Making Money With HubPages
This hub is not about the mechanics of how you can go about making money at HubPages but takes a step back and looks at the amount and type of money that you can earn. Most writers, especially the newer ones, tend to approach writing at this site as a kind of paid job in which they earn a certain amount for a certain number of hubs published. While true to a certain extent in that the more hubs you publish the more money you can make, earning money at HubPages has some pros and cons.
As a new writer, after publishing a couple of hubs, many would be disappointed with the mediocre earnings. Some lucky writers might have managed a few dollars in earnings, but the typical figure would probably be below a dollar and many might actually have earned nothing for their few days, or a week or two, of effort.
At this point, many give up thinking that it is just not worth the effort. They will compare how much they can earn in real life for the same amount of time spent. Some will start to think selling their articles as they will definitely make more.
For a start, let's try to estimate how much money a typical writer on HubPages could make. The earnings will vary widely as the quality of the writer, his interaction with the HubPages community, how long he has been with the community, the subject of his hubs, his SEO knowledge all play a part. For the purposes of this hub, let's say a typical writer will be able to attract 1-5 visitors a day to each of his hubs. And out of every 30 visitors, one of them will click an AdSense ad. And, on average, each click will be worth $0.10.
So, a writer working an hour or two on weekdays, and a couple of hours on weekends, might be able to come up with 10 hubs after the first month. Based on the previous figures, his 10 hubs will attract 10-50 visitors a day or 300-1500 visitors a month. There will be 10-50 clicks on his AdSense ads earning him a grand total of $1.00-$5.00 after the first month.
Rather depressing earnings, huh? Most people will quit after that first month. Many of you will stop reading after the last paragraph, declare HubPages a scam and click the back button. After all, even the lowest paid worker in the poorest country in the world probably earns more per hour than a HubPages writer.
If you are still here, I suspect that you know there is a little bit more left to the story. Our dear HubPages writer can take a break for the second month, and still earn his $1.00-$5.00 for the second month. And that is why many writers are still at it despite the low earnings. The good thing is that the earnings do not stop when you stop, and when you continue, the earnings increase every month.
Another good thing is that the earnings do not increase linearly. When you publish your first hub, it stands alone and forgotten, attracting only the odd visitor or two from the search engines and the HubPages community. As you publish more, things will gradually start to change.
You will start to get more well known in the HubPages community and get more visitors from them. More people will start linking to your hubs. You will get more visitors from those links and the search engines will look at your hubs in a more favorable light due to the links, and you get ranked better. Which means more visitors for you. Remember that all this will probably not happen on its own and will need an ongoing marketing effort, but that is the subject for another hub.
In other words, as time goes by, you might find that your hubs are attracting more traffic, and things might start to snowball. It will take time, effort, skill and maybe even a little luck but don't expect anything to happen with just a few hubs. It will be different for everybody, but I expect the turning point to be at least 6 months of writing and at least 50 - 100 hubs, and that's being rather optimistic.
When you hit the turning point, that is when earnings start to become significant. Unfortunately, most writers don't stay until that point. It is at that point that you start to see your efforts pay off and it is at that point that you really start to see the potential in earnings and it is at that point that you will start to earn more for your time compared to selling your writing or working in an offline job.
Writing for profit at HubPages is not for everybody. The earnings will start really slow and it will typically take many months before you get you first AdSense check. Things will get very much better as you put in the hours at writing and promoting, but this is no short cut to wealth. All in all, a willingness to work hard coupled with a little entrepreneurial flair would be needed to make your time at HubPages a resounding success.
