Come on, Hubpages - Quora has just offered a program to pay writers.

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   TessSchlesingerposted 3 years ago

   So what's happening here?
   
   I'm guessing that various web publishers have suddenly realized how much money is to be made through writers. Make no mistake, they wouldn't be putting up these websites or offereing money (and when people are offering $25,000 prizes), there's money in it for them.
   
   I also have no doubt that they are looking for good writers - the kind of writers who can draw an audience.
   
   Here's the thing. Hubpages makes it extremely difficult to be published. Quora, Vocal, Medium don't. Why is that?
   
   Yes, Hubpages had some really bad experiences in the past, but other sites are putting in more and more money into good writers, and they don't limit them. So what's the story.
   
   For the record, Quora just sent me an email saying that if we paid the $50 per year, we could earn money through advertising. That means passive income.
   
   I have twice removed my stuff from Quora because they wanted to use my stuff without payment. So, of course, I trotted straight over to see how much they paid. Only that it's a part of advertising. They're paying 95% of advertising revenue.
   
   What are your thoughts?

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      MizBejabbersposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I've been getting invitations to write for Quora for a long time now, but I haven't checked in to it. I was planning to check out what they offer when I had more time. But lately, I've been seeing some really stupid questions and answers that have been blamed on their paid writers. For instance, a couple of people criticized one woman and said that she'd posted several versions of the same asinine post in several places "because the more she posted, the more she got paid." I'm not sure I would want to write under those circumstances. I'll have to do more checking on them.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I'm not sure I understand that. Quora just opened for writers to be paid today. Prior to this, the only people paid were those who asked questions, and they would post different versions of the same questions over and over again.

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         eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Isn't getting paid to write there by invitation only?

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            MizBejabbersposted 3 years agoin reply to this

            As far as I know that is true, but anyone who registers for a membership can answer a question posted there, kind of like comments on HP, and they don't get paid for that. Apparently they pick invitees from their best writers of answers to questions. I get requests from them daily to answer certain questions (no pay for that, so sometimes I do, sometimes I pass.) I get an invitation every couple of months to write for them. Write what? I don't know. I haven't had time to check into it, so I don't know exactly what that entails. However, I do know that some of the sloppy or uneducated writers with good thoughts have their answers edited for grammar, punctuation and clarity. If they would invite me to become an editor, I would love that since that is the profession from which I retired.

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               TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               I'm curious about this. I was under the impression that Quora only paid for people who asked questions - not people who answered questions.
               
               Yes, I've just researched this extensively. Up to now, writers have not been paid for input. It is only people who ask questions on Quora who are paid.
               
               Now people who answer questions are being paid. That is a massive difference.

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                  Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  OMG! What difference? Since both those asking quetions and answering quetions are being paid?

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                     TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                     Nope. Up until now, only those asking questions have been paid. Writers have never been paid up to now. That is why this is a big deal.

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                        Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                        Tessa, okay you've clarified the issue. Thanks.

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                           TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                           ++

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                        viryaboposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                        I used to answer questions on Quora, briefly. I stopped when I found many questions are not only silly, but repetitive and useless.

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                           TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                           Yes.

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                        DrMark1961posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                        I have millions of views on that site but I just checked and have no invite in my email. I think it is like the QPP, just sent to a few that they think Will write for them. Let us know If it works out for you.

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                           Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                           Dr.Mark1960, welcome to the discussion. Miss you and your dogs on hubpages.

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                              DrMark1961posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                              Thanks. I have not written here since they blocked comments but still look ar Pethelpful every week and follow many of the forum threads.

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                                 Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                                 Yep, I know and welcome.

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                                 TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                                 Yes, well, I won't write for hp anymore because I'm tired of the harassment by certain parties.

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                           TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                           Mark, nice to see you here. So many gone. It's also possible that I was sent the invite because I had something of a fight with them. I regularly did 600,000 views per month, and they wanted to publish my writing in other magazines without payment. I said no. They pointed out to me that they needn't have asked, that by signing the TOCs, I had given them permission to do that.
                           
                           So I deleted virtually everything (second time I did that). So there are three possible reasons I got that invite.
                           
                           1. I previously complained about lack of payment.
                           2. I've been on the site since a few weeks after it started.
                           3. I always got a lot of views.
                           
                           I am going to pay the $50 and see how it goes. It worked very well for me on Medium, so perhaps it will on Quora as well.

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      eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Is that an optional scheme paying $50 per? They sent me an email too and monetised all my content.
      
      Edit: I think I signed up to Quora+ which is "coming soon".
      This reminds me a bit of the Fixya "Marketplace" scheme which I was a member of about 10 years ago. A bit like Fiver, you could set up a service and a user would pay a suggested fee if they were happy that their problem was solved (mostly troubleshooting problems with stuff).
      
      It would be nice if and when HubPages gets around to implementing Q&A or comments or however it manifests itself, that it could be a premium service and we get paid to help readers.

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         PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         The old HP Q and A was a pain in the a**e, I could have been there forever with all the questions. Some of the questions were trivial, some were in-depth, specialist even. The sort of questions I was paid $40/hour to answer when I worked for libraries.
         
         It might be better if we were recompensed. Though it could also end up being like a (very) low paid call center person.
         
         I think the original idea of the HP Q and A was just to get the common questions that are on Google search and help cover more keywords and phrases.
         
         I see myself mainly as a writer. You'd have to pay me quite a bit to do the call center thing.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         There have been a lot of scams on the web. The difference is that Quora has been around for at least 10 years, and it is well entrenched.
         
         I might be totally wrong here (and it's quite possible I am), but Newsbreak has taken a lot of writers from Medium, plus there is only a small percentage of writers that actually earn for publishers.
         
         I think there's a scramble for those writers now.
         
         I also think that different sites have different strengths. Hubpages strengths are as follows:
         
         1. It's been around a long time. Longevity is good for SEO
         2. It's passive income - real passive income.
         3. It has a highly experienced ownership team - all of whom will do whatever it takes to earn from the web.
         
         It's disadvantages are:
         1. The presentation has become increasingly awful. It works, but I don't like it.
         2. It's very difficult to get articles accepted if they don't like you, and you can't say anything for fear of being penalized in some ways.
         3. Affilate income isn't easily accepted.

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      thealialtafkhanposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      but the sites like quora are for answering questions whereas in HB you can write your own blog without any restriction.HB brings traffic to your site better than others and makes the work easier for you. And I guess that it's justified that HB takes 1/3 of the ad revenue.

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         Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I don't understand. Hubpages is a site where magazine style articles are publish. To publish a blog, go to www.blogger.com/ and open a blogspot account.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Deleted
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            EricDockettposted 3 years agoin reply to this

            Lol. Nice "fact based" answer on quora there. I'm out. This thread has come back around to the place where I always expect your threads to go.
            
            I swear I don't know why I even.

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               TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               You really don't like me, do you? I'm sorry about that. I've never done anything to harm you.

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      micadeoluposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I share your thoughts about hubpages not wanting to encourage writers. I think there should be checks and balances even if they had ugly experiences in the past. that's my humble opinion anyway.

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      EB Blackposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      They want YOU to pay them $50 in order to make money? Absolutely not. That sounds like the worst deal ever. I’m running in the opposite direction.
      
      I also think hubpages has a really nice guide that makes it easy to create articles to their liking. I don’t find it limiting at all.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I pay $50 a year to Medium. I make between $1000 and $4000 every single month on Medium. I think it's worth it.
         
         I will pay Quora that $50 once a year fee  because I'm pretty sure I can make money from it. Whenever I write on Quora, I average 600,000 views/reads per month.
         
         I earn around $49 per month on hubpages. I struggle to get accepted into niche sites. I can't use affiliate marketing links.
         
         The reason the media world is switching to subscription based media is because advertising isn't working to that great a degree anymore. Younger generations have grown immune to it.
         
         Also, although I don't sell many books. because I'm allowed affiliate links, whenever I mention a book on Medium, I get more sales. Many more sales. My Ko-fi account gets more donations and I get more donors on Patreon.
         
         Hubpages doesn't allow me to do any of that.
         
         The Guardian newspaper in the UK (one of the most read newspapers in the world) has switched to a donation subscripton scheme. It has been working well for the past three years. The Independent, another British newspaper, has done the same thing.
         
         That's the way things are going to go.

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            PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            My interpretation of publishing situation is different.
            
            British broadsheet newspapers, beginning with The Times, started introducing paywalls in around 2010.
            
            The Guardian is an exception as it *doesn't* have a paywall system. Although there is a subscription option, you can also read it for free or pay a voluntary donation.
            
            The truth is that both publishing models, advertisement-based and subscription, tend to lose money. No successful model has really been found.
            
            The publishing industry is still in crisis. The best you can say is perhaps that some online publications (eg newspapers) lost less money when they switched to a subscription system.
            
            Quora's move is likely triggered because they were losing money. But that doesn't mean that subscriptions will make them profitable.
            
            While online advertising revenue has declined, the truth is that people just don't want to pay for stuff, so subscriptions and paywalls don't work that well either, in terms of achieving profitability.

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               TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               I used to work for the Guardian so I guess I have a bit of a soft spot for them. That said, this is what a recent report in the Guardian said:
               
               "While income from the Guardian’s print publications and advertising continued to fall, digital revenues from readers buying online subscriptions or making one-off contributions rose by 61% to £69m."
               
               "Well over half of the Guardian’s income comes directly from readers, despite the business declining to follow many of its equivalent publications and put up a paywall. Online revenues were also aided by strong growth at the company’s US and Australia editions."
               
               "Instead, after a round of redundancies and a rise in revenue during the latter part of the year driven by reader contributions, Guardian Media Group is now in a substantially better financial position."
               
               "Guardian Media Group is ultimately owned by the not-for-profit Scott Trust, which provides up to £30m of cash every year from its long-term investment funds to support the media business. One-off cost-cutting measures and better-than-expected revenue meant that this year the Guardian’s net cash outflow was only £16m."
               
               The fact that the Guardian is not for profit and has a trust is helpful.
               
               https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/ … ough-money
               
               Advertising is switching to influencers, but people still read news sources. So media is either going to have to switch to a subscription model or go under.
               
               You're right that people prefer something free, and that model started 28 years ago with the advent of the www.

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         NateB11posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         +100

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      Jean Bakulaposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      They want people to ask questions. I get offers all the time. I sometimes answer them, but the site allows idiotic questions people should look up answers to themselves.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Yes, of course. Every single content site has people wanting to game the system. I have no idea what you and others have been offered previously, but it is not this.
         
         https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/05/creat … on-quora/?
         
         https://www.digitalinformationworld.com … r-moto.htm

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            Miebakagh57posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            So is Quora better than  Medium?

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               TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               I don't know.
               
               I also don't think it's necessarily that one site is better than another. An element of earning money on a site is luck. You write the right piece that is wanted at that time, and it gets a lot of readers. Then people add you, and if you're a half-way interesting writer with things that readers enjoy, they'll stick around, thereby giving you an income.
               
               I got lucky on Medium.

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   EricDockettposted 3 years ago

   HubPages pays writers, don't they?
   
   Somebody has been paying me every month for the past nine years.
   
   On HubPages, if writers are willing to put in the work, they can earn the equivalent of one of those Medium prizes every year. You don't have to hope you win a prize.
   
   I would hate to see that system change, regardless of what these other sites are doing.

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      TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      What does 'put in the work' mean. I have had articles rejected here and then get to the top of the Serps elsewhere, and they've been there for a while. I have had no idea why they were rejected.
      
      They shouldn't have been.
      
      I understand that there are people who have been earning money here regularly. It's just very difficult to have articles accepted. For me, anyway.

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         EricDockettposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Most of your articles are on niche sites. You appear to be doing something correctly. You obviously write very well. I don't know why your articles would have been rejected.
         
         I've never had anything literally rejected on Medium, but every time I write something that isn't curated I feel like I've completely wasted my time. So, I get it, I think.
         
         But, unlike on Medium, if they get rejected on HubPages you can resubmit them until they are accepted.

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      viryaboposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      My thoughts exactly.

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      NateB11posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      +100

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   PaulGoodman67posted 3 years ago

   I agree with Eric. I hope HP doesn't change into a Medium or a Quora. That would be sad.

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      TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Hubpages used to have competitions. It also used to have a vibrant forum. It also used to have a PR 6 page rank 10 years ago.
      
      I think it has lost a lot of ground.

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         EricDockettposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         It is tough to compare ranking from 10 years ago to today. We had subdomains back then. We have the niche sites now, and they all operate independently. Some do very well and some are downright abysmal.

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            PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            I would also add that while it's true that you do have to educate yourself in SEO and learn what the site likes, it isn't *that* difficult to get published here. My rejection rate for getting on the niches is below 5%.
            
            That said, the site has had troubles over the last two years. They've recovered before, so I'm still optimistic for the medium term, but who knows what will happen..

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               TessSchlesingerposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               I've worked for two SEO companies as a writer, Paul, and they thought I was pretty good at it, so that's not the issue. I will say that I have no idea how to do anything practical. I wouldn't know how to cook asparagus, fix a car, or flirt with a man. I have no idea.
               
               Hubpages seems to focus on the how to do things. Not my cup of tea. I have no idea how to do anything.

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      NateB11posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Agree 100 percent, Paul.

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   TessSchlesingerposted 3 years ago

   Oh, Lordie. Each to his own. So you're currently earning good money on Hubpages. Many aren't.
   
   I've been writing on the web since 1999. I've watched content site after content site eventually fail. So have you. The important thing is to always have three or four or five sources of income at the same time. I eventually learnt that. That way if one goes down, the others will continue to hold up up.
   
   I earn on KDP, Ko-fi, Patreon, Smashwords, Medium, Hubpages, and Amazon. I'm going to try Quora as well because I always got a lot of reads there, so I think it's worth it.

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   Miebakagh57posted 3 years ago

   Registering with Quora wourd be a little hard for me? But I doubt if I would only ask questions or answer questions.

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