Frequently Asked Questions

Below are the most asked questions about DevHub. If your question is not below, you can view all past support questions here.

  1. How is the new DevHub better than the old one?
  2. How is DevHub different from Single-page Creators?
  3. How is DevHub different from WYSIWYG/CMS Solutions?
  4. How is DevHub different from Blogging Tools?
  5. How is DevHub different from Auto-Gen Solutions?
  6. Who is DevHub For?
  7. Why am I only allowed to add 10 sites at a time?
  8. How do I get paid?
  9. How do I host my sites with DevHub?
  10. What does my account come with?
  11. How do I get the full data report for this month or any month prior?

How is the new DevHub better than the old one?

The new and improved DevHub (3.0), launched on June 1st, 2010.

The more gamified version DevHub (3.5), will be launched on July 4th, 2010. With this version, we will be introducing more game elements to help our users more easily understand the intricacies of building a site or a bunch of sites online.

How is DevHub different from single-page creators? Some examples include: Squidoo and HubPages.

Single-page creators are simple tools for publishing very simple pages of content to explain particular topics (called a Lens in Squidoo or a Hub in Hubpages), which users can earn from via pageviews and clicks generated from these pages.

If you are a Squidoo Lensmaster or HubPage Hubber, you can easily attest to the limitations that come from the simplicity of these pages. Both Squidoo Lenses and HubPage Hubs are similarly formatted, long-scrolling single pages where users can place content (text, photos, links, videos) alongside ads from Google Adsense and products from Amazon and eBay. Lenses or Hubs are subpages belonging to the greater Squidoo or HubPages websites and do not have much flexibility in appearance/styling.

While these pages are great for short, single topics, they do not have much flexibility beyond that.

What if you want to just as easily create a standalone, monetizable website that goes deeper into subtopics and has its own look/feel?

DevHub provides you with this solution:

Rather than a subpage on Squidoo or Hubpages, your actual DevHub site can be subdomained (yoursite.devhub.com) for free, or moved to an actual domain name (which can be purchased within DevHub or any other domain name registrar).

DevHub sites can easily be edited using drag-and-drop technology and formatted with multiple columns, navigation, and pages. While the DevHub platform automatically provides you with a logo and theme that is ready for content placement, these sites can be further changed and personalized for color, size, and more.

Lastly, DevHub's suite of monetization modules includes more than just ads and products, including local business listings, real estate listings, job listings, monetized video, monetized photos, and more! The DevHub team is constantly adding to this list of modules every week.

To boil it down: while single-page creators like Squidoo and HubPages allows you to create single, monetizable pages, DevHub allows you to create flexible, even more monetizable websites. Some users have started to create a Squidoo Lens or HubPage Hub for a specific topic, and then link that page to their actual website created on DevHub to provide their readers with more in-depth content on that topic and increase their own earning potential.

How is DevHub different from WYSIWYG/CMS Solutions? Some examples include: Yola, Weebly, SquareSpace and Wix.

Firstly, use of the DevHub platform and all its features are completely free. Companies in the past that have offered “free web publishing” are usually free for a period and then they start charging their users. For users that are trying to create useful, profitable sites for their endeavors, paying a monthly cost makes it that much harder.

Secondly, while DevHub does offer similar site editing and content management tools to current online solutions, the power of the DevHub platform is its PYTHON-based aggregation and distribution system, allowing us to hook in via APIs to a wide range of content and monetization partners. These integrations are then placed in modules in the editor for users to place on their site to enhance their content and revenue-generation capabilities. As an aggregated ecosystem of online publishers, we are often able to bring onboard exclusive partners or deals that would typically not be available to the individual publisher.

Current partner API integrations provide users access to exclusive affiliate offers, local directories, products, property listings, job listings, photos, videos, RSS feeds, and site search. We have a dedicated business development and API integration team constantly bringing on new partnerships and integrations for users of our platform.

How is DevHub different from Blogging Tools? Some examples include: Wordpress, TypePad and Blogger.

Blogging tools were originally created to be an online diary for personal expression. Due to lack of alternative solutions at the time, many users started to bend these tools beyond their intended purpose in an attempt to create media-rich, commercially viable (e-commerce, affiliate marketing, etc.) websites.

Users of this system often require a certain degree of hosting and CSS/HTML know-how and end up incurring time and development costs to incorporate the right templates and plug-ins to put together a useful site. Constant upkeep and upgrades add additional complexity to managing these sites.

DevHub is designed from the ground up to be a website development platform with money making capabilities. All programming/heavy lifting is done in the background, so site creation is simple to use and requires no previous programming knowledge. This seems to be the biggest big barrier-to-entry for those looking to use the hack-a-blog method.

Last but not least, our guided-site editor and game elements allow the creation of sites to be fun, educational, so you should never get to a point where you ask yourself: What do I do next?

How is DevHub different from Parking & Auto-Gen Solutions? Some examples include: Domain Parking, Parked.com, SEDO and TrafficZ.

A website cannot grow or provide value to users without some sort of human touch. Domain Parking solutions and auto-generated solutions such as Parked.com, TrafficZ, SEDO, and Domain Sponsor provide domain owners with little to no control over how their domains are presented and monetized on the web. The resulting pages created by these services are often duplicated on another page, mediocre in their ability to bring relevant, coherent content together, and is obvious to the Internet user that they are not real sites. As a result, domains placed through these services are put at risk of being flagged as spam sites or banned by Search Engines.

DevHub's focus is on making it easier for people to build quality sites on the Internet that brings value to both the users and the creators of the sites. Our guidance system and game elements provide you with suggestions as well as promote and reward you for creating unique content, which will in turn be rewarded by Search Engines and more traffic.

Without a real site on your valuable domain, all you are doing is maintaining land without a building on it.

Who is DevHub For?

In short, the DevHub platform is open to anyone who wants to build a presence on the Web and be rewarded for the value they bring to users on the website they create. More specifically, DevHub is for:

Online brand builders – with the Social Media Profile or by creating a news/blog site, DevHub users can build an online brand of themselves or their blog. Beyond guiding you to build a killer site, we will also remind you to hook your site into other Web resources that will help promote your brand online!

Small to Medium Sized Businesses (SMB) – with the SMB track, you as a business owner now have complete control over your online presence. By just filling out a quick wizard you will be up and running in minutes and from there we will continue to show you how to refine your site. We are also hooked into a number of SMB services to help you along your way online. Forget working with an outsourced webmaster that takes two weeks to get back to you to change a typo in your menu, we will show you how to do it yourself!

Affiliate Marketers – with the affiliate marketing track, you can create money-making sites that provide information to your users, lowers their bar to purchase, and make money from it! Have no inventory of your own? No problem, we have partnered and hooked into the top tier affiliate networks on the Net, which you can easily drag and drop into your site. Our reporting and analytics system aggregates all your stats, no more having to look through multiple systems and aggregate reports, we do it for you!

Internet Entrepreneurs – have an itch to build the next/newest thing on the Web? Don’t have the technical skill to create that place on the Web? DevHub is the perfect place for you to explore your entrepreneurial passion!

Developers – need to finish a job for a client quickly? Tired of the intricacies of current CMS systems? There are a number of developers using DevHub as their starting point in building a site. In the near future, we will also be providing an API for you to build modules directly into the system, which you can use for yourself or charge others for that use!

Designers – design a website with ease on DevHub, forget the coding part. We will also be releasing a Theming SDK for complete flexibility on the platform. Soonafter, you can release that theme for others to use on DevHub and you can even charge for it!

All welcome as long as they meet our quality standards, which we match tightly with titans of the Internet like Google and Microsoft. To maintain quality, we reserve the right to pull accounts from users we believe do not meet our standards.

How Do I Get Paid?

Before initiating payments, we are required to have a W-9 if you reside in the U.S. or a W-8 if you reside anywhere outside the U.S. Once you fill out the form, simply fax it to 206.260.7142. Please also state in the top right hand corner margin of the W-9/W-8 whether you would like to be paid by PayPal or Check. If via PayPal, please provide account email and if via check, please provide the name of the check recipient (both must match information provided in W-9/W-8).

Once your account balance reaches $25.00 at the end of the month, your “Cash Out” button will appear in your dashboard, and just like a slot machine, hit that button and a check is on its way! If you do not hit the $25.00 threshold, your balance will simply carry on into the next month. This threshold helps to keep check creation costs here low, so that we can continue to provide DevHub for free.

How do I host my sites with DevHub?

Sites are hosted on DevHub for free on a subdomain, which is just nameofyoursite.devhub.com. If you want your own land to build your site on, buy a domain.

The easiest way to have your domain on DevHub is to simply buy it within the system (we have our own registrar). No hassles – its all hooked in.

If you happen to purchase your domain elsewhere, please follow the steps below (you will be provided this information via email as well when you sign up).

Step 1: Go to your Domain Registrar’s Page

Go to the site where you bought your domain, log in, and go to the control panel where you can do stuff to your domain/s.

Step 2: Modify A-Record

Within your domain registrar's interface, find the "DNS Management", "Zone File", or similar area of their control panel. Here you will modify the A-Record and CNAME values.

Change the A-Record value to the IP address associated with the site. There are two places that you can find the IP address that your domain needs to be pointed at. One is the initial email that is sent when the site is added. Secondly, you can also view the IP address for an individual site under the "Site Settings" within the editor.

Most registrars will already have the CNAME value for 'www' set to point to your A-Record. If there is no 'www' CNAME value, you can create this record and point it to yourdomain.com. This is to ensure that both www.yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com resolve to your DevHub site.

Step 3: Check if your site is live

Remember, it can take 24-48 hours for the new A-Record values to update across Internet, but if the values were set correctly your domain should now resolve to your DevHub site.

Don't have access to A-Records?

We recommend that all sites hosted with DevHub are pointed to us via the A-Record/CNAME method, but traditional DNS nameservers can also be used. You can view the nameservers for an individual site under the "Site Settings" within the editor.

Here is a good tutorial on how to point your nameservers on Godaddy. Other registrars should have a similar process: GoDaddy.

If you are having any trouble with your DNS not resolving, please send an email to support@devhub.com.

What Does My DevHub Account Come With?

How do I get the full data report for this month or any month prior?

  1. Login to DevHub, click on 'My Reports'
  2. Click 'Monthly Reports' and then select the month you want (e.g. May 2010)
  3. Click 'Export Site-by-Site Report .CSV' in upper right (Note: if you have a lot of sites, this can take a long time to complete)
  4. When report completes, a large file such as '2010-05_ALL.csv' should download automatically in the browser.
  5. Open this file in Microsoft Excel. (Note: the remaining steps assume Excel 2007)
  6. Hit Ctrl-A to select all cells, go to Insert, click PivotTable, click OK on the dialog.
  7. In the PivotTable Field List, select 'site' then 'earnings' then 'visits'

This should yield a pivot table showing sites at left with totals for visits and earnings.