Hubpages, Xomba, Infobarrel and Writing Online Articles

I have started writing on Hubpages, Xomba and InfoBarrel. This hub is a comparison of the three from my point of view. I talk about how easy or difficult they are to use, my opinions and the similarities and differences between them. I signed up for Hubpages first and two weeks’ later I signed up for both Xomba and InfoBarrel. I have heard opinions on the Internet that each of these three is the best, so I decided to form my own opinion and document it.

Hubpages

My initial impressions of Hubpages are very positive. I found the site easy to use and easy to understand. I like that I can link to Amazon where I am an affiliate and also to eBay to the things I am personally selling there.

I really like the fact that Hubpages suggests categories for my articles, similar to the category search on eBay. You can browse or let Hubpages make suggestions.

Also when the article is written, Hubpages will suggest tags based on your article. That feature is really nice too. I always use all the tag suggestions, then go back later and sometimes there are more suggestions.

At first I was doing a text hub, then a photo, then a text hub, then a photo, etc. After a while I realized that if I press the green arrow pointing sideways that any hub will occupy half the column, thus placing pictures next to text and breaking up the text.

I wrote a hub about reading the classics to educate yourself. I put the article was in one column and the suggested books linked to the Amazon page in the adjacent column.

I discovered that the hubs can be reordered, either by using the “capsule ordering” on the right hand side of the page or by using the green arrows on each hub.

I had some problems uploading photos in Internet Explorer. When I moved to Firefox, I didn't have any trouble.

InfoBarrel

The first 10 articles on InfoBarrel are read by a real person before they are approved. They say you have to have published 10 articles and been a member for 14 days before your articles publish immediately. For me it was 13 articles and 22 days before I became preapproved and my articles uploaded immediately. One of my articles got rejected for not having enough words. I started on InfoBarrel and couldn’t find how to post an article. I finally posted my first and then struggled to find a “create your article” button when it came to my second article. At last I discovered there is a little bar at the top with my picture, my name, and 3 clickable links: My InfoBarrel, Open Nav Bar, and Logout. The key is to click on “Open Nav Bar” which reveals 4 more clickable links above, one of them being “create”. Once I submitted an article it was approved within an hour or two, except for the ones I submitted on the weekends, which sometimes were approved the next day.

When you start an article on InfoBarrel you have a choice of 4 different formats, you can write a blank article, a video article, a how to article or a review article. On the video article you can put in more than one video in the article. I’ve had a little problem with photos on InfoBarrel, firstly it took me a while to upload them in the blank article, and then when I wrote a how to I thought I’d uploaded the photos and they didn’t appear. On further inspection I discovered there’s a little “add” button next to each photo that uploads it.

I find the categories a little sparse. I often have an article that doesn’t fit into any of the categories available. I did read on the forums that if you need a category they will consider suggestions, so I’m hoping there will be more in the future.

The biggest problem on InfoBarrel is that when I was using Firefox I couldn't copy and paste from my word document, so I had to use Internet Explorer.

Xomba

The first article you write on Xomba is subject to approval, after that the articles publish immediately. My first article was rejected and I really don’t know why. They sent me an email saying “Please review our rules and re-submit your content.” I read the rules over and over and couldn’t find a reason why that article wasn’t accepted. Instead, I posted it to InfoBarrel and it’s been there since. I emailed Xomba for specifics, but didn’t get a reply. It was a few days before I posted a second article to Xomba and that went through without a problem. After that each time I post to Xomba the articles are up immediately and I haven’t had any other problems. I hope I didn’t break a rule I didn’t know about. I didn’t find Xomba as easy to use as Hubpages at first, but I soon started to find my way around.

I had a little problem with writing an article in Microsoft Word and then copying it to Xomba. There’s a whole load of computing code at the start of the article. I would post and then go back and edit the computing code to remove it, but sometimes it wouldn’t disappear. I got round the problem by copying my Word document into Notepad and then copying the article from Notepad to Xomba.

I’d written a few articles on Xomba when I decided to use the bookmark feature. You have to write 50 or more words and post a link, so I posted a link to all my Hubpages hubs. Then I wondered why I posted articles on Xomba when I could post on Hubpages and link to Xomba, thus getting more exposure.

You have the option on Xomba of listing your interests, hobbies, school, etc. On your profile page these are listed first and the articles you have written are at the bottom. I listed all my interests and it was a long scroll to view my articles, so I removed them and my articles are now nearer the top of the page. After all, I think people are more interested in what I write than where I went to school.

Then I wondered if the link had to be my own (such as a hubpage article) or if it could just be my friend’s blog or my favorite webpage. I emailed the following question, “If I create a bookmark, does the link have to be my own? Can I only link to my blog, or can I link to my friend's blog or other websites that I like?” and the reply, “You can link to whatever you would like as long as it is related to your content, does not link back to Xomba, and is not an affiliate link.” Gosh, the possibilities are endless.

While I wrote a lot of articles very quickly for HubPages, I slowly added the same number of articles to both Xomba and InfoBarrel, keeping the number of articles level most of the time. I was surprised to see that generally the number of people reading the articles was about the same, but then very slightly there were more readers for my articles for InfoBarrel than for Xomba. Of course it could have something to do with the topics I wrote about rather than the exposure of the two sites.

Google Adsense

All three sites give revenue based on Google Adsense. I had a little trouble signing up as I had forgotten that my son (who looks after my webpage for me) signed up about 6 months ago with his email address and my name and address. So when I signed up I was refused an Adsense account linked to my email address. When we tried to change the email address on the account from his to mine I couldn’t because his email address is gmail. So now my Adsense correspondence goes to my son’s in box. The whole thing took about a week of emails and working out what to do.

Amazon Affiliate

I was already an Amazon Affiliate with my webpage so it was easy to add the code. When I signed up with Amazon they insisted I have a blog. After a few emails they said they accepted the fact I had a webpage and not a blog and approved me. So I didn’t try and sign up for Amazon Affiliate using only Hubpages as a reference.

Ebay Affiliate

Ebay is said to be more rigorous with their affiliate program than Amazon. Hubpages has some really good instructions for applying to be an ebay affiliate. Even so they didn’t work for me and I was not accepted. So now if I put an ebay hub on Hubpages I only get money if they are my own personal items that I am selling. I was kind of annoyed since I’ve been a Power Seller there for years.

Kontera

Kontera don’t pay out until your earnings are over $100, so it is suggested you don’t sign up for Kontera until you have a lot of articles. I would like to mention that I did see Kontera adverts on my Xomba and my InfoBarrel articles. We the users can only enter a Kontera affiliate code with Hubpages, so I suspect Xomba and Infobarrel have added Kontera adverts and aren’t sharing the revenue.

Chitika

Chitika is like Kontera and Google Adsense, you sign up for an account, they put adverts on your articles and you get a percentage. Chitika is available for InfoBarrel. I have signed up and they say the acceptance process takes 2-3 weeks.

How Do You Earn Money?

On Xomba you can only earn money through Google Adsense. On InfoBarrel you can earn money through Google Adsense, Chitika and Amazon Affiliates. On HubPages you can earn money through Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliates, eBay affiliates, Kontera and Analytics.

Number of words

Generally Google Adsense likes 400 words or more to pick up key advertising words. Hubpages places no minimum or maximum on the number of words, but longer is better. I once wrote an article with 1200 works and it got significantly more clicks than my other articles. Maybe it was the number of words, or maybe it was the topic, I’ll never know.

InfoBarrel won’t allow articles less than 325 words and suggests you use over 400.

On Xomba the minimum number of words for an article is 150 and for a bookmark is 50.

How Old Do You Have to Be to Have an Account?

You have to be 18 to have a Google Adsense account, but you can still write and not get paid when you are under 18. InfoBarrel does not have an age restriction, you have to be 13 to write and Xomba and 18 to write on HubPages. I did email Kevin at InfoBarrel about the subject and he said that my teens could have an InfoBarrel account in their own name and use my Adsense code.

Hubpages Questions

I used to love to browse yahoo answers and answer the questions, in particular the math questions. One night I couldn’t sleep and was browsing the Hubpages questions and I answered a math question. When I went to click “answer” I saw that I could turn it into a hub, which I did. It’s fun to write hubs, but it’s also fun to answer a question that someone is asking. If you leave your answer on the questions page you don’t get any revenue, the only way you get revenue is to turn it into a hub. Also, if you are stuck for a writing topic you can browse the questions looking for topics you feel you can write about.

HubMob

I had been on Hubpages for about a week when I discovered hubmob. This is where a weekly topic is suggested and many people choose to write on that topic that week. Then the hubs are posted to a forum. I wrote my first hubmob and within an hour or two the number of people reading it was more than any of my other hubs. I was very encouraged.

Redgage

I have to mention RedGage. I’ve been posting the bookmarks of all my articles to RedGage. They don’t use Google ads, but seem to pay by the number of people who view your articles or bookmarks. You can also post photos on RedGage and they earn a similar amount to posting an article or a bookmark. When your earnings reach $25 RedGage send you a gift card directly.

Referral Codes

Xomba, InfoBarrel and RedGage have referral codes that if I refer anyone and they open an account, then I get a percentage. The percentage comes out of the Xomba or InfoBarrel part and not the writer’s part. If you wish to sign up for Xomba or InfoBarrel using my referral code, you can use the link at the bottom of the article, just above the comments section.

She Told Me

I’ve recently heard about another revenue sharing site, She Told Me. I have yet to investigate. People are bookmarking their articles on She Told Me. If you have any opinion on this or any other site, please add it to the comments section below.

Making Money Writing Online

I did a search for “making money writing online” there are about 30 sites that I found, some were general and some were specialized. My opinion is that writing online is similar to online selling years ago, there will be many companies starting up, some will stay and some will fold. I think the answer is not to write on just one site because if that site folds you will lose all your revenue in one go.

How Long have they All Been Running?

HubPages has been running since August 2006, InfoBarrel started in May 2008, and Xomba is a realitve newcomer and went online in August 2009.

I'd been writing on Xomba for over a year when I noticed a number of my articles were missing. They had been unpublished and I hadn't even been told. I emailed Xomba and was told that "a number of articles had been deleted and they were gone - sorry." They deleted my articles and didn't even have the decency to tell me. Fortunately I had kept the originals and was able to publish them elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Xomba made some changes in their rules, but didn't inform their members. I found out about the changes at Xomba because people were asking about them on WebAnswers, but I didn't even receive an email to tell me there were changes even though Xomba of course had my email address.

Then I wrote an article about testosterone and with it I provided a link to a site that sold vitamins to help your testosterone levels. I published the article on Xomba. Within an hour I had an email from Xomba saying my account had been closed and I had been banned from the site. I have no idea what was wrong with my article, or what rule I had broken and was shocked that this, being my first offense in writing on Xomba for 18 months, made them close my account. I would like to say here that any site that treats its members like that is not worth writing for.

While I grew to like Xomba less, I was liking InfoBarrel more. The fact that your first ten articles on the site are moderated means that there's very little or no spam on InfoBarrel. When Panda hit HubPages and traffic dropped, InfoBarrel's traffic rose. Each week I saw a downturn in my traffic on HubPages and an upturn on InfoBarrel. Then my 20 articles on InfoBarrel started to earn more than my 100+ hubs on HubPages.

The move to sub domains on HubPages was seen as success, but InfoBarrel's traffic went up without moving to sub domains. Now if anyone is new I suggest they start writing on InfoBarrel. It is a bit of a pain to get past those first ten articles, but for writing on a quality site, it's worth it.

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