December anomaly in cpm?

1. 81

   KitchenBuyersAidposted 11 years ago

   About 6 months ago I found HP as a convenient place to repost my content and images from a personal site which I had deleted (I was paying web.com way too much $$).Ten articles were featured and I got ad-approved without incident.
   Based on the miniscule earnings I had seen through October I was unmotivated to create additional Hubs.
   However...since mid November my cpm values have skyrocketed to a point that gets my attention. I am not a 'creative' writer but based on my very recent earnings and cpm I might be motivated enough to write 10, 20 or 30 more knowledge articles within my niche.
   I would love to divulge my actual numbers for comparison purposes but that might be a violation.
   1. Can we mention CPM numbers here...directly or implied?
   2. Is the recent behavior in CPM a seasonal and short term occurrence?
   3. My HP ad earnings are at least 20 times my adsense earnings. Is that typical?

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   1. 78

      Barbara Kayposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      My earnings always go way up in November and December. Advertisers are willing to pay more during the Christmas season because they sell more at that time.
      
      Part of my extra earnings may have to do with the fact that I have several Christmas hubs and craft hubs that readers use to make gifts though too.
      
      I've always earned more from the Hubpage ads than I have from adsense, so that is typical. My ratio may be higher than that even.

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   2. 68

      relacheposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      1.  Disclosing CPM violates the Hubpages TOS.  You might want to read the termsas you are legally bound by them.
      2.  Quite possibly.  The holiday season is when a lot of companies focus a good chunk of their ad budgets.
      3.  Depends who you ask.  Some people say yes, some say no.

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2. 72

   electronicianposted 11 years ago

   Whenever I hear the word anomaly I think of disappearing ships and kidnapped cows.
   
   In any case, part of the increase may be due to the festive season. Don't know about the rules so I can't help you there, but I do get massively more from hubpages ad program than  from adsense too.

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3. 84

   jheheposted 11 years ago

   I was told that it pays better to write seasonal articles as, well, more people are searching topic specific how to's and guides. This could impact the number of visits to your site. Just wondering how many hubs did you write to get ad approved? I'm new here, but so far all my hubs are featured so I take it as a good sign? Just wondering when enough is enough to reapply for the ad program.

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   1. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      I'd wait till you have 20 or 30 Hubs. I haven't seen anyone approved with fewer than that in a long time.

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   2. 81

      KitchenBuyersAidposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Apparently I am an anomaly! I did in fact get approved with only ten articles, but I would listen to those in the know...like MW

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4. 87

   Marisa Wrightposted 11 years ago

   If you're writing anything that might help people find a Christmas gift, or make something for Christmas, you will see a seasonal spike.
   
   The other thing you may be seeing is simply that your Hubs have had time to climb the ranks in Google, and are finally showing high enough for readers to see them. Most people don't start earning until 6 months to a year after joining.
   
   However, if cost was the only reason NOT to run your own site, then I think you're here for all the wrong reasons, frankly.  When you mentioned you were a professional here to promote your business, I assumed you were using articles here to promote your main website.
   
   HubPages is not a substitute for a website, because its structure strongly discourages readers from sticking within your sub-domain - they are constantly tempted away to read other's Hubs.  The vast majority of readers will never visit your profile and will read only one or two of your Hubs.  That's not an effective way to get customers.
   
   These days when I consider buying someone's services, the first thing I do is look at their website.  if they don't have one, I'm suspicious - are they a fly-by-night? I think that's a fairly common reaction nowadays.  I wouldn't regard a few articles on a content site as an acceptable substitute! 
   
   You have the capacity to build a blog which would have authority in Google's eyes, because you're a specialist with real expertise.  It's tough making money from a blog if you're reliant on affiliate income, but it can be a very effective way to market your skills.
   
   You can create a blog on Blogger for nothing.  Just make sure you attach a proper domain name (a blog ending in "blogspot.com" doesn't look professional), and create an "About Me" page that gives your full credentials. 
   
   The snag with Blogger, for me, is that it can be hard to create clear navigation (the only built-in navigation is by date, which is pretty useless for most readers).  The best I've come up with is to use "Labels" like "Categories".
   
   Alternatively, if you build your own site, hosting should cost less than $5 a month.  Never accept the offer of site-building software - use Wordpress.org software.   The snag is that it's a big learning curve - people say it's easy, it is once you've got it started but setting it up is not!
   
   The other alternative I suggest is Wordpress.com.  You can get a Premium package for $99 a year (plus domain name), which gives you exactly the same powerful Wordpress software on a blog that's all set up for you, ready to go, on fast servers and with excellent support.  I know many people will say that's expensive, but for people who are really averse to technology, it's well worth paying!

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5. 66

   lovebuglenaposted 11 years ago

   I find that HP earnings are way more than AdSense earnings. I think that is the case because with the Ad Program they show ads from other networks and hence there are less Google ads on our hubs and hence lesser AdSense earnings.

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6. 77

   Robbie C Wilsonposted 11 years ago

   My earnings are up for December so far compared to November, but not massively. My hubs are totally non seasonal, I would not expect that people would read hubs on Excel more over Christmas than the rest of the year (unless for some reason they got Microsoft Office as a present for Christmas)

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