Hubpage Success - Lessons from Our Top 5 Hubs
74Learning from Success
Money is a major incentive for most endeavours, and we suspect that most people write Hubs because they want to make money. We include ourselves in that generalisation; we need to make money to buy groceries and fuel. Thankfully, we both have other (modest) sources of income as we have not as yet been very successful at making money from Hubpages.
We published our first Hub in March 2008, and now have a collection of 44 Hubs. This is a drop in the ocean compared to star hubbers such as Compu-smart (516), Research Analyst (535) or Hal Licino (1599 – show off!). (Further down this page we've included links to favourite hubs from these three stars).
We plan to write and publish some more Hubs in 2010 and thought that we might produce better Hubs if we reviewed what we have learned from the Hubs we have written so far.
Our 5 Top Hubs have been selected on the basis of their Hubscore, number of views and number of comments.
Hubscores are something of a moving target, as they tend to alter from day to day. Sometimes they change in the course of one day. However, we have used this as a measure because we think that having a higher Hubscore gives a Hub more visibility, and therefore more views. One hopes that more views will equal more earnings, but we do realize that this is not necessarily true.
At Number One: Feet
Our 1st Top Hub – “Pretty feet: Prepare to Show Them Off”
The content of this Hub was written for our own website. After it was written we made a decision to limit the length of all articles for our website because of the constraints of the package that we purchased. Not wanting to waste our work, we did some editing and then published this Hub in March 2008.
“Pretty Feet” has consistently been our most viewed Hub. It has a wide range of traffic sources and the number of views has increased slightly over the past few months. This encourages us to think that the topic is reasonably evergreen.
The score for this Hub (as of today) is 83, which we think is respectable.
However,this Hub has earned us very little money.
One thing we have learned is to study the Stats that are available to Hubbers. The Hub Metrics for this one show only $$ - so we know that this is unlikely to be a money earner.
However, we suspect that there is a more substantial problem with this Hub. We wrote it with a particular group of people in mind; we were thinking of people like us who like to have pedicures, so that their feet look nice when they wear open toed shoes. We cannot prove it, but it is possible that people who do web searches for “pretty feet” have got some other kind of interest in feet that we don’t really understand.
The ads that appear on our Hub are relevant to our intentions, in that they are ads for products like nail polish and moisturiser. But if the people viewing our Hub are really interested in something else, they are not going to click on the Google ads.
This Hub has only received 9 comments; this low number adds weight to our theory that there is a discrepancy between our intended audience and the people who are viewing this Hub.
So, the lesson we have learned from this Hub is to try to actually reach your target audience.
At Number Two: Train
Our 2nd Top Hub – “Sleeper Train to Scotland”
We published this Hub in July 2008, just after Pat had travelled on the sleeper train to Scotland. She was therefore the prime author, with Tricia acting as editor.
The current Hubscore is 89; sometimes the score has been as high as 91. The score has been high since publication, which we think reflects the quality of the content and writing. We think this is a good Hub because it was written while the idea was fresh.
The Hub attracted 15 comments, most of them within a few weeks of publication. However, it has continued to attract viewers.
The average number of viewers is about 2/3rd as those we get for the “Pretty Feet” Hub, but they do come from a wide variety of sources.
Again, we have not made much money from this Hub. This is disappointing, because the Hub Metrics show $$$$. The Google ads are relevant to the content of the Hub.
Our hypothesis is that the number of viewers are simply not high enough.
Trying a Google search, our Hub is on the second or third page – too far from the top.
We think that this Hub needs a better title.
The lesson from this Hub is that a good title is needed to get maximum views. We will be doing some keyword research and then giving this Hub a new title.
Those very interesting toiletries
Our Top Hub Number 3: Toiletries
Packing Toiletries for a Week or Weekend Away
This Hub was published in March 2008. As with our ‘Pretty Feet’ Hub, this was originally written for our website and then we decided it was too long.
This Hub has been viewed almost every single day since it was published, with nearly as much traffic as our Number One Hub. Sadly, it has not earned much money.
In the time we have been publishing, we have read many Hubs by Mark Knowles. We find his advice easy to understand, and helpful. One of his hints for success if to tell less than the full story. His suggestion is that if you use right keywords and get relevant ads, then the ads will tell the rest of the story.
We think that the weakness of our ‘Packing Toiletries’ Hub is that it tells everything anybody needs to know. It is possible that someone reading it may then want to purchase a bag, but it doesn’t seem very likely.
However, one very good thing that came from this Hub was contact with Lissie. We noticed that she had also published Hubs about packing for travelling, and we got in touch with her to ask if we could put a link from our website to her hubs. She proved very supportive, and we have since found that her hubs are a source of good advice.
We now think that we should have shortened our article on packing toiletries and kept it for our website. In our opinion, it is good reference material and might have encouraged viewers to return to the website.
We have learned more from failure than success
- HubPage Success - 5 Lessons from Failure
Hubpage success is not only about making money from Hubpages. Hubpage success means different things to different people. Most people who take the time to write want their work to be read, so a large number...
And at Number 4: Sailing
When we joined Hubpages in March 2008 we wanted to publish a reasonable number of Hubs very quickly. As described above, some of these Hubs consisted of articles that we had written for our website (and then rejected for that purpose).
One of our objectives in writing for Hubpages was to produce articles on topics that were not relevant for our website, where our focus is on style, fitness and beauty. It was in keeping with this idea that Tricia wrote the Hub on Family Dinghy Sailing.
Pat’s only input for this Hub was reading it to check for surplus words. All she knows about sailing is that it makes her sick.
The score for this Hub at the time of writing this sentence is 79. We think this has contributed to our reasonably good overall Hubscore, and generally gained attention.
The Hub has performed well in terms of views, with traffic from a variety of sources.
According to the Hub Metric, the earning potential is $$$ and we think this is a fair assessment. We think that somebody searching for articles on dinghy sailing is likely to want to find out about local courses, or relevant literature – and they could get this information by looking at the ads.
This is not something we thought about at the time of publication. Tricia’s first thought was to write an article about a topic close to her heart.
And we will leave that as our overall lesson – write about topics that you know about, and try to explain why you are enthusiastic about your subject.
Read more about Pilates
- Pilates Equipment: The Reformer
The reformer is a piece of Pilates equipment which works to improve your core stability, to strengthen and lengthen muscles. It is rather long and shaped like a narrow bed. There is a sliding platform on... - Pilates exercises for spinal mobility: the bridge an...
Check with your doctor before undertaking this or any new exercise programme, especially if you have a medical condition.Not all exercises are suitable for all individuals. 2patricias accept no responsibility...
Coming in at Number 5: Pilates
Pilates Exercise The 100 and the Single Leg Stretch
This Hub dates from April 2008. At that time we were working on taking photos of Pilates exercises, with Tricia doing the exercises and Pat taking the photos. Tricia is a qualified Pilates instructor. Pat is now qualified as a photographer, but is very enthusiastic.
This Hub has a current score of 81, and the number of views is neck and neck with our Toiletries Hub.
If you do a Google search for Pilates 100 and the Single Leg Stretch, this Hub is usually on the first page (and near the top) of the search results.
We think that this is because we gave this Hub the correct name; it is very specific and someone new to Pilates exercise is fairly likely to want to look up these particular moves.
At the time we did not think there was anything unusual about using our own photos, but we are now aware that the majority of hubbers simply find relevant photos.
More recently we have been moving into video for our website. Tricia has worked with a friend to record some Pilates exercises, and is developing her editing skill.
So, our two lessons from this Hub are to pick a specific title, and as far as possible use original material.
Take a look at some Hubs from 3 great Hubbers
- All The Reasons Why I Love G00gle Ad$ense... Or Do I...
When I first wrote this Hub it was a vicious rabid rant against the outrageous excesses of what has become the monopolizing juggernaut 500,000 lb. gorilla of online labor. Then I sat back and realized that... - Cruiser Yachts For Sale
Have you every wondered how to keep a yacht clean? well boat cleaning and yacht cleaning services,You can find companies online that specialize in Dry Cleaning and Interior Cleaning to the Marine and Yacht... - How to Become Famous: 10 Top Tips
Not me. I would not want fame for all the money in the world. I respect my privacy too much.! Plus, I would never give certain people the satisfaction of making money from selling me out to the press....
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Nice idea. It was interesting to read your assessments. Thanks for sharing the info and your personal thoughts.
Hello Tammy - Congratulations for the first comment on our first Hub on the first day of the year.
We have got better at getting good Hubscores - but still have a long way to go.
Your choice of words 'subject myself to the forums' is a neat way of expressing how we feel too!.
Thanks for reading & leaving a comment.
Hi Frieda,
We have also tried (between ourselves) to analyse the work of other Hubbers - but wouldn't dare publish it.
Pleased you enjoyed this Hub - thanks for commenting.
Happy New Year ladies. Yes I know what you mean about the forums.
Hi Ethel and Happy New Year to you!
Guess sometimes it is easier to be aggressive than it is to take the time to think about how to offer constructive criticism in a nice manner.
Thanks for your comment.
Thanks for sharing your information, it certainly gives food for thought. happy new year
Hello JayJay (and Happy New Year). Even if you don't agree with our analysis, we do think it is a good idea to review one's work.
Thanks for leaving a comment.
I very much admire your critical review of your own work. Your review has led me to look at my own Hubs in different ways...who's the audience, what's the earning potential ($$) according to the stats, and also where are links and traffic coming from? That HP stats feature can be quite powerful if time is spent looking at it.
In some ways, the success of HubPages articles will always be at the mercy of HP's proprietary algorithms, secrets they will not and should not share. It is left to us, with the good counsel of successful Hubbers as well as a self-critical commitment, to learn and then earn the key that opens the magic door.
Still and yet, I do wish I were a mind reader. LOL!
All thumbs up.
Hello Sally's Trove,
We do enjoy the secrecy of the HP algorithms - it makes it a surprise every thime we look at our Hub scores. Also gives us a goal.
And yes, if only we could read minds - lol.
Thanks for leaving such an encouraging comment.
Ay 2pats, this is a great idea :-) You also made me look at my most viewed hubs, and all in all it's a good thing I don't do this for money but for entertainment! Laugh!
The top 5 are romance and have an organic traffic of over 70% in average, traffic driven by Google and Yahoo mostly but also others, but they all have a revenue potential of ($). I guess I would really need to shift my drift if I ever aspired to make money out of my hubs!
I'm bookmarking this for future reference, kudos!
Hola Elena,
Glad to read that it's not just us that achieves high viewing numbers on low $ Hubs!
No matter how many Hubs we read about making money, it remains elusive. I've just scanned this Hub to see what ads are appearing, and see that right this minute there are 3 big ads for golf lessons. Did we mention golf? How odd.
Thanks for reading and leaving such a positive comment.
I think you are doing a great job with your hubs but I do have one suggestion, I took a look at your top hub “Pretty feet: Prepare to Show Them Off” I noticed that you had very few keywords and some to generic like, "how to" Do some resach on keywords and you will get better targeted traffic, my best hub does very good and I believe key words are important.
Dear Pat and Tricia:
I really enjoyed your hub!
Your "voices" are genuine and warm. You both are so easy to relax with...and trust.
I appreciated your advice. Keywords, smart Titles, writing for length...all great points. Excellent stuff. Thank you so much for this informative and very enjoyable hub.
(Your Sleeper Car hub is well titled, I think. Your traffic may improve when you expand the links. Links drive traffic.)
(The Toiletries pic may be too low in pixels for full size reproduction. An eight megabite CAMERA minimum is good for online photos. Be sure to set the camera for maximum pixel count. I use a memorycard with a huge number; so I can take unlimited numbers of pictures and have each one maximized for sharpness and quality. AND...try my hub on Photoshop...Photos into Art...for tips on how to retouch and improve any photos you already have in your My Pictures folder.)
(Pretty Feet is probably getting unwanted traffic of a porn-prone variety.)
(Maybe a synonym for "dinghy" would help that hub title..because of the pun or alternate meaning of the word.)
Just my two-cents...coming from an author who's not writing for profit. (Now, whether this is just ignorance or incompetence...well, we'll leave that for another day, lol.)
HubCrafter
ladies-- consider this excellent hub bookmarked and STumbled Upon!
Hi. I find that the hub metrics really are just a (rough) guide - some of my hubs with $ are some of my highest earning ones and ones with $$$$ are lowest earning, despite similar numbers of views!
Hello Kia,
Thank you for your suggestion on keywords. We wrote that Hub before we really understood the idea of keywords. (Not that we fully understand it now). Anyway, you are right, our lack of keyword skill does show up in that hub.
Thanks for leaving a comment.
Dear HubCrafter,
Thank you so much for your detailed and helpful comments. It was so nice of you to take so much time analysing our Hub. Pat has already moved the photo so that it shows up a bit better. Your suggestion about maximising pixels is a new idea - but we do know how to do it so will be applying that immediately. We will take a look at your Hub on Photoshop as we have got a lot to learn.
We have just signed up for She Told Me, and will use that to make some new links for our Hubs, and try to add some from other sources for the Sleeper Train Hub.
Once again, thank you Hub Crafter!
Hello Rebecca E. - that is a real compliment, coming from such a high ranking Hubber as yourself. Thank You.
Hi Bristol Boy, Yes, the Metrics are just a sort of clue, and sometimes a misleading clue. We have a few Hubs that we wrote with a view of getting a high $$$ score, but the content may be a bit boring - we haven't yet cracked how to write entertaining 'product' based Hubs. Maybe we never will... thanks for your comment.
Hey 2Patricias. I have bookmarked this page, as that was really awesome. Best of luck for more hubs. I invite you to mine.
Hello Soni,
So pleased that you have bookmarked this hub! Thanks for doing that and leaving a comment. Will be taking a look at your hubs.
good job here, good lesson too, I enjoyed it, Maita
Hello Maita,
Thanks for the compliment! Always nice to have some positive feedback.
Very interesting. I will take another look at my Hubs and see if I can glean some similar lessons from them Thanks so much for writing this up.
Love and peace
Tony
Hi Tony,
Thanks for taking time to leave a comment. We have pushed up some of our Hubscores by careful re-reading and tweaking.
This is an interesting Hub. By sharing our experiences on HubPages it can help us all sort out where we are and how to get where we want to go. Thank you for sharing.
Hello James,
We would like to see similar Hubs from other Hubbers. I think most of us want the same results - high view numbers and some income.
Thank you for your comment.
Tricias, very good, close-up information. So many hubs about hubbing are general but I love how you get into the nuts and bolts of what you think was positive and negative about the hubs. And the Pretty Feet one really made me laugh.
As far as the photographs, I often use my own. I go someplace, or do something and just start taking pictures for a hub. Since I signed up (and should not even count the first 3 months, I didn't even have adsense at first) I have made the equivalent of the price of a can of beans a day!
Hello Dolores,
You've made me start the day with a smile with your news that you have made enough to buy a can of beans every day.
If we had to live on our earnings we would have to search out beans on 'special offer'.
Thank you for leaving a comment and for refreshing honesty.
Well....I have never checked my hub metrics thing! I'm going to check this right now...geez...to think I thought this was just a tool taking up space!? lol Awesome hub!
Hello Herbi,
It took us ages to understand the hub metrics! There's always something new to learn. Hope this helps you.
It was great to find your comment - thanks.
I agree with you that we have to learn from success people. We can imitate what they done to become success.
Hello Praetio,
Thank you for your comment. The funny thing is that sometimes we can also learn from failure.
Hello 2 Patricicas Nice to meet you. I enjoyed your hub. I can relate. Thank you for sharing your info. I have earned zippo from hubs I have had over 12,000 readers. My account with google was goofed up for 6 months. I did everything but drive over to their main office states away for help, to no avail. A couple at hp tried to help. I kept writing hubs but was not real inspired, in hindsight. I spent many hours with google, ad sense. Yuk. Anyway I am here I love hub pages. I have a passion to write, I have a dream and vission. It seems you do as well. I will check out your sites.
I have a host of friends at hubs. I decided God was my provision. He owns it all anyway. He gets the bucks to me how I am not sure these days. It happens. Stop over and visit my hubs. I would be honored. I look forward to a lasting frinedship. Many Blessings
+ + +
Hello Skye, We have read a couple of your Hubs and joined your list of followers. Hope to see your comments again.
When we set up our own website Tricia said that it would succeed if it was God's will. Of course we have tried to use our God-given talents to make it work.
We have learned a lot from Hub pages and have found so many helpful people here. We have applied what we have learned to our own site, and our earnings have very slowly increased.
Thanks so much for your comment.
Wonderful and thank you so much for great advices 2patricias, I have visited your website too and that's really cool! I enjoy so much, have a great day!
Hello Febriedethan, We are pleased it you have found our advice helpful. We are even more pleased that you visited our website! Hope you return.
Thanks for your comment.
I see I have much to learn for you girls ;) I will be back and then back again!!
Wow, what a great hub! I learned a lot and am going to try and analyze the few hubs I've written. Thanks for the insight.
Hello Wavegirl,
Thanks for your comment. I'm sure we can learn from you as well.
Hello Lamme,
Sorry to say that we have not visited your hubs. I've just taken a look at your titles and see that there is a lot we can learn from you about Mexican food.
Thanks for your comment.
hello, this is a very helpful and informative hub. I have also learned from the success, and failures of various writing. My "Kiddie Porn" is probably similar to your "Pretty Feet" in the type of readers it draws, but it does get a lot of traffic. Since it is a song lyric, and my goal IS to get traffic, more than to earn money from google on this one, I am happy with that; however, there are a few that have done much better since I have changed their titles. People will pass over a hub with a dull title, so the title needs to attract attention. Also, titles that will satisfy the needs of readers seeking particular information, such as a hub titled "ink jet printers," are going to draw much traffic outside of hubpages traffic from people deliberately clicking those words in for information.
I do have two goals for writing here. One is to make some money from hubpages through google adsense; the other is to expose my creative writing ability. That being the case, I seek a balance of ads that will earn big money from adsense, with those that might prove to do much more for me later on. It is a balancing act. Thanks for this topic. It is a good one. thumbs up!
Hello Valerie, Thank you for telling us about your goals for HubPages - it is always interesting to read about other peoples motivations.
Also, thanks for sharing your Hub that gets 'strange hits'- it's pleasing to know that we're not the only ones.
Thanks for sharing your experience here and your most successful hubs. I am approaching my first year and still have a lot to learn, it's always good to hear of advice from others. :)
Hello Wren,
Pleased to read that you found our advice helpful. Thank you for leaving a comment.
Thank you for sharing this hub.
Before I joined all on here my computer knowledge was minimal, therefore hubs such as this one are priceless.
I am giving it a useful and a vote up plus bookmarking.
I have only just come accross you on here and I am loking forward to reading more of your work.
Take care to you both.
Hello Eiddwen (sounds like a Welsh name),
HubPages is an excellent site if you want to learn how to write well for the Internet.
Thanks for voting up our Hub - and thank you for the comment.
I am sure that by the time I get a money making hub I will get the Nobel Prize too.This is supposed to be a simple endeavor but it really takes a lot of learning which is not bad at all.
Hello SuperCibor,
And we'll be right behind you in the queue to collect the Nobel Prize! There are a lot of reports on the Internet about how easy it is to make money. Baloney, as they used to say in the comics.
Still, making the effort keeps our brains in gear, so it can't be all bad.
Thanks for taking time to leave a comment.
I can already tell that I will be able to learn many things from you, ladies! Thanks for your wonderful articles.
Hi J Pamela,
The Hubs that we use as examples here were more luck than judgement, but they continue to attract a good number of views.
The 'feet' one has recently been copied by a Chinese website, which is a bit annoying, but it doesn't seem to detract from our views.
Thank you for leaving a comment.
This hub is very popular too. I noticed that fiction hubs are not on your top five. Do they do well for you? I've never tried to make money with my fiction, but I imagine that would be a real challenge to pull off. What are your takes on that?
Hi AC,
We don't expect to make money from fiction. Last year Tricia put up a hub called "The Cat came Back" which is a true story but we think a good test for fiction. It has a steady number of views, but almost all from within Hub Pages. In our opinion it is hubs that attract viewers via search engines that make money.
None of our Hubs are big money earners because we don't write 'product' type hubs.
We would count the 'cat' hub as a success though because it has brought some viewers to our website.
The objective in publishing the Respect for the King story here was to gather constructive criticism. Thanks to people like you that has been working!
On the general point of fiction making money, we think that it is unlikely because viewers come to fiction to read it, not because they are considering a purchase.
Thanks for reading this and taking time to leave a comment.
You are so right! I am still getting my feet wet and have had some good advice from other hubbers such as Website Examiner. A good title is it! I am really going have to learn about keywords to drive the traffic and "leave a little out" as you and Mark Knowles have stated. I will also expand my articles from just writing as there is little money to made there, just utter enjoyment for me and the reader. Thanks for the tips, I will be sure to apply them.
Hi HannahMW,
I hope that you will continue to produce articles that you enjoy!
We did have fun producing some of our more 'prosaic' hubs, but wouldn't want to do that all of the time.
For example, on our website the most popular page is about makeup. We think that we could write a website that was wholly centred on makeup and that we could (eventually) make money doing that. But we are really not that interested in makeup. We've only got one life to live!
So try to balance what you need to do with what you enjoying doing. There a fortunate few who actually enjoying doing the things they need to do! Hope that fits you at least some of the time.
Hey i read this hub from start to end.It's interesting.As you can see that i've been around for 4 months.I think the points you made in your hub can apply to my hubs too. But i've been looking forward to future to learn more.Anyway thanks for the inspirations you are giving hubbers.Rated up and enjoyed.
Hello Legend!
There's always something new to learn with HubPages. Pleased you found this interesting.
Thanks for the comment and the up rating.
What an interesting and wide range of topics! Your success seems to put paid to all the 'niche' advice. I look forward to reading more.
Bonjour LTC,
Some of the top hubbers advise writing at least 3 hubs on each topic, but we are too impatient (and busy) to do that.
Thank you for the comment, and we'll be looking at your hubs too.
Great hub! I have learned some things I need to implement on my own. You are right we learn more from our failure than our success!
I re-read your hub today. It still shines with enthusiasm, grace and wit.
Why is it I seem to hear Julia Child's voice, encouraging and patiently explaining as I read your Hub, lol? (Probably just because I saw that Julie/Julia movie recently...right?)
Please don't take my boyish humor to heart.
Your hubs are lovely to read. I thoroughly enjoy them.
Hello HubCrafter,
I am deeply flattered that you should hear Julia Child's voice while reading the Hub! She is one of my cooking idols.
Thank you so much for your lovely comment.
Hiya 2patricias, thank you so much for this hub. It is well-written and full of useful advice. thumbs up and awesome!
Have a nice day,
Rosie
Like you, I am learning from experience with each Hub. i would suggest using Google Analytics in addition to hub metrics to see how yur hub is doing and where traffic is coming from.
Hello Rosie2010, Thanks for the comment!
Good Day Peter Owen, Thank you for reading and commenting. We use Google Analytics for our web site and gather a lot of useful information. For the Hubs we usually simply look at the info on the 'stats' tab' at the top of each Hub.
Our very simple aim for each Hub is to achieve hits via the search engines.
Tammy Lochmann Level 2 Commenter 2 years ago
wow looks like I am first. Thanks for sharing this. I am always wondering about how others get good hubscores...This way I don't have to subject myself to the forums. Thanks again