HubPages is an online publishing website similar to Squidoo. It started in 2006 and continues to grow and advertise for new writers. HubPages makes lots of claims that writers can make legitimate money from their site. And their claims are correct – if you have the patience and do not expect a windfall overnight.
This writer was a “hubber” (the nickname for a writer) in the latter part of 2007. Although I no longer write for HubPages, my 75 articles (called “hubs”) still continue to earn me money. I learned a lot about HubPages in my time there.
No More Upfront Payments
Hubbers who passed certain criteria used to be given an up-front payment ranging from $5 to $7 (US.) I was in this program, which no longer exists. Hubbers who received up-front payments had to write 15 articles per month only in the categories they are approved to write in. I’m not sure why HubPages dropped this program, but the Google “panda” algorithm certainly took away site revenue and shrunk HubPages’ budget.
But the good news is that your hubs stay up on the website and continue to earn through revenue sharing. You also own the copyright to your articles. The site layout is pleasant on the eye and gives your articles a magazine-type appearance – granted, a magazine with lots of ads. Hubages articles you are most proud of can be added to your online portfolio that you can show off to potential clients that do offer up-front payments.
Revenue Sharing
This is the main way for the average person to make money at HubPages. You cut out all of the hoop-jumping and post your hubs. You also need to set up accounts with GoogleAds, eBay, Amazon or whatever online ad service is offered. On the HubPages software, there is a place to easily put in revenue sharing “capsules”.
You not have control over what ads go up around your hub, but you can suggest keywords to make the ads more appropriate for the content mentioned in the hub. You make a few cents every time someone clicks on one of those ads. GoogleAds is generally considered the most lucrative of the “capsules”.
You can set up direct deposit information with Google. When your revenue share earnings top $100, they directly deposit the amount into your bank account. Over the years, this can be a nice little earner, although you won’t retire on the payments. My 75 articles continue to earn me at least $300 per year.
Social Media Online Marketing Campaign
E-commerce experts know that people go online for information. Most e-business websites contain many articles that somehow relate to their products but often do not have direct sales pitch. Many businesses also join social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon or Reddit in order to directly interact with their target audience, partially through links to their articles set up on sites like HubPages. Tweeting your articles is a must. Be sure to take full advantage of Twitter hashtags to bring more readers to your articles.
HubPages provides an easy to use and very attractive site generated software that can help draw traffic to your e-business’ website and thus, gain paying customers.
