How Come I Work So Hard, But Only Receive Pennies?

1. 61

   tfox62@yahoo.composted 10 years ago

   It seems as if, all I do is type and read away my life. Trying to get my hub up an going. But yet, all I am making is a few pennies, will this ever change for me. Will I ever become the great writer that I dream of? Or is this all in vain?

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   1. 68

      ladydeonneposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I've only been with Hub Pages for (2) months now.  From my reading of comments made by some veteran hubbers, there is little money to be made here.  I joined HP to beef up my writing which I am very passionate about.  In due time I will move on to other things.  I will probably remain at HP because I love the community and support. Right now I'm also pursuing free lance writing.  It's my understanding that most people are here for the community and to share their gift of writing.  I plan to follow this forum as some of the old timers may earn decent money from their ads.

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   2. 0

      Sarra Garrettposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Never give up tfox! If you give up writing then you quit and you don't want to be a quitter then you will always ask yourself if you could have been a good writer. 
      
      HP is a great way to put your articles and thoughts out there not to mention write about things you are passionate about.  HP is supportive and although you can make pennies on the dollar, to me it's worth it as the praise I receive on my hubs keeps me writing.  I even won a writing contest here not long ago.  There is nothing like writing something that others enjoy reading and telling you they enjoy what you wrote!  It gives you confidence to be able to go for magazine articles and writing a book.

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   3. 88

      Simone Smithposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Hey tfox62@yahoo.com!
      
      The short answer is: HubPages is not a place to earn money; it is a place to share your passions, learn, build an online reputation, etc.
      
      The long answer is: HubPages *is* a place to earn money (I earn over $10 a day, sometimes much more), but one has to write a certain type of article, do a lot of research, and publish a lot.
      
      I hope that helps!

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      1. 0

         Motown2Chitownposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Simone, that is the BEST answer that I have ever heard to this oft asked question.  Thank you so much for that!  Will be sad to see that kind of wisdom sail on to bluer seas, but wish you all the luck in the world on your new adventure!

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   4. 94

      Susana Sposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      When I first starting writing online I used to tweak and tweak and tweak to make my hubs better (improve the sentence structure, make sure the writing flowed well, make sure it was better than other pages in the for the same phrase/s, edit the layout to make it more appealing etc, ensure the text truly fitted the title etc), because I've never been taught to write.
      
      I would go back over my hubs very frequently and always have my potential readers in mind. I'd think about whether my page was what they'd hope to find having typed in that particular search phrase. I'd ponder who exactly my searcher was and whether my page really met my searcher's requirements - on some of my hubs I even have polls asking what people were hoping to find on my page - sometimes the answers were not what I was expecting!
      
      If you are constantly trying to do more to engage your reader then you are *a bit* of the way there to doing ok at this.
      
      There's a whole load of other skills you'll need to develop and stuff you'll need to learn, apart form writing skills, to do well financially with online content, so be prepared to do that in the long term and there's no reason you can't do well.

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   5. 73

      relacheposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      As you've been with HubPages for 5 years and only written 12 Hubs, you're probably lucky to be earning pennies.  Most people with that few amount of Hubs don't earn anything at all.

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   6. 87

      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      If you want to make money online, it's not enough to just write.  There are millions of other writers on the internet, so you have to learn how to get yourself noticed. The fact that not even other Hubbers have noticed you, indicates you don't understand how it works!
      
      I know many people were scared off the forums when the religious nuts took over - but now the forums are separated, it is important to participate in the HubPages-related section. If you haven't been active in the forums then you have probably missed out on a lot of advice, and you've also missed changes to the way HubPages works. 
      
      For instance, I can see only 12 Hubs on your profile but I suspect you've written more than that.  Do you know how the new Featured/Unfeatured system works?  Only your 12 Featured Hubs are visible to Google - so the others, if there are any, have no opportunity to make money.  You need to learn how to fix that.
      
      Are you enrolled for the HP Ads program or are you still just using Adsense and Amazon?  You're likely to do much, much better with HP Ads. 
      
      Do you know what I mean by SEO, keywords and backlinks?  You need to.  Go to thekeywordacademy.com, sign up for their free ebooks and if they offer a free trial in the future, sign up for it.  I'm not suggesting paying for membership, but the introduction will give you a good idea of just how much you don't know.

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2. 96

   wildernessposted 10 years ago

   Let me add just a little to the excellent answers here already.
   
   Income on HP is directly related to traffic - typical earnings are somewhere around $2-$5 per thousand views.  Less, of course, HP's 40% share of those views.  That means that for Simone to see $10 per day she is going to need somewhere in the vicinity of 5,000 views per day.  5,000 X .6 X $3 / 1000 = $9.
   
   That means you must write with the objective of getting traffic, and that means that you must understand how to do that.  My first year on HP (as a nube to online writing) was spent more on learning than on writing.  It also means that you will almost certainly need many hubs; 12 isn't likely to produce much income.
   
   Just one example: while google says there are 4400 monthly searches for the term "computer addiction" there are also over 28,000,000 other articles in direct competition for that term.  It's going to be very difficult to rank well in the search engines for "computer addiction".  Even searching for the exact term (which no one does) you are at the bottom of page 2; searching for an exact title should always show you in the top spot or two of page one.  There is too much competition.
   
   Google says there are zero searches for either "Don't sell Geronimo" or just "sell Geronimo".  No one searches for anything in that all important title.  While you may pick up a few visits from other keywords in the hub, you won't see any from the title.
   
   Google says there are zero searches for either "fraternities lead to death" or for "fraternities and death".  You rank #4 for the first term (and #1 for that exact term) but no one is looking - ranking high for a search result no one uses isn't going to produce traffic.
   
   Your titles, then, need some work.  The learning center has a good section on designing titles; it is an art, and not something that comes naturally to most of us.  It needs to contain a long tail keyword (or two or three) that people are looking for but that not too many are writing about.  It needs to tell both the searcher AND google what your hub is about.  It should be short and specific and should NEVER be over 65 characters.  It need not be catchy, like a magazine article title, but must be descriptive.  It needs supplemented by a well written summary.
   
   There is a good deal to designing good titles; check out the learning center.

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3. 53

   Shinkickerposted 10 years ago

   Tips
   
   1)TITLE - This is HUGELY important. I can't emphasis this enough. You need to second guess the keywords that people will enter into a Google search. A Google-friendly title can make a Hub, the opposite applies of course. Google is ruthlessly unfeeling, even with well-written quality material.
   
   2) NICHE - I've seen poorly written hubs at No.1 on a Google search. But they are there because they have found a niche subject. Not too popular to be swamped by competition BUT not too obscure to have little chance of a keyword search.
   
   3) MARKET - Research what subjects will attract hits. Personally I find that 'Listicles' and product reviews get the most hits. Boring but unfortunately that's what the Google monster gobbles up. Creative writing is exiled to the wastelands to wither on the vine. Google anoraks love lists and consumer advice.
   
   4) SHARE - Post on Facebook, Twitter and message forums BUT only to kick start or boost your Hub hits. I really doubt they will give you massive hits. 1, 2 and 3 are the biggies.
   
   Sorry for sounding a little cynical but I've been writing good material here for 3 and a half years and I only make about $20 - $30 a month. I now write for fun as I don't want to be driven by commericial needs to write boring consumer hubs.
   
   Now it's my hobby LOL

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   1. 84

      TIMETRAVELER2posted 10 years agoin reply to this

      I just published a detailed tutorial about what writers need to do to succeed here.  There is a great deal to learn and do, and has been mentioned, a certain amount of talent and creativity is also necessary.  Read the learning center.  Read every tutorial you can find.  Take your time.  Learn and grow.  Then, at some point in the future, you will begin to earn.  You likely will not make a living doing this, but you will earn.  Good luck.

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4. 83

   psycheskinnerposted 10 years ago

   If you are looking to make an income from writing I would suggest that you need to start looking at writing articles for magazines that pay professional rates and perhaps developing book length work.

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