Now that eHow has replaced their writing platform in place of Demand Studios, I am revisiting other sites where I can build solid recurring passive income streams. There are two such sites that I have been publishing content on already which seem to be likely candidates to focus on. I have been using HubPages (Hubs) and Info Barrel (iB) for over the past 6 months and have had mixed results thus far.
Today I wanted to provide a breakdown of my analysis comparing HubPages versus Info Barrel with actual statistics. These real life stats are based on traffic and AdSense earnings generated over the past 4 full months (December – March). In some cases, HubPages seems to be the clear favorite while Info Barrel seems to be superior in other areas.
Here are my statistics and commentary on which site is superior.
Published Articles and Notes
During the 4 month time period, I had 33 live Hubs compared with 18 articles published on Info Barrel. While a few articles on both sites were published during the 4 months, I will not factor that into my analysis.
One other important note is that most of my articles on both sites use similar keywords. Based on this, I feel comfortable comparing my published content from both of these sites against one another.
Page Impressions
Page impressions (or traffic) is necessary if you want to earn any significant recurring income from these sites. In this case, Info Barrel seems to get a lot more traffic than HubPages during the same period of time. The results below are even more exaggerated considering that I almost have twice as many Hubs (33) as iB (18) articles.
Page Impression Stats
- HubPages – 530
- Info Barrel – 827
Even though I had fewer published iB articles, I still had 56% more traffic over the 4 month time period compared with my Hubs. Since these stats can really vary on several factors it is hard to make any concrete assumptions when it comes to traffic and page impressions. I do however think that Info Barrel (for whatever reason) can definitely bring in more traffic.
Clicks
While traffic is really important, the amount of clicks is what brings in the dollars. As you can tell from my results below, I am seeing a lot more clicks on my Hubs.
Click Stats
- HubPages – 71
- Info Barrel – 15
These results are very interesting, as the traffic from my iB articles is much higher but the number of clicks is far lower. Could the ad placement found on HubPages be that much better than it’s competition? Or is something else skewed in my results?
Page CTR
Another interesting statistic (which is derived from the previous two sets of data) shows my click through rate much higher on my Hubs.
CTR Stats
- HubPages – 13.40%
- Info Barrel – 1.81%
I was actually amazed when I saw how much greater my CTR was for my Hubs compared to my iB articles. This tells me that while I can probably get more traffic on my Info Barrel articles, I am almost sure to get a lot less clicks.
Earnings
Obviously by now you can probably guess which site brought in more AdSense income over the past 4 months. Here are my earnings results generated from AdSense.
AdSense Stats
- HubPages – $40.09
- Info Barrel – $12.70
One important note, I earned about $0.56 per click on my Hubs versus $0.85 per click from my iB articles. This is a direct result of Info Barrel paying out more revenue to its writers than HubPages (which is another important factor to use when comparing both sites).
Final Thoughts
In the end I think both sites are worth leveraging to generate residual income online. Are either of them a replacement for eHow? Not really. I think both sites can bring in some decent recurring income while providing necessary backlinks for some of my other niche sites. I plan to continue to publish content on both sites (along with several others) with the intent of driving traffic to sites I own while earning a little income along the way.
What other sites will you be leveraging in place of eHow to build recurring income streams?
Related posts:
- How to Track Your Info Barrel Traffic
- 8 Tips for the New Info Barrel Writer
- Niche Website Link Building Project – Week 3
- 6 Ways to Earn Income from HubPages
- 10 Reasons to Open a HubPages Account
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{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
That is very interesting about the CTR. I must admit I prefer the way that Hubs look, and you have more control over the elements. But with the cost per click, Hubpages don’t take a cut of your Adsense earnings, you earn separately where 40% of the page loads will show Hubpages Adsense code, and 60% of the page loads will show your own Adsense code (if it is still 60/40). So the cost per click shouldn’t be reduced.
@Ruth – The one thing I like about HubPages compared to iB is the choice of format. I think there is one format that is superior to the rest and seems to generate more clicks. Now if they would only share a little more revenue, it would be a great site to leverage.
Interesting observations, John. I’m not sure I’ll be writing for a while but I’ve always wondered about iB and Hubs. Did you submit entirely new articles for these or re-use old eHow articles?
@Moon – Every article that was submitted is original.
Why are you not writing for a while? Taking a break?
I only have one hub so far, but earnings with IB have been pretty disappointing although I don’t have many articles there either. But I did notice at least one of my articles shows a high number of views yet I rarely see IB clicks. And many of the articles were rewrites of eHows that have done well.
So I think there is something amiss at IB, not sure what exactly. I still like them for backlinks, but if I was primarily interested in earning I would go with Hubs.
@Carrie – I agree. I am considering any income generated from these sites as extra with a primary goal of building backlinks. So I will continue to use both but will probably leverage HubPages a little more than IB.
Brother,
What are Demand Studios on eHow?
@TAM – Demand Studious is the new writing platform in place of eHow.
I’d agree with your observations – I definitely notice the CLR for IB is woeful compared to Hubpages – any topic with relevant ads I can generally get 10% CLR on HP but IB – they just don’t have the ads in the right place and there is nothing I can do about it
@Lis – Thanks for confirming the results I am seeing on my side. Overall, I feel a little more comfortable writing Hubs still but won’t completely abandon iB either.
Thank you for sharing your exact results.
I’ve written a few Hubpages before but like you said, it takes more than a few articles, you really need to treat it like a completely separate blog. The more content you can add to these websites, the more visitors and clicks you’ll receive.
It’s interesting to see how the two matched up. Perhaps there’s a smart way to bridge the two sites together by interlinking and cross promoting.
@Murlu – No problem. I think HubPages is still superior over iB, but I agree that cross promotion may help.
I’m currently using HubPages and Squidoo, plus starting out on Bukisa. It’s a shame eHow changed their system… I enjoyed writing for them, but haven’t figured out how to get through Demand Studio yet.
Since I’m getting into article writing again, I have also researched ways of promoting hubs, lenses, articles, etc. better – the post linked below includes specific guides on how to use the CommentLuv system to get moore traffic to articles on sites including Hubpages, Squidoo, and Bukisa.