Creating Referral Links For Your Hubs

To those of us who have created a few hubs but still feel like novices, one of the more challenging things about writing on HubPages is finding a clear process of How To Create and Add a Referral Tracker. Putting a Referral tracker into a link is like leaving a trail of bread crumbs that leads new users back to HubPages.

This hub will try to explain in non-technical terms how to find and use your referral trackers and why you'll want to.

Q. Why would you want to refer New Users to HubPages?

A. When Hubbers send out a link to one of their hubs it's important to add a referral tracker to get credit for bringing a new user to the site. If that New User signs up with HubPages (within 30 days) you will earn a portion of the revenue share from HubPages. It doesn't take away from the money the new Hubber will earn, it comes out of HubPages' pocket.

Here is how to find the default tracker code which was automatically created for you when you signed in as a new member:

Open a new window so you can see these instructions and perform them on your hub by toggling back and forth between windows.

1. Sign in to HubPages. Scroll over your account name for a drop down menu.

2. From the menu under your name go to "My Account". Select My Account.

3. Just below where it says "Follow HubPages on Twitter" are choices: Hubs, Q & A, Profile, Earnings, Photos and Activity, Following, Videos, Apprenticeship.

4. Choose Earnings which then gives you several more choices: Settings; Earnings Reports; eBay Sales Reports; Balance History; Tax Information and Referral Trackers.
5. Choose Referral Trackers.

At the bottom of that page is where you can create your own referral tracker. Or just use the one that's already there called the default referral tracker . My default referral tracker is 1lvmratkz5gih which makes no sense whatsoever but it works. This is also called the Tracking Token and it will tie new sign-ups to your account.

Use the scroll bar at the right of the screen and scroll down to the bottom of the hub page to which you want to link. Be sure to get all the way down the page below the comments and advertizing.

HubPages about us blog advertise faq LINK TO THIS PAGE copyright

You won't see this if you are in edit mode or on a page that won't allow a link for example, the HubPages blog.

If you want to send someone a link to a hub page using an e-mail, click on Link to This Page to find your default tracker. A rectangular box comes up that lets you use your default tracker or pick one that you create yourself.

When you select the default tracker it gets plugged into a longer http address that automatically is highlighted. Copy the highlighted link (the URL shown in Step 3 in the box) using (CTRL + C) and then Paste using (CTRL + V) the link into the email you want to send.

When your friend clicks on the link in the e-mail it will take them to the hub you wanted to share with them. If they decide to sign up as a new user, the system tracks that user back to you. That is a referral tracker.

I often send a referral link to family members via email to let them know I've written something new. Since they are not HubPages members they don't get automatic notices.

Non-members like family and friends, tell me that when they click on a referral link I've sent them using link to this page it takes them directly to my article (or any article linked this way) with no sign-in required.

The easiest way to create a referral tracking link is to scroll down to the bottom of ANY hub you want to share. Click on the "Link to this page" text shown across the bottom of the hub.

A rectangular box comes up that allows you to choose which of your referral trackers you want to put in the link. Leave it as is to use the default code. Copy the highlighted link and paste in an email, or onto your Web Site or to Twitter, etc.. And you're done!

Doing this will track the recipient back to you. There are a number of good hubs that explain how much revenue you will earn on these referrals. Linked below are a few helpful hubs.

If you want to lead a (new) hubber to another one of your hubs when they finish reading the one they are on, you can add a referral tracker inside your own hub. This is useful, for example, if you have written chapters of a story using different hubs for Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and so on.

At the end of your Chapter 1 hub, you may wish to help your reader find your next chapter and continue reading so you offer them a link to Chapter 2 (or to a related hub of yours or even send them to another hubber's hub).

In the same manner that you pasted your link into an email, you can create a link within your own hub (using the add a link capsule feature) then copy the referral link (using "link to this page") from the bottom of the page on your Chapter 2 hub and paste it into a link capsule you added to your Chapter 1 hub.

There is a difference between referring someone to your hub with a referral link and sending a sign-up link to a friend who wants to start writing on HubPages.

A referral link takes someone to a hub you have referenced. The title usually shows up at the end of the link address.

A sign-up link takes a New User to a page where the new user can create their own HubPages account. The end of that link will say /user/new

This is one way of creating a sign-up link using the link capsules. In edit mode, select "add" a Link. For the Link URL, Type this line of http: text exactly as it is on the example below. Do not leave any spaces and be sure there is an underscore before your tracking code. Where it says "type-your-default-tracker-here" you can follow the steps above to find your default tracker and copy then paste it into the line of text. Don't use any extra dashes, spaces or quotation marks.

EXAMPLE: after the http:// part type in yourname.hubpagesdotcom/_typeyourdefaulttrackerhere/user/new

Test your link out to be sure it works by copying the link, signing out of HubPages and then pasting the tracking link into your browser. When a non member uses this type of link it takes them to a sign up page where they can create a new Hub account.

There are a number of hubs that explain revenue earnings and what time frames are involved with referral trackers and signup links. Follow these links to hubs by other authors on this subject. And be sure to stop in at the Learning Center for more information.

All the best to each of you as you begin your HubPages journey.