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The Famous Adage; if you don’t learn from History you are doomed to repeat it. With online writing, the same scam goes over and over again. It is so obvious that it is trite. A site pops up and on every single other writing site someone logs on; “Hey! Did you hear about (name of site) they PAY for… (list of things).” All the writers on that Other site take a glance at the New Site. IF IT IS A SCAM Version I In almost all Scams the Front page is usually a ‘join’ page. You see nothing and have to join to see the contents. The Terms of Service or Terms of Use are somewhere hidden, but 99.999999% type “I Agree” without reading them. Version II The Front page is jammed with interesting items written by various people. If you check the people who “wrote” the items they have no biography and all seem to have joined at the same time. The TOS or TOU is hidden somewhere or in screens of tiny go blind type. DOING A CHECK If you go to Scamadviser you will find that the site is on a free server, the name of the Owner may be a company, the site might be in one country and and the owner in another. This should alert you… SCAM
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Cely, I really feel upset about this…lll |
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The point that I have ‘anger’ against Bubblews, is trying to make what was a legal issue personal. Bubblews was a Scam. In fact if you read an interview that Dixit gave, he does everything but admit it in simple language. Hubpages used pay $50 or more. Now, 5c. That is not my criterion for a successful site. It had 12 million hits, now, 600k. The problem needed to be addressed properly in 2010. It wasn’t and still has not been. |
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When Sites Are Too Picky There are a number of writing sites which reject your work for the most trivial/stupid/dishonest reasons. Why they do it to the Newbie is an exercise in Throat cutting. It is ‘supposed’ to make the writer feel s/he is at some ‘elevated’ or ‘important’ site but wise users turn and run. For Example… Expertcolumn pretends to be some High End writing site. It isn’t. The front page Demands you join before reading. So? If a person doesn’t join they can’t read any article. Great. So who reads your stuff? Other members. Other members who are on the site to post their own stuff. If you join, your first item or second will be rejected for nothing much. This is to slow down your earnings and make you feel somewhat ‘inferior’. It doesn’t work on a lot of people, which is why it doesn’t appear on quantcast… it gets about 200 views a month. Another site was Blogbourne. This one not only ReWrites your article but demands an image of a specific size. I don’t want my article rewritten, and I am not a photographer. My images are ‘fair use’, that is to simply put a picture to a concept. Like a bow around a gift. This is a must avoid. Vocal is a new site. It is a complete waste of a keystroke. It rejects your work without an eye blink. I believe it has gone down. As soon as you go to a site and can’t find anything to read, unless you join, close the window. As soon as you post an item and it is rejected for nothing honest, close the Window
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To go into depth about Factoidz; It was not an accident. The owner, Mike Quac, knew what he was doing. He did rip off the public. |
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The Reason Bubblews got to trick so many thousands of people is based on the text book Ponzi. If you study Business Administration in America you will have Ponzi Schemes covered in a Semester. There is a virtual ‘Science’ to ripping off the public. There are actual equations as to how to do it. Dixit did not ‘accidentally’ wind up ripping off so many thousands of people. And for his Defence, the rubbish that was posted wasn’t worth 1c. Shortly after Bubblews went down, a new cite ‘Tinycent’ popped up. The Owners were not as good scammers as Dixit. It was the same pattern. Get a set of Shills to pimp the site, have people claim they were ‘always paid’, then load the site with Ads and fill it with writing, and then, take the money and run. What you have to do to protect yourself from Scams is proceed cautiously. 1. Never Take The First Payment As Proof 2. Never Invited Anyone to Join a Site that has not paid you Three Times 3. As soon as a payment is ‘late’, stop writing and wait. Explanation 1. All Scams Pay the First Time. Whether it is an Investment Scheme, a Writing Site, a Gambling Site… you have to get that first payment to ‘prove’ that the Scam is Real. 2. All Scams depend on one Dupe bringing in other Dupes. This is how a Ponzi grows. A person, ‘just like you’ invites you to join. You join, you are paid, you are to bring in other dupes. Don’t do it. 3. Payments are never ‘late’ Payments are not Paid. Many Scammers can’t pay because they stole the money. The moment the payment is not on time, stop writing. Don’t add to your misery. |
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Don’t blame the user because the site is dishonest. This kind of… “Oh! It is the Users Fault That the Site didn’t Pay!” is the same; “You Broke The Rules!” lie pushed by the Pimps and Shills of Bubblews before they were ripped off. Let us begin on a platform of truth; Have you ever looked at or purchased anything from any Ad on any site? 99.99999% of the public will say NO. What you are saying is equivalent: “No On is Allowed to move from in front of the Television during Commercials.” |
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Bubblews, when you read the history behind its creation, it’s ‘rules’ and what it pays for, if you took a course in economics, or are familiar with business, or run a tuck shop, you had to come to the conclusion that this was an ‘unworkable business model’. Simply put, yes, you can pay a percentage for views. If you are running a site, you can pay even 3c for ever 10c you receive from views, which means that someone spent over 30 seconds looking at the site. 3c is ‘high’ in this day and was in the day Bubblews came on the market. How can one pay for likes? Comments? And pay so high … not .0001c for a like, nor .001 for a comment…? It was clear to any eye, that something was ‘wrong’ with the picture. The site ran as a Ponzi Scheme. In a Ponzi, everyone who invests gets that first payout. This ‘proves’ the site is legit. The second payout is limited. Depending on how many people invest in a Ponzi, one can pay between 40 and 50% that second pay out. The Third Payout drops to about 30% and the Fourth to 20%. This allows a lot of money to be accumulated to insure: 1. Everyone gets the First Pay Out 2. The Owners make money Bubblews paid everyone that 1st time. When it came to the 2nd payout the culling began. Those from 3rd and 4th World Countries who had not brought in five or more new members were not paid. Those from America were paid because America has a very active law enforcement agency and Dixit and Jason were living in the United States. Those from India, depending on where, were always paid, because Dixit came from India. As time passed, more people were not paid. This didn’t matter because those who were would run around and attack those who complained saying; “You Broke The Rules!” As $25 was the first threshold normal people took about two weeks to reach it, writing their fingers off and liking and commenting as if they had gone insane. Everyone got that first pay out. The Second was not so easy. The Third was even harder. Then, the threshold was raised to $50. People worked round the clock to reach it, got that first pay out, and most never got the 2nd or 3rd. Eventually, a complaint was made and Bubblews collapsed without warning. Dixit and Jason went on to create Sweeble, leaving thousands of unpaid people to be jeered at by those who claimed to make thousands on Bubblews. Bubblews is, if one stops and explores its history, created to be a scam. It was not accidental, it was not a mistake, for Dixit and Jason have University degrees. They know about business and what is an ‘unworkable business model’. Simply put; if Bubblews made $100,000.00 in January, Dixit and Jason would take $50,000 and use the remainder to pay all first time users. What was left over would pay the Shills, pets and those who brought in Warm Bodies. That Bubblews was never a place anyone went to read anything, because there was nothing to read, the Views would often be ‘in house’. Bubblews users would view the items written by other users, make comments and likes. The Advertisers would see those views. And pay for the views. The fact these weren’t new eyes, the fact no one looked at the Ads, was not registered. The only people who went to Bubblews were members of Bubblews. This pattern of how to rip off writers and advertisers has been attempted since the collapse of Bubblews. None as successfully.
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People use adblockers for virtual survival. This isn’t the ancient days where there were a banner and a closing and a couple on the side, this is where there is no article… just ‘wall paper’ for the ads. You can’t see the site, you’ve got pop ups and intrusive ads which many times cover part of an article. Ad Blockers are a reaction to too many ‘commercials’. |
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My view is that when an Owner starts to take in money, if s/he has a dishonest gene, it takes over and they deplete the ‘treasury’ and can’t pay their writers. |
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I disagree Mahesh. If a site is NON paying, such as Wikinut or Blogjob, fine. But a site like Hubpages is supposed to pay, but pays so little, if/when it’s a waste of key strokes. Any site that promises to pay and doesn’t is a Scam. When it comes to Ad Block… that’s a whole different story |
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Wikinut doesn’t pay and probably never will again. The Owner of the site hasn’t a clue how to manage a site, and left his mods to do what they pleased. As soon as the site stopped paying the Mods left, except for the one guy, the one I’d warned about publishing Shards… |
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The Fact was; the Owner messed up, and ripped off the writers. Then ran with coin. If he hadn’t been such a dishonest thief that site would be the top of the Internet. |
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There was a site called Wikinut. It was a pleasant site and it paid. Every item was moderated but not severely. The site demanded long items… over 1k with 5 images, 5 bold words and 5 links. Then one could get a Star. One would be on the Star Page and likely to be read. It was a solid site. A lot of articles, comments, interactions, and although the pay wasn’t great, it was steady. Then a couple of crapwriters came on. Now this site specifically mentions not posting what I call ‘Shards’ that is taking a long article and chopping it into slices and posting it. On Wikinut one gal got on and gave some sob story to a mod about being disabled. She posted Shards. One of them was Comedy Programs of the 50s. She posted a 500 word article on Monday another on Tuesday and anyone can see that what she did was chop up one article and make two or three. I pointed this out to the Mod who slapped me away, gave her stars, so that if you went to Wikinut you would see 14 items, and 7 were her’s. So readership dropped and payment ended. You can post there… but you won’t get paid. |
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with the Bub I was paid $25 then $50 then stopped. They didn’t pay people from the Caribbean or Africa. As Dixit is Indian he paid a segement of Indian members, and American and British members. He slipped up with an America who flagged him. I earned on the other sites when they were alive. Now it is only this one, Niume and Mylot. |
