Google AdSense Payment Threshold Reached Again

So I reached the payment threshold yet again just now. I'd love to show everyone but then if you remember I just discovered recently that I'm not allowed to post screenshots of my earnings. If you remember I got my last payment in the end of June so that's around three months to reach the payment threshold again which is slower than I predicted because of a few setbacks and reasons that I will be talking about in this article.

I don't know exactly how Google Panda or the HubPages Subdomain affected me specifically. Although I noticed a few of my HubPages articles' rankings went down on the search engines, many of my top hubs were able to keep their place in the front page of the results. In fact, my traffic grew significantly just as I talked about in my article about how much I earn through bloging but the problem is in the people not clicking and just viewing the ads. I noticed that's a very significant factor in earnings. For instance, right now, I'm doing an average of up to 35,000 a month but that's just overall average throughout the 2 years I've been here on HubPages. Last month alone, I reached around 45,000 views.

Of course you have to consider that there's the 60/40 cut I have with HubPages regarding ad placement so that in itself is already a big cut in my earnings but aside from that I don't think that traffic is the issue but the clicks, as I have said.

And yes, I noticed a bunch of my HubPages articles lost their powerful rankings and this is surely because of the subdomain switch. What I noticed is that those that are left on high rankings are content I wrote about things that are not yet so prevalent in the internet universe. So it's all about choosing keywords and content that's not yet common or those that don't have to compete with a lot of content. That's why HubPages ranks articles higher when the topic has been written about less than others. That's something that I need to keep in mind as I continue to write here on HubPages.

Ironically, my article about Blogger vs HubPages got outranked and is nowhere to be found on the search engine results. Before the whole subdomain switch it was third on the front page and now it's absolutely gone. I don't think it has much to do with the Google Panda algorithm update but more on the subdomain switch. It's funny that in that article, I actually talk about how HubPages is way better than blogger because of the blogger subdomain making it harder to rank because you're the only one who build you own content and you have to be very specific with topic. Like I noticed that those blogger sites and blogs that rank are all stuffed with keywords regarding just one topic: a niche site or something like that.

My article about the Yellow Cab Philippines Delivery also got really affected. It's still on the front page for many keywords but on the lower part now. That's why I decided to write about how Pancake House Buys Yellow Cab not only so I can put the backlink there but also so that the content surrounding the backlink will be relevant. And of course this isn't enough. Many SEO companies have an army of bloggers continuously writing for their backlinking campaign and I don't have that. Although the Google Panda algorithm update affected everyone in general especially those in the field of search engine optimization.

Here's a good example of what I mean when I compare the PageRank of HubPages and Blogger about my post regarding Kanin Club, a restaurant here in the Philippines:

the reason that this is the example I chose is because it fits the profile of what I talked about above regarding content competition and how prevalent the keyword is on the internet. Kanin Club is a restaurant here in the Philippines and so it surely has less content compared to let's say keywords like "Katy Perry" or something like that (I don't know why I always use Katy Perry as my example for a highly competitive keyword).

My HubPages article about it ranks at the third page whereas the other one in my blogger blog Beating the Search Engine is on the second page. It's already so bad that they're both not on the first page but it's worse (with regards to the issue of the subdomain) that the Blogger one outranked the HubPages one because that could mean bad news for future articles I'll be writing here on HubPages.

I'm happy that my blogger blog is finally starting to rank (it takes a lot of time and content before Google will recognize a blog for rankings) but also very worried about rankings of current and future articles of mine here on HubPages.

I'm just waiting a few more weeks to see how some of the new articles I wrote will do when it comes to ranking. It will be like my assessment of some sort and see what my future will be here on HubPages.

I don't really have an issue with writing or generating content. It's one of the talents that I'm blessed with and I'm really thankful for. I can write and write and not really mind at all about almost any topic if I wanted. Usually that's what I do, really, except of course for my Blogger blogs which are more personal and more focused on quality. Although that's what I've also been trying here on HubPages as that is the only rational advise I've see against the dreaded Google Panda algorithm update. Every one just says to post higher quality and optimized articles. That's really some sort of rule of thumb already when it comes to the SEO world.

At least I'm happy I reached the threshold already. At least I know I'll be getting paid again real soon. Society hates it when you don't work. Everyone's just finds it so weird and feels the need to scrutinize even those who have no idea at all about blogging or SEO. So that's another setback, I guess. I really have to find work real soon. As in really really soon. People don't like it when they see you just lying around (in spite of earning through blogging). I think it's an initiation in life thing where they feel like everyone has to go through the same thing.

Well I can't really let it discourage me so much and I must continue to write and post every day and try to learn more and more about making money through Google Ads and SEO or Search Engine Optimization.

It is another rule of thumb when it comes to SEO that more words is always better which I find weird (but something I do follow) because a lot of ranking websites and blogs I see have very little words or content but are still able to conquer the search engine. That's something I should really study and learn more about. I don't think it's really all about words. I think it's more of a gamble much like how you have greater chances with the algorithm as it crawls through and categorizes your content. So yeah sometimes you just gotta write random things and put keywords like "Google AdSense" or "payment threshold" and hope that the Google algorithm considers your post high quality.