Today's post is a bit short, but I wanted to share some great advice on the best ad placement.  This method does work, and it is not a scam or a gimmick.  

A friend of mine, Hospitalera, is a fellow-Hubber on HubPages.  She, in turn, is friends with another Hubber named Lissie.  Both Hospitalera and Lissie offer great advice for making money online, including how to write hubs and make residual income.

Lissie has a great blog post about optimal ad placement for hubs on HubPages.  Her advice is spot on, and offers insight on how to increase your passive income on HubPages.

I am using this method, myself, and have to say it seems to be one of the best ways to write in order to have ads placed at the best position to earn.

A quick update, I now have 15 hugs as of last week.  Traffic's good, but I need to find more ways to backlink and improve traffic and clicks.   My writing schedule is keeping on track with writing at least one new hub per week, but my goal is to build up to 30 hubs.  That's a challenge as things are busy right now, but I might be able to write additional hubs in the evening.  We'll see how it goes. 

Good luck and happy Hubbing!

January has been a busy month for me.  I've begun writing at some other places, in addition to HubPages.  Back in November, I started writing for BellaOnline's Asthma site, and also began developing my own website, Sher Vacik.com.  With these and other writing projects, plus other freelance work, 2011 is shaping up to be a busy year. 

With all of this going on, it's very important to get organized.  I was beginning to feel overwhelmed by everything, so I sat down and set up a writing schedule, along with setting up an income tracker.  You can read more it about it on my website.  I used programs already on my computer, but also downloaded a couple of free templates.  You definitely don't need expensive software and gizmos to get organized.  I like to use free programs as much as possible, as long as they are quality products.  Getting the writing schedule and income tracker in place have already begun  to help me to stay organized and  up-to-date with all my writing and freelance commitments. 

Getting organized has helped me to write two new hubs in the last week.  I wrote one about the Amazon Kindle, and the second one about gluten free Super Bowl recipes.  I've now got 14 hubs, but would like to hit 30 hubs before too long.  To do this, I will have to add some extra time for writing more hubs on my writing schedule.  I'm not quite sure how to manage that yet. 

I've found with new hubs that traffic grows nicely on all the other hubs.  However, the income from HubPages is still not where I would like it to be.  Growing reader numbers should help with that.  My goal is to earn passive income from HubPages and the other sites I write for.  So, I need to be prolific in my writing.  The writing schedule will definitely help in that area.

Well, that's all for today.  I just wanted to give a little update about how things are progressing for HubPages.  My hub number is slowly increasing, but with time scheduled each week, I'll be able to write more hubs on a regular basis.  From there, I'm hoping to grow reader numbers and income. 

Till next time, happy Hubbing!
Sher

If you haven't signed up at HubPages yet, go ahead and give it a try!  

I've seen this question many times around the Internet.  There are many who say HubPages is nothing but a scam and a content mill that makes money off the backs of its writers.  They equate HubPages to being a sweat shop of web content, allowing the company to earn thousands of dollars, while its writers earn pennies for each ad clicked.  There are some who also criticize the writing quality, or lack thereof, on a site such as HubPages.  I would challenge such opinions about HubPages.

HubPages is a great place for writers to start learning how to write for the web.  The site offers  learning sources for everything from basic search engine optimization (SEO) to how to choose your hub topic.  Along with the learning resources, HubPages has some very talented and helpful Hubbers who are willing to offer advice and guidance to new Hubbers.  So, far, this doesn't seem to add up to a scam or a sweat shop.

Sweat shops are notorious for offering employees horrible work environments with long work hours, along with very little pay.  Sweat shop employees are helpless in the face of the companies management, and are nothing more than slave-labor.  Now, let's take a look at HubPages.  HubPages offers a "home" for writers to place their articles on the web for free.  There is no charge for this service at all.  Writers have to follow the terms of service--these are clearly spelled out and enforced. Writers also retain all the rights to their own content.  No if's, and's or but's!

Once writers have agreed to these terms, they are allowed to write on almost any topic.  They can write from any place offering Internet access, which leaves many places available to work in.  Writers can write from their own home, from a coffee shop, etc, while also setting their own hours.  Workers can work as little or as much as they want, writing as many articles as they like.  Thus the work environment and working hours are up to the writers, and even they determine (to some extent) how much money they will earn.  Does this sound like a sweat shop?  I don't think so.

HubPages is the home of writers of all experience levels--from beginners to those who are published authors in the "real" world.  And it's important to remember that HubPages is a business, after all.  The company needs an income in order to keep the site alive and to make a living for it's regular employees.  It seems to me it's OK if they make money, too, even from our writings.  The money maker for HubPages and it's writers are the Google ads that run on the sides of the articles.  The ad split is 60:40--this means for every 100 ad impressions, the writer's publisher's ID will is displayed about 60 times, while the other 40 ad impressions are for HubPages.  That seems like a fair split to me.  The more hubs your write, the greater chance you have for making money.  Does that sound like a sweat shop?  I don't think so!

HubPages is a legitimate way to make money from home.  It's a place where people can try their hand at writing and earning an online income, and is perfect for those looking for extra income, or as a means of making money until finding regular work.   

This article is my own opinion, no one has contacted me from HubPages to write a positive review of their site and services.  I'm writing directly from my own experience of writing on HubPages.  If anyone wants to earn a bit of money there, they need to realize it will take some good hard work and determination, but it can be done.   I've realized this just from my own small experiment thus far. With increased dedication to writing more articles, I know my own income could grow, while retaining the rights to my own articles, and working the hours I set.  This will be a challenge for me in this new year!  This doesn't feel like a sweat shop to me!

Happy Hubbing!
Sher