100 Hubs Challenge

It all started with one person finding the power of Hubpages to make money online. Then the challenge began. Court Tuttle of The Keyword Academy found through experimenting that Hubpages ranked really well with Google, and quickly also. So, he wrote a blog post about how he was going to conduct a make money experiment with hubpages by creating 100 hubpages in 30 days.

Well, little did he know that Ryan Hupfer of Hubpages was browsing the internet that day and found that post. Ryan left a comment and accepted the challenge of creating 100 hubs in 30 days and seeing who could make more money.

So, the challenge is on! Are you up to it? Can you make 100 hubs in 30 days? If not, what about trying 30 hubs in 30 days? Are you serious about making money online and want to try out Hubpages?

What are Hubpages?  Well, a little like Squidoo lenses if you are familiar with them, however they are very much different also!

Hubpages are single pages of content that you create on any topic you like (with restrictions of no porn, gambling or illegal stuff like that).  One of the main differences between Hubpages and Squidoo lenses is that Hubpages seem to rank in the search engines a lot faster and do better.  It really isn't known why, but they do.

When you create your first hub, as the pages are called, you can add different modules to them for different content.  There are the basic modules such as text, video, photos, links and polls, but there are several other advanced modules.  You can add eBay and amazon.com modules for products and also add rss and news feeds to your hub.

Hubpages are pretty simple.  They are a single page about a specific topic that you can add different modules for content.  The one difference from other sites is that the links on the Hubpages are "no-follow" links with one exception.  As a general rule, when your "hubber" score reaches above 75, the links on your site become "do follow" links.  This seems to vary as to opinion and I can't find anything official about it around here.  There are also some different scenarios that will affect the "do follow" vs. "no-follow" status.

Your author, or hubber score is affected by several different things.  Your popularity amongst other hubbers, your traffic to your hubs and the number of hubs you have written/published.  Here is the official version from the help pages on how a hubscore is calculated:

HubScore takes into account a number of factors, and will vary quite a bit from the time a Hub is published as data about its performance continues to stream in. The most important HubScore components that you should be concerned with include:

• Amount of traffic, including percentage from sources other than HubPages
• The length of the Hub (the more unique writing, generally, the better)
• The uniqueness of content (copying content already available on the Web will be penalized)
• The number of thumbs-up votes from unique users
• The overall quality of the Hubber (author HubScore and Status)

We reserve the right to change the factors used to assess a Hub’s HubScore as we continue to determine those that measure a great Hub.

The bottom line is if you write original, useful content, your HubScores will reflect the quality and work you've put into them.

You're status as a hubber is also affected by how many hubs you have written and their status.  The more you have, the better they score, the better your score is.

One of the coolest and neatest features that Hubpages offers is a section called "Requests".  This is a neat, semi-forum type of section where you can either request help in the form of an answer, or the author can create a hubpage about the question you answered offering an answer.

Again, from the help section:

Requests allow you to ask other Hubbers to answer a question for you in the form of a Hub or a brief comment. You can request a specific Hubber to field your request. When a Hubber has answered your request, you can receive an email notifying you.

You can ask almost anything you like, provided it’s not adult, obscene or in any other way in contradiction with our Terms of Use. Keep your request short and specific. Good examples include:

• When is a good time to visit Vietnam and why?
• Where’s the best place to buy a used guitar?

Please note that requests are not for asking very simple questions, such as yes/no questions.

You can also find many ideas right around you in your home or office.  Is there a specific topic you like to write about?  Something interesting that you have always wondered about and want to research?  Do you have knowledge from a hobby or your career experience that would benefit others?

There are topics and information all around you that you can take and write a hub about.  Find something that you like and enjoy and get started with it and see what happens!

Hubpages offer several different methods for you to monetize your hubpage. Whether you are creating a product related hub that would benefit from eBay listings, or maybe a book or video review hub that would work well with the amazon.com module, you can make money.

You can also use Kontera text links and Google Adsense on your hubs. You just need to sign up and be accepted to those programs in order to use them.

Hubpages provides you the opportunity to make money easily with these programs once you have joined them. Hubpages shares in the impressions with you. What does this mean? Well, each time the Adsense ad is shown or an eBay product is shown, 40% of the time the ad is listed under the Hubpages affiliate ID. This means that 60% of the time, it is under your ID.

Here is the answer from the Hubpages help page:

After you’ve joined the affiliate programs from eBay, Amazon, Kontera, and Google, ads for these companies appear on your Hubs. Any revenue generated during one of your impressions (a click-through with Google, an actual purchase with Amazon or eBay) is 100% yours.

HubPages splits the impressions with you in the following way:

1. Your own Hubs: Hubbers receive 60% of total impressions.
2. The HubPages Affiliate Program: You can refer new writers to HubPages and if they become Hubbers within 30 days, you receive an additional 10% of their Hubs’ lifetime impressions.
3. Traffic Referral Program: If you send traffic to any Hub, you’re entitled to either 9% or 12% of total impressions. You’ll receive 9% if the Hub you’ve referred people to already has impressions allocated to an Affiliate. If there are no Affiliates, you’ll receive 12% of the total impressions.

Whatever is left from the splits above goes to HubPages. Note that these splits apply only to Hubs and User Profile pages. On all other pages, such as a referral to a Tag page or the HubPages home page, you’ll receive 30% on a traffic referral, with HubPages getting the rest.

If you are wanting to join the affiliate programs that Hubpages offers, here are the links to them:

Instructions On How To Join Google Adsense

Instructions On How To Join The Amazon Associate Program

Of course you should!  Even if you can't make 100 hubs in 30 days, that is ok.  There are plenty of people that are participating and only making 30.  Think of that, just 1 hub a day.  Hubs can be relatively simple covering any topic you like, so what are you waiting for?

There are a couple of things you do need to be aware of.  Unlike Squidoo lenses, Hubpages has built in "spam" protection measures.  If your hubpage doesn't have a lot of content, a lot of outbound links (especially to the same site, no more than 2 allowed) or duplicate content, then it will be flagged.

Take a moment and read these two pages about:

Overly-promotional Hubs

Substandard Hubs

There are many reasons why you should participate in this challenge, however I am sure if your life is like mine, you can come up with just as many, if not more reasons why you shouldn't.  That is ok.  Just try making a couple of hubs. 

Just like niche sites, the more specific or on topic you are, the better your hub will rank.  The better your hub ranks, the more you will make.  Pretty simple!