Tag: Hub Pages

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HubPages Lis Recommmends Making Money Online Passive Income

Hubpages 3 Years On

On the 19th of September 2007 I published my first hub – it was short, it was self-promotional – the url was wrong  for SEO. Over 3 years it has gained a total of 1143 page views – almost all of which are from search engines. It may have made me some money – I doubt it – but I don’t know, I didn’t track that hub 🙂 The hub was about midlife travel. That month my total online income was  $1.98

One of my most recent hubs was about the chances of a Wellington earthquake . It was indexed within a few hours – I expect it will have PR on the next update – I’ve built no links to it.  In August my online income from passive sources was $1600.

When I started on Hubpages – I had two  sites – I had made next to nothing (like less than $10 nothing) – I was newly a full-time “Internet Marketer” and I was going to making a good income my Xmas… This was long,  long before Keyword Academy, I don’t think I would have survived long enough to get to The Keyword Academy – if it hadn’t been for HubPages

What HubPages Has Done for Me

  • It taught me what a buying keyword was .
  • It was the first place that anyone ever read anything that I wrote – I sat up all night watching 100’s arrive to read a hub someone had stumbled for me, then I learnt that stumble traffic doesn’t click.
  • It made me realise that I really did want to make money online – that I wasn’t interested in writing for the sake of it (well that’s my justification for spending so many hours on the forums arguing about it).
  • HubPages prompted me to start this blog – I started wanted to write in a format which didn’t quite work with HubPages.
  • HubPages made me realise that a lot of other revenue sharing sites have what to me are “obvious” flaws – some of those sites are struggling or are gone now.
  • It taught me that you really can make passive income – I have hubs published in November 2009 which still make me money each and every day – all I do with them and go back and delete broken links from time to time.
  • It taught me that you can make even better money from referrals – yup ever hub link on this page is a referral – those 10%’s do add up…
  • Hubpages made my dream of making a living online a reality.

Top 5 Reasons Why Hubpages Works

  • Authority – because the site has built a self-policing community spammers are flagged and shut down quickly. New users find it takes a time for their hubs to be indexed and ranked – there is a reason for that – what is published and indexed are generally pretty good quality. This has meant that pretty consistently Google has trusted HubPages – I’d say even more so in the last 6 months.
  • Internal linking. Some sites seem to get it right – and you can tell because it means that good content, or content from trusted authors, should be indexed fast and get PR easily. Both happen on HubPages and has for ever as far as I am concerned.
  • Strong “hints” from management as to what to write about. You could do a lot worse as a new writer by entering the “contests” and challenges that they often run. The topics are not chosen randomly – some of my successful hubs were topics suggested by HubPages themselves.
  • Diverse content – because of the diversity in the writers at Hubpages there is a huge range of content (check out the latest hubs feed) – some of its completely non-commercial in the traditional sense – you don’t see that on many other revenue sharing sites.  I suspect that it gives them “trust points” with Google because the ONLY purpose of the site is not to make money – any writer can produce content with no ads on it – if they chose. You can’t do that on Ezinearticles for example.
  • Self Policing community. In recent months there has been the addition of many factors which allows writers  to rank other hubbers and hubs with “accolades” not just a general vote up/down (which has been there since the start). I suspect that those accolades add to a hub’s hubscore. Higher hubscores means that the hub gets more internal links both automatically (best hubs in categories for example) and both by showing high on the list for “suggested links” tools where other hubs may link to the hub with a contextural link.

If you are interested in more details on how I use HubPages to make passive income then check out my HubPages my make money with HubPages series

Top 6 Reasons Why I Recommend HubPages

  • Its easier to rank a hub than a page on your website – its faster, it stays ranked and you will get useful statistics that will tell you what works and what doesn’t (particularly actual CPC and CTR).  This advantage well over-rate the revenue split IMHO.
  • If you study what is being suggested as far as topics are concerned you won’t go far wrong with SEO.
  • It’s free – there is no cost whatsoever to try out your idea.  If it works you can always launch your own site – and you already have the back links available…
  • It works stunningly well for recent event blogging and for events that haven’t happened yet (hint earthquakes…). The authority of the site means that the hubs get indexed instantly – the search traffic will then tell you what the search terms are…
  • My  public persona’s profile page is a PR3 and routinely gets new sites indexed for me – do you know how hard it is to get a site with a consistent PR3 which you can put any link on that you want…
  • I am confident that the site has a long future ahead of it – the people behind it are well-connected in Silicon Valley and I’ve seen the staff expand from 3 to 20 and to continually improve the site for both writers and advertisers.

So do you write for hubpages? If not why not …

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Adsense HubPages Making Money Online Online Business

You Really Can Make Thousands on Hubpages

As most of you probably already know I have been on Hubpages for a very long time – it will be three years in October actually.  I knew Hubpages very well, I liked the site, the community and my ability to publish there – I thought it was an adjunct to my “real” money sites.  I was wrong.

Over that time I saw it more as a hobby than serious online money making. In fact hubpages has earned me thousands of dollars  -indirectly – by getting me several freelance writing gigs – but I’m not talking about that.

I also used hubpages to jump start this blog as my earliest readers were fans who followed me over from hubpages – thanks guys. Its a good place to build “a brand” – but I don’t mean that either.

I knew hubpages was great for backinks – I have PR4 and PR3 pages there and they were easy to get.

I knew I could make some income on HubPages  – April was a good month it was the first month I hit over $100 in Adsense – from hubpages alone.

But I didn’t realise you could make serious money on hubpages –  I was an idiot.

I started the HubChallenge but used the wrong approach.  I started again focusing on Adsense income. I have, since the 29th May I’ve made $51 from my 40 new hubs.  In fact of those 40 only 9 have made more than $1.  Most of the hubs that have made money I published in the first week …Do the math and you will understand why I am very,very happy.

What was my secret – two things: keyword selection and building backlinks.  What are the details on how to achieve these results?

I’m following Court’s approach as detailed in broad terms on his blog with his final posted titled: Make Money with HubPages Experiment Complete he made $475 in the first month, his aim is $3000/month  – I’m not as experienced as him – I’m aiming for $2000/month to start.

You want more detail? The details are available to Keyword Academy subscribers. Am I going to repeat them here – no I’m not. One because the technique is Court’s IP and two because if you really aren’t prepared to spend a $1 to have a look – you don’t really want to make money online.

Oh and if you have been on the fence – or you still not convinced that you can really make more than hobby money from hubpages then sign up before Thurs 25 June 6pm  MDT because that’s when Court is doing a live webinar on exactly how he made his money on hubpages. (The content will be available afterewards as a video download for subscribers if you missed the date, but you won’t be able to ask live questions obviously). That self-serving affiiate link again: Keyword Academy

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HubPages

Passive Income Hub Challenge Hubbers Reactions

Yeah not sure I can be creative on the titles on hubchallenge-buttonthis hubpages challenge series people! I might stick with the same nice graphic for consistency and see what I can do with the titles tag.

Over at Infobarrel I finally got my 3 long articles about online business models published and now have 19 of the required points for May.

Continue reading “Passive Income Hub Challenge Hubbers Reactions”
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HubPages

Passive Income Goes Daily – Maybe?

OK so this whole 100 hubs in 30 days game  has been on for a whole day and I thought I might actually go daily on Passive Income just to keep you all up to speed! And to persuade Google that this blog really is about earning passive income online too.

Continue reading “Passive Income Goes Daily – Maybe?”
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Back Links HubPages

Hubpage Challenge 100 Hubs in 30 Days

OK so not a day after I write about diversifying to other Web 2.0 article sites and review  InfoBarrel the great Hubpage challenge blows up all over the Internet. If you have been asleep under a rock and not paying attention it went like the: Court decided to have a new money making experiment: 100 hubs in 30 days. Well Hubpage’s marketing guy Ryan Hupfer noticed this (btw if you are wondering how this sort of thing happens – I have 2 words for you “google alerts” a great way to know what people are saying about you!). Long story short we now have The Great Hub Challenge:

100 hubs in 30 days

Continue reading “Hubpage Challenge 100 Hubs in 30 Days”
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HubPages Online Business

HubPages is NOT a Waste of Time!

I occasionally get the comment that I shouldn’t publish all my better content on sites I don’t own or control. The comment came up again on HubPages where I was told again that I was basically wasting my time publishing there.

Well its true at one level: the actual direct income I make from Adsense/Kontera/eBay/Amazon revenue sharing pays for my hosting: but that’s about it!. No the effect of Hubpages is more subtle than that. I have readers who actually read what I post there.

That said my best ever hub in terms of views by hubpages readers is this one high-lighting some sexy pictures of Nicole Kidman. I have a theory on this. As an exclusively English language site HubPages has a quite a number of Indian authors. India still has tight censorship laws which probably block most of the X-rated sites which are prevelent across the internet. HubPages bans “adult” hubs but their interpretation is the same as Adsense’s that is the odd American view of sex which bans (female) nipples but wet transparent clothing is fine. I don’t know for sure but I know that I have had over 200 views a day for weeks at a time, and then the views drop to a tenth of that: probably because the hub is no longer featured on the front page of “hot” hubs! So I am guessing that I will get quite good PR on that hub on the next update. BTW people looking for pictures do NOT buy anything!

My other success recently on Hubpages has been a serious of hubs I have done around the “make money online” niche.

Consistently the most commented and popular pieces are the ones which either relate to Internet Marketing, HubPages and personal experience in those areas. People seem to love to read about people’s success’s or otherwise with making money on-line. My all time comment record is the HubPages for Internet Marketing 251 approved comments: that’s not counting the comments I have spammed; anything with “marketing” in the title seems to get a lot of spam!

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HubPages Online Business Rants

Making Money On-line for Beginners

Sometimes I struggle as to where I should publish. I guess I am not a pure internet marketer because sometimes I just have to write about a topic! This weekend its been around the subject of making money on-line. Yes I know its idiotic to try and rank for that term. Yes I know I run the risk of just repeating the same old. I still had to try. So I did and you know I think it came out all right. There is nothing original per se. I am following the big three as usual as detailed in my original Internet Marketing and Hubpages article.

In the end I ended up publishing not one but two hubs, over 3600 words for goodness sake! On a revenue site that I only get 60% of the Adsense, Amazon, eBay, Kontera impressions – why did I do that. Well two simple reasons really:

  • I’m starting to see more and more new people arriving at HubPages, publishing a couple of hubs and then going to the forums and asking what’s wrong I only made 5c in Adsense! I can see this trend continuing. HubPages seems to be winning the race with Squidoo and is attracting more and more people who not only want to write they want to make money online . I know the feeling its what attracted me too. But with the worsening economic crises in the US (and hubpages are predominantly American) I expect more and more people will be looking for ways to make money in a recession I would like them to find the right sources of advice before they get scammed or give up. Although I may not be able to rank for the terms in google search I certainly can in hubpages: I can get my hubs to the first page of “hot hubs” or for a specific search really quite easily by writing good content.

    Fans
    Originally uploaded by John Charlton
  • Again a couple of times recently I have seen people do “so long and thanks for the fish” posts as they depart hubpages for bigger things. Sometimes full-time paid work work so fair enough. But also sometimes because they need to concentrate on developing their own websites you know. I’ve thought about it myself but there is one thing that keeps me publishing useful stuff on HubPages: my fans! Why abandon that list? Sure its not the most focussed list on the internet but on the other I am sometimes surprised at the quality of the people who leave me comments finding my hubs useful, often soon after the hub was published: meaning that they were notified by the email.

Yeah I know celebrity is fickle! No its not that, honest 🙂 . When you become someone’s fan at hubpages you get an email every time that person publishes a new hub (you can turn it off but that’s the default). So every time I publish on hubpages 599 people (as at the time of writing) get told – is that a list or what? Now some of them are beginners: but some are not. I got a number of sign-ups to Article Marketing Automation from my hubpage review.

So if you are not already a member of hubpages get signed up and become my 600th fan: if that spot is taken its OK I will be accepting 601, 602 etc as well! Of course if you do sign up via my any of the links in this post I will get 10% of your earnings: but from the hubpages.com share. To be honest it amounts to bugger all but that’s because most people sign up and either publish nothing or just one hub! Drop me a comment here if you do sign-up and I will become your fan too!

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Free Tools Search Engines Tools

Where to publish your best content

I’ve been focusing very much on learning a whole lot more about SEO and winning the Google game to get myself ranked. One of the “light-bulb” moments I had as that content isn’t king and writing good content is not, in its self, enough to make you money from your own sites.

Another of those “oh God its obvious now” is that content is important: but not so much own your own site or your target money maker. Instead your best content should actually be in guest blogs, or articles or hubs or lenses that you write elsewhere. Why? Because these backlinks sites serve too purposes:

  • to get backlinks;
  • to drive targeted traffic to your site.

Now sites such as Quassia basically provide just a backlink, no traffic. However sites such as ezinearticles or hubpages can provide qualified traffic looking for whatever you are selling.

Categories
Back Links Marketing Search Engines

Backlinks are Everything.

I guess I am only just starting to learn the fine art of earning passive income online. One of the blind spots I had for a long time was that “content is king” – “write good stuff and they will come”. Well actually: they won’t, and in fact even when they do they may only make you 7c / day which is not going to see you retire in style any time soon.

There is only one  way for the bulk of your potential audience to find you: that is Google. Yes there are other search engines Yahoo probably sends me 5% of what Google does and MSN about 5 (no not % just 5 🙂 ). But Google is king of the search engines

You see Google don’t find your wonderful hub or article or website or blog by accident. It certainly doesn’t decide to put your site on the first page of results except for some very specific reasons.

  1. Google needs your content. Try this type “lis sowerbutts” – without the quotes into Google what comes back – this site normally ranks #1. At the moment in the Australian data centre of Google I rank #1 and #2 of 493,000 results: cool eh? Well no not really – lets face it “lis sowerbutts” isn’t exactly a high competition set of words – there aren’t that many sites around so I end up at the top because a) the name is in my url of this blog and b) and often comment and link to Lis Sowerbutts – an anchored link on the name of the blog
  2. Google thinks you have “authority”. Think about it if you have a problem with your car who do you call a: qualified mechanic or Uncle Ed who mucks around with motors –  OK, if they were both the same price you would call the “authority”. If you want the perfect smoked fish recipe do you check out Hub Pages or some site you never heard of: you go to Hub Pages because you know there is some great recipes there but even if I didn’t if I search via Google I will find hubpages often on the first page Why? Because Google “likes” Hub Pages. Which actually means that the Google algorithm basically gives Hub Pages the benefit of the doubt and indexes and ranks hubs quickly. Look carefully at what shows up most often on the first page of Google when you search for generic information: about.com, hubpages.com squidoo.com and almost always 1st or 2nd wikipedia.com. These sites have authority: just like you should listen to your Mum you should also probably listen to wikipedia or hubpages!

So how do you get that “authority” from Google? Well that is how

Backlinks are King

Try this: go to Google and type in

link:http://mywebsite.com

this will give you a list of all the sites which link back to your site.Well all the ones that google have got around to counting anyway, which can take anywhere from hours to months.

If you don’t have a profile or a website which has been around a few months try mine as an example link:http://hubpages.com/profile/Lissie
at the moment about 125 links. But look at those links: tags some of my hubs have, people I am a fan of, comments I have paid of hubs (my own or others), posts I have made in the forums. Being active on HubPages creates lots of backlinks to your profile and you can see the effect that my profile now has a Page Rank (PR) of 4. Basically the more links you have pointing at a page the more important Google considers it and the more likely you are to rank well in a search for that term.