Capstone Hubs program at HubPages

Please note that the Flagship Hub program is currently on hiatus, and not accepting any new applicants. However, we do encourage Hubbers to publish Hubs that meet similarly high standards for their own sake; please visit our blog post recounting the traffic success of these high-quality Hubs.

A Capstone Hub is the culmination of a series of Hubs on the same topic. It provides links to the entire series of at least 15 Hubs on the same topic, as well as other supplementary information and details that helps wrap up the topic.

An approved Capstone Hub earns you $25, plus an additional $15 if you meet a traffic goal.

Why are we offering this program? We believe we'll make our money back! This is good news to you, since, beyond the $25-40 you earn outright, you earn even more through the impression-share program from Google AdSense, Amazon, and EBay than we do. Publish a great, informative, detailed series of informative Hubs, and link them all together, and you'll very likely see a long-term stream of traffic from search engines which you'll continue to earn from.

How to get started

1. If you are a published HubPages author in good standing, request and review our Flagship Hubs contract and return it to us by fax (1-415-367-2499) or by scan (image file). Please note that we can not accept photographs or digital signatures. You can request a contract by emailing team@hubpages.com with the subject line "Flagship Hubs". You must have published at least 5 high-quality Hubs, and your Hubs must be of a non-promotional nature.
2. When we confirm that we’ve received your signed contract, let us know what you would like your series of 15 Hubs to be on (the topic), as well as the titles of the 15 series Hubs. Email us at team@hubpages.com with the subject line "Capstone Hub topic approval" and include this information.
3. Once your topic and 15 series Hub titles have been approved, publish your 15 Hubs at your leisure, abiding by the content standards below.
4. Create your Capstone Hub, abiding by the content standards below.
5. Email us at team@hubpages.com with the subject line "Capstone Hub approval" for approval for payment. Include a link to your Capstone Hub (but please do not publish it yet). Upon approval, you will be paid via PayPal at the beginning of the next calendar month.

Topic areas

Please craft a specific topic area from one of these broad categories:
• specific consumer products
• business
• money, finance and investing
• health and diet
• automotive
If you have a suggestion for another specific topic area, please feel free to email us.

For example: Suppose you choose "underwater digital cameras" from the category "specific consumer products" ("electronics", "cameras" and even "digital cameras" are too broad for a topic area). Then your 15 Hubs in a series should each address a specific aspect or product. They should not be very general. Here are just a few examples of what your series Hubs titles could look like:
- Underwater digital cameras for children
- Sealife SL320 Reef Master Mini - Review
- VuPoint DC-WPC-ST531TBLK-VP - Review
- Underwater digital cameras under $50
(In other words, each Hub should be very, very specific. If you have any question about whether a series Hub topic is specific enough to qualify, please contact us by email.)

Content standards - 15 Hubs in series

These are just the minimum standards - feel free to exceed them!

• A minimum of 300 words, of your own, purely original writing
• Either a relevant image or video
• At least 2 relevant, helpful links to other sources. Please choose sites that are not promotional/affiliate in nature, but rather recognized as credible authorities on the topic. These should be inserted as a Links Capsule at the bottom of your Hub.
• At least 2 contextual links (terms linked within the body of your text, not in a Links Capsule) to other Hubs in the same series.
• A news capsule (or highly-relevant RSS feed), or eBay Capsule if your topic is product-related
• 10 relevant tags, including 2-3 common misspellings or spelling variants (if any)

Content standards - Capstone Hub

Also the minimum standards; if you'd like to go beyond these requirements, feel free to do so!

• A minimum of 500 words, of your own, purely original writing
• Links to all of the Hubs in your series
• 15 relevant tags, including 2-3 common misspellings or spelling variants (if any)

Additional rules:

• The content must not be copied from any other source, even if you have the rights to copy from that source. It must be 100% original, and not copied elsewhere after publication and payment, either.
• You should include all non-contextual links in the Links Capsule, and the links should not be to “bad neighborhoods” (sketchy sites with adult, gambling or other questionable content or ads) or to affiliate/promotional sites. You should link to high-credibility, authoritative sites, to pages that are directly relevant to each Hub's topic.
• As is the case with Flagship Hubs, your series Hubs and accompanying Capstone Hub become the property of HubPages once you've been paid for them. You may not reprint or resell this content elsewhere. You may publish a short excerpt/teaser (a maximum of 3 sentences) on another site/blog with a link to the full Hub, as a way of promoting it.

Traffic Bonus - an additional $15

Raise your total cash earnings to $40 by getting at least 10 page views from each of 10 non-HubPages sources (as shown in the Capstone Hub’s View Stats) within the first 30 days after publication of your Capstone Hub. Do a little promotion of your Capstone Hub and earn an extra kicker! (Note: The page views must be to the Capstone Hub, not the adjoining series Hubs.)

Submit a link to your published Hub meeting the traffic requirements to team@hubpages.com with the subject “Capstone Hubs traffic bonus” (no quotes, exactly as written). Upon confirmation, payment will occur at the beginning of the next month after approval for payment.