Hubpages Review: Making Money Sharing Your Knowledge

Who I am to Give a Hubpages Review?

When I first had the idea to start writing for income, I did a lot of research. I wasn’t quite ready to dive headfirst into the blogging world by owning my own site. At the time, I was a writer; not a blogger. There is a big difference. Today, I consider myself a blogger. Most of the transition, I can attribute to the time I spent writing on Hubpages.

Starting Out on Hubpages

I signed up to write for Hubpages in early November of 2012. I really didn’t know what I was doing when it came to writing for an online audience. There is just so much involved. The style of writing is different, and you have to do so much just to get found on the internet. I started out aimlessly publishing articles and jumping for joy when I would see a few pennies trickle in. It wasn’t much, but it told me that producing an income was possible.

Hubpages Apprenticeship Program

Everything changed when I applied, and got accepted to the Hubpages Apprenticeship Program in January of 2013. Most online blogging courses make you pay a fee to join and watch the videos, or read lessons. Hubpages did the opposite. They paid me for every “Hub” I wrote while in the program – up to 15 per month. The going rate at the time was $6.09 for each article published that met the standard. On top of that, you still received your advertising income from those hubs. And, of course, that income increased because I was learning to produce better content.

Hubpages was a huge stepping stone in my work from home career plan. But, it was just that- a stepping stone. I no longer write for Hubpages but do still have published content earning me money on the site. So, this Hubpages review will give you an in depth explanation of Hubpages and the pros and cons of writing for Hubpages. This is from my personal experience in the last, almost, 2 years.

What is Hubpages and How Does it Work?

Hubpages is a type of blogging community. When you sign up, you get a subdomain. Mine is Learninginlife.Hubpages.com. Your subdomain is dictated by your user name.

You can create your own articles called “hubs”, and earn money through a profit sharing model.

How do You Make Money on Hubpages?

• Hubpages Earnings Program
• eBay
• Amazon
• Google Adsense
• Referrals
• Contests
• Bonuses
• Hubpages Apprenticeship Program

The methods that earn through Hubpages putting ad codes on your hubs, like the Hubpages Earnings Program, eBay, Amazon, and Google Adsense, are split 60/40. But, it isn’t a split of the earnings. It is a 60/40 split of the impressions. This means that 60% of the time a visitor goes to an article you have written, your ad code is displayed. If the visitor clicks on an ad during that time, you get the full earnings. However, 40% of the time, Hubpages’ ad code is displayed. Hubpages will get 100% of the earnings during those visits.

Hubpages Referrals

Another easy method of earning on Hubpages is by linking to other hubs with your referral code. When someone visits another page on Hubpages after clicking on a link with your tracking code, you receive a 10% share of the those impressions and any earnings during that time. If someone signs up to write for Hubpages after clicking your referral link, you get a 10% share of all impressions that writer gets – FOREVER. If you decide to sign up for Hubpages, use my referral link. (Please)

Hubpages Contests

Hubpages often runs contests that can earn you an extra $25, $50 or some other amount if you win. A lot of the time, you enter by writing a hub in a certain topic or theme. I have never won any contests, but plenty of hubbers do.

Hubpages Bonus Programs

Hubpages has been back and forth with their bonus program. But, at the time of writing this, it is still in effect. There is a regular bonus program and a “4×4 Bonus Program.” The chart below, shows how much your bonus would be for each hub based on how many hubs you have published prior to that month and your average earnings per hub. There is a limit of 15 hubs per month that are eligible to receive the bonus.

The 4×4 bonus takes this a little bit further. To qualify, you must at least be in tier 1 with an average earning per hub, per month of $0.95 and a minimum of 10 hubs published prior to that month. The additional requirement is that you must publish a minimum of 4 hubs per month for 4 consecutive months before you can earn the 4×4 bonus. I am currently in the standard tier 2 because I don’t publish anything any more. But, if I were to publish a hub today, I would get a $0.68 bonus just for publishing.

My Hubpages Earnings Experience

Many new writers or perspective writers for Hubpages want to know what kind of earnings potential there is. Although, I can’t give you an average; I can tell you exactly what I have made.

 

All Time Totals

• Time Span: 46 Months
• Total Hubs Ever Published: 105
• Total Currently Published Hubs: 88
• Last Hub Published: May 11, 2013
• Hubpages Earnings Program: $3615.87
• eBay: $11.56
• Amazon: $119.12
• Hubpages Apprenticeship Program: $243.59
• Google Adsense: $177.33
• Total: $4167.47
• Income/Hub/Month: $39.69
• Income/Hub/Month (Not Including Apprenticeship): $37.37

Last Month Time Span: 1 Month

• Total Currently Published Hubs: 80
• Hubs Published in Last Year: 0
• Hubpages Earnings Program: $196.86
• eBay: $0
• Amazon: $10.94
• Hubpages Apprenticeship Program: $0
• Google Adsense: $3.47
• Total: $211.27
• Income/Hub/Month: $2.64

All I have done for the last 3 years is collect a check. I haven’t logged on to edit, write, or anything. All I have logged on to do is check my earnings and to delete articles and move them to my personal blogs. The only articles left on Hubpages are ones I wasn’t overly proud of or they didn’t fit within my blogs.

It was a very, very slow start making money. But, the longer something sits online, the better it does. It just takes time.

How Does Hubpages Pay You?

Hubpages pay and earnings are sent out via PayPal, and only through PayPal. Payments are sent on the 28th of every month. You then have to transfer the money from PayPal to your bank account. Sometimes, it takes as many as 3 days to be available to use after Hubpages has paid you. I wish they would do direct deposit or something like that. But, I still don’t have to wait for a check in the mail.

Why I Stopped Writing for Hubpages

After writing for a about 4 or 5 months, I noticed that a certain category of my hubs were doing quite well. This niche was something I knew really well and I knew I could expand on it and write a ton more articles. So, I decided to finally buy my own domain name and hosting. This way, I had complete control over everything and the money I made was all mine to keep. I launched my own blog in September of 2013. I hadn’t even been writing online for a whole year but I was ready to go out on my own.

Since then, I have moved a lot of the articles I wrote for Hubpages, to my own sites. I now have 2 main blogs that I spend most of my time and energy on, and don’t have the time for Hubpages anymore.

Hubpages Review: The Pros

• No hosting or domain name costs. So, it’s free to start writing on Hubpages.
• Hubpages has tons of learning material on creating hubs and writing online content in general. Almost everything you need to know to be successful as a blogger can be found in other hubbers’ hubs or in the Learning Center of Hubpages.
• There is a huge community of writer at your disposal. In the beginning, many of your pageviews and earnings will come from fellow hubbers. They will comment, share, and give you feedback.
• The staff is amazing and fun. If you ever need help with something, you can easily get in touch with someone who knows what is going on.

 Hubpages Review: The Cons

• You have to share your impressions, and therefore, earnings with Hubpages. (60/40)
• You have no control over the website itself or the advertising. If something messes up or the site just disappears, you are out of luck and your content is gone.
• Your content is reviewed by Hubpages and can be un-plublished if they don’t find it adequate.
• Hubpages can disable advertisements on hubs if they have any kind of keywords deemed inappropriate. (My hub about How to conceive a Boy doesn’t have ads) Therefore, you lose the earning potential of those hubs.
• Branding is much more difficult on a subdomain.

Hubpages Review: Final Word

All in all, I would whole-heartedly recommend writing for Hubpages as a learning experience. I, however, don’t think it is an ideal place for experienced writers to make big money. There are people making great money on Hubpages. But, I prefer to have more control over the entire process now that I have learned what I needed to from Hubpages.