Google Is Rolling a PageRank Update

Posted: 31 Oct 2009 03:03 AM PDT

I was expecting a PageRank update to happen in September, but it looks like Google waited till the month was over. It looks like it was a subtle update too, as the PageRank on the homepage of most of my websites has not changed.

I noticed it by taking a look at posts that had been published after the last update. They used to show “unranked,” but now they are showing some PR.

What about you, did the PageRank on your blog increased, or did it stay flat?

Original Post: Google Is Rolling a PageRank Update

Making Money with Hubpages (Or Not)

Posted: 30 Oct 2009 08:07 AM PDT

questions and answers This post is part of the Friday Q&A section. Just use the contact form if you want to submit a question.

Christopher asks:

Do you know anything about hubpages.com? Is it a credible source to publish content on and get paid?

Also, can you post content on Hubpages, that you have posted say on your own site?

Yes I am familiar with Hubpages. It is basically a publishing platform where people from around the world can create pages, called hubs, on topics where they have expertise or interest. It is a legitimate website, and yes you can make money with it, because Hubpages will display ads on your hubs, and you earn a percentage of the revenues generated.

How much money can you make there? Well, it depends on how much time and effort you are willing to put into your hubs. I have seen people who make over $1,000 monthly from their hubs. But then again they have hundreds (if not thousands) of these.

Do I think this is a solid business model to make money? No.

First and foremost because you won’t own the hubs you will create. You will retain the copyrights over the content you write, but Hubpages owns the hubs, so they control the traffic, the brand, the backlinks and the revenues, and then they share a part of it with you.

A much better strategy is to publish your content on a platform you own, for example on a website or blog. This will give you complete control over the elements involved. For instance, you would be able to sell the website in the future if you decide to. The same is not true with your Hubpage hubs.

Does this mean that Hubpages is useless? Not at all. Just like any online platform, it can be used to promote your own online properties. For instance, many online marketers use Hubpages to build backlinks. All you need is to create some pages on topics relevant to your main website or blog, and then link back to it as a resource for people looking for more information. The only detail to pay attention on is your Hubscore (a kind of quality score assigned to all accounts). You need to have a quality score of 75 or higher if you want the links inside your hubs to be followed.

Finally, try to avoid creating hubs with the same content that is already published on your website. This is called duplicate content, and it might get you in trouble with Google if you do this in mass scale. The best thing is to create new and unique content for every marketing activity you will carry out online (e.g., hubpages, article marketing, social media marketing and so on).

Original Post: Making Money with Hubpages (Or Not)