My Experience With the HubPages Ad Program: Pros and Cons Of HP's New In-House Earning System
72So, if you're reading this you've probably heard a lot about how HubPages has started courting big name advertisers to add an extra revenue stream. This is great news for members who are looking to diversify their income or are looking to increase their earnings.
For some strange reason, I was one of the few people the HubPages team chose to be part of their new program. I was a little skeptical at first, but I can say without a doubt that the HubPages Ad Program is a huge success!
Read on and I'll show you some of the pros and cons of the new program and talk about how it increased my online earnings (in a roundabout, not-disclosing-my-meager-income-sort-of-way).
HubPages Ad Program Pros And Cons
Pros
- The eCPM is good. Real good. On average, I've earned around $3.00 per thousand views. It has never, ever, ever been less than $2.00, often coming in at over $4.50. Many unoptimized Adsense accounts will struggle to earn even the lowest boundaries of my average HP earnings.
- The earnings are consistent.There have been no random days of earning 20 bucks followed by days of pitiful earnings. My experience has yielded very few banner days but no disappointments , either. It is very easy to estimate exactly how much you will earn by the end of the month.
- The payout threshold is low. Only $50 to get your money sent to you by PayPal. It might not seem like a big deal to those who earn their income online, but for smaller publishers who struggle to make the $100 minimum to be paid by Google, it will put money in their pockets sooner.
- The advertisements look great! Since the ads are coming from respectable, high profile companies and brand names, you'll see better looking, image ads. That means no more hastily slapped together .jpegs of nude elf women, no more ugly clipart, and no more obtrusive text ads.
- HubPages has remained profitable through the Google Slap - Many Hubbers have reported very poor Adsense earnings after the whole Google debacle of February 2011. I was one of them. While my earnings per Adsense click went down, I continued to make good money from HubPage's ad program.
Cons
- You will lose Adsense revenue - Real talk, there's no getting around it. More ads mean less Adsense clicks. I experienced about a 40% decrease in Adsense earnings once I began to serve HubPage ads. This was more than offset by the higher earnings of the HP ads. However, authors who are focused on getting extremely high click values from specific keywords should keep this in mind.
- More Ads Means Less Affiliate Clicks - Like the loss of Adsense revenue, I noticed a drop in Amazon and eBay clicks. It was smaller, though, about 10-15% vs. the previous weeks.
Author's Caveat
I have only had a month's worth of experience with the HubPages ad Program, during two traditionally poor months for online earnings. I do not know if HubPages earnings will increase in the winter shopping season the same way Google's might. However, for those looking to make a consistent, regular income, the HubPages Ad Program is a huge step in empowering writers with new, meaningful opportunities to earn.
If you're interested in the trying out this brand new opportunity, sign up for HubPages today and try it out.
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Thanks for writing this.
Do you know when they will open the program to the rest of us? I am VERY interested.
Thanks so much for the update and sharing your experience with us, from what I can tell from forum posts it will be available to everyone around June, pretty exciting!
I believe they said it would probably be available to most users by June? I'm can't speak for the HP team directly.
This is a great news, eagerly looking forward for this ads program. Hope HP rolls out this program for all hubbers soon.
That's very good to hear. Is it possible to disable the HubPages ads for specific hubs or is it everything-or-nothing?
I just heard on the forums that it is everything or nothing.
Hi, this sounds really interesting! I can't wait to give it a go! thanks for the info, cheers nell
I can't wait to get in. Thanks for the news and insight.
Congratulations to Len Cannon, SimeyC and other hubbers already in for the HubPages Ad program. Truly, the ads look gorgeous and quite relevant as seen on hubs...Thanks for sharing your candid experiences with the new ad program. I'm grateful to HP Team for this innovation. I hope to join you soon.
Thanks for this information and such a clear explanation. I am so glad to see hub pages offering an alternative. Nothing is worse than one choice - which of course really isn't a choice then. I'll certainly consider this and pass on the information.
Yay and rated way up! And bookmarked.
I just went and signed up. Looking forward to see if this improves my earnings. It will be nice not to be so reliant on Adsense if it works out.
Thanks for such positive information.
Great information. Looking to try this soon! Thanks.
Sounds very promising, thanks for the Hub, Len!
Do the ads say that they are hubpage ads, like the google ads say google ads?
Yay! I have been invited to HubPages and filled necessary info. I hope for the revenue to increase, but I m already low on Adsense revenue and if people would not click on Adsense then I will not reach the payout limit in Adsense.
However, I am now focusing on publishing more articles and increasing my total quality views.
It is very promising to hear about their new adsense program. Thanks for telling it like it is, and sharing so much with us all.
I just signed in today for the HubPages ad program :) Reading hubs regarding the program. Thanks for sharing the info!
my earnings got totally down from adsense. ad program has made my cumulative earnings go down a lot i may deactivate it next month but need to reach the.payout limit this month.
Thanks for information, I should try this program
Hey Len, could you update your earnings with us? Not exact figures but increase or decrease,hm?
Len, helpful hub for us. Do you know if my AdSense continues to no longer bring in revenue and Google should happen to close my AdSense account, whether I would also lose my HubPages Ad account? Because it requires an AdSense account, right? Thanks! Voted Up.
Good article. I was able to try it out as well. It took me until last week to finally sign up though. I know, crazy right? I already have $10 and it's been pretty consistent so far.
Glad to hear the ad program is working for you, hope I have similar luck. You answered all my questions! Thanks!
I totally agree with your hub. You've made out the points very neatly. I like the information which you've given here.! :)
Thanks for the information - voted up and useful from me.
thanks for the review and helpful info :)
Well my hubpages ad program revenue has dropped Adsense earnings to a great extent. I am not sure if id be able to continue with it. Could u guys update ur earnings, even estimate could work just fine.
Thank you for writing this. I have not switched over yet because I wanted to learn more from others first. This is really helpful. I am not switching just yet, but I am one step closer now.
Very informative Hub, thanks. I wondered why my Adsense account went dry after switching. I deactivated the Hubpages Ad program because I was making more with Adsense. How long do you think it will take before I start to see my income return with Adsense, or did switching permanently trash the Adsense income?
that's what i am wondering too Ken. i have not yet switched back to adsense just yet. but i m seriously considering it after i hit that 50 dollar mark in paypal.
I imagine there's maybe a 24 hour change over period (maybe!) while the ad program removes itself from your articles. I doubt you would have to wait longer than that for Adsense to "return to normal", since Adsense's click values are not affected by the HP ads, just how often they are displayed.
same here kksonakiya. my earnings dropped quite a bit (takings from hubpages ad program did not make up for the shortfall) seriously considering pulling the plug on the program after i get the first $50 payout...
more people should share their results. it is strange why some people manage to earn so much extra?!
Well, i asked many times in my comments on this article to share some results. If not accurate then some estimate, so that nobody breaks TOS of Hubpages, if any. But no one did.
I earned only $30 last month, and because of HP Ad program, adsense dropped to $30, in comparison to $150 (that I earned via HP before applying ad program).
If hubbers are thinking that ad program won't affect adsense, then they are not taking the fact into account, that people who were clicking on adsense ads would now be clicking on ad program ads, which I guess runs low in CPM in comparison to Adsense.
Am i being confusing here? In any case, i guess i made my point. So could u guys share some tips to increase ad earnings or the only solution is to rollback to adsense only ads.
wow thats a big difference. i dont think mine was that great but maybe because u got more hubs. my earnings dropped about $40 but I only got about $25 from the hubpages ad program.
I dont think there is any other way to get good earnings? unless hubpages got some advice
one other point - hubpages takes 40% of the impressions for adsense but what about this ad program? does it work like this for Amazon links too?
I am pretty sure that HP takes a cut out of Ad program Cheaptoys. As for Amazon links, we keep 100% because we work as affiliate marketers and not partners. However, because people leave our page (hub) after clicking on that in-house ad via HP, clicks are certainly going to get down for Amazon affiliate products as well.
I am just waiting to get my hands on that $50 and then i will be back to adsense. I'll wait for two weeks and if i don't see any change with adsense, then i'll switch over to HP Ad program again, because it is easier to reach $50 than $100 :).
well if you said you got $150 a month from HP thru Adsense then the $100 limit is not an issue right?
yeah, it was not an issue untill i switched to Ad program. That's what i m talking abt, if the potential rises again, then i'll stick with adsense. :)
It's nice to read the experiences of another hubber. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for the info!
I was invited to join the hub ad programme and have made £62 so far, do you know when the money will get transfered to my Paypal account as i thought it was once my account reached £50? Also i was earning an average of £115 a month through Adsense and now i am not even making a quarter of that, i'm in two minds whether or not to switch back. Great hub, voted up :)
well I just switched out of the Hubpages Ad Program because I just hit $50. Hey Zoey I think they pay in US dollars? So I am not sure why you are seeing pounds...I guess they may only transfer your money early the next month after calculating the earnings for the whole of the month
Until Hubpages figures out how to make both Adsense and Hub Ads profitable at the same time I am going to stick with Adsense and ignore the Hub Ads feature. It just isn't worth what I loose out on with Adsense.
Hiya, Yeah i meant 62 dollars i am just used to typing pound signs lol. I have been paid by them now it only equaled to thirty something in uk money once it was in my paypal account so am switching back to Adsense.
well I have to admit things have not been looking good either since I opted out of Hubpages Ad program. Anybody got similar results? Looks like most of us may have opted into Hubpages Ad program at a wrong time when google takings are already trending lower :(
Believe it or not, I find this article VERY encouraging. Although nobody is getting rich, it does appear as if it's possible to earn some income. Thanks for sharing your experience.
I find the HubPages Ad Program to be pretty encouraging. I've not had a day now where I do not make money. It might not be a lot of money, but it's still money coming in, and that sort of consistency can really help keep me motivated. AdSense is a roller coaster for me, and although it does give higher gains, those periods where it isn't producing anything can be demoralizing.
I need help. .I couldn't open my earnings page. I enter the password and it keeps on asking me for my password with every Submit. Why is this?
You know, I don't know, but I have found it to be very finicky myself! Make sure you've got capital (or not capital) letters in the right spot. I even got locked out of it for a day once because I got my password wrong too many times.
Great information, the earnings from HubPages are certainly more than what I am getting from Triond.
I totally agree with a decrease in Google Adsense earnings. But, my Amazon earnings didn't change -- In fact, it got better! Hubpage editors, however, started attacking my hubs -- Especially my Flagship Hubs which they asked me to make in the first place.
Yeah ,The CPM rate given by hubpages are really good ,One guy reported that he is getting 44$/CPM that is awesome
really interesting
SimeyC Level 5 Commenter 15 months ago
Totally agree with this article! My experience with the program were similar - in fact I was seeing a noticable (25%) increase in Ad revenue just before the google bump - so once levels return to normal I expect the Ad program to do very well!