When HubPages Was A Baby

HubPages has grown to be one of the premier writing sites on the internet. It is often named with other sites like Squidoo as one of the top revenue-sharing websites as well as one of the best reference sites. HubPages came up around the same time as then rival site Triond which is based in Israel. However, HubPages has long since outstripped its rival. HubPages was first registered on April 27^th, 2005 but first launched on August 5^th, 2006. HubPages was founded by Paul Edmonson, Paul Deeds, and Jay Reitz. Join me now as we look at when HubPages was a baby.

This San Francisco, California-based company seems not to have originally been envisioned as a writing site. The first Wayback Machine screenshots we have of HubPages reads “Find the Best Hotels, Services, Professionals” and has listings for “Hotels, Lawyers, Real Estate, Used Cars, Refinance, New Cars, Mortgages, Property Management, Doctors and Dentists”

The screenshots for February 9^th, 2006 we see HubPages as a writing site inviting writers to sign up as it was still in its beta-testing stages. Comments were invited as well as feedback was very important at such a crucial stage.

On June 13^th, 2006 beta-testing was still going on and sign-ups to HubPages’ beta were still requested. Writers were asked to submit their email and their comments.

By August 31^st, 2006 we see things in full-swing on HubPages as it had launched earlier that month on August 5th, 2006. There was a “Top Authors” category and we see the usernames Drax, Ralph Deeds (same surname as one of the founders), rodtrent, relache, jstankevicz and camedmondson (same surname as one of the founders) in that category.

In the early days on HubPages some of the top hubbers were making more than $1000 USD per month. See Techcrunch.com. However, that was when HubPages had a little over 14,000 hubbers with a combined total of 20,000 hubs and Panda, Penguin and similar algorithms were not then in effect.

In December of 2006 we see a different set-up page. We also find a HubPages logo with a wheel (or maybe an eye with eyelashes) in the middle of “Hub” and “Pages.” The “Top Authors” on that day were Chuck, Robin, jimmythejock, YoJDawg, rodtrent and livelonger.

For July 11^th, 2007 we see another page change for HubPages. The first thing greeting your eyes was the line “Publish Your Passion” with reasons why you should be a part of the HubPages writing community. There was also a “Quick Tour” button and there were navigable categories such as Hubs, Hubbers, Topics, Requests and Forums.

On the same date we see five hubs in a “Featured Hubs” section running horizontally on the page. We also see a link to click to see “More Great Hubbers.”

Rounding out the year – in December 2007 – the featured hubs were placed vertically rather than horizontally as was the case in mid-2007. The hubbers featured then were Patty Inglish Ms (now Pattyinglishms), Maddie Ruud, Jennifer, Mark Knowles and Marye Audet.

If you would like to read about when Triond, once a premier writing site, was a baby and everything you need to know about Triond’s history see Shelpeare’s Triond History Compendium.