Sudden Drop in Earnings

1. 86

   AdeleCosgroveBrayposted 3 years ago

   My earnings on Hubpages are approximately down to one quarter of their usual level. Has anyone else experienced this, or know why this is?
   
   I hope it's just a temporary glitch.

   replyreport
   1. 88

      NateB11posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Yeah, been experiencing the same thing, probably a drop of about 1/4. This has been due to a drop in traffic. Not sure why. Maybe a natural fluctuation. I'd have to check how I've done in the past at this time of year.

      replyreport
      1. 88

         NateB11posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I went back and checked my stats from last year and the year before for this week and a week in June and it appears there's a rather negligible difference in earnings. Seems to be a natural fluctuation that takes place. At least, for me.

         replyreport
   2. 89

      Butterfly67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I just checked one of your hubs that has been migrated (on RemedyGrove) and I can't see any ads on it (see another thread with this issue) - I wonder if this is what is affecting your earnings. It looks like there may be an issue showing ads in the UK so if you are getting a lot of traffic from there then that may be why.

      replyreport
      1. 95

         incomeguruposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I checked one of her articles on remedygrove and it shows ads. See image below:
         
         
         
         
         
         ...............
         
         
         
         

         replyreport
         1. 89

            Butterfly67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            As I say I believe it is a UK issue (possibly Europe) - no ads showing here.
            
            

            replyreport
            1. 88

               lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               Germany here, same issue. Just the other day I checked bellatory or another niche site and things were loading fine. I had replied to one of Bevs posts. But I see the same grey boxes on remedygrove as in this pic.

               replyreport
            2. 89

               Nell Roseposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               No Ads on mine either.

               replyreport
2. 86

   AdeleCosgroveBrayposted 3 years ago

   I've just checked my earnings for this month, and they're still much lower than usual.
   
   I notice that my typically highest-earning Hubs have all been tweaked by Hubpages editing team in some way and now have, in red lettering, a link to view them on Hubpages itself as well as an external site. Could this re-arrangement be the cause of the drop in income?

   replyreport
   1. 95

      Marketing Meritposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Hi Adele.
      
      No, the link is simply due to the migration to the Maven network. That shouldn't affect anything.
      
      Earnings have dropped generally, due to the economic situation regarding Covid. Amazon have also slashed commission rates which is having a negative impact.
      
      It's not clear from your posts, but have your views dropped or just your income? Most of us have taken a hit in the last year or so. It seems to be picking up for some, but not others.
      
      If you haven't already done so, consider updating your articles and getting them all moved to the niche sites. This should help a little, but long-term, we appear to be at the mercy of Google's algorithm.
      
      Good luck!

      replyreport
   2. 94

      Solarasposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      All my hubs with the HP link, suggesting they have been migrated, also show blue arrows that these articles are experiencing lower traffic. 
      
      Hopefully they will bounce back, but I hope they will hold off on other niche site migrations until they see what effect this is having longer term on those that have been migrated.
      
      If they are recreating the HP problem that the niche sites cured, they need to rethink the migrations.

      replyreport
      1. 97

         EricDockettposted 3 years agoin reply to this

         This is my concern as well. I only have three articles migrated so far, but they all lost traffic in the first week. It is too tough to tell with such a small sample size though.

         replyreport
         1. 96

            DrMark1961posted 3 years agoin reply to this

            Are you still able to check the stats on those articles like we are on the other sites? Have you noticed if they have lost their backlinks?
            Why else would they have fewer readers? Do you think they are they losing rank in Google?

            replyreport
            1. 97

               EricDockettposted 3 years agoin reply to this

               I only have three articles moved so far and they don't get much traffic. I just noted it is down from last week, but it is such a small sample size it is impossible to really tell anything.
               
               One reason some of our articles may initially lose traffic is because the related and popular hubs are moved to the bottom of the page where many readers will never see them. To compound the problem, the "Maven Bar" that does pop up shows all kinds of unrelated content.
               
               So, those readers who would have clicked on related articles in the sidebar and stayed on the site are either clicking the back button or going off to some other unrelated article (maybe on a different site).
               
               If you write in a niche (or niches) like you and I do, there is a good chance that will mean a loss of traffic for us. With fewer people staying on the site for more than one pageview, it could also mean a slip in ranking eventually.
               
               I mentioned this somewhere else recently. I'm sure HubPages looks at data and know how many people click on the sidebar articles, so maybe the through traffic isn't as much as it seems like it should be.
               
               HubPages used to be designed so that when writers succeeded the site succeeded. We were all in it together. Things are different now and it is hard to know how to feel about it.
               
               The new sites do look really good. All we can do is hope for the best.

               replyreport
               1. 96

                  DrMark1961posted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  That explanation makes a lot of sense. I would think HP has noticed the traffic changes by now so maybe later releases will be set up with the "related and popular" articles displayed more prominently.

                  replyreport
               2. 94

                  nomadspiritposted 3 years agoin reply to this

                  I also thought the decision to move related articles to the bottom of the page was unwise: particularly for more longform articles like the travel related ones I write.
                  
                  Aesthetically speaking, I also think it looks strange to have all that white space running down the right bar with just an add popping up every now and then. Having a list of related articles to fill this space not only looked better, in my opinion, but also made sense in terms of retaining the viewer.

                  replyreport
      2. 96

         DrMark1961posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         I hope that is why they are only migrating a few sites at a time. That way they can find what is wrong and correct the problems, hopefully before they get to a site like Owlcation or Pethelpful.
         Do you know if your "blue arrow" hubs are losing page rank?

         replyreport
3. 86

   AdeleCosgroveBrayposted 3 years ago

   Thanks for your replies, everyone; I appreciate you all taking the time to respond and for suggesting some possible reasons for the income drop. I hadn't realised that Amazon had lowered its commission rates, a move which seems rather mean considering that company's vast wealth and the fact that we Hubpage writers earn money for them, too.
   
   Here's hoping things look up shortly. I've known drops in income from here in the past, and they've always slowly picked up again.

   replyreport
4. 96

   CYong74posted 3 years ago

   I had massive earnings drops since February. I attribute these to the bulk of my earning hubs, previously, all being travel articles. (Worse, travel articles about places still NOT receiving foreign visitors)
   
   Thus, I switched to writing about other topics. Things are looking up a little, but not too much. I'm hoping the situation would improve next year.

   replyreport
5. 95

   PaulGoodman67posted 3 years ago

   No particular issues for me. Normally, the summer is a low point and we are coming out of it and into the highest earning period. Very difficult to compare 2020 with previous years, given the recent virus lockdown and resulting economic peculiarities.

   replyreport
6. 97

   EricDockettposted 3 years ago

   My earnings on my biggest and most successful account are down significanty. Like, probably by two thirds. Part of it has to do with the Amazon thing, but I believe it is also due to HubPages going in a different direction with that particular niche site.
   
   My traffic dropped after the holidays to 2016 pre-niche-site levels despite having many more articles since then. It recovered briefly in the spring and then dropped again.
   
   I believe this is because Google no longer see that niche site as an authority on my topic due to the wide variety of content, much of which isn't remotely related to my topic.
   
   I really wish HubPages would consider breaking some of the successful topics out of niche sites and giving them their own sites. I think in some cases it would be well worth it.
   
   On the bright side, this account is doing better than ever, so I am happy about that. Unfortunatley, it is not nearly enough to make up for what was lost on the other account.

   replyreport
7. 95

   PaulGoodman67posted 3 years ago

   Considering all the work I've been putting in on here editing and writing new material, my views and earnings have remained frustratingly stable. That said, if the changes that some report is due to migration of niche sites, then individual experiences will depend on which sites one's work appears on.

   replyreport
   1. 95

      PaulGoodman67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

      That said, despite no sudden drop in earnings, my earnings are generally quite a bit down on this time last year, when compared with where they were in 2019 at this time.

      replyreport
8. 89

   Butterfly67posted 3 years ago

   Brandon do you know if they are actively looking into this issue? The only other thing I have seen is where you have to email the team and they give you some kind of code - do I need to do this for my hubs do you know?
   I wonder if the issue is because no pop up appears to ask us to accept all that stuff we need to accept!

   replyreport
   1. 97

      theraggededgeposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      I think you are right. Almost every US site asks us to accept cookies. Even HubPages & the network sites do it to me daily. It doesn't happen with the Mavens.

      replyreport
   2. 97

      chef-de-jourposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Matt Wells has been in touch with me via email about this issue and assured me they're 'working on a resolution'...that was on 26th August. It would be good to get some extra feedback at this time.

      replyreport
      1. 89

         Butterfly67posted 3 years agoin reply to this

         Good to know they are on it chef, thanks. Let's hope they find a solution (which they never manged to with the fact that some people couldn't add network sites to their adsense...)

         replyreport
   3. 88

      lobobrandonposted 3 years agoin reply to this

      Chef has replied to this. I know nothing about it and good catch about the cookies. But then again it is the same old domain names and we already accepted them at one point so I doubt we have to do it again.
      
      EDIT: I'm not sure what code you are referring to. We definitely do not need to do something on our end.

      replyreport
9. 77

   Olusola Fasanposted 3 years ago

   Really I am facing the same predicament here, I thought it was only me

   replyreport