Trying To Do The One Thing That Leads To Better Blog Success

by | Building a Blog

Write

That is the one regret for my blogging in the past ten years. I should have developed the habit of writing … more … longer posts… greater frequency.

I am convinced that today’s blogosphere requires a regular writing schedule. And the more we write the better we become. The only caveat is that when we speed up our output, our writing will deteriorate.

So, a balance of well-written articles that are posted with regular frequency is key to growing a blog.

My main advice on posting frequency is to be consistent and keep the quality of your posts as high as possible.Problogger Darren Rowse

See, Darren said it long before I realized, the hard way, how important this is to blogging.

Will It Translate To Dollars?

source: Ilona Erwin

I don’t believe it will translate to very much of an increase of income on its own, no.

Growing a business online is a changing proposition, and I don’t claim to be an expert on what creates success in earning an income from a blog.  Just reporting on what I and others are experiencing.

I will say that even very successful bloggers are struggling with blogs alone. It is becoming harder.

Factors in the changes:

  • Google has changed what it demands for good search engine placement and ranking
  • Readers are more sophisticated in what they do and what they desire.
  • Competition has gone through the roof! There is an explosion of blogs in every conceivable subject.

Hard Work Is Key

This has always been true in every endeavor, especially when competition picks up, the way it has on the web.

Observations And Advice Out There

More traffic, more clicks but each click was worth less. Hey Google, I held up my end of the bargain – made my websites better. You screwed up yours. Work harder, work smarter, still make less money.Doug Green

A garden writer I like and who has been thriving in the past with his blogging and writing has revealed some of his present disappointment and struggle with trying to make an online business and living income.

What are some observations?

  • Google adsense income is a small fraction of what it was… sometimes only pennies, literally. I have noticed this in my own sites. but not just Google, other sources of ad income are also smaller and more difficult to earn.
  • It is hard to capture peoples interest and loyalty. a lot of work on social media is a necessity.
  • Peripheral efforts are a must: a newsletter, at the most basic, podcasts, youtube video, e-books. These are all part of the package. Each having its own learning curve and work to produce.

Don’t Get Discouraged

This is meant to give a realistic view, not to discourage anyone.

There are lots of varying factors, including the niche you choose to write within, your ability to catch opportunity and see trends (or fall into them!), and many others.

But if you are going to blog, commit yourself to writing frequently and as well as possible.

I do have to say that I have always put real life first, and that meant blogging had to take a back seat. I also spent lots of time learning things, and not always “producing”.

The lesson there? Do what is best in your own life, and don’t apologize for it or waste time regretting the trade-offs.

There are lots of gains that aren’t quantified by dollars and cents in these blogging efforts of ours.

Keep at it. Keep improving and make your mark on the world- your own way.

Can You Make Money On Hubpages?

by | Online Income

My Hubpages/Maven Update for 2024

I have seen only dwindling income levels for my articles on this site. What happened?
  • Rewriting necessary for the changeover from Hubpage categories to new subset websites. Example: garden topics became ‘Dengarden‘. The sub-sites were the only way to have reliable traffic and ad income.
  • Amazon links were removed or else articles were penalized.
  • Ad income on articles dropped exceedingly in the last year.
  • Articles once accepted on sub-sites booted back into Hubpages.
  • (My suspicions: Google increasingly penalized these sites as “content farms”)
I personally became disillusioned with this place for writing when the editing became very aggressive. Over time, the editors improved from being quite so heavy handed and some of the graphics inserted did create improvement. But overall, even if you had decent writing skills, the Editors changed your voice and creation into their own. This interfered with writer’s morale on the site, I believe. I know it did for me. The drop in income only added injury to insult in the situation. So, the short answer to the question posed in the title of this post? I cannot now “make money” on Hubpages which involves any promise for input of time, work and energy.

My Hubpages Review 2015

The answer to that question is increasingly “no”, but until very recently it had been a “yes”, and I think it might resume the affirmative.  Right now it depends on how the transition is made as Hubpages continues to try to please Google. For those unaware of what Hubpages is, here is a short summary:
It is a community of online writers using a module based writing platform.
The income of ads and Amazon products are shared between the writer and Hubpages.

A Bit Of Background On Squidoo Turning Into Hubpages

If you have read some of my reports in the past you know that I started out on Squidoo, which was a writing platform with some similarities. While writing there I did quite well, getting some rewards and earning enough income to help support some of my other web writing – selfhosting and domains for my blogs (including this one). Squidoo was bought out by Hubpages and merged, after which all the articles (christened “lenses”) became “hubs”. Squidoo struggled with the same issues that are a trouble to Hubpages, now: penalties from Google for poor content, spamminess, and just because they consider them to be “content farms”.

Hubs Get Hit

The fact that Hubpages pay compensation means they have tended to draw some very questionable authors along with the worthwhile, talented, and honest ones. After Google Panda slapdowns (where the traffic was severely impacted), the struggle was on to try to eradicate the source of the problem. This included little to no links to one’s own blogs, or affiliates, and much fewer Amazon modules. This has resulted in dropping income for many writers on the site (which explains my initial “no”, it is very difficult now to make any money on the site). Compensation is still paid, but it is much more difficult and greatly reduced at this time (in my own experience).

What Has Changed In Earning Income?

For the things that created income, the ad income is less, the Amazon modules are restricted and discouraged. Also, an arbitrary system of relegating articles to “unfeatured status”, wherein HP tells search engines not to index the hubs, results in less visitors for that “hub”. Ebay has not figured into my own earnings, or much for most others from what I have read. One thing that has changed is the clarity by which a person may judge whether their writing is meeting standards on the site. Unfeatured for quality can mean almost anything for having outgoing links, to too many, to unrelated Amazon products, etc. It could also have to do with the writing… it is a mixed bag and changes often. A portion of my dashboard
Are We Having Fun Yet?
Yes, sometimes. However it is a lot of work keeping up with many changes, and the compensation is steadily dropping. What tends to work?
  • Having a large number of articles still seems to matter. Part of the reason my income dropped is that I took a number of my articles down when they seemed unresponsive to improvements (I couldn’t get them out of unfeatured no matter what I tried).
  • Writing long articles of 700+ words.
  • Writing along a very tight topic focus (unlike Squidoo which seemed to reward ranging widely across the topic and covering everything).
  • Having few or no outgoing links, restricting them to one per text module.
  • Having very few Amazon products and keeping them to those mentioned in the article.
  • A number of strong pictures/photos, but not too many.
  Another change is the scoring of articles based more on visitor interaction, and less on raw traffic. A robot editor now corrects grammar and spelling.

Start Doing This

If earning some revenue from your writing online is a goal, try some of these suggestions.
  • Build up your own sites if you wish to try your hand at making an income writing.
  • Diversify among different streams of income: sites like Hubpages, your own blogs, social media, Amazon,  Zazzle.
  • Find your niche
  • Work hard
  • Network
For now, that is my report on the everchanging landscape of creating a business and income online. So many writers are complaining in the Hubpages forums and many are leaving or threatening to do so. I take that to mean that there is a sitewide drop in income. Mine is about a third of what it was last year, but I don’t know if that is the common experience or not. The benefits remain for those who simply wish to have experience writing and possibly getting feedback on their efforts. The community there is also a way to keep a touch on the pulse of the web as it impacts this type of writing (mostly informational articles). This is simply information given to the reader to help you decide for yourself if you think joining and writing for Hubpages is a promising endeavor for your efforts.

Pin It on Pinterest