Don’t Shill!

What is Shill?

Wikipedia defines Shill as;

A shill, also called a plant or a stooge, is a person who publicly helps or gives credibility to a person or organization without disclosing that they have a close relationship with the person or organization.

I would modify the definition to make the final clause insert the word ‘may’  and add after the word organization  “or receive financial benefit”

Many online sites have a battalion of Shills.  Some do not know they are Shills, but all receive financial benefit.

Online writing sites often have a set of ‘writers’ (term used loosely) who are Always Paid and sent around to other sites to rope in fresh blood.

Those who know they are Shills are in one category; just as the guy who is hired to sell colloidal silver knows what he’s selling and repeats the blurbs because he is getting a salary.

Those who don’t know they are Shills often make idiots of themselves by defending the writing site and attacking other writers as if they have some holy cause.

I first came across Shills in the now defunct writing site called Factoidz.   This was once a premier site, but could not be maintained.

The owner tried a few tricks to keep it up but couldn’t, so many writers would not receive any earnings on the articles they published and were locked out.

During this period when many writers began to complain, a slurry of shills attacked them from Hubpages to Wikinut to private Blog, shouting; “The Reason You Weren’t Paid was because YOU broke the Rules!”

For one second, examine that response.

The item is published, the item is attracting views, earning cash.  So what rule was broken?

These Shills ran all over the ‘Net for about three months, then Factoidz went down.   Just like that.

Expertpages/ FullofKnowledge /Postanyarticle (all owned by the same person)  had a few Shills who touted how great the site was and attacked everyone who disputed this.

When those sites disappeared without a trace, those Shills were left high and dry.   Interestingly, a few of the same Shills who worked for Factoidz worked for that Troika.

They did not realise they were Shills.

Even after the first time they had supported a site which ripped them off, to go onto another site and be just as vehement and be ripped off, seems ridiculous.

How does a person make the same stupid mistake twice?

You join Factoidz. You don’t have tea with the owner, you don’t know anything about him save what you might get from a Google, you know nothing about the economic balance of the site; yet, you are committed to that site to the extent you will waste your connectivity to attack those who speak against it.

And when that site goes down, when it runs off with your work and your money, you join another site, same thing, and defend it until it crashes as well.

And you join the third site….?

Unless you own the site, unless you have coffee with owners. You don’t know anything about it.   Nothing.

All you know is you published an item and it earned 10c.  You know the payout for the site is $5.00.   If you publish and are read and reach $5.00 you are to be paid.  That is all you KNOW.

Everything else is a guess.

If you put in and are paid that first time, that is all you can say.   “I joined New Site and the threshold is $5.00 and it took me a month to reach it and I put in and got the $5.00.”

You don’t know if this is a one off as you joined a Ponzi, (Ponzis always make the first pay out) you don’t know if you really earned $10 but the owners take half your earnings, all you know is that you got your first pay out.

If after one year you have always gotten paid like clockwork, then you can state that.

If someone says, “I wasn’t paid…”  don’t kick them down and shout; “You Broke The Rules!”    Wait.  See how many others were not paid.

In many cases, if a writer lives in the United States s/he is more likely to be paid because there are laws in the US and the servers are usually located in the US.

For example, if the server is in New York, one contacts the Attorney General and the fraud will be investigated.  If one lives in a 3rd or 4th world country, well, just have to take the loss.

Most Shills are from America.  They are ‘always paid’ and most people who aren’t paid are from other parts of the world.

When you join a site, do your best, follow the rules, and tell the truth.  Your truth.   “I was always paid.”