Today.com frustrated me
60Not Lissie's fault
Hi, Lissie! You have never steered me wrong and I am glad that you will be earning $5 from my joining Today.com. Here in Pennsylvania (USA) that could buy you an individual-sized pizza. Not too shabby. And, it’s my own ding-danged fault that I didn’t earn the big $50 for which I was shooting in the first 2 months.
Books on Blogging
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Here's what happened
Like I said, I trust Lissie implicitly. She has given me some pointers on things I didn’t understand about online writing, blogging, and trying to make money online. She is a genuine, big-hearted, talented and honest person. So, she posted her Hub on signing up under her sponsorship at Today.com and it sounded good. I signed up and immediately got myself all ferhoodled (Pennsylvania-German word for tangled up).
My Ferhoodlements
I did not quite understand the concept of blogging – that it is akin to writing short, frequent entries to a diary. So, I tried to write 500 plus word Hub-type articles and create an account for each one. Well, at that time Today.com was permitting a writer to have a maximum of 2 blogs, so I quickly ran into difficulties. After we got me out of that mess…
I was still struggling with letting go of the longer, higher-quality writing style of a Hub. This slowed me down and eliminated many topics which I felt I could not adequately handle. I am over that now! I feel no shame in zipping off a little 100-word piece of fluff. (Case in point: see all my Squirrel blogs.) But, then….
Deer in the headlights most of the time
I didn't listen :(
The deal offered at the time from Today.com was that VIP Bloggers (me) could earn a dollar per blog (certain conditions applied) for the first two months and one could have two blogs going simultaneously. Also, as so many of these online money-payers have, there is no pay-out until an onerous minimum amount is earned. I say onerous, because I do not yet have anything like Lissie’s gold thumb.
Lissie warned us. She said: write 2 blogs every day. Every day. She even described how to write them ahead of time and use the site’s date stamp to stagger “publication dates.” Again, at the time, this was beyond my comprehension. [By now you may be thinking that I am a real Internet clod. But do not dismay, I do eventually learn. It just isn’t as fast as I’d like.] NOW I get the date-stamping, but NOW it is too late.
NASTY Today.com
Out of the blue, at the two-month date exactly, Today.com sent me a notice that the next day I would stop earning my $1 per acceptable blog. Instead I would be earning a millionth of a penny for every ten humans that read one of my blogs. Talk about no warning.
Ok. I did not bust my buns to write the 2 blogs every day. I have a life. I have a job. I have an elderly relative with cancer for whom I care. (Is the full first violin section sawing away by now?) And this is NOT to demean our Lissie in any way. SHE understood the system. I did not. And THAT was my problem.
What now?
At the date of conversion to peon’s earnings, I had accrued about $42. I don’t want to throw that all away. I wrote to Support to ask what I did to deserve this. The answer: not enough traffic is coming to my blogs.
{ Original hub text: Therefore, I am appealing to my fellow writers at Hubpages. Please click on a hotlink in this article and get me to my goal. Maybe one of the topics will even appeal to you.
After I get that paycheck, I’ll write when I want to and not count on ephemeral promises.}
Now, in 2011, Today.com has changed to another name and deleted all my articles. No doubt due to insufficient traffic. I don't miss them.
Thanks and May the Big Dude of Goodness smile on you today!
Text and photo copyright 2009 Maren E. Morgan
CommentsLoading...
NOT to worry - that is about a sudden rush of traffic. My traffic has increased from the prior 1 to 2 visitors per day to a new 2 to 3 visitors. I don't think that is going to raise any red flags...lol. So, all those lovely Hubbers who are not clicking because they don't want to "do me wrong," we are nowhere near that level.
Lissie, I am going to need to find a hot photo like your koala.
I have written them to have my blog deleted in it's entirety. I am going to keep my hard word for publishing in a more respectable place like Hubpages instead. I suspect they will tell me they have the full rights to my work, and that I shall be in breach of their terms. However, they also changed the rules after I joined, so what they now tout is not what I agreed to when I signed up.
Lucky these people dont sell real estate, is all I can say. Sheesh
I am so disappointed with that website.
Thanks for the post.
Kez:)
Lissie Level 1 Commenter 2 years ago
Careful Maren - if you have too many people clicking on that link then today will check back to see where the unexpected traffic is coming from - I don't think its likely - but possible!
Nothing's forever on the internet and I know lots of good writers got cut from the $1/post program all because of lack of traffic. I must admit I hadnt realised when I promoted Today at HubPages how few hubbers had actually blogged before - I thought most of us had tried and failed previously!
The 0.002/1000 views doesn't sound like much - but to my surprise my australia.today.com blog is on its way of making more than the $1/day - just through traffic. If you take a look that you will notice its not particurlarly literay - that's kinds the point, nor have I taken my own advice and been consistent posting either. I started it hoping that the australia movie would take off in the US - it didn't it flopped - so did my earnings LOL. But for the last month or so the government has been getting thru Australia's own economic package which makes payments to income earners and low-income families. Thats what all the newspapers talk about, and the TV - but I talk about the $950 payout, when will I get my payout, "do unemployed people get the payout" - the key is payout - which is what an Australian would ask not "payment" not "economic stimulus package" - I get up to 400 people a day asking about their "$950 from the government" and because the English is not"proper" they find me - not the government sites or the newspapes :-)
I also get quite a lot of google image search traffic because of the cute koala photos - all of which are called something like "hot koala" - I am lucky my partner gets a lot of these via the work email round and if they make me smile or I can see a way to make them relevant I throw them up!
My travel blog on the other hand is well written and reflects my passion and gets 10% of the traffic - its holding on to the $1/day payment so far - I suspect just - with an average of around 40 visitors /day so that is probably the minimum to aim for!
So have a look around for some hot news items - which will boost your income quickly but are vaguely on topic - people want to know what is in it for them - but use their language not your own to avoid cnn, abc etc who will be top of the search for the "better english" Check your stats - if you start seeing searchs people are finding you on - write more on a similar topic - write about 200 words so you get lots of content and then the next day you will hopefully see slightly different searchs - rinse and repeat! Don't worry if you harp on the same topic for a week - remember these people will only come and read the one post - not your entire blog! How often does your local newspaper repeat the same story over and over again? I've learnt a lot looking at how the newspapers and TV news present stories!
Hope this helps - good luck!