What's Wrong With The Daily Two Cents Page Views Counter?

Happy new year (okay, it’s not the first of January anymore, but thought I’d say it anyway). I just logged on to Daily Two Cents (online writing site where you can earn some passive or residual income) and was very surprised when I looked at the number of views listed on my profile page.

Daily Two Cents view counter

I was surprised because, now, the only thing I could see on my DTC profile page was the number of views for January 2015. The views for December 2014, November 2014 and the other months in 2014 were nowhere to be found. I was confused and wondered what had happened or what had caused this to happen.

Blog post

I’m glad I saw the Daily Two Cents blog post that talked about this problem though and I’m glad that DTC informed us about this so we know what’s going on. It looks like there’s something wrong with the view counter again.

But, while it may not be displaying views, according to the aforementioned blog post, the views counter is still counting them so that’s good. I do hope this gets resolved soon. Now, I wonder if it’s the same for Writedge (another writing site like DTC)? Perhaps it is. I’ll find out for sure when I log on to the site later.

Edited to add: Both sites have now changed their payment model from pay-per-view to revenue share.

*Notes:
- Image is by Unsplash (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- YouTube video features the Daily Two Cents WordPress dashboard where you can see the link to your profile page
- This was previously published elsewhere

Writedge And Daily Two Cents Lowers Pay Rate Per Thousand Pageviews

Also known as "Thoughts on Writedge and Daily Two Cents lowering pay rate from $5 to $1.50 per thousand page views".

If you write on the aforementioned writing sites, then you must have heard the news about how the 2 sites were lowering the payment rate from $5 per thousand page views to $1.50 per thousand page views. What are your thoughts on this? What can be said about this?

I haven’t been on Daily Two Cents or on Writedge lately since I’ve been quite busy with lots of other stuff, but I did hear about this news.

On that note, I’d first like to say I appreciate how the site admins sent the members an email about this. If I didn’t get that email, I might not have known about this until much later. As it is, since I got that email, I was able to know more about this and I even got to vote in the poll so I could have a say in this matter like all the other writers on these websites.

Of course, I was disappointed and sad to hear the news about the payment rate being lowered. I was already- well, I wasn’t feeling all that good at seeing how traffic on both Daily Two Cents and Writedge seems to have fallen lately. I hope the traffic can increase soon. Anyway, I do understand why Michelle and Danielle are doing this.

Pay per view vs Google AdSense rev share

What did you vote for on the poll? Did you choose to lower the pay per view or did you choose the 50/50 Google AdSense rev share? For me, I chose the first option. And I’m actually glad this was the option that was chosen in the end.

It’s because I don’t have AdSense yet so I might have had to move my posts from Daily Two Cents and Writedge to elsewhere if the AdSense option won (unless I could get an AdSense account). Considering that the first option won, it looks like there are a number of others who also still don’t have an AdSense account.

Anyway, the admins did say that the $1.50 per thousand page views isn’t going to be permanent so I’m hoping they’ll be able to increase that amount soon and that traffic here can increase soon too. So, what about you? What do you think about all this?

Edited to add: Oh, yeah, the $1.50 was definitely not permanent. No, the pay rate wasn't increased. Instead, the two writing websites have once again changed their payment model. They're now going with the Google AdSense rev share route. The last time I posted articles on either site, the traffic was also still low.

*Notes:
- Image is by FirmBee (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere

Post By Persona Paper Admin About Blacklist Explicit Explanation Disappeared

Okay, something weird just happened on Persona Paper. I just logged in and was checking my notifications list. I saw this article posted by elitecodex entitled "An explicit explanation of our use of the word blacklist" with URL link: http://personapaper.com/article/27174-an-explicit-explanation-of-our-use-of-the-word-blacklist.

I just read the article and I typed a comment on the comment box. It was a pretty long comment. After composing my reply, I hit the "add new comment" button. The page took forever to load. When it did, I saw that I was redirected to this new article by elitecodex entitled "Changes" with URL link: http://personapaper.com/article/27221-changes.

Weird and strange, huh? I went back to my notifications list to get to the blacklist article, and, again, I was redirected to the Changes article. I checked the profile page of elitecodex and I couldn't find the link to that blacklist article. It appears to have been deleted. I wonder why? There were already some comments there and I saw that elitecodex had even responded to one of the comments.

Saving copies of comments

Well, I actually managed to save a copy of my comment. I always copy the entire comment before I hit the submit button in case there's an error or issue and the comment fails to get posted. This happened to me a few times and it's not exactly pleasing, you know, especially when you write a really long and detailed comment and then it disappears just like that. So I've started to make it a habit to make a copy of my comment before I click on the "add new comment" button and even when I reply to the comments of others.

Anyway, I'd just like to share the comment that I wanted to post on that blacklist article. After all, I took the time to write it, so I don't want to just lose the comment. I might as well post it here, right? Plus, it seems long enough to be a post anyway. LOL. This is the comment:

Those who read the articles about the recent changes to Persona Paper know what you mean about using the word "blacklist" because you explain exactly what you mean by using the word. We know you don't mean anything bad by using this term and people do understand that you had to make these changes for the site. But the problem is with your choice to use the word "blacklist".

While you don't mean to use this term in a bad way and while you explain exactly what you mean when using this term, the fact remains that there is a negative connotation associated with this word and a lot of people think so, not just those from the excluded countries like AliCanary said.

Other people, non-members of Persona Paper, those who come across the word "blacklist" will automatically get the idea that this refers to something bad because of all the negative connotations associated with this word.

If people hear the word "blacklist", what comes to their mind isn't something good. Even dictionaries list the bad meanings associated with "blacklist". People know about this meaning more than they'd know about the term in programming so they'll naturally assume those who use the term "blacklist" mean something bad.

I don't remember the exact words in AliCanary's comment on the blacklist article. But I was planning to reply to her and say that I agree with her comment. She also said something about a discussion about this that was going on in Facebook, which I had planned to ask her about since I didn't know about that.

But I agree with her about the usage of the word "blacklist". Unfortunately, there are negative connotations associated with this word. Do a quick Google search and see for yourself. Most, if not all, people won't think of blacklist as something good, right?

What do you think? Were you able to see that blacklist article? What are your thoughts on it? What are your opinions regarding this matter?

By the way, this is the post by bestwriter that sparked the blacklist debate: http://personapaper.com/article/27077-it-hurts-to-see-india-being-blacklisted-at-persona.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

scheng1 wrote on March 17, 2015, 8:43 AM:
Since a decision is made to stop new writers from India and Philippines to join, there is no need to speculate or talk about it. Wait till PP starts to make more money, then Admin will re-look into it.

FreyaYuki replied to scheng1 on March 17, 2015, 8:56 AM:
That is not the issue being discussed though. People who read those articles get that and understand that. The issue that some or many have is regarding the use of the term "blacklist", which has negative connotations associated with it.

Hollyhocks100 wrote on March 17, 2015, 8:44 AM:
I agree it does have bad connotations, but what other word would you suggest?

FreyaYuki replied to Hollyhocks100 on March 17, 2015, 8:52 AM:
AliCanary suggested using "excluded" or "currently excluded" and it seems to be a gentler word when compared to "blacklist", which sounds harsh and bad. What do you think?

Hollyhocks100 replied to FreyaYuki on March 17, 2015, 8:57 AM:
I like Ali's suggestion a lot.

AliCanary replied to Hollyhocks100 on March 17, 2015, 9:45 AM:
bestwriter had actually originally suggested "excluded" or "temporarily excluded", but I thought "temporarily" might indicate a promise that the admins might not be able to make, so "currently excluded" was my compromise. I'm glad you liked it :)

MaeLou wrote on March 17, 2015, 8:51 AM:
elitecodex deleted the articles so the term blacklist would stop popping up and make us look like we deliberately put certain countries in a negative light. People were just causing drama and it was completely unnecessary. Adults were acting like children and crying over something that they took the wrong way.

Quite frankly, I just think the situation needs to be dropped. Will is a much nicer person than I am, and members should be very thankful for that.

FreyaYuki replied to MaeLou on March 17, 2015, 9:01 AM:
Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying that. I was surprised because I was in the middle of posting a comment on that article when it just disappeared and I couldn't find/get back to it again so I wondered about what had happened.

erikalui wrote on March 17, 2015, 9:22 AM:
I guess that we can only leave it here as it's one word with different meanings. The word can be interpreted by others as per their understanding but since we know what the admin means by using it, we should accept it as it is. I too was initially upset with the term used but by talking about it, it will make this website more negative which is not right. We know that this site is genuine and the admins too are supportive. Let's make it peace here :)

FreyaYuki replied to erikalui on March 18, 2015, 10:52 AM:
Yes. I agree that the Persona Paper admins are nice and supportive.

AliCanary wrote on March 17, 2015, 9:48 AM:
Thank you for the mention! You had made a very good comment on bestwriter 's original post that I appreciated, and you were one of the people about whom I was thinking when I mentioned that many of us who weren't even from the countries involved felt that a better term might be used. The new post by elitecodex did well to eliminate the controversy over terminology and doesn't require any explanation, so I was happy to see it.

CalmGemini replied to AliCanary on March 17, 2015, 10:26 AM:
Thanks for your comment on bestwriter's original post.

FreyaYuki replied to AliCanary on March 18, 2015, 10:58 AM:
You're welcome and thanks. Yeah, I agree with you. I was also happy to see the new post by elitecodex.

Carmelanirel wrote on March 17, 2015, 9:53 AM:
I think I did read it, but I didn't comment. True the word "blacklist" has a negative attachment to it, so is the new article "Changes" about the same topic, but using different words?

FreyaYuki replied to Carmelanirel on March 18, 2015, 11:10 AM:
Yeah, I saw the new post by elitecodex. I was happy to see it. It is much better without having to mention that word and we are all still able to understand what's going on and why these changes had to be done.

AliCanary wrote on March 17, 2015, 9:57 AM:
Oops, I forgot to answer your question about Facebook. I didn't see it out on Facebook proper, but I belong to a few Facebook groups for people who are looking for good places to do online writing, and there was some discussion of the controversy in there. People were getting the idea that the site was in trouble, and I didn't want that to get out of hand. And that was just from people who weren't from the countries in question, so they were not emotionally involved--they'd just gotten a negative vibe from the whole thing.

FreyaYuki replied to AliCanary on March 18, 2015, 11:28 AM:
Ah, I see. Thanks for clarifying that. It makes sense though - use of that word can make people think bad things are happening or something because it sounds very negative. No wonder some were getting that idea or feeling that something was up with the site. Glad that it's all sorted out now.

CalmGemini wrote on March 17, 2015, 10:24 AM:
Thank you for the understanding shown by you. All the related articles including bestwriter's have been taken down.

MaeLou replied to CalmGemini on March 17, 2015, 10:41 AM:
bestwriter took it among herself to remove her own article. Didn't want anyone to believe we deleted it.

CalmGemini replied to MaeLou on March 17, 2015, 11:21 AM:
No, I know you did not delete it. But thanks for the clarification, as such a doubt may occur to some.

trufflehunter wrote on March 17, 2015, 12:27 PM:
Wow that was a long comment. You could have written a post.

FreyaYuki replied to trufflehunter on March 18, 2015, 11:52 AM:
LOL. Yeah. That was why I decided to just post the comment here.

crowntower wrote on March 18, 2015, 7:28 AM:
I think the deletion of that post has something to do with the number of people one of the them is bestwriter, telling that the word "black list" should be rephrase into a more appropriate one, for the same reason you have in your "comment" listed in your post and of others that black list is not the right term for a temporary cancellation of registration of any bloggers who want to join PPers from Philippines and India. God bless, and thanks you all for the support you express to our country and yours. God bless.

FreyaYuki replied to crowntower on March 18, 2015, 11:59 AM:
The new post by elitecodex explains things perfectly without using that word so it's all good now.

*Notes:
- Image is a screenshot of my Persona Paper notifications list
- This was previously published elsewhere

$4.98 In The Persona Paper Bank Page

Hey y'all? What's up? This is so exciting, you know? Guess what- oh, wait, I think you might have guessed it already considering the entire point of this post has already been mentioned in the title. LOL 😃.

But, yeah, that is the point. I just checked my bank page here and I see that I currently have 3,321 coins, which is equivalent to $4.98. Exciting and pretty cool, isn't it, especially considering how earnings can be pretty slow here? I'm just glad that the bank page here on Persona Paper actually moves, unlike in some other sites (*coughBubblewscough*) where the bank page is practically at a standstill.

Well, needless to say, I'm looking forward to seeing that $4.98 turn into a $5. Of course, I'd be even more pleased to get much more than that. Eh, I know that I've got a long way to go before I can reach the minimum payment threshold here. I wonder if the value of the coins will have gone up by then? LOL. So, how 'bout you? How are you doing here on Persona Paper? Are you nearing $20?

Edited to add: Unfortunately, both Bubblews and Persona Paper have stopped paying its members.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

MakeMoneyOnline wrote on March 3, 2015, 11:57 AM:
Good job! I'm at about 2.40 I think and am also still a long way from $20. But it will be a nice milestone when I reach $5.

FreyaYuki replied to MakeMoneyOnline on March 4, 2015, 1:30 PM:
Thanks. Yeah, seems like it will take a long time before we reach $20. It's certainly a milestone to reach $5. Good luck and hope you reach this milestone soon.

snerfu wrote on March 3, 2015, 12:06 PM:
Hey it is pretty exciting reading about it. I am a long way behind but reading about it makes it all better.

FreyaYuki replied to snerfu on March 4, 2015, 1:35 PM:
Yeah, it can be nice and encouraging to read about the bank page on Persona Paper moving. There was a post about someone who got paid and that can be encouraging and motivating too, so you know it is possible and that you can get paid as well.

GayleStorm wrote on March 3, 2015, 12:59 PM:
That's great! I think my favorite part of making coins on Persona Paper is that we get paid for our comments. So how much you make and how fast you make it are really up to you. Not that my bank is exploding by any means.

FreyaYuki replied to GayleStorm on March 4, 2015, 1:38 PM:
Thanks. I like that part too, so you don't always have to write all the time. Yeah, same with my bank. It took a long time before I even got this far.

Harmony wrote on March 3, 2015, 1:05 PM:
It looks it not worth to write for earnings anymore, everywhere earnings are so low.

FreyaYuki replied to Harmony on March 4, 2015, 1:42 PM:
Yeah, earnings can be really slow sometimes, but, at least on Persona Paper, you can see your bank page moving even if it does so at a slow pace.

bestwriter wrote on March 3, 2015, 7:06 PM:
If it has gone up to 4.98 it will surely go up to 20 - simple calculation.

FreyaYuki replied to bestwriter on March 4, 2015, 1:45 PM:
LOL. Yeah, I'm hoping to be able to reach $20 soon, but it's likely to take a long while.

bestwriter replied to FreyaYuki on March 4, 2015, 7:11 PM:
Mine has been a long journey too, but on the way I have met so many great connections and have learnt so much.

BarbRad wrote on March 4, 2015, 3:19 AM:
I currently have $20.29. I applied for payment and had three issues to clear. I see that tonight they have cleared, so I'm waiting for the email that says it's reached my PayPal account. That will be a very exciting day.

FreyaYuki replied to BarbRad on March 4, 2015, 1:47 PM:
Oh, wow. Congrats. That's great news. Definitely exciting. Hope you get it soon.

antoniowestley replied to BarbRad on March 4, 2015, 4:45 PM:
How long have you been on the site and how long did it take you to get to that point, is it something you can do monthly?

BarbRad replied to antoniowestley on March 4, 2015, 8:10 PM:
I joined the last day of July, but I rarely write more than one post a day. I cannot do it monthly, but maybe you can.

Dawnwriter wrote on March 5, 2015, 2:21 AM:
Congratulations. It feels good to reach milestones such as these. It is a slow journey to reach $20 (I am at $7.5), but it is encouraging to know people are still ready to try.

FreyaYuki replied to Dawnwriter on March 5, 2015, 12:25 PM:
Thanks. Yeah, it is good to see our bank page here slowly but surely increasing. It may take some time, but, hopefully, we can all reach the payout soon.

luisga814 wrote on March 5, 2015, 9:38 PM:
maybe as of this comment writing, you already reach $5 and wishing you all the best to reach $10, $15, $20 as soon as possible.

FreyaYuki replied to luisga814 on March 6, 2015, 4:05 PM:
Thanks. Yeah, I currently have around $5.13 now. The bank moves slowly, but at least it moves. Hopefully, we can all reach the payout soon.

cheri wrote on March 11, 2015, 8:54 AM:
That is great! I am still working to my next dollar to reach 4 in my bank

FreyaYuki replied to cheri on March 12, 2015, 1:36 PM:
Thanks. God luck reaching $4 soon. It can take some time to see the coins increase, but at least the bank page here is actually moving unlike in some other sites.

crowntower wrote on March 13, 2015, 5:22 AM:
Congratulations!!!! and I guess in that coins you have view many of our works here, so thank you too for supporting us and the whole staff and community of Persona Paper. God bless you more.

FreyaYuki replied to crowntower on March 13, 2015, 12:33 PM:
Thanks. It takes a while, but the coins do increase and the bank page does move so that's good.

scheng1 wrote on March 17, 2015, 8:59 AM:
By the time you read my comment, you probably have nearly $5.50.

FreyaYuki replied to scheng1 on March 18, 2015, 11:23 AM:
LOL. Yeah, it's currently at around $5.65.

*Notes:
- Image is by FirmBee (Public Domain) from Pixabay
- This was previously published elsewhere

What Can Be Done About The Lost Money And Articles On Bubblews?

By now, most, if not all, have undoubtedly already heard about the demise of Bubblews. Without warning, the writing site in question has been shut down. This is really quite upsetting and depressing, you know?

Unexpected shut down, no warning at all

That's totally an understatement, by the way. Sigh. This is horrid. It's bad enough that the site was shut down, but what makes it worse is how there was no warning at all about this. I mean, don't you think that the least that they could have done was to at least tell us about this? Don't you think that they could have at least told us that the site will shut down soon so that we can get the chance to take down all of our articles from Bubblews and move them elsewhere?

Unfortunately, they said nothing at all. They just shut down the site, and, now, nothing except the homepage, is accessible. It doesn't matter if you have a link to your profile page or one of your article pages. If you try to go to those URLs, you'll be greeted with an error 404 page. The homepage itself has nothing except a note about the site's shutdown.

What can be quite vexing is how this came as such a surprise, at least for me. I haven't been very active in Bubblews lately due to the low traffic and low earnings. But, occasionally, sometimes, I would still log on to the site to check things out, see how things are going, maybe even post something if I feel like it. These past few days though, I've been really busy, so I haven't been to the site at all. As such, I wouldn't even have known about the shut down if I hadn't come across an article talking about it.

No chance to backup articles?

I wish they could have said something, you know, like maybe have the courtesy to send all the members an email message about their plans for the site. It's not like they have to write a detailed email. They could just say something like, 'hey, the site is gonna shut down in so-and-so time, so why don't you go make backup copies of all of your posts if you wanna move them somewhere or something?'

I'm really thankful that I've already moved a lot of my articles that I really like. However, I do still have a lot of stuff posted on there. And I would have liked to be able to move them. Sigh. I think, I hope, that I do still have copies of all of those posts somewhere. At least I'm pretty sure that a number of the posts I had on there were all about Bubblews anyway, so it's not like they can be reposted with the site's demise.

I hope the others also had backup copies of their articles. For those that don't, hopefully, Google still has a cache of your articles. Know any other means of being able to recover these posts?

What about the money?

Another thing that's really quite frustrating and annoying (not to mention plain depressing) about all this is the money. How many were so near to the $50 payment threshold? I had about $44+ in my Bubblews bank page, and, someday, I had hoped that I'd still be able to reach the payment threshold or that it would be lowered and that I'd be able to redeem that money.

Now, it's impossible to do that. It's just a dream now, nothing but a shattered dream or would it be better to say a horrifying nightmare? Sigh. Do you really think that there's nothing that can be done about this now? Does that mean that there's no way for any of us to recover whatever money we had on that site? So, the site just gets to pocket everything then? What do you think about all this?

Now I feel kind of worried about the other writing sites out there. I just hope that, in case a site decides to shut down or something, they can at least give us an advance notice or warning so we can get backup copies of all of our articles.

Here are some of the comments from this article, back when it used to be posted elsewhere:

norlaw wrote on November 17, 2015, 9:06 AM:
Very good article. I have copies of my 3000 plus articles. Do you know if I will be able to submit them somewhere else? Bubblews owed me a lot of money, so I had not done much posting but checked the site to comment on others articles. Is the site a good one? Can you make any money at it. I usually write because I enjoy it but now I need the extra money.

morilla replied to norlaw on November 17, 2015, 9:12 AM:
You retain the rights to your articles; all you gave Bubblews was the right of use. However, bear in mind that other sites can put provisions on your use of articles which have been previously published.

They can stipulate or expect a certain percentage of editing; acknowledgment that it has been previously published with a notation as to what name it was published under and/or proof that (assuming you used a different name) that it was, in fact, you; etc. Likewise, when dealing with a membership site, there will inevitably be some members who 'frown' on publishing the 'same' article on multiple sites.

FreyaYuki replied to norlaw on January 10, 2016, 3:36 AM:
Thanks. Yes, you can republish your articles from Bubblews elsewhere since the site is already gone. But you should not post the same article on multiple sites since sites usually don't allow this. So, for example, if you post one of your Bubblews articles here on Persona Paper, then you won't be able to post it elsewhere unless you delete the post from this site first.

As for the money- this depends on a lot of factors like which site you join, how many visitors you get to your article, how much the site is offering to pay or like if they pay per view or by impressions, etc.

morilla wrote on November 17, 2015, 9:08 AM:
A business is not required to publicly announce what it is going to do in that regard. Remember, it's their business and you are simply a 'supplier' for it. With that said, there has been plenty of 'warning' and many members, especially in this site, have posted about that since at least the end of December last year. In other words, it wasn't a question of "if," but "when." Insofar as 'backing up articles,' that's something which people should of been doing as they posted . The same applies to contributions here and any other website.

The money is a potential point. However, given how they wrote off large amounts of member earnings at the end of December, given how people have been waiting 4 - 6 months for redemptions they still hadn't received, given other behaviors the site engaged in, and given that, if you read the Terms of Service, 'earnings' were not considered 'earned' until officially vetted and acknowledged, the case would be a tough one to make. There's also the fact that the cost of filing a legal action is more than what would be deemed to be owed to any, single member. I'm sure that's something they count on as they changed the Terms of Service to preclude "group" lawsuits.

carebear4u wrote on November 17, 2015, 9:11 AM:
Don't feel bad. I had $47 something. I even emailed them complaining. They will be missed for sure though. I am here and in TSU now.

bethieannie wrote on November 17, 2015, 10:03 AM:
If you google "Bubblews username keyword" you can find your posts. Then select to see the cache version. Until it gets reindexed, it will still show the post.

mtgywriter wrote on November 21, 2015, 9:12 PM:
I only heard about the demise of Bubblews because of a post in a writer group. Fortunately, I pulled all my posts around a year ago and never looked back. They're all still saved as Word documents on my desktop hard drive. Between now and the end of the year may be a good time to dust them off, make sure none were stolen and posted elsewhere, and see how they do now.

*Notes:
- Image is by GraphBerry (CC:BY-SA) from deviantArt
- This was previously published elsewhere