In a previous post I mentioned that I had started using Hubpages as a way to earn a little more money on the web. I was especially interested in how hubpages would work as opposed to my own blog.

Well I am happy to say that after 6 months I am very pleased with the results I am getting from HubPages. It has been a great way to try out different niches without making a commitment to a full blog. I have had some surprises. Hubs that I thought would do very well have not, and others have done great.

What really surprises me is that my hubs are quickly getting decent page ranks. I have PR2 and PR3 hubs after just a few months. Not only are the pages getting good PR’s they are ranking well in the search engines.

The biggest surprise, one of my hubs has beat all of my blogs in Google Adsense earnings. Just one page has become a regular and consistent earner with a good click through rate and nice earnings per click.

Despite my success on Hubpages I am not giving up blogging. But I do like the way I can just write a hub on any topic and then just let it go and see how it does.

Mostly I like to look at work from home jobs where you can earn enough to make at least a basic living. But is always nice to have a way to earn some extra cash. And when that way costs nothing to start, and has the potential to pay a decent amount, I think it is worth a look.

I signed up for Hubpages about 3 months ago, and didn’t do anything. Then about 2 weeks ago I went back to the site and wrote my first Hub. At Hubpages, a hub is basically a webpage. Just one page where you can write about any topic you like. The Hubpages interface is easy to use, and depending on your writing speed you can have a hub published in not more than the time it took you to write it.

You earn money on Hubpages through one or more of the affiliate systems they have in place. All Hubs have Adsense placed on them. You can also choose to participate in the Amazon, eBay, and Kontera affiliate programs. You make money when a visitor to your Hub clicks on an ad. You get 60% of the impressions, Hubpages gets 40%.

Why Hubpages is Better Than a Blog

I love my blogs, and I continue to write for them, but on a blog, it is best if you stick to one subject. That way Google knows which ads are relevant to your site. On Hubpages, I can write a hub about American Idol one day and a hub about credit card debt the next. Each page stands alone and Google will show relevant ads on the page.

Hubpages also gets Google traffic quicker. I wrote my first hub on getting out of debt, and I had Google search traffic on it the very next day. For making money search traffic is great! I also had my first adsense click the first day the hub was published. I have never had a blog start making me money the very first day it was published.

I also like Hubpages because I can make money by sending people to other hubs. When I link to another hub, I get 10% of the impressions that I send the Hub. This is taken from the hubpages side, so the author of the hub doesn’t lose anything.

Why a Blog is Better Than Hubpages

I like my blogs better than Hubpages because I have more control. I get to decide the look and the layout. I also get to keep 100% of the revenue I generate. I don’t need to share it with anyone. It might change after I have been with Hubpages longer, but right now I don’t really feel like the Hubs are mine. Even though I retain all the rights to my hubs, they don’t feel like they belong to me the same way my blogs do.

Why Hubpages and Blogs Are Great Together

I really like having both Hubpages and blogs. I can use Hubpages to send traffic to my blogs, and conversely, I can use my blogs to send traffic to my hubpages. (Like I am doing here) My very first Hub that made me money the very first day it was published, well it also sent traffic to another one of my blogs, and that made money too!

Will You Get Rich With Hubpages?

I suppose it is possible, if you wrote a lot of very popular hubs. However, no one has gotten rich yet. But you can make a little extra money each month. Many hubbers are making over $100 per month and I think a few are making $400-$500 per month. I haven’ made that much…yet. One of the best parts about Hubpage income is it can be very passive income. A well written hub can bring you income long after you have written it. You might need to tweak it now and then, to keep it current, but as long as your hub is published and getting traffic, you should be earning money.

I have really been enjoying writing for HubPages. I have made a small amount of money, and the community is fun. Sign up for Hubpages and start writing. Let me know and I’ll become your fan and help you to promote your hubs!

Happy Writing!

A virtual assistant is a relatively new career. Without the aid of technology, working as a virtual assistant would not be possible. As a virtual assistant you work from your own home providing administrative, clerical and other support services as needed to busy executives and business owners who need to focus on their business, and not on their clerical tasks.

A virtual assistant(VA) will save a business money. Because the VA works from their own, fully equipped home office, the client does not need to pay for office space and equipment. And because a VA is only paid for the hours they actually work, the client does not need to pay a full time employee when what they need is just a few hours per week.

There are two types of virtual assistants. The generalist performs general office and clerical support. A specialist will focus on a certain field or area of expertise, such as bookkeeping, real estate, legal, or web development.

Virtual Assistants perform a variety of tasks such as:
* Handle email and postal mail
* Making appointments and scheduling
* Fax/receive faxes
* Research of all sorts
* Plan meetings and events
* Plan parties (business and personal), weddings, reunions
* Make travel arrangements — business and personal
* Handle reservations for seminars given by clients
* Writing
* Proof reading
* Copy editing
* Desktop publishing
* Newsletter publishing (print and internet)
* Coordination of web design/hosting
* Mailings
* Buy gifts/cards for customers of clients
* List managing (majordomo, listserv)
* Reminder service
* Transcription and Dictation
* Bill paying
* Bookkeeping — business and personal
* Manage vendor relations
* Create/maintain databases

To work as a virtual assistant you will need a fully equipped home office, including a high speed internet connection, an up to date computer, and the latest office programs. You should be proficient in Microsoft Office, and be comfortable using instant messaging.

Be careful when looking for work as a virtual assistant. There are many scams out there that will charge you a fee, and then give you a list of jobs that you could find on your own. Remember, you never should have to pay to get a job.

One site that does offer virtual assistant jobs is

This is the first in a series on how you can work from home blogging. There are many different ways to make money with your blog, and I will try to explore them all here! But, before you can start making money with blogging, you need to have a blog! So how do you start a blog?

1.Pick a topic or theme for your blog. Would you like to join the masses that blog about making money online? Or would you prefer to be one of the relatively few that blog about ancient Russian literature? Or maybe something in between! Whatever it is, make sure that it is a topic that you enjoy and that interests you. You will be spending a lot of time with it!

2. Select Hosting for Your Blog. You may be tempted to save money and go with free hosting from sites such as wordpress.com , or blogger.com. But don’t do it! You will soon find that free hosting sites may put limitations on your blog. Plus many paid posting sites do not accept blogs from free hosting sites.

Your own domain and hosting hosting aren’t really all that expensive. With a company like Hostgator you can get hosting for as little as $4.95 per month. Use the coupon code “green” and get another 20% off.

3. Select your domain name. For me, this is really the hardest part. Your domain name will set the tone for your whole blog. There is a lot of debate as to what makes the best domain name. Dot coms are the favorite, but getting a “good” name will be difficult.

If you want to get a domain really cheap, I suggest you go to the digital point forums. You can buy domains there on the aftermarket for as little as $1. You may not get the exact domain you want, but the price will be right!

If you would prefer a brand new domain, then I would suggest that you take advantage of the Go Daddy $6.95 .com Sale. I have all of my domains at GoDaddy and I love their customer service! They have plenty of online tutorials and if you need more help, support is just a quick phone call or email away. You can also buy hosting from GoDaddy and have your domains and hosting all in one place. Some people like it that way. Some people say it is best to have them separate. I like the convenience of having my domains and hosting all in one place.

4. Point your nameservers. If you buy your domain and hosting together than this may already be done for you. If not, all you are doing is telling your domain registrar where your blog is hosted. Your hosting company will tell you what to enter for your nameservers.

5. Install WordPress. There are other blogging platforms out there but I really like WordPress. I might even be considered a WordPress fanatic. Wordpress is easy to use, it is versatile, and because it is so popular, there are literally thousands of free plugins and themes you can use to customize your blog.

6. Start writing! You are going to need at least 10 posts before you can start marketing your blog. Make it a habit to write a post a day and in less than 2 weeks you will be ready for the next step, paid posting. I’ll cover that in the next part of this series on Working From Home Blogging. To make sure you don’t miss a post be sure to subscribe to the feed.

If you find all of this a little intimidating, and would like help in setting up your WordPress blog, then I have a deal for you. Just sign up for a hosting account at either Hostgator or Go Daddy using the links in this post. Then send me an email at maukat@gmail.com and I will get you all set up for FREE! Plus I”ll give you some consulting time via email or Google messenger and show you all the cool things you can do with your new WordPress Blog.

To get your free setup and consulting you must use my affiliate links when purchasing your hosting. It won’t cost you any more than if you went to the site directly. If you have any question feel free to send an email.

Well, as you can probably tell, I am no longer on Blogger. It just goes to show that where there is a will, there is a way. If you are interested, I am posting my How To Switch from Blogger to Wordpress post over on Ninja Success. (It really doesn’t fit with the them of this blog!) Lots of thanks go to John at RareVictorian.com. He is the one the had the “secret” to making it all work.

To my readers who come to my blog for my musings on the Telecommuting lifestyle, please bear with me a moment as I take a momentary diversion. I promise the next post to be back on topic.

As a means to drive new visitors to this site, I’ve added the Entrecard widget to the right column of this page. This service was created expressly for bloggers to network with one another and drive traffic to their sites. Compared to other services with a similar aim, Entrecard has shown some promise and I have seen a dramatic increase in traffic for this blog which was launched only two months ago.

I won’t go into the basics of the Entrecard model, which you can learn more about here. What I wanted to talk about for a moment is the quality of the traffic I receive from the service. Traffic for traffic’s sake should not be the goal of any website owner. You want people to find your site and make use of your content. If you are trying to make some revenue from your site, you also want them to find and click on an ad or affiliate link.

The best indicator for site visitors making use of your content is the Average Time on Site statistic (I will abbreviate it as ATS). This statistic is available via Google Analytics and can be displayed per traffic source. Here is my direct traffic (bookmarked or type-in) ATS number:

Notice that for this traffic source, the ATS is 5:28 while the site average (all traffic sources combined) is dramatically lower at 1:36. The reason for the disparity is due to the highest traffic source for my new blog – currently Entrecard. You can isolate the ATS for a particular traffic source by clicking on Traffic Sources in Analytics on the left and then by clicking on Referring Sites. After isolating the referral traffic driven from Entrecard (entrecard.s3.amazonaws.com and entrecard.com), I can see that the ATS is zero:

I’d rather it be something closer to my direct traffic ATS figures.

A lot of this phenomenon is due to the fact that at least half of the traffic comes from other Entrecard users – other site owners trying to drop their card and gain credits. What I think is happening is what I will call “Chain-dropping” and this is what leads to a zero ATS:

1. Click through to my site from my Entrecard ads or from the Entrecard site
2. Find my Entrecard widget on the page
3. Drop the card
4. Click on the ad 2mm above the drop area and move on to the next site for another card drop

Once you get a rhythm, the above process takes less than a second to perform. Since site owners buy ads (campaign) with credits gained partially from dropping cards, it is a very fast way to collect credits. Since site owners want to purchase ads on the highest profile or highest-traffic sites, it can cost a lot of credits so they need to click on a lot of ads to collect them.

I must say that I have only put the Google Analytics tracking script into the blog a few days ago so my sample size is admittedly small, but I’m confident that the trend will probably continue until something material is changed with the Entrecard model. A suggestion I would have for Entrecard would be for them to delay the clickability of the ad for several seconds after a card drop. This would force Entrecard visitors to do something while they wait – read your content. However, I think it would result in an implosion in traffic, available credits and ad costs so they probably won’t do it. I think Entrecard users are mesmerized by their newfound traffic and would lose interest if the traffic dropped substantially, regardless of the quality of that traffic.

That all being said, I am certain that I have received new regular readers via Entrecard as I have seen some comments left on my posts from other bloggers using the service. I’m keeping an open mind on Entrecard and will keep the widget on my site and bask in the newfound traffic, even if the traffic comes with an * asterisk. I welcome other thoughts on my analysis and your thoughts on Entrecard.