HubPages earnings and AdSense CTR

1. 86

   Rik Ravadoposted 16 years ago

   My CTR is sharply down for April.  I've only had 2 clicks on over 800 views.  Worse still these are both referral Hubs rather than my own and were only worth a few cents.
   
   Up to now my CTR has been around 2%.  Is this just me or are others seeing a drop in earnings? 
   
   The trouble is working out if it is just chance or if something else is wrong.  Normally I get a resonable value click every few days and certainly expect at least one a week. 
   
   While on the subject of earnings, I've yet to earn anything from Amazon and as a result have yet to sign up for Ebay.
   
   Any thoughts on maximising Amazon/Ebay success?
   
   Which program do Hubbers find works best for them?

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2. 79

   ngurecoposted 16 years ago

   Two clicks out of 800 would translate to about 0.2% which is far below the average. We generate about 2% to 2.5%. Certainly something must be wrong somewhere.

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3. 86

   Rik Ravadoposted 16 years ago

   Thanks for that ngureco.  Google is reporting page views normally so don't see what can be wrong.

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4. 69

   amy janeposted 16 years ago

   I experienced something like that from mid march until about a week ago. I could not figure out what was wrong, but it appeared that my google traffic evaporated completely from 4 of my top hubs. My CTR was cut in half.  It is starting to come back, the traffic and the CTR.
   I too wish I knew what caused this. Hopefully someone can shed some light...

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   1. 86

      stephhicks68posted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Me too!  I actually wrote down my google stats for my top hubs and looked at, wondered why, the traffic went away around mid-March.

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   2. 57

      desert blondieposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      Amy, you're writing lots of hubs (have been reading that many don't really write anything after signing up!) And you've been doing this four months, with a 99 score.  Are you satisfied with your earnings as compared to your efforts? I keep telling my husband that this all takes time...and I know so little!  I just learned aabout backlinking or something or other from collegepolitico as a way to go out into the internet and place links too my columns/blogs here. But don't know how to do that yet. Any suggestions from a 99 scorer such as yourself?

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      1. 69

         amy janeposted 16 years agoin reply to this

         It does take time to figure everything out, and I am fairly new to all of this too.  Until mid march, I was extremely pleased with how what I was earning - it seemed to be a pretty good start. I was shocked, to be honest! I truly love to write, so the effort I put in isn't painful in any way  
         
         I'm sure there are people who make far more than I do with a lower hubber score, I guess that is what Jenny wanted you all to know. I am sure that is true, because I am a writer, not a marketing or SEO expert.
         I do appreciate that Hubpages rewards the efforts of their writers who play by the rules  and contribute quality hubs consistently with high scores.

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5. 86

   Rik Ravadoposted 16 years ago

   My problem is not the traffic but the proportion of clicks I am getting.
   One factor may be that the traffic has dropped on my highest-paying Hubs.

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6. STAFF

   pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

   Google made some significant updates to their algorithm around that time.  Whenever that happens there will inevitably be some winners and some losers.  We are all only looking at the little sliver that is important to us.  In theory, they are looking at the big picture and trying to make the best experience possible for all the people that search.
   
   As for the CTR, 800 impressions is not a huge sample.  You can expect a much higher CTR on traffic referred from search engines.  So, if most of your traffic isn't from search, 2 clicks out of 800 is a bit low, but it doesn't surprise me that much.
   
   If making money is your primary motivation, you may want to consider researching ways to tailor your content (and titles) for search engines a little more, and other techniques that can help increase search traffic.

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7. 86

   Rik Ravadoposted 16 years ago

   Thanks for that Paul. 
   
   Luckily I'm here for the writing - the money is just a bit of fun on the side.  You are right about the traffic mix.  My higher traffic hubs are predominently HubPages generated.  Hubs with a higher proportion of search engine traffic are poor earners anyway.

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8. 72

   Inspirepubposted 16 years ago

   99 score and earnings are not particularly closely related, Desert Blondie. Some of the 99 scorers with hundreds of Hubs make $200 a month or less.

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9. 72

   Inspirepubposted 16 years ago

   Amy, you need to edit your last post and fix the quoting - "quote" in square brackets at the beginning of the part you are quoting from someone else and "/quote" in square brackets at the end.
   
   Otherwise the formatting gets messed up ...

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10. 57

    desert blondieposted 15 years ago

    Thanks to you two for responding!  I love writing...enjoy meeting/reading other hubbers...enjoy feeling like my brain's engaged...like I'm connected!  Those are the most important, though a few dollars would be wonderful!

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11. 86

    Rik Ravadoposted 15 years ago

    My situation is not getting any better as far as my own earnings are concerned.  However I have 19 referrals and they have a total of 40 Hubs.  They are obviously doing much better than me in terms of traffic and bring in paid clicks for me every few days.
    
    This annoys me as I want my Hubs to earn! (particularly as I get 60% of my earnings and only 10% of theirs).  The problem I have is than I'm not getting much search engine traffic, particularly for the hubs that do pay out.  About half of my Hubs have never paid even when the traffic was higher.  I'm beginning to use Google Analytics to see this data helps. 
    
    There is obviously a trade off between good writing and making money.  I'd just like have ONE Hub than makes money and leave the other 20 or so to give pleasure to others!
    
    Blondie - you have the right attitude - enjoy writing and hopefully, in time, the cash will come too!

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12. 87

    Dorsiposted 15 years ago

    Rik, I have had over 3,000 page views and 9 clicks. I don't know if that's about average, but on my last hub, I decided to go about my writing more "analytically", yes but still have fun with it. I picked the subject of ADHD http://hubpages.com/_HubLink/hub/Help-W … D-Symptoms , which I am very familiar with, and decided to really use the targeted key words in the beginning and in the title, to see how much traffic I pick up. Since I know that ADHD is a very hot topic, I want to see what kind of traffic the hub pulls in.
    (And it's good therapy talking about our families struggles with adhd)
    A few people have told me to also bold out the key words so I am also doing that, and I think the real marketing for this article will be on medical forums where parents are dealing with ADHD, or looking for help, so I need to figure out the best way of getting the links to those sites.
    I think it's pretty much trial and error with hubs sometimes,
    and I too have noticed a drop in my traffic the last week, I don't know why but I'm going to just keep plugging away........

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