HubPages

HubPages to Self Hosting

Hubpages to Self-Hosting is more of a step than a leap.

HubPages is something I tried as an experiment to see whether it was possible to earn an honest living online.  I’ll have to come back to you with the facts and figures, partly because the topics I chose were personal interest rather than based on any great marketing plan – It was more as an experiment to see if it was really possible to make money online.

Why Join HubPages?

  • It’s free
  • Great for new bloggers to get an online presence
  • It pays pennies but it does pay. If you post you will earn
  • Automatically qualifies bloggers for Adsense and Amazon through HubAds

HubPages – Huffs and Happiness

Royalties made from Adsense and Amazon are split with Hubpages, so you don’t get the full payout that you would if you joined directly. The trade-off you get is that HubPages do promote articles that rate well, and joining these programs is a lot easier through them than doing it alone with a new blog.

Hubpages is handy for networking with other writers. Blogging can be a lonely activity.

Donna on HubPages

My profile on HubPages isn’t creative, but it is real.  It reflects my interests as

  • Kristofferson’s Final Concert – Kris’ final concert before retiring is wrongly given online
  • Kris Kristofferson
  • Ango-Indians shows my interest in the evils of hasty and badly executed decolonisation. Colonisation might be wrong but it was before my time. Decolonisation is on my generation.
  • Wartime continues the decolonisation theme. Brexit brought these issues back into the limelight. I hope we have learned something.
  • Mouse in the House comes from THAT place of fear – The unseen, gnawing kind.
  • Death is as universal as the dilemmas it triggers
  • Bones I love my dog

Websites need big topics or themes to keep them alive. Hub spaces are handy for topical or once-off articles and posts about things you want to talk about now but maybe not forever.

HubPages to Self-Hosting Results 

I will probably add more HubPages when time allows. I spend more time working on my hosted websites now. I moved to self-hosting because

  • Cost – It was a lot cheaper than I thought. Mine costs just over 5GBP per month and covers multiple websites
  • Freedom – I can write whatever I like, and post without worrying about guidelines (laws must be obeyed, of course)
  • Security – I won’t lose my work if the platform closes down or breaks

Writing for HubPages gave me the chance to publish online. It was easy to sign up, the software is easy to use once you get the hang of it, and it’s quite similar to using WordPress so it’s useful training. It’s great for giving blogging a go without committing the time and money that managing a website costs.

Self-Hosting

Self-hosting is time-consuming and it does cost money. My blogging costs me more than I earn from it, partly because I write about things that matter to rather than sticking to any structured monetising plan.

Costs of self-hosted websites come from things like

  • Domain Names (for the website name)
  • Hosting fees (for the servers where the sites live)
  • Software (It’s not all free)
  • Training or courses
  • Technical support with devices or programs

Blogging costs involve interviews, travel, telephone calls, accommodation, getting advice and lots of loss of income –  Basically time that could be spent earning money.

My Hosting  Provider 

My first provider never worked out well. I took a year contract at a fair price but felt stung when the company took a large fee at the end of that year for the next cycle. This was my fault for not scrutinising the terms and conditions. I did feel that the provider ought to have made their offer and pricing a lot clearer, and I looked around for another one.

I now use TSO and have done for years. I trust them because I know what I am paying, pay monthly with no long term commitments and they avoid deep discounts and huge price hikes. They have many products, I use Cloud Hosting before it covers all I need at a great price.

Cloud Hosting

Their support is nifty, they upgrade sites to SSL free of charge through an Opensource service and they have never let me down.

If you are still blogging on other platforms and want to try self-hosting, they allow me to offer a 10% discount code Blog4Less

My site gets a small ref fee at no cost to anyone who joins with my discount code. I wouldn’t recommend them if I wasn’t using them myself. The ref fee is small, but every bit helps.

If you or anyone you know joins them and uses this discount, please drop me a line? I’d really like to check how long their affiliate program takes to process.