Hubpages Money Making Guide

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I have been building websites for quite some time now, with the aim of making money online. I stumbled upon Hubpages itself around two years ago, and after making a couple of hubs, became bored of it pretty quickly.

Around ten months ago I decided that I needed to beef up some of my websites PR. it was around this time that I rediscovered Hubpages. Putting two and two together, I realised that I could use Hubpages to build a network of high quality do-follow back links to my own websites. needless to say I jumped at this opportunity, after all free backlinks are hard to come by!

I experimented a little bit and built up a network of hubs. They did not really bring much traffic in, however they did gain a decent PR, and they passed it on to my personal websites.

It was at this point that I would have let Hubpages be for a while, if it was not for one fateful day when I checked my Google Adsense and noticed my Hubpages channel. The cents were trickling in, no major earnings, but then again I had not put much effort in to it.

For obvious reasons I suddenly started investigating if I could make money on Hubpages, and low and behold, I saw a golden opportunity. Making money on Hubpages was going to be a challenge, but not an impossible task.

Over the last ten months I have been experimenting with Hubpages to increase my traffic, and increase my Hubpages earnings.

In this guide I am going to show you all how to make money online with Hubpages!

• Are the Title and URL of your hub related to the content?
  
• Have you used your Keywords around 3% to 6% each?
• Do you have your Amazon/eBay adverts placed close to the specific items you mention?
• Is the Hub fixated on your topic? (Unless it's your broad based hub)
• Is the word count at least 500 words? (Preferably 800)
• Have you checked the spelling and grammar?
• Are your pictures optimised for Google Image Search?
• Is it easy to read?
• Is each Hub advert optimised?
• Is each Hub keyword optimised?

I think it's important that you guys know that I am not just making this up as I go along.

For this reason I am going to disclose how much I am earning from Hubpages!

So, lets take a look at how much money I made on Hubpages in December 09.

Amazon - $1196.43 (With 30 sales still awaiting payment)

Google Adsense - £175.89

eBay - £16.89

Kontera - $23.66

The amount of money I make on Hubpages is increasing daily, and you could do it too!

Building that First Hub

When it comes to building your Hubs with the sole aim of making money on Hubpages, the layout of your Hub is very important. When you build your Hub things such as keywords, Ad placement, and more. Combining all this in to a successful Hub can sometimes be a challenge, but it IS well worth it.

One thing I will mention here (Which I will explain in more detail in the next step) is the difference between broad based Hubs and acute/product Hubs. To increase traffic to your Hub, and make money from hubpages, you need to set up your Hubpages network correctly. This involves making seperate Hubs for each product, and then having one or more 'broad based' Hubs which will link through to your product Hubs.

The first step in building a successful Hub which will make make money on Hubpages is when you click the Start a New Hub Button. When you have clicked this you will be asked to enter certain pieces of information, it is essential that you get all of this right to increase Hubpages traffic.

The first thing you will need to enter is your Hubpages title. This will automatically populate the URL, you can change this in certain circumstances, but i do not recommend altering it excessively. Your hub title is very important to the future success in making money from Hubpages, so make sure it follows these rules.

Broad Based Hub

• The Hub title should contain keywords relating to the topic of the Hub.
• The Hub title should be no more than eight words long.
• The Hub title should catch a readers attention.

Acute/Product hub

• The Hub title should contain your keywords or keyword phrase
• It should describe the contents of your Hub
  
• It should be no more than eight words long

These rules seem simple and obvious, but you would be surprised how many times people ignore some of these basics. Diameter

After this you will need to choose your Hub Catagory and Hub Tags. These are not really a major issue to us, every little helps though so fill them in accurately. If you are pressed for time, only enter a couple of tags, later on you can use the "suggested tags" tool to fill these in, since it should pick most of them up automatically from your content.

When you have finished this press continue and you are on your way!

Building a Hubpages Layout which will Make Money Online.

When you are setting up your Hubpages layout with the sole aim of making money from Hubpages you need to look at each area seperately. A very important rule is to keep things looking fairly uncluttered though!

Hubpages makes things very easy for new publishers. It's modular layout keeps things clean and simple, it even inserts your Adsense adverts automatically!

Lets get down to basics though, the most important part of any money making Hub is the textual content. You need to get writing to ensure you pull in the all important traffic!

The text that makes up your Hub is the key to making money with Hubpages. It should be well written, informative, sell your product, and be long enough to have a large number of your keywords, without being spammy. This means that ideally each Hub should contain at least 800 words of text, and out of that you should use each keyword/phrase 3% to 6% of the time.

If your text is relevant, useful, and follows the basic rules of spelling and grammar, you will start to see an increase in organic Google traffic. While organic Google traffic is hugely profitable when compared to traffic from Hubpages itself, do not discount hubpages traffic straight away. Google should always be your primary focus, however if other Hubpage users like your hubs, they may link to it, comment on it, or social bookmark it. Giving you free backlinks and content to help push up your SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Positions).

When you are working on the layout of your Hubpage you need to optimize it so that it makes money, but does not look like it is there to make money. Instead make your adverts helpful.

Check out the image to the right which shows the layout of my Top Ten Nintendo DSi Games. Notice how that below each of the games I list, I have two Amazon adverts?

This layout is not particularly obtrusive, but it does give the reader a quick and simple link to buy the product, and it gives the price. This means that my adverts are not only giving my reader a convenient path to purchase the product, but the advert is also informative. By providing a picture of the product and an up to date price you can entice the reader in to buying the product there and then.

Matching your adverts to your content is vital when trying to sell Amazon or eBay products on your hub. Always remember that less can be more, a small uncluttered advert can be more effective than a large ten item advert which puts the reader off buying the product.

Using pictures can be an effective way to capture your readers attention, they can also bring in some views from Google image search, so ensure that with every picture you put it's title, description, and alt text in there.

The only other thing you need to remember is space.  Especially on sales pages,.  Avoid large blocks of text, seperate them with pictures, headings and even quotes.

• Have you built at least four Hubs interlinking to increase PR and Traffic?
• Do you have a broad based Hub which combines information from your more acute related Hubs?

Once you have perfected your Hubpage building, it is time to expand. Building a hubpages network gives you more opportunities to grab traffic and more opportunities to grab sales. Building a Hubpages network is very important, and there is a specific setup that you should follow.

Incidentally, if you have this set up planned completely before you start, you might be eligible for the Hubpages Capstone plan, where you can earn extra cash. I wrote a little about the Hubpages Capstone plan Here.

Your Hubpages network should follow some specific rules First off, you will need to build up two types of hubs, Broad Based and Acute/Product.

First off, lets cover Acute/Product hubs. Acute and product hubs are focused on a single product or topic. You should not deviate from your chosen topic, and focus on the keywords that you choose. Your acute/product hubs should contain Amazon/eBay adverts which focus on the product itself.

When it comes to the product placement adverts on your product Hubpages, you can show closely related products, however they should remain relevant and of interest to potential buyers.

Your acute/product Hubs are your sales pages, they either sell the product that is the focus of the Hub, or they lead the user to a different product which you are trying to sell.

To move traffic effectively they should have links to related product/acute hubs that you own, and to your broad based Hubs. This helps capture sales, from people who were looking to a similar product, but not the exact one on your Hub.

Your broad based hubs are overviews of a specific subject. The broad based hubs link to your acute/product hubs, and help divert potential customers to the hubs on which they are most likely to buy products. You can build several broad based Hubs, based on topics which affect several of your acute/product Hubs.  Your acute hubs should however ALWAYS outnumber broad based hubs, after all, they are the ones where you can expect to make the sales.

Since Google Adsense will be automatically included in most of your hubs, you may be asking why you should be concerned with Adsense on Hubpages. Remember however that Adsense is contextual advertising, it picks up on keywords in and around the article.

While you cannot do much with Adsense on Hubpages, always scatter a few of your keywords close to your Adsense ads, and remember if you are trying to sell something, the keyphrases should include the word 'Buy' to optimise the Adsense adverts.

Remember however that if a potential buyer goes through Google instead of, say, Amazon, you will probably earn less!

Both Hubpages and Amazon are great tools to increase your Hubpages earnings.  By selling products for earnings, rather than selling clicks, you can earn profits by taking a percentage of each sale you make.

Making profit on your Hubpages with Amazon and eBay is not always easy though, and you will have to learn to make the most of the traffic you gain,

When you make your first hub you will have to learn to place your adverts in the optimal location to ensure that you earn the most possible sales from each and every visitor that comes to your website.

Amazon and eBay Advert Placement in Hubpages

Placing your adverts is of key importance to your possible future earnings. There are a few simple tricks that you can use to make the most from your visitors, so let me guide you through a few basic techniques.

Sidebar Amazon/eBay Advert Placement on Hubpages

Placing the Amazon and eBay adverts to the left or right of your text can be a great idea, especially when you are talking about a general subject.  By providing several related products you stand a high chance of catching the readers attention, and making a sale.

I find that Sidebar adverts work especially well wehn placed next to introductions, conclusions and on broad based Hubs.

While it seem like a good idea to place related Amazon adverts via specific products, this is not always a good idea.

Below Article Amazon/eBay Advert Placement on Hubpages

When you are talking about a specific product, I have found that side bar adverts do not actually convert all that well.  Instead I place two Amazon adverts side by side underneath where I write about a specific product.  This gives me some great sale conversions on Hubpages, especially with Amazon modules.

Why does this happen?

Personally I think it is because people drift off when reading generic writing, so are much more likely to but a product which has slight appeal.  If they are reading a specific review, they are interested in that product, and will want to finish the review before clicking on a link.

The important thing to remember however, is that there is NO set template which will make you the most money. Instead try different templates out for a few weeks at a time.  When you find one that works, stick with it, and try it on some of your other Hubpages!

Kontera is a pretty useful tool to help you earn a little more with Hubpages. As with any advertising programme, Kontera does have some pro's and con's. Kontera does provide a little extra income with in text advertisements, highlighting keywords which pop up small advertisements.

The benefit of Kontera is that on page it provides a very unobtrusive style of advertising, providing you with a little extra income from all of your hubs. Unfortuantely some people do find these small pop up adverts annoying. It is up to you whether or not Kontera adverts are worth the minor inconvenience to your viewers. For the record though, I use them, they don't earn me a huge amount, around $1-$2 a day with my current (at time of writing) 1500 Hubviews a day.

Just to point out here, I am writing this part of the article three days after I started, when I posted the screenshot of my increasing Hubpages traffic, which is still growing at a nice rate!

Kontera is a great choice for many Hubs, be they acute product Hubs or broad based Hubs. It highlights keywords and provides focussed adverts. If your hub is purely informational however, hou may find out of text advertising is more suitable for your Hubpage readers.

It is well known that readers who have enjoyed your article, or found it informative, are much more likely to find your adverts interesting as well. If they find your adverts interesting, they might jsut click an advert, or buy a product, helping you make money from Hubpages!

You can always make a little extra with Hubpages, some people use referal links with companies such as Clickbank, I on the otherhand stick with Hubpages.

Using third party affiliate links can net you extra sales, however if you invite other users to hubpages with an affiliate tracking code, you get 10% of their pageviews filled with your own adverts, allowing you to earn money for other peoples work!