Defunct Websites

1. 89

   MomsTreasureChestposted 4 years ago

   Webanswers, AskJeeves and Google Answers are just a few of my favorite websites that no longer exist, what are some some of your favorite or fun websites that are now gone?

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   1. 61

      paradigmsearchposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Bubble News (or whatever it name was) was quite an adventure. Total mess, but I do believe I got close to a $1000 from them before it all went to hell.

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   2. 92

      NateB11posted 4 years agoin reply to this

      I'm with PDS, Bubblews was great while it lasted. I made some money there and it was fun to write short pieces to say whatever I wanted. I didn't it treat it like a "writing" site, it was a way to blow off steam or throw out some thoughts that were running around in my head.

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      1. 76

         Mills Pposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Bubblews had good membership, but suspect leadership, in my opinion. I was around Epinions for almost its entire active existence - and it was far more rewarding to me personally than Bubblews ever was. Epinions pieces of mine and others can still be read, but can no longer be rated or specifically critiqued. The rewards were far greater there than they ever were at Bubblews - at least in my experience with both sites.

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         1. 93

            Marisa Wrightposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            Bubblews had zero chance of success, right from the very start.  Many of us were warning about that as soon as it launched.  We had seen that model before and knew exactly what would happen.
            
            Your posts were never actually earning anything.  Bubblews management was paying you, out of their own startup funds, for getting likes and views from other members.  They hoped that if the site got big enough, advertisers would pay big money to advertise on the site and they'd be able to make their money back and more.  Eventually they realised that would never happen, and they ran out of money, and that was that.
            
            Today.com did exactly the same thing.  Unlike Bubblews, though, they were then able to recoup their losses by selling their domain name to the Today program for a heap of money.

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            1. 92

               NateB11posted 4 years agoin reply to this

               Possibly the only statement I've read in the forums that actually describes exactly what happened with Bubblews. It was all really just a matter of them not being able to do what they set out to do.

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               1. 93

                  Marisa Wrightposted 4 years agoin reply to this

                  The stupid thing is that if they'd known anything at all about writing sites, they'd have known that model had been tried and failed several times before them.

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            2. 59

               ryanpugsposted 4 years agoin reply to this

               I can remember warning people that bubblews was unsustainable too, the amount they were paying out per view Vs typical industry CPMs were miles apart. Still, a few people made a bit of money for a while and I'm sure it was a goldmine for those who made money whilst living in the third world.... $1000 is a hell of a lot of money in some parts of India.
               
               Felt a bit sorry for the founder when he was subsequently called a "scammer" though, harsh because it was clear that he'd just burnt through his investment / venture capital if he had any. Can be pretty sure he didn't walk away with any of the money, he'd given it all away. Still don't really understand what his business plan was to this day.

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2. 96

   Glenn Stokposted 4 years ago

   Interesting that you brought this up. I wrote a hub about "The Demise of Writing Sites: Bubblews, Persona Paper and Niume"
   
   You can find it in my profile listing.

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   1. 93

      Marisa Wrightposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      https://hubpages.com/literature/alterna … -platforms

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      1. 96

         Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Thank you for providing the link to my hub Marisa, since we're not supposed to link to our own hubs. I don't think paradigmsearch realized why I left it out.
         
         And thank you for your important addition in your comment you left there. Much appreciated.

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   2. 61

      paradigmsearchposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Likewise, good luck finding it.

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3. 88

   Wesman Todd Shawposted 4 years ago

   InfoBarrel still exists, but it would be a complete waste of time to put any effort into anything there. It doesn't even matter if the page you create is awesome, it won't go anywhere. But I really did like the place when it was functional. I'm told they still pay out on time, but nobody is making much of anything there.
   
   Last I looked at it I was up to seventeen bucks. They paid me last, last December. I keep meaning to copy/paste everything I haven't already to blogger blogs. I don't care if they have duplicate content rules, their rules only mattered when their site mattered. I like my old content because I often had good ideas, but I only half assed them. These days I realize it is only ever useful to go all the way with whatever the topic may be.

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   1. 96

      Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Ah! The infamous InfoBarrel. I have a hub about that too: "Is InfoBarrel Another Writing Site That's Doomed?"
      
      Sorry paradigmsearch, you're just going to have to scroll for that.

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      1. 88

         Wesman Todd Shawposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Totally doomed. They seem to have got their idea for it from here, but they didn't bother to evolve like this place did. Last I looked the two owner/admins showed up after being missing for months, to say that everything was fine, they'd fix the bugs, and the place was very much alive. But they're only going to do the bare minimum in maintenance. They just dropped that place and moved on to other internet projects.

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         1. 93

            Marisa Wrightposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            I remember, a  year or two ago, getting a series of emails from Infobarrel about how they were launching a new concept in writing sites and inviting me to sign up for the Beta on Facebook.   I did, and got a lot of upbeat, jargon-filled emails promising amazing things were about to happen, any minute now (without ever actually saying what the new Infobarrel would DO).  Then it all stopped, just as suddenly.

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            1. 92

               NateB11posted 4 years agoin reply to this

               Had the same experience. I was reluctant to join that site in the first place and once I did join, I realized there was a reason to be reluctant. I eventually asked them to delete my account, which they did.

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4. 61

   paradigmsearchposted 4 years ago

   Saw them/it, thanks. Throwing stuff against the wall on your own website works.

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   1. 96

      Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Throwing stuff against the wall has its benefits, as long as you don't run into the wall yourself.

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5. 83

   Linda BookLadyposted 4 years ago

   I used to write for a site called "Written By Me" back in about 2001 . . . that went down. Also, Squidoo..... and Gather. Remember Gather?
   
   Edited to add: JournalSpace ... at one time a nice site that was sold off and became a spam trap.

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6. 89

   MomsTreasureChestposted 4 years ago

   I really liked Bubblews too, I think there was a 400 character minimum and you could add pictures.  It was fun to write about a variety of things with short and sweet pieces.  At first I didn't think we'd get paid, it seemed too good to be true, but sure enough we did,  It was fun while it lasted!

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7. 96

   theraggededgeposted 4 years ago

   AltaVista

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8. 84

   Coffeequeeenposted 4 years ago

   Yes, I also wrote on Bubblews for a few months.  Shame that went down the pan as I liked writing on there.  Got a couple of payouts too.

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9. 85

   TessSchlesingerposted 4 years ago

   Associated Content which was sold to Yahoo. There were two or three others at that time. I have forgotten their names.

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   1. 96

      Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      When Yahoo bought Associated Content, they included the Yahoo! Writer's Academy. I took their online writing lessons and received Level-3 Certification from Yahoo in 2013, before they closed down. Did anyone else study from their lessons?  I learned a lot about how to write online articles. It's different from writing for books or magazines.

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      1. 97

         RonElFranposted 4 years agoin reply to this

         Glenn, I also went through the Yahoo course and found it extremely helpful. So much so that when I knew Yahoo Contributor Network (YCN) was shutting down, I decided to keep a copy of the entire course. The title was "Writing for the Web 101," and it covered everything from basic rules of writing for the web, to rules of grammar, SEO basics, how to write effective headlines (titles), and much more.
         
         I was really sorry when YCN shut down. It was the place I put my shorter pieces of about 800 words or so, with the longer articles coming here to HubPages. In fact, YCN was the first site where I actually received a payout for my writing. I still haven't found a good replacement.

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         1. 96

            Glenn Stokposted 4 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks for that feedback Ron. It's good to know someone else here had taken advantage of that course. I went through all the steps you mentioned as well.
            
            That's great that you got a chance to save a copy of the entire course. I wish I had done that, but they shut down too quickly. At least I had my articles archived, and I already published them on HubPages with additional content added.
            
            I did get paid from Yahoo too. It was a surprise that they shut down the YCN.

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   2. 59

      ryanpugsposted 4 years agoin reply to this

      Helium was one, I won a few contests on there. Hated the way you couldn't remove content though, I celebrated when it closed down because I wanted something deleted for years.

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10. 83

    fer-nieposted 4 years ago

    I used to like Yahoo Answers, actually. Then again, I've never been exposed to anything else in the past.

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    1. 59

       ryanpugsposted 4 years agoin reply to this

       Doesn't that still exist?

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11. 54

    ChadCrouchposted 4 years ago

    Quora is definitely one of my favorites but it ain't gone though.

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12. 96

    Solarasposted 4 years ago

    Interesting that no one has mentioned Squidoo here.  Have they all moved on to their own personal blogs and websites?

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13. 94

    paperfacetsposted 4 years ago

    Squidoo. The pages earned some money, after it was sold, the pages earned zero money in two months.
    I have two websites now, moved articles to another platform, and now after a few years I am earning $ here on HPs. My work pace is very slow, though.

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14. 97

    Rupert Taylorposted 4 years ago

    Suite 101 had several incarnations but it wasn't selective enough about what it published, even though it had a decent staff. It shrank and shrank until it was just one guy running the thing out of his garage. He made extravagant promises about relaunches that were going to blow our socks off. Never happened.

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    1. 93

       Marisa Wrightposted 4 years agoin reply to this

       Suite101 and Squidoo both had the same problem - they were generalist sites (i.e. containing articles on miscellaneous different topics).  That model was doomed to failure from the moment the first Panda update was launched by Google back in 2011.  At the time, Google declared war on "content farms" and their definition was broad:  there was a famous interview when Matt Cutts talked about Google's desire to wipe out content farms.  When the journalist pointed out that better-quality sites like HubPages had also been affected, Cutts' response was something like, "Yes, I'd expect that."
       
       Look back and you'll see that almost every generalist site has failed since then, for that reason - Google is out to get them. Those that have survived - except HubPages - are one-man-bands which limp along, offering their members little or no income.  I think HubPages' survival has more to do with its founder's determination than anything else!   For a long time, I was sure he would eventually throw in the towel - but now that HubPages has the niche sites, I'm hopeful - they are specialist, not generalist, and that's what Google wants.

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       1. 59

          ryanpugsposted 4 years agoin reply to this

          I can remember when panda was first rolled out Suite101 was muted as literally the biggest casualty on the 'loser lists' on numerous big SEO sites who analyse rankings. I can't actually remember what the site even looked like.
          
          Weird how hubpages is the last man standing and seemingly doing OK, when so many have been and gone. Bukisa, Mahola (sic?), Seekyt are a few others I remember.

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15. 89

    MomsTreasureChestposted 4 years ago

    ChaCha was a another website where you could make money online answering questions, and I did for a little while. The ChaCha website answered questions through independent contractors called Guides. Guides were paid $0.02 per answer. The site shut down in November 2016 and it's said that the owner moved to Hawaii, refusing to pay the Guides the money they were owed. ChaCha's name came from the Mandarin Chinese words cha cha which loosely translated means to search, look, investigate.

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    1. 93

       Marisa Wrightposted 4 years agoin reply to this

       It's very, very likely there was no money.   Any site that promises to pay a fixed amount to writers is almost certainly paying out more than they're earning.  Usually they do it deliberately, believing that ultimately, when the site is successful, they'll make their money back.  But in most cases, they run out of money long before they get to that point.

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16. 87

    cleoaddamsposted 4 years ago

    Does the "old" Myspace count. I miss the old layout of the site, where you could customize your profile with gifs and stuff. Myspace is still going these days, but it's far from what it once was.

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    1. 59

       ryanpugsposted 4 years agoin reply to this

       Myspace is having a renaissance, but only on Thursdays.
       
       On twitter / instagram / facebook there is a thing called "throwback thursday", and what do people do?.... they hunt down their own social media profiles on places like myspace to find a photo to share on throwback thursday!

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17. 94

    FatFreddysCatposted 4 years ago

    Not writing related sites, but damn I miss GoHastings and CDNow.

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