Dear Hubbers,
We are really excited to announce that we are joining Maven. Maven is an expert-driven group media network, whose innovative platform serves, by invitation-only, a coalition of professional, independent channel partners.
We just completed the most successful 4th quarter in our history with the highest ad CPMs we’ve ever seen. As we formed our ad strategy, Josh Jacobs from Maven consulted with us on which partners to use, how to think about unique demand, and how to help the passionate experts on HubPages present their inventory to premium programmatic buyers. The results have been outstanding.
From monetization synergies and shared technology to increased promotion of our sites, this is a great opportunity for us to continue what we do, but even better, and with more opportunity for Hubbers.
We greatly appreciate the dedication of the writers on HubPages and our niche sites and want to assure everyone that the continued success of authors is the central theme of our joining with Maven.
What will happen with HubPages and Network Sites?
- We will continue to develop the HubPages Network platform, with the addition of new niche sites and a suite of unique services to help people create and maintain world class content for readers around the world. We will look for opportunities for select Hubbers to migrate to Maven’s user experience after careful testing and extensive planning.
- Network sites have been a central theme of our joint success over the last two years. We are excited to bring this knowledge to Maven as well as preserve, improve, and expand our sites that the folks from this community have helped to make thrive.
What are the benefits for Hubbers?
- Increasing the scale and sharing technology costs benefits all the writers across our ecosystem and Maven’s. Small gains add up, and will help us deliver world-class design, improved site speed, and adopt the necessary technologies to be successful for years to come.
- The increasing complexity of the technology required to monetize with programmatic ads will be better served with a dedicated team focusing on achieving world-class yields across the HubPages Network and Maven. With just informal discussions, this cooperation has already proven very fruitful.
What’s the team doing?
- First, we care deeply about the community of writers who have chosen to write on HubPages. We want to thank our community and we plan on personally working for the benefit of Hubbers and Maven partners for years to come.
- The entire team will be joining Maven. We will be working extra hard for the next several months to ensure that Hubbers remain successful as we get to know our new team at Maven.
We just want to say thank you to all the Hubbers, the over 35 million readers, our team at HubPages and to our new team at Maven for welcoming all of us. Here is to a better future of discovering, creating, and connecting people with wonderful words across the world.
Best,
Paul E and Paul D
HubPages Blog 
Paul:
How will Hubbers be invited to migrate to Maven? What happens to those who aren’t?
Also, in reading Maven’s press release, I discovered they’re a very young company, having had their start just this past summer. What happens to HP and our niche sites if the merger doesn’t prove to be as successful as anticipated?
How does this merger affect HubPages current payout criteria?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Shauna L Bowling aka Bravewarrior
Thanks Paul and the entire Hubpages Team for all you do to keep us informed, educate us, work on helping us increase our traffic and earnings, etc. It’s obvious that you all work hard and long to make Hubpages a success and I appreciate the time and consideration you give to our community.
Congratulations to Paul and the entire HubPages team! I am excited to see what this new venture brings forth.
I want to know what will happen as far as owning our content. This is very upsetting that this hasn’t been covered.
Hi Christin, authors will still own and retain the copyright to their content.
Christy, it is really critical that this is clarified in more detail. We will still own the copyright, BUT will we still have the right to delete our content from Maven? Maven’s TOS says that publishing on their network means granting them a licence IN PERPETUITY to publish the work. Whereas under HubPages TOS, we grant HP a licence only as long as we decide to publish on the site.
The writing site Helium.com had similar TOS to Maven, and the practical outcome of that was that, although writers retained copyright, it was meaningless because we had no legal right to delete our articles.
Yes, authors will still be permitted to remove content from HubPages and Network Sites.
Thank you – their terms on their site are confusing, people are discussing it also in the forums. Might be a good idea to clarify there too.
Everything HP has ever done in my 5 plus years here has only improved my experience and benefits. I have nothing but faith that this is going to be a continuation of that. Congrats HP! and a sincere thank you.
A very interesting development. Writing at HubPages has improved me in the craft of writing. I hope this merger is beneficial to both companies, writers, and readers. Looking forward to the transition.
Cool news! Thanks for the information!
Will the invitation to the maven be selective, or is it join and write ahub basis?
Thankyou.
It will be very selective. A small number of authors will be invited to join.
Would that potentially include authors who haven’t been that active in the last few years? Not that I’m likely to be selected, but an invitation to Maven might interest some ‘dormant’ writers.
I don’t yet know the details. I think they are still being worked out currently.
Interesting information, I will watch the progression and change intently. Thanks for keeping us up to date.
Congratulations! I’ll be hopeful that the changes in the coming next few years will continue to be as amazing as the work you guys have done these last couple of years. Thank you all and I’ll be cheering you on!
This is exciting news! Since writing for HubPages I have had a wonderful experience. The HubPages team has worked hard to make sure we are successful and that we get paid for writing. Thank you for your transparency and everything else that you do for us.
If only a small number of writers will be invited to join Maven, what happens to the rest? I’m afraid I don’t really understand the acquisition terms in that regard. Also, will they keep niche sites?
Yes, everything will continue as-is.
Congrats on finding a new partnership that works for both sides! Is there a printed list of topics or “verticles” which the new organization will be most interested in? I write most of my content for my own domains but when I get the urge to write tips, articles or tell stories about subjects I do not own a domain for I’ve just chosen Hubpages to share them on(and now Maven-Hubpages!). Thanks for the wonderful platform.
Hi Christy, I haven’t been active. I did a little touch up on some existing articles when Squidoo sold us to y’all at fire sale. I never got to involved with Hubpages because I had a poor experience with Squidoo and frankly was glad to see them get out of the biz. I have my own domains but I was thinking of possibly trying to write for Hubpages, subjects I don’t want to be obligated to build upon, since y’all seemed to be ok, even good to writers but now here we are sold again, without notice (I never got an email or notification), to some company I have never heard of who may at any time cut off my piddly income and even keep my content. So what am I to think now? It has taken years of watching what y’all do to even get to the point of possibly writing for y’all because I am not that good, it takes me hours to craft articles, even on subjects that I know quite well, and to have them called spam (like Squidoo did – yep my top articles that you have online) or rejected due to content they didn’t like etc etc etc well ,… So, what now? What happens to the pay plan, copyrights, content ownership,and why should I write for Hubpages/Maven?
Hi Paul,
HubPages authors will continue to earn as usual (with the same 60% of impressions share) and will retain ownership and copyright of their content. Things will pretty much be business as usual here, except that Maven will be helping us to increase ad yields. We genuinely see this as a positive change without drawbacks for authors.
Hubpages is a very best place for writers because, in my opinion, Hubpages is an award-winning system for writers who want’s to change their live. So, This place is made for all writers, you should join it 🙂