How long did it take you to make your first pay out?

1. 86

   bbanks27posted 6 years ago

   How long did it take you to make your first pay out and how many articles did you write until you did? I am only curious.

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   1. 95

      sallybeaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      It took me 11 months and about 34 hubs.

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   2. 71

      Marie Flintposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I started in late 2012, and it took me over two years. I can't remember how many hubs I had, but I do know my problem--I don't have a niche, and I tend to be too academic and philosophical. The average reader isn't attracted to these things. I'm a little better at understanding SEO, but it's taken me a long time. My payouts still aren't very good; these only come about every 18 months, and the amount is the minimum.

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      1. 85

         Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Not having a niche makes NO difference whatsoever, Marie!    If you want to run your own blog, it's absolutely vital to have a niche - but it doesn't matter that much on HubPages.   It certainly doesn't matter now we've got the niche sites.
         
         I'd recommend reading my Hub on How to Optimise Your Hubs, and concentrate on submitting your existing Hubs to the niche sites.  You'll need to work on your titles and also update the layout of some of them.

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   3. 81

      jackclee lmposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      It took me about 1 year and at the time I had about 250 articles. Some of the articles were imported from Squidoo that were written over the past 5 or 6 years...I have been averaging about 1 article per week sometimes 2 articles. I have 450 articles now, about 80% are featured and 5% are moved to niche sites.
      I am here because I love to write about many topics and not for profit.
      I am donating all my earnings to help my alma mater CCNY.
      
      My average views per day is about 60 and my daily payout is about 10 cents.

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      1. 71

         Marie Flintposted 6 years agoin reply to this

         Kudos to you, Jack! What a wonderful way to help the fencing program at the school. Your tenacity and productivity are inspirational. Thank you for posting. --Marie

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   4. 46

      Ashish Dadgaaposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      @Brittany Banks,
      
      Very good question. These answers are motivational for freshers.

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   5. 86

      tamarawilhiteposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      More than a year.

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   6. 92

      Sherry Hewinsposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      I guess I was pretty lucky. It only took me 5 months. I guess I had about 40 articles, but the top 5 got most of the views.

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   7. 94

      Glenis Rixposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Don't have high hopes or expectation. From what I have read on the forums it seems that very few people make significant amounts of money from writing for HubPages.You will need to work very hard and write lots of hubs with a wide appeal if you hope to make a payout quickly. I have been here for about two and a half years. Initially, I wasn't very active and only recently have started to write more articles, all forty featured. Today I reached 10,000 views.  I still am not close to a pay out but that was not my prime objective when I started. I view writing for this site as a hobby (I'm retired and probably have more spare time than many people here).

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2. 85

   Marisa Wrightposted 6 years ago

   About nine months and about 60 Hubs, and that was in the days when HubPages was far higher profile and more successful than it is today.

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3. 95

   theraggededgeposted 6 years ago

   I wrote a bunch of hubs, can't remember now - not very many. Then went away and forgot about them and HubPages for almost two years. Then one day I got a Paypal payment out of the blue. So I came back for another look. At the time they were running an apprenticeship program so I joined that. It was an excellent (and tough) way of learning and immersing oneself in the site. Wish they would bring it back

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   1. 71

      Marie Flintposted 6 years agoin reply to this

      Me too, theraggededge. I had signed up for the apprenticeship, but HP cancelled it before I had a chance to get the experience.

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4. 92

   poppyrposted 6 years ago

   About a year and maybe 50 or so hubs, from what I remember

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5. 92

   FatFreddysCatposted 6 years ago

   I earned diddly for the first year or so that I was here when I was running strictly Google AdSense. Things picked up when I signed up for the HP Ads Program, now I get a payout two or three times a year... which is still small potatoes by some people's standards but I'm OK with it.
   
   I have yet to reach the magic $100 payout mark for AdSense even after all this time, so I've stopped worrying about it. If and when I ever get a payment from them I'll take it as a gift from a gracious nowhere.

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6. 83

   Coffeequeeenposted 6 years ago

   I've only been on Hubpages 7 months and have yet to have a payout.  I've written 27 articles so far, but my earnings are slowly going up.  I do like writing on here though.  It's great that you can write about more or less anything you want to.

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7. 92

   Chriswillman90posted 6 years ago

   About a year and a half with over 100 hubs. My earnings kept doubling every month after that until reaching maximum last December.

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8. 69

   Anamika Sposted 6 years ago

   It took me 8 months for the first Payout.  I don't remember how many Hubs.

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9. 86

   bbanks27posted 6 years ago

   Thank you all for sharing. I love writing on here also and plan to write for as long as I can for Hubpages.

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10. 78

    Kathleen Cochranposted 6 years ago

    I've been here 6 years and made about $200.  Making money is not a good reason to be here.  You'll be disappointed.

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    1. 85

       Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       Kathleen, you are one of the people I wrote my "How to Optimise Hubs" Hub for.  I strongly recommend you read it.  Your Hubs deserve to be read by many more people, but they are not set up to attract traffic - and they could so easily be.
       
       You are, obviously, a highly accomplished and experienced writer in the offline world - but there are aspects of online writing that are fundamentally different, and you haven't adapted to those.   In particular, your titles - which would be ideal for a printed magazine - are totally wrong for the internet.  I'm sure that if you went through your Hubs and fixed all your titles, you'd see an instant boost in traffic.

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11. 90

    Thelma Albertsposted 6 years ago

    I can´t remember as I was almost a year here when I applied for Adsense. Maybe I got my first payout in my second year here at Hubpages.

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12. 87

    NateB11posted 6 years ago

    I think it was about 2 years. But then I started writing on another account and I started getting a payout within months because by then I understood how to get traffic. But flying blind for the first couple years, it took me that long to reach a payout on my first account.
    
    Edit: Forgot to say how many articles. I think it was around 130 on the first account, around 20 or 30 for the second account.

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    1. 85

       Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       This is a really good illustration of how HubPages has changed.   Nate and I are similar in some ways - we both joined HubPages knowing nothing about how to write online, and we both have expertise in a minority-interest subject.   But I joined when HubPages was going gangbusters, so in spite of my greenness and subject choice, I made payout relatively quickly.   Whereas Nate joined after the great Panda Disaster, and it took him twice as long to get to the same point.
       
       I'm not sure where we are on the earnings scale now, compared to then.

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       1. 87

          NateB11posted 6 years agoin reply to this

          Yeah, I've often thought about how I started sometime soon after Panda hit and I remember back then that people were still talking about it. I was accustomed, from the beginning, to not earning much even after writing a pretty good volume of articles. But every time the site makes a recovery, I get a bump up in earnings.

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    2. 60

       Khadija Umairposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       How did you understand how to get traffic? because I am really confused about everything

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          theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          Khadija, spend some time wandering around the Learning Center. There are lots of articles that will help you there: https://hubpageshelp.com There are some tabs across the page to help narrow the focus. 
          
          This is a good one: https://hubpageshelp.com/content/Learni … at-content

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       2. 87

          NateB11posted 6 years agoin reply to this

          I had to study and research. I looked up information on SEO here at HP and also across the Web.

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13. 93

    jansharesposted 6 years ago

    Nine months. Around 25-30 articles, don't recall exactly.

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14. 86

    bbanks27posted 6 years ago

    I am not here just to earn money. I have wrote 55 published articles. If I wanted to just write for money, I wouldn't have wasted time and wrote so many. I have reasons why I write. I am only curious is all, as to how everyone else is doing with their pay outs and how long it took them to earn their first pay out. Thank you all for those who shared.

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    1. 86

       bbanks27posted 6 years agoin reply to this

       maybe I should write an article explaining why I write?

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       1. 85

          Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          I don't think that's necessary.   Different people write on HubPages for different reasons and that's fine. 
          
          You have to remember that the main purpose of HubPages is to make money from articles, so it's not surprising if most people focus on earnings.  However there's quite a large group of writers who write for the social network and because they enjoy it.

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15. 78

    Kathleen Cochranposted 6 years ago

    Perfectly reasonable question that we all asked at some point.  Meant no offense.  I'm encouraged to see so many hubbers with my same experience too. Though I wish we all were rewarded monetarily for all the hard work we put into this site, which is obviously benefiting its organizers.

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16. 76

    Cardiaposted 6 years ago

    Honestly, it took me about four years to get my first cheque from AdSense :'). It was a very long wait, but I learned quite a lot along the way.

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17. 76

    Cardiaposted 6 years ago

    Oh, and I'm not sure how many articles I had at the time, but maybe around 30.

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18. 95

    chef-de-jourposted 6 years ago

    I recall earning all of 2 cents in my first month! In the second about 8 cents. That made me feel rich. Then I had to cross the barren land which took 18 months and much blood, sweat and tears. But I did eventually reach the Niche of Plenty and now I'm reaping what I've sown. Keep at it, persevere.

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19. 89

    WryLiltposted 6 years ago

    I think it took me about 8-9 months, with over 200 hubs. Then three months, then two months then each month.
    
    Nowadays I earn well above monthly payout with just 60 something articles.
    
    It's about finding topics with lots of traffic but few other competing results. There was a man on the site years ago who had a hub that earned him $100 a day on its own.

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20. 78

    Kathleen Cochranposted 6 years ago

    Marissa:  I appreciate the advice from a writer who is much more savvy in the world of the Internet than I am.  I will take it and work on my titles.  Even the titles to my novels are not my strong suit.  Thanks

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21. 81

    Wesman Todd Shawposted 6 years ago

    I remember it took me at least a year to make payout. At that time payout was from Google Adsense. The minimum then was the same as today, one hundred dollars. You could also make payout from other advertising venues that are no longer available, like ebay, and then there was Contrera? Something like that. They ditched Contrera (or whatever it was called) first, and then they made ebay available to everyone (it had not previously been available to all hubpages users) - and later ditched ebay.
    
    Amazon is a consistent winner. You used to get paid directly by amazon dot com in the form of amazon spending money gift cards.
    
    I'm not sure how many years the Hubpages ad program has been going on, but it's very consistent and predictable. And Hubpages is never late or shady with the payments. It's just very hard work to find things to write about that will make money.

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22. 0

    GypsySarahposted 6 years ago

    Interesting, thanks for your input everyone!

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23. 74

    Nadine Mayposted 6 years ago

    I've been with hub pages for 3 years and I hope to get my 2nd payout this year. I'm not writing articles for money, but more for marketing purposes as an author. The research for my novels are shaped into articles and again rewritten in a story telling style. My aim is to write two articles a month, so no I do not do it for the money.

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    1. 78

       Kathleen Cochranposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       That was my reason also in the beginning.  I closed my Web Site and my FaceBook Page because I thought my activity here would lead more readers to my books on Amazon.  I even have excerpts here of each book.  I get great comments and feedback - but no sales.  Not one.  How is it working for you?

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       1. 85

          Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          Promoting yourself as a self-published author is very, very hard.  Unfortunately HubPages is not the solution.   
          
          Yes, you will get followers on HubPages more quickly than on Facebook or your own site - but followers on HubPages are writers, not readers.  No one joins HubPages to read articles.  And it's impossible to "build a following" of readers on HubPages, because we have no way of knowing who our readers are, ever.  Whereas on Facebook or your website, if you're lucky enough to get a follower, you do know who they are and you can interact with them (and therefore keep them, and market your next book to them).
          
          I would strongly recommend you start your own website on Wordpress.com - it's totally free and you only need a few basic pages:  About The Author, Contact Me, My Books, and a writing sample or two if you're interested in freelance work. Don't bother blogging on it, don't expect anyone to comment on it, and don't worry about how many visitors you get.  Just think of it as your online business card.  And make sure you link to it everywhere you can - on your HubPages profile, on Amazon, on Facebook, on LinkedIn etc.  Having a smart website shows you're a serious professional.
          
          I also recommend joining Critiquecircle.com.   You may not need critiques on your novels, but the forums there have lots of self-published authors, all wrestling with the same issues as you, and you could pick up some useful tips.  A word of warning, though - you'll also find a lot of authors there, blogging their little hearts out, and they're convinced it's going to help them sell books.  They're wrong.  Unless you're writing non-fiction and have a specialist subject, blogging is a complete waste of time.

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24. 57

    BadCo77posted 6 years ago

    It looks like fun, I hope I make a lot of money !

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25. 76

    Agathe Lposted 6 years ago

    Yeah, I didn't make much too. In fact, I haven't received any payout. Well, I guess I have to keep writing.

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26. 83

    TheShadowSpecterposted 6 years ago

    I've been a member of Hubpages since autumn of last year, and I haven't earned a dime yet.  My big setback is getting a Google Adsense account.  Those are not easy to come by.  I like Hubpages, but it has its drawbacks and I think another big setback is that it is more difficult to get something controversial published here; and controversy is what sells just like one mystery writer named Robin Hathaway told me in a class of hers I took.  Moreover, when you get something controversial published here, there's no guarantee that you'll be allowed to monetize that article.  Hubpages is apparently trying to keep a clean-cut image in the cyber world, but I'm not criticizing them for it.  That's just like when you turn on the television set, you have HBO where anything goes and then you have the Disney Channel that's always family-friendly.  I'm now a member of both Hubpages and one other similar website; so if one goes belly up, then I'll still have the other one to post articles on.

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27. 83

    TheShadowSpecterposted 6 years ago

    A big thing to remember is to protect your work.  Whenever someone else steals your articles, you lose a lot of traffic because of it and that causes loss of money at your end once you have started monetizing your articles.  That's why it's always good to check once in a while to make sure that nobody has plagiarized your work.  Whenever I see that another Hubber's article has been stolen, I notify that person immediately.

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       GypsySarahposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       That's terrible!! Who does stuff like that?!? How can you know when that's happened?

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          theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          Happens all the time. You might see a copyright symbol appear next to your hub on your account page. When you click on the hub it'll say 'Your content may have been copied' and there will be a link to the infringing page. There's also a tab right there on your account page.
          
          Sometimes though, it just worth pasting a short section of your hub into Google and see what comes up.

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             GypsySarahposted 6 years agoin reply to this

             Great to know, thank you. And then you can complain about it? Isn't plagiarism illegal?

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       NateB11posted 6 years agoin reply to this

       Google just chooses one version over the other, you don't necessarily lose traffic, especially if the copy is on a low-rate site.

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28. 57

    hiya-writerposted 6 years ago

    Is there any specific way to select titles for hubs, which can get maximum traffic? My hubs are not getting much traffic - wondering if my topic selection is actually helping me.

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    1. 87

       NateB11posted 6 years agoin reply to this

       Check out Wrylilt's Hub on using Google Auto-Suggest. It's the next best thing if you can't afford a keyword tool.

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       1. 95

          theraggededgeposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          Here's the link: https://hubpages.com/community/How-to-F … le-Suggest

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       2. 85

          Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

          Some experienced bloggers believe it's better than using any keyword tool (and I'm not talking about me, I mean serious bloggers)

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             NateB11posted 6 years agoin reply to this

             I heard something like that before. That's not my experience, but I'm sure there are people that know things I don't know.

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             1. 87

                NateB11posted 6 years agoin reply to this

                But Google Suggest works well, I will say that. Best traffic I've ever gotten, however, was from using a keyword tool - and not Google's. Paid ones are much better. I'm long past being able to afford that at this point though.

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                1. 85

                   Marisa Wrightposted 6 years agoin reply to this

                   There were some great keyword tools once upon a time.   I can't remember exactly what happened, but Google blocked them from accessing some of the information they needed to work accurately, and they've never been the same since.

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                   1. 87

                      NateB11posted 6 years agoin reply to this

                      Maybe it's good I can't afford it anymore, might be a waste of money. I can see the Google Suggest being good if you're going for the right topics. As you know, my main area of expertise is not good in terms of traffic. However, I've used Google Suggest with some success in topics of my area of expertise - I mean it's been successful considering it's a topic that gets little traffic.

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29. 48

    SolveMyMazeposted 6 years ago

    I took me around 6 months to get my first payout. That was based off of 8 or 9 medical articles. Granted, it was a lot easier back then to rank your Hub in Google. This was due to the fact there were lesser algos in place, along with there being a lot less competition back then, too.

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30. 60

    uchrisbrownposted 6 years ago

    First payout from Adsense was about 1 week. Direct deposit is best. Paper check takes longer.

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    1. 81

       jackclee lmposted 6 years agoin reply to this

       How is that possible, you have no articles.

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31. 68

    Thomas Finneyposted 6 years ago

    Been on here for a few months, have almost a hundred hubs and still don't even have a dollar yet.

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32. 87

    Will Apseposted 6 years ago

    Just for the sake of adding a little balance, I hit the $100 adsense payout in three months. That was on the back of a very lucky choice of page. After that I got payout every month.
    
    It took me a long time to work why that page made so much money and even longer to find ways to repeat the success.
    
    If you want money, you need to focus on areas where you have a lot of knowledge and then learn how to get visitors. The search suggestion tool of many services can help.
    
    Feeling slightly guilty about offering advice at the moment, since I have not been very active this year. If someone who plugs away here everyday has something better to offer, I will defer.

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33. 90

    cperuzziposted 6 years ago

    Unfortunately, it's a N/A for me.  I joined the late lamented Apprentice program and once I did, it was $50 a month.  Now that I'm on my own it takes about six months for a $50 payment to my PayPal account.  I have 174 active articles at the moment - but I've slowed down my article production to about once every three months.  The key is to find something evergreen and work consistently with regular articles.  While I was in the program I did ten articles a month.  That's a good number to build your base on.

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