Finally, I have seen the answer to what our earnings are based on

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   Solarasposted 2 years ago

   Okay - It seems there was an update to the definition of our earnings. I cannot say when it occurred.
   
   Basically we are paid for pageviews. One payment per view of article, regardless of how many ads are delivered to the reader, unless they back out before the first ad is actually viewed. Then we would be paid nothing.
   
   This explains why OUR "impressions" are  60% of pageviews.  Everything else goes to HP.
   
   See Below.
   
   https://hubpages.com/faq/
   
   As it relates to online advertising revenue (and the Ad Program), an impression typically means an "ad impression", and occurs whenever an ad appears on an article and is presumably seen by a visitor.
   
   With regards to your Ad Program reports, you are paid based on "page impressions," which are article views. Each page impression can include several individual ad impressions, depending on: whether ads are turned on, the length of the article, and whether a given location has "time" to show an ad in case the viewer navigates away from the article. The CPM for an individual is determined based on the value of individual impressions based on traffic characteristics.
   
   So Eugene - they are making 30x what you make on your article with 33 ads on it.  How does that feel?  I find it makes me feel sick.

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      eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, I noticed that mention of payment and an impression being equivalent to a page view, I think I mentioned it last week or the week before. I wonder is that a recent amendment to the terms? My impressions have always been about 60% of page views over the last 10 years, but as you say, it seems us plebs aren't benefiting from the OTT advertising. I would publish high traffic articles elsewhere, but they'd probably end up way down the rankings. I think I'll unpublish that article with 33 ads or turn off the ads on it and see if it makes any difference to earnings.

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         Solarasposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         Has that article been copied?  If not you might try deleting it, updating it, and republishing it.  Some other authors have noted getting better results with republishing as opposed to updating article.  Google seems to weight newer content higher than older well respected content.
         
         You can see if there is an income difference while you are updating it.  I suspect you will see no noticeable difference.

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            Arensshiposted 2 years agoin reply to this

            Oh, I have two copied articles. I'll try this.

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   2. STAFF

      Matt Wellsposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      This is not a new update to the FAQ. It hasn't changed in years.

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         eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         But why has the 60/40 split been take out of the terms Matt?

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         Solarasposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for joining the conversation Matt. 
         
         My understanding, and correct me if I am wrong, is we get paid the CPM based on Pageviews, regardless of how many ads are delivered to our readers during a visit to one of our articles, unless they back out before the ads are delivered.
         
         Eugene seems to be suggesting (correct me if I am wrong) that we are paid according to RPM (revenue Per Mille), and that the number of ads delivered to readers increases our CPM and therefore our earnings.
         
         Can you say whether our CPM is affected by the number of ads delivered to our readers per pageview?
         
         I am using the RPM definition from this site. https://www.shemedia.com/blog/cpm-vs-rpm

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         1. STAFF

            Matt Wellsposted 2 years agoin reply to this

            This FAQ entry explains it.

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               eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

               So CPM is based on individual ad impressions and not page impressions and CPM increases as individual ad impressions increase?

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               1. STAFF

                  Matt Wellsposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                  Please refer to the FAQ.

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               DrMark1961posted 2 years agoin reply to this

               That includes the statement " Each page impression can include several individual ad impressions" but if that were true, and an article contained 30 ads, it would logically have more impressions per page view.
               
               If that is TAGs earning strategy that is fine, but at the very least it could be made clear that earnings will never be above 60% no matter how many ads are placed.

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                  Solarasposted 2 years agoin reply to this

                  Indeed. 
                  
                  And like a parasitic infestation, the ads are slowly killing the host, while multiplying unchecked.  Draining the host article of its precious bodily fluids, while adding nothing to the health of its host.

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   viking305posted 2 years ago

   That is why HP have so many adverts on each of our articles.  It is really unfair for the readers of our articles to have to put up with so many.  As for that ridiculous top video, that serves no purpose to the reader or the author.

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   Solarasposted 2 years ago

   The Wayback machine provides this answer to earnings and impressions from Mar 2017
   
   How do impressions generate revenue on HubPages?
   
   After you’ve joined advertising affiliate programs and/or the HubPages Earnings Program, ads from these programs may appear on your articles. 60% of the time, ads appearing on your articles can earn money for you (referred to as your share of impressions) and 40% of the time, ads appearing on your articles can earn money for HubPages. The 60-40 split occurs at random each time a page is displayed for a visitor without regard to any other factor, such as time of day, the traffic an article gets, etc.
   
   HubPages splits the impressions with you in the following way:
   
   Your own articles and profile page: You receive 60% of total impressions. Please read this FAQ entry for a more in-depth explanation of how impression-sharing works for ads.
   
   The HubPages Affiliate (or Referral) Program: You can refer new writers to HubPages and if they become Hubbers within 30 days, you receive an additional 10% of their lifetime impressions.
   
   
   At that time - a Maximum of 7 ads was shown on the desktop version, fewer for shorter articles.

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   Solarasposted 2 years ago

   According to this WayBack copy from 2019 - we can only earn from a maximum of 4 ads based on AdSense regulations and all other earnings go to HP under a special arrangement.
   
   In the usual AdSense arrangement, you’re given four ad units on both desktop and mobile. If you opt in to the Ad Program, you're given up to eight full-size ad units on desktop and six on mobile. For the desktop ad layout specifically, you will still keep one AdSense ad unit in the footer. You will get paid by Google AdSense directly for that one unit.
   
   The Ad Program ad units might be filled with Google AdSense ads, if these ads outperform other ad partners' ads, and you will be paid for these via the HubPages Earnings Program. In the graphic below, the blue rectangles represent your direct Google AdSense units, the orange rectangles represent your Ad Program units, and the red rectangles represent additional ads on the AdSense-only layouts where HubPages gets 100% of the earnings. (AdSense regulations only permit you to earn from 4 ads per page, which is why HubPages earns 100% of the revenue from the other 4. We've kept the same ad layout across all articles for consistency but we've given Hubbers the highest-paying ads that fall within AdSense's guidelines on the AdSense-only layout.) The AdSense Program Policy prohibits sticky and auto-refreshing ads (red), but HubPages has special permission to run these only within our account. Therefore, the only way for you to earn from these locations is to opt in to the HubPages Ad Program.

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      bravewarriorposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      HP discontinued the AdSense program years ago.

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   eugbugposted 2 years ago

   It's still possible that even if we only get paid per single view of a page when an ad/ads are seen, earnings are greater if there are more ads. Impressions are approximately 60% of views, which would suggest that the 60/40 split is still in force. If Hubpages clarified this, it would help. Maybe the clause was taken out because they don't want to be permanently pinned down to that ratio.

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      Solarasposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      I am assuming that it is 60/40 of pageviews and not ad impressions.  So our super spammy articles, which may be the cause of depressed pageviews, only benefit HP and not the writers. 
      
      The TOS state they can change the payment terms at anytime.  Perhaps they do on a regular basis.

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   PaulGoodman67posted 2 years ago

   I've not noticed any changes to the payment system. The only problem that I can see is that our traffic levels are relatively low.
   
   The advice to delete articles and then republish is bad advice in my humble opinion.
   
   Any discussion of Adsense seems redundant to me. Hub Ads were a big improvement.

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      eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      I think the 60/40 split is still in effect, again I'm speculating, but maybe quoting an exact figure would be a bad idea in legal terms because Hubpages would always have to be careful to pay exactly that amount to the nearest cent. So perhaps that's why it was taken out. CPM is a lot lower, but that's just due to the ups and downs in the online advertising industry.

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         PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

         For sure CPMs go up and down (generally down) but that's not systemic. Rather, it's like you say, almost certainly related to the general commercial environment.

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      Solarasposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Dr. Mark wrote that he had compared traffic level rebounds with articles he edited vs those he deleted, rewrote and published as new.  He found a temporary bump in the edited articles, while the newly published articles had sustained growth.  Perhaps he can chime in with more data.

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         PaulGoodman67posted 2 years agoin reply to this

         Editing articles is certainly a good thing and advisable.
         
         If you delete and republish, however, then you lose accrued authority. You might get a brief initial boost, but generally, you'll have to claw back the lost authority over time.
         
         Certainly, that's my experience and it also fits with the orthodox SEO view.
         
         I can't recall anything written by Dr. Mark that conflicts with what I wrote above about the specific matter of deleting and republishing, but I'll let him speak for himself.

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            DrMark1961posted 2 years agoin reply to this

            The articles that I deleted, edited, and then republished had a higher page rank than if they were just edited, so in those limited cases I saw no downside from "losing age authority". Those articles were performing so poorly that I do not think they had much authority to lose.
            
            I would not do that with my top 30, or top 50 even, but when an article only gets a few views a day it is pretty much dead in the water. Editing it is of no value.
            
            Lately all of those articles are doing poorly but so is everything else, so it is not possible to pin the blame on lost authority.

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   EricDockettposted 2 years ago

   Years ago, people could and did conduct experiments where they checked to see how often their code vs HPs code appeared for ads and Amazon. The system was transparent. There is simply no way to check now, and no way to be sure what is really going on. Maybe that is by design.
   
   Maybe this is also why they got rid of individual Adsense. I used to hit payout every couple of months on that. It is not clear where that lost revenue has gone since they took those ads away from us.
   
   Edit: I'll also say, sort of in agreement with Paul, that the changes I've noticed have been obvious. The removal of Adsense. A worse Amazon deal. Aside from those things, my earnings seem to have been mostly affected by the drop in traffic, which is a whole other issue.
   
   But without needed and fair transparency anything is possible, I guess.

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      Solarasposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      When I look at my impressions from November 2021- thru early January 2022, I find my impressions then bounced around 4500-6000. I know my pageviews were never more than 6000.  CPM is frequently very low during that period, and maybe there was an anomaly in reporting. Sometimes we have twice the impressions and half the CPM so it works out to the same payout.
      
      However scrolling through there are some days where CPM is high and Impressions are still high. Now my impression are regularly 60% of pageviews, when they were 80-100% of pageviews during that year end time frame. So something changed somewhere.
      
      Pageviews now are half of what they were at the end of 2021.  Too many ads, slow loading images, ads and videos make the pages unreadable and we lose out on the high quality ads that will pay more for people to actually see the ads marketers are paying for.  My ads stay blank for at least a couple of minutes into reading the page.

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