May Shaping Up to Be Worse Than April?

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   PaulGoodman67posted 16 months ago

   My earnings are currently running at about 50% of what they were at this time last year. Right now, it feels like every time the site seems to have bottomed out, things then sink even lower.
   
   Admittedly, the first five months 0f 2021 were particularly good for me, by historical standards, so it's maybe a bad year for comparison. However, even in 2020, which was a terrible year, my earnings were 20% up on what they are right now.
   
   Very recently, traffic seems like it might be improving slightly, even if the CPMs are still generally dreadful. But there's been so many false dawns over the past year, I can't help but suspect that this is just another one.... I'm still writing, but struggling to be optimistic at the moment.

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      SerenityHaloposted 16 months agoin reply to this

      Every time I’ve logged in this week, the traffic is lower.

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         Miebakagh57posted 16 months agoin reply to this

         No doubt about that.

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   eugbugposted 16 months ago

   Same here, the drop in traffic and CPM combined giving earnings 50% of last year. I presume the drop in CPM is because we're getting a smaller share of revenue from Hubpages, considering there was no reply to the thread I posted.

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      TessSchlesingerposted 16 months agoin reply to this

      ++

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   Glenn Stokposted 16 months ago

   I have the same problem. Despite adding four new articles in the past two months and updating many older ones with new content, I see a continuing drop in earnings.
   
   It's troubling that TAG continues to advertise HubPages in those videos on top of our articles even though they tell us not to mention or link to HubPages from niche sites. There are many things that can be improved to help.
   
   The only hope is with the new hired editors. I notice they are making an effort.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 16 months agoin reply to this

      Yes, lets hope that recent developments (editors etc.) are part of a solid plan, rather than just a stab in the dark. I worry when HP doesn't seem to know how to respond.
      
      They used to tell us what they thought the problems were and how they intended to respond. I miss those days. The rapport between management/staff and the writers was a big strength of the site.

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   Shesabutterflyposted 16 months ago

   My cpm's are comparable to April, but my impressions have been incredibly low since Thursday.
   
   My views are back up today, and I'm hoping when impressions come in they will be higher as well.
   
   When I compare to last year, I'm only down a couple dollars for this month so far. I started the year out poorly, but I saw an increase in cpm around mid-April and hoping it sticks around.
   
   This March was comparable to last year, and April did a little better. 2020/21 were pretty dismal for me in the beginning though, and it would not take much to earn more.

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   TessSchlesingerposted 16 months ago

   QUOTE:    "The improvement in gross profit is a result of a decrease in publisher partner revenue shares from 56% of digital advertising revenue in fiscal 2020 to 34% in fiscal 2021 related to a strategic shift to eliminate most publisher partner guarantees near the end of fiscal 2020 and the high contribution margin of digital advertising."
   
   https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/ … er-of-2021
   
   QUOTE: "In the 12-month period from March 2021 to March 2022, The Arena Group increased its total revenue 48%, from $128 million to $189 million, according to its year-end financial report. In its fourth-quarter specifically, the publisher hiked revenue 44%, from $42.4 million to $61.2 million."
   
   https://www.adweek.com/media/portfolio- … evenue-48/
   
   I'm willing to bet that the drop in revenue is a direct result of Arena once more decreasing writer share of advertising revenue.

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      Solarasposted 16 months agoin reply to this

      That's a raw deal.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 16 months agoin reply to this

         Yes.

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      Kenna McHughposted 16 months agoin reply to this

      I hope the staff chime in and spill the beans on what this means for the writers at HubPages.

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         TessSchlesingerposted 16 months agoin reply to this

         It's been a long time coming, but when Hubpages was sold to Maven, I saw this coming. I went through this when the same buyer, with Yahoo at that point, bought Associated Content. I eventually lost all my work. I doubt that there are going to be explanations, and I hope that I am wrong, but if not, I am slowly transferring my work to Vocal Media.

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            Kenna McHughposted 16 months agoin reply to this

            Tess, How is Vocal Media payout?

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               TessSchlesingerposted 16 months agoin reply to this

               It takes a bit of work. In the first month that I put up a few pieces, I earned $26.77. Then I stopped working because I'm in between countries again.And I'm earning too much on Medium (5 figures at this point) not to focus on that.
               
               However, I have absolutely no doubt that putting in the work will pay off on Vocal Media. If one is an experienced writer, as you are, that is.
               
               I've spoken to several people who are earning there, and they all say that if you put in the work, you get the rewards. For a start, you get bonuses if you do 5 or 10 pieces. I actually don't know how they do the bonuses, but I've received several.
               
               I have every intention of putting more work into it. Right now, I'm in Ireland. At the end of the month, I'm going back to the UK for six months, and then I'm focusing on writing a fiction book and fiction web series. At that point, I expect Vocal Media to come into play because they have competitions with great prizes.
               
               Also, they don't mind if one has published elsewhere.

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                  Kenna McHughposted 16 months agoin reply to this

                  Good to know, thank you.

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                     TessSchlesingerposted 16 months agoin reply to this

                     ++

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   Rupert Taylorposted 16 months ago

   I don't know what I'm doing right but this month is shaping up to be my best ever. Perhaps, my true genius has been recognized after all these years.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 16 months agoin reply to this

      I'm guessing that it's an increase in views, due to things like your traffic spike, but your CPM is still bad?
      
      I have eleven HP accounts (don't ask!) and a couple of them are doing well, but overall, I think that the site is doing badly.

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   eugbugposted 16 months ago

   Impressions to view ratio for me is a lot lower than it was last year. I wonder has the system reverted back to the way it was before where Hubpages and our ads are displayed alternatively.?

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   hclpdposted 16 months ago

   Ill stop writing here for the time being. Mulling over either Medium or Vocal. While Vocal is available in India, we need a workaround to set up a Stripe account in India.
   
   Both work, though.
   
   It would be awesome If anyone could shed some more light on these 2 websites.

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      Kenna McHughposted 16 months agoin reply to this

      Lots of HPs have given their insight into Medium on various threads. Vocal is new to me.

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         hclpdposted 16 months agoin reply to this

         I went ahead and signed up do Vocal. Will let you know if anything new comes up.

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            Kenna McHughposted 16 months agoin reply to this

            That'd be great.

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      SerenityHaloposted 16 months agoin reply to this

      I have found it is easier to grow on Medium than Vocal.Media. The audience/traffic isn’t as big on VM.
      
      It did however just add comments. I have contacted staff on VM on a couple of occasions, and they respond quickly and professionally.
      
      Read the guidelines for VM carefully. They have certain topics they don’t permit. If you take your own pictures and use them in your posts, you have a better chance of getting a top story. If you also like to add a lot of pictures to your post, make sure to save after adding 3-5 pictures. This helps with VM’s system.
      
      I also recommend seeing yourself as a freelancer and talking directly to editors, publications, and others to market yourself. Editing and adding new articles on HP is groovy, but diversifying where you put writing and developing a contact list can keep you afloat.

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      TessSchlesingerposted 16 months agoin reply to this

      When I was living in South Africa, my sister paid for me to fly to London. I reinstated my Stripe account, used my sister's boyfriend's address for my British account, and then flew back to South Africa. I was then able to use my Stripe account to earn on Medium.

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         hclpdposted 16 months agoin reply to this

         There is an easy workaround for us Indians, though.

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            TessSchlesingerposted 16 months agoin reply to this

            Well, I guess you have to know someone in the UK, plus they have to be willing to let you use their address. I was lucky that I already had a bank account in the UK from when I lived there, so it was more a matter of re-instating.
            
            I guess you could also go to another country that is closer to India (Australia) and set up an account there. Consider that it will be useful in the future. Of course, it costs money to do those things, and the pay out on Medium is just as difficult as other places.
            
            Only 5% of Medium writers earn $100 or more per month. Many struggle to get to $5. If I remember correctly, at one point, only 5% of Hubpage writers reached payout as well.

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   hclpdposted 16 months ago

   My earnings have been 60-70% down in the last 2 months alone.

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    eugbugposted 16 months ago

    Maybe Google is starting to apply the same treatment/penalty to the network sites that it has applied to Hubpages? Was that a penalty or some sort of downranking mark? And is it a life sentence for a domain or do domains get released for good behaviour after years of sentence?

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