You Give More Chances Than a Lottery

The title is a remark made to me by my best friend.

I do give chances until I could give evidence in Court that what is suspected is true beyond a reasonable doubt.

When it come to writing sites my ‘radar’ goes off rather early and before I make a statement about the bona fides , I prove the point.

The Old Bub

With Bubblews, I listened to others about the ‘unworkable business model’ that the site had adopted and ‘played it’.

Being informed that ‘everyone’ was paid the first time, (when the payout was $25) I posted a number of ‘splices’. These were items I had published on Hubpages which were ‘unfeatured’.

A Little Digression/Explanation

Unfeatured items don’t exist. They might as well be writing by hand in your diary. They can not be seen, so would not show up on a plagiarism check. The items are ‘unfeatured’ by persons who do are not owners of the site.

When an item is submitted all members can ‘Hub Hop’, that is, go to new items and ‘judge them’.

Now let us be painfully blunt; every writer is in competition with every other writer in their genre. By ‘flagging’ a post it will be ‘unfeatured’. This means that the person who flags it can quickly scribble an item, plagiarising the ‘unfeatured’ item. The writer, told to ‘fix’ the item will waste time adding, subtracting, etc. and repost. The item will again be ‘unfeatured’ again, proving it is a total waste of keystrokes.

By using these items on Bubblews I could not be judged ‘guilty’ of plagiarising, as the item did not exist online.

BACK TO BUB

I gathered my first payout from the Bub. I had spent most of my time liking, commenting, and posting a splice every few days.   I repeated the process and was NOT paid the second time.

I walked away from the  Bub until I heard that the redemption had changed from $25 to $50.   Correctly assuming that ‘everyone’ would be paid the $50 the first time I went back.  My previously published items had garnered $38.   To make that $12 I liked, I commented, and published a few splices. I hit $50, was paid and walked away.

I didn’t go quietly.

I wrote in every possible corner what a scam Bubblews was. I was attacked until the site went down, owing this one 7 pay outs, that one 10 payouts, etc.

Hubpages Redux

Recently, I reflected on Hubpages and it’s ‘nonfeatured’ trick.  I went over my ‘nonfeatured’ items. All were quite good. They were long, they had images, and the ‘excuse’ given as to why they were unfeatured did not stand up to the mildest scrutiny.

In short, the ‘reasons’ were rubbish.

Way Back When

Hubpages has a very peculiar history. Once it garnered Twelve Million Hits a Month. It was a top site. Often an article published there would pop up on a Stumbleupon.  Some of the writing was so good, that a member would go on to write and get caught up in reading other people’s work.

Yes, there was rubbish. There was highly rated rubbish and I thought that Google’s Panda was developed to deal with this rubbish.

To give you an example.

On Monday Crapwriter posts: Important Information About Diet

The article reads…

“Everyone is talking about diet. All over the world people are interested in diet. You are probably interested in diet. Diet is nothing to worry about. ”

It goes on for 1000 words and says nothing.

On Tuesday Crapwriter posts; What you need to know about Exercise

“Everyone is talking about exercise. All over the world people are interested in exercise. You are probably interested in exercise. Exercise is nothing to worry about. ”

It goes on for 1000 words and says nothing.

On Wednesday Crapwriter posts… (you get the idea).

I assumed the Panda would go after this kind of SEO/Keyword gaming which gets views but says nothing.

It isn’t only the Panda

After the attack of the Panda, Hubpages descended from 12M to 6M then dropped to 3M. It held that number for a time. Today it has about 600k views a month.

It is not just the Panda.

Writers flee Hubpages in droves. Having experienced the ‘unfeatured’ trick they appreciate that writing for the site is a waste of keystrokes. All it takes is one hubhopper to flag it, and it never sees the ‘Net.

One thousand words, composed, spell checked, grammar corrected, images, posted to Hubpages, which disappears into the ether because someone decided to flag it.

To prove this, today I sat down and wrote a virtual thesis, the kind I would hand into a University Class.

I shortly received an automated response. The basic “Your item has not been featured because of…” (there is a check list and the Hubhopper checks one which appears).

Why was my item not featured? It needed ‘Proofreading.’

If any site had played into my hands, it was Hubpages. What I submitted was far above the so-called ‘quality’ the site offers. This was the kind of document one rarely ‘wastes’ on a publishing site. It is the kind one turns into an e-book. And someone could tell me it needed ‘proofreading?’

Yes, I give more chances than a lottery. And Hubpages just burnt its last one.