Since I finished the apprenticeship, and after umpteen updates and changes made on HP, my traffic has never picked up. I can't remember the last time I saw any more than 40 views a day. My average at the moment is more like 30. The articles I worked long and hard to produce, sit there doing nothing basically. They certainly are not getting read by many people, and my earnings this month are $2.44 and not likely to even hit $3. It's been like that for many months. I have waited. tweaked, promoted my articles 'til I am blue in the face, and it's done me no good. It is not in my interest to leave reasonably good informative articles on a website where they are receiving scant attention, so I am looking to close down my account here, and move them somewhere else.
Can anyone tell me the best way to go about this please?
Many thanks for your help.
I took a look at your Hubs and I think they are very informative. One thing I noticed is that Google has a way of tucking in. The other day I was researching a product from a multi-billion dollar industry that has been around for years. But what came up surprised me. It was all negative reviews or other blog posts, really silly stuff, that had nothing to do with the actual product. I thought to myself, how does a multi-billion dollar successful product, the sellers of it, and the great reviews get buried in page 25 on Google. Yet the first few pages are just people voicing themselves as to why they never liked to use this or that. It just doesn't make much sense to me.
So, what I'm saying here is that while I'm not a techy person at all, I took a look at your posts and will read them. But, part of the problem I think is natural traffic from Google which seems to be not coming forth as much any more. I may be completely wrong. I hope someone has some insight to this.
Wish I knew the answer for you. I have a health page on Facebook and I could share some of your HUBs there and elsewhere. But if you close your account and move your HUBs elsewhere, all my sharing will for naught. So should I share OR just wait and see what you decide?
Thanks so much for your input. I think it is best to wait thank you, because I really have had enough of HP and just need to set up another platform before I move them. I take it I just unpublish these hubs? How long do I have to wait before I can use them - they are off Google...anyone know? Thanks so much.
You can de-index your hubs through webmaster tools. It's under "Google index" and then "remove urls". Then you click on Create New Removal List; you plug in the url of the hub and hit continue; choose "remove page from search results and cache" and then submit. Will take about a day to remove url. If you don't have webmaster tools connected to your hubpage, there's a tutorial here at hp for that; you have to be connected to Google Analytics to do it.
UM ... I'm just gonna say this openly and plainly. You're on HUBPages and you were an apprentice and you're discussing leaving HUBPages. HP management and staff surely must study their own site stats. I just came back to HUBPages!! If you went through the apprentice program and you wanna leave, that doesn't sound very encouraging to me. Just sayin'.
I make money and I never did the apprenticeship program. There are people with university degrees who are jobless. Not everything goes in a straight line
People in the Apprentice program were just given titles that were known to be traffic drivers? That seems different than just being "taught" how to write better. It's more like you have to be one the "pets" of the moderators to get anywhere here.
I think the point the OP is making is that the titles given in the AP program are not bringing traffic. Nobody can give you titles that "are known" to be traffic drivers (ok I guess you might have some titles that are working well for you, but if somebody wrote a hub with the same title, it would probably not bring them traffic because Google will not usually show 2 results from HP on the first page).
The titles given out were thought by the mentors to have the potential to bring traffic, obviously the mentors were wrong in meloncauli's case.
Google will show two results from the same website if the pages contain quality content relevant to the search query and sometimes will show more than two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxv-AvNPoh8
That's true, I've sometimes seen that. However, most of the time I've seen that with sites that Google holds in high regard, which is not true of HubPages right now.
My main point is that the only way to know if a title here will bring in traffic, is if you have a hub with that title which is getting good traffic. And I don't think copying a successful title is the most efficient (or ethical) thing to do. It is certainly not something that HP staff would encourage, they put a lot of emphasis on people trying to pick unique titles (sometimes of course you accidentally have the same, or very close title as other hubbers, it is hard to be unique, I've done it myself).
My main argument is that the "pets" couldn't be given titles that were known to be traffic drivers.
I agree, and I find the use of the term "pets" rather ridiculous. We're pets because we participated in a program? I don't think so. As a matter of fact, the exclusive titles we had to choose were some of my worst performers... so much for that theory of being given high traffic. They improved somewhat after HP dropped that program and I changed the titles up a bit and did some tweaking. I think the real thing is that there is no "magic formula" and writing online is always a bit of guesswork. Some things work well, others not so much.
The OP is writing in a field that is saturated and is dominated by major medical websites. I sympathize. A lot of my writing is also in a niche that has become a bit overloaded. I think the problems are with that - not the titles of the hubs probably. As a result, I am branching out some more and trying new things - at the end of the day, it's always down to guesswork a bit I think.
When I was in the AP program, which I didn't finish, we had to use the Exclusive titles that were found later to not work. None of my hubs got good traffic until they allowed us after 3 months to choose our own titles. The program was a let down for me. I ended up losing traffic in the end by straying from my niche.
Actually that is not strictly true. We were allowed to pick our own titles, we just had to get them approved by the mentor for a while. It was easier to use exclusives, but since I already had my suspicions about them, I used my own titles right from the start.
That is true. We could choose our own after getting permission. I didn't add that. I just thought it was a pain getting approval.
@WryLilt - I get what you're saying. It's still not a positive note for me. It's distressing.
It's just my opinion - seems like melacauli's articles should go on a site where people are searching for health related info like that. Once again - my opinion - they look like really good articles and seems like a health publication might want to use them.
@melancauli - Just sayin'.
Thanks for you thoughts. I am just telling it like it is. I was perhaps naieve to think that doing the AP would be bound to improve my overall chance of success. I was wrong. I learned a couple of things, and being on HP has improved my writing generally, but if we put in a lot of hard work, we all want paying. The AP paid fairly well, but it's the only time I ever made regular payouts. I haven't had a payout since it finished.
As for other places to post your content, I think Blogger, your own web domain, or another revenue sharing site are your options. Some other revenue sharing sites that come to mind are: Wizzley, Squidoo, Wikinut, Helium, Triond and InfoBarrel. I don't know if these would perform better for you than HubPages or not. I would suggest trying an experiment with a few of your pages to see if it will be worth the work of moving everything to a new location or not.
Another route would be to make money from your content by re-working it to sell it to a magazine, website, etc. Billybuc here on HubPages has some articles about how to do this.
Traffic is not great for me either, but one suggestion that I can give you is to make your photos Pinterest Friendly. Please tend to Pin beautiful photos, quotes, an more.
I added text to some of my tutorial photos and started seeing the increase in traffic.
I usually get 15-25 view a day from Pinterest, it's not a lot but I have not put too much time into it, so it's ok.
i make about $ 4 on hub pages in a month. The problem is not with Google and all the blah blah , but with the site which pays very poor. With 3 million visitors, the site just don't want to pay. Look at some sites , I wont name them that pay handsomely. So the problem is with hub pages and not with anybody else. They wont pay for a fact.
It looks like that most of your hubs are of a medical nature. The competition in that field of writing is devastating. I think that your only chance is to somehow become best buddy's with some already-first-page medical site that is willing to accept and compensate you in some way for your articles.
If you are on Pinterest, many of your topics would be of interest there and this could generate more traffic. I have one hub that gets 50 or so views a day exclusively from there! As you are a hubpages apprentice alumni, please see this forum thread http://hubpages.com/forum/private/topic/1225#post37234 we have started a hubpages group board and try to help and encourage each other by repinning each other's hubs - it seems to be working. I am off to pin some of your hubs now and hope it brings you some traffic (please don't go!) Alison
Thanks for that Alison. I have put quite a few on there anyway. I did try and do my best social networking wise.
Thanks Paradigmsearch Thing is you can also say that about a lot of niches used on HP. Recipes are flogged for instance.
I think laying in front of Google is about right. When I do research now, except keyword of course, I usually skip to page 4 and up because that is where I get the info I need most of the time. In South Africa it is even worse, we have these ad sites and as I am also not a techy I do not know how they do it, but they are on page one, they look as if they have the info you need as it is mentioned in the description, but when you go there, they say search term not found! What of the poor guys that has the real info and is lying on pager 4 or after?
People aren't going to go to a general writing site looking for health info from an anonymous writer who's only social verification is Pinterest. If you want to give your writing a better chance to draw traffic, you should consider 1) using a human name, not a pen name that is a homophone for "depression," 2) swapping the "eyeball with pins in it" avatar for a portrait and 3) adding more professional social verifications to your profile and 4) writing for a site that specializes in health that has established credibility and expertise.
As far as leaving HubPages, it's just a matter of making sure you have copies of all your content, deleting your Hubs and contacting admin to have them shut down the account.
Join Blogger.com - select a url related to your niche - post all your hubs there (1 every day) - get some links from sites with related niche - try long tail keywords.
If you get enough links, you can easily rank in search engines.
Most of the links to your domain are from HP (related hubs links on other hubs, Q&As etc. so they are pretty useless.
If you want to remove your Hubs, delete them and wait 24 hours for the deletion. Then, to remove the cache of your Hubs on Google:
http://support.google.com/bin/static.py … page=ts.cs
(click inside the circle which says 'Web Search', then scroll down the page and click inside the circle which says 'A piece of content I am concerned about has already been removed by the webmaster but still appears among the search results.' Then, click on the link 'this tool.' You'll then be asked to sign in and then to enter the page URL and, if the page is still live, a word from the outdated cache page that you want to remove.
To remove the cache of your Hubs on Bing/Yahoo:
http://www.bing.com/webmaster/help/bing … l-cb6c294d
It can take 24 – 48 hours for the removal process.
I do think it would be wise to leave your HubPages account open, though, even with just a few Hubs. If you ever want to come back, the rules might be different. Also, your account is already approved by advertisers.
It would look and sound more professional if you went to Blogger or another site, and bought a domain name that is either your real name, or one that specifically describes your topic. This should cost you less than $10.00 a year, and if it doesn't, walk away. If you name it after the medical topic, (think about this title carefully) put your real name at the top of the blog.
I began my own blog but think I shot myself in the foot when I named it. The name was similar to a book I published, but I think it led people to believe my topic was religious, when it was more spiritual in nature. Good luck. And keep your HP account open if you get in a creative mood and want to write something else. You can put a blue text box on each hub you write, and that can help bring traffic to your blog. You want to mention it everywhere! And I am not sure if Blogger is the best place right now, others here are much more experienced than I am.
I have a Blogger account and don't pay anything for it. I also don't earn any money there. The blog was started this summer and got good enough views, but no one clicks on the Google ads. I guess I should try a different affiliate.
Barbara: You may want to take a look at Skimlinks. This is a company that signs you up, takes 25% of what you get but does all the ad placement, etc. for you. Their threshold is only $10 and they pay you. They have many really good advertisers, so I would think about this. It costs nothing to sign up. Melisa Wright gave me this info and I'm happy she did.
Many thanks to all of you. You have all been very helpful. All advice taken on board. I believe Ican't keep any articles where the title was chosen by HP apprenticeship program.
I had 82 articles sitting on Yahoo Voices that made me almost no money whatsoever during two entire years. I took every one of them and put them on Bubblews and so far have made almost $300 in two months. You lose the articles, but you make money with them.
I think people have already explained how to remove your hubs from here.
As to whether you will have better luck attracting traffic elsewhere, I suspect you will not have much luck on the other sites.
One way you could earn some money from your articles is to try to sell them. Perhaps on somewhere like Constant Content (never used it myself but some people have success there). Ok you would lose the licence to them but they might make you a lot more money than publishing on revenue sharing sites or your own blogs.
From the sites mentioned here:
-Helium, lots of people who wrote there really hate it. They own the articles you publish there, so if you are unhappy, you will not be able to remove them. I think many people would strongly advise you not to touch it with a bargepole.
-Squidoo has been hit by Google even worse than HubPages. Online publishers who'd been successful there for years are seeing big traffic drops. I don't have huge hopes that the site can recover.
-I don't know much about Triond, I suspect it's not very alive. I think infobarrel has been seriously hit as well.
I guess Wizzley might have a chance being a new site, but probably you wouldn't get more traffic there than here.
Your own blogs might take off, but they might not. Even if you get traffic, monetization might be a challenge. Often you will not earn much if you just slap some Adsense on your blog, although using affiliate links can work well (but I don't know whether you can do that with your topic).
I am surprised that your traffic is that low. I guess you must have been Google sand-boxed as even for hubpages, that is terrible traffic for that many hubs.
Yes I am surprised too. I have followed all of the HP guidelines, used social networking sites etc, but nothing seems to change.
You can't if HP gave you them in the apprenticeship....well not without consulting them with a new suggestion.
I think now you can, since they retired the completely useless exclusive titles. If most of your hubs were written using exclusive titles, that could explain a lot, many people found them useless.
I am curious, are all your hubs doing equally badly, or are there a few that get better traffic. If I look at my hubs, a lot are failures, but I have 3 that I am pleased with, and some others that are "ok"......say between 5-20 views a day. It's useful to think about what is different about the ones that get traffic and try to write more.
We were given eight titles in our first month of the apprenticeship...and some more after I think. As for the exclusives, I only used half a dozen I think, so I don't know about them.
It's weird. One of my hubs is sat right in the middle of my 72 hubs (score wise,) yet it gets about 60% of my daily visits. Only about a quarter of my hubs rarely get a visit . Otherwise it all looks fairly even. There's no rhyme or reason to any of it.
I would advise the OP to sit tight. Leave the hubs as they as. By all means start a Blogger blog or whatever, but write new content for other places.
Google traffic is in flux right now, and has been for months.
The HP platform has been badly hit by successive updates, but there is still a huge amount of quality content on here.
Meloncauli's hubs are quality! I don't see how the author name or avatar can possibly affect anything.
When you see some of the real crap on here attracting traffic, you are not surprised at anything, but author's name and photo mean nothing (traffic has to actually arrive in the first place before that would even be noticed!)
At the OP, I understand your frustration.
I understand your wanting to leave too. But you need to realise that there is world of difference between what Google's latest algo wants and what Hubpages staff thinks Google wants.
Just for interest, a hub (of mine) HP thought worthy of front page news just shortly after it was published, never gained search engine traction.
Just in the last few weeks it has.
Please HP if you are reading this, do NOT make it an EC hub.
They have made many of my hubs in secondary accounts EC, and killed them
Hi and thanks. I know that my name and avatar are nothing to do with it. People are looking for my subject matter and I doubt they could care less about a name or a thumbnail!
What did you mean by EC? I had two hubs of the day...they were the only two weeks I went over 100 views a day in all the time I have been here.
EC = Editor's Choice.
These are hubs which HP are in the process of choosing to be indexed on the more powerful HP domain, rather that on your own subdomain.
Some people have reported great results from having EC hubs.
Sadly, they have decimated traffic to the hubs they chose on my subs.
Not to be confused with Hub of the Day, which does guarantee traffic, even if it doesn't last.
Thought you would know, just pointing out to others here that seem to think otherwise.
The way I get traffic to one of my hubs about a health issue is by answering a question at Yahoo Answers about it. The Yahoo answers comes up on the first page of results at Google. That is still where my traffic comes from. At times, it has been quite a bit.
Look through Yahoo Answers and see if someone wants an answer about the subject of the hub and it might work for you too.
I was doing this two or three times a week. It brought me around eight to ten extra visitors a day for a few days. Thanks
This is a great idea. I tried with no luck doing this on Quora, but I hadn't tried any other Q&A sites.
I have been at HP for over a year and have dismal traffic too. I will try the tip about yahoo answers.
Surely worth trying
I think there is more at work here than just the general hubpages slump. That is just one hit every third day on their average hub. I would be discouraged by that too!
To be honest it's saddened and angered me in equal measure, especially when I have seen many badly written hubs get so much traffic. I just came to the conclusion that it doesn't matter how hard you try on HP. I just don't have the patience for HP any more.
I think you best bet is to try and wait it out, a sand-boxing should go away with time. But try diversifying onto some other content sites perhaps?
Thanks . I already have! I did, when I started to lose interest several months ago.
I was told when doing the apprenticeship that I couldn't change the titles on the articles that HP had given me, without prior consent with them. If they own the titles, because they gave me them, then I assume I can't just delete the article and claim the title as mine - it's their title. All a bit daft if you ask me.
I guess, thats about the average experience here at HP. ?!
BUT: How come that thousands of writers are here, spending obviously hundred of thousands of precious hours blogging? I moved awy a long time ago and came back today just to copy one of my post to post it into another blod, hosted with, guess: yessir, wordpress :-))
Any remarks on this? Thank you!
It's not the average experience here. Or at least not my experience of typical of numbers I have seen from most other people.
This had added greatly to my frustration. I can only put it down to subject matter, and some people must be doing much more linking/social networking than I did. I was prepared to put some time into promoting my work...and did, but this only brought me a minimal amount of extra traffic.
To be honest I am passionate about my article topics - mainly mental health based. When I first wrote them, 75% ended up on the first three pages of Google, but I went through at least three massive dips in the short time I was here. I felt like I was wading through mud
Thank you meloncauli for sharing with us.
This helps me very much because I am researching on HubPages and I am waking up to a lot realizations.
I am trying to convince myself on the following: To earn money in any market, there must be people willing to buy the commodity you and your competitors are offering. You strive to get a fraction of the market by being ahead of the competition. This does not reaquire a person to be very good at what they do, what is required is to be ahead of the competition in an existing market where there are buyers.
Most of us are not willing to accept that you may and can earn more money from an industry that is fourth or even sixth in your ranking of what you are good at and passionate about than from that industry which you are most good at and most passionate about.
We encourage each other here to write about things that you are passionate about and where you have enough skills to be confident on. That is a middle of the road to earn money. I would suggest to write something new to you but where you will put effort to produce quality material.That way, there is less chance of people with exactly the same skills as you. If you are in the engineering field, write about economics, there are few materials in economics written by engineers for engineers maybe, there is a market for new perspectives in every area of life. Residual income comes from a side kick.
If the article is really good I think my webpage serves me better.
Hi Meloncauli, I'm sorry you are dismayed with your traffic and the experience that you have had here. Your top Hubs are really doing quite well, but I understand the overall frustration. As for your Apprenticeship Hubs, even though we paid you a bonus for writing them, they are yours to change and/or remove. You have created a great portfolio, but I do think that your subject matter is difficult because the competition is large medical institutions. You might want to try to augment your titles a bit and see if that helps. If I can help you in any way, you are more than welcome to email me. I wish you the very best.
Hi Robin
Thank you for taking the time to give me your thoughts. I will email you over the next few days. Thanks again.
I don't think hubpages will ever get it's traffic back; hubs don't rank in search results even with low competition.
A lot of hubbers have wrote hubs on bubblews review. But when I search for "bubblews review" there is no sign of them anywhere, even blogspot blogs with no links/ rank show up.
It's not because of large competition!!
Many Hubs do not rank well on search results, but many do. HubPages is just a platform and you have to use it with intelligence and all components of good SEO to rank your Hubs on Google.
My Hubs rank well for their search terms and I receive about 1,300 views per day for 32 Hubs. Many people put their best articles on this site and receive much greater traffic. The HP site gets about a million unique visitors a day and they are reading Hubs. I wrote a Hub which is an SEO Tutorial which gives you more than you need to know to rank your Hubs on Google search results.
Your SEO hubs get you most traffic.
You have lots of links pointing to your domain, and that's why your hubs rank in search. I am guessing they are from your other sites(Found 1), and social bookmarking.
Tip: Using anchor text helps with SEO. I noticed you used url. May be you already know that. Just a suggestion!!
The only way meloncauli can get more traffic is by getting links from related authority blogs. Which would have been much easier for him if it was his own blog.
His content is great (Linkable) and It's a waste if no one is reading it. We'll be selfish to tell him to stay.
And as relache said, people don't want medical advice from anonymous writers. It's important stuff; reputation and brand is important!
Think of it in this way: Would you take SEO advice from an unknown writer on Hubpages or a experienced professional with his own site dedicated to SEO advice??
Actually, my SEO Hubs don't get the most traffic. That topic is a very small niche within a niche on the Internet. Also, I don't link at all from sites I control or own to anything on HubPages. 99% of my backlinks to Hubs are natural, i.e., I had nothing to do with them and they exist because people liked my content and linked.
Can you rank a Hub without backlinks? The answer is yes. The Hub I published a week ago is too new for backlinks but it already ranks well on Google and has 1,300 views so far sent from search engines.
If someone has enough content (300 pages) on a single topic, an individual website is always the best choice. But, for a single page or a handful of pages on a topic, HubPages works well.
You don't need links for all the posts, as long as your site has a good trustrank your new posts will rank in search engines.
And your account is 22 months old, try writing on a new HP account. See if you get any traffic. I'd say you won't for the first 6 months.
Trust me, natural or not, you need backlinks!
Besides, natural links have more value!
Update: If your hubs are featured on the first page on the hubpages domain(explore), you don't need backlinks.
I only had three Hubs on this site until May, 2013. All of the other Hubs are new.
Your domain is old; Only 10% sandboxed!!
Mine is new 75% holdback!
The age of a subdomain on a seven-year-old site is irrelevant. There are plenty of much older subdomains with tons of Hubs on this site that get no traffic. Study SEO and learn the methodology that works. Also, learn what the term 'sandboxed' means.
That's because they are penalized by google.
write 20 more hubs on different topics and you'll lose all your traffic.
Also, those links through Q&A and related hubs don't help!
Have you tried adding alt text to links on HP? It keeps tripping that code from mine when I try to add it.
On HubPages, the caption for an image is the alt tag. (Right-Click on any of your Hubs to view the page source to see this.) That's a horrible circumstance, but that's what we have to work with. So, remember when you write your caption that it shouldn't be written like a caption at all, but as an alt tag.
You might go for Google authorship. That sometimes helps with traffic. Nobody wants you to leave, good writer. I love health and mental health articles. Sometimes , controversy in articles help. I will pin some of your articles. Blessings. Audrey
After I did this, my traffic dropped even more. *sigh*
Exactly the same went down here with me, Meloncauli. Having the experience in web-developing, I decided to create my own website. And now, I can say that I'm pretty much happy with my new website which is slowly developing and will soon stand out in the search results. I don't know about you, but this helped me. Other than this, you can sign up on Yahoo! Contrubutor Network to earn.
Yahoo contributor don't pay that well -- 1-2$ for 1000 views, 100-200$ for 200000!!
If you start your own website or blog, it'll be much easier to get links; bloggers won't link to .hubpages.com.
Start a blog. Your content is great, so getting links will be easy for you.
I am trying to decide between Blogger and a website right now, but there are so many of these, I can't reach a conclusion. Call me indecisive :-)
Deleted
Answer these questions:
1. Have you designed a website before?
2. Do you know html & css?
3. Do you know SEO basics( Robot.txt, Meta tags, etc)
I need to know these things before I make any suggestions.
You have 4 options: hosted wordpress, free wordpress, make a website from scratch, free blogger domain.
1. Hosted wordpress is worpress.org - you'll have to buy a domain(you can get it for 5$/ month), and then install a wordpress theme. Then you start blogging.
2. Free wordpress - It's free but you'll have .wordpress.com subdomain, and you can't add ads to your blog.
3. Own website - buy a domain, design everything and then start blogging.
4. Blogger.com - It's free, you get a .blogspot domain. can monetise it, but just with adsense ads.
Advantages of blogger blog:
1. Google owns blogger so blogspot blogs have advantage over other sites.
2. Your posts will get indexed faster.
3. Very easy to use: same as hubpages.
4. It's free.
5. High security: Unless anyone has your gmail password, your blog is hack-proof!! That can't be said with wordpress; even major blogs have been hacked.
6. Server is owned by Google, so no problems there.
7. You have access to the template code.
8. You can make it look very professional.
9. You can add a custom domain anytime without losing the links( .com, .net, etc)
Disadvantages:
1. .blogspot.com in your url
2. You can't sell your blog
3. They can delete your articles if they find anything illegal or against the policy (Even your domain host can do that)
4. Only Adsense ads are allowed (Adsense is the main revenue for most bloggers, some people make over 30,000 just with just Adsense)
This is so helpful. Thanks very much for taking the time to explain it all to me. :-)
I take it that the subject matter means a lot when considering how much you might make with Adsense? Subject linked to what the ads are about?
Thanks
I think your niche is very profitable!
Follow this link: http://google.about.com/od/moreaboutgoo … seprof.htm
It has a lot of info on Adsense.
AmazingThinker has made some good points but he's also got some things not quite right, IMO. I've repeated his post below with my comments in bold:
"1. Hosted wordpress is worpress.org - you'll have to buy a domain(you can get it for 5$/ month), and then install a wordpress theme.... but there is a steep learning curve to getting it all set up and running, which can be scary for a complete novice
2. Free wordpress - It's free but you'll have .wordpress.com subdomain, and you can't add ads to your blog. but you can easily "attach" your own domain name, so your site will be known by that instead of the .wordpress.com URL. You can also upgrade to the pro version and use any ads you like.
3. Own website - buy a domain, design everything and then start blogging.don't even think about it, too much technical knowledge required
4. Blogger.com - It's free, you get a .blogspot domain. can monetise it, but just with adsense ads. Adsense is the only advertising built-in to Blogger, but you can use any affiliate ads you like, including services like Skimlinks and Viglink
Advantages of blogger blog:
1. Google owns blogger so blogspot blogs have advantage over other sites.This is often repeated but I've never seen a shred of evidence to prove it. Google does own it, but it also knows most Blogspot bloggers are rank amateurs, so it would be pretty suicidal of Google to give their posts preference in search results, wouldn't it?
. . .
Disadvantages of blogger blog:
1. .blogspot.com in your url not relevant, because you can easily buy and attach your own domain name
2. You can't sell your blog not strictly true, because it's very easy to transfer the content of a Blogger blog to a Wordpress blog, then set up a 301 redirect.
3. They can delete your articles if they find anything illegal or against the policy
4. Only Adsense ads are allowed (Adsense is the main revenue for most bloggers, some people make over 30,000 just with just Adsense)I am not aware of this restriction. Plus I seriously doubt many Blogspot bloggers are making $30,000 from Adsense unless they've been around a very long time indeed)
Agreed. I actually find Blogspot does rank higher however - I have started making 1-2 page blogspot blogs instead of rev share articles now actually. 100% of profits and get crawled faster and get more traffic in my experience. Don't know the whys though. I have about 15 atm.
Are you comparing a Blogspot blog post with an article on a rev-sharing site, or are you comparing it with other blogging platforms?
Comparing a Blogspot blog with a rev-sharing site is not comparing apples with apples. For one thing, your Blogspot blog is likely to be single-focus. In my experience, single-focus sites do better these days than rev-sharing sites, but that's true whether they're on Blogger, Weebly, Wordpress, or whatever.
You're right; no platform can be compared. I'm semi-comparing it with both other blogging platforms AND revenue sharing sites I guess. I find it a good midway point between the two - more money, less expenditure (as I don't reg a domain), less setup, easier to set and forget, less spam and upkeep.
That said, I use different formats for everything I write; I have maybe 250 articles on revenue sharing sites, maybe 15 blogspots, maybe 30 hosted WP. I find that each has different bonuses and they're also good at driving traffic in different ways (I won't go into details, but different "quick articles" are good for backlinking and diverting traffic to main content with link wheels etc.)
Thanks for clarifying all that. I was going to post some links for more details.
1. I know! that's why I asked her if she had any experience with this stuff. I didn't wait for her reply though.
3. Agreed!
Advantages
1. Amateurs will have that advantage when they get links from authority sites, for which of course they will need great content.
Disadvantages
1. I was talking about free blogger.
2. It'll lose it's page rank, domain age, etc.
4. Most of them get a custom domain after they start making some revenue.
I'm talking about free blogger too, except for the cost of the domain name.
I always advise people to get that domain name upfront, even if they're not sure whether they're serious. After all, it's not like it costs a fortune, and it makes life a lot easier down the track. It also means you're more likely to be seen as an authority site, so you'll collect links faster.
I'm a little surprised at #3 from the top, you said it's a bad idea for someone to start/own their own site; I got a lot of encouragement to start my own site from you and others and I'm glad I got it, so I guess that's why I'm surprised. But I think it must be because of the statement from Amazing Thinker, "design everything", which I guess means you have to know code, etc. But if you install wordpress and use a wordpress theme, it's not that hard to put together a site. It takes some work and study, but it's doable.
Amazing Thinker made a distinction between Blogger, Wordpress, and a "design everything" website. So I took his reference to 'website' to mean an HTML-coded site.
I certainly encourage people to create their own site but I always recommend Wordpress (either the paid version of Wordpress.com or pay for hosting and use the free Wordpress software).
I'll simplify the choice for you!
Do not use any of the free website builder places. They all use different web site building methods - and if you decide you're not satisfied with them later, you will have to cut and paste every single page and recreate it, manually, somewhere else. Probably losing all your links and reputation in the process.
If you can't afford (or are daunted by) the idea of paying for hosting and starting your own site using the Wordpress software, then use Blogger. The one thing I don't like about Blogger is the navigation - you really need more than just a date archive, and it's not easy to set that up.
Alternatively, if you have the luxury of throwing a little money at it, take a look at the "pro" version of Wordpress.com - it will cost you about $100 a year, but you'll get all the bells and whistles of a proper Wordpress-powered site without having to understand all the techie stuff. (note that the free version of Wordpress.com won't allow you to advertise, so it's not suitable).
Buy a domain name which reflects your topic, and "attach" it to your site (whether Blogger or Wordpress). That way, if you need to move later, your readers will be able to follow you.
Next tip: Google wants "authority" sites these days, and they've said that's particularly the case in the medical field. That's why they're not keen on medical Hubs - they're assuming it's unlikely a real expert would write on a general site. So use your real name, or pick a pen name that sounds like a real name, and create an "About Me" page on your site which highlights your qualifications to write on these topics.
Thanks again to all of you. The responses and general debate have been very helpful.
Can anyone explain what's different about Wordpress Pro please. I couldn't even find anything about it in Google for a while, but when I did find it I didn't see how it would help me. I did see that you can pay for people on Wordpress to help you set up your site...at quite a cost!
You can't edit your templates with free Wordpress. Paying for it allows you to have more control over the look of your site.
You can adjust many of them a great deal -- what you don't have is html access.
There are a few differences between free and paid, but the big difference is that you can't monetize the free version in any way whatsoever.
Sorry, I should've included a link. I should also have checked the name - it's Wordpress Premium, not Wordpress Pro.
There are two Wordpresses. The one that's most talked about is free software. You sign up with a hosting company, buy a domain name and set up your own website, using the free software. It's not that hard, really, but I can remember how utterly daunting I found it when I started - and I've helped a couple of non-technical people since, who've just thrown up their hands and given up. So these days, I'm cautious about recommending people go this route unless they're prepared for a steep learning curve.
The other option is Wordpress.com. It uses the same free software, but everything is already set up for you. You don't need to pay for your own hosting or worry about installation, it's all done. The Premium package is what you need, and it even includes a custom domain name.
http://store.wordpress.com/bundles/
Hi
Sorry to be a pain Marisa, and thanks for taking the time to advise me. If I go for the premium package, don't I still need to know HTML? Many thanks
You don't even need to know HTML for hosted Wordpress, unless you want to do something fancy. Anyway, HTML is very similar to the basic codes listed in the forum tip - used to insert images etc. Easy to Google basic HTML.
No, you don't. The premium package is pretty much the same as the free package, except that you can include your own advertising (like Adsense, affiliate ads etc).
You can target specific sites for information in Google search.
"Search Query" site:http://example.com
for example if you are looking for info on wordpress type:
"wordpress" site:http://www.shoutmeloud.com
you'll find a lot of useful info on this site
Thanks - so this might be a good way to go as I have no html experience?
Html allows you to copy and paste Google Adsense ads in though. I don't know if you can have automatic Adsense ads or not with Wordpress, but with most websites, you need to have the ability to use html to do this.
True, but it is very easy to add Adsense to WordPress (self hosted of course as Marisa has pointed out the free blogs on wordpress.com don't allow Adsense). In the WP editor, when making a new post, you can switch between a visual editor and a text (html) editor. Mostly I write in the text editor, but if I want to add HTML I just switch with a click of a button and a paste the html generated by Adsense in. It honestly is very simple.
If you can think of Amazon ads to add to your post, I highly recommend squid tools, which were made for Squidoo but work with other sites. You input your affiliate number, the product numbers of whatever you want to advertise, and it generates the html for you. It looks pretty good too.
If you have the money to buy a Wordpress theme, many themes make it easy to add the Adsense code; they just have a box where you paste it and then it goes right on your site. Usually the theme is advertised this way, that they have this feature.
HTML & CSS is really easy to learn.
I'll post some links to free HTML & CSS courses online.
Thanks for all your help with this. I have decided on a premium Wordpress account. I believe I can get my domain name through this also. Would you advise me to get my domain name elsewhere or stick with the premium Wordpress offer. I know I am a novice, but does Wordpress Premium give you both a domain name of your choosing and the hosting? I have spent two days trying to figure all this out so I can finally make a start. Many thanks. ;-)
You'll find everything about starting a blog with wordpress on shoutmeloud.com.
The thing about getting a domain name from the webhost is that you can't move the name to another host if you want. Correct me if I'm wrong anybody, but that's my understanding; that's why I registered my domain names with a different company from the host.
Of course it's possible to change registrars. It's a process, but it is completely possible.
And even then, you don't need to move the domain if you want to change hosts. You just need the proper DNS settings setup.
It depends. Some unscrupulous services do set things up like that - they retain ownership of the doman name and just let you use it. It's not the norm though.
With Wordpress Premium, you don't get "hosting" as such. You're buying the right to use their platform - which is a combination of hosting, the software ready-installed, all their plugins, support, etc etc. The domain name is part of that, and yes you can transfer it elsewhere later if you want - it's yours.
I have gone for a self hosted WP first and see how I get on. I can upgrade any time to premium if I want. Already wondering about images for it -good old Flickr? I can't see any reference to stock images for WP.
I had under 30 visits to my articles on here yesterday! Looking the same today.
Sorry for the repeated posting in this thread, but I just noticed some wording in your post, Meloncauli, that I need to check.
You say, "I have gone for a self hosted WP first". Do you really mean that? The word "Self-hosted" is a bit misleading - it doesn't mean your blog sits on your own PC, it means that you've paid for hosting with a host like Hostgator or Bluehost, and you're going to load the free Wordpress.org software on to their servers and create your blog from there.
If you're doing that, well done and I wish you well. There is a big learning curve to getting it set up the first time and (as I've said before) I've known some beginners who were totally put off by it - but it is the way the professionals do it, and if you can get through the hurdles, you're set.
If that's the case, you won't ever need Wordpress Premium because you've already done the hard yards of getting your blog set up and learning how to manage it. All Wordpress Premium does is allow you to sidestep all that technical stuff - otherwise it works pretty much the same.
However, if what you really mean is that you're going with the free version of Wordpress.com to begin with, then that's fine - just bear in mind you can't include any ads until you upgrade to Premium.
As for images - no, no stock images with self-hosted Wordpress, but there is a thing called Zemanta on Wordpress.com which offers photos and related articles.
Hi meloncauli, I have sent you an email regarding a useful source for public domain images that I think might be helpful to you.
It is pretty obvious that a little hand is crying out to be held here.
Surely, someone will take pity on the entire forum and lead Melancholi to a place of safety (or at the very least, a place of no return).
It is pretty obvious that a little hand is crying out to be held here.
Surely, someone will take pity on the entire forum and lead Will to a place of safety (or at the very least, a place of no return).
Hey, kids, what's with all the puerile backbiting and passive aggressive namby-pamby back and forth?
For active enthusiast, semi-pro and possibly professional writers on this forum, you sure aren't acting enthusiastic, professional or even semi-professional.
If someone has a problem and you can help, then help.
Being internet tough-guys isn't helping anyone, least of all yourselves.
First of all, why are you calling people 'kids' on this forum? It is a requirement to be at least 18 years old to join HP. (Are you at least 18 years old?)
Secondly, it is not a requirement to be 'enthusiastic, professional or even semi-professional' to join HP or to post on this forum. Where did those ideas come from?
Thirdly, the word Internet should be capitalized.
I hope this information has been helpful.
Oops. I never capitalize it. It's a proper noun? Seriously? I thought it was like the word 'tree'. Everywhere.
Here's the latest list:
Internet
Web
World Wide Web
webpage
website
This is according to: AMA Style Guide, Chicago Manual of Style, American Psychological Association (HP recommends this one), among others.
First, because you are acting like kids. Just my personal opinion.
To your second point, because any group or organization that makes or promotes making income for a product is, at least to some degree, a professional one.
To your third point, many would posit that the term 'internet' is well on it's way to becoming a common noun, and at this time, capitalized and non are both acceptable.
And lastly, no, not helpful, just passive aggressive and snarky.
In any case, it's clear you don't care about any of the points above, so carry on, Fox, carry on.
Fox is not a kid?? Really? I don't believe him. I mean who points out spelling errors on internet?? Oh right; even kids don't!!
No one asks for an I.D when you sign up for HP you know!
I point out spelling mistakes, but only b/c it makes me feel superior which is vital to my ability to sleep at night.
ah, that false sense of superiority - as good as the real thing, and easier to tap into than the real thing. ;P
Am I the only one who has a sense of humor??
May be Free Gamers is competing with Writer Fox for internet tough guy Junior 2013.
On your Bubblews Profile, you say you are nineteen years old – a teenager. So, it's understandable that you are behaving like a teenager. What happened to your other two HP accounts (superninja and Ronnytron) that you used to post several times on the forum?
I am not 19!! M gonna change it to 119.
I am a vampire. Don't tell anyone!!
I should check my bubblews account, I asked them to delete it. They probably don't check their mails.
First of all, why are you calling people 'kids' on this forum?
Probably because he's now so old, dust comes out of his butt when he farts. Anyone is a kid to him. ;P
Because, as I said in another post, they were acting as such.
A rose, by any other name....
Getting lumped in with WF is a pretty unpleasant experience. lol. I am not that mistake prone.
Anyway, I was suggesting that someone who says that they are leaving really should have left after this length of time.
There is only one way to learn and that is to get out and do stuff. People who cannot work on their own and under their own direction are never going to make it in this business.
He's verbal, like you. I so enjoy that. Could you two get in an argument for me?
With all due respect Will you do not know me, nor my personal circumstances. Since I started this thread my dad passed away,and I had spent three days at his bedside. I then had to sort out the funeral and his affairs. This HP question became totally unimportant during all this! Do not be quick to judge! If you read what I wrote this morning at the foot of this thread, you would also know there's another reason for me not having already left!
I'm sorry for the loss of your father. Certainly, mourning takes precedence over everything. It stops time in its tracks.
I do think you are taking the right approach to set up your new website. It's important that it's perfect the first time Google sees it. Take your time with it.
I am not bothered who are 'experts' lol. I just started this thread to get advice, and I will take any! I don't know if I will get what's in my balance here if I just leave now. I have been waiting since the end of my apprenticeship for a $50 payout! I am going to write to HP to find out where I stand with that.
Everyone has been helpful on here. I actually really loved HubPages for about a year. It's like anything you join, you always have certain expectations of where it might lead. Sadly it didn't lead anywhere for me. BUT, I do have some reasonable articles to walk away with, so all's not lost.
Thanks everyone....you are probably all experts compared to me!
If you leave your account open instead of closing it, even if you have no Hubs, you should be paid if you have accumulated the minimum payment. Also, leaving your account open will give you an option to easily come back should you want to do that sometime in the future. (Your advertising accounts will already be in place, your user name preserved, etc.) You also might want to post a new Hub to give a valuable link to your new blog and put a link to it on your Profile, too.
Thanks Writer Fox, that's taken on board. ;-)
You shouldn't put pins in your eyes. That's eye care 101.
A lot of people like my icon. When people search on the internet about anxiety or anything else my hubs refer to, they are not interested in my icon but they are interested in the content of my writing.
Really examine what you are writing about and how much effort you are putting in to it. If you are writing about a saturated topic with a lot of competition you aren't going to have major success unless you are bringing something new to the table.
Hubpages can be hard, and it takes a lot of time to get on search engines and start making money. I have been here for 3 years and I remember when I was making pennies a day as well. The important thing is to stick with it and experiment.
There are plenty of ways to make money online if you have a skill or useful information. However, it is not extremely easy like some people make it out to be. It takes hours of work and sometimes even getting lucky. You have to do what is best for you and if that means leaving hubpages it is entirely up to you.
What I can tell you is if you keep working on it and keep learning you will strike "gold." Best of luck to you
Thanks for your input. Are the people who have been on here just a few months, and are claiming to be raking it in lucky? I know there are many factors at work on HP. Subject matter, writing style, linking, sharing etc, so no two of us are ever going to have the exact same story to tell.
I just followed what I was told to do, and did put in the hours and the effort, but it didn't help me - it may have worked well for someone else.
After much thought and advice from people I trust, I have decided to leave the hubs on here a little longer, until the time is right with my blog etc - and even then, I may be leaving some 'off niche' hubs here in case things pick up.
Thanks again :-)
I have wrote a lot of my hubs in spurts and I picked back up after taking a break just as you were talking about.
It wasn't until a few or my articles picked up and started to get traffic that I took it seriously.
I found a great topic purely out of luck and getting optimized in search engines takes a decent amount of time.
Yes some people may get lucky and start making money right away but it is the people that keep with it and stick it out that tend to be the most successful.
I was only mildly successful on HubPages until I understood my hubs to be not a cash cow for me, but a service to the readership.
by Georgiana 5 years ago
I can't seem to find an answer for this in the learning center. I have a large set of articles I've been writing for a while + some time on my hands to dedicate to Hubpages for the next couple of months. Would publishing 10 hubs a day benefit or disadvantage me, both in terms of hub score /...
by ShailaSheshadri 7 months ago
I am writing articles for this website since past 3 months. At present, I have 38 featured and published hubs. I have joined for Amazon and google Adsense program. Past two months I earned like very less amount, less than 1/2 dollar. If I continue writing and publishing at the rate of one article...
by najiasalman1 14 years ago
Today i have noticed that my traffic to all the hubs is drastically down and i am much worried about it. Have you also noticed this? Please guide me what should i do. My traffic is lost. LOT OF BLUE DOWN ARROWS ON STATS ARE SHOWING.
by Alex Rose 10 years ago
I log on every day, and it seems that I always find negative things popping up in the forums. I am sorry that so many people are struggling on HubPages. From SEO issues to having popular hubs unfeatured for a multitude of reasons, it seems very discouraging for any newcomers. When I first got here...
by Katie Adams 11 years ago
I had a hub that was receiving around 1,300-1,500 views per day. It was chosen as Editor's Choice. It then dropped by about 1,000 views per day. I opted out of the program, but that hub is no longer showing in Google for the keywords that brought it all the traffic before EC messed it up. How can I...
by Suzanne Day 11 years ago
I can see some of my new hubs in Google when I search for "hub name".But in Webmaster Tools, I submitted a sitemap and it says 38 URLs submitted and 10 indexed.I used Fetch as Google for a few new hubs and ticked some as URL for new page and URL for re-crawling the site.I also have some...
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |