Have your earnings taken a hit too?

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   nehanatu86posted 2 months ago

   I have noticed a significant drop in my earnings in the last 3 months. I have been wondering is it just me? Also what could be the probable reason. Please share your thoughts.

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      ControlledChaos1posted 2 months agoin reply to this

      It's not just you, it's everyone. To me, at least, part of the problem could be having so many ads in the articles that it makes people want to run away.

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         nehanatu86posted 2 months agoin reply to this

         Could be. That actually makes sense! Thank you for your prompt response.

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      chef-de-jourposted 2 months agoin reply to this

      Yes, the drop in earnings is an ongoing issue which has been 'debated' many times over in the forums. Basically TAG (The Arena Group) via Maven have, over the last two years or so, lost control of HP's former status; their mishandling together with some help from Google updates and shifting criteria has resulted in dire performances. Right now HP is at rock bottom. We're all of us frustrated and puzzled. Some are rightly angry because of the lack of meaningful communication from the HP team. It seems that all of our articles, regardless of past status or quality, are headed for discover. A dubious destination.

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         Solarasposted 2 months agoin reply to this

         Yes, TAG staff have disengaged from communicating with the writers, after having made false assurances for months, based, I suppose, on false assurances from their managers.   No one seems to know what is going on.
         
         Worse, I begin to suspect that decisions to close niche sites are based on the whims of a frustrated, feverish consultant, answering to a rabid majority shareholder.  I shudder to imagine the mirth at the Hubpages morning/weekly meetings, life aboard The Flying Dutchman.
         
         And here we are, the writers, wandering around at the edges of the mist, trying to grasp what we think we may see in the shadows, afraid to go into the light, but suspecting, we may already be dead.

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            chef-de-jourposted 2 months agoin reply to this

            Didn't expect that last paragraph, could be straight from a horror movie script, penned by the haunted writers themselves.....love the image.

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            Gregory DeVictorposted 2 months agoin reply to this

            Your last paragraph sounds like a passage from a Shakespearean play, maybe even Macbeth.

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            Kenna McHughposted 2 months agoin reply to this

            It does feel like a ghost ship bound for nowhere.
            
            In my own words: "I am getting nothing nowhere."

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      eugbugposted 2 months agoin reply to this

      Earnings are 90% down in the last couple of years. Everyone is the same I presume.

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         PaulGoodman67posted 2 months agoin reply to this

         Bev said she'd seen traffic gains for some articles after the Discover move. The traffic for discover.hubpages.com is trending upwards so she's probably not alone.
         
         I've not seen any gains, though. Just a continuation of the long-term trend which, as you say, has been relentlessly and brutally downward.

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            theraggededgeposted 2 months agoin reply to this

            Yes, up about 300 per day. Dipped on Thursday but back up now. Earnings up by about a dollar a day. Still hellish low compared to the good times.

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         wildernessposted 7 weeks agoin reply to this

         It certainly is for me - although still making payout each month it is about 1/10th of what it used to be.

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      WriterJanisposted 2 months agoin reply to this

      Although my June earnings were up, they took a nosedive in July.

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   Rupert Taylorposted 2 months ago

   I had one new article moved onto Owlcation earlier this week, but submitting others seems pointless at this stage.
   
   Given the angst expressed by those of us who worked so hard to make HubPages a legitimate on-line magazine, one would have expected some soothing words from on high. But, there has been total silence explaining why well-crafted articles are being tossed into the Discover slop bucket.
   
   Even the Wednesday newsletter has vanished. Miss it? Me neither.
   
   Don't try to tell me my work is not contaminated by spam, AI, lies, disinformation, and assorted other crap on the platform. That would be like saying you're fine swimming in the end of the pool in which nobody pees. If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas
   
   I'm exploring the possibility of having my own blog. Any advice?

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      PaulGoodman67posted 2 months agoin reply to this

      Setting up a blog is easy and there are plenty of options. What's harder is to get lots of views and earnings.
      
      You may say that you're not worried about views and earnings but it can be disheartening if hardly anyone sees your work and there's zero reward.
      
      A lot of people have turned to Substack for publishing articles but I'm still not sold on the idea!
      
      And yes, I failed to notice the missing newsletter until you mentioned it! Heaven knows what's going on!

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         eugbugposted 2 months agoin reply to this

         I started a blog six months ago. Google still won't index it, just a few of the 75 articles posted. Seems to be really difficult to get anything indexed these days. Also Facebook are saying it goes against their community standards and blocked it on their platform, so I'm at war with them on all their social media platforms, telling them how sh1t they are. I wouldn't be surprised if they're using AI to make replies to people on their socials. It all seems so fake.

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      theraggededgeposted 2 months agoin reply to this

      What I think is happening is that, rather than people seeing or exploring as they might on one of the network sites, they are coming directly via search engines. For example, I used to get a lot of traffic via Exemplore but I'm not getting those kind of numbers via Discover.
      
      What I'm trying to say is that people aren't seeing your articles alongside the dross. They are more standalone. As it used to be when HubPages was a free-for-all.
      
      As far as having your own blog, I've just transferred my sites from the evermore complex WordPress + hosting to Notion.sites. So easy and reasonably priced. I can't run Adsense but if I wanted, I could offer paid-for services. I'm sure there are ways to monetize it. I've got Amazon links on it. Got a lot of views from my subscribers in the beginning but dropped now. There's work to do.

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         PaulGoodman67posted 2 months agoin reply to this

         "What I'm trying to say is that people aren't seeing your articles alongside the dross. They are more standalone. As it used to be when HubPages was a free-for-all."
         
         Yes, that's exactly how it is. It's all about search engine traffic. People search, click on the link to the site. If they don't like the article, they will generally go back to their search list.
         
         Hardly any browsing goes on and hardly any traffic generally arrives at an article via non-search engine sources.
         
         People are used to the free-for-all approach in certain situations. Reddit is built around that idea, for instance. Many people will accept that there might be bad info alongside good.
         
         My concern is more about the long-term prospects of being in Google's good books, I'm less worried about Rupert's concerns. That said, I did prefer the niches idea, where the material was curated and edited, it felt better being published there.
         
         As for blogs, the truth is that they have been unfashionable for some years. Currently, all the investment is going into podcasts and short video formats.
         
         As Eugene says, companies like Google now neglect their own blogging platforms.
         
         There will always be a place for reading and textual information but the focus has definitely shifted toward other media and that affects the commercial potential of writing.

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            theraggededgeposted 2 months agoin reply to this

            Agreed re blogs; it's very hard to get started. That's why I chose Notion, which levers its own credentials as a trustworthy resource.You can pay extra to assign your own domain to the site.
            
            However, I decided to simply put a redirect on my existing domains. I shan't renew them next time round. However, I bought a new 5-yr domain for a bargain price and put a redirect on that as well. So, not wanting to self-promote (not that anyone here is interested in my field) but now tarot-study.co.uk leads to the new notion site if you want to take a gander at the set-up and how simple it is.

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               Solarasposted 2 months agoin reply to this

               Hi Bev:  I looked at your Deviant Moon Tarot review and there are a number of images not loading with 404 errors.  FYI.
               
               I don't see any ads.  Do you earn money from Notion?

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                  theraggededgeposted 2 months agoin reply to this

                  Thanks, I'll check it. No, only from Amazon and Ko-fi at the moment.

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   Kenna McHughposted 2 months ago

   It's disheartening. What happened to Lisa? Where's Matt? Why is there no newsletter? HP office or ghost town? Angst!

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   Venkatachari Mposted 2 months ago

   Yes, Facebook and X block our posts if they do not like them. It happened with me many times. They do not want to promote you.

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      Kenna McHughposted 2 months agoin reply to this

      Venk, I haven't noticed FB and X blocking my posts.

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   Rupert Taylorposted 2 months ago

   Thanks for the advice everybody. So, tank the idea of a blog. Saves me wasting time and, at 81, there isn't a lot of that left.
   
   Keep plonking new stuff here and hope the search engines find it. If I don't write what would I do? Watch the synchronized diving on the goggle box? Ooo, there's curling on.
   
   The word must have gone out to the HP staff - "Don't communicate with writers. They're just a bunch of whiny snowflakes. You can't please them, no matter what you do."
   
   Is it time for my gin and tonic yet nurse?

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      PaulGoodman67posted 2 months agoin reply to this

      There wasn't even a newsletter to announce the end of newsletters.
      
      Then there were those curious newsletters that were sent out as blanks, which were never really explained. I still don't know if someone was trying to communicate something.
      
      It does feel like we're being placed on a raft and left to drift on the ocean.

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   Rupert Taylorposted 2 months ago

   Paul - I think we ought to feel lucky if we were put on a raft. What seems more likely is that management has tossed in a few buckets of chum to attract the sharks and .... You can guess the rest.
   
   I wonder if there's an electrocution option.

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      PaulGoodman67posted 2 months agoin reply to this

      I had Discover in mind with the raft simile. As no curation and editing is really needed, the stuff there can be allowed to gather and drift without human intervention.
      
      It might work for a while but the long-term prospects for survival seem remote.
      
      Google has done something similar with its platform, Blogger. It hasn't been closed down but nothing is done to further develop it and maintenance is almost non-existent.
      
      I feel we're in for a lingering death, rather than the sudden violence of a shark attack.

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         Kenna McHughposted 2 months agoin reply to this

         Like "Lost" placed in syndication on Netflix. It streams with delusions and monsters, including an occasional miracle.

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7. 61

   nehanatu86posted 7 weeks ago

   Thank you, everyone for your response. Appreciate you sharing your thoughts and experiences. This certainly helps!

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8. 69

   Isivwe Muoboposted 7 weeks ago

   My earnings are up a bit and that's surprising, considering I have published a new hub nor been active here.

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