Make your 100 Dollar Goal – Can You Make $100 a day on Hubpages?
For many new users of the Hubpages platform, the first payout of $100 from the Adsense program is a gratifying achievement. As well it should be, especially if Hubpages is ones first foray into the online income field.
But as time goes by and you start to take generating income online as a serious endeavor many seem to fall into a pattern of low expectations. Hubs written by new and intermediate users often perpetuate myths suggesting concrete timelines and necessary components required to make money that often relate to internal hub features and social elements.
Some commonly perpetuated myths:
- It takes 9 months to reach payout
- The HubScore is relative to income potential
- It requires lots of followers to make money online
- Lots of comments means one will make more money
- New Hub Authors can NOT use the eBay Partner Network
- Thumbs Up, Like, Great etc. will assist in income generation
- You cant make real money on Hubpages, you need your own site.
- Adsense is better then Amazon, Amazon is better than Adsense, x > y
!NONSENSE! – Parroting and Balderdash
I suggest that if you are a new user and you hear any of these myths perpetuated under the guise of help, without any additional context or caveats …. hit back and ignore any further “advice.”
Making Money Online via the advertising commission and Pageview model on HubPages requires only two factors:
- Traffic
- Conversions
Traffic
Not all traffic is equal, the value of traffic depends on its origin and the mindset of the searcher/customer.1000 daily visitors for “Free Myspace Wallpaper” is worth very little, 2 focused visitors for “Buy Original Picasso Art” would pad your pocket much more IF
Conversions
…those visitors convert in their intended goal as suggested by their search query. 1000 successful actions performed by the “Free Wallpaper” crowd is not likely to equal one sale of original Picasso art. This is an exaggeration, but I hope it tightens a few screws.
So what does it take to make $100 day in Hubpages?
With a focus on the 4 possible ingrained income capsules :
- Adsense
- Amazon
- eBay
- Kontera
ordered in my perceived usage levels on Hubpages ( I could be wrong)….(but, Im not)
Using my own experience and close tracking of personal stats, plus careful attention to those who reveal stats and numbers on various forums and personal blogs, articles, hubs etc. Ive come to these basic averages.
In order to make $100 a day on Hubpages one only needs to perform these goals:
100 a day in Adsense
*Personal Note* I think anyone who focuses on Adsense should be able to earn 1ct per pageview minimum, so to make $100/day you would need a simple 10000 daily views to your ID – or 14000 HP Views – but apparently thats not an average goal. If you want to perform at that level it is suggested that you try The Keyword Academy in order to get the background required quickly and correctly.
The Officially leaked HP average is $3-$5/ per 1000 views:
20,000 AS Page Impressions = $100
100 a day in Amazon
*Note* Since the commission rate changes with Amazon between 4% and 8% and some items are capped, Ive looked at a big data set to make an approximation that accounts for items from multiple categories. I would definitely be interested in feedback on any of my data sets.
$1600.00 USD in Gross Sales = $100
100 a day in eBay Partner Network
*Note* ePn is a very mysterious beast, one that seems to be purposely obfuscated, so I can offer two findings. Exact figures of a personal $100 ePn day (not the norm, unfortunately) and a general observation from the last year. ePn seems to average on the high end of %8-%10 of Gross Sales although this is not the stated system.
$1,000 USD in Gross Sales = should $100 but considering the variance in published .epc at ePn perhaps a safer # is:
.10 per click or 1000 clicks = $100.00
100 a day in Kontera
haha – yeah right. For authenticity sake, I can state I have never hit that goal and intentionally do not use the program, as it takes away from the attractiveness of my personally selected 3rd party offers.
Overview
20,000 views in Adsense
$1600.00 Gross Sales in Amazon
1000 clicks in ePn/$1,000 in sales
____________________________
$100.00 per individual program or mix and match to reach your goal.
Well, I hope this gives you a better context of what is necessary to make a livable income in the United States via the HubPages platform. Depending on your current level of knowledge, you may want to use these figures to focus on one program, or to make it a monthly goal or a weekly goal to reach $100 in each program or daily.
Some Future Posts here at HubsAcademy:
- Get an ePn account, its easy!
- How to increase conversions through your copy
- Increase conversions and clicks though layout and design
- Detailed Mythbusting of common misconceptions
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Are you successful at HubPages, would you like to make a guest post? Contact the author with your idea.
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{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
I would appreciate any suggestions for future “pro-hubber” focused entries and personal findings on your own data sets.
Some commonly perpetuated myths:
* It takes 9 months to reach payout
* The HubScore is relative to income potential
* It requires lots of followers to make money online
* Lots of comments means one will make more money
* New Hub Authors can NOT use the eBay Partner Network
* Thumbs Up, Like, Great etc. will assist in income generation
* You cant make real money on Hubpages, you need your own site.
* Adsense is better then Amazon, Amazon is better than Adsense, x > y
!NONSENSE! – Parroting and Balderdash
This is a great post, and I love the statement I have reposted above. I agree 100% with all of your listed items that none of them are true. My income rose quite a bit during 2010 from Hubpages, and I did earn that vaunted $100 per day during November and December. Not quite there the rest of the year yet, but I will definitely get there this year.
I agree also in your assessment of which of the affiliates/vendors are used in the order that you have listed them. Not exactly sure that is, but I have found Ebay to be a great vendor myself.
Looking forward to more great posts here.
Really enjoyed this post on making $100 a day at Hubpages, sunforged. Love seeing those myths dispelled!! Other myths include “write it and they will come” and “backlinks are bad/immoral”, both of which pretty much set people up to fail, or if not fail, certainly not make the most of the earning potential of their content.
I enjoy the whole stats thing and I like to look at overall income per 1000 views. My average is just under $8 per 1000 for adsense and amazon, which makes my daily average about $40, though over Christmas it was just shy of $63 per day. So not quite at the magical $100 per day yet, but I don’t think it will take long to get there.
Looking forward to your post on how to get an epn account! I have tried and failed
Also hoping there is going to be another 60DC this year and at a time that I can participate….really want to do it again!
Susana, thanks for swinging by so swiftly, I also appreciate the share in the Hubfeed… I wonder how many of us actually use it?
You seem to be making out like a bandit! well done, Im glad to see my approximate figures seem to be holding true. Im surprised to hear that you did not have an active ePn account, I was able to work with a few of the 60dc2 members to get them through the ePn application process successfully, I wouldnt have imagined you would have had any issues, Ill be sure to make the ePn application post a high priority.
There will be a final 60dc, or perhaps even an ongoing group effort – but when is still in the air but when it does happen, I would love to have your participation!
Congratulations LakeErieArtists for reaching the $100 in a day club! I also cant say that my Hubs alone reach that point every day of every month, but that goal is not that far out of reach and once one understands their own return rates, it makes it pretty easy to scale out and project when you will reach your income goals. At least this process keeps me motivated with attainable goals and most importantly much less anxious – its not really a question of If anymore, its really just when, If one keeps up consistent effort and output “100 daily on Hubpages” is rather easily attained.
All the myths busted in one place. Just need to prove your numbers correct for my situation. Will be back to tell you the outcome as and when!
* The HubScore is relative to income potential
* It requires lots of followers to make money online
* Lots of comments means one will make more money
* Thumbs Up, Like, Great etc. will assist in income generation
This is all, as you said, poppycock and bullocks, but I think HP gives that impression with scoring, “hubkarma,” accolades and other distractions from the focus of earning. It’s easy for newbies to get caught up in all that hype.
My cpm is well above the high end of average, but my daily hubpage views are a far cry from 1000, let alone 10 or 14K. Maybe (hopefully) I can take that as an indication that I can earn that magical $100 a day from less than 10K HP views if I maintain my current performance.
Hey Rook!,
Seems like you have a solid understanding of your own returns, this article is only intended to show some common averages that arent often discussed. Im happy that your above average, but we already knew that!
Interesting to note that the first myth you point out stated that “It takes 9 months to reach payout” could have been a proven fact had I not participated in the 60dc and the 60dc2. For in a short time, here at the academy I learned how to make sure that myth was busted!
Hard to believe that the first challenge started just about 9 months ago. At that time I had been writing on Hubpages for just about 7 months. I had maybe 20 Hubs then and had a few pennies in my account. I was doing a little better with amazon but nothing to write home about. Within a month of the first challenge I made my first payout!
Like Susana I am not quite at the magical $100 per day yet, and I too do not think it will take long to get there. Having an epn account I know that will be just one more piece to reaching that $100 dollars a day goal.
With all that I have learned there is no way I would miss The final frontier – 60dc3, for sure I would love once again to take that journey.
Thats really excellent to hear to Shari! Above all, I think the challenges just spurred you to increase your output as you have always had a knack for topics and presentation. It really is encouraging to see how quickly a dedicated producer can make a respectable return when working both hard and smart.
Thanks for taking the time to share your experience!
Excellent advice from an excellent Hubber, as usual. As one of those who has repeated the “it takes 9 months to get payout” myth, I’m not sure I agree that it’s a myth! On the contrary, I think it’s still a sensible thing to say to complete novices, who arrive at HubPages expecting to make their fortune in five minutes.
If you work hard and intelligently on HubPages, it’s certainly possible to make your first payout much earlier – but that’s a big “if”. For the majority who join the site with no internet experience whatsoever, it takes several months to climb the learning curve required to reach payout. In all my three years as a Hubber, I’ve seen newbies have the same experience, taking nine months to a year to hit their straps.
Of course, it’s very different for people like yourself, or Nelle Hoxie, who have some experience of making money online before they join. And there are honorable exceptions like WryLilt, who are able to devote themselves full-time to the task and have the intelligence to pick it up quickly.
Hi Marisa,
I do think its sensible to suggest patience to new users, especially ones who could be possibly discouraged by early lack of returns. The distinction is unlike many – you added the important caveat “it can take 9 months to acquire the skills and beat the learning curve” … and when you assist others you are careful to add context or link to a further discussion, I certainly wouldnt put you in a class of “mythspreaders.”
9 months is a arbitrary period of time (although common enough to seem to be a mean of the forum community) that doesnt account for luck, knowledge, output, method, luck again, research and topic etc. So I was trying to set up some concrete numbers to discuss and use as benchmarks or as goal creating tools.
Ive worked closely with enough Hubpage users to know that they can make $100 in their first month, no problem. If, they refrain from over-socializing and simply commit to a course of action that involves a moderate level of output and a basic understanding of who and why their searchers visit.
You are right – there are many qualifiers to how long and how much someone can earn and thats what this site is dedicated to discussing.
Marisa, you are right that it is important to say that it takes time and work to reach that first Adsense payout, but what many people believe is that you can’t make even $100 per month regularly, let alone a living wage. So it the dichotomy between those two beliefs that has to be overcome.
Sunforged- I realise that you and some of the others who have commented on this forum have found the “road to riches”, but there are many like me who is still struggling after 8 months to make $100 per week. Saying that my Amazon sales have been very good of late and seem to have taken off. But my adsense is stuck well and truly in the mud. This is the area I would like to improve but it is in the hand of god that makes people click on an advert. In your statement of making $100 per day you don’t say what % is from adsense and what % is going to come from Amazon. I would appreciate your thoughts.
Hi Brian,
First it should be clear, that Im not making individual income statements of $100 daily from HubPages, even if it were true, I wouldnt say it as it tends to invite the lazy and malicious to attempt to mirror ones results simply by copying. It doesnt work that way and nonetheless that is not my current returns. On the other hand, I have affiliate partners that pay me $100 for an individual sale and they occasionally happen. Returns are very relevant to topic, niche , presentation and monetization method.
That being said, on many occasions I have rode some trends and had very successful periods that consisted of more than $100 daily for long period of times, sometimes just from individual articles or small groups of related articles.
Also, road to riches, is not quite accurate – I am a college graduate, the average starting salary for my degree is 35k (about 100 a day) … the yearly cost for that education – about the same. 100 a day is merely acceptable and many of the commenters in this thread have worked hard and smart and experimented for more than a year to reach even the possibility of a $100/daily income.
Now, that being said – Congrats! – being around the 100 weekly mark after only 8 months is exceptional.
So direct responses to two of your questions/statements-
“but it is in the hand of god that makes people click on an advert.”
Absolutely, untrue – returns are very measurable (when viewed in large data sets – quarterly/monthly)) and dependable with the AS program. You should be able to check your reports and see your average CTR and eCpm – you can increase CTR via your layout and presentation and copywriting – you can increase eCPm via increased CTR and a focus on higher paying topics and niches.
“making $100 per day you don’t say what % is from adsense and what % is going to come from Amazon.”
Of course, I dont – its irrelevant. My returns would not be your returns. The approximate data sets that were shared were:
20,000 views in Adsense
$1600.00 Gross Sales in Amazon
1000 clicks in ePn/$1,000 in sales”
those are my suggested approximate benchmarks for reaching $100 with each program – the time it takes is variable to your traffic levels.
If your finding success with Amazon, well your viewer can only leave once – if they chose amazon over adsense, be happy, either double your traffic, or double your output if you want to achieve equal success with both programs. – or be formulaic, try to define what is most successful in your portfolio, what products are selling best, what specific hubs are generating sales – write more in those topics, focus on products, try different slants – experiment with layout – the importance of layout and copywriting is immense when trying to generate sales.
Over time, many of these ‘advanced concepts” will be the purpose of the site – discussions amongst those who actively “work” in this field – maybe some more detailed answers will come out for you here – or even you can share what you think makes Amazon successful for you?
For now: – on the right hand side of this site, is my attempt to create a primer of the basics required to really be a “pro” in this field – layout, copywriting, topic selection, keyword research etc.
Specifically, these are my suggestions to you:
Join the Keyword Academy and take advantage of the free month – if you focus, you wil have a solid understanding of adsense by the time you come out
My basic adsense info:
http://hubpages.com/_60dc/hub/Make-Money-Writing-Why-dont-I-make-money-from-adsense
and the full series:
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-make-a-passive-income-writing-online
Let me know how it turns out – would love to hear your feedback, growth and findings over time.
SF: I could not agree more with your comments. I made my first adsense payout in my second month, but it was pure luck. I did not know what I was doing and inadvertently wrote about a topic that was growing in popularity. Since then, I have taken the lessons learned from the 60DC2 and kept at them.
I would couch that the numbers you provide are probably good for most topics, but I did find that one of my more popular topics is also a low-keyword paying. The lesson here is to diversify. I have found success where I did not expect it!
I am not yet near $100 per day, but I am a lot closer than I was before I started the 60DC2.
I attended the HubCamp in Hollywood and Paul Edmondson alluded to Kontera’s future with HP – saying that they were looking into the “cannibalism” from Adsense or Amazon clicks – which pay more than Kontera. Also, he made mention that they would have changes to their eBay relationship in Q1 (now, I think) – so that everyone could have access to the network.
Great job on the post, and I am looking forward to the ePN article.
I appreciate you sharing your insights, Jason. I guess, I could be excited that ePn may be opened up to the greater HubPages comunity – but really, Im happier without the extra competition. : ) It certainly is a program with vast potential, I predict alot of very confused people swarming the forums trying to understand the ePn model – which could be a good thing, because Im not sure any good public discussions exist about the program.The ePn boards are a joke on par with the Amazon Associate boards.
Glad to hear you made some early hits, thats very useful, income aside – in getting your first chunks of data, analytics and channel info to dissect and make observations about. Of course, Im in full agreement, all the numbers are relatives, high traffic with a lower value action can add up very quickly,..though I would be surprised if you were dropping below the posted sitewide hub averages?
Great discussion here and good points on the ins and outs of reaching $100 per day on Hubpages. Following on from some points made, trying out different topics/niches is a must in my view, as well as experimenting with different page layouts and different ways of writing. (If experimenting with page layouts I think you really need to give it a good month to see whether it has “worked” to increase sales/click through).
One example from my portfolio that really hit home about how important niche selection is (and dropping those that don’t perform well), was when I compared traffic/sales in 2 completely different niches. The first article had 14,000 page views and 30 sales vs the second article which had 1100 page views and 35 sales. I should also mention the value per item was higher in the second niche.
So, what does this tell me? First, that the first niche is a poor performer and it would be wise to drop it! Second, that it would be far more beneficial to write more articles in the second niche, which is exactly what I did.
Unfortunately, this kind of analysis can only be done over time, say 3-6 months from the time of publication so it’s not a quick process, but keeping an eye on your stats can really bring rewards.
@sunforged – I love the feed to keep up to date with what’s going on at HubPages, but I don’t think everyone uses it. Looking forward to another 60DC and an ongoing group effort sounds like a majorly good plan! Count me in!
Hi Josh, it is possible to make over one hundred dollars a day infact between Ebay Amazon and Google I personally have passed that mark on 5 or 6 different occasions although not often enough as yet, lol.
On the basis of having done it more than once I do feel that it is completely within reason and an achievable goal to strive for.
When I started writing on Hubpages over 4 years ago making money was the furthest thing from my mind but in the past year year and a half I have strarted to write more money motivated hubs and setting goals for myself to achieve or beat.
I was earning a payout every month from google which were over $100 then I targeted $200 a month from google, then 3 and now my next target is $500 which I did get in December but am a little behind on that aim for January. My Amazon earnings are now quite steady at about $ 3-400 a month and since the ebay change I can earn from as little as $10 a month to as much as $ 600.
I am earning around 1500 a month which is around half of your target and I aim to double my earnings within a year.
I wish you luck …..jimmy
Great piece of analysis. I continue to be frustrated (perhaps bored is a better word) by the low expectations of many hubbers. The latest low-earner myth is that “January is a bad month.” Nothing sells blah, blah. blah. It’s not a bad month, if you treat it like any other. January is a bad month because the effort that is put into the Christmas season, disappears when it comes to January.
I’m also frustrated by Marissa Wright’s continued assertion that I did well from the getgo on HP because I had so much experiece. While that is true, 10 years ago I knew nothing on December night when I began affiliate marketing – I had my first sale within 48 hours and within two months I was paying all of my bills with it. I had to learn a lot of stuff fast and I worked atleast 16 hour days, 7 days a week, until I figured it out. Luckily for me I didn’t know what a forum was and I just keep teaching myself stuff. That as resulted in all of these micro-bits of knowledge that help me figure newer stuff out.
The beauty of the internet is you can double down on your effort and see HUGE rewards very quickly, if you put in a monster effort. I was very vocal about my increase in earning at HP, because I wanted other newer hubbers to know that it doesn’t always take 9 months to make $100. It’s a very small percentage of Hubbers who every participate publicly so we really have no idea of what the typical experience is.
Excellent post. I think that people who follow Hub Pages “rules” and then tweak them just a bit by adding selected affiliate links will likely do as well or better than the people mentioned in the “official” success stories there.
@Jimmy,
I appreciate your insights, Its good to see another example of what is achievable on Hubpages. JimmytheJock is a great example of the combined power of dedicated output and intelligent topic selection. eBay has bene driving me nuts lately! .. this year they cut two fields from their reports which makes it that much harder to figure out what exactly they are looking for and what exactly m getting paid for..but since they pay so well ..Ill just have to keep on keepin on . Obviously, they want targeted, converting traffic, but they are making it harder to figure out when exactly that is happening!
@Nelle,
Im pretty sure the dedication you have put into this field and the effort it entails goes right over the heads of the new users who just see the dollar signs associated with your reputation. Which is a shame, because it should be known that actually working at this field is important. Its not a genie lamp. I also spend many sleepless nights, just building and developing and experimenting …I would have been better served if I had never seen a single internet marketing forum and was forced to just learn completely on my own as 99.997% of the information is outdated tripe with an emphasis on gimmick, I hope to engender a bit more focus on the essentials of traditional marketing and presentation here and discuss the nuts and bolts like split testing and performance tracking. Would love to hear your further thoughts along the line..thanks for swinging by!
@Chuck,
The official success stories is a solid example of what your everyday person with no background in tech or marketing fields can achieve on HubPages. In that regards, i think its great and it shows, that anyone with dedication can turn a good income writing on Hubpages. Someone with a bit more reach across the net and a solid background can blow away most of the examples of time periods and income levels as I think you know.
But, its not “tweaking” the rules to use additional affiliate opportunities at Hubpages – its completely within TOS and much of the non-social community that uses HP is well aware of that fact. Its just an odd side effect of having such a diverse community that any would even think that. Thanks for the mention on your site by the way..perhaps in a few months when this site is more developed we could invite you to guest post?
@sunforged You’re right. Affiliate links besides Amazon and Ebay are perfectly within the TOS. By “tweaking” I meant “thinking outside the box” and not just settling for the paradigm “I can only earn money here from Amazon, Ebay, Adsense and Kontera.”
While Amazon did great for me one day (and I expect it will again!) I’ve had some good days from other affiliate programs there in less than 6 weeks since I’ve been actively posting.
Sure, I’d be happy to post something for you. I think Hubpages gives average people a huge “leg up” as far as getting their material seen online … much better than starting their own website – at least till the learn the ropes.
Update:Unfortunately the second half of the 60DC2 was lost to me and promotion was not undertaken. In the last couple of months I have redressed that situation and undertaken various backlinking strategies and analysis techniques to see what works and does not. I have published some further hubs that could have skewed the results but the basis of this update is that my earning stats for adsense do hold true to those that have been put forward by SF.Once I hit 500 views per day my adsense ran at about £2.50 per day which equates to around the $100 per month.With the backlinking my views are rising in leaps and bounds, and thus my adsense earnings are increasing accordingly.One thing – it did take me 8 months to reach payout – and I probably would not have reached this had I not undertaken the 60DC2.Had I been focused in the first instance I believe I could have achieved payout much sooner.Focus is the name of the game, without it there is no chance of earning sensible income.
Hey I joined a month ago someone recommended that I should view your hubs on traffic but I’m still confused because I’m not able to do alot of the technical stuff .But you seemed versed on the sugbject matter and experience in online income