HubPages: Make money writing online

Hubpages is one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to make money writing online in my experience.  Unlike many other writing online opportunities, you are free to write about any topic you choose and there are minimal restrictions in terms of style, length, and tone.  Sounds good, doesn’t it?  Well, yes it is, but you will have to have good English language skills, write engaging material, cover topics that people are looking for online, and be prepared to promote yourself, if you want to do well on Hubpages.

The money doesn’t come to you quickly either.  It can take months before you really begin to see the fruits of your efforts on HubPages.  But the big earners on HubPages can make hundreds of dollars each month.  (I only make a fraction of that, but still find it worthwhile).

Friendly community and helpful staff

Of course, there will probably be some people who disagree with me, but my experiences have on the whole being very positive at HubPages.  The community there is generally friendly and there are people who will go out of their way to help you sometimes.  The staff are good at engaging with the HubPage users, known as ‘hubbers’ and the company has a good record when it comes to innovation and problem solving.

Where does the money you earn come from?

Revenue is raised through online advertising with HubPages taking a 40% cut and you getting 60% of the revenue generated by your hubs.  Originally, Google Adsense was the main advertising company used, but in recent times, HubPages have introduced their own advertising system, known as ‘Hub Ads’.  You can also make money by selling Amazon and Ebay products on HubPages.

Is it really that easy to make money with HubPages?

Well, yes and no.  Of course, you can sign up with HubPages and just write about the topics that interest you and you will make some money, but probably only 20 cents a day.  The people who make serious amounts of money with HubPages (dollars rather than cents) choose their topics and titles of their hubs very carefully, spend time researching and writing their hubs, and they do everything they can to promote their hubs and also to get them to appear high up in search engine results.  They do this using a collection of techniques known as SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization.  SEO can influence every aspect of their writing, from picking the topic and title of your hub, to the keywords that they include in their work.

So what does SEO involve?

In short, the most important elements of SEO as far as hubs are concerned, are probably picking hubs that are likely to engage the online community, using keywords effectively in your titles and text, and getting backlinks for your hub.

So how do I sign up?

You can sign up to Hubpages here.  It is free to join.  (My advice is don't join if you want to earn money quickly!  Don't join if your English skills aren't very good!  Do join if you enjoy writing and want to make some extra money and don't mind if your earnings are low for the first few months!)

How much money can I make with HubPages?

What is HubPages?

HubPages is an online knowledge-sharing website, where members publish informative articles, known as “hubs”, and interact with other members, who are nicknamed, “hubbers”.  

As well offering membership of an online community and a source of knowledge and information, HubPages also promises, and in many cases delivers, much bigger earnings than the average online money-making site.  

Whereas most sites offer rewards in cents, Hubpages earnings are more often measured in dollars.  Making money with Hubpages is not instant, however, and most of the people who’s Hubpages earnings are large have achieved it through hard work over an extended period of time.

So how do I make money?

Money is made through advertising, principally through using Google Adsense and Amazon adverts.  

The Google Adsense money is split between you and HubPages, with you getting 60% and HubPages getting 40%, this is actually a pretty good rate when you compare it with other sites, such as MyLot or Squidoo, where the income rate tends to be lower in my experience (although I can only speculate as neither site publicly reveals the exact proportion of money that they pay out to their users).  

The Amazon rate works on a different principle, you get 4% cut of any money spent on Amazon products after a viewer has clicked on one of your adverts and HubPages don’t take anything from you.  This can work out as quite a decent payout if you strike it lucky and someone buys a computer or TV from Amazon.  (Ebay and Kontara can also be used to generate income, but are used much less by hubbers than Google Adsense and Amazon).

How much money do people actually make on HubPages?

Some HubPages users have done very well, with HubPages earnings of around $300 - $1000 per month.  Most of these people, however, have written hundreds of hubs to achieve this, something that may well have taken them months or years to achieve.  Recently, however, traffic and HubPages earnings were hit for most users by Google altering the way that its search engine works.  

Many Hubpages users have consequently lost between 5% and 50% of their earnings*.  HubPages are currently trying to resolve the situation with a subtle redesign of their site, improving the quality of hubs generally, and by introducing higher earning adverts that will work alongside the Google adverts.  I must say, however, that even for users who have lost out, their Hubpages earnings still seem considerably greater than those on most online earning sites.

*UPDATE: Since the time of writing this, HubPages have introduced changes to the way that their website is structured and early signs are that many hubbers have or are experiencing increases in internet traffic and earnings to their hubs.

You can find out more and/or join HubPages HERE.

See also:  

HubPages: Make money writing online

 
Google Blogger vs Hubpages: which is the best way to make money online?