First Year At Hub Pages: earnings from zero to infinity

The author's first hub was written in September 2011 and earned exactly $0.08 from September of 2011 through May of 2012.

The writer was so bored looking at the results they forgot about Hubpages until May of 2012. In May they found they had made a few cents and decided to write another hub, this time a political hub that was posted using a link on a forum that the author visits often.

Low and behold....the second hub received about 95 visits on the first day, which was almost what the first hub had garnered in it's first nine months. As this second hub earned around $ 0.75 on day one of it's existence, the obvious thought was "whoa.... maybe there is some hope here!".

Being encouraged, the author wrote a few more hubs.

In June, the month when the second hub was published this hub site earned over a dollar, which was over ten times what this site had earned with the first hub in a nine month period, all on the first day of Hub number two. Whoopee... the author thought....and all that was needed was to write about a favorite politician.

Not much was done in July, but the site still earned almost $2 from the measly number of hubs that had been published so far.

In August of 2012, the author started reading about successful Hubbers and started understanding that those who had persevered for three, four, five, or six years seemed to have something to show for their efforts. Importantly it was noticed that no one ever said one could not succeed on Hubpages. Everyone seemed to acknowledge that with perseverance and commitment a monthly income was possible with Hubpages.

The writer noticed that with Hubpages one did not have to spend money to acquire traffic since traffic was available on Hubpages just for showing up. This was of great interest as this is a valuable resource. . It takes money and time to become ranked on Google.

When one realizes that with Hubpages one has a "head start" in not having to pay hosting fees, not having to spend a monthly fee while still learning, and not having to advertise for traffic one grasps that this scenario is pretty enticing. Not only that, but one could gain traffic simply by answering questions or by "hanging out" on forums. Worst case one could make a few dollars per month, and meet some interesting people who are motivated and entrepreneurial. This concept "works" for the author.

The amazing thing about Hubpages is that since one may not have taken things that seriously at first, one can have a good time. The author of this site had not written a sentence for over 20 years and in this case they had to learn a bit about AP rules and editing.

It appears that other Hub writers also have a good social time on Hubpages.It's a fun place to hang out.

During August 2012 the author earned just under $3.00 on maybe 12 hubs. In the meantime she realized she was not utilizing the full spectrum of tools available to acquire traffic. She was not using the referral tool and hardly spent any time with Amazon, although she figured out that for her Three Rivers vacation hub a camera seemed like a good idea and so she advertised cameras on that hub through Amazon.

Somewhere along the line the writer was whining because she could get up to a hubscore of 89 or 85 quite often, but could never seem to jump over the 90 mark. She put the question out to fellow Hubbers who recommended answering questions, asking questions, and responding in the forums. Wow. Suddenly the Hubscore was consistently over 90....perhaps 93 is the highest score attained, but probably by answering a few more questions it could jump to over 95 and maybe even up to 100.

Through September 30 during the month of September, the 14 hubs have earned $4.75. (This is the fifteenth hub). The hub author feels confident this site could have earned more as the author just figured out they need to respond in forums and questions more often. Also, wonder of wonders, Adsense is also starting to kick in at about one twentieth the rate of Hubpages. There are regular earnings finally on Adsense, however small they may be. So far, I have not earned anything from Amazon, but with a total of just over 2000 views, my understanding is that is about normal. I will be putting up the featured items widget in some hubs to see what that does.

But truly....by answering more questions and hanging out on a few more forums the author feels certain they could get the income level on this site to 30 cents a day or $9 a month without difficulty. With more links and referrals with these 15 hubs the author thinks $20 is a strong possibility. With a year more of linking I think $2 a hub should not be a problem at all.

The author has many ideas ready to go for new hubs, but for the moment there are some things worth mentioning:.

This site has not taken full advantage of lots of tools. This includes not having made use of the referral tool to sign up new hub members in order to receive over-rides on the writings of new users. The author does not understand how Redgage works so cannot invite friends from Hubpages to visit Redgage and vice versa.

Goals for the next few months:

l. put the referral widget in all hubs and the profile page so that anyone who signs up for Hubpages who writes initiates an override for this site

2. stay active on forums and questions because it is fun interacting and one is paid for interacting in this manner

3. keep tweaking hubs for better keywords

4. keep putting links in other forums for hubpages

5. Implement a ranking site linking that is supposed to help hubs rank well.

6. Keep communicating with hub members. It was surprising how well this works. Someone a-political as far as "work politics" can still get paid on Hubpages for honest communication among Hub fellow members. One does not have to play politics, suck up, or bs to make money on Hubpages. It is not a trick. It really works. All one must do is "hang out" and have a good time.

7. Learn more about Amazon conversions. This site has not had an Amazon conversion yet although it has received upwards of 2000 or so views through September 25. According to others, this may not be enough views based on statistics for someone to have purchased a product through Amazon.

8. As far as Adsense...well....it has yielded a wee bit..not much. Of mention here in September, is the fact that Adsense is yielding some small amount of income every day.

9. There is a lot to learn..although it is is doable. A goal is to have maybe 50-75 hubs through 2013. Certainly many people have more lofty goals than this and the author may do better than this, but it is nice to be able to keep one's commitments.

10. Link Link Link...... one good link per week will result in 50 links in one year.

11. Goal of $2 per hub as income. Certain people do this already on Hubpages and it appears that this it is possible by using the many tools available.

12. By the end of 2013 have at least 75 hubs each earning $2 each.

By the end of 2012 have at least 25 hubs. Okay people...many Hubbers may be laughing at such a modest goal, but consistency is the deal. A meeting at the goalpost in December of 2013 will be interesting. $2 per month of income by December 31, 2012, with $50 a month of income seems realistic. Speed demons can race to the goalpost the author here is..a happy turtle.

For those of you who want a summary, here it is for Hubpages ad only. Adsense is not included below and I don't have earnings from Amazon or Ebay. ( I have not signed up for Ebay)

September 2011 through April 30 2012: $.08 had one hub

May 2012 $0.00 had one hub

June 2012 $1.32 3 hubs written 4 hubs total

July 2012 $1.98 3 hubs written 7 hubs total

August 2012 $2.62 5 hubs written 12 hubs total

Sept 1-30 $4.75 3 hubs wrItten 15 hubs total

Adsense is not included in the above. It wasn't much.

There was nothing earned from Amazon

Ebay is not set up.