Saturday, May 25, 2013

Bubblews Review

Bubblews is an online community which was introduced in mid-2012. It is a combination of a social network and blogging platform put together. I came across this online writing community in early May 2013, via a Google+ post, and was intrigued by this growing online website. 

I checked out the website and read many of the articles or bubbles (as they call them) posted by various Bubblews' members to get a sense of what the website was about. I have to admit that, initially, I was not too impressed with many of the post because I saw a good deal of plagiarism and copyright issues on many of the bubbles. However, I also found many serious online writers who were posting good quality content. Also, I saw many familiar faces from other online communities like Squidoo, Wizzley, and people from my social networks. So skeptical as I was, I decided to join.

On May 2, 2013, I joined Bubblews and started posting articles or blog posts, mainly from a "testing the waters" perspective. According to Bubblews' TOS (Terms of Service), you are allowed to post up to 10 bubblews or posts in a 24 period, and each post should include a minimum of 400 characters.

So what makes Bubblews different from other social networks and blogging platforms? Well, Bubblews shares 50% of its advertising revenue with its members. When members' account reach the $25 threshold, they are allowed to cash out via their PayPal account. So is Bubblews legitimate? Well, I've seen my Bubblews account being credited with money, however, I've not been active enough and have not posted enough to reach the redemption yet. However, I've come across many members who have cashed out and have received their payments.

My goal is not to just publish as many articles as I can, but rather to do so at a pace I'm comfortable at, since I'm busy working on other projects. On average, I've posted less than one bubble per day and I'm ok with that. At some point, I may increase my postings on Bubblews as I go along and find more time. 

Overall, I think that this new online community has a lot of potential to grow, but more importantly, I'm impressed by the commitment of the CEO, Arvind, to improve the site, as well as take care of the plagiarism and copyright issues. You can take a look at the Bubblews' Video Review I posted on YouTube and see how easy it is to create a Bubblews article: