My Personal Experience with Bubblews

Before I joined, a chap was discussing Bubblews on another site.  He mentioned; “This is an unsustainable business model”.   Those were his words.

Background

The Chap explained how he had investigated the site and its owners.  He said that the site began with the borrowing of Ten Thousand U.S. dollars from a relative of Jason, who was Arvind’s partner.

The first thing was that is a lot of money for a writing site.  I know that the ‘cost’ (if any) for hosting is one 1/1000th of that.  So what was this Ten Thousand ($10,000.00) Dollars for?

The second thing, is how does one pay for ‘likes?’  Views, okay.  Comments, okay.  But likes?

I entered Bubblews with an almost certainty it would be a scam.   And I implemented my ‘scam protocols’.

Scam Protocols

There have been many scam sites over the decade.  I have an entire protocol as to how to deal with them. Especially when they pay for hits, comments and likes.

Firstly, I comment on everyone’s item.   At least those I can read without a barf bag.   I like items.  I like some items I comment on, and some items I comment on and don’t like, and some I like and don’t comment on.

Then I would begin my Clown series.

The Clown series

This is a protocol I created years ago.  I call it the Clown series although often it isn’t about clowns.  I write as if I am a Clown in a circus and describe my training.   I have never been a clown in a circus.  I don’t like clowns. This means that what I am writing is worthless.  It is funny, makes me crack up every other sentence.

Sometimes I pretend to be an Actor.    I describe starting out as an extra and make it up as I go along.

In short, what I do is write an item, and publish just about the minimum word count every day.   So, imagine I wrote a six hundred word bit of ridiculousness about some fantasy,  and the minimum is 250 words.  I chop the item into three pieces, had bits here and there so as to get three items.   I publish one on Monday, one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, I’m commenting and liking.

Back to the Bubble

I joined the Bubble under a nickname and began my process.  I made the $25 pay out, put in, got it.   Meanwhile, the Chap I mentioned who had said Bubblews was an unsustainable business model was making the assumption that it would not pay the 2nd redemption for at least 50% of those who applied.  He actually did a kind of ‘algorithm’ in which he set out that the more people who joined, the less would be paid the 2nd redemption.

When people contradicted or argued he said Jason and Arvind were highly educated and knew how to run businesses, having done a search and revealing their backgrounds.

Now if two guys who were nothing much tried to run a writing site and made mistakes well, shrug.  But these were professionals who attended one of the top schools in the world.  They knew how to run a business more than anyone.   They had to know that they had created that ‘unsustainable business model’ and had clearly borrowed the money so as to make payouts when there was no money coming in to pay.

I mentioned Ponzi Schemes.

Ponzi Schemes

In the 1920s a chap named Charles Ponzi accidentally created the scheme which bears his name.  He may have done so accidentally, but his followers do it on purpose.

Whether one wants to go to a Bernie Madoff or Bubblews, a Ponzi is a Ponzi and operates on a certain pattern.

People are invited to ‘invest’.   Everyone is paid that first time.   Whether it is a ‘invest $100 and two weeks later get $200’ or it is write for Bubblews, it is a Ponzi which has certain rules.

The first rule is everyone is paid the first time.

The second rule is that less than half are paid the second.  Usually it is only 30% who are paid.

In a money Ponzi; just as an easy example, 100 people invest $100.   They are all paid and reinvest while others come into the scheme.   Say, 100 people came in, were paid, told their friends. Of these 100, say 90 reinvested.  In most cases, they reinvest the $200 going for $400.   Some will take the money and run.

The publicity created by those 100 will bring in 500.    The 90 who reinvest; (90 x $200 = $18,000) have their money used to pay some of those 500 the first time and a handful of ‘reinvestors’.   The Ponzi gets bigger, more invest, everyone is still paid the first time, but 2nd and 3rd time investors are not paid.   Eventually, no one is paid.

On a writing site it is very simple.   Everyone is paid the first time, then a specific group is paid the second.  This specific group is made up of;

a) Most Americans who post reasonable items.  (only the trolls and plagiarizers are not)

b) Persons who have brought in at least five new bodies

c) Persons who have some ‘link’ to the Owners, (in Bubblews it was the part of India that Arvind’s people came from)

Everyone else is NOT paid.

The Great Bub

So everyone logs in and comments and posts and likes and eventually reaches the $25 threshold and is paid that first time.

Everyone starts to write until their fingers bleed to reach that second payout.

With thousands of people joining, with revenue coming in from previously published items as well as new items, the 1st payments to the Newbies are sent, the Oldies, save those who fall into the a,b,c are paid. All others are NOT.

As the way the money builds, the expectations of being paid mount, those who were not paid that 2nd time assume they will be paid, so keep writing.  They keep writing, there are hundreds of thousands of members, the advertising revenue is coming in, and after paying Newbies their first, less and less Oldies are paid.

Some people realise it is a scam.

They have gotten their first payout, didn’t get their second, stop writing.

Most people don’t realise it is a scam and keep writing, keep posting, keep putting in for a redemption.   Some will start to complain.

Those who complain on other writing sites will be attacked.   They will be attacked by the Shills of the site.  These are people who brought in other suckers and are Always Paid.   These are people who only look at themselves, not at others.   When hundreds of people aren’t paid, saying; “You Broke the Rules!”  only makes them seem more corrupt.   For how does any writer know who did what?

Think of it.   Sure, in some cases you can see X or Y who didn’t post in English.   So can say, well, the site says you have to post in English.   But, if they would go to the items written by those they condemn, they would see that almost all of them did not break any rule.

The fact is, that people who do not come from America (or England) or parts of India, or who didn’t bring in at least five suckers every month are NOT paid.  Their revenue is used to pay Newbies, and fill the pockets of the Owners who made back that $10,000.00 they borrowed faster then expected.

By the time Bubblews went down, about 75% of all users were not paid.   Some were owed one redemption, but many more were owed over five.   There were people who said they’d been paid the first months and now are owed over $700.   With redemption being $25 that means that these people put in over 20 times.  How could they be so stupid?

My Account

Having expected the site to be a Ponzi, I put in for my first redemption after my ‘Clown’ series.  I got it.  I spent more time liking, commenting, and letting my revenue mount up.   I posted a few more items in my fantasy series and reached that second redemption.  I put in, didn’t get it.

I stopped writing, stopped liking, stopped commenting, and stopped visiting, and joined the ranks of ‘complainers’.

When Bubblews raised the redemption to $50 I looked at my account.  I had $38.

I went back, commented, liked, and made four new posts.   I reached $50 put in for my redemption, got it, and never made another key stroke.

When Bubblews collapsed without a word, leaving everyone unpaid I was not at all surprised.   I knew that American law enforcement were on to them, and so, the site was closed, and Arvind and Jason moved on to another rip off.

I can’t really complain.

Firstly, being aware the site was rubbish from the first keystroke, I spent most of my time not writing more than comments.

Secondly, what I posted was properly written, yes, but as valuable as anyone of you pretending to be a Clown in a Circus, and Actor on a set, or an Astronaut getting ready to go to the Space Station.  It was the kind of stuff I didn’t put my popular Nicks on because I didn’t want anyone to know I had written the junk.

Thirdly, I got my first payout at $25 and my second at $50.

Fourthly, I brought NO ONE onto the site, warned everyone about it, so have no guilt at all.

Unlike those who pulled in suckers who wrote their hearts out and got nothing, Unlike those who ran to other writing sites to attack people who weren’t paid, I can hold myself with pride.