HubPages, a content publishing website, which shares revenue with the publishers, has been around for a while now.
While once dominated by the likes of Squidoo, today it virtually has no significant competitor – all the other publishing and revenue-sharing sites met a slow demise thanks to Google’s change in search engine algorithms.

Hubpages, in spite of its fair share of troubles, did manage to stay afloat. Offering easy article publishing (called hubs) for its users, bloggers often use HubPages to generate passive income.

The question is, does it work?

Can you make easy money writing hubs? Why some people love it and other spew poison on hearing its name?

Let’s establish what HubPages can and cannot do.

About the Hubpages Community

HubPages is a really big community with over 38,000 users and more than half a million hubs published till date. It is highly moderated platform where you can write about almost anything be it travels, food, religion, art and fashion.

The published hubs can be shared on social media sites or wherever you want. The writer has the sole right to his writings and they can use it wherever they want and however they like. The published hubs earn revenue from HubPages ad network for views and clicks.

You can also enlist your hubs in Google AdSense, Amazon and eBay’s affiliate programs to earn some extra money. HubPages promote community network and you can follow fellow hubbers. The readers can comment on the hubs and let you know what they think of your write-up.

The Advantages

It will be wise to review HubPages not only on its own merits and demerits but also comparatively with other online platforms. The major advantages of choosing HubPages above others are:

– HubPages is easy to use and you get free templates to organise & format your work as you like. You can also put photos, videos, links, etc. in your hubs. Hubs look aesthetically pleasing, so you need not worry about presentation and rather focus on the content itself.

– HubPages has been on the net for a long time and features a large number of cross-linked pages. This gives HubPages an intrinsic advantage in search engine rankings. As compared to a new blogging site, you will always rank above in the searches.

– HubPages has an encouraging and supportive community, which helps you to make your writings better and more reader-friendly. You can expect a greater exposure to good writing and SEO skills here.

The Disadvantages

Now, let’s see where does HubPages lack.

– HubPages has been famously mocked for its moderation. You have to stick to strict rules regarding quality of the work. You cannot self-promote yourself. And often, the automatic parameters cannot distingusih between what’s good and not so great content, relying on mechanical algorithms to make a distinction.

– HubPages don’t pay much. You can get a lot more money for the same amount of views and click if you write on a blogging platform instead of HubPages. It is a ‘revenue-sharing’ platform and you are not entitled to gain all the earnings.

So how much can you earn with HubPages?

It depends on your writings. HubPages is not very different from online blogging websites. The revenue generated depends on the quality and quantity of your work.

HubPages proudly features hubbers earning as high as $300 and $400 per month and they are not concocting stories. There are hubbers who have amassed thousands of dollars but none of them did it overnight.

How to make more money writing on HubPages?

As mentioned earlier, the quality of content determines how many views it will get and consequently the amount of money you will make.

For greater views and high rankings in searches, use the right number of right keywords. SEO techniques like sentence consistency, in-depth topic coverage and deploying SEO tools can help garner significantly greater views.

Sharing your article on social networking sites and relevant communities and forum can help reach more people or even make your hub go viral on the net. The quantity of the work is also an important aspect in case of HubPages.

If you have many hubs published, you have assured a steady supply of daily views. The choice of topic is also important because you would not want to write on a topic nobody cares about. Keep a watch on the latest trends and you have got yourself high-paying hubs.

Should You Go For It?

The greatest squabble I have about it is the non existent support – you virtually have no one to turn to if something goes wrong. And believe me, it will sooner than later. Your hubs will be taken down without a reason, and you won’t be even able to reach out to anyone to ask why.

HubPages is nothing more or less than what it promises to be, a revenue-sharing online publishing platform. It is not a scam; it is not a fraud. But it is not a genie either, which will make your vast amount of money in very short time.

If you write for the joy of it, HubPages is a great place to publish and enjoy little earnings as well. If you want to write for making money, HubPages is a great place again, but you have to be wise and patient enough to leverage its true potential.