Jump to content

HubPages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by GoingBatty (talk | contribs) at 00:37, 12 January 2021 (clean up, typo(s) fixed: Adsense → AdSense). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

HubPages
Company typeWeb publishing
IndustryInternet
Founded2006
HeadquartersSan Francisco, CA, USA
Key people
Paul Edmondson, Founder and CEO
Number of employees
24
Websitehubpages.com

HubPages is a user generated content, revenue-sharing website founded in 2006. It was a startup that struggled over ten years until its acquisition by Maven in 2018. The company acquired its main competitor, Squidoo, in 2014[1]

History

The site launched on August 5, 2006, funded by a US$2 million investment from Hummer Winblad.[2] The three founders, Paul Edmonson, Paul Deeds, and Jay Reitz, are former employees of Microsoft and were part of the startup MongoMusic.[3]

It raised $8 million between 2007-2008 and has not been able to raise any since and struggled for the next ten years.[4]

In 2011, traffic to revenue-sharing sites, including HubPages, was slashed following changes to Google's algorithm ("Panda").[5] Over the ensuing years, HubPages made strenuous efforts to recover from the setback, while most of its competitors gave up and closed their doors. In 2014 HubPages acquired its largest competitor, Squidoo, in a friendly takeover.

In 2016, HubPages announced it was moving from a single-site to a multi-site structure with the introduction of separate "vertical sites". Each site contains articles covering a group of broadly related subjects.

In 2018, it was acquired by Maven which gave investors a mild payout.[4]

Membership

Members post informational articles and earn a share of the income from those articles through the HubPages Earnings Program. At one time, having an AdSense account was a prerequisite for being a member but no longer.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Squidoo To Move Content Over To HubPages After Being Acquired - Search Engine Journal". 2014-08-18. Retrieved 2016-07-03.
  2. ^ Arrington, Michael (2006-08-05). "HubPages Launches, Gets $2 m from Hummer Winblad". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
  3. ^ Arrington, Michael (7 February 2006). "HubPages, a better Squidoo?". TechCrunch. AOL Inc. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
  4. ^ a b Levy, Ari (2018-01-06). "After 12 years and endless fights with Google, start-up HubPages finds a buyer". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-10-15.
  5. ^ McGee, Matt (2013-02-25). "Google Panda Two Years Later: The Real Impact Beyond Rankings & SEO Visibility". Searchengineland.com. Retrieved 2017-10-28.