Why I Will Focus On HubPages More in 2012
72When the major Panda Update happened in February of this year, I stopped working on Hubs and started developing my own websites. Initially I worked with Weebly since it was a free alternative but really didn't feel like I could maximize the value of the site that I was creating.
I ended up preferring a blog type format and so at the end of May gathered the courage to shell out $15 for a domain name and $9.95 per month for hosting with Hostgator. At that point, I was simply hoping to use any money made from the HubPages Ad Program to cover my hosting costs which it did.
I couldn't have made a better decision since I have made almost $2000 with my own blog this year which is so much more than I have been making with HubPages. So why would I be developing a plan to put more effort into HubPages in the coming year?
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My Reasons for More Effort
There are several reasons why I will be spending more of my time focusing on HubPages in the next year:
- My traffic has stopped declining and actually had been increasing a little until recently. In February right before the Panda Update, I was getting close to 5000 views per month across all of my articles. Of course some of them weren't getting many views at all and still don't. But the more popular ones lost about 65% of their traffic. I was only getting about 1800 views per month. Now, though, I am getting about 2700 views per month so with some effort in 2012, I might be able to increase my views back to 5000 per month.
- While it is nice to have my own blog, the writing really needs to stay on focus. If I want to write on other topics or test out a new niche or two, then HubPages is the place to do it. I don't know that I will want to develop many different topics, but the option is there. I do know that I will probably want to write for more recreation in 2012.
- While working with my blog, Cash Flow Mantra, I came up with an idea for another blog. So in 2012 I will be writing about how to make $1000 per month as a side income whether online or off. I plan to use HubPages as a complimentary site to offer additional information related to these two blogs. In effect, I will be creating a mini-blog network and begin some cross marketing.
- Finally, I simply want to earn more money from HubPages so that I can begin to cover more and more of my blogging costs. My hosting costs are covered with the income from the Ad Program, but due to time constraints, I will be hiring two authors for the newest blog which will cost me $80 per month. That means that I would like to increase my HubPages income to cover as much of these costs as possible. Right now, I can make between $15-$20 per month fairly easily. I would like to increase that total to $50 monthly by the end of 2012.
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Your second reason, is one of the reasons why I want to focus a lot on places like Hubpages and Squidoo. I have a hard time focusing on a niche and tend to want to write once about a subject and move on, even though I know a niche site or blog can do better earnings wise. But if you do create niche sites then Hubpages and Squidoo seems to be good places to test niche ideas first. And then create backlinks to those niche sites.
Also, I am noticing my earnings at Hubpages have been increasing every month, even though I haven't added much new hubs at all. And things at Squidoo have improved a lot too, especially with Amazon earnings. So that encourages me to write more for these sites as well.
Great hub. I just started with HubPages,so this is all great info for me. What was the Panda update?
@Wesman,
It has been said that having your own site is easier to monetize and I would have to agree. I could not have made near as much money here on HubPages as I did with my own blog. There is no sharing of AdSense revenue nor anyone to say I can't advertise directly.
@DreamsinBloom,
My income here has been getting slightly better but is still way down compared to pre-Panda. My AdSense has gotten absolutely killed. I am lucky to make $20 a month now. That has been improving by having my own sites.
@sabrani44,
It was a change by Google in how their search algorithms work. It was meant to harm sites like HubPages (dubbed "content farms") in the search results. It worked.
Good luck :)
Yeah, my Adsense earnings here has died too (I was actually shocked to see that I earned a little over $2.00 from adsense for hubpages this month, since I've been only getting around .30 cents since Panda). But my earnings with the Hubpages Earnings Program are actually much, much better than what I was getting with Adsense on hubpages before Panda.
And I have to disagree about Panda being meant to kill sites such as hubpages. It was meant to provide better search results to Google users...but the result was that it hurt Hubpages (as well as other sites) extremely. So whatever their intent the result amounts to just about the same thing.
@KKiss,
Thanks.
@DreamsInBloom,
I agree that intent will not really be known, but the net effect was the same. It is what it is and so we have to work with it. I will get about the same with the Ad Program that I will get with AdSense on my own blog so they are neck and neck.
This was very interesting. For me I find hub pages is a good hobby to express myself and be creative.
It is a good hobby as you suggest.
Kidgas,
Fascinating journey. I commend you for your initiative. I have contemplated writing on my website. I just started yesterday. Will have to see how it goes. It was HubPages who encouraged me to write so I will always be here. The focus may change from time to time. I would love to have four HubPages accounts all paying $50 a month - that is my goal for 2012. My main account is doing very well and consistently paying out. Being split is a challenge because the payout doesn't occur unless you hit $50 cumulative and I have a long way to go on the other brands. The one religious brand is something I don't wish to earn money on but I have been negligent and I must learn to spread my time evenly.
So glad you were so successful on your website. Congratulations.
@GmaGoldie,
Thanks. I started at HubPages so it also holds a special place in my heart.
I have never attempted a blog. How does it work regarding the ads? Do you buy them from Google and then what/ If you would be so kind and explain exactly how these ads work, I would be grateful.
@hello,hello,
Sometimes advertisers will contact you to put an ad on your blog. It is like what HubPages does here with their Ad Program when they go directly with an advertiser to show an ad.
Thank you, Kidgas, but how is the payment going? Are they paying you? Then when someone clicks on the ads - who pays whom? How does all this Ads business work? Also a rough price guide for both sites would be helpful. Sorry to plague like this but I have no idea.
Thank
some really excellent reasons, I think hubpages is a good way to find out what works and what doesn't granted Panda took a lot out of everyone, but long-term I think that having sites such as squidoo and hubpages helps. Off to see your blog.
@ Hello, Hello.
Some of your questions would take too much time to answer in a response and would more likely take an article (or more) to answer. I'd suggest reading info at www.problogger.com, as well as searching Hubpages and Google (or your preferred search engine) for information about making money with blogs.
But I want to mention that you don't buy ads from Google Adsense. You just place the ads on your site or blog (which how to do that will vary depending on what platform you use) and earn via click throughs.
And Kidgas has talked about his earnings on some of his other hubs and blogs (which you can find links to his blogs on his profile or in the mentioned hubs).
I hope that helps some. :)
@hello,hello,
I have AdSense on my personal blog along with private advertisers. I have outsourced the management of private ads to a fellow blogger, and yes, I get paid.
The HubPages Ad Program also has paid me. I received my first payment earlier this year through PayPal and should be getting another in the next month.
As DreamsinBloom states, there is a lot of good information on the web that I have been able to gather and use to my advantage. Problogger is a good site. Read some articles, but I would suggest going with your own site. That is what has worked for me. Making big money with free sites (such as HubPages) is just too difficult in my opinion.
I look forward to reading your new Blog as I too am looking to increase my online earnings from writing.
I am doing pretty well with my hubs earnings from Google Adsense but do not use the HubPages ad program. It took away too much of my Adsense earnings for it to be worth keeping.
Look forward to learning how to make my own blogs a lot more profitable from reading your forthcoming advice
I think there will be lots of good advice. Thanks for following.
Thank you, Kidgas, and I am looking forward to learn from your blogs
I am looking forward to helping you and others learn as well.
Wesman Todd Shaw 5 months ago
I like the way that you affirm things on Hubpages. I like that you provide data or stats and earnings to show why you intend to do what you've said that you would - it's all very reassuring.
I have to ask - why exactly did you go after market for your blog....instead of using a free blog site?
What I guess I really wanted to know...while knowing that you probably couldn't answer is....do you think having purchased a domain and the uses of a server....gives you more legitimacy and ultimately more income?
Gosh I agree totally with Big daddy Google and the panda...I was getting a lot of undeserved traffic before that. I'm getting tons more traffic now, but now I know a heck of a lot more about how to do article marketing - there's no doubt in my mind that you could get as much traffic as you wanted.