Six months ago, EVO Media was at a crossroads. The Seattle startup -- makers of the DevHub Web site publishing platform -- could try to raise venture capital amid one of the toughest financing climates in recent memory. Or, it could abandon the outside fundraising plans altogether, and make a mad dash towards profitability. 

The six-person team started sprinting. Their efforts appear to have paid off, with co-founders Mark Michael and Geoffrey Allen Bautista Nuval telling TechFlash that the company turned a profit last month.

"...We've definitely had to grind these past few months and spread the demands of a growing company/network across a much smaller team," said Michael. "But with some creativity, rock solid dedication, and a lot of long hours, we've been able to continue to grow our network month/month -- approaching one million uniques this month --  land some key white label services deals and consequently lift us to profitability."

Mark Michael

Bautista Nuval said August is already shaping up to be a solid month as well, and the company should turn a profit for the entire third quarter.

DevHub's profits come just five months after the introduction of the service. In that short time, the startup has attracted 25,000 small online publishers who use the company's tools to set up niche-oriented Web sites. (More than 100,000 sites have been created with the publishing tool so far).

DevHub's network -- which is free to use -- now includes sites such as Guitar Hero Phenom, Investments of Washington and  MusicnewsWeekly. Publishers can customize the look and feel of the site, and add new content modules specifically geared to their needs

Baked into the platform are affiliate programs with partner sites such as Shopping.com, Priceline and CareerBuilder, which allow DevHub's publishers to earn revenue by passing leads on to those sites.  

Michael said that its publishers earn a majority of the affiliate revenue, with DevHub taking a smaller slice. And he said the DevHub publishers can choose from 20 affiliate partners and revenue streams, so it integrates with the niche content of the various sites.

Because many of the sites are commercial in nature, Michael said that they have a higher chance of driving revenue.

Some of the top sites in the network earn as much as $100 a day. At this point, effective CPMs are running about $17 to $24 on the DevHub network.

Bautista Nuval said they've seen some degradation in effective CPMs, but rates have held up better than most because of the targeted and commercial nature of the sites.

The story of DevHub is one that's playing out across the startup landscape as companies skip venture financing in order to bootstrap businesses with the hope they can reach some level of sustainability.  

And while the DevHub team bypassed venture financing earlier this year, they're certainly not opposed to taking it on. That's especially the case now that they've been able to prove the model.

"It is a much better time for us to show our faces on the VC trail," said Bautista Nuval.