Brainstorm Session: What Methods Could HubPages Use to Boost Earnings?

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   SerenityHaloposted 3 years ago

   I know many of us have talked about the ads and layout. I think many of us would like to see something different with the ads, but what are some other ways HP could improve earnings?
   
   I know of a site that does a tip jar for writers. I imagine that would work better without ads. The site I'm thinking of I get about .01% of the traffic I do here. I occasionally get tips from people. I assume tips would be more substantial here.
   
   What if people paid for a subscription that had no ads?   
   
   I'm not suggesting that we necessarily eliminate ads, but perhaps reduce them and make them more coherent with the overall page.
   
   I assume other people have thoughts on this. I would like to hear them, even if nothing transpires from this post.

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      eugbugposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I had thought about that alternative subscription model. another possibility is to have a teaser system allowing people to read the start of an article, but they have to turn off their ad-blocker if they wish to continue reading. A donations button would be nice too. However I have some free photos on Pixabay and after 23,000 downloads, only two people ever bought me "coffee".
      Maybe a premium answer service for technical articles/troubleshooting guides could be implemented? The Fixya website had a "marketplace" service where members could setup a service, a bit like the gigs on Fiverr. I had an instruction manual sourcing service that I made a few hundred dollars on before they terminated the program. I setup a similar service on Fiverr, but no one ever availed of the service.

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2. 82

   theraggededgeposted 3 years ago

   I wonder if it's possible to run a two-tier platform?
   
   "Subscribe to remove all adverts and have access to thousands of high-quality articles."

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3. 77

   EricDockettposted 3 years ago

   So, this maybe isn't quite what you're talking about, but I've always wished HP would offer some kind of semi-managed hosting based on the old template.
   
   That old HP template had smart ad placement. easy-to-use Amazon integration, and just about any feature you could want for building a clean, basic, magazine-style website.
   
   Users would need to bring their own domain name, Adsense, and Amazon accounts. There would be no editorial oversight. Users would be on their own. Users would keep 100% of their ad revenue, but they would pay a monthly fee to HP.
   
   I don't know what kind of team it would take to handle this. Since every site would be the same, with maybe different color options or something, there would really be nothing to break (no plugins, etc). They would just need to take care of the back end, security, updates, etc.
   
   I don't know how realistic this is, but I would be very interested for sure. I think HP could make a lot of money if they could do this at the right price point.

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   1. 98

      DrMark1961posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      That sounds like a great Idea. I have spent the last week setting up a site on wordpress and it is inferior to the HP layout. I would be willing to pay HP a commisson to run the ads so there must be many others out there that would pay for this platform.

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