What we are all doing next

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   psycheskinnerposted 3 weeks ago

   Given that the writing is on the wall, this is a chance to outline our next move.  I decided just to start my own online specialist encyclopedia - it is just getting started, but it will be here https://www.thebeastiary.org/ - an encyclopedia of unusual animals, the new home for my former hubs

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      bravewarriorposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

      How is your site going to work? Will it be by subscription? Will you have an earning capability?

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         psycheskinnerposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

         I am going to start with simple AdSense as I build out and update the many encyclopedia "entries." But then I will see what works best, depending on what parts seem to pick up the most traffic within the wide domain of "unusual animals".
         
         If it is cryptozoology, I will look at having a discussion forum and merch. If it is the "freak animals," I will have a blog and subscription newsletter about new sightings. If it is more the deer/hunting or equine aspect that could be good for a monetized Facebook group.
         
         I have a pretty good idea of the options, but it depends greatly on the audience I attract.

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      chef-de-jourposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

      I'm wondering if your site is a purchased domain or not? And how does that work? Currently I have a Wordpress basic site which to be honest I'm not fully committed to yet - need to learn on a steep curve as I go along. Thinking of moving all of my articles from HP eventually. So your new site will be Adsense monetised from the start? Wishing you a smooth transition.

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         Kenna McHughposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

         I have a site through HostGator. They take care of the domain name and such.
         
         Based on the fiasco, I want to revamp my HostGator site. I will eventually leave HP and move my articles there unless I hear anything positive from the HP staff and see an increase in revenue. So far, HP has been commandeering our hard work without demonstrating a positive future.

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            chef-de-jourposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

            Thanks for that. HostGator eh? There must be a zillion sitesetteruppers out there.
            I've got so many questions....sorry...I'm a complete novice.
            Why did you go for HostGator?
            Who designs the pages?
            Can you just write plain good ol text on a page?
            Can you easily monetize each page?
            Do you earn anything from your site?
            Pros and cons?
            
            I'm just not geared up yet. I need to learn so much.

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               Kenna McHughposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

               Why did you go for HostGator? WAS RECOMMENDED
               
               Who designs the pages? THEY CAN OR YOU
               
               Can you just write plain good ol text on a page? YES, BUT THERE ARE COLORS, DESIGN, LINKS, ALL SORTS OF STUFF TO DO
               
               Can you easily monetize each page? YES
               
               Do you earn anything from your site? I DID PRETTY WELL BUT STOPPED AND I AM GOING BACK TO IT
               
               Pros and cons? COMPETITION, HARD WORK, CONSTANT NEED TO UPDATE - PROS: IT'S YOURS, NO ONE USURPING YOUR WORK

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         psycheskinnerposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

         I choose to invest in a domain and paid hosting. This is a gamble and might mean it doesn't make a profit soon or at all. I already have AdSense and so have requested to add it to the new site.  The same can be done for free with a bit more difficulty. I think the main thing these days is to have some flexibility in figuring out the monetization based on the audience you end up being able to get. 
         
         When I started on Hubpages, I had a very low income and needed whatever money I could make for free and not via salaried employment (I was on a student visa). I am grateful that content farms, stock photo agencies, paid forum posting, etc., allowed me to pay my bills back then. It seems like most of these no-cost/easy-entry earners just don't exist anymore.

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   psycheskinnerposted 3 weeks ago

   It's funny because as I updated my AdSense account, I deleted all my old dashboards for content sites that no longer exist - webanswers, infobarrel, etc.  I'd forgotten I even used to write there.

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   Venkatachari Mposted 3 weeks ago

   Wishing you Good Luck.

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4. 61

   FatFreddysCatposted 3 weeks ago

   I don't have the time or the patience to learn how to set up my own web site (which, after going to all that trouble, may end up not earning me anything down the road).
   
   The whole reason I signed up with HP in the first place was so I wouldn't have to deal with any of that jibba-jabba. I just wanted to earn some beer money by writing goofy stuff about my favorite bands. For a while, at least, that mission was accomplished.
   
   I've taken half-hearted stabs at Medium and Substack in the past few months, and made absolutely no progress at grabbing viewers' eyeballs in either place. Therefore I've pretty much decided to let this whole "online writing" thing go for now. I've got too much other stuff going on in the real world anyway.

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      bravewarriorposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

      I hear you, Keith. It really doesn't seem worth it. I see you've deleted all your articles. I joined HP for the same reason you did. That reason has been blown to smithereens by all of the changes to this platform.

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         PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

         I think the time has generally passed for making money from writing with your own website.
         
         Twelve or fifteen years ago was the golden age for such things.
         
         I think Dr Mark's idea of YouTube creation is probably better. But it's a lot of work with no guarantee of success.

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            psycheskinnerposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

            It's absolutely true that the vast majority of people won't make a profit using just a website with AdSense. You have to have a much more nuanced, evidence-based strategy.  I am predicting that an "encyclopedia" styled website on ".org" site will act as a funnel that I can direct to a more montezable space. 
            
            The spaces I have worked in other contexts have been a monetized Facebook page and, to a lesser extent, Redbubble merch.  I am unsure how my animal hubs will ultimately be monetizable but I have about 100 hubs to use as bait and see who I get.

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               PaulGoodman67posted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

               I think using hubs as "bait", which I've done previously, isn't really a great strategy because of the relentless decline in views here.
               
               Any new plan has to involve leaving out HP altogether IMHO.
               
               Going down the merch path is reasonable but I've not had much success in the past. My Redbubble earnings have always been below $50/month.
               
               What's sad for me is that I'm mainly about writing, rather than just doing anything to earn online, and it's become very difficult.
               
               Ten or fifteen years ago, when blogs and search engines were all the rage, it felt like we'd arrived at a golden age of writing. Those days now seem long gone.

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      psycheskinnerposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

      Yep, I think the content farm model will die when the HubPages shared income model fully collapses.  Just not doing it anymore is a sensible option.  I am going to have a go at re-monetizing my hubs but it's gamble that may not pay off.

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   theraggededgeposted 3 weeks ago

   I had a Wordpress/Hostgator site for longer than I've had my HubPages account. It earned a bit from Adsense (payout every other month), Amazon and the readings I did. It paid for itself and gave me a little pocket money.
   
   However, in the last couple of years there were issues - HG failed to take a payment and also failed to tell me so my site went down for a few days (it wasn't lack of funds but a technical problem on their part). Then they doubled the hosting fee overnight, again without telling me.
   
   These things, coupled with the ongoing and increasing amount of tweaking that had to be done to comply with all the various legal requirements made me fed up with the whole thing. It was a shame because I loved my little website. So I took it down and moved everything to a Notion site.
   
   It makes no money - but at least all my previous work has a home.

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      bravewarriorposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

      What is Notion, Bev? I'm not familiar with it.

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         theraggededgeposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

         It started as a note-taking/collecting app but now you can publish 'notes' as a website. You can use a notion domain such as tarot-study.notion.site or you can use your own paid domain.
         
         There are various free and paid tiers but there's no worrying about cookies, complying with regs, etc. My package costs £12 per month which is a lot cheaper than my previous set up.
         
         Notion can be an app on a pc, tablet or phone or accessed via the web.
         
         Some YT vids: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_ … use+notion
         
         There's a learning curve and I almost gave up with it in the beginning. And I don't use it to its full capacity.
         
         I use a Notion page as my browser home page with all my bookmarks...
         
         
         

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            Kenna McHughposted 3 weeks agoin reply to this

            Bev, Thanks for the information.

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   psycheskinnerposted 3 weeks ago

   Yes, the new model was meant to be subscription-based like Medium and Substack, but that really hasn't worked for the great majority of writers.

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