June 20, 2016 at 5:42 am

Members receive notifications of private messages (the same orange boxes we see for other notifications.) I think if you want, you can elect to get an email too. I turn all my email notifications off, so I’m not sure.

That I’m aware of, the only way to know if the message was received is to ask your friend or to wait for a reply to come. A read receipt would be nice, but I don’t think there is an option for that built into the site.

June 20, 2016 at 4:31 am

@sunil The problem with watching the bank is you have to be watching exactly when the post is published. most of my posts publish while I’m asleep and, in the hours I’m away from the computer, there are pages upon pages of visitors referrals that come in. Plus sometimes I get credit for approved comments or commissions on a referred member’s posts. It would be tough for me to see if the bank figure is matching the history exactly.

June 20, 2016 at 4:26 am

@peachpurple I haven’t submitted yet, as I got busy offline. I think I will try one short post and one about 500 words long, just to see what happens. If I have time I’ll edit a longer post that’s almost ready for publication, as well.

June 20, 2016 at 4:16 am

@peachpurple I think Grace is right: $10 is just the minimum amount. You can redeem for more if you want, or choose to carry part of the amount forward to get you to the next redemption faster. As I mentioned, it could be a good option if you know that in the coming month you’ll be away for a while and unable to post or interact much.

June 20, 2016 at 2:17 am

@sunil So you are saying the rates have gone back to what people had grown to expect? That’s very encouraging! I haven’t submitted today, but I will soon. I’ll be watching the points once the posts publish 🙂

June 19, 2016 at 8:41 pm

@markyg Considering your time has been divided between studies and vacation until recently, I’d say you’re doing quite well!

@peachpurple I am trying an experiment to see what seems to be adding value to posts. I am trying to not add a second image, or even to create my own featured image. This way, my posts are more similar to what others here are posting. The main difference is that I take care with certain elements of SEO (title and image tags, mostly.)

I published a 472-word parenting post (with a political connection) last night. It published very quickly compared to my longer posts, which makes me wonder if shorter posts might be processed sooner. I’ll be watching for that with my upcoming posts too.

Other than publishing quickly, it earned 15 cents. I don’t have a lot of other posts of about that length, but my one other post of that length earned 15 cents as well. I had to reach the 500-word mark to earn 22 cents.

The next step is to try a shorter post, closer to 300 words, and another that is around 500 words. I have a hypothesis I want to test about the length of the posts….

June 19, 2016 at 8:18 pm

As others have said, you must simply join the group in order to comment. The forum topics are actually part of the groups, as well. That’s why you need to join the group first.

June 19, 2016 at 6:19 pm

@bestwriter It just makes sense to want to avoid creating extra work or expenses for the staff. When the volume of redemptions increased a great deal on Bubblews, all of us ended up suffering. There’s no good reason to repeat that experience….

June 19, 2016 at 5:29 pm

Thanks for the heads-up! It’s great to know what to expect, ahead of time. The increased transparency reduces any potential anxieties and makes all of us members feel appreciated 🙂

June 19, 2016 at 5:28 pm

@bestwriter I think the only reason to redeem now would be if you need a jump on next month’s earnings – say, if you are planning to take time away from blogging while you go on vacation. That would be a good reason to want to start July with a little extra money already in the bank.

Being that LB has one fixed day a month for payments, there is nothing to be gained from requesting payment more than once in the month. In fact, if many people did this it could increase operating expenses related to payment processing and could also slow down processing time enough that the there would be delays.

June 19, 2016 at 11:33 am

@sunil You introduce an interesting twist to the discussion: how many of the posts here are previously published? How many are still available online when they are submitted here? It could certainly be a consideration for pay rates as content isn’t unique if it’s available elsewhere.

@swalia There was never a published schedule of payments for posts here on LB – except what a few members guessed at from their earnings. I have posts from at least the end of May that don’t fit with the pay rates that were recorded in the forum posts. It’s tough for me to compare much before that, though.

June 19, 2016 at 8:26 am

@lovern It depends a lot on what people mean when they suggest publishing a “rant.” Strongly negative content is actually quite hot right now – negative titles perform better than the same title restated as a positive. And there are some writers and TV personalities who are known mostly for their rants. Canada’s Rick Mercer comes immediately to mind. He is hugely successful, mainly because of his political rants.

@swalia I agree with you about BlogJob. I don’t expect it to make a comeback, in large part because of a lack of transparency about how much traffic they need in order to be sustainable once more.

More transparency wouldn’t hurt here, either. Because there was never any statement as to what we would earn per post there really isn’t any obligation for LB to announce a change to how it awards upfront pay for posts. I do think it would be in everyone’s best interests if there were more transparency on this subject, and I’d invite @support or @admin to perhaps make a brief list of the things they consider in assigning the pay.

It can be tough to explain, but I do think if they could state what parts of the post are being rated (body text, formatting, use of headings, images, title, SEO, etc.) and which factors they weigh the most heavily.

June 19, 2016 at 8:13 am

@swalia I have no doubt that your earnings have gone down, and also no doubt mine have gone up slightly. I do think it’s related to what kind of content the staff are looking for. Although I can see they still favour longer posts, length is not the only factor.

I’m not publishing enough posts here to get a clear picture of what is being rewarded exactly – except to say that a post that combines two hot topics (Facebook and the US election) earned me the highest amount I’ve had for any post here.

I may try writing some shorter posts to see what happens. I wonder if even the shorter ones will earn well for me now?

June 19, 2016 at 7:55 am

@bestwriter Every little bit counts! Besides, comments on posts are seen by Google as an update. So Google’s bot will crawl the page again, and update its listing too. Lots of comments at different times mean a lot of visits from the bot. That might just help LiteracyBase to raise its profile a bit 🙂

June 19, 2016 at 7:40 am

Glad to see you again, @kaka135! I heard of World Wide Knit in Public Day from a writing friend who runs a crochet and knitting blog. As I was glancing through some links that were tagged with the #wwkip hashtag, I also learned about something called “Knitted Knockers.” These are hand-stitched, lightweight breast replacements for women who need a breast prosthetic.

As I was glancing through some links that were tagged with the #wwkip hashtag, I also learned about something called “Knitted Knockers.” These are hand-stitched, lightweight breast replacements for women who need a breast prosthetic. They are made by volunteers and given free of charge to any woman who needs them. One group was joining in a park to make these #KnittedKnockers today. I think that’s simply tremendous!