What about TreasurePen? Blogging site that pays via Adsense. Worth it?

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   NateB11posted 9 years ago

   I guess they pay 70% of Adsense revenue to writers and you can write posts as short as Tweets or long as a Web article. Whatever length you want in other words. Earnings all depend on traffic: And I'm guessing mostly on your followers on social media.
   
   I concluded personally that it's not worth it; but I haven't tried, just checked out the site. I mean, I'd bet you'd only make pennies. You basically just hook up your Adsense to it. The only thing that's kind of attractive about it is that you can write whatever you want; you know, "just ate ice cream", "had a cramp in my left big toe", etc.
   
   Still, curious about others' thoughts on the subject.

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      The Examiner-1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      NateB11,
      I just skimmed but it sounds as if WooRank - in Brussels, Belgium - is the owner of TreasurePen; you own the contents; you can only have one account; at times you receive 70% of funds but at others you only receive 5%. I only picked up a few things.
      
      A review made it sound similar to Facebook and/or twitter but not very popular yet.

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         NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for looking into it, Kevin. After weighing my options, I decided to try Milk the Blog. You get paid a penny a view and 2 cents a comment--even better than what Bubblews used to pay. Plus I like the look and the interface is better.

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            Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            "Even better than what Bubblews used to pay"?   Isn't that sending you warning signals?
            
            You're a Hubber, you know perfectly well the kind of rate that Adsense and the HP Ads program pay.  There is no magic ads program that pays better, so that means the site is using its own money to kick-start the recruitment drive, so it can't possibly last.
            
            Here is the founder of MilkTheBlog on a forum
            http://www.themoneyshed.co.uk/index.php?topic=847.180
            
            Sounds like it's a small site created by one individual who says on the forum that he's paying out far more than he's earning - and struggling to work out how to raise revenue.  Babe in the woods??

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               NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Wow. Read that thread. Obviously there's a struggle with money there.

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            The Examiner-1posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            I believe that I saw that one and Fiverr mentioned as being better.

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            colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Do you have a referral link @NateB11
            I will use it to join MTB.

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               NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Hi, colorfulone. I think I'll have to email you the referral link because I don't think I'm allow to post it here on the forum. I'm going to send it to your email via your Hubpages profile.
               
               Thanks!

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      Colleen Swanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I had a look at this site; appears to be UK based GoDaddy and a small player, but that may change. I don't think it is suitable for Hubpage style content, but it is ideal for shorter quality content.  Their navigation needs some tweaks, but I found it surprisingly easy to use. You need an active Adsense account to benefit financially, but at least you know Google is paying you and your ads are yours. By reeling in signups that are already adsense accounts could be a clever move.  I think this is the type of site that could be a future success if the owner is committed.

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      Colleen Swanposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Update.
      I returned to the site only to be warned away by my virus scan that reports it as unsafe. Tried another comp and browser and got the same warnings. Iv'e decided not to use it again. It seems it uses the same tricks as Bubblews.
      Dissapointed

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   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   Cannot find out who owns this site which is bad sign.  Only income is from referrals and adsense.  You may as well have your own blog monetized with adsense and get 100 percent of income rather than 70 percent.  No word count minimum is bad sign.  I won't go near this one.

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      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I was thinking the same thing.

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   Marisa Wrightposted 9 years ago

   Another newbie writing site trying to make money from an outdated model.
   
   Why do any of these sites think they've got a hope, when much larger, longer-established writing sites have had to close down?
   
   Analysts are saying that this latest Panda hit generalist sites particularly hard (by "generalist" I mean any site that publishes articles on a random mix of topics).  That shouldn't surprise us, given that Google has said it doesn't like content farms.
   
   HubPages' sub-domain structure seems to be protecting us (or at least some of us) to some extent, but I'm very dubious about the long-term future of  any other article writing site, and can't see why anyone would want to invest their time and effort into them.   
   
   Those owned by individuals may survive for quite a while, because unlike Squidoo or Yahoo! Voices they're not answerable to investors and may be willing to chug along on minimal income - but that doesn't mean they'll be worthwhile for writers.   
   
   It's time to wake up and smell the coffee!

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      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      You're right. It's a dead end. I considered another one called Milk the Blog. Because it pays better. But when I think about it I'd be better off starting another one of my own blogs and make it niche, instead of wasting time and energy on a dead end with temporary profit.

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         Mark Ewbieposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         Hi Nate.  I guess all these sites make money out of your efforts.  So what do you get in return?  A ready-made audience perhaps.  But if they are the share-me-share-you audience it is only ever going to be favour traffic.

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            NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            You're right, Mark. And that's going to be endless work too. A constant trade off. There are easier avenues, I'm sure.

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               robertzimmerman2posted 9 years agoin reply to this

               It has been said in differing ways on The Net for years but the one I remember is,
               
               "If there is no product, YOU are the product."

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                  colorfuloneposted 9 years agoin reply to this

                  If you cannot put an affiliate link on it, no sales.

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   CassandraCaeposted 9 years ago

   Is your looking for something fast and easy check out Tsu.   It's quite a bit of fun.   You don't get a lot of cash but you can share anything.

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      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Thanks, Cassandra. I'll look into that.

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         LuisEGonzalezposted 9 years agoin reply to this

         You need an invitation to join. So far it looks like it's growing plus the fact that some celebrities have endorsed it and use it gives us hope that they will make it. Although I am not sure if it will ever surpass Facebook, it looks like they got off to a decent start.
         
         The invitation link should look something like this: https://www.tsu[dot]co/LuisEGonzalez or https://www.tsu[dot]co/CassandraCae  and so on.

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            NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

            Thanks for the info, Luis. Wow, I didn't know celebrities were supporting it. That definitely could give it some backing that could lead to success.

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               Marisa Wrightposted 9 years agoin reply to this

               Yes, but what's their definition of success?   It's a Facebook alternative, not a writing site - the money is just a carrot to get people interested.
               
               Here is WryLilt's take on it.  Knowing her she's researched it and tried it out fairly thoroughly.
               
               http://hubpages.com/forum/topic/126495

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   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   The TOS of Treasure Pen states Owner: Central News Media Group Limited
   
   I looked up Central News Media Group and found nothing when I searched for it.  I like this part of their TOS:  SUBMISSIONS
   7.1 “Submissions” will mean any content of whatever nature You submit to TREASUREPEN (including, but without limitation, reviews, comments, suggestions and ideas)
   7.2 In respect of all and any Submissions made by You, You grant TREASUREPEN and the Owner and their affiliates a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, transferable, irrevocable and fully assignable right to
   7.2.1 use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, distribute, publish, create derivative works from and publicly display and perform such Submissions throughout the world in any media, now known or hereafter devised; and
   7.2.2 use the name that you submit in connection with such Submission.
   7.3 You acknowledge that TREASUREPEN may choose to provide attribution of your comments or reviews at its discretion.
   7.4 You further grant TREASUREPEN the exclusive right to pursue at law any person or entity that violates Your or TREASUREPEN rights in the Submissions by a breach of this Contract and to retain all or any damages costs and other payments granted in such action
   7.5 You agree that all Submissions are non-confidential
   7.6 You accept that TREASUREPEN has an absolute right to remove and/or withdraw from publication any Submissions which, in its absolute discretion, it regards as unsuitable for the Site
   
   So, essentially whatever you post, they own it and can do whatever they want with it.
   
   What is even better: If you are over the age of 13 you can join.  I can only imagine the kind of crap that will go on this site.   No thank you!

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   paradigmsearchposted 9 years ago

   Why mess with them when Blogger pays 100%?

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      calculus-geometryposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I agree.  It's unlikely anyone will make more money with a fledgling Adsense revenue-sharing site than they could with their own fledgling non-revenue-sharing blog. 
      
      Googled the exact title of an article-length post on TreasurePen and the page doesn't even come up after four pages of search results!  Not a good sign.

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      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I thought about that too. I could just start my own blog and use Adsense and take in the total revenue.

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   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   Google page ranker: 0/10      These sites are saying you get paid by Google, for Adsense of course, monthly which is false.   You get paid nothing from Adsense until you reach payout minimum of $100.  I would not risk losing my Adsense account for sites like this.

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      Mark Ewbieposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I think that is a key point. The risk of placing your Adsense account against something which relies on fake social interaction to succeed.

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      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Yes, that worried me too. I wasn't willing to use my Adsense at that site and I doubt it would bring in much money anyway.

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   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   I found nothing about Adsense account.  So, I signed up for ha ha. Not until you sign up do you find out that you have to submit your adsense account information. I sent message asking if we have to submit that information and that I prefer not to even though it means zero earnings.  I checked out some posts there and what got me was one post was nothing but a pic of Amazon product with link.  So we can do some affiliate marketing there. Hey, add a pic with your Associate link and maybe make some sales.

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   LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

   I did some checking:  Site earns about a whopping $1 year.

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      NateB11posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      That is definitely not a good sign.

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    LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

    colorfulone:  You can put affiliate links on there.  One big problem: Who knows where you will land if you click on it.  I checked several amazon links, but was not taken to Amazon site. No html.  Your Amazon links have your ID in them.  I tried a test post with Amazon link and got same thing. Link takes you to some other page that is not Amazon site.
    
    You have on spot for an image which has to be uploaded from computer.  Cannot make images clickable.
    
    Links to HP work fine.   
    
    The site is a disaster in the way it works.

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    colorfuloneposted 9 years ago

    Oh my goodness, that does not sound good at all, @LindaSmith1

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    LindaSmith1posted 9 years ago

    I didn't get any virus warnings but had to try 3 times to get to the site. There is no way to know if you are even getting any views or not.  They don't provide any views information.  I wrote 2 posts, didn't use my Adsense information on there.    I also sent email in to see if we had to give our Adsense account info, 3 days ago, and no response. Nothing lost, but I am done. My posts lead back to my blogs, sites, and HP.  Nothing lost, but maybe some traffic from there.

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