My Experience on Bubblews: Legit or Scam?

My online writing journey started back in 2008 when I began writing for what was then Associated Content (this is now Yahoo! Voices). Fast forward to 2013, I had written for several sites by this point and had just heard about Bubblews. At first I was apprehensive, but I decided that it would be worth a shot to at least try it out.

I've been a participant in the Bubblews community for six months now and have learned a lot during my time there. In the midst of the excitement, and sometimes the frustration, I decided that it was time to write my own opinions on the site. There are plenty of skeptics and critics, so please take this hub with a grain of salt and formulate your own opinions, but I do encourage you to do your own research and decide if Bubblews is the right site for you.

When you first go to the Bubblews website, you may feel like the site is a little dull. In fact, it may make you want to leave because it's not put together like the larger sites are (i.e. Squidoo, HubPages, Yahoo! Voices, etc.). Don't let this alarm you! Although Bubblews is still fairly new and the website isn't eye-catching, it's still worth looking into.

Before writing your first post, I highly encourage you to read the Bubblews writing guidelines that can be found in your bank area once you sign up. Here, you will find that each post must have at least 400 characters and should not contain any referral or affiliate links. The other rules, such as not using work that isn't your own and making sure you give credit to pictures that aren't your own, should already be embedded into the minds of any writers hoping to make some extra money online.

The rules seem easy enough to follow, but you would be surprised at the number of Bubblews members who don't follow them. This is often why redemptions are left unfulfilled and members are frustrated. As a precaution, I always encourage writers to go back over the rules briefly before submitting a post because just one wrong error could cost you your entire payout.

If you are researching Bubblews, odds are that you have come across a few posts that have suggested that Bubblews doesn't pay out. In my own experience, I have received every redemption that I have submitted. I'm not sure why some members have such problems with it, but I have to believe that they are not following the guidelines that I mentioned previously.

In order to redeem on this site, you must have a minimum of $50 now. You get one cent for each like, dislike, view, and comment that occurs on your post, though two comments or two views by the same person will only count as one. The old threshold was set at $25 but the amount was increased in January. According to the Bubblews CEO, this was so that the staff could better assist its members and work on some other projects to make the site better.

When you request your money, you have a few options to receive it by, but I recommend going with PayPal. You will know your redemption has gone through once you get to a screen that has a green bar at the top saying that you will hear from Bubblews staff in the next 72 hours. Note: This communication is done via email by stating that your money is being sent to PayPal. I should mention that some of my redemptions have taken longer than 72 hours to process. I had one take an entire extra day and a half to be processed.

After you receive the email, check your PayPal account to see what day your money will officially be in your account. You can expect that this will take anywhere from three to ten days. Once that happens, you have the ability to use your funds in anyway you want through PayPal (I often have my transferred to my bank account).

If you are looking for a site that offers a lot of writer interaction as well as some extra money, then I would highly recommend trying Bubblews. You will notice that members are quite active on posts and people get to know and follow each other (a.k.a. connections). I have several connections that I follow and comment on because I find their material to be interesting and informative. I have also found that the more active I am, the more views and comments I get on my own posts.

You will also discover that the Bubblews CEO, username - Arvind, has his own page as well. You can read posts from him and share your feedback with him. I'm not sure how active he is with everyone, but he has commented on one or two of my posts in the past. If you have a question about the site and why it was created or what direction it is headed in, Arvind's page is the best place to look.

With the good there is always some bad. For one, there are some writers who just want to make money and scam the site. They create a bad name for Bubblews and often write bad reviews on it. I agree that the site isn't the best at customer service and getting redemptions paid on time, but I don't think it's fair to bash a site when you are the one who didn't read the guidelines and follow them. As I said previously, I haven't had any issues with payments and I find the Bubblews experience to be a good one, especially if you are just beginning with your online writing adventures.

Every writer has their own story and experiences to share. I have just one view of Bubblews, but it has been a good one. I feel like I have grown as a writer and have had the chance to share some inspirational things on the site. I never know who is going to read my material or if someone will find it interesting, but I hope that they do. I became a Bubblews writer initially to make some extra money (which I have), but it has turned into so much more than that for me now. Rather than making writing feel like a job, this site has allowed me to search deeper within the writer in me and pull out stuff that I never thought I would be able to put into a lens on Squidoo or another big site.

So, should you give it a try? I think you should. You never know until you give it a chance, right? Remember, follow the guidelines, get some good connections, and just write about things that matter to you. Don't worry about posting long articles on Bubblews because a majority of the posts are on the shorter end. Save your longer pieces for HubPages and your other sites but if you have a quick idea and want someone to hear about it, post it on Bubblews and see what response you get.