Stupid Infobarrel Question

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   John H Allenposted 9 years ago

   Dear Fellow Hubbers,
   
   I'm sorry to have to ask for advice about this problem here but, as I'll explain, my options are limited. I know some Hubbers also write for InfoBarrel so perhaps someone has had the same experience as me and knows what to do about it...
   
   I signed up for InfoBarrel and successfully verified my account by email. When I tried to log in for the first time I was told that my password is incorrect. It was not - it was the one I just used to set the account up. After several attempts to log in and after checking obvious things like caps lock, I clicked to reset my password but the link in the email IB sent just led to a blank page. I tried this several times also.
   
   There is no email address on the IB website - just a contact form which I have filled in twice and to which I have received no reply, even after 10 days. I have checked their forum and no one else has this issue. Worst of all, I cannot post to ask this question there because I cannot log in! I tried to create a second account with a different password and exactly the same thing happens. And I have tried different browsers and computers.
   
   Since I cannot contact anyone at IB, I am asking here. Can anyone suggest how to overcome this problem?
   
   Many thanks,
   
   John

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      sallybeaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Not sure that I would write there.  I have heard that if you ever leave them, they retain your writing, even if your account is closed.

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         neosurkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         @Sallybea,
         That is not true at all.

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            Barbara Kayposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I have two articles there that I have asked to be taken down. They haven't been and I have allowed a couple of months. If you write there I wouldn't expect to get your writing back, because they just don't take it down and don't answer you either.

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               neosurkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Oh. I'm sorry to know this. I understand how bad you might be feeling about the site. But honestly, as a frequent user of IB and after knowing the admins, the only explanation I can give is your message may have slipped through the cracks. And I know, this is their fault but they won't hold your work.
               
               One of the admins, Ryan, is friends with me on FB and is a nice/honest guy. Since there are only two admins who handle the site, they are constantly overloaded with messages, tickets and articles to approve. I don't want to sound like I'm defending them, but you could try messaging the user "admin" after logging in there. They have replied me every time, although they haven't replied me for the messages I sent through the "Contact Us" link in the homepage.

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                  sallybeaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  I found a lot of threads on exactly this subject and they all say that this is part of their TOS.  I have never written for them and would not, if this were the case.

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                     neosurkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                     @Sallebea
                     
                     On their TOS, it states that the user retains all the rights.

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            psycheskinnerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            It is true that you can't delete your own material and need to request that staff do it, sometimes repeatedly.

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   Uzochukwu Mikeposted 9 years ago

   I do not know how to handle this issue because it is complicated, but maybe you wait they may still reply the email you wrote to them. It may be system error.
   
   Above all, you may forget above them if you have no post or article over there. I left Bubblews about a year ago because of their inability to manage their site well, and that may be what is happening to infobarrel. People should write for professional sites like Hubpages.

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3. 89

   neosurkposted 9 years ago

   @John
   
   Is there a possibility that you can create a new account and forget the old account? Only this seems to be the possible solution if you can't get hold of your account.

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   John H Allenposted 9 years ago

   @neosurk
   
   Thanks for your suggestion but I tried that and had exactly the same problem. It is surely an error with their system and I suppose I will have to wait until they reply to my contact form requests. It's just that 10 days with no reply seemed excessive.
   
   Just hoping someone might have had the same problem and knew a cunning fix for it

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      neosurkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      @John
      
      IB is working on revamping their site and releasing IB 4.0. Maybe this caused a glitch somewhere. If you want, I will get your problem to the admins there since I can personally message them. Oh, can you message me your username you created there (if you want)?

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   chasmacposted 9 years ago

   If you read this Hub about Infobarrel that Writer Fox wrote, you'll probably want nothing to do with them.
   http://writerfox.hubpages.com/hub/InfoB … or-Writers
   
   His findings and my (lack of) views and earnings there are in complete agreement.

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      neosurkposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I joined IB in September just after the Squidoo massacre, and have made over 100,000 views since. WF's hub had garnered quite a discussion on the IB forum; and although he is right about the Google cache and Bing cache thing, I, as a writer there can testify that I regularly get traffic from Google and that my articles surely do get indexed.
      
      I also don't understand why IB's articles show up as blank in Google's cache, but if you see the Text-only version, everything is there.

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   NateB11posted 9 years ago

   I'm thinking your only option is to contact their admin, though I know you've tried. I don't know if you can message him via his IB profile or if you need an account to do that. The other option would be contacting him through his Facebook profile. I forgot his name, it's Ryan something I believe. I was on a forum there the other day and he was asking a user to contact him via his Facebook profile; of course, they were already friends on FB. But you might be able to contact him that way anyway, depending on his settings.

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      RonElFranposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      neosurk and NateB11, I've been looking at IB as a possible home for the kind of articles I used to place on Yahoo Contributor Network. These are 500-900 words, and not as in-depth as my hubs. In checking out the IB site, one moment I thought it's worth giving it a try, and the next I was thinking it's not worth it (I definitely don't like the look of their articles as compared to hubs). As a seasoned IB user, would you recommend it to other hubbers? Would it work using IB as a secondary site, or to be successful would you have to devote major portions of your time and effort there? I'd be very interested in any insights you can offer.

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         NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Hi, Ron. That's a difficult question about IB. I have about 15 articles there and don't make much money and get little traffic. Of course, 15 articles isn't much. I too considered it a secondary site and that's why I started writing there back in May (I think). I was diversifying.
         
         Jean is right, there are a lot of glitches at IB. That's one reason I don't write there very much; my computer's already old and slow and doesn't handle their editor tool well at all. It's not very user-friendly. As stated, traffic isn't great. I might get a couple page views on one day, none on the next day, then maybe one or two views the next. But like I said, not that many articles on my profile there so might be early to tell; and the articles aren't that old. Last few articles I've written there got approved quickly. So I have generally good luck with their approval/review process.
         
         I am under the impression, in terms of making money, you have to write a large volume of articles there to make any money. This is what has been said on forums. It seems like an accurate assessment considering the low traffic on my articles there.
         
         There is one thing beyond a doubt; I get more traffic here at HP and the site is totally user-friendly. Hence, why I mostly write here, along with my own sites; and I agree with you about the look of articles, I prefer how Hubs look. But if you have articles that are not a good fit for HP I personally would consider IB. It's the only other site where I at least make a bit of money.
         
         I should mention this: They do have contests at IB and if you win you make more money. Also, I believe they pay people who get their articles featured. It's not my thing so I don't bother with it, but you might be into contests and submitting articles to get them featured. Getting featured there is different; only a select group of articles are chosen daily to be featured.

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   gitachudposted 9 years ago

   They appear to be on a downward spiral - views are very low, about 2000 page views per day.

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      Jean Bakulaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I began writing on Infobarrel about 3 years ago. At the time, you had to write either 10 or 12 articles and have them approved before they would allow you to post on their site, I can't recall.
      
      I always had trouble with the administration, and never got answers to a question. I have messages from years ago that I can't open. The site has a lot of glitches. Plus, if you just want to edit one word on an article of yours, they make it go through the whole approval system again, and it can take days to see the article back up.
      
      There is very little traffic, and mainly two really good writers who make up the bulk of content on there. The other writers are nice, and when I wrote there, I did make a few friends for a bit. I got accolades for two of my 12 pieces, something I rarely get here for about 150 hubs, I always felt you have to be one of their pets on HP to get your work any attention. But IB is on the way out, don't start writing there now. I've had pieces up there for 3 years that only have 100 views, and that I moved here and got thousands, at a time when this site was better. You may do better to just make your own blog. I have taken pieces off IB and put them on other sites. Wizzley is popular, but again, after I wrote the obligatory amount of pieces to be accepted, decided HP gets the most traffic. Best Wishes.

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         RonElFranposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         That's very enlightening, Jean. Thanks for sharing it.

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            Jean Bakulaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            You are very welcome, Ron. There are some good writers there,  I just don't think anything is going to happen with the site, it doesn't get much traffic.

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   John H Allenposted 9 years ago

   Thanks so much to everyone who has replied and offered their opinions.
   
   I'm sorry to hear about your poor experiences with IB and will seriously consider whether to pursue it any further.

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   neosurkposted 9 years ago

   @Ron
   I agree with what Nate and Jean have said. IB has a lot of glitches and you have to be insanely patient if you want to publish your work. With that said, however, IB does have a potential, and I write for IB more than I write for HP. But again, you will get more views on HP than on IB because HP is such a massive community and is more established than Infobarrel. 75% revenue share on IB sounds lucrative, but it can peak up to 90% if you publish 7-8 articles per month.
   
   As a member of IB, I can suggest you to write in there but don't write for it only. Things might get better after they release the next version, or they may not. The only way to assess if it is for you is to start writing and experimenting.

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    RonElFranposted 9 years ago

    neosurk, Jean Bakula, gitachud, NateB11
    
    Thanks everyone for your very helpful views on IB. At this point it looks like IB would be more trouble for me than it’s worth – certainly more time consuming. I don’t want to struggle with a glitchy user interface for the reward of probably only a few views. I’m also very concerned that their TOS gives them the right to continue to display your articles in perpetuity should they so desire. I may check back after they release their update to the site, but for now I don't think IB will serve my needs.

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    classicalgeekposted 9 years ago

    I'm also happy to message the admins on your behalf.
    
    I have written for IB since 2009, and have approximately equivalent earnings on approximately the same number of articles, which receive about the same amount of traffic. I have never had a problem except with temporary glitches, which are usually fixed within a day, occasionally two.
    
    IB is run by just two people, with a handful of part-time article reviewers. (One is on temporary leave as his wife just had a child.) It doesn't have the staff that HP does, and it doesn't work well with Internet Explorer, but I find it useful for articles that don't work well with the HP platform. Also, it's about not having all your eggs in one basket; I spread my writing across a number of sites so that if one site closes, my income remains fairly constant. (I learned that lesson after eHow.)

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       Jean Bakulaposted 9 years agoin reply to this

       Hi classicalgeek,
       That was how I got on IB too, I didn't want to keep all my eggs in one basket. I found the crowd there to be helpful and nice, and they have some really good writers there. I just got frustrated with not being able to edit one word and having a new article out of view for as long as a week because of that. Plus I didn't see a lot of new people joining, it was always the same few writers.

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          classicalgeekposted 9 years agoin reply to this

          Editing an article on IB doesn't put your old copy out of view; the old one is still live while the new one is being approved.
          IB's preapproval process can be very frustrating for some people. Once you are preapproved then it is instant. Yes, it's completely annoying, but then IB doesn't have the problem with articles being completely incomprehensible to the normal English reader, such as people have been complaining about in the forums here. Each site has its advantages and disadvantages, so you have to pick which articles go where carefully if you wish to diversify. Life is full of tradeoffs.
          I see newbies on the IB forum every week, but it's true the site is much smaller than HP and doesn't have the forum activity that we see here.

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    psycheskinnerposted 9 years ago

    Infobarrel is the first content site I ever used.  I put up 3 pages in early 2011 and in all the time since they have made a sum total of 1c.
    
    I moved to Hubpages.

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