Analyzing my HubPage traffic, or "how does your garden grow"?

Upon reflection it seems to me that publishing Internet articles at sites like HubPages is somewhat like tending a garden. A gardener tries to pick a good plot of land (pick a credible site like HubPages), plant good seeds (write good, evergreen content), fertilize (socialize and encourage back-links), water (promote your site and yourself), weed and hoe (adjust keywords, go back and freshen the content) and be patient while the plants (and articles) grow and mature.

So many writers are drawn to places like HubPages for a quick, easy dollar. The dollars are there, but probably not as many, or as fast or as easy as most new writers want.

I've been with HubPages for over four years now, and decided to analyze my HubPage stats and share the results and my conclusions. I used one source, my stats page, and while I will talk growth and revenue, I won't use specific numbers.

There are several ways to mine information about your HubPage traffic, like AdSense reports and Google Analytics. I have that data, but not from my beginning days as a HubPage writer. I decided to focus on one statistics chart that is available to every HubPage writer, automatically.

Go to your HubPage Profile page, and click on the "stats" button. This traces your writing activity and general traffic from day one. I'm sharing mine below, with dates, but without actual numbers.I've included graphics for the full four years and several interesting periods. Click on the image to enlarge for better viewing.

The lessons can be drawn from patterns and trends. My analysis shows that I'm a pretty lazy sod (not nearly as prolific as writing stars like Patty Inglish, MS or Marye Audet) and don't have off-the-chart numbers for traffic and revenue like a few talk about. But my chart does tell a story about HubPages and Internet article writing.

I'm going to break the chart into four sections and analyze:

• My first year.
• My 2 1/2 year hiatus.
• A curious spike in traffic.
• My results from January to August of 2010.

First lets look at the full four years. I see a steady growth in traffic, that is almost independent of the timing of the actual HubPage article writing and publishing. How can that be? One of my early hubs, continues to draw and makes some modest click money for me virtually everyday. Bless it's little heart! I give the credit for that steady run to HubPages, the dynamics of the Internet and some lucky word choices...

Conclusion - I attribute this steady growth of overall traffic for the long haul to two major causes:

1. I made a good choice in picking HubPages as an article writing platform. The growth of credibility and web authority of HubPages over time has pulled my articles along and helped them gain enduring traffic.
2. My articles have matured in the Internet search world all by themselves. Some of my earliest Hubs are still today my best performers. I'll take some small credit for content. But remember that these were my earliest efforts. I credit the dynamic of the search engine process for keeping my articles alive, and in fact supporting them over the long haul.

Imagine what might have happened if I'd been more ambitious!

The production of hubs was good, but not great. I established a portfolio that went to work and hasn't quit for four years. Some articles see very little traffic. A couple are among my best performers. In the early days I was obsessed with the HubPage number rating. Getting a Hub into the 90's was important to me, the higher the better.

There is nothing wrong with that, but over the long term it's relatively unimportant. For internal traffic from the HubPage community it is probably pretty important, but in the Google world, not so much. My old Hubs still have acceptable Hub rating numbers, but much less than the early days. No matter. Google is word and phrase driven. Your Internet traffic comes from the search value of your content, not from your Hub score.

The first year growth is small, but steady. HubPages was still relatively unknown, and undervalued in the search world.

Conclusion - The first year was a building year for me and for HubPages:

1. Don't be obsessed with Hub scores, numbers and accolades.
2. Be obsessed with content. You'll get your numbers and accolades just by hanging on and producing good articles and being visible in the community.
   

I took a "time out" from HubPages and Internet article writing starting in October 2007 and lasting into January 2010. I answered the occasional comment but didn't publish anything and stayed pretty much uninvolved. My Hubs were totally on their own. So, what happened during the two plus years?

Traffic to my original HubPages continued to grow, and the rising slope shows that the growth rate accelerated over time. How is that possible? I wasn't writing. I wasn't promoting. Yet every now and then I got another check from Google. Wait, I also get the odd credit from Amazon! Oh, and Squidoo dropped a little bread into my PayPal account. I cashed the checks, spent the credits and continued to ignore article writing and HubPages.

Ok, so I'm a little slow to catch on sometimes. Eventually I began to think about those checks. If I could get semi-regular checks from Google for doing nothing, could I get more if I actually put a litlle effort into it?

Conclusion - It's not that I was earning from not working, as I had sure worked to create those early articles. I was getting paid while not working:

1. There is the possibility of real, residual income from article writing.
2. HubPages continued to grow in authority, and pulled my articles along while I played hooky.
   

Around the end of April 2008, there was a huge spike in my traffic. What was that all about?

Seemed to me that either:

• HubPages got some major promotion effect and had a surge that brought me traffic. You know the saying, "a rising tide raises all boats".
• One of my HubPage articles got some great buzz and I had a personal surge in traffic.

I don't know! I'm hoping some of the hubbers that were around at the time will look at their stats for that period and let me know what they see. Please vote in the poll and leave us a comment.

So, I started looking at my Hubs more closely. I looked at HubPages, Hubbers and the kinds of Hubs being published today. HubPages itself is still a premier publishing platform, that keeps getting richer in features and more professional.

Reading hubs showed that it is still a case of the good, the bad, the pretty, and the ugly. Some very interesting, well constructed and useful Hubs are being written. There is also a lot of weak stuff, and some downright obnoxious articles that look like they were cobbled together by a computer program. Oh wait, that's one of the new article writing techniques!? Each day, a ton of articles are published and you'd think that the Internet would be swamped. Not so! The cream doesn't rise to the top exactly. Google and the other search engines continue to allow us to navigate and find the cream.

HubPages is home to a new cottage industry based on back-link and SEO strategies. In some cases the volume seems to go beyond helpful advice into repetitive and self serving promotion. A little hard for me to get a handle on. I like the idea of writing an article, and don't want to feel like I'm manufacturing it.

I was an early proponent of the forums concept, but am a little leery as I see some of the threads spiral out of control and some of the posts become downright nasty. But there is a lot of good advice and help available in the forums.

Since I came back in January of 2010, I've produced a few new articles. I haven't changed my writing style or article construction much. I am doing a little more promoting and participating in the community more. I'm paying more attention to keywords these days and see that resulting in earlier click production.

So what's the result? Looking at the first half of 2010, I see that putting in a little effort has kick started the traffic a little and increased the slope of traffic growth.

Conclusion - its still rewarding to write for HubPages. The financial rewards are modest but real. The psychic rewards are major.

Studying my HubPage stats in January of 2010 is partly what brought me back to article writing. That, and remembering the satisfaction I got from publishing a new article, reading an enthusiastic comment and participating in a writing community made me want to write articles like this again. What lessons did I learn from my stats?

• There truly is residual income to be made from article writing.
• Content is king. Write interesting articles about interesting topics and put them out on the Internet and you have potential readership well out into the future.
• Promotion is helpful, maybe even valuable, but not the only path to readers. Remember that my readership increased without my help while I took a two year nap.
• Where you write is important. I was lucky to find HubPages during their beta testing phase, and glad I stayed during those early days while they figured out how to run a publishing site. HubPages growth in web presence and Google value is obvious. Look at my steady traffic growth over four years. HubPages authority allows the author's voice to have a chance to be heard. The rest is up to you.
  

The gardening metaphor still fits the article publishing process. Think in terms of planting articles and caring for them so that you can have rewards in the future. Your HubPage article is like a sturdy plant that bears fruit - slowly, one fruit at a time, not every day, but steadily and for years.

One of the topics that has interested me since my returning is HubPages and article writing. I've spent a fair amount of time reviewing my own hubs, other hubbers hubs, and the HubPage engine and process. That has resulted in a few articles that you might find worth reading...

I decided that HubPages was like a small town called Hub-Ville. My take on article promotion has always been a little different. I became much more conscious about commenting and realized that there is hidden value in how you comment on HubPages and other blogs and sites. The engineer hidden inside me grooved on a way to backup your HubPage. As I reflected on the article writing and publishing process, I realized that publishing was not the end of your article writing opportunity.

HubPages has a huge library of helpful articles on traffic, writing, income, etc.See the HubPages Tutorials for tips on improving traffic. Also look for some good articles for an overview of HubPages, Check out HubPage the community.