Using Hubpages and Adsense to make extra income-my experience

Ok-I start back to work on Monday August 23, 2010 so I wanted to update you on my summer journey. Did I meet my goal? Did I fall short? Drumrole Please..........................................

As of today August 21, 2010 I have earned a total of $96.14 from Adsense, $745 from writing on a website I learned about on Hubpages, $25 from a social bookmarking site I learned about from Hubpages, $7.48 from Amazon, and $18.00 from a survey site I learned about from Hubpages for a grand total of........................$891.62!!!!!!

I originally wanted to meet my goal by the time I returned to work-but it looks like it is going to take me until the end of the month to get there. It hasn't been easy-I have been working on the computer daily, but honestly I had the time to do it so it really wasn't a problem. Now that I am back to work I am not going to be able to spend as much time online, but I will be able to use the time more effectively. I had a lot of fun; learned a lot and my advice to other's who want to earn money online is:

• Set an obtainable goal
• Use your time online efficiently
• Learn as much as you can from other's who have done what you are trying to do
• Work, Work, Work, Work

Thanks to everyone who has followed my journey, emailed me and left positive comments.

I've been on hubpages since December of 2009. When I started posting hubs here my intent was to make a little extra money. As an absolute newbie, not knowing anything about hubpages, adsense, seo's, social bookmarking, backlinks, etc I had some very unreal expectations about the amount of money I would make and the time it would take to earn it. I figured that I could easily post hubs and rake in the cash. Boy was I wrong. I had no idea how complicated the process of publishing hubs, driving traffic to my hubs, and earning revenue would be. It's six months later and I currently have $33.33 in my adsense account. Not that I am complaining-it's a start, but it's not where I intended to be when I began my internet income journey all those months ago.

I plan to use my time this summer to improve my existing hubs, write quality new hubs, drive traffic to those hubs, and make $1000 by the time I start back to work in August. I plan to use only the information that I have gained from other hubbers to accomplish my goal, and I am going to post the results of my adventure right here on hubpages so that others can learn from my experience. I hope you follow me on my quest. If you have any advice for me-please feel free to supply it as I can use all the help I can get!!

I am starting today with a topic that I just recently became aware of: backlinks. When I began writing on hubpages I thought I understood the linking process: add a link capsule to your hub and fill it with links that support the topic you are writing about. Simple right? Not exactly. I began linking my hubs with other hubs that I wrote thinking that people would automatically click on them to read more of my brilliant musings-then automatically click on the ads in the hub and make me rich. Boy was I disappointed. Not only were people not clicking on my ads, they weren't even reading my hubs! That's when I came across a brilliant hub written by andromida explaining the purpose of backlinks and how to use them successfully. http://hubpages.com/hub/free-backlink

I used the advice in his hub,became a member of stumbleupon.com, listed some of my hubs, and BINGO-my traffic increased overnight! Now I update my stumbleupon.com account whenever I write a hub or come across a hub that I find useful. I created a special URL tag to use specifically with that site so I could see how much traffic the site was driving to my hubs. In 2 months my URL tracker went from 0-1082, not too shabby!

What the heck is social bookmarking? That's a question I was asking myself recently when I stumbled on some hubs talking about their importance. The more I read the more confused I became.

One hub helped me to understand that the reason for the popularity of social bookmarking websites is due to people using them rather than search engines when looking for information on a topic. Rather than have to sort through and filter all of the sites a search engine gives you-a social bookmarking site provides you with more targeted information that has already been evaluated by someone else-basically they get rid of all the junk about a topic for you, saving you time and effort. BINGO, PRESTO, LIGHT BULB MOMENT!!

I joined the social network infopirates.org last night and listed several of my hubs along with other hubs that I think are very helpful and informative. I was surprised this morning when I opened my email and found a note from an administrator of infopirates offering me advice and help on my descriptions and use of keywords. Needless to say-it's awesome!! Free, helpful, unsolicited advice-truly a perk that will keep me coming back for more.

Well I finished the first of the tasks I set out for myself today. I have come to the end my new hub that describes both my summer goal as well as explains two topics I knew nothing about when I started writing on hubpages. I hope you find the information useful. Let me know what you think, I always appreciate comments and advice. Best wishes to you as you continue along the path of your own journey.