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Wizzley Just Went Level with Bubblews for Earnings

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JoHarrington
Posts: 1816
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on 11/12/2014

You remember when Bubblews was the 'quick cash' option and Wizzley the 'long term prospects' one?   Well not any more, according to my spreadsheet.

I have a table which compares articles written by overall commission earned.  The result is an average pay per article for each site.  A year ago, Bubblews was miles above Wizzley.  I was seeing a much higher return there than Wizzley could dream of providing.

Today the two went level.

Bubblews has slowed down quite a bit over the past month, but that hasn't affected its overall average.  The previous fourteen months are still holding true.  What's happened is that Wizzley has seriously taken off for me.  I've been watching it creeping up, with ever increasing speed. I knew it was going to level peg Bubblews any day this week, as the climb has been that discernible.

As for actual figures, in June I wrote that my Wizzley articles are now worth $1.59 on average. I also announced that I'd made my first grand in commission here.  Today, Wizzley's average is $2.50 (and so is Bubblews).  I'm less than $300 away from my second grand. 

We did this, people. :)

NB  This includes November 2014, but we're only on the 12th of that month at the time of writing.


Mira
Posts: 478
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on 11/12/2014

Sounds good, Jo! The only thing that worries me is that Google seems to bump us down in search results. I wrote a page on My Favorite Brands for Comfy Shoes, for instance, and when I searched for "brands comfy shoes" I found my article on the 10th page of search results. A Hubpages article was on page 8.

I think social media may be the only answer to get visitors from outside of Wizzley. What are your thoughts on this? (Sure, as you said in one of your articles, once someone lands on Wizzley that person tends to browse around, which is a great thing.)

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JoHarrington
Posts: 1816
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on 11/12/2014

Then our mission is to big up Wizzley's profile without resource to that company.  I never even check them.

I go for other sources instead, ensuring that I promote my articles on Twitter, Stumble, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Facebook and Ping-O-Matic.  Twitter then gets the Twitterfeed running (at least it should, but I've been a little slack on that score just recently) in a regular cycle.

It doesn't seem to be doing me any harm.  I'm cruising just under 2000 visitors a day now.

(And also bear in mind that my earnings do not have Google Adsense anywhere near them. I'm on Chitika. The Adsense people are probably making a great deal more.)


Guest
on 11/12/2014

I just wish I could work out your mojo.

I can't earn a red herring on here, no matter what I write. Nor can I find out what I'm doing wrong.

I'm not jealous, just sad that you've found the mojo and I haven't despite loving writing here so much that I'll write for free.


Described by one of my clients as 'a literary grammarian', writing, researching and reading are requirements for sanity, at least this side of the keyboard.
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JoHarrington
Posts: 1816
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on 11/12/2014

Persistence and the bloody mindedness to keep on churning the articles out, even when I wasn't making a red cent. I knew (well, hoped) that I eventually would, and now I am.


ologsinquito
Posts: 418
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on 11/12/2014

I honestly don't know how you managed to persist. Fortunately, the interface makes it fun to write here.


WriterArtist
Posts: 144
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on 11/12/2014

Jo - I think the key is to stick around and keep writing good articles. When I see your 600+ articles, there is no secret about how you have made Wizzley work for you.

After losing my 400 articles in Squidoo, I was sad and did not know what to do. I still am not able to make what I used to in Squidoo but I have faith in Wizzley. I think Wizzley should emerge as a Writer's asset in long run.

For WordChazer - I think you need to hang around a little more and keep writing. Patience is the key.

Marie
Posts: 232
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on 11/13/2014

That's really awesome, Jo Smile

I'm not on BubbleWS (only dabbled for a very short time) but I always wondered if the bubble would burst there at some point because I could not see how they could continue to pay at those levels when so many of the posts were real drivel, let's be honest here.

I know that some people really put in an effort to write useful/interesting snippets (I'm sure that includes all the writers here on Wizzley) but most of what I saw was just junk. I don't know how you can build a successful, long-term business when the foundations of it are not rock solid. And that's a big reason why I prefer to write on sites which have at least some standards in place to adhere to.

Jo deserves success because she has kept at it, as she admits, even when she wasn't earning a thing. Sheer bloody mindedness and persistence can pay off but I think only a small minority of people have those qualities. It's even harder now to earn from writing too with revenue share sites folding and the competition getting fiercer every day. 

What works for me is the following:

* diversifying and not putting all articles on to one site (because sites can and do go belly up AND because what works well on one site doesn't necessarily work on another one. It's worth experimenting.)

* writing on niches and topics that I enjoy with articles that can be linked together internally with a site and externally to other related work online (helps with getting traffic moving around your own work)

* writing a healthy mixture of information based articles and pages written to make some sales (some types of articles do better with advertising and some do better with sales modules) 

* refreshing tired and dated articles with new information, new pictures and new products around 2-3 months before the point where they are most likely to be popular. This is easy to identify with seasonal articles like Christmas but not so easy with other types. However, most articles have a point in time where they are likely to see a bigger influx of traffic. E.g wedding pages in the spring and many floral and chocolate themed pages before Valentine's Day. (can help with your search engine rankings)

* using social media to your advantage. I'm not a big social media junkie but I enjoy using pinterest and a lot of my traffic comes from there. I make sure to add large, good quality photos (not just Amazon product photos with white backgrounds which the biggest and best pinners often avoid like the plague) - photos which really are pinworthy and are more likely to be shared. Adding descriptive text over an image to sum up what your article is about so visitors clicking through know what they're likely to get when they arrive - that can help bring the right people to your page. Even Twitter has photos now as well as many other social media sites - the reason is because good photos are a real draw online. 

* pin during the right seasons. I see people pinning Halloween articles now when Halloween is over. That's a waste of time. Right now is the time to pin for Thanksgiving (although that's getting a bit close) and definitely for Christmas. Toys, games, food, recipes, crafts, decorations, etc. (When I started to religiously pin my Wizzley articles before Halloween, I saw a very steep rise in traffic)

* writing consistently. It gets hard at times but I write pretty much every single day. Sticking to it and building on niches. That writing may not be a new article because I also end up doing more editing than I'd like but it all helps move you forward.

* keeping track with a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets are not for everyone but I don't know how I'd manage without one. I use mine to see what months I should be working on particular topics and themes ahead of seasons, keeping track of niches and which articles can be linked together successfully and keeping account of where my work is published. It keeps me organized.

Disclaimer: Some or maybe even none of these things will work for someone else. That's just the way it is. I learned from Jo that we really need to develop our own paths and that can come with an awful lot of hard work attached. But, if you love what you're doing, that certainly helps because the financial rewards are not always so easy to come by.  


Nelda_Hoxie
Posts: 77
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on 11/13/2014

I think most experienced people on Bubblews knew that the money wouldn't be sustainable. It was sweet while it lasted. I still write a few posts there each day. It has been devastating to people in countries that could live on $50 a week. 

frankbeswick
Posts: 123
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on 11/13/2014

Congratulations Jo. 


frankbeswick
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dustytoes
Posts: 1088
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on 11/14/2014

Congrats Jo, you are an inspiration to all writers.

And thank you Kinworm for that info too.  I agree with your way of thinking, although I don't work from a spreadsheet.  I tie string around my fingers as reminders... Cool

WriterArtist
Posts: 144
Message
on 11/14/2014

Kinworm - I agree with you, persistence and consistency in writing will always pave the path for success. It has to come sooner or later.

Rose
Posts: 26
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on 11/15/2014

 

Mira: 11/12/2014 - 02:20 PM

Sounds good, Jo! The only thing that worries me is that Google seems to bump us down in search results. I wrote a page on My Favorite Brands for Comfy Shoes, for instance, and when I searched for "brands comfy shoes" I found my article on the 10th page of search results. A Hubpages article was on page 8.

We're still languishing under a penalty. About nine months ago I wrote a wizzle about the Google Page Layout algo - and the page I put a screenshot as an example still hasn't been updated (it's not mine and you can find it by searching). And while pages like that are more than 20% of the site, we'll be held back by penalty.

I suppose we could wait another couple of years for the site to grow so those pages become a minority. It's a long time to wait though...


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JoHarrington
Posts: 1816
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on 11/16/2014

And yet they still find us.

I'm averaging over 2000 visitors a day now, and less than 40% of them came from Google.  That company is increasingly becoming irrelevant in my mind. I already detest them with a passion.


Rose
Posts: 26
Message
on 11/16/2014

 

JoHarrington: 11/16/2014 - 05:05 AM

And yet they still find us.

I'm averaging over 2000 visitors a day now, and less than 40% of them came from Google.  That company is increasingly becoming irrelevant in my mind. I already detest them with a passion.

Wizzley is doing extraordinarily well in Bing. According to SEMRush every month this site ranks for new keywords in Bing and reaches a higher traffic threshold.

However Google isn't "irrelevant" - they provide about ten times the traffic Bing can provide if you can comply with their algos. Don't take my word for it - Dinosaur Egg was pulling in about a $1000 a month from 100 wizzles before the algo penalty - see this page.

If we could just get those legacy pages fixed, I'm sure the glory days will return. People reading this can help by making sure their meta descriptions use up all the characters to add text below the title. If we can get a certain number of compliant pages, we could reach a tipping point back into Google's good books.

Wouldn't you prefer to get 20,000 hits per month than 2000? Given the number of pages you have, I'm pretty sure you would if the penalty on the site was lifted.


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JoHarrington
Posts: 1816
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on 11/16/2014

 

Rose: 11/16/2014 - 10:27 AM

Wouldn't you prefer to get 20,000 hits per month than 2000? Given the number of pages you have, I'm pretty sure you would if the penalty on the site was lifted.

You misunderstood me.  I'm not getting 2000 hits a month, that's a day.  I'm averaging 55,000 a month.  Less than 40% of whom come from Google.


Digby_Adams
Posts: 699
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on 11/20/2014

Jo do you have any idea if Pinterest visitors and other social media traffic buy things? I know that traffic helps impress Google and that's a good thing.

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JoHarrington
Posts: 1816
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on 11/24/2014

Sorry, I missed this.  How would you learn such things?  I know that Pinterest brings in a massive amount of traffic.

By the way, in the last 12 days, Wizzley's average earnings per article has shot up to $2.65.  It was $2.50 when I posted this thread.


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