Can Hubpages be a full time job?

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   DrMark1961posted 10 years ago

   Do any hubbers spend 40 hours a week (or more) writing and researching hubs? Does the effort pay off if the site is treated like a regular job?

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      Ben Blackwellposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Although 40 hours a week is a great amount of time, it won't pay off like a regular job.  This is more of a passive income kind of thing.  You spend a lot of time, but you make just as much money when you're not working as you do when you are.

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         robhamptonposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         I wouldn't be so quick to call it passive income. Although my hubs are seasonal since they are about swimming pools, during the summer I see between 5 and 6,000 views per day with just 29 featured articles. Although I can't mention a dollar amount, it is definitely possible to make a full time living from this. I'm not there yet, but I only have 29 featured articles. Bought a car last year with my earnings over a 4 month period (pretty darn nice car at that)

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   psycheskinnerposted 10 years ago

   Regardless of how much you make here it can vanish overnight due to a Google algorithm change and there are no benefits.  It would be a risky choice as your primary income.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      +1
      
      It would be absolutely bonkers to put so much time and effort into any revenue-sharing site. 
      
      If you could guarantee that HubPages would still be here in five years' time, then it would be a different story.  But you can't.   I don't see any signs that HubPages is about to close down, but many other revenue-sharing sites have in the past.   
      
      When a revenue-sharing site closes down, it's not just a case of republishing all your articles elsewhere and carrying on. You've lost all the authority you've built up with Google, and you've lost all your loyal readers who bookmarked your Hubs.  Plus, it's likely some of your Hubs will have been stolen, so when you try to republish them you'll be told they're duplicate.
      
      The other risk is that the site will transform itself so utterly, your articles will no longer fit - or they'll change the earnings model so your income is dramatically reduced.  Again, this has happened at other revenue-sharing sites.
      
      If you want to make a full-time living online, it can be done.  HubPages and other revenue-sharing sites can be part of it, but they should be "feeder" sites to your own blog.

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   HollieTposted 10 years ago

   I would imagine that the only way to make a full time income from sites like HP, would be to place lots and lots of content on as many sites as possible. Still risky though.

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   Bob Bambergposted 10 years ago

   When I saw this question in its first incarnation, I thought maybe you got hold of a bad coconut or something.  Then after I signed in, I saw that it had been removed, so I knew you were correcting the grammar.  I was ready to pounce, though
   
   Who can spend 40 hrs a week here!?  Even spread out over 7 days, it would be almost 6 hours a day.  It usually takes me 4-5 hours to research and write a hub (most of that time spent looking for the damned pictures!) and I'll do it over a couple of days. 
   
   When not writing, I spend a couple of hours a day reading hubs and writing comments.  Income?  I'd be better off with a paper route! 
   
   My hub pages time is part recreational and part social.  I enjoy it as a creative outlet and particularly appreciate the comment threads, question threads and the camaraderie.

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      DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I wish I could blame it on a coconut. Every time I would type in one or two words my ISP would go offline, so I finally decided to just give up and try again some other day!
      I really cannot imagine being inside on the computer for 6 hours a day!

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   WryLiltposted 10 years ago

   You can make a living working online; you can no longer make one writing on Hubpages.
   
   Once upon a time people easily earned into the thousands here; changes in Google and rule changes here both impacted on that. You can, however, still make a reasonable part time wage if you know how.
   
   Problem with Hubpages is, they are great for beginners and even into intermediate, but there is a maximum even a well trafficked hub can earn now.
   
   On your own sites you have the opportunity to build a brand and monetise in other ways including eBooks, memberships, subscription lists, forums, cpm and affiliate marketing of your choosing and the ability to change and attract as you wish. But even that is still a big learning curve and not possible for everyone.

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   LeanManposted 10 years ago

   Working online full time can earn you a living wage, however just using Hubpages would be foolish in the extreme. I earn my living online and HP is a good contributor to my monthly "wage" which includes earnings from other similar sites as well as my own sites.
   Just remember as everyone keeps mentioning, things change online very quickly and what was once a great source of income can vanish literally over night. Hence the need to spread your risk around significantly if you want to protect your income.

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   susanzhengposted 10 years ago

   The safe way to work online for income is just like doing financial investment. In order to minimize risk
   we often say "please don't put all the eggs in one basket" to people who want to generate income from financial investment. The same is here, if you want to have stable income from working online, it's better to put your effort on multiple revenue-generating sites.

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   peachpurpleposted 10 years ago

   no, you can't depend on HP or blogs to earn monthly income. You will die when you see the figure! I earn USD $15 per month. Just enough to have a decent meal for a day. Most people blog or write HP for communicating with worldwide people, fun to interact and helpful. Not chasing after money. Treat it at a part-time job for extra cash for the weekend.

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      Happymommy2520posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Good point.  It should be treated like a weekend gig.

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         DrMark1961posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Things have changed a lot in 4 years. If you treat this like a weekend gig, you can earn like it is a weekend gig. If not, you can earn here.
         https://hubpages.com/community/forum/33 … t-enhanced

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            psycheskinnerposted 5 years agoin reply to this

            There is no way to say the generic "you" can do anything specific here, or that doing it here would b their most profitable choice.  The ToS says what is on offer, some people make bank, most don't even if they try.

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               DrMark1961posted 5 years agoin reply to this

               I still see a lot of new people coming on to this site and treating it like a weekend gig. They are also the ones that come onto the forums and complain about not earning despite their hours of hard work.

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                  psycheskinnerposted 5 years agoin reply to this

                  I have also seen some very sincere unemployed or home-maker hubbers come on here, give it their all, and not make much.  It is not just an equation of effort + commitment = money
                  
                  And plenty of people who treat it like a weekend gig because that's what it is.  For me it is considerably less than that.  On the list of things that I do to make money it is not in the top 10 as measured by profit per hour invested.
                  
                  Which I guess is my point.  If a person needs to make a living their real question is: is Hubpages your best option? For most people I would suggest probably not. Purely freelance income is a tough way to get along if you want stuff like health insurance and qualifying for a mortgage etc.

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   DrMark1961posted 10 years ago

   PDS, wherefore art thou?
   Does anyone dedicate 40 hours a week to this site? Chime.in

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      LeanManposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I very much doubt it.. apart from the staff of course!! If you are at the stage of spending your working week to online work you will know that throwing all of your eggs into just the one basket would be a very risky move indeed!
      I work mainly on my own sites now with very little being added to revenue sharing sites anymore. I still use them as they still contribute to my overall income and they also provide links (for what they are worth now) and some traffic..
      But you have to treat online work as a full time job if you want to earn your living unless you get very lucky indeed.

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         DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for that response,LeanMan. I probably will never treat this as a full time job as long as I can work with dogs, but I read a lot of complaints and was just wondering if those people even spend much time/per week on their hubs. I will probably need 3 or 400 hubs before I get to 1million views, and will just do it in my spare time.
         I read a Stephen King book on writing, and he basically said the same thing. If you want to survive at this  gig (writing, even if not online) you need to spend a lot of time working at it

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            Barbara Kayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            He only spent 4 hours every morning writing though. The rest of the time was reading and thinking. He worked at it as a kid though and developed his skills.
            
            If you wrote online 4 hours everyday, after about 3 years, you just might be able to just write. You would need to spread yourself around though. Not just write on sites like this, but find some clients.

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               DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               That is good to know. Four hours is reasonable, a decent part-time job.

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                  Sarra Garrettposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  I write 12 hours a day 6 days a week on Fiverr and I am making a great income.  Not to mention I have my own by line on a publishers website from being 'discovered'.  If you want to make money you won't do it here on HP that's for sure.  you can make more money on Bubblews than here.  But this is my only job as I have lung issues and can't work outside of the home and found out what mortality is all about.  I know a lot of hubbers can't spend this kind of time writing, however, it sure has help my writing career.

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                     Stacie Lposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                     That's incredible that you can make good money on Fiverr. I've tried it and it's a daunting task to make good money.
                     Maybe a Hub about it would be good.

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                        Sarra Garrettposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                        some days it's a struggle to keep up with the orders, but I've got to make money somehow.  I've enjoyed my experience with Fiverr and in less than a month have made $600.  So I can't complain, and I've moved up a level so I can charge extra for extra work.

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      Millionaire Tipsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I tried this.  When I was between jobs, I decided to ignore all the complainers (because they obviously didn't put in enough time and effort to the site, or so I thought at the time), and devote myself full time to writing here. I spent more than 40 hours every week, created goals, etc.   I figured that once I got established to a level where I was sure I would get a monthly payout here, then I would expand to other sites.  I didn't want to spread myself too thin.  I wrote many, many hubs, and read as many how-to articles as I could get in. I joined other sites and shared my hubs.  I read lots of hubs and commented on them.
      
      After months and months of full time devotion, it turned out that even after all that work, I still didn't make payout each month.  I know that there is a lot I still have to learn, and I know that the residual income continues to come in for articles I wrote during that time period.
      
      It is a very risky proposition, and you definitely have to have another source of income.  I say, don't quit your day job until you know there is money here, and even then, be sure to have a big savings cushion!

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         DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

         I have made monthly payout every month since after about 4 months, but page views seem to have reached a plateau far short of a monthly salary. (Not that I am complaining! All of the complaint threads are really annoying.)
         It seems like you are one of the few persons that actually spent 40 hours a week trying this, though. It makes the advice you give in your last paragraph a lot more potent.

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            Barbara Kayposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            It really has to do with what subjects you write about. I earn payout many times over each month. I tried writing about different things until I found a niche that paid. I still write about a lot of different things, but stick mostly to two subject areas. They are topics I love though.
            
            Hubpages does pay well if you just find your area of writing that pays. Watch what articles do earn you the most money. You've found your niche when you find one.
            
            The truth is that you can't earn a living at Hubpages alone anymore. One of the writers here says he gets a lot of clients answering ads at Craig's List. I don't find any in my area, but you could give it a try.

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               DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Writing about dog breeds, health,and training is not really work for me,which is probably about the way you feel about publishing your crochet patterns. I cannot imagine having to do this on some subject picked up in Craigslist.

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    DigbyAdamsposted 10 years ago

    If the question is, will writing on HubPages replace a full-time salary. The answer is no. But that doesn't mean that writing online can't be a full-time job with great compensation. I make my living online and have for over 10 years. I have my own websites with affiliate products and I am a freelance writer. Unfortunately right now HubPages produces the least amount of money, when I compare it to Squidoo and Wizzley.
    
    I'm honestly not sure if the effort to write a stellar hub is worth the compensation structure right now. HubPages has also made far more startling and disruptive changes over the past few years, than the other platforms that I write on. That's fine if people are here for pin money or for the social engagement. It's not if it's a living.
    
    I'm waiting to see how my Hubs fare with the QAP. If they survive for another six months, without me touching them and if they start to produce any reliable income, I'll write a few more.

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       Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Digby, I'm seeing reports that Squidoo are now making changes which are even more disruptive and alarming than HubPages. What's your experience?
       
       The thing is, that's always a risk on revenue-sharing sites.   I wrote a few articles on Zujava, and then forgot about them. When I went back to check on them, I was surprised to find they were in the "petting zu" (equivalent of unFeatured), because they contravened the rules.   Turns out Zujava had added a very strict new rule on unrelated links.  So strict, that a link to a blog page selling fan veils, in an article about fan veils, was judged "unrelated". 
       
       They had changed various other rules as well, quite poorly explained, and in the end I deleted my articles and used them elsewhere.  But it is a good example of the problem with rev-sharing sites.

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          DigbyAdamsposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          Marissa I have about 200 lenses spanning 3 accounts. So far only two lenses have slipped into WIP or works in progress, and they were easily fixed. While I feature lots of products, I do tend to prattle on and use a lot of unique copy. I never believed that just listing a ton of Amazon capsules with little else would last forever on Squidoo. I also never thought that it was good SEO.
          
          I'm not a big believer of using these sites as backlinking opportunites. I use them as profit centers so I don't have to worry about external links. I tend to keep my stuff separate so if HubPages tanks it won't bring down my lenses or vice versa.
          
          So far Wizzley has done the best for me. I have almost 200 Wizzles. I love the design of Hubs the best, but they just aren't performing as well as the other two. This disappoints me.

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    IzzyMposted 10 years ago

    "Can Hubpages be a Full-Time Job?"
    
    That was your question, and yes it can be. Building up your site with long, detailed articles is time-consuming.
    But before you do that, listen to this.
    
    I built up a huge amounts of hubs, many more than I have now. I was learning at the same time, but it was also true that I was unemployed in a strange land, far from home, where no government benefits were available to me (I had been self-employed with my own business that went to wall during the recession).
    
    Once I started to see results, I wrote many many hubs on many different topics.
    
    A bit like the proverbial throwing pasta at a wall to see what sticks.
    
    It didn't occur to me to build on a successful topic. If it had, I would have bought the dot com that would have given me the greatest results.
    
    I was still learning.
    
    Many topics did stick and brought me a handsome reward.
    
    Most of these fell way short of a 'stellar hub', but along the way I did write a few of those, and it is true to say that some of those still bring me in an income today.
    
    Others languish.
    
    I know that some of my hubs beat the competition hands down, but Google has decided not to promote them high in the SERPS.
    
    And this brings us neatly onto Google.
    
    While Google likes your subdomain, you will have continued success.
    
    But should Google decide your sub is not so great after all, they can take it away too. Good luck to you if you know why.
    
    So, no, Hubpages can never be considered to be your full-time job, even if you have no other work.
    
    If you must write for content sites, spread your talents far and wide.
    
    That way, when one goes down, you still have an income from the others.

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       DrMark1961posted 10 years agoin reply to this

       Thanks for that detailed answer, Izzy. I have learned a lot from reading postings from you and Marisa, and appreciate you taking the time to address this.
       Do you think the lower cost of living in Spain would justify that effort today, despite all of those Google Panda/penguin changes?

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          LeanManposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          I don't know about the cost of living in Spain, but I am from the UK but currently living in the Philippines. I earn enough online to live a very nice life out here with what I earn across the internet.. But as Izzy says you have to spread your work far and wide. You cannot rely on just the one source of income. I write on several sites and I have several of my own that let me live a reasonable life out here..

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             IzzyMposted 10 years agoin reply to this

             Hey LeanMan, so glad to hear you are doing OK!
             
             There is a living to be made online if you learn well, and work hard.
             
             Unfortunately I put all my eggs in the one basket, despite advice to the contrary.
             
             I do still have several sites which are ageing nicely.  One day I might make them decent but my heart isn't in it at the moment.

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                Jean Bakulaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                I always wanted to write, so came to HP at the end of 2010. By the time I had built up 50 hubs, the Panda algorithm hit, and it took me almost a year to begin to make money, to get over the $50.00 threshold.
                
                I used a year to build a blog with help, but also wrote the 10 obligatory articles neccessary to be accepted on Infobarrel and Wizzley. So I can write there too. My blog hasn't paid off yet, but Amazon owes me money in what seems to have been an error where they didn't have my payment info. So basically, I have options to write in 4 places, but am only making money here. So it seems logical to wrie more here. But I'm mindful of the changes, and when the mood hits, will write on other sites.
                
                It's just hard to write a large body of work. Infobarrel has a new payment structure now, not the same as HP, but similar. Wizzley is still dependent on SEO techniques, which I was never good at, and people do not respond well to my metaphysical topics. Infobarrel has featured 2 of my 10 articles, so I have views, and suspect I'll go back. I never had any recognition or a hub of the day or anything here at HP, and yes, when I loved writing here in the beginning, I was writing 3 hubs a week, and to write intelligently written hubs, was putting in 40 hours weeks. So in answer, it can be done. But once you learn here, begin writing on other sites. If you want to make money, treat it like a job. See what topics do better on each site, don't put all your eggs in one basket. It helps to have a niche, I do, and also have a few mini ones. You can do a different niche under a different name if you like. I hope that helps. Good luck to you!
                .

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          IzzyMposted 10 years agoin reply to this

          In a word, no.
          
          The cost of living in Spain has risen substantially, and even what I was earning a couple of years ago would barely cover a 'living'.
          
          Use HP as a learning experience.
          Use your time here wisely.
          
          Don't delete potentially profitable hubs, but delete those that get no views that you could easily re-write for another site.
          
          Write on other sites. I am not too good at following my own advice. I have accounts at Squidoo and Wizzley among others, but barely use them.
          
          I like it here. Creature of habit, I am.
          
          The Google Panda/ Penguin/Boa constrictor or whatever changes will go on.
          
          Panda was the first to hit us, but not the first to hit earlier pioneers online. It's a continuing process.
          
          Google needs to become less popular in order for us to move forward.
          
          I do not need to depend on online earnings anymore which is just as well, because it is not there, for me anyway.
          
          I am also no longer in Spain.
          
          Oh and between all my accounts, I also hit payout and more each month, but hey £30 is hardly the jackpot, is it?

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