How Many Hubs Do You Need to Make a Good Income?

While it is certainly possible to make a lucrative second income – or primary income – writing online with Hubpages or similar affiliate writing programs, the question is not, “How many do I need?” Instead, it’s a question of what kind of mix you need in order to achieve your objective. The internet is a vast network containing literally billions of pieces of information, so one of the key factors is producing information that people actually want, and getting it to the right people who really do want it.

Let’s start with some very basic concepts. First of all, you need to create both long-term and short-term earnings goals for yourself. As you go along, these will let you know if you’re living up to your own expectations of success, and let you know if what you’re currently doing will get you there or if you need to make some drastic changes.

Next, you will need to identify who it is that your information is intended to reach. This will take some work to dig down to the people who really have a need for what you offer, and it may take doing some market tests to determine who wants what you have to offer – or, better yet, what market needs something that you can provide.

it's important to remember that just because you like a topic, doesn't mean that you have something unique to bring to the table. Try to pick topics in which you have extensive life experience, an angle that you haven't seen presented on the internet, or is otherwise unique. You won't be well-compensated for something that appears in searches under 30 different pages that have identical information.

On Hubpages, many people specialize on a particular topic and, therefore, can focus on a single target market. Others simply write what they know in a broad range of subjects; this will take a little bit more work to market, but is certainly within the scope of possibility for a successful content producer.

Promotion is an integral part of being successful on revenue share sites such as Hubpages. The more you promote and connect with the right people, the fewer hubs you'll need in order to reach your earning goals. It's not easy money, and it will take a lot of work to build up a substantial residual income. Focus on delivering quality to the right people, and reconcile yourself to the fact that you won't be making quick bucks by producing online content.

We’re going to assume that if you’re just starting, you don’t have specific questions from your market to answer yet. Even if you do, finding good keywords that are in high demand will help you attract organic traffic from the search engines, which is the best kind of traffic that you can get because you didn’t have to pay for it or do additional work to get it beyond your initial SEO efforts and back linking.

It's important to understand search keywords and phrases, and how people use them to find information. However, all of your efforts at using keywords will produce nothing if you don't have high-quality content to back it up. Your earnings will directly reflect how successful you are in matching up in-demand content with the people who need it.

There are many keyword research tools that can give you some insight into the search terms that people use to find the information they want. We’re not going to go into SEO in detail here (though please do ask specific questions and I can be much more specific and detailed in a dedicated hub), but suffice to say that people will not find your information if it doesn’t contain the kind of words and phrases for which they’ll search.

Another great way to find topics to write about is to search out questions on Hubpages, Yahoo! Answers, or popular message boards related to your topic. Instead of simply answering the question, write an article about it and post the link – that way, many people can benefit from your answer, and you already have an answer prepared for other people who ask the same question. Bear in mind that some niches are more profitable than others, but with the right targeting just about any niche has the potential to be profitable.

This is the part that trips up thousands of would-be entrepreneurs and online writers. The subject is far too broad to go into much detail here, but suffice to say that it’s exceedingly important to learn how to present your content in a way that appeals to your target. All the SEO in the world won’t matter if you can’t get someone to actually click on your link in the search engine, and that won’t matter if the content doesn’t answer someone’s question or doesn’t inspire them toward clicks and purchases from your affiliate links.

The topic of marketing is way too big to get into in much detail here, but take a look at some of the links below for more information on this point. If your questions still aren't answered, please feel free to leave a comment about marketing topics you'd like to see covered, and I'll gladly get to work on more hubs in this critical area.

This is just a very general overview of the types of things you need to consider in developing a profitable presence on Hubpages and elsewhere on the web. I can go into very fine detail on the various concepts, but it would take years just to type out what I THINK would answer all of your questions – and I may or may not be right. If you have specific questions related to SEO, marketing, finding a niche, or any other such issues related to earning money on Hubpages, please leave me a comment with your question and I will write a hub that answers the question.

Now that you've finished reading this hub, which I hope helped move you in the direction you'd like to go, I would really appreciate your help in developing my training program. Please leave me a comment answering this question: What is your greatest fear when it comes to earning a living online?