Help with "Xomba"

1. 81

   Princessaposted 16 years ago

   I'va just noticed that one of my hubs is on a site called Xomba.
   
   www.xomba.com
   
   Why is that? and how did it happen?  I am completely lost. 
   
   Thanks.

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2. 61

   C.M. Vanderlindenposted 16 years ago

   Xomba's down for maintenance right now, but from what I saw elsewhere online, it looks like a HubPages copycat. If your article is up there, and you didn't put it there, you need to report it to the site administrators. Someone copied your hub and put it up on Xomba. According to reviews of Xomba, the site splits Adsense money with its writers 50/50. So someone over there is making money on work you did.
   
   Usually, there's a "Contact Us" link somewhere on the homepage where you can report stuff like this. If you want it taken down, contact the administrators. Give them the URL of your original hub, and then the URL of the Xomba copy. Tell them you are the original author, and that it was posted on Xomba without your consent.
   
   Good luck. Let us know what happens!

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3. 81

   Princessaposted 16 years ago

   So, while Xomba's site is out for maintenance... I just wait?  Wait until the page is up again and then contact the admin.?
   
   Thanks for your reply Vanderlinden.  It is very frustrating things like this happening.  I hope it can be sorted.  But, how can they know that I was the original writer? 
   
   Is there any way I posted it there by accident?  (ok.  I am not that daft yet... I hope!) but could it be done somehow automatically?

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4. 61

   C.M. Vanderlindenposted 16 years ago

   It looks like you'll have to wait---they don't have any links  on the maintenance page they have up.
   
   As far as proving you're the original author, it's a good idea to also include the original date you published the hub in question---they should be able to tell on their end when something on Xomba was published. Undoubtedly, the copy will have been published after the original
   
   Most sites have policies against plagiarism, and since Xomba is claiming to be a site for writers, I'd imagine they have one, too. I know that someone recently copied some hubs of jimmythejock's, and he wrote to the site admin. The copies were taken down and the person who posted them had their account suspended.
   
   I highly doubt you posted by accident. Unless you black out every once in a while
   
   It is frustrating. I hope it all gets worked out quickly!

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5. 81

   Princessaposted 16 years ago

   Thanks for all your help and rapid response

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6. 61

   C.M. Vanderlindenposted 16 years ago

   Anytime Xomba's back up, BTW---and their TOS specify no copied material. From Xomba:
   
   
   
   Good luck!

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7. 84

   gamergirlposted 16 years ago

   Some of my content is being linked as a Xomblurb, I just sent a message to the site asking that the content be removed as the submission was placed without my permission.  *sigh*

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   1. 81

      Princessaposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      I am in the same situation, and not sure how I feel about it...
      
      I may follow your steps and do the same, joining Xomba... but it sounds a bit like cheating.   Is it allowed?

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8. 61

   C.M. Vanderlindenposted 16 years ago

   It's always something. I looked at the Xomblurb FAQ and it says:
   
   
   So, on one  hand, it sounds like a good deal since it's supposed to be like a social bookmarking tool. On the other hand, without putting any real work in, whoever posts the link to your article gets Adsense money from it. Not sure how I feel about this yet. Any opinions?

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9. 61

   C.M. Vanderlindenposted 16 years ago

   I'm thinking it might not be a terrible thing, because you could argue that anyone we link to in our hubs we are kind of making money off of as well. Except that we have to write an entire hub to get paid, not just submit a link......

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   1. 81

      Princessaposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      I think that is a valid point.  But we write something original and have a few links.  We do not base a whole hub on a link to another site.
      
      BTW still not sure how I feel about it... I suppose at the end is driving more traffic to my hub... 
      
      Any ideas?

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10. 84

    gamergirlposted 16 years ago

    I think I may take control of this situation myself by joining Xomba and submitting my articles before anyone else can try and make money off of it, though Hubpages' Alexa ranking is much higher.  (Hubpages - 2632, xomba - 7774)

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11. 84

    gamergirlposted 16 years ago

    I don't see where it wouldn't be allowed, but I may be called out on that.  From what I see if you post their snippet thing it would be the same as your content being submitted to stuff like stumbleupon or digg.

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12. 84

    gamergirlposted 16 years ago

    Well, except that stumbleupon and digg don't pay Adsense money to their users.. so, errrr, gosh, I don't know now!
    
    Maybe paul will poke his head in and let us know what the official Hubpages stand on it is?

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13. 81

    Princessaposted 16 years ago

    Paul .....  where are you?

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14. 61

    C.M. Vanderlindenposted 16 years ago

    I could be wrong, of course, but a link is a link, whether we got paid to submit it or not. So I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with us signing up over there to submit Xomblurbs for our own hubs. I like gamergirl's idea of beating them to the punch by submitting our links ourselves, and making any adsense money that comes from that.
    
    I'd much rather see Hubbers make money off of submitting a link to their work than see someone else profiting by doing the "easy" part of submitting a completed hub. It's probably not a huge deal either way. It's just one of those weird little things that seems to pop up every once in a while

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15. STAFF

    pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

    From what I can see, I don't think your going to make much money directly by submitting xomblurbs.  I can't find where the ads are that they supposedly sharing revenue on (for the xomblurbs).   At any rate, If you want to submit your hubs I think that's fine.  I'd suggest that you only use a small part of the text of your hub in the blurb (or better yet, new unique text), so that you don't run into duplicate content problems.
    
    If you try it, let us know how it works out for you.

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16. 81

    Princessaposted 16 years ago

    Thanks Paul.  I have submitted one of my hubs with low views to see whether it makes a difference or not.  It might worth the effort...or not!  will see.

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17. 74

    djtphn1posted 16 years ago

    So actually my corset article is on google first page, #1 spot and the url is that of that xomba site....the link includes the title of my hub and some text, but I am credited as the author and it links to hubpages, it is not copied there....are you guys saying this is a bad thing when it links to my hubpage article....

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    1. STAFF

       pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Time may tell, but at the moment I don't think it is worth worrying too much about.  I'd be more comfortable with it if they copied less of the text.

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18. 74

    Lissieposted 16 years ago

    If anyone else is going to join xomba please feel free to use my affiliate link :-)
    <snip>sorry, no promotional links in forums</snip>

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19. 0

    helenathegreatposted 16 years ago

    Done, Lissie!  Though I'm not sure how much I'll use it, but I signed up through you.

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    1. 74

       Lissieposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       
       Thanks!

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20. 74

    djtphn1posted 16 years ago

    Once again, thanks for always answering my questions Paul.

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21. 57

    spudsposted 16 years ago

    Looks interesting. I might check it out.

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22. 43

    coolbreezeposted 16 years ago

    Hubpage network is set up so we can excuse me but whore out others content.
    
    This is how you will get alternative traffic and links that lead to you.
    
    Thats why is says link to this page and offers you to use your coded link to the hubbers site.
    
    I am promoting tons of hubbers on many different networks   (All White Hat I might add)
    
    Isnt that what the network was designed for?
    
    So we could all use each others talent to make money.  I think its brilliant.

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    1. STAFF

       pauldeedsposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       Yes, but it is very important that we all respect the rules of the sites that we promote HubPages on.  We don't want to wear out our welcome or have our community cast in a bad light.  Unfortunately, the actions of a small minority have the potential to drag us all through the mud.

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23. 81

    Princessaposted 16 years ago

    It has been 24 hours since I joined Xomba.  I am only experimenting with a couple of hubs, but to be honest, I do not see much difference yet.  At least not enough to be worth the effort
    
    Will see in a couple of days

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24. 84

    gamergirlposted 16 years ago

    Indeed, Paul.
    
    On the Xomba front, I have posted two of my hubs as xomblurbs, these two are part of my 'best' section, so we'll see how it goes.  I have decided against posting xomblurbs to all my hubs so I don't get seen as a "spammer," and will be monitoring these hubs to see how the progress goes.  I will update more when I see results.

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25. 74

    djtphn1posted 16 years ago

    I just rechecked my article that someone put on Xomba and it actually does NOT have me listed as the author....it still does have a link to my hubpage article, but what do you think, should I complain....it is still on the first page in the #1 spot on google, that may change, I know, but don't know what to do at this point.

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26. 74

    Lissieposted 16 years ago

    I looks OK - I found  the one on xoomba and its a blurb? for your article and they haven't even copied the first few lines word for word - I think you have a fan!

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27. 43

    coolbreezeposted 16 years ago

    Sure Paul I understand, We all have a vested interest in hubpages and I do observe the rules of the other networks.  I think I am one of the few people even attempting promoting other people hubs. Or the only one admitting it?

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28. STAFF

    pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

    I think there are some others that do.  In the big scheme of things back link growth is the throttle that will regulate HubPages traffic growth.  If content growth (hubs) outpaces back link growth, the average traffic per hub will decline.
    
    We're starting to think about more ways to bring together those that are great at creating content with those that are great at promoting content.  It seems like there are a lot of people with one skill or the other, but people that have both skills are somewhat rare.

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29. 43

    coolbreezeposted 16 years ago

    Yes I would agree with you Paul, I know I fall some where in between. Promoting is just plane work to me ;-)  Hub pages has really helped with my writing.
    
    I wanted to ask if we were ever going to get credit for showing Videos through Adsense.
    Thank you
    Rik

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30. 72

    William F. Torpeyposted 16 years ago

    I'm one who could use a lot of help promoting hubs. I'm trying, but not getting too far. Is it too much of a stretch for HubPages to consider hiring someone (or several) on staff to promote hubs that have potential for greater traffic and ad sales?

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31. 83

    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    Is this site similar to a bookmarking site? I just checked it out, and I'm still confused...
    
    It looks like you write a short paragraph, insert the link to the full article, and that's it?

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32. 0

    JimLowposted 14 years ago

    I'm offering the following advice to fellow members here, to simply point out that you should be cautious with some content sites out there.
    
    I pulled my content off of one of them for a second and final time just this week. I'll leave them nameless but they caused my adsense to drop off of all my articles, with the other 50% of them still running so that the site still made revenue. I confirmed this with google adsense channels that showed the very day my part of the ads were stopped.
    
    I had posted a series of articles on religious subjects from Bible perspective, in their "religion and beliefs" category and while I certainly can't say this caused them to do this, the timing was suspicious. If this is the case, this would mean that they are trifling with members by using punishment type methods if they rub them the wrong way, even if they are within confines of their stated posting policies. I hope I'm wrong about it and it was just a coincidental fluke both times it happened to me at the site.
    
    The site has a space in member's profiles for placing your google adsense ID number and warns "if there are spaces before or after the number, your adsense won't work". It has made me wonder if they use improper posting of the number as an excuse to stop a member's adsense from working. They mentioned this to me when I emailed them about the issue but if this were the case, the ads would not have appeared on my posts during my 50% timeslots for weeks and months, then suddenly have stopped.
    
    I've seen other former members of the same site attest to similar incidents that caused them to leave or to be improperly banned.
    
    I'm not trying to discourage anyone, so please don't take this post in the wrong way. I'm just pointing out that you should always pay close attention to what's going on with your articles and proceed with content sites, whomever they may be, with caution!
    
    I'll end in saying I believe HubPages to be an honest and highly ethical site and I've been completely happy with them for the approx. year and a half I've been a member here!

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    1. 80

       sunstreeksposted 14 years agoin reply to this

       I'm guessing jimlow that you mean Xomba since this is where you posted about the content sites you wont name?? Don't know what to tell ya about why it would work for awhile and then stop, but in any case if you enter your adsense ID wrong it only makes sense that no one is obligated to make sure it is right.
       
       If you don't enter it in right, then adsense doesn't know to credit you for the clicks. It sounds like 50% of the time the content site was putting their links on, and 50% they were allocating the ad links to the adsense id put in but if it was wrong, no one was earning (or someone was if they had the id that was mistakenly entered)
       
       Regardless, I have been using xomba for a little awhile. I have 13 xombytes and 9 xomblurbs. Earned $1.99 so far just from today from xomba.
       
       I still do better at hubpages  and prefer the freedom of creating pages with pictures, videos, amazon and ebay, but its good if your trying to diversify where your articles are coming from when your trying to take on a specific keyword and dominate the serps for it with article marketing.

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33. 0

    JimLowposted 14 years ago

    You described it exactly right, as far as how it occurred. The thing is, it worked correctly for weeks and even months at a time before the mysterious glitches occurred. It wasn't until the second occurance that I removed my content permanently.
    I write for several other sites in addition to HubPages, including HowToDoThings and BellaOnline Thyroid Health. I get to affiliate link and earn adsense on other sites and this has never occurred on any of them.
    The correlation of when this occurred and what I was writting about was just too coincidental. I could still be wrong but even if it is a glitch that can occur unexpectedly, that was still enough reason for me to leave the other un-named site. Without them I was making between $150.00 and $175.00 in adsense a month (last months was $196.00).
    
    It's too bad too because I was linking here a lot and planned to network away, so will have to use other avenues. I need to get back busy with Delicious and other social bookmarking sites. I've had friends invite me to Twitter, so may do that soon as well.

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