Recap of HubPages Ad Program Earnings from 2011

At the end of the year, I think it is important to go back and look at the results of my various online money making efforts so that I can see the progress, or lack thereof, and identify those sources of income that show promise in the upcoming year. That way, I can focus my efforts on what is working and spend less time on those areas that might be wasted.

As I look into 2012, I think that my blogs show the most promise. But I also have seen some recent improvement in my HubPages traffic and earnings with the Ad Program over the last several months. It took some time for my HubPages traffic to stabilize following the Panda update. It was during this time that I started my own blog, Cash Flow Mantra, and started making what I consider serious money online as a part-time blogger.

Now, I don't typically get a lot of traffic from HubPages. I suppose I don't do a good job of picking the right topics and marketing. I have several Hubs which haven't gotten any views at all in the last 30 days. But I do have some decent articles which get consistent traffic. I consider a good day anytime I get the same number of views as I have Hubs. For me, any day of 200 views is considered good. Many times, I usually get only half that level of traffic.

However over the past 2 months, traffic has begun to stabilize and since I have published several Hubs in the past few weeks, has begun to grow as well. You should be able to see the trends in the earnings from the Ad Program which I have listed out in the table below.

This stabilization of traffic and increased income was through no effort on my part. It seems that changes to the HubPages site with the subdomains making adjustments to the Google algorithm change must have taken hold as evidenced by the marked improvement that you see in October. I am thrilled that this has occurred since I am especially fond of HubPages but was disappointed that earnings had fallen off dramatically.

Like I said earlier, I think the most promise lies with my own personal blogs, but a big part of my strategy for making money online will come from HubPages. I plan on using the money I make here to offset my costs for blogging. I also plan on using this site for marketing my own blogs and adding additional content or explanation to what I am writing elsewhere.

I also intend to take advantage of the Amazon and eBay affiliate programs as totally passive sources of income that I only expect will grow. If I can offset all of the cost of running my own blogs with income from HubPages, then all blogging revenue is 100% profit. Since I first started writing online in 2009, I have not put a single dollar of my own into anything related to online income generation but have simply reinvested what I had already made at free writing sites. I intend to keep it that way and only spend my time.

I am looking forward to 2012 and have some decent goals for HubPages and the Ad Program. I would like to earn $20 per month in January and increase that number by $5 per month through the end of the year. I think it will be possible, but will take some work on my part. The nice thing is that I am getting better at writing content and quicker at it as well. I should be able to write more articles in the same amount of time which will be a benefit in the long run.

Best wishes to all my fellow Hubbers in 2012! Here is to a productive and prosperous year!