Why Micro-Blogging Sites Don’t Make Financial Sense
Revenue sharing writing, and blogging sites are rapidly being started, copying the idea of Bubblews. I think these sites are a great idea but some are doomed to fail. Here is why:
I joined Bubblews in July 2014 after the demise of Yahoo Contributor Network (YCN) which I wrote for since January of the same year. At first, I enjoyed the freedom to write whatever I felt like, and I received credit for my article views, likes, and comments. I was very familiar with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) which I studied through the YCN online writing course. I did my best to make my posts SEO and promoted my posts on social media.
My Experience with Bubblews
At first I had good success with the views I was receiving, then the site owners did away with the views display and stated that they wanted to promote social interaction, showing only comments and likes for each post. Since there was only a 400 character minimum for posting, many posts were very short on content which is a not good for SEO. The majority of posts were becoming micro-blogs. Titles were short with no keywords, and posts lacked any introductory section like this one. In other words, when the subject of the post was searched in any search engine the results would never show for the Bubblews articles.
Bubblews Financial Problems
Why was this bad for Bubblews financially? If only the members of Bubblews were reading the posts this limits the exposure to the ads just to the members on line at the time and their followers. Not encouraging outside views with good SEO posts, cut search engine exposure and thus clicks on the ads. Shortly after, the site had serious financial problems and didn't pay a large amount of money owed to its members.
Violations of AdSense Terms
Many members were asking if it would help to click the ads to generate more money for the site. Then AdSense pulled their ads from Bubblews. One of the violations of the Terms of AdSense is for clicking your own ads on your site. Since the members benefit from these ads this is a violation. How is Bubblews going to generate revenue if the members are not allowed to click the ads and very little traffic is from outside the site? Obviously their business model is doomed to failure.
Persona Paper is not Bubblews
Why is Persona Paper Different? This site encourages members to promote outside of the site and to write full articles. Members try to make their posts SEO optimized so that the search engines will list their posts high in the search results. Is it going to rival Twitter or Facebook? Not a chance. It is a site for writers to write what they want, interact, and make a little money, not a social media site. I think that Persona Paper has a great business model and will survive in the future.
Micro-Blogging Problems
Micro-Blogging revenue share sites will have difficulties generating ad revenue because micro-blogs don’t show up in search engines, and ad revenue will be limited. Search engines favor good content with relevant keywords, and properly structured articles. This is their game and if you don’t play by their rules you will not succeed. This is my opinion and I am no expert. What are your opinions?
Keywords:
Micro-Blogging, Writing, Revenue Sharing, Bubblews, SEO,
Image Credit » http://pixabay.com/en/abstract-social-media-font-words-422433/
Comments
VinceSummers wrote on March 3, 2015, 9:56 PM
I like the people who run the site and I like its atmosphere. Do I think it will make it? It would be very nice, but frankly, I doubt it will ever set the Internet on fire. I think it will be doing well to stay afloat more than a couple of years tops.
RonElFran wrote on March 3, 2015, 10:44 PM
First, glad to see another YCN alumnus. On Bubblews there were some of my articles that seemed to be getting search engine traffic; and I have run across Bubblews listings in Google. But you're right that search engine traffic was definitely not the Bubblews model. For me, the jury's still out on PP. I don't yet see any indication of the site having much search engine pull. And the articles displayed here are much closer to the Bubblews end of the scale than, say, HubPages, where search engine traffic is by design the driving force of the site. We'll see.
1AliCanary wrote on March 4, 2015, 8:30 AM
I agree with you completely. Will and Heather definitely want SEO-oriented articles, but they are nice enough to allow us to write whatever we want, as well, from poetry to chatty, bloggy posts, so I try to make sure to get some SEO stuff in to support the site, as well as the fun stuff that just plays to my regular audience.
AliCanary wrote on March 4, 2015, 8:32 AM
PS - I'm from YCN, as well (and Bubblews!), and I am republishing some of my articles here that did well on Yahoo. The page views here aren't anything like those on Yahoo, but they won't be until we can build up our search engine power--which of course means writing more searchable articles, as you suggest.
PeterChase wrote on March 4, 2015, 2:00 PM
I agree. I think this site is doing it the right way. They are selective about who writes here and their staff is small but also competent. Bubblews had no standards.
PeterChase wrote on March 4, 2015, 2:06 PM
I am experimenting here to see what happens. I have yet to promote this article on social media. This also helps Google listings especially Google+. I hear HubPages is fairly slow now. I wonder if it is because of the changes in the Google search metrics or simply ad blocking browsers.
PeterChase wrote on March 4, 2015, 2:17 PM
SEO articles should make the writers more money also. It is nice to be able to publish all kinds of writing here. I only had the chance to write 27 articles on YCN but have more than 300 from Bubblews. The thing I fear about taking down my Bubblews posts and publishing here is that I will leave many dead links all over social media. Some are easy to get rid of but others like Twitter's re-tweets are impossible to delete. The other day I discovered a Pinterest Pin from one of my YCN articles. I deleted all of my Pinterest Pins but it was a pin on someone else's board. I may just put a different title and edit a bit then post here.
RonElFran wrote on March 4, 2015, 2:56 PM
HubPages, as well as my own hubs, were doing great until October when the latest Panda was introduced. Then we all took a hit. But now my views are slowly recovering. And as I mention in my "My experience on HubPages" article (http://www.personapaper.com/article/24343-my-experience-on-hubpages), HP provides a potential for social media to take off that i don't think is matched by other sites right now.
AliCanary wrote on March 4, 2015, 9:11 PM
Broken links would only harm Bubblews, though, wouldn't it? Not your writing. I mean once search engines de-index your articles, the results would still zero in on your work accurately enough, wouldn't they? I'm asking because I feel like I know some things, but I'm not an expert. It sounds like you know your stuff, so I am looking forward to learning from you.
PeterChase wrote on March 5, 2015, 5:06 PM
Dead links also make you look bad, as if your content has been pulled for some reason. I think the term would be called your brand reputation. The older the link is the less of a chance it will turn up on social media and of course it won't come up in any search engine.
AliCanary wrote on March 5, 2015, 6:50 PM
Oh, heh. I'm not worried about my reputation
Thanks for the info, though!
arthurchappell wrote on March 22, 2015, 8:49 AM
good strong assessment of the situation - Bubblews often failed to get rid of spammers even when reported many times - such sites need a strong hand on the helm
PeterChase wrote on March 24, 2015, 7:01 PM
Bubblews failed miserably at getting rid of spammers, fraudulent accounts including false redemption claims and TOS violations. They are very naive and inexperienced and lost their shirts because of it.
Hollyhocks100 wrote on March 29, 2015, 4:58 AM
I think PP will be the next big thing, but whether this is sustainable remains to be seen.
PeterChase wrote on March 29, 2015, 1:46 PM
I think PP can be sustainable but no one is going to make a living from it as well as any similar sites. The management here seems to have a realistic outlook and has their heads on straight unlike the big bad bubble. Advertisers will always be willing to place ads wherever there are eyes looking, so there will always be some income for these sites and they will survive as long as the costs of keeping the site up don't exceed income.
CoralLevang wrote on May 9, 2015, 3:29 PM
I was with Associated Content before it was taken over by Yahoo Contributors Network. When it was downgraded, I went over to Bubblews. I've had some decent success at both, but I have left the later in January, though I still maintain a few articles there to keep up with what is happening there. I was surprised to find that I received a comment (if you want to call it that) from Bear, the marketing director, on my last article.
I think that Elitecodex and MaeLou have it "right." They are realistic and helpful. They make decisions based on critical thinking skills, rather than on emotion. It seems that they look at things for the good of the whole, rather than "what's-in-it-for-me," and that is a far cry from what I have seen at Bubblews. I hope that we can all help this site can take off and make their efforts worth it.
LeaPea2417 wrote on December 14, 2015, 10:45 PM
It is sad what happened to Bubblews and how it died. I like this site and hope it never dies.