Making money with hubpages - the ethical aspect
64
I have always made money at hubpages, but as a writer, I need to balance the desire for income with the desire to have my work read. Put simply – if I write an article, which satisfies the need of the reader, they will have no reason to click on a google advertisement. Take my hamburger recipe as an example. It gets quite a lot of traffic – about 2,000 visitors a week through the hamburger cooking season - but most of the traffic comes in using a search term such as “making home made burgers.” So – the visitor will get exactly what they came for, a hamburger recipe. No need to click on an ad unless they decide to buy themselves a new Weber bar-b-q.
This is one of my earlier hubs and I had no idea how to monetize hubs properly. I have since learned, and am busy creating incoming links to that hub using anchor text based around “weber bbq” as that seems a likely way to make money, but still – do I want to get clicks or readers? The benefits of clicks on advertisements is income, the benefit of readers is – ego aside – the possibility of being offered more jobs based on my writing skills and the satisfaction of having entertained some one for a while.
But recently I have bought another thought into the equation, and the reason I have done so is to question the ethics of some of the advertisers google accept into their program. They are pretty strict with the publishers, but it seems to be a free-for-all as far as advertisers go. The reason I started thinking about this was after examining the click values of certain high-paying subjects. Basically, the more high paying the subject, the more chance of a scam being operated. Forex trading for example – any one suckered into forex day trading will almost certainly lose all their money, yet the forex brokers are amongst the highest paying advertisers. A dilemma no less. I mean – I write what I consider to be the truth about forex – that you cannot make money doing it unless you are a bank – and still people click on the ads.
The other thing that made me start wondering about the ethics is the recent spate of scientology ads. As far as I am concerned, scientology is no worse than all the other religions, but there seems quite a few people upset that they are advertising on their work. Which is sort of entertaining if you happen to live in my head, but I decided to filter their ads out through the google competitive ads filter anyway.
Ethical ads
Is it ethical to make money from ad clicks that you know are a con?
See results without votingPrintShare it! — Rate it: up down flag this hub
Comments
Like you I came here to write, doesnt mean that any money earnt would be handed back lol that would be a bonus. think channelling articles around products to avoid cons is a great idea and one that I will implement ,once I reach the standard.
@ Dolores - that would require personally checking out the hundreds of thousands of advertisers. Plus - I get shown different ads to what my readers get shown. How would I know what theyt are seeing?
@Hawkesdream - don't get me wrong - I make money, but it is a balancing act.
You bring up an awesome point. Your poll at the bottom didn't have an answer that fit my opinion though, so I didn't click. There are two ethics involved. The ethics of Google/Hubpages and the ethics of you/us the writers. We don't have control over the ads being placed on our hubs (unless we choose to make the hub non-commercial). Since we don't know, we are ethics victims ourselves if our work is being sullied by ads that go against our principles.
Is there a way to veto certain companies from having ads on our articles? That might be an answer.
Yes - you can filter out companies you do not want - but that still leaves the problem of identifting the crooked ones out of the many thousand of advertisers. I didn't add that question because it is pretty certain there will be crooked ads - so are we ethical running the program?
Good point that I hadn't even considered because I am new and still concentrating on writing. I noticed Alexander Mark complaining that as a Christian he didn't condone horror films yet they were advertised on his site.I don't know the outcome. There are so many cons in this life that Caveat Emptor should rule in all transactions. Buyer beware! I am yet to break the $2.00 barrier so money doesn't enter my equation!
This is a good question. I tried to raise it differently in a hub about whether the internet is really good for writers (pay scale, quality of work) or is just turning writers into unwilling pimps for scam artists and hucksters (OK, there are quite a few WILLING pimps too I guess). That hub provoked quite a bit of hostility which surprised me. I thought I'd get some divergent views but I wasn't prepared for the bitchy, "Well YOU seem to be doing OK with it... bitch!" comments. You put it so much more succinctly.
I write because I enjoy writing and talking to people, and the discovery that I could make a few bucks doing it online was nice because it allowed me to write even more and work even less. I think there are tiers of internet writers--I'm kind of on the bottom tier in the I-don't-get-this-newfangled-medium-but-I-love-to-write group, and at the top of the food chain are the I'll-write-gibberish-for-adclicks-becasue-I'm-a-total-money-whore people. Most people at HP seem kind of in the middle somewhere.
I guess I feel like I'd be more guilt-ridden if I was less poverty-stricken. Evasive, I know. But that's how I feel. Nobody is protecting me as a writer except me, so why is it my job to protect readers? Caveat Emptor.
This is a very interesting idea for a hub. As of yet I haven't blocked any adverts from being displayed, but that is probably because all of my adverts seem to be very targeted for the Hubpage and I certianly haven't noticed any Scientology ads on my hubs. For example, my hub on the Bristol Balloon Fiesta currently only has ads for balloon rides, and sometimes a few similar other products (eg had a few about hotels in Bristol). However, I can imagine how annoying it will be when unrelated adverts, or even related adverts, appear on hubs, especially if they are slightly/very dubious.
@ Gypsy - Caveat Emptor - yes. Fortunately I am not burdened with an irrational belief system like that, because I imaging the list of unacceptable adverts must be pretty huge. lol
@prgrundy - why the hostility? I do not feel abused by the system myself, but perhaps that is because I make a reasonable living. Not a fortune but OK lol
I am not a whore, but I asked myself this question before writing certain hubs - knowing I would make money from the suckers clicking. I justify it by writing the truth as I see it - If some person chooses to ignore what I say, that is his/her problem.
@Bristol boy - that is a different problem/issue. I guess I should have been more clear. If you write about forex, you are going to get scammers ads on your hub. Is that ethical?
Good question. It hadn't occurred to me. I don't pay attention to ads anywhere on the internet, and have ad blockers on most sites. Thank you for reminding me of the nefarious nature of advertising. But I'd say caveat emptor, too.
You mean why were people hostile to me? I didn't mean any hostility toward you at all. I don't feel abused by the system either, I just think it is in fact changing the nature of writing and also the quality somewhat. As to why people were so weird about my hub, I don't know. I think I just honk people off sometimes. I guess I'm not destined to be a diplomat. lol!
@ Teresa - My pleasure.
@ prgrundy - Yes - why the hostility towards you? You were not hostile to me lol
Guess I would make a poor diplomat also - people who tell the truth rarely do :)
Oh good! I don't know... Most of the hostile comments were along the lines of, "You have a 100 hub score so why are you whining?" Crap like that. I guess I failed to explain my concerns in plain language in that hub. I felt like I didn't get the discussion I wanted at all--but then that happens A LOT here! Lol!
LOL - Yes it does . You should see some of the rantings on my evolution hub. Still - I expected them. Must be driving the religionists nuts that it is the "hot" religion hub lol
Mark I like your work and respect your point of views on many topics! This one I loved you brought out many points and spoke boldly about ads that just do not seem fitting for some of the hubs and their subject! Good Job Mr. Knowles
mdawson17
Thanks, Mark. You are right on the mark. (sorry re :pun, unintended) The acai ads are even worse. No one needs to spend 87 dollars/month for a laxative.
Hi Mark,
New in this medium, didn't pay too much attention to the ads since in general they are like background to me in any internet page. I'll be more attentive in the future because your point of ethics is important.
Would you be so kind as to explain how to block ads. I'm thinking about a type of filter that would stop any advertising containing a specific name or noun that I might choose. Does this exist?
Thank you
rosario
Having read a few of my hubs Mark, you must be aware of how opposed I am to capitalism, which, to me, is just synonym for exploitation.
I eliminated the ads from my hubs very early in my involvement here.
I'd rather struggle with my minimal income than contribute to a system I consider to be utterly venal.
@rosario - Go to your google adsense account and look for "competitive ad filter" - you will be able to list any sites that you do not want advertising on your pages.
@CWB - I wish I was in a position to do the same. Unfortunately it will be another 2 years before I can opt out completely and still eat lol
I, too, think it's unethical. I know my World of Warcraft hubs have gold spammer ads on them, which is against the rules of players in that game. Most people who are reading those hubs will already know not to click on those ads. If there were something like your forex example, I think I would opt to not have any Google ads on it.
@KT - So - have you blocked that company's ads?
Unfortunately, it's more than one company. If it were just one, I would, though.
Yes, that is the problem. I am in France so I tend to see different ads to the ones shown to US visitors. I have no idea what they are seeing. Hence the ethical dilemma.
This is a great hub, your work is always good, please leave fierycj alone now enough is enough
Brenda- he is a big boy and can take care of himself. I like him - but I am going to continue to make fun of his $22 LV scarf lol
Good article. I'm horrible at this marketing thing and frankly dispise it. This is fun for me and I think according to my affilate settings or whatever I've made a whole 1$ something. My money comes from my sci-fi, book or research writing. Maybe I can figure something out but plain don't have the time, energy, or care to try I guess. Figured h.p. was a scam anyway, but I do enjoy upsetting people...lol. Keep up the good work.
lol
No - HP is not a scam - many come with unrealistic expectations though :)
Thank you for the tip.
Wow! I had never looked at it from that viewpoint. It is something to think about. I think most people take it all for granted and don't pay too much attention to the ads themselves. I'm going to be looking a little closer to see how it all works.
Mr Knowles - To be honest I mostly just see ads that are in Portuguese. The occasional one in English is either related to expats or similar. I did note the odd 'hot babes in bikini' types and filtered them out (I hope anyway).
Plus to be fair - I write about 75% rubbish. My other stuff is what I term as sensible - though not necessarily commercial. Which I assume will confuse the hell out of Google.
Ho hum. I better get my arse into gear. I'm beginning to starve.
Before I joined HP, I was studying copy, and would often click on adds that I was pretty sure lead to a scam, as well as ones that seemed reasonable, to compare the style of writing. What amazed me was how often I would end up on the same site.
As a writer, I have to realize that people click adds for many different reasons, and many don't even stop to think that they are clicking an ad, especially if they are researching something.
I wince at the "aussie millionaire" type ads my make money in your sleep attract - but I am a bit over protecting the stupid/naive/lazy from themselves! Like Pam I am now more caveat emptor. I never promote anything which is a con either here or on my own blogs - but if the adsese ads are cons and some one clicks well they were probably too lazy to read my excellent advice anyways!
A very interesting topic.
I don't write to promote anything scammy at all, I think (I hope!) but I don't know what adverts people are seeing on my pages. Interesting.
Very interesting Hub on a subject that I had never really thought about before. My Hubs tend to be travel/history related topics, so don't really attract scamming ads, but I'm sometimes bemused by what type of ad does turn up.
Currently Muslim singles dating is very popular, which is fine, except for the fact that I don't think too many single Muslims looking for a date would use a Hub on an ancient Egyptian queen as their first port of call in finding love!
Could explain why my earnings are still in pence! lol
I enjoyed this article greatly. You are a very honest writer and I love that. I agree Hp is not a scam. People do have unrealistic views like you said about HP. I joined because I love to write but making a little on the side with Hp is ok with me too. But writing is number one in my books! I can tell you value your work a great deal. Thats awesome.
Dolores Monet says:
5 months ago
Can't you ditch ads that you know are dishonest, dispreputable, or just plain scams? I thought you could have google remove unwanted ads.