Hubpages, Blogging, Backlinking - How Should You Allocate Your Time
The Big Picture
About a year ago I decided to look into making a little bit of extra money online. My rationale was that I had a decent ability in writing and if others can do it then why can't I.
My initial research uncovered page after page of "guaranteed" ways to earn thousands instantly. I was only looking for legal, legitimate methods so I automatically discounted all of these and eventually stumbled upon Hubpages.
My previous internet publishing experience was limited to a temporary blog about being a first time dad I wrote daily at 4am for a while as a way to pass the time when I would have loved to be sleeping.
Beginners look at Hubpages and are a little confused. It is a usual reaction for new writers to question why any site is worth 40% of the page impressions for original content you have written. I admit I had those thought myself. It seems that the more you understand about the internet and it workings, the more your realize how much of a bargain the 40% is at Hubpages.
This is, in my opinion, THE best site for beginners to start at as not only does it give you a great boost in the search engine rankings, it has one of the best online communities that support begginers. We have all asked our fair share of stupid questions, but 90% of what I now know I learned here.
If you have not joined up, sign up here
The Problem With Learning - You Know More
That means choices.
The first tip everyone learns is write quality, original content.
The second is research your keywords and use them appropriately.
The third is the wonders of backlinking, the currency of the Internet.
Then you refine your game by adding supplemental revenue. If you are going to backlink, you may as well get paid to do it.
Then you get fancy and look into link wheels or other interlocking backlinking chains.
Suddenly, every hub you write now has 1000 extra jobs attached to it to promote it in the best way you know how.
That is before you even start your won website or blog and deal with promoting a new venture from the very beginning.
This is when you realise that the most precious of all commodities is your time.
Relative Value
Every step mentioned above has value but how do you decide how much? How do you divide your time? Is it more important to write the original content or promote it?
Should your websites or blogs be more important than your hubpages account?
This is an area open to much debate but my views are as follows:
1) Content Creation Is Extremely Important: The more work you have out there the more chance you have of earning. You need to take the time to ensure that you have done your research and your keywords are appropriate, but having 100 quality articles with poor promotion is likely to be more beneficial than having one article with 100 quality backlinks. The content has to be what people want to read. Those that make serious money here on hubpages have many hundreds of hubs. This didn't happen in a week.
2) Maximize Backlink Effectiveness: Not all backlinks are created equal. If you look around hubpages for advice and information you will see the usual suspects frequently mentioned. These are the sites that let you create backlinks but also revenue share - as I said previously, if you are going to spend your precious time creating backlinks, you may as well have the outside chance of earning a little residual income. You should rank your backlinking sites in order of importance. Mine (with reasons) are as follows:
a) SheToldMe.com - Why? Do Follow links, 5/10 Pagerank, shares both Adsense revenue and Chitika revenue, quick to create link. Quality site.
b) Redgage.com - PageRank 4/10, DoFollow links and a (vague) revenue sharing platform. This site is important for me for two reasons - speed and automatic linking to twitter. There are few sites that let you create links this fast and you get a link to your link via twitter.
c) Snipsly.com - PageRank 3/10, DoFollow links (but no follow comments) quick and easy to use.
d) Xomba.com - This is an interesting one. Links start off as do follow but revert to no follow after a certain (?) period of time. This makes them of little value in the long term for SERPs purposes but some hubbers are getting hundreds of page views from this site and a decent level of revenue.
Advertising
Although I don't bother with regular blogging posts or hubs primarily aimed at adsense revenue, I do advertise affiliate sites and hubs with a free online advertising program.
If I am looking to promote a product or service I create an ad on the Traffic Buddha network. The ads are free and earned by custom made links I place throughout my online content. I am currently "earning" more advertising than I am using so I will be looking to increase the promotion of key sites via this method soon. It is playing an increasingly important role inmy overall affiliate earnings.
You can find more information on this program here.
My Time Management
Everyone will place their own level of importance on the different aspects of writing and promoting online content.
I personally make the most of my "quality time" - when it is quiet and there are few distractions - to research and write my primary content. I backlink in the order of importance above when I am sitting in front of the television and not concentrating. I have no problem writing a backlink in an ad break and by the end of my favorite shows am well ahead without ever engaging my brain.
I allocate twice the time to hubpages content writing as I do to my blogs and websites due to the significant boost in the search engine results that hubpages gives me.
For me, 60% of something big is more important than 100% of something small. I remain convinced that the 40% contribution to hubpages is one of the biggest bargains on the Internet.