Persona Paper is shutting down

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   RonElFranposted 8 years ago

   On Jan 30 Persona Paper announced that they will be shutting down. They lost their Adsense account some time ago, and haven't been able to make up for that lost revenue.
   
   Less than a year ago I wrote a hub entitled "Review: HubPages vs InfoBarrel, Bubblews, Writedge, Daily Two Cents, Persona Paper." It's been one of my better performing hubs. But of the sites listed in the title, only HubPages and Infobarrel still exist in the form they had when the hub was published. Bubblews and now Persona Paper are gone, and Writedge and Daily Two Cents no longer pay per view (writers can still get paid, but only by Adsense or other such programs).
   
   The online writers' world is changing fast!

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      NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I guess this is one of those things that we could see coming. These smaller sites trying to use rev-share models don't usually make it. I'm sticking with what I have, in terms of which writing sites I use, at the moment, and probably going to pare it down and spend more time on my own sites. Also, going to move some of my work when I know it won't work for me on a site.

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   Jodahposted 8 years ago

   Ron,
   The way things are going Hub Pages will be the last one standing soon.

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   Chriswillman90posted 8 years ago

   I wonder how much longer Hubpages is going to be around.

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   Marisa Wrightposted 8 years ago

   This does not surprise me one  little bit.
   
   Persona Paper, Writedge and Daily Two Cents were started by writers who'd been "orphaned" by the closure of Squidoo and Helium, and instead of accepting that the days of article-writing sites were over, they decided they could do better and beat Google's dislike of "content farms".
   
   I always thought they were mad - after all, we all know that Google favours specialist sites now, so it was always going to be a struggle to make a success of a generalist site.  As these three sites are all run by individuals, I thought they might last longer because they're not looking for a corporate-scale profit. 
   
   A few months ago, Infobarrel was making a big song and dance of "relaunching" in a totally new format, which I took as a sign that they weren't doing well either (otherwise why change everything?).

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      NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      That's what I'm thinking about InfoBarrel too.
      
      I think another reason some of those newer sites started was because of Bubblews; they literally copied Bubblews model, in fact, at least in the case of Daily Two Cents. They somehow thought it might work, maybe because Bubblews had a pretty big membership at one time (due to their unmanageable payout). Of course, we know that Bubblews model doesn't work.

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      psycheskinnerposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      It turns out that Infobarrel is going to stay the same (mostly a time waster) and what they were really talking about was launching their new and even more pointless site "IBme" which seems to be about selling courses to writers.

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   Glenn Stokposted 8 years ago

   This is no surprise. I also anticipated this in my hub were I wrote about Persona Paper Disappointing us when they first mentioned that they had no money several months ago. And the big clue was that they kept their domain ownership a secret so they can dissapear without anyone being able to track down this husband and wife team.  For that reason I chose to stop writing there a long time ago.

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   paperfacetsposted 8 years ago

   Hubpages is working very hard to keep Google's interest and complying to the rules. After 17 months my articles that performed for me at Squidoo are finally getting some traffic. I also have some performers at Wizzley.
   
   I started my first website 12 months ago and have no adsense and one sale, so I have not found any success with a website. For that reason I still like 2.0 platforms like HubPages. Platforms do have credibility in my estimation if there are all the checks that HP has for articles. What is there at a website except one writer that gives credibility? There are plenty of junky websites out there.
   
   Maybe the website host industry 'lobbied' Google harder. Squidoo faulted because in the very end the owner got insulted. He had such a big profile he decided not deal with a problem. He had skated to the top, anyway. He never blogged anything that I could understand.
   
   So I am going to stay here and hope that our leaders do not lose interest in HubPages.

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      TIMETRAVELER2posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      I don't think they will because they have too much sweat equity invested in this site, in addition, I'm sure, to a good deal of money.
      
      If they keep on demanding quality and wind up being the only site still standing, it could turn out that they come roaring back because they will have credibility that will make people want to read our articles.
      
      I may be wrong about this, but I certainly hope not.  I really think this site is cleverly set up, user friendly and despite the dross, does have some incredibly talented writers on board.

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7. STAFF

   Paul Edmondsonposted 8 years ago

   We won't lose interest.  Be sure to stop back by tomorrow for some news:)

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      paradigmsearchposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      
      I am all ears.

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      NateB11posted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Looking forward for what's in store.

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      jansharesposted 8 years agoin reply to this

      Me, too!! What? What?

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         Glenn Stokposted 8 years agoin reply to this

         Here it is: http://hubpages.com/community/forum/135 … ching-soon

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   Jesse Drzalposted 8 years ago

   I have great vibes about this place. Good things are going to happen here. I know it.

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   LuisEGonzalezposted 8 years ago

   Well I don't like their un-featuring of hubs, the make no sense hub scores, our weird profiles scores and quite a few other things.....but this is by far the best site.....and that's my daily two cents worth!
   
   
   
   

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