Over the last month or so I have been running a little bit of an experiment. Basically, after hearing from some others that there is money to be made with Hubpages, I decided to give it a go.
What is Hubpages?
Before I start getting into detail, I should explain the basics. Hubpages is a website that basically allows you to publish an article on their site. I use the term “article” loosely because it can be as short as an article or more like a single page website. It is completely up to the user. A hub (their lingo for article) can be about any topic you could possibly want to write about. You could create a hub explaining 10 things you wished people knew about you, how to play guitar with your toes, or facts about albino grizzly bears.
You do not need to be a great writer and honestly, I have seen some people who are terrible writers do quite well. All you need is the ability to say a little bit about something.
So how do you make money with Hubpages?
There are actually a variety of ways, but the simplest and most effective way I have found so far has been by using Adsense. After you finish your first hub you can install your Adsense ID and you will begin sharing the revenue with Hubpages for your hubs.
If you pick good keywords (which I will get to in a minute) you will likely begin getting traffic from the search engines within 24 hours of publishing it. If these visitors click on the ads you will get a cut of that revenue (I think it is 60%).
My results during July
I spent most of July trying to create a hub every day or so and I am now up to 23 hubs. I didn’t do the best job with keyword research and did very little if any work after creating the hubs and yet I still made $47.14 in July.
This breaks down to $2.05 per hub/month. Two dollars doesn’t sound too exciting, but if you consider that is probably completely passive income it is pretty exciting. In theory, that $2 per hub should continue paying that each month – and to be honest most pages do better in the search engines after they have been around a few months or more. So it very well could increase over time as well.
I am going to continue to create some more hubs during the month of August and see what the results are. I will try to keep this post updated with the new results each month.
Steps to get started
If you are interested in giving this a shot, these are the steps to get started.
- Sign up at Hubpages
- Create your first hub. Once you get to the design page, it is pretty self-explanatory.
- Sign up for an Adsense account (if you don’t have one). This might take a couple days to get approval.
- Add your Adsense ID to Hubpages. When you are logged into Hubpages, you click the “My Account” button, and then the “Affiliate Settings” link. This is where you will install your Adsense ID.
- That’s it. Once it is installed, you will begin making money when someone clicks on the ads. Warning: do not click the ads yourself or tell others to click them. Google will catch you and will ban you from the program.
Keys to succeeding
Keyword research
This is probably the most important part. The title of your hub needs to be based on your keyword research. A good place to look is Google’s Keyword Research tool – drop in some keywords that your article might be about and see what comes back at you. I believe this is more of an art than a science, so just find a keyword phrase that is being searched for and give it a shot.
But I do suggest looking for longer phrases, i.e. Don’t title your page “ipods” but something like “how to put music on your ipod” would likely work a lot better. But either way, you just have to test to see what works. Sometimes your research will work just like planned and other times it won’t. But the good news is that even if you don’t do any research, you still have a chance of picking up some visitors on Hubpages. But, the more you plan out your keywords the better you will do.
Get Links
Like I mentioned above, I didn’t really get many links to my hubs, but if you can link to it from your blogs and get other links it will definitely be helpful. Submitting it to social bookmarking sites might be helpful as well. Linking your hubs to each other is a good idea too.
Content
Generally speaking the more content you put on your hub the better. I would say 400 words should be a minimum. Shooting for 600-1000 would probably be best. And add as many of the widgets as you can. You can add a news widget, a poll to ask your readers a question, etc. You don’t necessarily NEED to add a bunch of widgets, but it will probably help.
Learn and adapt
Not all hubs will work. In fact, for me of the 23 I have created thus far 5 of them are generating about 90% of the traffic.
Referral Program
Per a reader’s request to discuss the referral program, I will touch on that. The links to hubpages in this article are referral links. I haven’t referred any users in the past and honestly don’t really know how or how much can be made from the referrals – but if anyone signs up via the links, I will add that to the update next month.
Looking to find out more?
These are a few articles that go into a whole lot more detail than I did here on how to make money with Hubpages.
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I am curious. Why would you write a hub instead of a post on your own blog? Different subjects, may be?
2$ per hub is good..but is it steady..
the best method to earn from hubpages is via adense.. i agree.amazon and ebay are there..but i prefer adsense always.the points you mentioned under key to success like content, keyword research , learn and adapt are proven ways to success.
great post..informative..keep writing..
@pinyo
yea – with as many things as I am interested in it gives me the freedom to write about different topics as well as get backlinks to my blog as well.
Hey Bob — I love the post and thanks for all of the great words (and great tips) about HubPages. I actually just posted something about this post and how you’ve found success while only writing 23 Hubs over here in our blog:
http://blog.hubpages.com/2009/08/another-great-hubpages-success-story-4714-with-23-hubs/
I love what you’re doing with this blog and I’d love to chat with you more about potential ways for us to somehow work together. Shoot me an email when you get a chance and we’ll chat more about it later.
Until then, keep up the great work and the awesome Hubbing! (keep us updated with how August turns out, too if you get the chance)
Ryan Hupfer
HubPages Communicator of Awesomeness!
Is it possible to get traffic ?
Well done on your earnings! I have made 45 Hubs and earned hmmm around $6 so far. I made them within the space of three weeks so now I’ll keep adding more and waiting for the others to mature. Hopefully we’ll both see some continued passive income
Nice job Bob. I would have to say that you’re above average in that $2 per hub figure. Now if you throw some backlinks at them in a couple weeks, that would be really good.
It’s also an interesting insight about making longer Titles. That is something I’ve debated myself. It’ll bring in more longtails if you stick some decent keywords in there, but you don’t want to make it hard for Google to tell what your hub is about.
Anyway, good luck. And with the referrals thing – I have found that many people who sign up don’t even end up creating one hub. But a sporadic few become prolific hubbers. Essentially, for every 6 hubs they create you are getting 1 at no expense to you.
@Web Career Girl
my hunch is that so much of the earning potential comes down to keyword research. If you don’t have specific titles based on keywords, it will be tough to get traffic. As I mentioned even doing keyword research, not all of them will take off – but it gives you a much better chance of success… my 2 cents…
I just saw that blog post on the first page of Hubapges. That should get you some more traffic.
Bob,
Thanks for this post. I’ll definitely check this out. I guess when I read your article I was thinking of how I could post personal finance articles, but you’ve broadened my thinking in that I could write about anything I know about or is of interest. I think another important point is staying current on the tools available to people today to share information or opinions. The Hubpages seem to be another form of that and can definitely become a part of blogging with linking to the articles that have been created. Aside from the article and as a reader of your blog I do appreciate the variety of content you offer in your posts.
I had wonderful results doing the same thing back in 2008. I would take two follow left were his great toward blue times. Weasel wanker wanna we we.
Hi Bob.
Congratulations on your earnings so far with hubpages. I started off really slowly but after reading encouraging results from others, I set myself the target of creating 100 hubs in 30 days. I have been checking my results and it is funny to note how many are non-runners but it is a great feeling when you see a batch that have been successful.
I am now attempting to write 100 info barrels. You should give that a go too. The interface is not as fancy as hubpages but that does make it quicker to put your article together. Write similar articles that you have already done for hubs and add another backlink. There is also an affiliate link there too.
Good luck with it all.
Thanks for the post about hubpages it gave me the inspiration to look into it. I’ve written a couple of hubs under dc2004, although I’m not expecting much from it the experience has been fun
I joined HubPages about 6 months ago, and when i did, my primary aim was to try earning something online. Somewhere along the line, i discovered i could do a bit of writing..(modesty!). I didn’t earn more than a couple of pounds in over 4 months.
Then i decided to take part in the 30hubs-30days challenge, so that i can at the least, increase my number of hubs. I heard it said that the more hubs, the better for you.
I was unprepaired for the massive increase in traffic, and then the income started coming in, everyday. Never before had that happened.
Joining the challenge has been the best step i’ve taken since trying my hands on IM.
I’ve published 20 hubs out of the 30, and i’m on day 13.
The secret is in the keyword research.
Goodluck fellow hubbers!
Nowhere did you state how long it took you to write 23 hubs. Even if, minimally, each story of your recommended 400 to 1,000 words took 1 hour to write, your payback of $47 is pitiful and hardly worth your time. You might as well be answering online surveys.
If adsense imposes no standards on the quality of writing, i can see where writers would dash off poorly written pieces on nothing at all, just to make a few dollars and all this content will just serve to further clog up the blogosphere.. This, to me, is not professional writing.
Fern,
to answer your question I spent probably 30-60 minutes on each. I wrote some of them, I purchased some of the articles as well. As far as the $47 – like I mentioned in the post, it by itself isn’t that exciting, except that it is passive income that (in theory) will continue month to month. And as far as writing, I am not sure why you are so cynical about it – I don’t like junk articles any more than the next guy and I wouldn’t suggest writing bad articles on purpose either. Hubpages will probably ban you and you probably wouldn’t make anything anyway…
I HAVE LEARNED MORE ABOUT MAKING HONEST MONEY ON THE COMPUTER .THANK YOU SO SO MUCH.
Great Chris, you really did it alot more faster than me. It took me 50 hubs to earn $41 Adsense, the more you write quality researched articles the better. I have also written my experience with the 50 hubs earning $40. The other best way to increase your earning is to join the challenge which will just help you increase the number of hubs you have. The more quality hubs you have the better chances of earning with hubpages, I just remember writing 27 hubs from the hub challenge I did got for the first time $11 in one day today 22/08/09.
Great articles, very informative. Keep writing…..Thanks:)
Writing to hubpages is good but is it better than posting in squidoo?
Nice information on hubpages. I’ve even started writing at hubpages.
Thanks Bob! I am just starting out on HubPages and this is all great info. I have 5 hubs and pretty much steamed ahead without doing the keyword research, so now I need to go back and do some tweaking to get the most out of my efforts.
I ticked the ‘followup comments’ box so I can keep up with everyone’s ideas here.
That is really a significant amount of income for such a small number of Hubs. Congratulations! I hope you continue to earn passively and hope that I can catch up. I am starting to do better with my keyword research and my writing.
Thanks for the information.I have just started writing hubs my self and I have 17 so far.The keyword research you need to do takes time, but I think it is time well spent if it gives me better rankings.You said you have 23 hubs so far, do you know if all those are generating revenue or just a few of them?
Tom,
I am sure that not all of them are earning much, I haven’t done a great job tracking them, so I don’t really know…
Hi Bob!
Do not let anyone discourage you. You are being honest about how had it is to make money on the internet instead of lying about it like the rest of them.
I really admired your honesty. Someday you are going to make more money.
Keep up good work.
Bob,
Any chance you will be giving us an update on how this is going for you? Maybe you can even write a 6 month review or something so your readers will see it again…
@parrott84 — I agree! It would be great to hear how the program has been going for Bob.
Andrew – you are right, I haven’t updated with the last couple months… August was a pretty big drop – $22 and then in September it was at $45 and then October was over $50. I have only added a few more articles since writing this one. I will try to write a more formal followup to this article when I get a chance…
I really enjoyed your website. I have had godd success with Hubpages and enjoy writing on the site. I also have a make money, I don’t want to put the address in without your permission. If you want to check it out let me know, you are welcome to add a comment on my site which will give you a free link.
Hi, I would just like to thank you for writing this article! I have recently joined hubpages and I’ve applied for an adsense account. But I’m just wondering, how old did you first start using hubpages and earning money through it? Thanks once again, Bob!
Is there an age limit for this?
I think you’re doing really well for the number of articles you’ve written.
I’ve been debating whether to do some writing for the revenue sharing sites myself.
Hey Bob,
Great article! Keep up the good work. Did you purposely use key words that payed well with google adsense or did it just work out this way? What is the average key word paying and what is the supply and demand for those words?
To Health Wealth and Happiness,
Jim
To improve on your hubs, consider
1. selling products as an affiliate, hubpages allows two links, which is great I think.
2. Use the amazon and ebay capsules. They have high priced products. Just don’t be overly promotional.
All the best
Hi Bob,
I’ve created a HubPages profile done some basic settings after I read this post about a month or so ago. I am yet to write a hub, but I just pray to the Lord that He anoints my hands to write something that glorifies Him!
Well I have been writing for hubpages for the past 4 months and have been quite disappointed. The money is increasing .. slowly like a snail..but hey it’s increasing at least! I don’t want to make thousands of dollars writing…just a hundred dollar a month would make me very happy… but the problem with hubpages is that it requires you to write commercial articles in order to increase clicks and I am more into writing articles on topics that interest me.
pray for me.
So far.. i have earned 23 dollars in 4 months…
here’s a link to one of my hubs that I prize but means little to many–
http://hubpages.com/hub/Students-Do-Not-Know-How-to-Present-an-Argument
I have also started to write on hubpages. Thankfully there is no age limit! I am 66 years old and live in France, I like writing about France and have written 4 hubs on France and a couple on European Festivals. I haven’t made any money yet but its early days and I am learning so much from other more experienced hubbers like yourself. Hopefully adsense will pay off sooner or later.Keep up the good work of encouraging others like me.
Thanks again
Kathy x