August 10, 2016 at 8:06 pm

@cmoneyspinner I’m sure we never will. But you have to figure that they earned a lot of revenue from all the activity there. They had more than a million users in just a month or so of launching, and to my knowledge, they only ever paid a handful of people their $100 cashout. I think they earned what they could and then they closed because traffic was dropping off and it wasn’t profitable anymore.

The closed model was never going to work. If all your ad revenue comes from your own users, you can’t stay afloat. And their system was set up so non-users couldn’t see anything on the site except the front page.

August 10, 2016 at 8:02 pm

@cmoneyspinner Sheridan is a nice guy. I think he just wasn’t prepared to make business decisions for his site. And when he did, he let things go too long and then announced suddenly. Users were completely in the dark about the problems with the site’s earnings until he cut off the earnings program. By then it was too late to do anything or suggest ways to fix the problem.

As far as the honesty factor, he does seem honest. I know some were paid what they were owed even after the payment program was suspended. But when others tried to transfer points to friends so at least another person could cash out, he reversed all the transfers and disabled the transfer feature. He claimed it was a problem with the database but there was no problem getting the exact amount of coins refunded. It felt to me like he just couldn’t afford to pay anyone else, and was making sure nobody could cash out with the help of friends.

I’m sorry to say it, but that doesn’t feel transparent at all. I think it was done out of fear and not greed or deliberate deceit. I’m sure Sheridan was just trying to hold off any more payment requests and that he truly believed he would have better results later so that he could pay users eventually. But to be truly transparent, he should have explained the situation with the point transfers and asked people to please wait.

August 8, 2016 at 8:57 pm

The site is not down. This was a temporary issue that happened some time ago. BlogJob is still running, They just aren’t paying right now. They suspended the payment program after they migrated the site. It was the biggest mess I’ve seen on a writing site since Bubblews announced their supposed upgrade and didn’t really change a thing.

August 8, 2016 at 8:38 pm

That’s exactly why I left when I did. It had potential, but the owner didn’t listen to members who said the content needed to be visible to non-members. No site is going to be sustainable enough if it’s paying users but not getting any external traffic.

August 8, 2016 at 8:36 pm

There are websites that help people find guest blogging gigs. You could check out sites like MyGuestBlog, and see if you can find writers that way.

You could approach friends who are writers in a suitable niche and simply ask them for a favour. When I was approached for guest blogging like this in the past, the site owner was offering a small honorarium (I think it was $5) to write the post. She also wrote her own post that spoke of the guest blogger and linked to a few of that author’s posts elsewhere.

You can also put a post or a notice on your blog to announce that you are looking for guest bloggers. Tell them to contact you, and see who responds. This is one way to guarantee that the people who offer will at least be familiar with your blog already. Their writing may them be a better match for the content you already have on your blog.

August 6, 2016 at 11:31 pm

GoAskAlice is a good site owner. I believe that in general, he wants users to do their own thing and just to realize that the more they interact, the more they earn. It’s a very unique site, though. I like to say that MyLot has done a much better job of producing a Facebook-like atmosphere that provides revenue to users than Bubblews did when they unveiled their big “site upgrade.”

August 6, 2016 at 1:00 pm

@swalia Yes, I saw your thread and I believe I had also commented there. For now, I am making do with muting the volume on my browser. But it’s still a waste of bandwidth when the video starts by itself and loads on every single page. And sometimes to scroll down in order to pause the video can take quite some time.

I do hope that the admin will find a better place to put this video (as I said, on a FAQ page it could work well) and that they find other ways to generate revenue, that don’t involve autoplaying videos.

August 6, 2016 at 12:49 pm

I had always figured that “popular” came from something like the number of friends a user has, plus maybe the amount of interactions that involve that person. I’m sure the algorithm factors in other things but it’s possible, with the right combination, for it to appear pretty stagnant.

August 6, 2016 at 12:45 pm

Sadly, treating one’s employees well seems to be a thing of the past. Most companies seem to only think about the bottom line and not about morale, employee health and well-being, etc.

Many companies today are paying a much lower wage than they should for the work they are getting from the employees, and often they have a practice of continually piling more work onto an employee’s plate until he is so overwhelmed that he quits or makes a mistake for which they can fire him. Then the company starts over with a new, inexperienced employee who will do the same work for less pay.There is also a common habit, in healthcare and service industry job especially, of hiring several part-time employees to fill a spot that should be held by one or more full-time workers. The company saves money on benefits packages this way, and it can cut hours drastically with impunity because part-time workers are often not guaranteed much beyond one or two shifts per pay period.

There is also a common habit, in healthcare and service industry job especially, of hiring several part-time employees to fill a spot that should be held by one or more full-time workers. The company saves money on benefits packages this way, and it can cut hours drastically with impunity because part-time workers are often not guaranteed much beyond one or two shifts per pay period.

It’s all about money, and about what’s easiest for the company. The focus on making a quality product or providing a top-notch service that all the employees can be proud of no longer matters.

August 6, 2016 at 9:03 am

@cmoneyspinner Did you ever get your post/image issue sorted out? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like what you describe. At least not here on LB. If the image dimensions seem right, maybe it’s the size of the file? Many sites can’t accommodate an image that’s more than 2 MB, or sometimes 3 MB. Could it be that?

Also, sometimes there are aspect ratios or specific minimums for either the length or width that must be observed in order for the image to be picked up by the site. If your aspect ratio is off, the image might become distorted. And in some cases, the image can’t be added at all. It’s just like on Pinterest, if the image is too small, the site acts like it just can see it to create a pin.

August 6, 2016 at 8:57 am

I tend to share almost any good post on Stumbleupon, regardless of the topic. On Pinterest, I share if I have a board that fits and I think the post will interest my Pinterest pals. I also tend to pin some of the best posts to group boards where they will gain more exposure.

I use Google+ as a bit of a catchall, like StumbleUpon. If the content is good, I will share even if I don’t usually write in that niche.

For Twitter and Facebook, I mostly share content that fits my own niche areas. But I will sometimes step outside that box, especially if I’m retweeting or sharing something I’ve seen posted already to Facebook.

I try to share at least as much of others’ work as I do of my own. I am quite active in some Facebook blogging groups, where writing friends share what they’ve published on their own blogs and on other writing sites, as well as the sites where I write. I find this provides a really good mix of content, wherever I happen to be sharing 🙂

August 6, 2016 at 8:49 am

@kaka135 I find it awkward to read and respond to other users’ wall updates here on LB. You’re right: it was much easier to keep up with the news on BlogJob because of the notifications and the timeline feature.

I think these things are not necessarily standard features when a site like LB sets up its forums and profile pages. They probably require additional programming that not every site owner is equipped to manage. Even if they are programmers, often there are much higher priority tasks that take up their time. It could be one of those “when I get around to it” things… 😀

August 6, 2016 at 8:41 am

That’s how I’ve been finding my mentions too, Grace. It does take extra time, though. Which means I’m less inclined to take the time to check if I’m busy with other things. As you say, we all divide our time between different activities on different sites as well as offline.

As you say, we all divide our time between different activities on different sites as well as offline. I have a strong preference for writing and interacting on sites that run smoothly, so I make them my priority. If there are technical issues for a brief time, I try to understand and give the site owners time to address whatever is wrong. But once I start to experience a lot of continuing issues that are not even being discussed, let alone resolved, I tend to give the site a bit of a wide berth.

August 6, 2016 at 8:23 am

I am getting the little orange pop-up notifications for mentions but when I look in mentions or notifications, nothing is there. I hope I’m not missing anybody! I hope @support can figure out why the notifications aren’t displaying or redirecting properly….

August 6, 2016 at 8:20 am

@peachpurple I wish your son all the best with his exam! I hope he will achieve very good grades.

I just got my oldest daughter’s transcript of marks for the past 3 years in the mail today. I am very proud of her! She got very high grades.

In my time, they would have called her marks “high honours.” I think today, they only put “Achievement with Honours” on the final transcript and they give the same notation for all the honour students. But her cumulative GPA is over 3.70, so it’s equivalent to magna cum laude.

Not bad for a girl who has ADHD and two specific learning disabilities!