Why I am using HubPages for Internet writing income

I have my own website. As these things go, it was once pretty popular, listed somewhere around or below the top 30,000 or so most popular sites world wide. It used to get around a quarter million page views monthly and actually generated a fair bit of money for me just from advertising, affiliate links and selling three e-books I wrote. It wasn't "big time popular", but it was up there.

So what the heck am I doing here?

That's a good question. One answer is that this seems like a good place to publish things that really don't fit well on my main site. That's mostly a technical site dealing with Unix, Linux and Mac OS X, but it does have a miscellaneous section and I have put some very unrelated content there now and then. I have other little sites (Blogger et al.) where I can and have put other posts, but I have to say that I like the idea of HubPages more

For one thing, I like the interface. It's dead easy. That's kind of funny, really, because at my main site I hand code HTML, but just the same, I like it here. I hand code at my main site because I'm a control freak; here I don't need to be.

I also like the scoring system. I feel that knowing how people react to various posts will help me write better content elsewhere - this can be a proving ground for ideas.

Although I can't really say for sure yet, I also feel that my posts could get more exposure here. I am very specifically NOT using it to drive traffic anywhere else and I'm pretty sure any ad revenue will be minuscule compared to what I make elsewhere, so it would almost seem pointless, but I am having fun and that's what really matters, right?

I feel the revenue sharing model is fair and I like the way they have implemented it. I get to use my own Adsense and Amazon accounts and don't have to wait for someone to pay me. Also, I can track any earnings through my existing Analytics account.

At Making Money with Google Adsense, Mark Knowles quotes an estimate of earning $2-$5 per 1,000 page impressions here. From earnings at my main site, I can confirm that the $2-$5 figure is accurate once you reach a sufficient level. Sometimes it might edge a bit higher, but not often and not by much.

My main site used to get about 250,000 pv per month and usually fell toward the upper middle of that range. That site is technically oriented, which I think does help: writing about computer stuff gives more chances for higher paying ads.

As the things I will put here will usually be are less techie, I expect that income will be toward the lower end, and of course there is HP's 40% impression take, but I still think this is preferable to the effort of creating another site and trying to promote it. I have tried that before and can tell you that it is not easy to get traction. I think it just might be easier here.

Basically, HubPages seems to have done everything right. I like it.

So, we'll see. I may post often or I may not. I obviously have to pay the most attention to my main income source, but I also need to kick back and relax now and then. Posting here is therapeutically relaxing.

As it turned out, I quickly got to fifty posts here and after being here just eight weeks,I made my 100th post. To my surprise, HubPages started earning a little money right away: $18 in the first two months. Yes, that's not even a days worth of income from my main site, but I am surprised it did so well so quickly. It can only get better.

I recommend creating an account and trying it out. I think you'll like it! By the way, this Quick Overview of HubPages post is excellent and I strongly recommend you read it.

Sign up here to join me at HubPages.

You may also be interested in my Reviewing my First month at HubPages.

There is yet another reason I love HP. It's the community. Writers tend to be brighter people. Oh, sure, there are exceptions, but the percentage of smart, interesting people is very high here.

Did you know that your IQ tends to regress to the mean of the population of which you are a member? HupPages is a good place to help keep it up where it belongs!

Update

After Google's "Panda" updates, my main site plummeted in traffic. This seems to ne mostly from other sites reaction to fears of Panda, but it cut my income significantly. That's yet another reason to concentrate my efforts here.

Since September 2011, my income has approached $100.00 a month here. That's not very much, but the trend seems to be upward. I look at the income/traffic charts of those who have been successful here and it seems that my growth might be able to follow the same path. However, that may not be the case: many members have been complaining of significant traffic dips as Google has made additional algorithm changes. I've also experienced a dip in January of 2012 - this may just be a normal fluctuation or it might indicate more troubles ahead.

The final verdict is that only time will tell. If HubPages works out, I think I'll do well here. If not, I can move the content to other sites. We'll see.