Does increased traffic from Flipboard translate into earnings?

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   Sherry Hewinsposted 7 years ago

   I have seen everyone saying how great Flipboard is at increasing traffic. I remember a similar experience I had when first using Reddit. Back then, I got high traffic numbers, but not much extra money. Are high traffic numbers from Flipboard converting to dollars?

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      DrMark1961posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Not as much as Google, a little better than Facebook.
      The numbers are so high through Flipboard that I think it is worth the time. Social media does not pay as well as when your hubs are found through the search engines. (Which I guess you have already figured out after your Reddit experience.)

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         wildernessposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         When someone clicks on an ad, we get paid, and that payment is not dependent on where it came from.  Same for viewing ads and again the same for amazon sales.  It makes no difference where the visitor originated.
         
         So yes, flipboard visits convert to dollars.  They may not purchase as much, but most of our HPads income is not the clickable kind, and that converts directly.

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         1. 96

            DrMark1961posted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Would you be willing to believe HP staff? Here is a qoute
            "The advertising value of traffic from different sources can vary significantly.
            
            I'm not sure if it's still available in Google Analytics, but you used to be able to see the AdSense CPM by traffic source and other visitor characteristics (such as browsers, country, etc).  From what I recall (circa 2008), social traffic (facebook, etc) was worth something like 30% of what search traffic was, people that used Internet Explorer were 60% more valuable than Firefox, etc.   Pretty interesting stuff.
            
            The ultimate value of an advertisement is almost always eventually tied back to conversions, which can mean people clicking on an ad and buying something or signing up for some service, or a conversion can be "brand lift" (which is what those little things that you see scroll into the page asking you to answer a few quick questions are trying to determine).  Smart advertisers measure their results in order to know they are getting value for the dollars they spend.
            
            And, it doesn't take a great leap to realize that someone casually coming in from Pinterest, Facebook, or Reddit staying on the page for 12 seconds and going back, may be a lot less likely to "convert" than someone that comes in from search.   As a result, advertisers won't pay as much to advertise to those visitors.  Of course, the way advertisers decide how much they are willing to pay considers a ton of other factors, not just the source of the traffic"
            You actually participated on that forum.

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            1. 93

               Sherry Hewinsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               I actually did make a lot more money yesterday than I usually do. It had a lot to do with a lucky click on Amazon. Somebody bought a big ticket item unrelated to any of my hubs. HP earnings were up too though.

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            2. 96

               wildernessposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               And yet, neither HP, it's advertisers nor even google seems able to get a good handle on where traffic is from.  At one time that seemed easier to accomplish, but is apparently getting harder and harder.  At least I know that referrer numbers in my stats are getting further and further from actual traffic numbers, and analytics (last time I looked) was having the same problem.

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   Chriswillman90posted 7 years ago

   I don't get the big deal with Flipboard but perhaps it's because I only get a couple dozen views from it per day. Still my higher earnings are mostly attributed to search engine traffic and that's what it should be. That should be the goal for everyone here as all other sources are mainly tertiary versus Google.

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   1. 93

      Sherry Hewinsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      My traffic is has increased to 5x what it usually is over the last 48 hours, so the increase is substantial for me, at least so far. HP has not posted stats for earning for that time period, so I guess I will see my own answer to this question in a couple of days.

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3. 89

   NateB11posted 7 years ago

   I'm wary of sites that are not well-established, especially if they are used for backlinking, because things can run afoul with Google when they are used, especially considering how Penguin slammed sites for backlinking. So, I got a Flipboard account but only used it once, posted a few articles, probably incorrectly, and haven't gone back since. I kind of trust what I already got going with organic traffic and natural links and social shares from established sites.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Wise words, Nate!   I was playing around with Flipboard this morning for a while, then I read your post and thought - what am I doing?   The mere fact that so many writers on HubPages are Flipping madly, means the word is spreading that it's a good place to promote articles - which then means it'll become a place where people go for backlinks rather than to create genuine magazines.  If that happens, it might not be a good idea to be connected with it!

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      1. 89

         NateB11posted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks, Marisa. You know this business well, so I appreciate very much what you've said here. And, as you say, the fact that everyone is jumping on it (Flipboard) worries me even more.

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         1. 89

            NateB11posted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Tempted to go delete whatever it was I posted there. Not even sure I remember my log in info.

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            1. 89

               NateB11posted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Well, this is funny. I went back to see what I'd done and saw I never posted any of my own work. I was cautious enough to hold off on doing that. Also, posted one of the links incorrectly, I'm pretty sure. Probably good that I found it difficult to use the site and was cautious, because I think it's a bad idea to use it. As I said, organic traffic and natural backlinks and social shares from established sites are good enough for me. Not interested in temporary bursts of traffic anyway, I think approaching this thing in a long-term way is always the best way to go.

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         artsofthetimesposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         My thoughts exactly!

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I see your point, but I have kept my account there because I like saving articles I am interested in there.  I haven't posted there for awhile as the team seems to have stopped moving my hubs to niche sites for now...probably because it's "off season" for me. I will say that I get very few views from Flipboard now, but when I first started,the burst was huge...and the money poured in for at least a week.  However, I post more from other people than I do for myself, so I don't think Google will penalize me.  I can always remove my account if things go south.

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         Venkatachari Mposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         TT2, do we see if the traffic comes from Flipboard clearly in the traffic sources. I flipped 3 articles from HP to Flipboard but didn't notice any traffic coming from there. Most are coming from Google and some from Facebook, Twitter, and HP directly.
         Anyway, I am flipping more articles from other sites than my own from HP.

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