You Can Have Success Making Money Online Writing at HubPages

This morning I responded to someone’s question (email) about making extra money and I mentioned HubPages. Not too long after, I received a message from that person asking if I had any success making money on this site and how exactly it works. I responded as best I could and realized when I was done typing that I had practically written a book. Then it struck me that it might make a good hub. I know there are a lot of hubs that provide this type of information, and having been here only 4 months I am certainly no expert, but my advantage is that it is all still fresh in my head. Well, most of it is, anyway.

Okay, so here it is. Want to know if you can make money here on HubPages and how it’s done? Keep reading; this is the response I wrote -->

Yes, I have had success. Everyone's definition of success if different, however, but from what many others on this site have told me, my earnings have been far better than many for a beginner. Let's see - I made around $25 my first month, around $42 the second month, $57 my third month (October). I'm hoping it'll keep picking up, especially now that the holiday shopping season is coming.

• How to Make Money Writing on HubPages by WordPlay
• HubPages Help - A Reading List for New Hubbers by frogdropping
• Hub Content Guidelines by Relache

The way it works is that you sign up to be an affiliate with Google AdSense, Amazon and/or EBay. You create hubs (articles) and HubPages places 3 Google ads automatically on your page. You get paid by Google for "impressions" which is just the ad being there when someone looks at your page and you get paid for "clicks", when someone clicks on one of the ads. You want clicks because impressions don't pay much at all. Clicks vary tremendously and you have to do keyword research to find topics and keywords that pay well.

There's a lot of trial and error in the beginning and there's soooo much to learn, but I've enjoyed every minute of it and I can't believe how much I've learned.  Oh, forgot to mention that you do split the AdSense with HubPages - they get 40%, you get 60% - but it's not like it sounds, when you start making money, what shows as your earnings with Google is what's yours - it's a little confusing and I'm not sure I can accurately explain it, but HubPages (HP) places your affiliate ID on the page 60% of the time and their ID 40% of the time.

• How To Increase Amazon Affiliate Sales on HubPages by Sunstreeks

Amazon is separate.  You can create hubs and feature items related to your topic that Amazon sells and if someone clicks the product link and makes a purchase, you make a commission (it doesn't even have to be that item; once they are at Amazon you get commission for anything they buy.  The commission is small to start, but if you're successful at selling a lot it can be good – there’s a tiered commission structure.

If you want to be taken seriously and you want people to read what you write, you have to write well.  If English is your second language, get someone with a good working knowledge of the language and good spelling, grammar, and punctuation skills to review your writing before publishing it.  Seriously, if someone stumbles upon your hub and it's written poorly, you will not retain their attention.  Learn more about grammar mistakes here.

I started off writing more informational hubs, then started gearing more toward "stuff" hubs, where I write about specific items or a line of products and then feature links to several products and descriptions, and I'll give my opinion and/or reviews as well. These types of hubs are fun, especially when you’re writing about products you know and love (okay, at least like!)

You may be asking - as I did when I first started - why someone wouldn't just go straight to Amazon if they want to purchase something? I don't know the answer other than to say that I get a lot of traffic to my hubs and lately I’ve been seeing quite a few Amazon sales. Personally, I like to be able to see what options are available (for whatever I happen to be shopping for) all on one page – that’s what you get with these hubs. There are many hubbers here that are making great earnings from Amazon each month.

• Writing: 10 Steps To Creating A Great Article, An Experienced Writer's Guide by Waynet
• How I got my hub to be on Google's first page by Mark Knowles
• Table of Contents by darkside
• An Introduction To HubPage Referrals by darkside
• Using EzineArticles to Make Money with Hubpages by Lissie

I have to warn you that you have to have patience in the beginning and put in a lot of time to get going and get a lot of hubs - they must be quality hubs, but quantity is what's going to bring in the $. I've been at it only 4 months and I have 81 hubs, and counting. My goal is to make at least a couple hundred a month; hopefully I'll be there in a few more months.

An important point to make is that once a hub is published, it’s done (but that's not to say that you can't go and edit it anytime you want to after it's published). Perhaps occasional minor maintenance may be required, like checking to make sure product links are still good, etc., but for the most part once it’s published, it will be on the web forever and you continue to make money as long as it gets traffic.

Also worth mentioning, Google likes HubPages and HubPages ranks very well with Google; therefore, if you create hubs with good content and keywords, you stand a good chance at eventually getting ranked on the first page when someone searches Google for your keywords. That should be a goal, to make it at least to page 1 of Google. Another way to help your ranking is by creating backlinks. Backlinks are links to your hubs from other pages on the web. I won’t go into backlinks here because this is enough information to start off with.

I strongly suggest reading all of HP's FAQ here first.

Now you’re ready to join and start earning, right? Click here to get started!

I put my tracking code in the link above because that's another way to earn - if someone signs up under your tracking id, you get royalties from their earnings - but it's not from your 60%, it's from HPs 40%, so it doesn't take a single penny away from you. If you do sign up, I would really appreciate it if you sign up through my referral id because it would help me toward my goal of getting out from under a mountain of medical bills (read more of my hubs and you’ll know what I mean) - and it won't take a penny away from your earnings!

Also, I highly recommend searching HubPages for help with anything you want to learn more about. There are tons of writers that have written great hubs to help new hubbers. Darkside, Relache and Mark Knowles are two I highly recommend, but there are many more. All the links you see in the right column (above) are hubs that I bookmarked when I first started here at HubPages because they helped me find my way around here - I would make a point of perusing them when you get a chance.

Also, the forums on HubPages are great - there are threads specifically set up for asking people to look at your new hubs and critique them or you can ask for help with anything and you'll get tons of help from great "hubbers". I hope I haven’t overwhelming you with information. I'm certainly no expert, but I think I have a pretty good grasp of HubPages so far.

I hope this has helped spark your interest – best of luck if you decide to join the HubPages family!