How Hubpages and Google Revenue Sharing Works

Hubpages and Google are completely separate companies that, when used together, can provide you with a regular and passive income - want to know how that works?

Hubpages is a private company, who designed a website that makes it easy for writers to create articles, deliver information, share recipes, give advice and write about almost any subject they are knowledgeable about, or interested in.

Google is a company who enable companies worldwide to advertise to people who are seeking specific products.

The Hubpages website is designed in such a way that a writer simply has to write an article - and there are "Ad Slots", advertising spaces, dotted across the page, into which it allows Google to place relevant adverts.

How Google works out which advert is appropriate is obviously complex - Google will be monitoring the page content, how many previous readers of the page were interested in the adverts Google placed in those slots and how much each slot is "worth".

As website visitors arrive at the writer's page, if they are interested in one of the products advertised and click on the Google adverts, a share of that income that Google gets from its advertisers is passed to the writer/Hubpages.

Revenue Share Site

Hubpages then shares a fixed proportion of that income with the writers of the page - and that is why Hubpages is a revenue share site. They are sharing the income obtained from Google with the writers. This is achieved by the way Hubpages' programming works, with the writer's Adsense Publisher ID showing 60% of the time and Hubpages' ID showing the remaining 40% of the time. Hubpages have 10% of their 40% available to further share through the referral program, which isn't discussed in this article, but exists.

Anybody can become a writer, you don't need a Google Adsense account - however, you do need to obtain an Adsense account in order to get paid. Hubpages enables you to do this, once you have written a few articles, or, if you already have an account, you can simply put your Publisher ID number into a box in the Earnings section of your "My Account" area and it's then instant.

As a writer for Hubpages, you are not employed. You are self-employed, or an independent contractor.

As self-employed and independent it is up to you what you write. However, Hubpages has some basic, simple and easily understood rules that limit some subjects. e.g. you cannot write any hate articles, or promote pornograpjhy.

These rules are in place to ensure that Google does not cancel the Hubpages account and refuse to serve adverts on the writers' pages. The rules are there to ensure a high quality website, that will be highly regarded as a good source for information online.

There might be times when you get a "warning" and are told you need to fix something, change what you wrote, remove some links. Ultimately, if you break the rules your hub is "unpublished" - at this stage, only you can see it, but you still have the freedom to go in and make changes, alter the content and republish it.

This might happen to "hubs" that you've written some time ago, that subsequently break a new rule. An example of this would be that a few years ago it was OK to promote Clickbank products through Hubpages - since late 2011 Clickbank affiliate links have been disallowed, so hubs containing links to Clickbank were unpublished. In this case it was a simple case of removing the links and the article was republished again.

If you are part of the standard Google/Hubpages revenue sharing model, you are paid directly by Google, into your Google Adsense account. You can see the income rising daily by logging onto your Adsense account. You can also track your progress in Google Analytics if you wish.

To obtain a Google Adsense account, you will have to have proven to Google that you are who you say you are. This can take various forms, but when I applied and was accepted they sent a letter to my home address, containing a code. I then had to provide Google with a telephone number and they phoned me and I had to give the code.

Google Adsense pays you monthly, once you've reached their minimum payment threshold, directly into your bank.

If you participate in the Hubpages Advertising Programme, this is similar to the Google Adsense system, but you are paid directly by Hubpages, via Paypal, once you have reached $50.

I have always been paid numerous occasions directly by Hubpages, without any issues whatsoever.

None of this costs you anything. You are the one being paid.

Amazon.com:

If you use the Amazon modules in your hubs, then any resulting sales show up in your Amazon.com account. Note: you must obtain an Amazon.com account, if you have another Amazon account for a different region/country, then you can't use your ID from that. Amazon.com pay you directly, through a variety of payment methods which you can choose. Personally, I am in the UK, so choose to be paid by Gift Voucher - once I receive these (by email), I simply log into my Amazon.com Associates account and can "add" the value of the Gift Voucher to my account; these Gift Vouchers do not expire, so I am saving up for a big order!

eBay - now retired:

Originally, you could use eBay modules in your writing. To use the eBay modules you just had to input your eBay Partner Network ID in the Earnings section of your "My Account" page.

Retired: This sytem was retired in late 2016 as it wasn't performing well and the decision was taken to remove eBay as a revenue stream in order to increase income from Google as it was felt this would produce higher quality writing.

Whether you are a published writer, a graduate looking for an income, a casual writer, or somebody who wants to write for a hobby or living, Hubpages helps you to improve your work.

You'll learn how to create better titles, how to structure your writing, which images to use (where to get images from), what makes money and what doesn't. Based on a variety of measurements, each of your hubs gets a score (based on length, quality, traffic) - and you, as an Author, get a score. It's rare that somebody has an Author Score of 100 -AND- an article score of 100 at the same time, but it is possible (I've seen it on one of mine once) .... but you learn that, while these things are motivational and provide a feel-good factor, they don't stop you earning money.

It's easy to sign up for Hubpages and start earning money from your writing, sharing recipes, passing on knowledge.

Once you've joined, write your first article. This will show you how it works - although you'll still have a lot to learn from the community about how to maximise your income and lay out your articles better.

After that, if you already have an Adsense, Amazon, or eBay account, enter your ID numbers. If you have none of these, concentrate on your writing and write a few good pieces of work, getting help/support from the community. You can then use these to apply for the accounts you need.

Everything you need is provided within the Hubpages Admin Suite and among the friendly faces in the Hubpages community.

Personally, I have earnt a reliable, good, steady income from Hubpages. I've weathered its storms as things evolved, changed and improved - and I am here for the long haul because Hubpages is dedicated to providing the Internet with a high quality source of information.

Good luck!

Although sometimes in life things change, at the time of writing (and for some years now), the following are the figures that make Google and Hubpages work:

• Google pays 70% of its income out to website owners
• Hubpages pays writers 60% of the income from their articles (60% of the time YOUR ID is used, 40% of the time Hubpages' ID is used).

This means that if an advertiser spends $1000 on placing adverts with Google and if Google placed all those adverts with Hubpages, Hubpages would be paid $700. The Hubpages split would mean that Hubpages keep $420 and the writer/s get $280.

I have had 3,000,000 visitors to my hubs since I started.... so I've had a share of the income from each of those and can assure you the system works. It works, it pays.