How much have I earned?

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   Charlinexposted 12 years ago

   Apparently AdSense is ready to send me the first payment, after over 4 weeks and 17 hubs. But my estimated earning is still slightly below $10.
   
   Does it mean that I have other earnings from eCPM as well? Where is the actual total?
   
   I am also glad that over 40% of my traffic is from the search engines now. I haven't done any backlinks.
   
   I am happily confused.

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      Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Search engines will find the right Hub, and if it's REALLY the right kind of Hub people will link to it.
      
      eCPM is a very different things from your earnings.  Click on that in your Google Ad Sense account, and Google explains it.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      To get back to the point - Adsense isn't ready to pay you yet.  When you get to $10, they send you a snail mail with a PIN number.  You need to enter the PIN number on your account, then they'll set you up for future payments.
      
      So make sure your address is correct immediately, to make sure the mail reaches you!
      
      You're doing very well to get to $10 already!

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         Charlinexposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That's encouraging to know. Thank you.

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   paradigmsearchposted 12 years ago

   I strongly suspect that you are not getting paid… They just asked you for the additional info in case you decide to cancel your account for some reason. This conclusion is based on my possibly false assumption that Google does make under-$100 payouts on canceled accounts that have reached at least $10.

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      bileygurposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      10 USD  for 17 hubs and 4 weeks.
      
      Is that normal?

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         Charlinexposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I don't know if it is normal. What do you think?

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            bileygurposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I am not sure I have only been around less than 2 weeks.  I was hoping for some thing more after one month to be honest.  I get my paying in Euros and have received few Euros.   Probably around 10 USD.

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               Charlinexposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               You must have very high CTR, because your hubs haven't been read over 1000 times yet.
               
               My hubs have been read over 2600.

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                  bileygurposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  He He   Hopefully I get there to day.
                  
                  I do not think I have very high, compared with other sites i run.  It is just the average.  On the other hand has it been my experience writing about web hosting is some thing that has good price for the keywords. 
                  
                  Not on the hubpages, but I have for single clicks received few dollars (again not sure about the EUR/USD conversion rate) from web hosting keyword.

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                     bileygurposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     On this note, then I thought it would be actually interesting to ask the question how much people have received for 1 click.   
                     
                     I have received from 0 - ca. 1.5 USD per click.

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         klarawieckposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Try .82 cents in four week! LOL I might get my first $10 in the next fifty years!

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            Cordaleposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I've been hubbing for 4 weeks and earned .23$ haha. I'm told just to stick with it

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               klarawieckposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I've been trying to submit my links to other sites but it's not that easy. I'm in the dark as well. No idea what I'm doing!

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         paradigmsearchposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         No; it is amazing. I think I will take up photography!

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            Charlinexposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I sure make more money as a photographer. But it is a very competitive and tough market, and your photos will have to pass very strict inspection process through the agencies. But hey, cream will always come to the top. So give it a try.

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         Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Every person and every Hub is different.  If you're thinking it's low, one thing is that Hubs take some time to get rolling.  If you're thinking it's higher than what you've seen some people earn, it does look higher than a lot of people say they've earned in four weeks.  (That, though, is only going by people who talk about/complaint about how little they're earned, so even that isn't a good sampling.)
         
         If you have one or two Hubs that do well, and some more that are slower to get rolling, you may have a larger percentage of your earnings coming from only some Hubs.
         
         It's really not "safe" for anyone to make any guesses about "normal" because of all the variables.  In general, though, a whole lot people take awhile to start earning anything substantial.  $10 for so few Hubs in a month is pretty good (again, in general and without factoring in anyone who may be earning better than most, soon, but not talking about it in public).  (All pretty vague, I know, but there's really no "normal" - only "readings of what people who talk about their earnings say".
         
         The right kind of Hub and/or the right steps to increasing traffic can generally earn a lot of more $10 a month.  A lot of people say it takes around eight or nine months before they get paid, and from their earnings often begin to pick up speed.  People write all kinds of Hubs, though, so I can't stress enough that it's an individual thing.  Generally, 17 "usual" Hubs (as opposed to very effective and properly promoted) isn't considered very many, and (again GENERALLY) the more Hubs, the better, as far as earning goes.  The more time, the better, too.

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            bileygurposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Well it is good and bad.  If you take the time that you spend making and promoting the hubs, you might be better of cleaning the nearest public bath room.  It is of course cleaner, but for 10 USD
            
            It takes time, but you would hope to that it should would little bit faster.  I assume that many give up after the month seeing that they have earned less than 10 USD after whole allot of work.  Some even as low as 0.82 cents. 
            
            It is difficult to tell this people to continue and believe people that are saying about allt the hundreds or thousands of dollars they are making.  It is also difficult to believe people, when on one hand it says I make all this profit and next "Click here to start" (and I will make part of the profit you will ever make).  I at least question if they make their money from their hubs or just by requiting allot of new people.

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               Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I'll be on HubPages three years in October, and I've never seen anyone claiming to make hundreds of thousands of dollars on here.  Some make a full-time income, but they're usually people who do online writing and all the SEO stuff as an alternative to a full-time job. 
               
               One reason Hubbers who get a few hundred dollars a month often try to share that with newer people is that they know how new people can get discouraged and want them to know that if they just keep at it for a few months, chances are they'll see earnings that are "a nice extra".  To pick up a few hundred dollars a month in "that nice extra" Hubbers don't have to work at writing and promoting on a full-time basis.  They can write a Hub here or there, let their occasional Hubs build up, and eventually they're likely to pick up that few hundred a month.  If they just put in enough effort to pick some good keywords and create the right title (and do a little backlinking, although some people don't even do much in terms of backlinking) it's likely that their modest but passive income will start coming in and keep coming in.
               
               If someone (like you) wrote those Hubs you have for upfront pay from another site, you'd get whatever modest pay for them you'd most likely get; and that would be the end of it.  You wouldn't (usually) retain the rights to your writing.   I've got Hubs that have, in the time they've been up, resulted in far, far, more earnings than I ever would have gotten by selling the same piece of writing to someone online.  Yes, I'm talking about over the long term, so it isn't as if I got a big check for big earnings; but over the course of time, the earnings for the same pieces of writing have added up to really paying off.
               
               It does take time for Hubs to be picked up; but even if you consider a relatively brief, off-the-top-of-your-head, piece of writing got you 82 cents the first month; first, that 82 is likely to start to snowball over time.  Second, if you take the time to produce 100 of those 82-cent Hubs, at first you'll be working for pretty much no money.  Over time, though, those 100 82-cent will start bringing in their individual (and likely) increasing, earnings each month, "ages" after you've written them.
               
               So, for someone like me, for a couple of years now I've been getting a few hundred dollars every month by answering a few comments on HubPages and writing the occasional Hub (and usually doing that while I have another window up, doing "real" work at the same time).  I've said this so often, but if I'd come to HubPages and taken keywords and backlinking just a little seriously (rather than just come to "write for fun") I'd be earning a whole lot more each month at this point (even without writing all that many new Hubs that often).  Also, there's such a thing as one Hub earning quite a big chunk each month, so with a relative few of that kind of Hubs a person could really earn quite a bit.
               
               I'd compare it to being a "mini-version" of the way some people go to four of six years of college (and often live dirt-poor and eat noodles most of the time) in order to one day be able to earn a decent living.  This is similar.  Although some people may earn more and faster than others, a lot of people (maybe "the average Hubber" who isn't trying to make their full-time job Hubbing) on here have to live without earnings for five or eight months while they build up their Hubs and let whatever goes on with the search engines start going on.  Eight or ten months later, a person is picking up a couple of hundred dollars a month for very little effort; a few months after that, maybe he's picking up an additional couple of hundred dollars of so.
               
               Not only is there just the time factor here, or just the amount-of-Hubs factor, but those first few months can very much involve a learning factor for a lot of people.   It's a whole different way of earning, and trying to apply the per-hour rate to this kind of earning is an apples-to-oranges comparison.
               
               People make their money from the traffic (and resulting ad clicks) each Hub gets.  They can earn more if they get into the referral thing (I've never even done).  I have no problem with the fact that HubPages takes its cut of any earnings, because HubPages also sends traffic to my writing.  It's a business arrangement.   For someone like me, who doesn't want to make my career be about Internet marketing, and only wants to write because I enjoy writing what I feel like writing about (as opposed to writing/research what I'm sick of writing/researching for someone else), I have no problem with HubPages getting a cut of whatever any Hubs earn.  My Hubs wouldn't exist if I hadn't signed on under those terms, so I'd be earning nothing on that particular collection of writing.  I haven't spend enough time on here that it's a matter of "wasting time" not earning what I could be earning; because if I weren't on here, I'd be watching television or being on some other site (and likely to be earning little or nothing).
               
               It would be nice if it would be faster (and maybe for some Hubbers is it), but it would also be nice if the income six years of college gets someone could go faster too. 
               
               I'm not a top earner on here, by any means.  Other people do better than I do, but a lot of those put in a lot more effort, treating HubPages as their business - not their hobby or "sort-of-business-spin-off-thing", like I do.  My earnings come primarily from Ad Sense (a little from Amazon, but that's not my focus either).  That's it.  For whatever they're worth, my earnings come from my Hubs and nothing else (no referrals, none of that).
               
               Yes, new people get discouraged because they don't believe they can earn.  One reason I'm earning a fraction of what I could earning is that when I was new I didn't believe earning was possible, so I "just did whatever" and didn't bother with keywords (or even know how to create a title that would be more appropriate for search engines; I came from writing in print media and a scientific environment).
               
               New people need to learn just the basics of what it takes to write Hubs that are likely to get outside traffic and do just that much (at least).  From there they can continue to learn.  Using a grammar checker and spell checker to product writing that's in reasonable good English grammar (f English isn't someone's "thing") is important too.   Then give it some time.  When I started I pretty much did little right, other than, perhaps, using decent grammar in whatever piece-of-crap Hub I wrote (but also trying to be helpful to any readers).    I suspect if I'd taken things more seriously it may not have taken that "standard" eight months before I got the first payment.  (Earning can start sooner than eight months, but it can take that long to get the first hundred dollars to be paid.) 
               
               In any case, I'm only one Hubber; but I'm not I'm not alone.  New people can believe or not believe what I've said, but I'm being absolutely truthful and candid here.

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                  bileygurposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Very long reply, thank you for that.  In the first lines there is though important misunderstanding and before I continue to read on I would like to correct that: I said "hundreds or thousands of dollars" NOT hundreds of thousands of dollars".  There is very big different there in between.

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                  bileygurposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I have nothing to add to this.  I think we more or less agree.   
                  
                  My point was not that I am not happy with the system, but when you get few dollars after month of work it seems miles away to get even 100 USD per month.   
                  
                  Then when you see people promising that they earn 100 or thousands (note not of) you doubt that it is true.
                  
                  When you talk about grammar.  I it completely true in my case, I try the best I can but English is only my second language (or actually the third).

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                     Charlinexposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     I am also often guilty of spelling and grammatic errors, because although I have multiple degrees in English,  carelessness is in my blood.  However I do come back to edit later.
                     
                     Fortunately these things do not always affect the CTRs.

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                     Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     bileygur,   There is certainly a big difference between "hundreds of thousands" and "hundreds or thousands".  Typos happen.  I knew I'd never heard anyone say they make hundreds of thousands, but I know there are those programs that people sell and promise to teach people how to "earn while they sleep with Google".
                     
                     Anyway, I wanted to make it clear that I wasn't directing the grammar comment at you, specifically.  It's just that I thought if I was trying to offer newer people any ideas on what earns, I should include the grammar thing (because a lot of people who barely speak English often think they'll be earning "big bucks" "tomorrow",and, in reality, Hubs often get voted down if they're really difficult to read.  Based on what I've seen, most people won't vote something down for a thing or two that is clearly a sign that English is not someone's first language.  Or, people post Hubs that have been done by article spinners, and those are just ridiculous looking when someone of another language doesn't know how incoherent his Hub is, as a result of being spun.
                     
                     bayoulady, thanks.  I thought about turning the long post into a Hub, but I've written similar stuff in Hubs before.  Besides, there are so many Hubs and posts on here that are so much more informative, helpful, and generally written by people with far more expertise on, and interest in, increasing traffic.    So I figured I'd keep my "discussion" informal.  What's really nice about this site is that there is so much available help for anyone, that it's a fairly "close" community with lots of people sharing their individual and different approaches/experiences. 
                     
                     (I agree with those who have said that Amazon "works".  I haven't put much focus on it, but I've seen for myself that it does work.   

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                  bayouladyposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  LisaW, this is good advice. I think you should copy and paste what you just wrote, and with another few minutes of tweaking, you would have avery helpful hub for us newbies. I've been here 7 weeks, and I have learned quite a bit from pages like this advice.I'm serious.    Jackie

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            Charlinexposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Again, thanks for the feed-backs. I was worries at the beginning because most of the initial traffic came from the hubbers.
            
            As a newbie, I was just testing the water and finding my way around. I have no idea how to promtoe it nor have I done any  strategic  promotions except sending the links to a few friends. I didn't use any keywords for the sake of click-throughs either.
            
            I have also made a few cents from Kontera although I only signed up a couple of weeks ago.
            
            I have not gained much confidence in Aamzon, why would someone take the trouble to buy anything through my links? Even if they saw the product from my page, they probably will sign up later on and buy directly from Amazon.  No?
            
            So still a lot to learn, and hope I will do better as the times goes.

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               bileygurposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Amazon is usually not really wort the time you spend to find them.  I still have had some sales in the past with them, and then usually many more books than the ones I advertised. 
               
               The main problem with Amazon is that they have only 24 hours cookie, that is really low.  On my other sides I promote other booksellers with longer cookies, that has given me better results even though they are less known.
               
               I use Amazon more as decoration to my hubs, in stead of images.  In my case many times they show pretty images from Iceland.  I can spend the time finding books as I can look for images and to much text is just boring. That at least has been the main reason for me using them.  I really do not expect to get much return on it.
               
               In your case, you have material that can be book orientated.  At least if you know about book about the topic you are using, why not suggest it.  Of course there is change I would not buy it right away, but if on the other hand I am looking at pretty pictures it is some thing I would love to have at my home.  I am not sure if it is just me, but I prefer to look at photos in books or on a wall, rather than on the net

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                  girly_girl09posted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  I would have to disagree. Amazon works well....IF you target the right products (low ticket items that people are looking to buy right then and there). It's a lot tougher to convince someone to buy something online if they're not actively looking for it.

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               thisisoliposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I earn thousands of dollars every year through Amazon on Hubpages.

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                  bileygurposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                  Óli - Thank you for the tip, I actually see the move you do and it is completely different from how most of us are doing it.  You are actually writing a review about special products that are available form Amazon.
                  
                  The problem I have seen about amazon is the short cookie.  In my case, I have been writing about Iceland and Wordpress.  Both cases it is very likely that people will make the buy later.

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                     thisisoliposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                     If most people buy, they buy within hours of first looking.
                     
                     I get my conversions by offering a choice for them all on one page.
                     
                     I give them similar products, and a choice between Amazon and eBAy, two of the biggest retailers on the internet.
                     
                     By giving your readers a choice they feel as if they are going to get the best deal on your page, because they can compare products, and prices, all in one location.

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                        Charlinexposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        I am not surprised because your goal is to make money by selling for Amazon. That is a great strategy.
                        
                        However when some of us want to write about what we want to write and make money too,  Amazon does not seem to be the best fit.

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                           bileygurposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                           It could go to gather
                           
                           At least I found already some great ideas to write about.  I actually applied for ebay.  I am not sure that they will accept me.
                           
                           We will see

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                              thisisoliposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                              You need your own domains to be accepted in to ebay at the moment.  Hubpages just doesn't cut it any more!

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                        bileygurposted 12 years agoin reply to this

                        Yes,  it is brilliant    Just need to find good products.  It is much better, than the setup most have.

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      Charlinexposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Thank you, Paradigm, I am afraid you are right.

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   Lisa HWposted 12 years ago

   The way to check your actual earnings is to go to your Google account, select "overview".  Across the top is "Today's Estimated Earnings".  Across the bottom of the page (in gray) is "Total Earnings".  If the time frame selected (on the drop down menu) is "today" you'll just see total estimated earnings for today.  You can select any time frame (up to within the last three months or since the last payment, if that applies).  When  you select "this month" you'll see total for the present month.  When you select something like "last 3 months" or "since last payment" you'll see the total beyond just the present month.
   
   If I recall correctly, it was once I reached $10 in earnings that Google sent the pin number notification in the US mail as a way of kind of getting ready for them to pay me.  It involved selecting a pin number, setting up "method of payment" (and in my case, the bank account I wanted the deposit made to).   There may have also been an "in-order-for-us-to-pay-you" kind of thing that showed up online, in my account, as a way of prompting the user to finish setting up the payment method within the account.

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      Charlinexposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Lisa, thank you for the explanation. I have requested the PIN.

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   earnestshubposted 12 years ago

   Lisa that was spectacular! I have been here 23 months and I believe you have described a fair middle of the road view that is both honest and instructive.
   
   I hope a lot of new hubbers read this. I did pretty much as you did.
   I started writing whatever I liked to write about and in time started making the hubs with better keywords.
   
   I know others here who have worked harder than me, and they will often have made more money. I am enjoying it here, and the income is coming along nicely.

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      Lisa HWposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      earnesthub, thanks.      I just hate to think that new people may get discouraged if they've come here to write what they want to write and get the feeling they can't possibly earn if they do that, rather than focusing on more "marketing type" writing.  I just wish I didn't start out as "stupid" about HubPages as I did.   
      
      Maybe I just started paying attention later than others, but it seems to me that over recent months there has been a bigger divide between the "marketing Hubbers" and the "for-enjoyment" Hubbers.  I don't know...  maybe that's because HubPages is now four years old, and there are more people from "both sides" who have been earning for awhile and who have begun to post/write more about how they're earning.  It always kind of bothers me that there can sometimes be those two, divided, "schools-of-Hub-thinking"; because either approach can work, depending on how much effort someone wants to put in.  I don't like how sometimes it looks as if people think the marketing-focused Hubbers aren't interested in writing, or as if the "for-enjoyment" writers don't have much ambition or interest in business in general.  I do think it's kind of unfortunate that some people are under the impression that if you don't get all involved with the SEO stuff you're not going to earn anything at all.
      
      THEN, though, there are the only-poetry and only-creative-writing Hubbers.  I don't have a clue about what their potential to earn is, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a way they can earn well (or at least well enough) if they figure out what they need to do for their particular approach.
      
      If there are creative-writing people who are earning reasonably well on here it would be good if they'd start speaking up too.  That's my thing, I guess...    I think there needs to be more balance when it comes to discussions of how Hubbers can earn.  The SEO/marketing approach works well, and there's no question about it and nothing wrong with that approach. I do think, though, that so much talk about that marketing approach can discourage some new people by leading them to think they can't possibly earn anything if they don't treat their Hubbing as if its a "real" business.
      
      If I weren't all frazzled and stressed out in my offline life, I'd definitely throw in a lot more "product" or "marketing-focused" Hubs just to increase my income here; but I just don't have the "mental energy" these days (for now anyway).  Also, though, if I turn too much of my Hub-writing into earning-focused writing, I won't have my "enjoyment" writing and won't have the time to find another source of enjoyment writing.  I don't ever want to come across as one of those people who is "snob" about "sales" Hubs, though, because most of the people focused on marketing-type stuff here will say they'd rather write something else but like/need the better money from that approach.  For that matter, if they don't care about writing but have figured out how to make money focusing on sales/products, more power to them too. 
      
      I hate to see new people getting discouraged or being skeptical, because even it takes a little while, some of them could eventually earn enough to pay a couple of bills.  Besides, I have a feeling that as HubPages (and Internet writing in general) matures more, the overall picture (as far as what "flies" and what doesn't on the Internet, and paying writing opportunities for good writers, go) will mature as well.  (Oops - after that first long post I vowed to stay out of the forums for a few days - and now I've written another Hub-length post.  Oh well....     )

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         Marisa Wrightposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         That's so true Lisa.  I read your "long post" and I also think you should make it into a Hub - just because others have helpful Hubs doesn't mean yours won't add value.
         
         My experience on HP was very similar to yours.  I think starting out with a "just writing" mentality and gradually developing into the "selling" side of things was a good way to do it, even if it was a little slower.  There's so much to learn, it's stressful trying to master everything at once!

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            CMHypnoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Hey Marisa, I am with you and Lisa on this one.  I started writing articles for the fun of it and came to the idea of earning money quite late on.  I have read the posts and hubs on SEO/backlinking/keywords and have tried to incorporate it into my writing and now write some much more commercial hubs.  But I know that I will never be one of the hard-core marketing led earners/experts, because I can still only write about products that interest me and still want to write my history/travel/paranormal hubs.  I think that there is room for everyone on HubPages, and you can still earn something (but obviously not as much) with a moderate grasp of SEO and keywords

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