Hubpages

Hubpages is one of the first sites I started writing for, under the name topquark. I mostly write about physics and mathematics.

What is it?

Hubpages is an article hosting site which shares advertising revenue with its writers.

How does it work?

Sign up for an account and start writing about more or less whatever you like. The articles ("hubs") that you create will display advertising automatically. You can claim 60% of the revenue from that advertising by providing Hubpages with your Google Adsense code. See the previous post to find out how to sign up for an Adsense account.

Hubpages have also recently started running their own Hubpages Ad Program. This is designed to run alongside the Google Ads, so you still need an Adsense account to sign up for it.

How much can I earn?

In the few weeks that it's been active, the Hubpages Ad Program has earned me a measly $0.84, although the rate of earning is steadily increasing as I publish more hubs and get more followers. The great thing about the Hubpages Ad Program, as far as I'm concerned, is that it pays per impression rather than per click. That means that so long as you have readers, you're getting paid, regardless of whether they are interested in your ads.

I hardly earn anything through Adsense on Hubpages.

You can also earn money by using your hubs to promote products, for example on Amazon or eBay. Hubpages makes it very easy for you to include affiliate links to Amazon and eBay products in your hubs. You will need to apply for an Amazon Associates account (or the eBay equivalent) if you want to use this way of making money.  I'll do a post later with more information about affiliate marketing.

I feature science books from Amazon on my hubs, but have never made a sale.

Recommended?

I love Hubpages, even though it doesn't earn me very much money. Interaction between users who publish hubs in the same subject categories is encouraged, so you will have an instant audience who are interested in what you are writing about. I've gotten some great feedback from other Hubbers.

Hubpages has a page of Success Stories, which features people who make hundreds or even thousands of dollars a month in passive income. These people have usually published hundreds of hubs, so don't expect to get to those figures overnight!

I mostly use Hubpages as a portfolio of my science writing, which is useful when apply for other writing jobs. I have just been accepted as a writer on the Space channel at Brighthub - a science and technology website that shares revenue with writers and also pays $15 upfront per article. I believe that using two of my hubs (Exoplanets and Dark Matter) as writing samples to support my application helped me get accepted.

Pros

• Easy to set up.
• You can write about pretty much whatever you like (within Hubpages terms of service).
• The community aspect is a big plus in terms of audience and feedback.
• Opportunity to showcase your writing work.
• Passive income from advertising.
• Once you establish a presence, getting traffic gets easier.

Cons

• Low earnings unless your traffic is very high.
• No 'purely personal' hubs - i.e. you can't just write about your life like you would in a blog.

How do I get an Account?

Sign Up Here. If you end up writing in the science channels, I'll probably end up reading and commenting you. Drop in at topquark.hubpages.com and say Hi!