Why You Will Never Make Money on HubPages

I’ve got my red velvety slip-ons up on the table, staring at the clear blue waters ahead. I’m in my very own little beach bungalow on a beautiful private tropical island just south of Maldives. Next to me is the most expensive bottle of wine as I sip away carefree knowing that these expenses will quickly be recovered. The caviar has never tasted better.

How did I get here? From my online writing of course. I’m getting millions of hits daily. My paypal is being credited even as I type.

The only sad part is: it’s happening in another dimension.

If writing for hub pages could make you a millionaire in this dimension, this is exactly where I’d be. As for now I’m crouched over my desk in my crabby crammed apartment writing this hub as a cautionary tale for all those who dream big but don’t work hard enough to make it happen. Wake up and smell the tuna that you will be eating alone over the sink with those stale crackers.

So from the trenches, here is a list of reasons why you will never make any money on HubPages:

Reason 1. You are actually on HubPages to make money. You think HubPages is a get rich quick scheme. You spend most of your time reading hubs titled “How to make money with HubPages” or “Free Online Money Making Tips.” They seem to pop up every second on your timeline. Yes, you know those hubs, the ones with those library images of wads of cash (see example), like bate for a hungry fish. In that case, who’s writing your hubs? Every time you read this junk, you are throwing your hard earned pennies into that writer’s jar. So stop biting and start writing.

Reason 2. You spend all day checking your earnings instead of writing more hubs. This gives you a false satisfaction that you are actually doing something productive. It’s like an addiction. You can’t wait for that time of the day when the earnings are updated and you go into a funk if they are delayed. How can you write a hub when you keep obsessing about how many pennies you made yesterday?

Reason 3 You spend all day complaining and cribbing about HubPages on the forums section about the new layout or the latest panda or penguin update instead of writing more hubs. Aha! The support group that feed your sense of being short-changed of the millions you are suppose to make on HubPages. Trust me, they are like a drug that will suck you down the dark alley of unproductively. Stop complaining, start writing.

Reason 4. You think SEO will make you millions. You spend most of your time trying to trick Google instead of writing more hubs. You try to get your way around 'panda' or 'penguin.' And on the odd occasion you do write a hub, it’s not based on your passion or expertise. Instead, you come up with a topic that according to Google keywords is highly searched and has low competition.

Reason 5. You think asking and answering questions on HubPages will make you rich. Let’s face it. Even if your question ranks high on Google search, writing questions is not a substitute for writing hubs. If you want to make money on HubPages: write high quality hubs.

Reason 6. You don’t pay any attention to your grammar and spellings. You spell ‘going there’ as ‘going their’ and ‘their hub’ as ‘there hub.’ (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, take a grammar class and then sign up with HubPages with another username).

Reason 7. You don’t read or comment on other writers’ hubs. Let’s not live in a hubble bubble (i.e. a bubble in the world of HubPages). There’s a reason why it’s called a hub community. Read other high quality hubs. Support other writers of high quality hubs. This will help you write high quality hubs and this will encourage others to read your work.

Reason 8. Your hubs look like a big blob of text. Pictures? What pictures? A company’s annual review would look more lively. With attention spans shrinking you can’t expect to keep eyeballs glued to words. Make your hubs aesthetically pleasing with high quality pictures or appropriate videos, links and opinion polls.

Reason 9. You think you will attract readers if your profile picture is that of a celebrity. Oh ya? Because readers believe that Brad Pitt or Michel Obama are active members of HubPages? This is one form of attention grabbing trickery that won’t work.

Reason 10. You think social media will make you rich. Like everything else, social media makes you want to believe. Believe that you can make a change. Why go out there and volunteer when you can simply sign a petition on facebook? Unfortunately, even this type of thinking is very early 2000s! People don’t read junk on social media and they filter it out. So if you want your writing read, spend more time on writing high quality hubs and less on putting a link on each and every social media sight you can lay your hands on. Cuz if it ain’t good, no one’s gonna read it.

Reason 11. You think back links will save the day. There is this misconception that if your hubs have about a million back links it will get more views, improve search ranking, and make you more money. Even if this is true, the worst thing you can do is focus on getting back links to your sub standard hubs. You don’t want to be like the girl in high school who tried too hard to be cool. Readers usually see through this. The irony is, if you write high quality hubs, readers will post links to your hub and you will get millions of back links without wasting time creating them yourself.

Reason 12. You think sleaze sells. What sells is entertainment and information people are searching for. Sleaze for the sake of sleaze is a movement that, well hasn’t quite picked up yet. Yes, I’m talking to you, you know who you are, with your hub score of 10, no profile pic, and hubs titles: ‘Sexy Girls from South India.’ You are on the wrong site dude.

So, as you may already have guessed by now, if you want to make money on HubPages, there is only one thing you need to do: Spend most of your time writing more quality hubs.

And yes, don’t stop believing. Who knows, you might be able to afford your own private island resort very soon, in this very dimension.