An Overview of Making Money on HubPages

The Big Picture

Since HubPages launched in 2006, we have developed a time-tested way to help writers make money from their hobbies. We want to help you turn the thing you love to do (writing and sharing your knowledge) into something that can earn you a little money on the side while having fun and making friends along the way.

Please keep in mind that HubPages is, first and foremost, a community for people who love to write, share information, and help others. Making a bit of extra money is a nice bonus, but it should not be your primary motivation. In other words, writing on HubPages works best as an enjoyable hobby and should not be mistaken for an alternative to employment or an income source that will fully support you.

Calibrating Expectations

We'd never want to mislead new writers; that's not who we are. HubPages is not a place to get rich quick! You are not likely to see significant earnings from your articles for up to two years (and that's two years spent writing high-quality articles on HubPages). When you do begin to see regular payouts, they are likely to be in a range of $50 to $100 a month.

Authors who earn hundreds or thousands of dollars per month are very rare and have put superhuman amounts of work into their online portfolios. For most, HubPages can be a fun side income.

In short, if you came to HubPages to make tons of money very quickly, we're afraid you've come to the wrong place. But if you love to write, are passionate about your hobbies and interests, and consider helping others to be very rewarding, HubPages is absolutely the place for you!

We'll Be Frank ...

HubPages is not:

• a place to get rich quick.
• a place where you will earn money without putting in much effort.

HubPages is:

• a place to write articles and share information on your interests and hobbies.
• a place where, over time, you can earn a passive income by sharing your knowledge and expertise.

How It Works

• You publish articles that offer useful or interesting information to readers on subjects you care about.
• You sign up with our monetization program.
• People read your articles and occasionally click on ads.
• You earn a share of the revenue generated by those ads (and HubPages earns some to keep the site running).
• Your earnings accrue until you reach HubPages' and our affiliate programs' payout thresholds.
• You receive your earnings via PayPal.

An 8-Step Overview

1. A new writer joins HubPages.
2. Our writer joins ad programs of her choice, such as the Ad Program and the Amazon Program. Joining these programs is what allows our writer to generate earnings.
3. Now it's time for her to do what she loves: write! You can write about almost anything you want on HubPages as long as it's written in English and isn't offensive or spammy (please read what is allowed for further clarification). A writer who knows a lot about surfing might write about surfing. Parents or professionals may share their best parenting or workplace advice. You're probably already an expert at more things than you realize! Of course, a little bit of research is always a good idea, too.
4. Once our writer chooses a topic and researches it, she then writes an article and fills it with interesting and helpful content, including text, links, images, videos, and other media where appropriate. Our writing interface, the HubTool, makes creating articles easy.
5. Publishing is the next step after writing an article. If the article passes the Quality Assessment Process and becomes Featured, it will also be made available to search engines.
6. Next, readers see the ads and products that are placed on published articles, and the writer can earn money from these ads.
7. As the article gets more readers over time, it will continue to earn money for its writer. The more visitors an article gets, the more money that writer stands to earn from ads.
8. Our writer then publishes more articles (and occasionally updates her older articles to make sure they stay current and correct) and continues to make money as they are read.

Writing lots of articles is the key to making money on HubPages. Remember, the most successful pieces are well written, informative, and useful to readers.