my Firefox browser and search for the keyword as if I were looking for the information. Before you do this, however, you want to have the SEO for Firefox tool at the SEObook.com website downloaded onto your computer. This tool will tell you the PageRank for each of those sites on page 1 of Google.

Look at the PageRank of sites on that first page, and you will often find a wide variety of PageRanks.  PageRank is the presumed authority or value of the site in the eyes of Google.  The higher the PR (range is 0-10), the more difficult it will be to displace that site with one that you create.  I look for PR 3 or less as being possible to displace.  So, I simply add up all the PRs for page 1.  If the total competition PR on that first page is 30 or less, then go for it.  Otherwise, it would be too difficult and competitive so consider looking at another keyword.

When I look up "cheap ferret cages", I find that the total PR for page 1 is 23.  There are several PRs less than 3 including one with PR of zero.  It would be possible to get onto page 1 of Google with some work at linking.  It might be difficult to replace ferret.com in the first position with a PR of 5, but getting on the first page might still be worth it. 

Once you pick a target keyword phrase, write your Hub.  Be sure to include that keyword phrase in the title of the article since you want to try to rank for the phrase.  The fact that the phrase is in the title will mean that it appears in the URL for the Hub and will give the Google spiders the necessary clues as to the context.

You want to use that keyword phrase periodically throughout the article as well as other similar keyword phrases that will provide additional clues as to the content of the article.  This will allow the ad spiders to put relevant ads next to your content.  So, if you are writing about "cheap ferret cages", you want to include a title that includes the phrase.  Then be sure that you use several other phrases such as "cages for ferrets" or "inexpensive ferret cages", etc. sprinkled throughout the article in a natural way.

There are a few things that I check when publishing a Hub. First, I look to see that I have ad space in across the top and just to the right of the first paragraph of content. I would prefer to do this rather than have a photo in that location. If you need to move the photo down the page a little, do that.

Second, I want to check and see that my content is being read properly by the ad spiders and that I have relevant ads next to my article. Sometimes the first publishing does not post relevant ads, but usually when I refresh the page, I can see the ads change and make sure that they relate to the keywords that I am targeting.

Finally, it is time to begin the process of marketing your article. You will find as many different thoughts on backlinking as you will find authors. But the bottom line is that you need to get some backlinks in order to drive traffic. Without a doubt, the best education that I have found on the explanation of backlinks including anchor text, site authority and such is found on this site by Allyn Hane. I must confess that it took me months to figure out what people meant by links and anchor text so take about 30 minutes and read the info that Allyn presents and watch his videos. You will be glad that you did.

Also, take the time to look up what several of the more successful Hubbers do for backlinks. Personally, I am using Xomba, SheToldMe, and Redgage primarily for posting links. I do this since it is possible to make AdSense money on Xomba and SheToldMe when people click on ads next to your links. You need to write a short summary of your Hub. Be sure to use your keyword phrase a few times so that relevant ads show up next to your summary. I have been making some of my monthly income from these sites as well. There are other sites that can be used for linking as well, but if you write extensively then you may not need that many linking sites.

You can use my referral code to join SheToldMe so be sure to sign up and promote those articles to increase your income.

This certainly is not an exhaustive reference guide for all aspects of Hubbing and making money by writing Hubs or writing for the internet. But it should give most newbies a very good idea of how to get started. If you take the time to review this Hub as well as utilize the resources that I have linked, you should be off to a very good start and have a good working understanding of what it takes to actually make money Hubbing.