Monthly Update - March 2011

In March 2011 I have been relatively busy, however I have still managed to create a few articles.  I wrote several articles on this webpage (a Tickles review and a Hubpages ad program review review) as well a Webanswers review on Hubpages.  I also carried out a bit of backlinking.  One site where I did considerable backlinking is on the new website Excerptz.  It runs in a similar way to Infobarrel - articles can be written and these are checked before being posted to the site, which should hopefully result in less spam and substandard content resulting in higher Google rankings etc.  Money is made through Adsense revenue share and the percentage is 80% for the writer.  At present the site is just starting but it is growing.  It was set up by the Hubber Ryankett and I would recommend that you go and check it out.

Now on to the bit I am sure you want to hear, my monthly online earnings for March 2011.  Remember most of these earnings are once again residual.

Webanswers: £13.37 (46% decrease from February 2011)
Infobarrel: £1.44 (12.5% increase)
She Told Me: £0.01 (the same)
Xomba: £6.02 (147% increase)
Hubpages: £71.29 (5% decrease)
Total: £92.13 (11% decrease)

As can be seen, I once again had a decrease in total earnings, primarily driven by a large drop in Webanswers earnings and a slightly less extreme drop in Hubpages earnings.  I was expecting a drop from Webanswers and Hubpages, since traffic to these is down both individually and site wide (according to Alexa) linked to the Google algorithm changes.

As Hubpages is my major revenue source I thought I would review this, especially in light of the Google algorithm changes and the launch of the Hubpages ad program.  I was actually worried that the decrease in earnings would be much greater than this and so I am in a way quite happy with a 5% decrease in earnings.  At the moment (as far as I am aware) the Google changes have happened only on Google.com from the US and obviously US traffic is the major earner for Hubpages.  Despite March having more days than February, overall I saw a 11% decrease in views to Hubpages.  This was entirely driven by views from the US decreasing by approximately 50%.  At the same time, views from all the other major countries actually increased by between 5% and 20%.  This saw the share of traffic from the US dropping from over 35% to less than 15%.  As I have already suggested American traffic is some of the highest earning traffic, so considering I had a 50% drop in this traffic, resulting in a total drop in traffic of 11% and yet only saw a 5% decrease in earnings I am very happy.  I believe that the main reason for earnings holding up is the Hubpages ad program, which I believe at the moment is north America only.  In fact, despite American traffic dropping to account for less than 15%, the Hubpages ad program accounted for a similar percentage of earnings as Google Adsense, which is obviously still shown in America as well as the rest of the world.

As can be seen, I have had a drop in total earnings this month.  However, thanks to the Hubpages ad program it is a lot less worse than I was expecting and in fact I consider that the worst of the drop is over and in fact over the last week or so I am starting to see a recovery in traffic with a corresponding increase in earnings.  Hopefully this will continue  over the next month and so I hope to see my earnings for April 2011 to at least equal the earnings in March 2011.

12 comments:

  1. Best of luck in April! Definitely look into creating a niche site. You can monetize with ads as well as affiliate products to diversify your income streams.

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  2. Thanks for the earnings report. I had seen a drop in traffic in the neighborhood of 50% as well but the Ad Program made up the difference for me, too. I saw a little improvement in traffic this past week but pitiful numbers the last 24 hours. Just have to see how it all goes.

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  3. Hi Maria. I do intend on doing that some time - it is just a case of deciding what the niche site should be about and then figuring out how to set one up!

    Kidgas I am glad to hear the Hubpages ad program has been beneficial for you!

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  4. I'm also intending to start a niche site in April. I've had some success with them before and this time I think I've found a topic that I'm genuinely interested in, so producing content shouldn't be such a chore. With the recent changes to Google rankings, I think any site you start has to provide something which is either really interesting or really useful. The game has changed. 'Thin sites' will no longer cut it.

    I'll be tracking the progress of my niche blog on my site, Offbeat Income.

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  5. Hi James. That is good to hear about - do keep updating on how you get on. It is always good to hear how others are doing. How do you run your niche sites? As a wordpress blog or something else?

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  6. Although I've got a few really old Blogger blogs, my most recent sites have all been self-hosted Wordpress sites.

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  7. Thanks for commenting James. I definitely need to look at self hosting a Wordpress site.

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  8. Hi there. It looks like all us Newbie Small Fry suffered with regards to Hubpage earnings.

    However - onwards and upwards eh!!

    Any results with Excerpt.com yet? Am thinking of signing up.

    Good luck for April.

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  9. Hi Tiptopcat. As of yet I am yet to see any earnings from Excerptz.com. However, I have had some Adsense impressions and even some traffic to other sites through links on Excerptz.com. Whilst this has so far been small, I am yet to post many articles/pages and the site is still very new. I intend on writing a few more articles over the next week or so and then following it up with a report/review once I have sufficient data so keep checking back!

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  10. I think it's great that you have taken such a good look at your actual statistics for these programs - and also that it isn't nearly as bad as some have experienced (especially with hubpages). I do think you should seriously consider building your own sites as well - with Wordpress, it is nearly as easy as setting up a blogger blog or hub (or at least I think so), and you won't have to share any AdSense revenue either. Best wishes for April!

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  11. Hm - good to see you're thinking a niche site. I keep wondering why more don't do it - HubPages and company are great but not really for primary income. I have made most of my living on an 8-page, well-ranked and written niche site.

    It's not hard to manage (I actually just add more content now and then - I'm in the process right now)...um...I don't manage it. It just sells.

    If you're making anything with the web 2.0's, a niche site really is (or can be) life-changing. You set the rules (and thin sites aren't "out" as many think, they just need to be quality) - no more of the shenanigans about "Overly promotional hubs" or whatnot.

    I love HP, but really you get so much more money with your own site.

    That Ryankett...love that he's made another site! That guy's awesome, really - I have yet to find a Hub of his I don't enjoy thoroughly.

    Thanks for the tip about Excerptz.

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  12. Michelle and James it looks more and more like I will make a niche site, if not in April then in May! All I need to do is find something to write about!

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