Payout Threshold

1. 76

   Swisstoonsposted 7 years ago

   The closer I get to the $50 payout threshold, the more drastically my AdSense earnings plummet.
   My current total earnings amount to <snipped>.   And I am now making about a quarter PENNY a day.
   
   What happens to my accumulated earnings if I decide to pull the plug and delete everything  Wait, don't tell me.  I think I know.

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2. 89

   lobobrandonposted 7 years ago

   Yes you know. But you should also know that it is against the TOS to reveal your earnings on the forums.

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   1. 76

      Swisstoonsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Unless I miss my guess, HubPages gets to keep it all.  Personally, I wish I'd never made the switch from Squdoo.  I guess I missed the part of the TOS you refer to.  I thought I'd seen other users make similar statements about their earnings.

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      1. 89

         lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Well, it's not that hard a decision, is it?
         
         If you are not at $50 yet, either wait until you get there. You are not losing anything by keeping your articles on Hub Pages, are you? If you think they will do a lot better elsewhere, don't you think it's wise to forfeit the $46 or even $49.99 that you collected only to make a fortune somewhere else?
         
         P.S: I'm not trying to be rude, even though it may seem like it. I'm just trying to point out facts. Facts that some of the others who migrated from Squidoo didn't realize either. They all complained that HP was a horrible place to be, but each of them waited for a payout - some a year even. What was preventing them from moving earlier if they thought they had gold mines that weren't being mined, just because they were on the HubPages domain.

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         1. 76

            Swisstoonsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, I have nothing more to lose by staying on HubPages...except patience.   The thrust of what I was saying in my opening post is that it is strange how the earnings from AdSense has steadily declined the closer I got to the payout.  A couple of months (?) ago, I received a HubPages questionaire.  As I recall, one of the questions went something like this:  "On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being highly unlikely, how likely would you be to recommend HubPages to a friend?"  I gave it a 10.  And my "earnings" dropped from about a penny a day to a 1/4 penny.
            
            PS:  I'm not trying to be rude, even though it may seem like it...but I've reread your last sentence several times and still have no idea what you were trying to say.

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            1. 89

               lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               What I was trying to say is that there were quite a few people who were brought over from Squidoo, and all they had were lenses with products no real info. 10 best gifts for your siblings with just pics and links to buy. They thought that their lenses were worth a lot and were getting no returns from HP.
               
               If you're seeing lower CPM's that's because of the time of the year. This season for most niches is usually low. It's got nothing to do with a payout. I know where you're coming from, there are plenty of places (phony schemes on the internet) that take you towards a  payout but never let you get there. This isn't like that.

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3. 95

   SmartAndFunposted 7 years ago

   Swisstoons, are all your articles featured? It seems you should be earning more than 1/4 cent a day.
   
   Also, isn't the AdSense threshold $100? I believe it's the HP Ads threshold that is $50. Are you signed up for HubPages ad program?

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   1. 76

      Swisstoonsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      Only 25 of my 38 remaining hubs are featured. And I have earned FOUR CENTS so far this month.  I just don't have any interest in doing anything else with them.   I had thought any combination totalling $50 triggered a payment.  But if the thresholds are separate and as you've described, then I am even less likely ever to see a penny of the money my hubs (such as they are) have earned and which is sitting in HP's bank account. I wonder how many other users are in the same boat.   HP may have a fine rep among a select few users...may even the majority of users...but among a lot of others (from what I've read online), they are not universally trusted.

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      1. 89

         lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Well, when you join HP it is clearly mentioned that you only receive payout when it touches $50. Yes, they could offer a payout option for people who want to leave and charge the person any transaction costs, I don't see why that's not being done - probably because it's going to need a person employed to take care of it. This should definitely not lead to people not trusting them, because they do what they say.
         
         Are you seeing your earnings on Hub Pages or are you going to adsense.com to take a look at your earnings? If you are seeing them on Hub Pages then that is based on the Hub Pages ad program and you need to wait until you have $50 to receive a payout. However, if you're going to adsense.com, then you're going to have to wait until you've collected $100. That's the Google Adsense policy. This wasn't clear from your reply to Smartandfun, or I didn't understand it.

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         1. 76

            Swisstoonsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            I go to Earnings Reports and type in the date range which includes the entire time I've been on HubPages.  And it shows I'm a little less than four dollars away from the $50 payout threshold.  The money comes from "Ad Program" and Amazon.  When I said, "Ad Sense," I was thinking it was synonymous with  "Ad Program."  In any event, it would be even harder now to reach the threshold because since I posted about the issue here, HubPages has now UNfeatured two Hubs, including the one which made the most for me on Amazon...and unpublished another.    As for payouts, Squidoo used to pay via PayPal and I don't think they had a threshold; payment was monthly.  I get paid by check from Zazzle, but they also offer the option of being paid via PayPal with a threshold, I believe, of only $25.

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            1. 89

               lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Oh! That's sad... Hub Pages also pays via PayPal. If you're really interested in getting that I assume you should work on that one hub that was getting you sales and get it onto a niche site. Going to be hard, considering it was unpublished/defeatured. But it can be done if you really want to.

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               1. 76

                  Swisstoonsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Thanks, I appreciate your comments.  I'm just in a sour mood about HP.

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      2. 92

         UnnamedHaraldposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Rest assured that your approach to a payout has nothing to do with earnings slowing down. CPM is based on what advertisers are willing to spend per 1000 impressions and impressions are at the mercy of viewers. There is no conspiracy at work.

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         1. 92

            Jean Bakulaposted 7 years agoin reply to this

            Swisstoons,
            I took a quick look at your hubs and noticed that the titles are very long. They aren't the type of thing someone would type into a Google search bar if wanting to read about the subject. I've had some luck in making titles shorter and more specific. Try to think what you would type in the search bar if you were interested in reading one of your more popular hubs. It's a quick fix and worth a try. Good luck.
            
            Also, it took me almost a year to get my first payout. I was excited about writing and didn't read the rules, which would also help you. Once you reach the threshold once, it usually continues. I'm making money on stuff I wrote in 2011.

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            1. 76

               Swisstoonsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

               Thank you.  I appreciate the suggestions.  Funny thing is, my titles used to be shorter and to the point.  When I lengthened them, adding more adjectives, that seemed to boost views...for a while.  Again, I do appreciate the helpful suggestions.  Most of my time is spent promoting my Zazzle shops.  In fact, that was my main reason for doing Squidoo.  And it worked well...right up until HP took over the lenses.

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               1. 89

                  lobobrandonposted 7 years agoin reply to this

                  Ah you were promoting Zazzle products. That was a thing for Squidoo, never a thing on Hub Pages and you can't do well with those hubs. Period. As you say you are dedicating your time to Zazzle, and you should since your cartoons are really creative and fun
                  
                  I just want to tell you that it's not HP's fault and you should not blame them. These are a bunch of helpful and friendly guys. You should really blame squidoo for dumping you guys without real warnings. HP actually took you guys in. They tried, even if it was from a business stand point.

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   2. 76

      Swisstoonsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I guess I'm making a whole lot more than I previously reported.  I had said I was making 1/4 cent a day.  Looks like it's closer to 1/3 cent a day.

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      1. 95

         SmartAndFunposted 7 years agoin reply to this

         Are all your articles featured? Are you earning from on HubPages ads as well, or AdSense only?
         
         edit: Sorry, I just now saw your reply above.

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4. 0

   calculus-geometryposted 7 years ago

   It's a tough call. Normally I would say wait to get the extra few bucks you need to reach the payout minimum, but it sounds like it will take a century to get there, so I can see why you might feel like cutting your losses and taking all the articles down and forfeiting the forty-something dollars.
   
   What I would do is identify some unfeatured articles that were getting good traffic in the past, edit them to bring them up to HP's requirements, and then see if your earnings start accumulating faster.  If you're able to get some of your articles moved to niche sites by sprucing them up, you might get to $50 in a few months.  Then you can cash out and take your articles down.
   
   Nice cartoons by the way.

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   1. 76

      Swisstoonsposted 7 years agoin reply to this

      I had typed a long thank you for your comments...and then clicked the wrong button and it all evaporated.  I do thank you for your suggestions. 
      
      I don't have the enthusiasm to repost my hubs on a similar site.  So, I will probably keep them where they are.   Those are good suggestions and I may try to improve the two hubs which I believe generated the Amazon earnings.
      
      Thank you very much on your compliment on my cartoons.  Much appreciated.  When I was still submitting work to magazines, a single cartoon would earn more than I make in a month doing other things on the internet today.  Times change.  Thank you, again!

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