Speaking Freely, Writing my World on Bubblews.

I only joined Bubblews a few weeks ago. I learned about Bubblews through a friend of a Facebook friend and became instantly curious. After skipping the introductory video I landed on the homepage. At that moment I did not really see the attraction. The first article to catch my eye was that of an undoubtedly self proclaimed guru claiming to heal whatever ailment I might have.

In my view that did not look very promising. The article reminded me of the unwanted publicity for similar services which I sometimes find in my letterbox. Nevertheless I decided to take my chances. I signed up and started to write my articles or rather my posts as they are called on Bubblews. I decided to write the kind of posts I normally would write on my personal blog. Right after I had written a first post about my KMX trike I found that post to be liked instantly. I even got a nice and relevant comment.

A few hours after publishing that first post I found out my article had not been read as many times as I had hoped for. Nevertheless I did find some notifications from users wanting to connect with me. Soon after making my first connections the traffic to my articles seemed to take off. On that first day I made 33 cents on my own merits.

33 cents may not seem a lot but it was a lot more than I had ever made from any other site. Secondly and more importantly, by connecting with other users I soon found out that I was in the process of building a valuable network and a solid fan base.

I soon found myself writing posts on a daily basis. I do not write 10 posts a day as some authors seem to manage. On the other hand, my articles consist of far more characters than the 400 that are required by Bubblews. I feel more comfortable writing a 400 word article than a 400 character post.

Before and after writing my articles I tend to read my connections’ posts and articles and enjoy commenting on them. Frankly, I quite enjoy the interaction. On Bubblews I have the feeling that my articles/ posts are being read and enjoyed.

As a matter of fact I even wrote an article saying that I would stay on the site even in the event of not being paid. I would miss the experience and the interaction.

However, a few days ago I experienced something that I had not expected at all. As days went by I noticed that I already had written over 20 articles. I decided to check my post archive just to have a quick view. At that moment, I got a bit of a shock: one of my posts seemed to have vanished in cyberspace.

Since I had really no idea what could have happened I thought of a technical error at first. In an attempt to find the article back, I googled the title. It appeared on top of the search results in Google. I was glad: the article had not vanished after all! I clicked the link, the article emerged but so did also a message saying: “You have successfully flagged this post.” As I read this message, I did not know what to think first. Was this a technical error? Did somebody flag my article?

As I wanted to find out I conferred with other Bubblews users. The article I had written was about Belgian license plates and the funny letter combinations they may consist of. I did remember mentioning one license plate that may have been considered a bit naughty by some. At the moment I wrote the article I did worry a bit about the comments I might get. Right after the article I only got likes and positive comments.

At this moment I still do not know whether my article was actually flagged or not. In order to be sure I addressed the issue with Bubblews support. I did not receive an answer within 24 hours as promised when submitting the contact form.

Briefly I considered leaving Bubblews. Then and again, I enjoy the communication and interaction with the other users too much in order to leave the site. I will stay on for blogging and networking purposes.

Nevertheless, as much as I like interacting and communicating with the other users, I find the communicative skills of the staff members to be inadequate at this moment.

As a user I want to abide by the site’s rules. In the event of having interpreted something wrong I would have liked it if I would have been informed. In my view it is more respectful to tell someone in a short notice: “We are sorry, but your article was inappropriate/ we are experiencing technical difficulties due to which your article does not show up in your archive.” Now I have the feeling that I have been left in the lurch.

Yet, when asked, I still would advise people to join Bubblews. I did meet lovely and interesting people there. However I would advise them to be wary of what they post. The site’s Terms of Service may seem clear at first glance. At the other hand, we all come from different countries, religions and backgrounds and what may seem appropriate to one person may be inappropriate to another.