Ten Golden Rules of Writing & Earning Money on Hubpages.

I have been a member here for just over two years and I can tell you that I didn't discover the holy grail of hubpages, neither do I have some kind of magic powers of making payouts every month. What you should know that every person here is unique and that means what works for me may not necessarily work for you and vice versa. Of course you are allowed to tiptoe around what other hubbers do here that gets them monthly payouts, but mostly it’s all to do with you. Don’t underestimate your worth of using your own unique style of turning the hubpages fortunes around for you.

So rather than fall for the usual banter of “how to make money on hubpages” I have decided to write this a little differently and hopefully you will understand that hubpages is more than just making money.

This is the foundation that every hubber should build on. When you sign up to hupages, you’re telling the world that you are a writer and your purpose is … [drum roll]… TO WRITE!!

If your main motive is to make money, then hubpages is not for you as I promise you, you won’t make a dime. Writing is a passion. It’s a desire to put pen to paper. It’s something you must crave to do always. If you crave only to make money, you will crash and burn and will never earn the money you desire.

Being a writer means you have something to say and rather than saying what you need to say, you have the ability to write it. Think of writing as a form of chatting. Some people are just not good with speech. In fact the most brilliant writers are usually useless speakers. Classic example is William Shakespeare. He had a serious stammering tongue and could barely speak without stuttering or flustering and yet his writing speaks more in volumes than his speech and his work has been alive and still alive and will be alive for a long time.

That is what your focus should be on. Focus on providing future generations with something to read.

You would think I'm stating the obvious, but apparently many people still think it’s about writing lots of hubs that will rake you the dough. WRONG!! What is the point of writing a sack of hubs if no one is going to read your work?? You can write a million hubs and not have one single person read them. Why - because it’s not attracting anyone to read it. Think about that!

Every time you write a hub, write as if you are the reader. What attracts you to read something? It’s because of the way the writer has presented his/her words, so you need to write with the reader’s view in mind.

I've seen hubbers here who have been HP members for several years and have written over a thousand hubs and yet they have less than a thousand views and have never made a payout and I've seen some hubbers who have been here just a few months and have less than ten hubs, have close to a million views and make monthly payouts. I'm not discouraging you from writing a million hubs. All I'm saying is it’s WHAT you write that matters and not HOW much you can write.

I'm just going to touch on further what I said earlier about having a money making motivation behind your writing. It is possible to make money on HP but don’t expect a monthly salary payout. It’s an unpredictable arena.

Today you could have a thousand views and the next two months you could have zero views. Today you could make a cent and tomorrow a few dollars then you could stay months before you see another cent and then suddenly BOOM! It shoots up to $500, which is why I stressed that money making should not be your goal of joining Hubpages. This is so you avoid disappointment and discouragement.

That means write something that will catch not only a reader’s attention, but it will prompt the reader to go on a mind fest where your article gets them thinking all day long about what you wrote. Now I don’t mean a sales pitch! (I hate those!) Write something emotional or controversial. People love reacting to what they read and if you write anything that prompts a reader to have a reaction, then you know you’ve written a quality hub.

I can’t tell you how much I appreciate some of the very good writers I have met on here. I enjoy reading their work and wherever and whenever I can, I always leave a comment on their work. Nothing is more thrilling to a writer than knowing their work is read and appreciated.

Now you may wonder why is this important? Because every hubber here is a leader with a pack of followers that are dedicated in reading their work. So, if their leader reads a hub and likes it, he will share it with his followers and chances are those followers will share that work with their followers and so on. Pretty soon you will have a whole legion of your own that is following and sharing your work. So don’t underestimate the power of commenting and reading other people’s work.

Okay, now let’s get technical about what you should or shouldn't write. Ten years ago, affiliate marketing was the king and only way of making money on the internet. But now, it’s really an annoying venture and people have figured that out. Even Google and Facebook hates affiliate marketers which is why if you try to use their services as an affiliate marker you get kicked out. It’s why most of them fail at it because it’s a dead end enterprise.

I for one will never buy a product if I see or smell an affiliate link on it. So if you’re an affiliate marketer, please exit hubpages as you won’t make a cent here. If there is one thing HP hates is affiliate products and promotion of products in general. Since this is mainly a writer’s arena and not a marketing dome, you will find it hard to get readers if your hubs are just about promoting products and services. So as a general rule, avoid writing anything that sounds like a sales pitch or has to do with any kind of products.

If there is one thing I can’t stand is a hub that has excessive links to various websites. Though linking is good, but too much of it is a killer. Remember, the reader clicked on your hub and is expecting to find the information they are looking for through your hub. So if you put so many links, then the reader will not read your hub at all. Instead they will either exit your hub or they will click on one link and then get bored of clicking links and forget about your hub.

It takes an average of two seconds for someone to decide whether your hub is worth reading, so if you plaster it with links there’s a good chance you will lose that reader. I’ve seen some hubs where almost every word is highlighted with a link, which is so annoying. The purpose of your hub is to answer the questions that the reader is searching for. So try and avoid putting excessive links all over your hubs and write something that will fulfil your reader’s needs.

This hub is based on my experience on here, so this is only a guideline and not the actual ways in which hub pages operates. Like I said, every one has their unique ways of earning and writing here on hubpages, so these methods may not be applicable to you.

I am amazed how so many people neglect using this fundamental key to helping you rake the dough on here. If you want to make some cash on hubpages then you have to sign up for Amazon Associates and eBay programs.

The reason why these two are important is because almost every internet surfer knows eBay and Amazon and they are likely to purchase products from these merchants because they are trusted world wide merchants and you’re guaranteed payment if someone buys a product from a capsule on your hub. That doesn’t mean you should flood your hub with capsules! I only use 1-3 capsules per hub and this has worked very well.

Don’t expect to make regular money from this. This depends entirely on the traffic flow and popularity of the topic of your hub. But in the long run, they do add a boost to your earnings.

This is one heading that needs its own hub! Every time I look in the forums there’s always someone lamenting on being unable to get their adsense application approved. Well you need Adsense because without it, you can’t participate in the HP program and you can’t get paid. So I will just summarize briefly how you can get an adsense account.

Sign up with blogger.com - This is actually the easiest way to get it. Create a blog and write whatever you want as long as your account is active. Since blogger is part of the Google franchise, you will be prompted to sign up for an adsense account and if your account is active then you will certainly get an adsense approval within 14 days.

UPDATE: Google now requires your blogger account to be active for six months before you apply for an adsense account!

Write at least 35 featured hubs - This is a painful way of doing it but adsense have now tightened their criteria of accepting new accounts. When I started, I believe you only needed five articles but now it’s jumped up to 35.

Have your own website – and not an affiliate website! Google hates affiliates! Build your own word press or any other website and make sure you use a purchased domain name. Your website should receive some traffic and should be active for at least 180 days and then apply for Adsense. Your account should be approved within seven days.