Bubblews shut down.

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   NateB11posted 8 years ago

   I was over there on Bubblews playing around, which I hardly ever do anymore, and when I, strangely, tried to navigate to Arvind's page, I couldn't. I went to my bookmarks and clicked on Bubblews and got a message that the site has shut down. Simply, it stated, they couldn't sustain the site because of changing trends in ad served sites, or something along those lines. You probably can see the message if you try to go there.
   
   In it's early phases, a writer could earn a good deal of money there. As many realized, they couldn't sustain the site because you can't pay people what they were paying early on (the money just wasn't there to give) and, evidently, even when they lowered the pay they didn't make enough money. Many realized this would happen, but I had some fun there for a couple years. This last year there was nothing but trickles of income and not much participation on the site and I'd mostly given up but popped in once in awhile.

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      RonElFranposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Not only is the site shut down without notice, but posts are now inaccessible. You get a 404 if you try to access one of your articles. I'm sure there are many writers with material on the site that they never backed up, and now can never recover. IMO, Bubblews was classless to the very end.

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      Venkatachari Mposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      So, it got shut down finally. I am a member there, but not active. I posted some 50 posts and then stopped visiting it. The site seems full of personal gossip posting daily routine activities.  Nothing else. So, I lost interest in the site. There was 5 dollars in my account. It is good that they closed.

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      tsmogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks NateB11 . . . though I used only because I may of wanted to write something short not QAP quality I had a friend network . . . though used hardly this past year or so. I will spread the word at FB to them

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         Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Bubblews did have value as a friend network - a more interesting alternative to Facebook where you could exchange opinions and life stories.  That's what I used it for after the bubble burst and the money stopped.  I hadn't been there for ages though.
         
         The annoying thing for me was that I was very close to the $50 threshold, but it had been stalled at that level for months so it's unlikely I would ever have made payout.

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            tsmogposted 8 years agoin reply to this

            Agreed, payouts were always a big complaint. The bubble burst somewhat quickly for me and those I know at FB. Most are former hubbers some with some activity here. The majority sought blogs in the wave of departure nearer when the ZzZ was introduced.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

               But that's what I mean - anyone who complained about the payouts was naive, because anyone with any knowledge of online advertising would know the payment levels were far too high, and the site couldn't sustain them.

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         NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

         No problem, Tim. Yeah, there was a good social aspect to the site and was a good platform for rants and short posts for just expressing whatever you wanted.

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      Mark Ewbieposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      It was fun in those good times Nate.  The most money I have earned anywhere on the internet - that's for sure.

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         NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

         I know what you mean, Mark. Those early times were a lot of fun.

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         bat115posted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Amen to that! Bubblews got me out of debt!

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            NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

            It's interesting, at the time I actually made a payout regularly there, I really needed the money. The timing was amazing.

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               bat115posted 8 years agoin reply to this

               I was just in Paypal adding up my Bubblews cash outs and I made near to $2,000 between 2011-2013.

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                  Jean Bakulaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                  Hi Nate,
                  I made a nice amount of money there in the beginning. I never wrote anything long or serious, and it was kind of relaxing, just to write little, mindless blurbs. I guess we knew it couldn't last, but it was fun while it did.

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                     NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                     Hi, Jean. I know what you mean. I was always relaxed on that site, I never wrote anything too serious either, mainly joked around or vented, sometimes topical. My account was the closest to a personal blog as I've ever gotten. It was fun, the pay was good at one time and, like you said, we knew it wouldn't last.

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   Bronwyn Joy Ellioposted 8 years ago

   This does not surprise me at all. For the last couple of weeks that I wasted my time over there, I was lucky to be able to log on more than three times a week. The site was always down. Standby for a flood of refugees from Bubblews with low to no quality blog type Hubs signing up.

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      jansharesposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Good grief!

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      Lisa HWposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      

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         DasEngelposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         

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   janderson99posted 8 years ago

   Good riddance !

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   viryaboposted 8 years ago

   Many of us had a strong feeling that it was a matter of time. Made a bit of money while the going was good, until they cunningly 'blacked' a good number of us out for stupid reasons.
   
   Good thing I had backed up my content on Bubblews. I can always expand on many of them and post them on my blogs.
   
   So, I say good riddance to bad rubbish!

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   FatFreddysCatposted 8 years ago

   I'm surprised that it took this long!!

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      NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Lol

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   Kylyssaposted 8 years ago

   I wonder how long it will take Google to de-index the posts?

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      Marisa Wrightposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      That's a good question.  I suspect many of them were never indexed in the first place though!

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         Kylyssaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         A few of my posts have been de-indexed but the poetry I was thinking of clustering on HubPages and the article-length pieces are still all indexed. I wonder if it's best to just wait at this point or to see if I can get it de-indexed?

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   FatFreddysCatposted 8 years ago

   I made a big fat hairy deal $28.56 from Bubblews (this was when their payout threshold was only $25).... and I had to jump thru so many friggin hoops to get that $28.56 that once it hit my PayPal I said "F*** that site. I'm out!" ... I deleted all of my posts a short time later. So I guess you could say I saw the iceberg coming and jumped off that Titanic early.

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      Bronwyn Joy Ellioposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I was on $24.97 when they doubled payout from $25 to $50. When I bailed I had $28.74. Lost the lot but kept my integrity.

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   gitachudposted 8 years ago

   I am also surprised that the site lasted this long. Checked the site on Semrush and it appears it was on the rise in rankings -
   
   
   Bet anyone can rank for those keywords

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   FatFreddysCatposted 8 years ago

   The main site may be gone but somebody must still be watching Bubblews' Facebook page... Last night I commented there that it was "a total dick move" to shut the site down with no warning and take everyone's posts with it... My comment was deleted just a few minutes later.

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    kimbesa2posted 8 years ago

    I guess the silver lining is the people met there. You really could get to know them.
    
    I wrote all my posts in Word, and kept the images in a dedicated folder, so eventually all that material will be fodder for other outlets.
    
    Live and learn. It was fun in the early days.

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       viryaboposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       It sure was fun. Miss some of my followers in a way.

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    Gloriousconfusionposted 8 years ago

    I'm not surprised as I read the rumblings over the last few days.  However my big complaint is that
    (a) my bank account stood at $46.95 for several months, no matter what I did - just short of the $50 payout.  I abandoned it for about six months, but recently returned in an all-out effort to reach the payout level. I don't like being taken for a ride.
    
    (b) I would have liked to have been given an opportunity to back up some of my posts, like Squidoo's warning.  Do any of you think it will ever be possible to get Arvind to facilitate us doing a swift back-up?  I mean, would the whole site have been deleted, or merely held in limbo and still be acccessible by anyone in authority to release our work to us?

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       Jean Bakulaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

       A lot of the posts on Bubblews were quite short, I don't think it was ever meant to be a "writer's site" per se. I have a feeling we may never see our posts again. I never wrote anything serious on there, so it doesn't matter to me.
       
       I do understand how frustrating it is when your work is caught in limbo. I had written pieces on Infobarrel that took me months to have taken down, so I could move them to other places. They ignored me until someone from there wrote me a snarky message on my Google + A/C, and said I was giving IB a bad name. I gave them many chances to answer me or allow me to delete the pieces I wanted back. Finally they deleted my A/C, and I back up any serious things I write. They seem to be trying to bring Infobarrel back now, I've had a few emails in the last few days.
       
       It's important to read all the rules and question them before you write on any site. Many of them own your writing once you publish it there. Best Wishes.

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          NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

          I agree with you about Bubblews. I never wrote anything serious there, it was definitely not a writers site; it was a social site. Probably a month ago I could tell the site would soon shut down and so I copied a poem I wrote on there that I liked-- and that I intend to move to one of my blogs (for fun, I know poems don't make money)-- and I pasted the poem to notepad.
          
          I don't think anyone will see their posts from Bubblews again. Not saying that that's fair, just saying it's probably the case.

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             Lisa HWposted 8 years agoin reply to this

             I wonder how many "what I ate for breakfast" posts have been lost to the ages.....     

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                NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                Haha! Yeah, and how many "good mornings" and "good nights" and an assortment of cliches all sounding much like every other post on the site. No doubt.

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                   bat115posted 8 years agoin reply to this

                   I'm guilty of more than a few "good morning" posts on bubblews... It's funny how those got more responses than when I would write something more "thoughtful" like a movie review or my bubbles about my hometown.

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                      Jean Bakulaposted 8 years agoin reply to this

                      And there were always so many posts like, "I got up this morning, and wanted to write ten Bubbles. Then I went back to sleep." I did make the $50 payout a few times, but it was taking longer, and seemed as though groups of people made pacts to "like" each other's Bubbles, no matter how stupid. I left with almost $40.00 there, but couldn't stand it anymore.

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