Money - HubPages vs Blog

1. 85

   livelongerposted 15 years ago

   Hey all,
   
   Just like to share some stats on my Hubs vs my blog.
   
   My blog - 105,000+ pageviews so far (started 1 year ago)
   My Hubs - 305,000+ pageviews so far (started 2 years ago)
   
   Earnings via AdSense:
   My blog - significantly less than $10
   My Hubs - 7 payments, average of about $135 each
   
   I've made about 200 times as much money on my Hubs as I did my blog (with the same amount of time & effort), and for my blog it has actually been a net-negative since I have a hosted account and pay $7 per month for hosting.
   
   So I've gotten more traffic to my Hubs, but they've been around longer, too. The difference is the source of traffic. The vast majority of my traffic to my Hubs has been from Google and Yahoo. To my blog: Stumbleupon, Metafilter, Digg, and some Google.
   
   I enjoy using my blog for non-topical entries and to send links to my Hubs, but as a money-maker, well, not so much.

   replyreport
   1. 81

      Janet21posted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you for sharing your experience.  You are definitely doing great with hubpages!  Hope I can do as well. 
      
      Just curious, are you saying you earned less than $10 in a year with your blog?  I guess I have been lucky with my blog then.  I have only had it a few months and have made around $100.  However, I don't have adsense on it at all.  I make my money with affiliate sales (amazon, eBay and affiliates through CJ and Sharesale. )

      replyreport
      1. 59

         countrywomenposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         Can you explain about how to go about getting revenue from amazon\ebay? Right now I am only getting revenue from Google. Thanks and your suggestions are much appreciated.

         replyreport
         1. 58

            David Venturaposted 15 years agoin reply to this

            With Amazon it seems that the trust factor is more important that with Adsense. So people who land for the first time in your page perhaps will click an Adsense ad, but they won't likely buy anything. On the other hand, regulars that trust you seem more incline to buy.
            Perhaps Mark Knowles is doing so well with his Amazon because he is well-known here in Hubpages and people trust him. All that fuming on the forums against spamers seems to be paying back or could be his name as other threat has pointed up. http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/5466

            replyreport
         2. 44

            coolbreezeposted 15 years agoin reply to this

            You have to sign up to become an ebay affiliate at Ebay.com Commission junction is no longer handling Ebay affiliates Yeah!!!!!!!
            
            Hope this is helpful
            
            
            

            replyreport
2. 58

   Mark Knowlesposted 15 years ago

   Hey livelonger,
   
   This is a good idea.
   
   I have had slightly different results. I started a blog around the same time (2 months after) that I started here.
   
   My blog -   577,000 page views
   My Hubs - 360,000 page views
   
   Earnings:
   
   Blog -  $400-$600 a month adsense - plus some affiliate commissions
   Hubs - $120-$150 a month adsense - plus $200 - $300 a month amazon and $60 a month ebay
   
   There are some on-costs for the blog such as hosting etc. I would say I have put roughly the same amount of time into both, although neither of them made any earnings for about three months, and it took more effort to get traffic to the blog than hubpages.
   
   Traffic sources are similar, i.e mostly search engine traffic. Google top of the list, followed by Yahoo and occasionally MSN live.
   
   Hubpages overall is less effort because there are limitations to stay within, but with your own hosted blog, you have unlimited options, which can be too much sometimes. I share links to and from with both of them.
   
   This is a commercial blog rather than a personal one. I have one of those also - income nil

   replyreport
3. 85

   livelongerposted 15 years ago

   Yes, Janet, that's right - less than $10 for an entire year. I wanted to stay away from affiliate links, because I didn't want to impose any restrictions on my writing or linking.
   
   Congratulations on the success of your blog!
   
   Mark: Great perspective on your blog, too (congratulations that it's performing as well as your Hubs). Yes, mine is not personal, but is not search-engine friendly. I've made a distinction: Hubs for useful, SE-friendly articles, and the blog for everything else.

   replyreport
   1. 81

      Janet21posted 15 years agoin reply to this

      What exactly do you mean by that?  I am not sure I understand.

      replyreport
      1. 85

         livelongerposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         I just meant that affiliate offers typically align with certain types of content; you end up having to write content to fit the affiliate offers. At least this has been my understanding, so I've chosen to use AdSense so I don't have to think about it.

         replyreport
         1. 81

            Janet21posted 15 years agoin reply to this

            Okay, I see what you are saying now. 
            
            My blog is a niche blog on kid's birthday parties and I just insert affiliate text links whenever they are appropriate.  I write what I am going to write and then link when I can.  Sometimes, however,  I do create a blog post just to push a partyware design that is currently popular or a new product I just discovered, so in that case I guess you could say I am writing to fit that affiliate offer. 

            replyreport
      2. 58

         Mark Knowlesposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         Kind of hard to sell a lot of water4gas kits if you are slating them

         replyreport
4. 82

   BradyBonesposted 15 years ago

   I think it is important to look at many options for increasing your online presence. Some things you may want to post about may not fit into the main theme of your blog. It's nice to find a place for these topics at HubPages or other online article publishing sites so you don't have to create a separate blog of your own to promote.
   
   I suffer from frequent tension headaches. One day I decided that it might be a good idea to create a blog about it, so tensionheadacherelief.blogspot.com was born. Now to get traffic there I've got to submit it to search engines and start promoting it. I could have just built a new hub and it would have been linked to other hubs. If I keep posting high quality hubs more people may enjoy reading what I have to write and more of my hubs would get traffic from linked hubs...
   
   Of course, my main blog on creative writing wouldn't provide the same kind of follow through traffic because the content is just so different.
   
   It's always nice to diversify and it's easier to promote when you have a community behind you.

   replyreport
5. 61

   GoldenThreadposted 15 years ago

   I'm curious to know if you guys are tracking which blogs/hubs are earning you the most.
   
   Obviously, with Adsense, clicks in some niches pay 10x or 100x what clicks in other niches do. If you're building hubs on goldfish, you're not likely to see big Adsense earnings, whatever the traffic.
   
   (disclaimer: I just built a hub on goldfish)

   replyreport
6. 57

   broalexdotinfoposted 15 years ago

   An successful online business is all about marketing / quality / quantity and popularity, there are just a few blogs in the blogosphere that have really proven all the characteristics above. Some people may have quality but don`t get along well with the quantity and marketing their business. Nothing else than a perfect team will make a blog success.

   replyreport
7. 57

   broalexdotinfoposted 15 years ago

   @ Countrywomen -
   
   There`s only one simple recipe to start the cash flow from affiliate sales. (eBay / Amazon)
   
   1. First you need to sign up with ebay and Amazon. Follow the links to do so.
   
   Amazon
   eBay
   
   Insert eBay / Amazon capsules in your hubs. You can choose a wide range of products, either placing their codes or searching them by keywords, from 1 up to 10 products in each capsule. Rather simple I might say. Products Must be relevant to your hub`s content.
   
   2. Bring traffic to your hubs.
   
   Alex

   replyreport
   1. 59

      countrywomenposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks alex. I would follow the link. And can I respond to you if I run into any issues? Once again thanks for pointing to me in the right direction.

      replyreport
      1. 57

         broalexdotinfoposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         Anytime CountryWomen.

         replyreport
      2. 59

         L Rephannposted 15 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Broalexdotinfo,
         
         Do you mean you can decide which products you feature on your hub pages? I'm new here, just signed up today.
         
         Thanks!
         LR

         replyreport
8. 57

   guidebabaposted 15 years ago

   Just another way of making money is to provide your e-bay and amazon links to other people to sign up as done above by broalexdotinfo.

   replyreport
   1. 57

      broalexdotinfoposted 15 years agoin reply to this

      They are not referral links.

      replyreport
9. 83

   jimmythejockposted 15 years ago

   Hows about sharing a link to your blog livelonger then we can all help to increase your visitor count lol.....jimmy

   replyreport
10. 58

    Mark Knowlesposted 15 years ago

    I am not so sure that is the case David. Most of my traffic to my hubs is from search engine visitors (90%) - so they are not necessarily regular hubpage visitors.
    
    Hard to say for certain, but out of 40,000 visitors to my hubs last month, only 460 of them checked out my profile page. Perhaps they are the 460 who bought something from Amazon, but who knows?

    replyreport
    1. 58

       David Venturaposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       Yes, it is difficult to tell for certain, but we all like to have theories (or at least I do With respect to high percentage of google visitors, you have to consider that the search engine here in Hubpages is not extremely useful. Sometimes, I like to read a Hubpage, which I have already glanced at, or to check something from a hub that I have read time ago. It is easier for me to use google than hubpages search engine, and as a result I will count as a google visitor, but I am not. I don’t know whether it is only my anxiety that make me use google, or others hubbers have a similar experience.
       To put an example, try to search Wu-Yi Tea in hubpages and in google searching for Maddie Ruud’s hub. In google is number one, in hubpages I reached to page number five of “relevant hub” and didn't find it.
       
       The other possible explanation is well written and highly tailored hub to Products. Like  your iPhone accessories series. Or perhaps the sum of all that.

       replyreport
11. 56

    webismineposted 15 years ago

    Does referral traffic pay good @ HP?

    replyreport
12. 86

    Dorsiposted 15 years ago

    This is great information Livelonger and thanks for sharing it. I have had my blog and hub up for 6 months and get way more traffic to my hubs. I think with blogs you really have to work hard to get noticed, where here at HubPages , the system for that is already in place. Great stuff!

    replyreport
13. 57

    smart saverposted 15 years ago

    One really great thing to do is create a hub, if it brings in traffic and gets a high adsense CPC, then create a blog around that topic.  As you create more hubpages you will find tons of great keywords to target.

    replyreport
14. 69

    SpotCoolStuff.composted 15 years ago

    I can't say that I've mastered this yet -- perhaps some one more experienced like Mark would know -- but it seems (theoretically) like your hubs and blog could work Together to build traffic. I've included links to my blog from most of my hubs, and have been trying to incorporate more hub links on my blog.

    replyreport
    1. 89

       Paragliderposted 15 years agoin reply to this

       It really helps to stick your hub widget into your blog's side panel, then every time you post another blog item you automatically get more links into your hubs.

       replyreport
       1. 69

          SpotCoolStuff.composted 15 years agoin reply to this

          You know, I never even noticed that hub widget link before. Thanks!

          replyreport
15. 72

    AEvansposted 15 years ago

    Me neither as I have been trying to build traffic as well so thanks for the insight and I have been doing this for 10 months.

    replyreport
16. 79

    Uninvited Writerposted 15 years ago

    I've found that the one time I made a lot of sales from Amazon was when I had a website on a very specific topic and all the books I advertised were on that topic. With HubPages I have made some money through Amazon, but not like when I had my own website. I do have a blog that has sold several books, but that again was on a specific topic with related books.

    replyreport