HubPages
| Web publishing | |
| Industry | Internet |
| Founded | 2006 |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, CA, USA |
Key people | Paul Edmondson, Founder and CEO |
Number of employees | 24 |
| Website | hubpages.com |
HubPages is a user generated content, revenue-sharing website.[1] On December 7, 2013, the website published data that showed that the website consisted of 910,106 "Hubs" (magazine-style articles on a specific topic), 73,969 published users, and 2,498,967 forum posts.
History
The site launched on August 6, 2006,[2] funded by a US$2 million investment from Hummer Winblad.[3] The three founders, Paul Edmonson, Paul Deeds, and Jay Reitz, are former employees of Microsoft and were part of the startup MongoMusic.[4]
According to Quantcast, on May 31, 2015, HubPages is ranked 104 in the list of the most-visited U.S. sites on the Internet. In a November 2013 Quantcast monthly report, the website received around 16.1 million unique U.S. visits and over 30.9 million unique global visits, with more users accessing the site from computer browsers than with mobile devices.[5]
Structure
HubPages is a site that hosts internet content created by its members. Members each have a sub-domain, where they can post content. Members are encouraged to enrich their text by embedding videos, external links, reader surveys, photos and maps, and providing a comments box for reader feedback. Members retain all intellectual property rights to their content and can delete them at any time. However, as stated in HubPages Terms of Use, "You may not remove your Author Content from the Service."[6]
The site encourages members to cover a specific subject creating what they call a "hub" of articles with a recommended length of 1150 words or more.[7] Their blogsite suggests members create different "hubs" for different topics and interlink them.[8]
If members sign up for one of HubPages "affiliate and earnings programs", they are eligible to earn funds from the ad revenue generated by their pages,[7] provided they remain "active," submit current tax information to HubPages (including SSN), increase their earning balance within a specified time frame, and respond if the service attempts to contact them. If any of these criteria are not met, the members' earnings are permanently forfeited.
In 2013, Simone Smith (former HubPages' Director of Marketing) stated, "We won't be sending 1099 forms." Marina Lazarevic, HubPages' Product Manager, confirmed her statement adding: "That's correct. There is an announcement in My Account > Earnings as well as an updated FAQ entry explaining why we are not sending 1099 forms this year. The short answer: the IRS introduced a new form (1099-K) this year requiring third part payment entities (such as PayPal) to send 1099s to qualifying vendors for payments made using their services."[9]
In 2014, Matthew Meyer (HubPages Staff) stated: "While the current US tax law does not appear to require that we collect tax information, the fact that this requirement has changed over the life of HubPages resulted in our decision to continue to require this information."[10]
See also
References
- ↑ Riley, Duncan (2007-05-07). "HubPages Debuts New Look, Ad Yield Technology". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
- ↑ "HubPages". CrunchBase. CrunchBase. 6 August 2006. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
- ↑ Arrington, Michael (2006-08-05). "HubPages Launches, Gets $2 m from Hummer Winblad". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2008-04-08.
- ↑ Michael Arrington (7 February 2006). "HubPages, a better Squidoo?". TechCrunch. AOL Inc. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
- ↑ Quantcast (7 November 2013), hubpages.com, Quantcast, retrieved 8 December 2013
- ↑ "HubPages Terms of Use". HubPages.
- 1 2 hubpages FAQ
- ↑ Larry Freeman (7 October 2008). "Hubs versus Blogs". HubPages Blog. Hubpages Inc. Retrieved 7 December 2013.
- ↑ "Tax Question - Need Federal Tax ID for Hubpages". HubPages.
- ↑ Meyer, Matthew. "Competition with Squidoo". HubPages.