Create a Graph in Microsoft Excel to Analyze Your Earnings Progress on HubPages

Author:
Joshua Crowder
Updated date:
Jan 1, 2022

Joshua is a graduate student at the USF. He has interests in business technology, analytics, finance, and lean six sigma.

The illustration is a PivotTable graph of my quarterly HubPages earnings since I started earning in 2019. Having a graph to look at gives me chance to reflect on how far I have come to get to this point.
Created by Joshua Crowder

Graphing HubPages Earnings Data in a PivotTable

Generally speaking, a PivotTable is great for looking at data in different dimensions. PivotTables are usually more worth wild when there are lots of attributes involved, but it's a nice quick way to turn HubPages earning data into a table with a corresponding bar graph.

The first step to creating this PivotTable for HubPages data is to gather the needed data. The earnings data can be found by clicking earnings in the sidebar on the HubPages site or by clicking the earnings reports tab under the earning section. Either method will take you to the correct page.

Getting the earnings report
Created by Joshua Crowder

In this next screen, you will need to find the word filter on the page. Click this filter option so you can receive access to a downloadable earnings report.

It's not immediately clear where your earnings report is located. Remember to click on the filter option to get access to a downloadable .csv file that holds all of your earnings data.
Created by Joshua Crowder

Next, click the first drop-down shown below and choose all programs. Click in the next drop down below and select all time. These two settings will allow us to receive all data relevant to daily sales amounts. Click the export as .csv button to download the report.

Export an earnings report
Created by Joshua Crowder

Immediately after the report is downloaded, it needs to be saved as an Excel workbook because the .csv file format has some reporting limitations. To save the file go to save as, choose a place on your computer to save it, save it as an Excel workbook, and click the OK button. Each step can be found in the illustration below.

Saving your file as an Excel workbook will help you gain functionally functionality with your spreadsheet when working with your data in Excel.
Created by Joshua Crowder

When you open the file, click on one of the cells and press Ctrl + End. This will take you to the last row. To clean the data, delete the last totals row. Next, select the last row of data and press Ctrl + Shift + ↑. This will select all of your data.

Clean the Data

Notice that my data is blurred. This data represents my daily earnings for 2018 and 2019. The image is blurred to keep me from disclosing earnings data to the public.
Created by Joshua Crowder

At this point, all the data should be highlighted. Select the insert tab, and click on the PivotTable button that is located in the chart section. You will have two options. Choose the option PivotChart & PivotTable.

It's not mandatory to select the range of data to be used in the PivotTable in this step. This can wait until the create PivotTable window appears where the select a Table/Range option can be utilized.
Created by Joshua Crowder

A create PivotTable window will appear. Click on the bubble for the existing worksheet and then click in a cell where you want the PivotTable to appear. The location of the cell chosen will show up in the box below that is labeled with the number 2. Finally, click OK to generate a PivotTable and graph.

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Note that if you have many columns of data, you may want to choose the option that allows you to create the PivotTable and chart in a new worksheet. This could help to keep your workbook organized.
Created by Joshua Crowder

A blank PivotTable chart and field list will appear. If the field list does not appear, go ahead and click on the button labeled field list.

Here, a PivotTable is displayed in its rawest form. It won't be until attributes are added to each axis until the table or graph forms.
Created by Joshua Crowder

With the left button on the mouse held down, drag the date word from the top of the PivotTables fields area to the categories box. Additionally, drag the ad program down to the values box.

PivotTables need to be linked to data in the pivot chart fields section. Data here can be manipulated in various ways to design a chart right for your analysis.
Created by Joshua Crowder

I'd like to break these years into quarters to have a better understanding of how my earning have increased incrementally. By clicking on the boxes with the plus signs on the left side of the PivotTable, the PivotTable and graph will drill down into quarters.

Since what I have earned per year is irrelevant, it makes sense for me to drill down on the data by looking at each quarter. I could also look at the data in other views such as monthly.
Created by Joshua Crowder

Analysis

It is hard to properly analyze the graph without the totals for each bar. Unfortunately, the numeric data needs to be blurred. I made earnings in each quarter since I started writing articles. This can be seen by the incline in bar heights for each quarter.

Each quarter's earnings grew except for in the 4th quarter of 2019 because I still had a month's worth of earnings to collect before the new year. The low 2019 4th quarter may also be attributed to the fact that my article views are normally the lowest at this time of year.

By the way things are going, my HubPages earnings will continue to rise as long I can keep adding content on a consistent basis and make updates to older articles to keep them relevant.
Created by Joshua Crowder

Other Scenarios

In the example used above, ad program revenue was used by dropping that text into the values box in the pivot chart fields section. The revenue shown in the graph can be easily changed to show Amazon revenue or total revenue. This can be completed by right-clicking on the arrow to the right of sum of the ad program and selecting the remove field. Next, one of the other revenue variables can be dropped into the values section.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.