I’m a bit of a cynic – I admit it. I don’t take things on board lightly – a bit conservative in my outlook if you like.

• I was probably the last person in the world to purchase a mobile phone (9 months ago).
• I only went onto broadband quite recently (6 months ago).
• The sole reason I purchased a DVD player was because the poor-old video gave up the ghost.
• And I finally dumped my aging 35mm camera and exchanged it for a digital camera a mere 3 weeks ago

I'm a bit slow on the uptake you might say, a bit of a dinasaur, but I'm sceptical of mending things that aren’t broke.

My approach to making money on the Internet is rather similar – sceptical - I don’t really believe it can be done. I’m of the old school you see – wrote short stories for years - served an apprenticeship - collected my rejection slips. Magazines pay hard cash up front for stories – good cash as well.

I went the whole hog recently and wrote a novel. It was accepted by a small publishing house, and I decided to promote it. I saw HubPages as a way to get my name out there - and it was originally the sole reason for my presence I'm ashamed to say.

It was only after glancing over a few hubs that I realized maybe a trickle of money could come my way as well – and anything is better than nothing. A couple of weeks ago I decided to try Adsense, went in, and altered the settings on my hubs.

At the same time, I checked out Associated Content because of the hype. It seemed reasonable until I realised non-Americans had no up front payment. That made it a no-no for me.

The only payment available for me would be $1.50 per thousand hits – which seemed a bit low - and would I ever reach 1000 on one article?

My Hubs were already running so I took a peep at the statistics. There were 1100 hits.

Now, some of those hits will have occurred BEFORE I allowed Adsense in, so the payment was probably lower than it might have been – but I checked anyway to see what was happening on Adsense. I was amazed to see I had accumulated $6.94. If I’d put Adsense in from the beginning, the total might have been more.

Okay, it isn’t much money – I’m not about to push JK Rowling off the highest paid writers list - but it’s a heck of a lot more than Associated Content would have paid. Mind you, if I’d been fortunate enough to have $10 up front payment – I’d have been better off with Associated Content.... or would I?

It seems to me there's no contest. HubPages simply HAS to be the best bet. I’ll stick where I am - make a few more hubs and increase my royalties a bit more.

– HubPages, hold on to your hat, here I come.