Still trying to determine if Hub Pages is worthwhile or not!!

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   johnflposted 10 years ago

   I have been on Hub Pages about a year and I have written about 27 Hubs and they have received close to 5000 views, which I felt was not bad and my status hovers between 82-88. Last week I had about 8 of my Hubs featured, which again seemed ok. Now magically overnight, I have all these codes now showing:
   Featured - now 3
   Not Featured-Quality 7
   Not Featured Engagement- 17
   
   Talk about discouraging and hardly motivational results. Who actually grades these? Are they human or is it a computer, if the latter then I will drop this immediately. If a human, then why not proper feedback, especially as they were considered Featured at one time and then dropped months later due to quality. Really would like an answer from Hub Pages but I can't see anywhere to request a response from them direct. How professional is that?

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      Christy Kirwanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Hi johnfl, the reason for the changes in Featured status of some of your Hubs is due to the QAP changes we've recently made. You can read all about it in our latest Blog post and there's a Forum thread about it as well that may answer some of your questions.
      
      Our ratings are a combination of quality algorithms and human ratings, but we simply don't have the resources to allow for personalized feedback on each and every Hub, since there are millions of Hubs to be rated.

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         johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Christy and what you say makes sense although it would be great to see a little more human input, but as you say resources are limited.

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            Christy Kirwanposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Do consider asking the community for suggestions on your Hubs if you think your work would benefit from personalized feedback, though. Fellow-Hubbers tend to be really supportive, knowledgable, and helpful.

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            angryelfposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Hey John, I joined over 2 years ago but am just now coming back. Most of my hubs were written in the last 3-4 days. ALL of the hubs I've written since then are currently featured- 2 are waiting, but I know they will be too. If you would like, browse mine and see how they are organized and what I've done with them. Encourage comments on your hubs in order to get that engagement, and up votes help as well. I hope this helps a little; I've only made $0.04 so far, but I'm sure very few of mine are really indexed in Google yet. Most of my traffic has been here so far

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      MindExplorer1posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      
      
      Count your ...

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2. 87

   Bill Yovinoposted 10 years ago

   Still worth it? I've been here for three years and I'm not sure of the answer. When I started, they had literary contests on this site.  Imagine that; they actually encouraged creative writing at one time.  Read through the forums and all you'll find are people looking for ways to cash in on the latest popular topic by incorporating profitable keywords into their Hubs. How many photos, polls, maps, and text modules do I need to fool the mTurkers into thinking that I'm providing quality content?  How many ways must I compromise my integrity to earn Google's good favor?  I'm all for making a buck, but in the immortal words of Ricky Nelson "I'd rather drive a truck".

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      WryLiltposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      If you think you have to scam Google, you need to learn a little about quality content.

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      johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Bill, I am not at all motivated by the money aspect it was more the fact you could say something that may interest another person. As far as Google is concerned, my feeling is they are way too big and controlling, so I would never do anything just to favour them as you indicated. I appreciate some would say that is crazy on my part but although I am a strong capitalist, I have a real issue when one corporation becomes so big that it moves the market on its own actions.

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      xstaticposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Good reply, Bill.

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   kaiyan717posted 10 years ago

   I think it is.  It took a while to get page views up, but how many places can you make money while you sleep.  Yes the constant changes are tiresome sometimes, however I believe they are to benefit all.  I have over 200 hubs and some long running hubs are now un-featured, however I just see it as an opportunity to re-read my article and make a few changes.  This is not fast money, so if that is what you are looking for, maybe not worth it for you.  But it is a great format to write, easy to market with multiple social sites and a way to make money at home, while enhancing your own personal writing skills.  Like everything else, it's all about perspective. Good luck

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      coleikerdposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I was going to respond until I read this comment. Well said. Thanks.

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      jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Ditto, kaiyan717, well said.

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      johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Kaiyan, I love your positive take on Hub Pages.

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      Jennifer Sucheyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks for your comments, kaiyan. I am new here, but seem to have the attitude you have. I'm doing something I enjoy and eventually hope to earn a little something for it. I can write when I feel like it and when something such as my daughter's graduation takes over my life for a couple of days, I can put my writing on the back burner and still gain traffic from my current hubs.

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   Availiasvisionposted 10 years ago

   From personal experience and HubPages intuition, if your hubs have 700 words, 1-3 pictures, correct grammar, and broken up into logical capsules, then they will be featured.  If you want to do well, every Hub, from now on, should have a picture.  Any form of media with pictures ranks better in the eyes of Google.   
   
   One thing you can do: 
   
   Go to "My Profile"
   Click "Edit Profile" 
   Scroll down to the bottom to "Show only Featured Hubs on my profile"
   Click "No"
   
   Now all of your hubs will show, regardless of if they are "featured" or not.
   
   I'd be happy to personally go through a couple of your hubs and see if there is anything we can do to get them featured.  If you are here to make a little money, and not just have a good old writing time, then your hubs must be featured to be ranked in the search engines and promoted among the HubPages community. 
   
   Historically, HubPages has been a place to connect with other writers, showcase your work, receive helpful feedback, and receive a modest income from your efforts.  The writers here were given a lot of freedom in the areas of creative writing, poetry, and almost blog like hubs.  The problem is that if there is not a very high standard of quality enforced, the entire community suffers. HP had to change to stay competitive.
   
   Selling products makes you and HubPages money.  SEO connects potential buyers to those ads and products.  The writer is the middleman, writing words that keep people looking at the advertisements.  It may be a hard thing for some to hear, but you are not longer a writer, but an advertiser.  HP now has a large staff that needs to be paid, it is no longer a couple of guys in a garage. HP only makes money when you make the advertisers money.  What makes the advertisers money is your words coming up in an engine search.
   
   Creative writing in good and I'm glad that HP has provided a place for your our work.  This truly is a fantastic group of people and I'm honored to write alongside many of you. I hope that as HP changes over the years that it never looses sight of what makes this community great: it's talent and camaraderie.  However, for it to exist, it must increasingly become commercialized.  I can't prophesize the future of HP, but I see a shift away from the creative, and towards the commercial.

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      johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Availasvision and yes I have taken some of the steps you mentioned.

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   Marcy Goodfleischposted 10 years ago

   I briefly glanced at one hub (Procol Harem - great group, BTW!), and it is a bit short, with an ad at the top photo slot.  It looks like you may have some good topics, but could benefit from fleshing them out a bit, adding photos, YouTube videos and other capsules, and adding more text capsules.  This will give you more opportunities for Google searches to hit your pages.
   
   As for whether it is worthwhile to be here - it's normal for everyone to wonder about that now and then.  It depends on what your goal is for being here.  If you want to make it your fulltime career and income, that is not likely to happen in the current Google environment.  But if you want to learn how to improve your writing, learn SEO techniques and online publishing skills, meet great people and make new friends, and maybe get a bit of revenue along the way, this is a great place to be.
   
   When I have had hubs 'idled' in the past, I took that as an opportunity to review the hub and see how I could make it better.  For me, that has been a good way to keep my writing fresh and to learn from the processes here.  The staff is fantastic, and the Hubber community is, too.  And that makes it worthwhile, most of the time!

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      johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Marcy and I appreciate your positive comments about HP.

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   PHILLYDREAMERposted 10 years ago

   If you enjoy writing and want to get feedback on you writing from people HubPages is definitely worthwhile.  The minimum payout is extremely high, so if you are looking to make money right away, i would recommend other sites.

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      johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Phillydreamer, the money is not my #1 priority, it was more to make comments and get feedback.
      
      Thanks

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7. 91

   Helena Rickettsposted 10 years ago

   I like it here.  I can write about what I want anytime I want to.  There are certain things that you have to learn first in order to make any money.  You don't have to chase the online money tree subjects to be successful either.
   
   I'm going to be brutally honest here.
   
   In my opinion, first thing you need to do is choose titles that are search engine friendly.  No one is going to go to Google and type in "Where are they Now #4? TWO RONNIES."  I looked in Google AdWord Keyword Tool and there are 22,000 global monthly searches for "Two Ronnies."  The pages that show up are YouTube videos, Wikipedia, BBC and a fan site.  There is no way you'll be able to outrank any of those sites.  Even if you changed the title, it would still be buried in a sea of sites that Google likes better.
   
   That is the kind of thing that will give you unfeatured hugs for engagement.  If people can't find it, they won't see it.
   
   There are no photos in any of your hubs which means the advertising box is where a photo should be.  Google doesn't like that.
   
   There is not enough content, the hubs are WAY too short. 
   
   The lack of photos and the length might be your quality issue.  Especially if you are just repeating what other sites say about the same subject.
   
   I too write about things that I like instead of chasing the online money tree but you HAVE to take certain things into consideration when you are writing on a residual income site.  You write for Google first, your reader second and yourself third.
   
   At the risk of sounding like a repeating parrot here, you might want to invest the time it takes to visit the Learning Center.  There is a LOT of valuable information here on how to get traffic to your hubs, be found by search engines and succeed.  HubPages does NOT want any of us to fail because they don't make money unless we do.

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      johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Great comments Helena. One major difficulty I have is with photos, I really am unsure as to what I can show without breaking any copyright rules.

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         boundarybathroomsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         If you're worried about copyrighted photos then http://www.flickr.com/ is a good place to try. Do a search for whatever you want a photo of, and when the results have come up click on 'advanced search'. Scroll down to the bottom and tick the box by 'Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content ' and do the search again. You'll be able to use all the photos here, as long as you attribute the original creator in your hub (which is as simple as linking back to the original page you got it from).

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            johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks boundarybathrooms, I will do that and I really appreciate that.

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               boundarybathroomsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               No problem, I hope it all works out for you :-)

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                  susi10posted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  Hi johnfl,
                  I had the same problem as you, I couldn't find any free licensed photos but I found these two in addition to flickr. Try the pictures on Wikipedia. Simply type your topic in and it will have an article on it as well as some decent photographs. Make sure to attribute!
                  The other site I found useful was freedigitalphotos.net. You can download professional photographs for free provided you attribute the photographs!
                  I hope your hubs get featured in time!

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                     johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     I will check both out and thanks susi10.

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            Jennifer Sucheyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Another place for free photos is 123.rf.com. They have photos to buy, but they also have a lot of free ones. Use this link http://www.123rf.com/freeimages.php and be sure to use the search box lower down on the page, as the one at the top is for pictures you pay for. You have to register, but I've gotten a lot of great pics from them.

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               johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks Jennifer, appreciate that.

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            jasonyccposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks for sharing boundary, susi & Jen. This is realy helpful. I am always stuck with getting good photos. Will try out all of your suggestions.

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   Bill Yovinoposted 10 years ago

   Do you want to create well-written, meaningful content of which you can be proud, or do you want to earn a few dollars and write for Google? The choice is yours and few will judge you either way. Some of the Hubs of which I am most proud, have long since been idled due to "insufficient engagement", or what most humans would call "lack of readership".  Will I change them to conform to the new rules? No, but that's my choice. How dull would the Internet be if we all wrote only about popular subjects?

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      Helena Rickettsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Both.    It can be done too.  I write about the subjects that I like BUT I make sure that they are search engine friendly and written to keep the reader's attention in the process.  Why would someone take the time to write something, post it online and then not care if anyone sees it?  That doesn't make sense to me.  Especially if it's something that they are proud of.

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         Susana Sposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Yes - exactly! I'm of completely the same view - why write something no one's going to read?
         
         Those people that get writing online right satisfy....
         
         1. themselves by writing something they're interested in
         
         2. the reader/searcher by giving them exactly what they were looking for
         
         3. the search engines by some simple optimisation and by fulfilling number 2
         
         Having been here 4 years now, the thing that strikes me, is that people come here and do number 1. And that's it. Then they wonder why they don't earn anything.

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            Helena Rickettsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you, yes.  I have always wondered why would someone come to HubPages if they aren't looking to make anything?  If I were wanting to just write for the fun of it and didn't care about making any money, I'd start an obscure Blogger blog and do it that way instead of writing on one of the largest residual income writing sites on the web. 

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               Mark Ewbieposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Well, let's not overdo the money thing.  HP is also a good place to publish other content, the creative sort. It takes the pain out of a web, the loneliness out of blogging and enables you to mix with a variety of people - and make friends - and learn.
               
               I cannot understand how people can write recipes, how to's, Amazon sales pages.. and so on - but the mix is what makes this place good. The sales people could learn a little from the creatives and vice versa.

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                  wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  How to's are fun, and I've gotten some great comments of how I've helped people with their problem. 
                  
                  Sales hubs - I can write those the same way I go to work.  Something that will produce income that I then can use to get something I want.
                  
                  On the other hand, mixing and interacting with stick people...well...they're just so 2 dimensional, you know?  Especially with big eyes staring down at my keyboard, watching every keypress...

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                     Mark Ewbieposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Sorry - I didn't mean to diss anyone.  Your how tos are very good and they are rather more hard work than what I do.  I already do a boring job and so for me - writing is a chance to escape to somewhere else.

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                        wildernessposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        Didn't take it that way, Mark, so no need to apologize.  You're right - the mix in the place is good - that's because different people like different things. 
                        
                        I like passing on information that others have given to me - you like making people laugh (something I can't do), and that's what makes the world go 'round.  Something for everybody, and a good belly laugh may be worth more than knowing how to drive a nail in the grand scheme of things.

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               Susana Sposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               I think people come because they like the ease of use of the platform and then stay because of the community That's fine and I do believe there's room on HP for that.
               
               But what I think many don't understand when it comes to the money side, is that those who do make decent money, have worked very hard to make that happen. And not just on the writing side. It's all the other stuff as well.
               
               HP can be a good place to learn "all the other stuff", if people are willing to put in the time, energy and commitment.

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                  Jennifer Sucheyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  I agree Susana. HP has helped me learn "all that other stuff", which applies to my own site as well. I'm on Wordpress.org, but the community there as well as Wordpress.com, where I previously was, isn't nearly what it is here. I still have a question from a few days ago that hasn't been answered. I guess I'll try asking it here even though its more related to Wordpress. ... I think. People answer questions here and help each other out in this wonderful community.

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                     Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     Jennifer, if you use the Jetpack plugin on your Wordpress.org site, it enables you to stay connected to the Wordpress.com community (as well as doing a lot of other useful things for your site).

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         Jennifer Sucheyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I agree, Helena. Why not write quality articles that are on topics a lot of people have interest in? Having said that, there is something to be said for quality articles on topics that the masses don't search for, yet a handful of people will really appreciate. So I think Bill has a point as well. I don't think he intends for "no one" to ever read them. Just not as many as would read the more popular topics.

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      johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks Bill, I think you and I share similar thoughts.

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   VictoriaSheffieldposted 10 years ago

   I have the same thoughts because I have my personal blog and I am wondering if I should just put the time into my own blog. What I really want to know is can I really make some good money with this?

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      kaiyan717posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Depends on what you consider good money for residual writing.  I almost always reach payout, though last month I made well over a hundred, so that was a good month for me personally.  For the input put in, it is worth it to me, however certainly not enough to be a stand alone income.  Some have been able to, though they are few and far between.  But as a supplemental income, it is worth it.

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         VictoriaSheffieldposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I guess I'll hang in here! thanks!

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            johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I agree, all these comments have encouraged me to do better.

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      Barbara Kayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I am able to earn money too, but you have to be patient. I wrote a hub 3 years ago and it didn't get very good traffic. It is a gardening hub, so it is only popular in the summer months. It is now #1 after 3 years. I am getting almost 200 views a day from that so called dead beat hub.
      
      Patience and persistence is what pays off here. I had to write over 70 hubs and be here almost a year to see any decent money. I learned what subjects worked and didn't work for me. Just stick to it. Keep writing and updating hubs and you'll see some money.

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         johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Great advice and I will take it, thanks Barbara.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      It depends what you mean by "good money".
      
      If I had decided to write freelance instead of writing on HubPages, I could've sold each of my articles for around $30.  Over the last five years, some of my Hubs have earned over $100 each.  One has earned over $400. Even my poorest ones - which I probably would've struggled to sell at all - have earned $5 or $10! 
      
      So though it may seem that your Hubs are earning mere pennies, the point is that those pennies build up over time so that ultimately, each Hub will be more valuable than it would've been as a plain old article for sale.  But you do have to think very long term.

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         johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks Marisa and not to get personal, but if those are your eyes, they are beautiful. Thanks for the encouraging words re the potential success one can get if they do it right, as you do.

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    GinnyLeeposted 10 years ago

    I think it is.  Right now, the views are definitely depressed, but that will fluctuate.  Let's cross our fingers and hope that things will improve quickly.

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       johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks Ginny for the honest comments.

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    WryLiltposted 10 years ago

    With 2.6 million views, a few hundred a month in earnings and rarely if ever bothering to seriously promote my work... yes, I feel Hubpages is a keeper.

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       ytsenohposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Kudos to you WryLilt.

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       Availiasvisionposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Wrylit, can you expound upon "rarely if ever bothering to seriously promote my work." 
       
       What methods of promotion do you participate in?  Or, do you write a Hub and leave it to the fate of Hubland.

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          WryLiltposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          I get most of my traffic from Google, with Pinterest running a close second.
          
          I write quality content in semi-niche topics, which helps with Google. And I add an MFP (made for Pinterest) image, so that my visitors can promote my hub on Pinterest for me.

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       johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks WryLilt, 2.6 million staggers me.

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    peachpurpleposted 10 years ago

    i have 110 hubs and 21 unfeatured. Sometimes a handful of them got featured on its own even though i didn't make any changes and became unfeatured again. Kind of frustrating, you know. I know that it is the new rule from HP. I can accept that after i have updated those hubs-they become featured but i hate it when they become unfeatured in a short time.

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       johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       I think  that is what hit me the most. I got  featured, then un-featured and it went from mild satisfaction to the opposite. Thanks.

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    Availiasvisionposted 10 years ago

    Thank you WryLilt!

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    Robbie C Wilsonposted 10 years ago

    Hi Susana S,
                           I agree with your analysis of people that get writing online. When I joined HubPages last year, I was definitely number 1 only, but I did have number 2 in the back of my mind. I wrote for myself, but my first Hubs were articles more than web pages. Needless to say, most of those did not do well and are currently un-featured or have been heavily edited and are now featured.
    
    Thanks to staff such as the lovely Simone and the wonderful community we have here, I have begun to fully understand part 2 and also am getting to grips with part 3.
    
    I still write for the love of it and because I want to share my knowledge and passion for my topics, but I am thinking of 1, 2 and 3 while I write and publish these days.

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       Susana Sposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       You're on the road to making it a success for yourself then
       
       Just keep going and keep learning!

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    Greekgeekposted 10 years ago

    The cold, hard fact is that if you want to earn money with your writing, not just write for pleasure, you need to consider what it is that web audiences are looking for and write for them.
    
    There's two mitigating factors:
    -- Since there are billions of people on the web, thousands of them share your tastes, no matter how obscure.
    -- Since you probably like many things, you can probably find things to write on that YOU love which other people also love.
    
    The trick is figuring out what those things are, then writing the very best stuff you can for that audience, then researching how to promote your stuff to that particular audience. Or perhaps not your best stuff, but at least stuff worth reading, that's useful, informative, helpful, entertaining, or all of the above.
    
    These days I'm finding that it takes me roughly 500 visitors a day across all my hubs to earn about $2 a day. That varies depending on how Google is treating the site, but at the least, 500 visitors a day has meant a guaranteed payout every month.
    
    Everybody's average earnings are slightly different. Once you've been on Hubpages a while, take stock, see what your average earnings are per visitor (or hub), and decided whether it's worth your time to scale up from there.
    
    You can work on making a few amazing hubs that get tons of visitors. However, it's hard to catch lightning in a bottle -- hubs, like books, films, tv shows, and every other medium may flop, take off, or muddle along, and very few are huge hits. So the other method is to make good, workmanlike hubs at a steady rate -- say one a week, or ten a month, or some reasonable pace, depending on your other work or online endeavors -- and build up a portfolio.
    
    I liken web writing to casting lots of fishing hooks in the water. Some get nibbles. Some don't. There are fishing spots to avoid and better fishing spots (and the currents change, so Hubpages might work well for a while, then founder), but the more you expand your net of hooks, the more total fishes you'll be hooking each day.
    
    Just be sure you've got something the fish actually like. People are smarter than fishes, and won't bite unless there's something in it for them.
    
    The web is nearly infinite. What can you float out there that is worth people's time to click on and read? What can you give 'em?

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       WryLiltposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Well said!

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       jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks for that, Greekgeek. I always enjoy, and learn from your wisdom.

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       johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Very well said and thanks very much GreekGeek.

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    glassvisageposted 10 years ago

    Hi johnfl. Not to just be promoting my Hubs or anything, but here is a Hub about my experience that may be helpful: http://glassvisage.hubpages.com/_fcap/h … m-HubPages
    I've been on HP for 6.5 years and it's been a great experience. Actually, a lot of my Hubs are not featured, but my most popular ones are doing fine and earn me $. Some of my not-so-popular ones have the most meaningful comments, and I've shared some of them in my Hub. I also mention in there that it took me a lot of time, more than a year, to really establish myself, though it were some of the meaningful comments that really pushed me to keep going, as well as the support of other Hubbers. Let me know if there is anything we can do to help!

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       johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks very much GlassVisage and yes I will follow what you said and the attachment was great.

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    matt121376posted 10 years ago

    I'm also new here. I've only been writing for 2 weeks and I have a total of 3 hubs. My main purpose for joining is to have a place to showcase my writing. I am an engineer and I don't often have the opportunity to write. When I do, it's boring technical stuff. Recently, I've been trying to get out of engineering and do something different. Having an online showcase of articles I've written is a great reference for my resume and a quick and easy way for a potential employer to get a better insight into what I'm about. I can't say whether it's worthwhile or not but if I can get myself a $100k+ job in marketing and not have to look at a calculator ever again, it will definitely be worth it!!

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       johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks Matt and good luck.

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    olivia13posted 10 years ago

    sometimes i feel like there is no reason to have a hubpage at all.

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       Barbara Kayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       oliva13, But you just joined and haven't written any hubs.

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          WryLiltposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          Hahahahahahahaha

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          1. 63

             Lisa HWposted 10 years agoin reply to this

             Apparently, she still hasn't found that reason she was wondering about.....

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19. 57

    NotPCposted 10 years ago

    Well... they pay you money every month... so ya I would say it's worth it!

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       johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks NotPC.

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20. 68

    theluckywriterposted 10 years ago

    Very interesting discussion! As a new hubber, I always click on forum posts like this one. I honestly don't expect to make money here. I wonder if that will help me or harm me as a hubpages newbie?

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       Robbie C Wilsonposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Hi TheLuckyWriter,
                                    I think your approach of not expecting to earn much in the beginning is the best one. For those that join expecting to get rich, most end up very disappointed.
       
       I myself have been here a little over a year and have just received my first payout which I believe is fairly typical. If you continue to produce high quality hubs and read the forums to pick up tips on SEO and using sites such as Google + and Facebook to market your hubs, you will begin to see results.
       
       Good luck and welcome!

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          theluckywriterposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          Thanks for the welcome! I don't plan on marketing my work via Facebook or google +. I'm not at all active on social media sites, and if I started linking my hubs, I'd be "that person" who does nothing but self-promote. I'm just going to write hubs when I'm inspired, and let the traffic come - or not - as it will.
          
          Yep, I'm pretty sure I'll never make a penny. Haha!

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             Bill Yovinoposted 10 years agoin reply to this

             Don't underestimate your work. I'm sure you'll make a penny

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             jansharesposted 10 years agoin reply to this

             Welcome, theluckywriter. With that attitude, you will be richly blessed in more ways than one. Have fun without lofty expectations, write because you love it, and always try to do your very best. You will do well.

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       johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks LuckyWriter. All these responses have been very informative and mostly positive, so lets both prove we can do it too.

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21. 67

    Rosie2010posted 10 years ago

    Hi johnfl.  Writing on Hubpages is definitely worthwhile.  Although I had lost motivation in writing here on Hubpages, and had not written a single hub for over a year, my traffic had reached over a million in two years, and I'm earning passive monthly income of $200 more or less, and $500+ during the holiday season. 
    
    I wrote most of my 100+ hubs during my first six months.  I would advise that you keep on hubbing.  More quality hubs... more money.  It's definitely worth it.  Good luck.  Cheers!
    
    Rosie

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       johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks a lot Rosie and well done reaching over a million.

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       Jennifer Sucheyposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks for your comment, Rosie. As a newbie, it's always inspiring to see someone with success. Congrats! I hope we'll see more of you around here.

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    lethagposted 10 years ago

    @Rosie2010..that is encouraging to hear.

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23. 92

    LongTimeMotherposted 10 years ago

    I took a look at a few of your hubs, johnfl. With a bit of additional effort they should become featured, but right now I can see why they are not making the grade. In addition to the obvious need for a photo that can appear alongside your title, they need more text capsules. Each hub is way too short. Add at least two more text capsules to each hub. Time to get creative. There's lots more you could add.
    
    Keep an eye on the 'need some goals' hints in the top corner when you are editing, and aim for 'ticks' to show you're meeting the goals.
    
    As far as your problem with photos goes, I suspect you have an album or a dvd cover or something you could be holding while you take a photo. A close-up of your hand holding a product is a very simple solution.
    
    You could add an amazon capsule linked to the product or artist you are writing about as well. There's a bit more content for your hub.
    
    If you look at your profile page, and then look at the profile pages of other hubbers, you'll see a distinct difference in how their hubs are presented. Photo capsules make the world of difference.
    
    If you then click on the links and read the hubs of other (successful) hubbers, you'll see what a huge difference there is in content. Follow their lead and you'll find success.
    
    Good luck. 

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       johnflposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks LongTimeMother, and yes I will take your advice.

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    kkingcrabbposted 10 years ago

    I don't know about the money side myself. Been on hubpages for over a year, published  47 hubs, had nearly 5000 people read my material and I have totaled almost $18. This is no way to get rich, but I came here to showcase my creative writing skills not make money ( it would be nice though) and although most of my writings came after an emotional roller coaster ride I hope to move on to more interesting and inspiring writing.

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    pumpkincat210posted 10 years ago

    I only have one hub and i've had it up for several years. I'm happy with what I get on my article, I didn't expect much, so I wasn't disappointed.  My traffic has risen too.  However I'm not a "writer" and many topics have been written over and over, original content is getting difficult..and a thesaurus only goes so far.
    The main thing I dislike about the site is that payments are only issued through Paypal. I'd much rather have a direct payment to my bank account or even a check written.
    I don't like the "middleman" payment services (including google wallet).  Of course no payment method is fool proof I think the chances of fraud and holds is much higher with the institutions that act like banks, but are not held to the same standards and banks are bad enough!

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       Tim Chirilloposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       The way I see it, this site is for people who dig writing. Any revenue made is icing on the cake. If your writing hubs just to make money, eventually you will not enjoy it and get discouraged.

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