Hays P.

I have written several articles for Hubpages, all of which are very highly rated by the site's own measures, and all of which have been featured by the site, so I know they are considered high quality content. These articles were written as long as seven years ago (2012). You would think producing good content for a website that supposedly pays you for writing would make at least a little bit of money over seven years, right?

I have total balance in my Hubpages account of just over $40. Very conveniently for Hubpages, you have to have a minimum of $50 to cash out at all. My balance increases by approximately $0.04 a month (they have changed the rules since I started; the writers' share of the earnings used to be higher, which is why I was able to get $40). At this rate, I still have over 20 years before I even meet the minimum balance to get any money at all.

Because of this arbitrary minimum cash out balance, the overwhelming majority of Hubpages writers will never receive a penny for their work. Of course, Hubpages will happily earn ad revenue for themselves from your content.

I have even written to the support center and politely asked to be able to withdraw my $40 because it would be impossible for me to ever reach $50. I figured they would care enough about their users to make an exception if asked nicely, and it was just $40. Not even $40 I was asking to get for free, it was MY $40. To my surprise, the individual I spoke to refused to budge and even became rude when I continued trying to explain how their policies would make it impossible for me to ever access my money.

I realize now that Hubpages is basically a scheme to trick people into producing free content they can profit from. They say you'll get paid for it, but the rate of earnings is ridiculously low, and they have that "minimum balance" in place to ensure most people won't even be able to receive the little money they earned. The entire business model is unethical, and the internet will be a better place when they either go out of business or get shut down for legally dubious business practices.