Why am I paid so little?

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   misslong123posted 5 years ago

   I make less than $4/month. I often spend a week or more adding all the capsules and so on and I think I an ace writer so I don’t understand my earnings. Has anyone else been in this boat? If so what did you do about it? I’ve written over 100 hubs now and I’m just feeling discouraged. Advice is welcome!!

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      Ryan Corneliusposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I have written over 300 and I have not been here 5 yrs. I have updated and deleted many along the way. What I learned here and other sites that I am apart of is that you have to do it for the love. I love writing so I really am not concerned about the money. If it comes it comes but I do not even look for it anymore. I just write as if someone is watching my work and how hard that I work to do it. I understand the frustration greatly. I have been there. I too have seen those headlines saying how much is made.  Commercial or not commercial, it's no guarantee of anything. Do not be discouraged. Keep writing. Someone is watching your work.

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         misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Awe! That's pretty encouraging! Thank you!

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Obviously something is wrong.  Either your titles don' match your content or are not properly done or you are writing on topics that have too much competition or are not filling needs of readers who usually want questions answered or have special interest in a topic.  Go back to each article and take a look at those things to see if you can fix them.  Check the competition  If more than 2 million people are writing about a topic, I generally walk away from it.

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         misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         This is very helpful. It may take me awhile to dig into all of my less popular hubs, but this gives me a good goal! I think I will add this information to my hubpages checklist - where I list all of the things I need to include in each hub. I also have learned about other places to find pictures instead of Morgue File, so I will be exploring that too. Thank you for your assistance! Michele

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I looked at your car games post and see that it is not focused.  You have all sorts of info that goes beyond the 4 games you say you are discussing, and also have photos of airplanes, which are not appropriate to the article.  It looks like you are stuffing the article to achieve wordage, but the excess is ruining the gist of the article.  The questionnaires are not really relevant to the 4 games, so they should go, too.  Quality is always preferable to length.

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         misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Wow! That is so helpful! I will most certainly re-check that hub to see if I can change those things. I look up to you as a successful writer on here, so your opinion is really important to me! I've read many of your comments and questions on here. I appreciate you taking the time to give me this feedback! Thanks, Michele

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   Will Apseposted 5 years ago

   I only know 2 ways to make money from writing here:
   
   Focus on commercial subjects, like products.
   
   or
   
   Get massive views for non-commercial subjects
   
   Sorry if this is not much help.

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      misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      hmm.... yes this is something to think about, but thanks to sharing! Michele

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   poppyrposted 5 years ago

   $4 a month for 100 hubs is indeed low, and I completely understand why you're feeling discouraged.
   
   I've taken a look at some of your articles, and what strikes me first is that some of the titles are far too long, which might be affecting their search engine results. For example, "Gift the Best Perfume for the Woman in Your Life - How to Pick Out the Right Fragrance for Her 2018 2019 - Top Perfumes" could be "Top Perfumes of 2019 for Women" or something along those lines. "Top 5 Must-Have Gifts to Enrich the Life of Your Pampered Pet this Holiday" could be "Top 5 Gifts For Your Pets" (or "Cats and Dogs") and make each subtitle one of the gifts. You're quite liberal with your subtitles and it sometimes reads more like a personal blog.
   
   The overall quality of your hubs is really good. I'd then wonder if the topics you're writing already have too many competing websites (home crafts and knitting appear on many blogs). None of us have the perfect solution, of course, but the best thing is to use your knowledge to write guides and "how to" articles. One of my best articles is a lengthy and detailed guide for a viedo game quest because lots of people are searching for it and there's no other website that offers the quest walkthrough in such detail. Think abut what your niches are and what people are searching.
   
   I hope that helps and that your earnings will improve soon!

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      Kierstin Gunsbergposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      This is good advice! ^^

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      greenmindposted 5 years agoin reply to this

      I notice that only a few of your articles are on vertical sites like Felt Magnet. I think it would be worth a long-term effort to move articles -- your traffic will improve over time.

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         misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

         I never thought of that. I don't know much about the vertical sites (?), but I've noticed the one that went to felt magnet has earned more money and traffic that the rest, so you may be right. I didn't move it over there, it just kind of got pushed over there somehow, but I have no complaints. I think I will make this one of my goals! Thank you so much! Michele K

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      misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Poppyr,
      
      Thank you  so much for the detailed help. I will love to take your advice/suggestions, because I have been at a loss. Not only have I made poor earning, but Hubpages has ranked my hubs very low.
      
      I spend so much time making these quality hubs that I just don't get it! You advice may be the lifeboat that I have been looking for.
      
      Your advice is greatly appreciated.
      Thanks,
      Michele Kelsey

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      misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Yes that does help! Thank you! Michele

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   psycheskinnerposted 5 years ago

   It's also worth mentioning that most content writing is not well paid.  It is a good idea to explore other options if you can write in a commercial way.

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      misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, my husband and I have talked about this often. I have made over twice as much as I do here just doing work on content mills. I just need to decide how much effort I still want to spend here. But as per my earnings, I don't see anything changing on here, but I am anxious to try some of the advice that I have found on this forum . Thank you for your advice!

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         Will Apseposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Seems like you take a pretty professional approach. Keyword research and getting the articles titles might be the best focus if you continue writing here.
         
         Best of luck.
         
         Just as an aside, you might be able to improve the flow of your articles if you read them out loud to get a better idea of how readers "hear" them. Old advice, I know, but still useful, for all of us.

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            misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Thank you for sharing! That indeed is helpful!
            
            Michele

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   Glenn Stokposted 5 years ago

   The others have given you great advice that you should follow.  In addition, most of your hubs don’t have bios. And the ones that do, you have written a generic bio. The purpose of the author bio is to show your authority on the subject. Authority is a powerful part of getting high ranking with Google.
   
   You can write up to 100 bios to use across your hubs, so make them relate and assign them correctly.
   
   Also, as greenmind mentioned, I see you only have six hubs on network niche sites. Hubs left on HubPages don’t earn much anymore ever since Google's algorithm demoting content farms.
   
   You need to work at getting your hubs moved to the appropriate niche sites. Start by following the suggestions made by the others in this thread. You can submit one hub every 14 days for consideration for a niche site.

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      misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Glenn,
      
      Thank you! That is definitely great advice/guidance!! I can’t wait to try all the recommendations listed on this thread. It may take me a long time but I’m but I have faith that I can make these changes without any problems. I appreciate you taking the time to write an informative reply and I can’t wait to get started. One question tho: I have a few hubs whose score is under 50, what do i doWith those  or what is your advice on what to do with here?? Again I am honored that you have answered my question. I greatly appreciate your time and effort! Look forward to reading more of your writing and advice!! Michele

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         Glenn Stokposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Michele, In reference to your question about what to do to improve your hubs with low scores, I’ve written several tutorials that explain all the things needed to be done. They are all in the spotlight on my profile.

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            misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Glenn,
            
            I think of you as a pro so I am anxious to check those hubs out! I spend more time researching how to write correct, money-making hubs than I do just writing, which is I know not the best way to write, but I just want to see why my content is rated so low on Hubpages. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, and I look forward to checking out those articles! Thank you so much Glenn!
            
            Regards,
            Michele

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               Glenn Stokposted 5 years agoin reply to this

               Michele, I consider writing to be a business. And with any business the time put towards learning is just as important as the creative process. So you’re doing the right thing researching how to improve your hubs.
               
               I spend a lot of time researching my low-performing hubs all the time—Analyzing my Google Analytics and researching what people are searching for when they stumble upon my hubs. These things give me ideas for what needs to be improved.
               
               The point I’m making is that there is nothing wrong with spending more time researching how to write correct, money-making hubs than just writing.

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   theraggededgeposted 5 years ago

   TT2 is correct. I looked at your "5 Ways That Knitting Can Give You That Feeling of Satisfaction" and it loses focus.
   
   Point 1 is learning how to knit. So you have to write about how learning how to knit gives you a feeling of satisfaction - if you go off into tangents about health benefits of knitting while pregnant and a list of what you need, including different types and brands of needles, then you are going off topic. Those videos are distracting. You have to always write to the title (or the subtitle in this case). Stay focused. That first section must only be about the satisfaction of the achievement of mastering knitting. Perhaps you could add in a little bit about how you struggled and then were so happy when it clicked.
   
   Point 2 is learning new stitches. But you add in a whole bit about finding a knitting teacher. Remember that the article is about the satisfaction of knitting. So here you could suggest a list of new stitches in order of difficulty. You might talk about increasing the speed of your knitting... but you have to stay on topic. When you find yourself wandering off, pull it back.
   
   This scatter gun approach is why this article is not on Feltmagnet. have a look at the article again and see it it needs a different title or some sections rewritten.
   
   It's a really important point: always write to the title.
   
   Hope that helps.
   
   Edit: and just to inspire you. I have 137 articles. Next month I'll reach four figures again.

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      misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      That is over the moon helpful! I can’t wait to try out your suggestions. They are very useful yet easy to fix! It’s the little suggestions like these that will lead me to my writing goals. They are simple and I have faith that this will help! Thank you so very much. Michele

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   jansharesposted 5 years ago

   Something is definitely wrong, Michele. We came on around the same time. You should be making more by now even if you're not producing new content. I'm speaking from experience because I don't write as much as I used to and I still get payout every month. Take to heart the suggestions made by the vets here, good advice. I would also add that for me, evergreen articles are key to receiving passive income. Hang in there, or . . . re-evaluate your goals for being an online writer.

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      misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      As usual Jan you are a wealth of wisdom! Thank you for writing a response to this question.
      
      A couple of feed back questions:
      What do you think is difference between our writing? What I mean is like are you doing SEO and more niche articles because you said you reach the payout almost every month whereas I get paid like semi annually or annually?? Lol.
      
      I think I’m ok on evergreen topics except my holiday ones. I can make those on the progress status and then publish them again when the holiday is here.
      
      Is that Kind of what you mean?
      
      I will just be so happy to get out of this hump!!
      
      All always, thank you!! Michele

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   PaulGoodman67posted 5 years ago

   There's no doubt that writing to earn is tough. It takes time to learn and learning is ongoing no matter how long you've done it, as the ground is constantly shifting under your feet.
   
   It's become harder, even in the time that I've been here. The competition is much greater than it used to be, both from other hubbers and externally.
   
   If you want to earn, that means you have to find a topic that hasn't been covered sufficiently - plus ideally, it needs to be one that advertisers want to pay good money to advertise on. Like Will says earlier, it needs to be commercial, or you need a hell of a lot of views if it isn't. If you can get a hell of a lot views on a commercial topic then you have hit the jackpot, but that is not easy to achieve.
   
   But you should always seek to get your hubs onto the "niche sites", that's a given if you want to earn. Study the articles on the front pages of them, if you want examples of what they want.
   
   It takes a lot of work to earn even a relatively modest amount, and I sometimes have doubts that it's even worth it, but I do it anyway.

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      misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

      Paul,
      
      Thank you for your input. I'm a little confused and I apologize. I understand trying to get my hubs on the proper niche category, but what does it mean "commercial" topics? I also don't know how to make hubs "advertising want to pay good money" Sorry, I should know how to do these things, but since I started on hubpages, a lot has changed.
      
      Thank you in advance,
      Michele Kelsey

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         Beth Eaglescliffeposted 5 years agoin reply to this

         Log out and look at each of your hubs in turn to see which ones have the biggest and best known companies ads on them. These hubs are probably the most "commercial" topics.

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            misslong123posted 5 years agoin reply to this

            Awesome idea! I can't wait to try this!!

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