One stormy day …

HubPages sent me an invitation to participate in their closed beta testing. The site is only open to members as they get some user testing done and build a platform of hubs before opening the portals to the public. I joined and built a couple of HubPages. I can’t offer a link to my HubPages, as they are not public yet. The site offers a “get on the list” message and form at their temporary home page.

It’s inevitable for me to compare HubPages with Squidoo since I’ve played with Squidoo for a while and have some experience. In simple terms they are both sites that allow members to build single pages about a topic. The goal is to create good pages, develop traffic and credibility and eventually be an acknowledged reference source on the web, leading to ad revenues and more traffic. They feature different looks for their pages. Maybe because I’m used to it, but Squidoo’ s pages seem a little more reader friendly, however HubPages uses its screen real estate a little better. The major draw for a page developer at HubPages is that there seems to be a better revenue opportunity. It’s clear that Squidoo’ s model is too parsimonious and involves too much work to maintain even a small revenue chance. HubPages makes it easy to feature affiliate links.As I said, it’s early days. I’ll publish some more links when and if possible!