Writing for HubPages - My Journey - Month One

I have decided to start a hub about what it's like to be a beginner at HubPages and eventually about how much money my hubs earn me and how much traffic I generate as a beginner. I decided to do this because although I can find a lot of information on successful Hub writers who have been here for five years, I have more trouble finding good information on Hub writers at the beginning of their Hubbing.

I joined hub pages on Thursday. I went through the sign up and wrote my first hub. My first hub was just some random idea that I had running through my mind. I found the hub-writing process to be very intuitive. I used lots of key words because I read that is how you generate traffic to your hub.

I then attempted to join AdSense and was denied due to lack of content. So, I won't be making any money just yet. I was a little disappointed, but determined to write enough to join. I googled "how much content do you need to join Adsense" And discovered that it's 10 articles of at least 500 words. So I guess I'll attempt to rejoin when I reach that. Hopefully next week some time.

Today I logged in to write a second hub. This hub was the recipe for what I was making for lunch. This was a bit of a challenge since I had always done this recipe as a bit of this and a bunch of that and a dash of this, but I wanted to do the recipe for my daughters anyway, so why not hub it?

I checked my stats and my first hub has had a whopping total of 17 views! Good start.

That's all I have so far. I will continue to come back and update this often and someone else who comes along will be able to see what it's like at the beginning.

So I've been on HubPages for a week now and I have written 4 articles in all sorts of different areas. I have had 74 views total at this point ad my hubber score is now 75. My four hubs scores are 78, 74, 67 and 66. I have no idea what that means, aside from the hubs that have been read the most have the highest hub score.

I still haven't made any money, as I have not yet tried to get approved for google Adsense again. From what I've read that you make like $.05 for each 1000 visitors on average, so I'm not missing out on much by not being signed up!

The strange thing I've noticed now that I've joined hubpages is that I am constantly thinking about things in terms of - "Can I write a hub about that?" I have a list on my phone of about 10 hubs to write! Looking forward to knocking some of them out when I have the time. Hopefully, this time next week i'll have more to report!

On Saturday I reapplied for Adsense. This time I didn't get a denial, I got an affiliate code and a message that my account is under review and if it's approved I will have an Adsense account. With my affiliate code, I was able to set up my HubPages ad program. I wrote another Hub (I'm now up to 7!) and left HubPages for the day. I didn't think anything of it, really. I wasn't expecting to make a single penny this month, really. I was expecting it to take months to just get that first penny, but I was wrong! I logged in tonight after a VERY long day back to school shopping with my daughters to discover that my HubPages have earned me $.05! Fantastic! I am amazed and more thrilled over this particular Nickel than any other Nickel ever before!

Now I just need to make this Nickel grow into a quarter! That will be my goal for the week. Earn 1 quarter by 8/14/2012. :) I will let you know how that goes! Slow and steady wins the race, right?

So week two is over with and i am now officially making money online! I am not making a TON of money online or anything, but money is being made. I had a goal of making $.25 by the 14th and I met that easily! This was my earnings for the week, 0, 0, .5, .3, .7, .7, .21 for a grand total of 43 cents!

Now I would like to set my next goal of making at least $.25 a day for three days in a row. I will give myself two weeks for this lofty goal, so by August 24th. I find having goals helps keep me focused and motivated, and money is a fun motivator!

I have to admit, I've become a bit obsessed with HubPages since I started making money. I know, I know it's just a few cents, but for some reason I find this extremely thrilling. So I check in several times a day. I've also been working on self-promotion around the Internet and I'm sure that has helped some.

Next I want to get the referral tracker going and get some referrals out there. Doesn't hurt to give it a go, does it?

So I have finished three weeks at HubPages. I have enough hub ideas that I could write one a day for two months with just the ideas I have right now. I find I'm spending an hour to two hours writing each hub. I haven't spent much time doing SEO stuff or Keywords since that first Hub. I've done a little self-promotion, but nothing too extensive. I'm getting between 20-40 views a day at this point. I don't think I'll probably get my quarter a day by my goal. Maybe my goal should be a dime a day three days in a row. I think i've only had two days were I made a dime, but might be achievalble.

I haven't quite made a dollar, but I haven't quite been here a month. I have 17 published hubs and 5 unpublished works in progress in 21 days. That's not bad either! I don't feel bad about my progress at all. Oh, and I have 5 followers now! Crazy!

I try to write a hub a day, but I can't always seem to find the time. I think that might get worse now that fall is coming and we start to contend with volleyball, fall soccer and dance classes, not to mention all the normal school stuff.

All in all, I love hubpages. I'm starting to discover the forums, which is great fun. Lot's of opinions and writers are fun to read in forums because they can express their opinions so well! I also enjoy reading great hubs by other hubbers and I am enjoying the work I'm doing on my hubs. I think I'll stick around a while. This Hubbing stuff is like crack for writers! :)

I did make a quarter a day for three days in a row by the 24th! How could I ever doubt myself? Actually, I made .28, .28, .34 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and I just published a new hub that links to my most popular hub, so I imagine things will continue down this route. I'm sooo excited! Moving on up. Next goal, .50 a day for three days in a row. We'll give a month for this lofty goal, so by Sept. 20! Ha! This is so fun! :)

Things seem to be picking up quickly. I had over 100 views today! That's an awesome number, and has happened way faster than I thought. I also published my 20th hub. Yesterday's earnings were over 30 cents and I expect tomorrow to be better. Incredibly enough, I wouldn't be surprised if I hit that 50 cents three days in a row much more quickly than I orginally thought. Then again, traffic is fickle and I'm learning every day as I go. I am encouraged though because I am, indeed, making money online. And that's a task many set out to do and never manage. It may just be a few dimes a day, but something is better than nothing, and my something is growing every day!

Today marks the end of my first 4 weeks at HubPages. In four weeks I have published 20 hubs (I have probably 10 more "in the works" unpublished in my account). I also have made $3.19. Book the cruise! I have met the goals I have set for myself. By today I wanted to have three days in a row where my income exceeded $.25. I have had had that for the last 7 days in a row and I don't expect that to drop any time soon.

When I first started almost all of my traffic came from within HubPages but at this point the majority of my traffic comes from outside of HubPages. Mainly from search engines like google, yahoo and bing. I have had one of my hubs shared 8 times on pinterest, another tweeted, and another shared several times on Facebook. I also have 8 followers here on HubPages. I am averaging between 75-100 views a day with two days where I broke 100.

My next goal is to earn $.50 three days in a row by September 20. That means that I am going to have to get writing. I only got three Hubs published this last week. School has started here and so has Soccer and Volleyball, so we're pretty busy with more activities to be added. Even though I am busier with my children, my hours at my day job have been cut due to things being slow, so I should have a little extra time during the day to work on a hub or two. Ideally I would like to write one Hub a day, but with all the activities that I have, and four children then that's not always possible.

So ends the first four weeks of my hubbing. I will continue sharing my journey in a new Hub for month two as this one has gotten quite long. Thanks for all the support and encouragement that you have shared with me this first month! I look forward to getting to know everyone a little better, and reading more amazing hubs!