Writing Hubs: For You or For Traffic

There is actually a lot of debate about whether or not you should write hubs here at Hubpages (or articles at other sites) for you or for traffic. The choice is yours, though there are lots of benefits and a few other things to consider when making the choice. It isn't an easy one and you may even end up making the decision to do a variety of hubs to meet both needs.

When choosing to write the things that you want to write there are a lot of advantages. Some of these are obvious, while others might be less obvious. Either way, this can be a great way to write and may be the way that you want to go.

Advantages:

1. You'll like what you write and write what you like. There is something to be said to enjoying what you do. Many people have jobs and even responsibilities that require them to do things that they don't enjoy. Hubpages (and other writing sites) don't have to be that way. You can really choose to write what you want to write.
   
2. You'll write more. While writing for traffic seems like a great idea, you are more likely to write more if you write for yourself. This is because you can write the things that you enjoy writing about faster. You are also going to enjoy the process more and are likely to do it for longer and more often.
   
3. You might be surprised. There are a lot of people who do a lot of research searching for a lot of different topics that will bring them a lot of traffic. However, writing for yourself can often surprise you. You may have written the article because it was something you wanted to write and you may be surprised when it gets more traffic then you ever imagined.
   
4. You can always market your work. Whether you write about your favorite foods, crafts, or things you have learned on your job, you can market your work and make it possible to increase traffic. Sure it takes a little more work and might not be worth as much in Google Adsense as other options...but it is usually worth it.

Disadvantages.

1. Building traffic may take time. Often those articles that are written for traffic, get traffic fairly quickly. They are more likely to end up in the search engines quicker as well. Building traffic to low traffic hubs (or articles) may take work and time.
2. Less money. While many of us love writing for Hubpages, there is a part of most of us that likes to see our money grow. Some articles that are just written for you, are likely to make less money then those that are written for traffic and money. 
3. Traffic usually means more money. Articles that are written because you want to write them tend to draw less traffic then those written for the sole purpose of traffic generation. This means less money.

While these things are usually true they can work with each other. For example, the thing that does the best for your earnings is having more articles. If you really do find it easier to write the things you want to write then you will write more and you may very well counter the less money issue. Plus you can build up your traffic over time or even end up with articles that surprise you and not only have a lot of earnings, but also make a lot of money.

Writing with the sole idea of gaining traffic is a little different then choosing the things that you want to write about. In this case you will choose topics according to what brings in traffic and in theory money.

Advantages.

1. More traffic. If you are like most writers, it feels good to look at your statistics and see growing numbers in the traffic realm. This is a great way to feel good about what you are doing. It is also pretty exciting to see huge numbers next to specific articles.
2. More money. In the online world, more traffic usually means more money. It is definitely more potential for more money. With that in mind having more traffic can make a great way to make more for your articles and more per article.
3. Less need for marketing. Sure you should still market your articles. However, because high traffic topics tend to get in search engines quicker and are being looked for it isn't as important as it is with an article that gets 1 view in six months.
   

Disadvantages.

1. Time consuming. You can probably whip out a handful of articles on topics you already know about and already love. On the other hand, to write articles soley for traffic you will need to find out what topics will get more traffic and you may need to do research to write articles in those topics.
2. Boring or frustrating. While writing articles can be something you love doing, when forced in certain directions it can become boring or frustrating.
   
3. If you write less, you could end up making less money. The number one rule of making money from your writing is to have a lot of articles. Hundreds are good, thousands are better. But if you have a harder time writing articles it is likely that you will find yourself with less of an earning potential.
   

Often times it really isn't worth writing articles just for traffic. After all, it can be more time consuming and you won't be able to have as many great articles out there at one time. While it can be profitable, you will have to decide what it is you want to do and whether it is worth it for you.

There is a way to balance it all out a little while still keeping all the joys and advantages of writing whatever you want. You can keep an eye on the traffic of your articles and how much they earn. Then you can write additional articles in the topics that make the most amount of traffic and the most amount of money.

It should be noted that while traffic usually means more money, this isn't always true. One example is when talking about online earning opportunities. I get tons of traffic to my articles about making money online and writing for profit. However, this doesn't make a lot of money on Google or with selling books from Amazon. While I work hard to share a lot of great knowledge with people and they often leave comments, this is a case where the high traffic doesn't mean high amounts of money!

Choosing what is best for you is often about different things then what is best for someone else. For me, I usually choose to write according to whatever I want to write. I go through requests and say, "That's interesting, I will enjoy writing about that." Or I pick out a topic I want to share with everyone on. I know that this isn't always the most profitable thing to do...it does work and it makes for a "job" I love doing!