OK I a getting a little tired is it time to jump?

1. 67

   johndwilliamsposted 9 years ago

   A grimble grumble moment..
   
   I like writing here - I like the layout and the forum and community are supportive.. but...
   
   I have a real feeling that my Hubs would be better off on my blogs.
   
   Of course I understand I am a guest here - but at the end of the day Google hates us.
   
   My traffic is dropping like a stone, and any residual income is too. We are talking in the thousands of percent here not just a marginal 10 - 20% drop. I feel why share? - if I stick my material on my blogs, at least I can make more from adsense. I do like writing and am not purely in the biz to make money. I like to share ideas and perhaps even be inspirational, but 60% of my traffic comes from Hubpages.
   
   My biggest traffic generators here are women with big breasts and walking sticks..
   
   I am just not feeling the love here - with all the changes and constant maintenance is writing here really effective? I seem to spend more time on this site tweaking and amending my Hubs rather than writing fresh content.
   
   My topics are not big or well researched, perhaps this is the problem. My view count is less than three digits a day for 106 Hubs - I count this as roughly 130,000 words.
   
   I've written loads of hubs in Dec 2014 so maybe Google has not picked these up - but honestly I am running out of patience, and most importantly time..

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   1. 83

      peachpurpleposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Have you share hub links at sharemedias?

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   2. 0

      Christy Kirwanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi john, as psycheskinner mentioned, many HubPages writers like to diversify their online writing efforts, keeping some articles on HubPages, and moving others to niche blogs or writing sites. If you have a lot of content in the same specific niche, a blog might be the way to go, but HubPages can still be a good place to keep articles that don't really fit with your blog's topic. My advice is to do some experimenting to find what works best for your content.  Best of luck!

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   3. 85

      Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      IF you have blogs where your Hubs would fit, I'd say move them to your blogs.  However, it's well-established that to get real "Google love", a blog MUST be focussed on one subject, so I wouldn't recommend moving Hubs which aren't related to your blog topic - that could backfire badly. 
      
      Having said that, are your blogs really earning more with Adsense than on HP?  Most people are finding Adsense earnings are pitiful these days.  The big advantage of a blog is that you don't have to rely on Adsense - I don't even use it on my blogs now.   I rely on affiliate marketing relevant to my niche.  I could do a LOT better if I built an email list, ran a newsletter and sold advertising - that's where the real money is in blogging these days - but I find it all too boring and while I have more lucrative earning opportunities elsewhere, I can't be bothered!

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         paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         We need to chat.

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   4. 69

      Mick Beetposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      i KNOW THE FEELING....

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2. 76

   psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

   I would suggest trying both methods in parallel to see which does better (for me it is hubpages, I also have 6 blogs).  But also keep in mind that these things will continue to change it can can be a good idea to spread your bets.

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3. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   I jumped taking hubs with me, and the same articles get more traffic than they ever did on HP.

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   1. 76

      psycheskinnerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      But do they make more income? My blog posts get 100x the traffic and less than half the earnings

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      1. 76

         colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         That is a very good point.
         More traffic doesn't always translate to more earnings.

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      2. 84

         NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         I was thinking the same thing about my blogs compared to HP.

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         1. 85

            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I think that's a common experience, if you rely on Adsense.   It's not enough to passively display click-for-pay ads on a blog any more.   My blogs don't get a lot of traffic because I'm too lazy to promote them, but I earn far more per visitor on my blogs than I do on HubPages.  That's not from Adsense (I think I have one Adsense ad on one of my blogs), it's from affiliate ads for products which are very specifically targeted at my audience.

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            1. 62

               paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Shall I start a separate thread?

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               1. 62

                  paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  I like you, but I have been seeing a long time problem. Would you like to play?

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            2. 84

               NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks, Marisa. I've been thinking of focusing more on affiliate ads. Would you recommend putting those affiliate ads on the site I already have or starting a site just for the products?

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               1. 85

                  Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  Your existing site has the benefit of age and content, so you should build on that rather than starting another site. 
                  
                  Google "Martial Arts Affiliate" to find suitable merchants, and also join ShareASale so you can search their merchants for relevant products (it costs nothing to join). 
                  
                  By the way I'd really like to see a different background on your blog, it doesn't match the subject at all IMO!

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                  1. 84

                     NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     Thanks, Marisa.
                     
                     Good idea about the background, I'll have to look for a more relevant image.
                     
                     I do use Share-a-Sale, though haven't made money on it yet. I'll have to look into more affiliate programs specific to martial arts. The Share-a-Sale one I use is a martial arts company, maybe I haven't made any sales through them due to lack of traffic or I need better and more product pieces on the blog.

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                     1. 85

                        Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                        Sorry I missed this post Nate, I've been off doing other things.
                        
                        Yes, your lack of sales is due to both factors I'd say.   And bear in mind you don't need a background - you could just have a solid colour.

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4. 95

   aesta1posted 9 years ago

   I have hubs that don't get much traffic and some I have freshened but I know that wherever they are, they will still not get much traffic unless I promote them and make them more interesting to readers. Some, may have to go in the future as I can't really do much with the topic. Moving for me is not the solution. At least, in HP, you have a support group that will share it as well.

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   1. 68

      Elsie Hagleyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I'm in the same situation, not really worried about income, just enjoying the company, starting to do writing challenges, great group of writers there.
      Just keep writing and smile.

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5. 0

   calculus-geometryposted 9 years ago

   You won't know until you try it.   One tip is to keep one or two articles per niche on HP so you can use those hubs to backlink to your blogs.  Just do it in a way that won't get you moderated for being overly promotional.
   
   I don't think it's worth moving some of your articles that cover highly competitive broad subjects.  Like your articles on weight loss. It's doubtful they'll ever get much traffic no matter where you put them.  Just guessing, but I'd say none of your weight loss articles gets more than 20 hits a month.  All the sites that rank for weight loss keyword phrases are well-established heavy hitters.

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6. 62

   paradigmsearchposted 9 years ago

   My standard operating procedure is when I give up on a particular hub, off to www. websitewithnoname. com it goes.

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7. 60

   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   I don't deal with Adsense except for one site that gets content I don't use elsewhere. More traffic means an increase in clicks that can convert to sales.  I get more traffic, more clicks on products, and more sales than I ever did on HP.  I don't have to rework my articles over and over and over, or play the guessing game.  My sites work without bugs.

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   1. 62

      paradigmsearchposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting avatar.

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8. 62

   paradigmsearchposted 9 years ago

   I've got at least one for you. I absolutely, categorically know you would love them. But you will have to entice me.

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9. 49

   Mills Pposted 9 years ago

   Good luck to you, no matter what you decide. I and many others were fortunate to be a part of Epinions for so long, and I don't think I'll ever get the notice anywhere else that I got there. At least I know what to expect here, and hope I build a following here.

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10. 73

    LeanManposted 9 years ago

    I still get my payout with HP every month but views have dropped due to Google's lack of love for the site. However compared to other revenue sharing sites that I use HP is still managing to drag in regular views.
    Yes they are pissing people off by making many changes to the site that mean that some people have to keep making changes - but then those changes are made very much to reflect the expectations of Google and maintain our traffic rather than just random whims to annoy the users of the site.
    
    What I get from HP is a nice little addition to my online income but it is a long way from being my main source.
    
    I have several personal sites that I use; these do an order of magnitude better than anything I get here on HP. Unlike Marisa however I find that I do VERY well from Adsense. If you are serious to earn money then your own sites are the way you should go, however I would still take a huge amount of notice as to the changes that HP makes in response to Google and mirror those changes on your own sites.

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    1. 75

       Barbara Kayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       +1. I follow the advice here for my website too. Yes, my website earns more than Hubpages. I'll always keep my account here though. It is so easy to write a hub and I enjoy the people.

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       1. 88

          Jean Bakulaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          I have a 3 year old blog and am an expert in my subject, and never made any money on the blog, except for readings, which pay well, but are also a lot of work.
          
          On a group site your work has a better chance of being seen. If you are good at promoting it and can work with code so you can control ads, it may benefit you to move your work. Banner ads are useless and nobody clicks anymore. I had an offer to write an article a week for $10.00 for another site, and to be able to backlink to my own site, and said no. It was at a bad time in my life. I may see if I can contact the person again.
          
          If you stay here, change is inevitable, And yes, it takes hours to change everything the more hubs you have.

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          1. 75

             Barbara Kayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

             I should add that my website does well, but my blogs do almost nothing. It has a lot to do with what you write about and you need a niche. That is the advantage of Hubpages - you can write about many different topics.

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                Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                There is really no difference between a blog and a website, it's the fact that it specialises which is important.

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11. 60

    LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

    I started a brand new site, less than 2 months old, added a blog page to it, and am getting an avg of 100 or more views a day.  I moved content from here to there. The other one was getting better traffic than here at HP, even though I had neglected it for awhile.  Again, content moved from HP to that site. Added a blog page and again avg 100 views a day.   So the constant go back and tweak hubs to get more traffic is bunk.  I moved my content, tweaked nothing, and traffic from day one was better than here at HP.   I use another platform for articles I really have no use for elsewhere and don't want to start another site for those articles, an traffic is bad there as well.  My conclusion is writing sites just don't cut it anymore when it comes to traffic for our articles.  When I didn't have the money to pay for even cheap hosting, I started with blogspot where you can get paid domain name for 10  bucks a year, and do a 301 redirect when the cash flow is enough to go to WordPress, or other sites and pay for hosting.  Namecheap is also cheap domain names.  I never have to worry about how many articles will be unfeatured tomorrow or the next day, over and over again.  I make the rules. I change the rules.  I tell myself what the new rules is without any guessing to it.  That alone is priceless.  And, yes, sales have gone up as well from my own sites and I get 100 percent of the commission.

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    1. 81

       Marcy Goodfleischposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Linda - it sounds like your blog site is monetized?  I don't know much about Blogspot (other than they've stolen a bunch of my work - but Google does seem to remove those things when I let them know). 
       
       Did you have to reapply for Adsense?

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12. 60

    LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

    Marcy:  No, I do not have to reapply for Adsense. I don't do Adsense or Chitika.  I use Amazon, Viglink, Skimlinks, Avantlink for sales.   
    
    This is the thing with Adsense: Let's say you did not have Adsense til you started writing on HP.  Let's say your email is a hot mail email account.  You then decided to start a blog, another site, the same adsense account that you have here would also be used on your new site or blog.  But, you would have to use the same email account as well. You can only have one adsense account.  I have blogger sites under 2 gmail accounts, so only 1 of the sites I started there for a test would qualify for Adsense simply because the email account I used to open it, is the same one I use for my Adsense account.   In other words if you open adsense under johndoe at hotmail, you cannot open a blogger blog under johndoe at gmail and be able to use Adsense on it.  Adsense does not pay enough to lose sleep over whether I can use it or not.
    
    2 of my blogspot sites are older ones when I first started trying to earn money online with affiliate marketing.  I like them, but I don't like playing games with Google.  I have a new one for test purposes with blogspot.  I use Weebly for my websites with paid domain names. I am going to move one blogspot to Weebly in  the near future, and leave the other ones simply because I do get sales from them.    I have come to the conclusion that having your own site with a paid domain name is better than subdomains or one like marysblog at blogspot dot come.

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       Marcy Goodfleischposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       This is really helpful, Linda - and it's great information.  I've resisted getting a paid domain name (mostly because I don't want to build a site), but I'm thinking I need to consider it if I really want to be serious about online writing.  I can load content, but I don't want to mess with maintaining a site.
       
       So - are you saying you don't use Adsense even for your paid domain sites?

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       1. 85

          Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Marcy, if you want to be taken seriously as a writer then yes, I think a website or blog is essential.   If you were thinking of hiring a writer, who would you trust more - the one with a profile on a free writing site, or the one with a smart-looking blog or site in their own name?
          
          However I think you're aware that unless you have a subject you can specialise in, you won't make any money from that site. 
          
          If you want a site just so you've got a profile, then start a free site at Wordpress.com (and follow me so I can follow you back - mine is also on Wordpress, marisawright dot com).   You can attach a domain name - in fact it's easier than on Blogger and not expensive.  Like everything there is a learning curve but it's not too bad!  However you can't put any advertising on Wordpress.com unless you upgrade to a paid account, which is $99 a year. 
          
          You can use your existing Adsense account anywhere - in fact you're only allowed one Adsense account so you don't have much choice!   I tried Chitika and found it pretty useless.  It may have changed, but at the time it didn't do what Adsense does (show ads based on the reader's history), it showed ads based on my content.   That may sound good, but the trouble was that their clients were limited so they rarely had any which were truly relevant to my content.

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       2. 75

          Barbara Kayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Marcy, I only use Adsense for advertising on my website and it earns good money. Each site is different in that way. With Amazon ads mine does terrible. You should try several advertising affiliates and then decide what works best for you.

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13. 60

    LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

    You understood correctly. I would use Chitika before I would Adsense.  The way adsense pays, if they even pay, I will be dead and buried before I reach their payout of 100 bucks min.  Chitika is 5 bucks min    I can get paid for advertising with some of the merchants I deal with.  I would rather rent them space on my site.

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    1. 89

       Suzanne Dayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       A cheap way of doing all of this is to use the free paid platforms like blogger etc, then pay only for a domain name pointing to the free site. That way, you get independent love from Google, yet an easy platform to work with. Just a thought...

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14. 60

    LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

    Part of your post disappeard Melissa.  I used Chitika before but stopped using it.  I think it was because their ads were crap.  Adsense ads are bad enough.  I don't like unrelated ads on my sites.

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15. 60

    LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

    Suzanne: You are correct. It is the cheap way to go. Only thing is if something weird going on they will zap away your blog in a heart beat.   They did that to me couple of years ago and took adsense away too for fraudulent clicks and spam.  I got Adsense back.  I never found out what the supposed spam was.  It was a brand new site I had barely started. I went to work on it one day, and poof no longer existed    It is easy to use and for 10 bucks, hey, nothing to lose really.   But now I keep a copy of everything I publish.
    
    I started over with Weebly for Free to test the waters, and then went paid domain and now have to pay them for hosting.  I pay for a year in advance so it is cheaper for me in the long run.  Sites pay for themselves from sales alone.

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