Thumbs Up for Xomba

Once again Xomba takes first place in my opinion.  (neck and neck with Bukisa).  Submitting an article is easy and glitch free, same goes for uploading photos.  This week they made a change that quite frankly I'm indifferent about.  Bytes are now called Articles and Blurbs are now called Bookmarks.  The powers that be at Xomba say the new names sound more professional.
The new change that put Xomba in the forefront is that when you submit an article it will automatically get listed on your Google Adsense account.  It saves time and you can track the performance of each article.  That's fantastic!  The feature isn't implemented yet but I'll let you know.
Speaking of glitches, I encountered one when attempting to enter code for a banner.  I contacted Xomba through their feedback forum.  The glitch was fixed the same day and I received an email notification of the fix.
Thumbs up!!  If you would like to write to earn money, join Xomba now.

Whitesnake and the Queen of England

I just submitted a new article on Xomba.  It's about my experience with the rock band Whitesnake.  I met them several years ago while working in a hotel in Las Vegas.  Here is the article; Whitesnake and the Queen of England.
As usual, submitting an article on Xomba is flawless.  If you would like to write to earn money, join Xomba now.

eHow.......CEASE AND DESIST

Our photos are still missing from articles.  An eHow member did a Google Image search for one of her photos.  She clicked on the result and it directed her to an eHow article, NOT HER ARTICLE BUT SOMEONE ELSE'S!  I then did an image search for my own photos and found two results of the same photo, one larger than the other.  The small photo directed me to my eHow article, the larger photo took me to another member's article.  eHow cannot take copyrighted photos and use them in a picture bank.  That is illegal.  I hope eHow is prepared for the influx of Cease and Desist letters they'll be receiving.

eHow.....Stop Shoveling

A new eHow member posted a question for the staff.  The member wants to know what criteria eHow uses to determine how an article earns money.  This question has been asked many times but never answered.  This time Julie, eHow's Community Manager, replied with what you see below:

Your earnings are based on an algorithm that calculates a variety of factors:

1. quality of text
2. photos
3. topic - is it s hot topic or seasonal

This is a residual income module rather than a flat fee module.  If you give you articles some time, you will start seeing an increase.

Thanks,

Julie
Of course I can argue each of the 3 points.  But lets take a look at #2; Photos.  Are you joking Julie?  It's been 3 weeks since we have had our photos disappear from our articles.  What did eHow do with them?  If we take Julie's response seriously, then eHow owes us money for lost earnings......PHOTOS = EARNINGS. Will we be compensated?  My advice to eHow is:  When you feel the dirt falling on your head, stop shoveling!   

Moving From eHow

Little by little I'll be removing articles from eHow and publishing them elsewhere.  eHow still hasn't fixed the publishing or missing photos issues.  Here is an article that I removed and put on Bukisa;  Being in a Relationship With a Blues Guitarist.  I hope you like it.  It's a pleasure writing for Bukisa, so if you would like to try writing to earn residual income, join Bukisa now. 
Bukisa has a referral program where you can earn money when someone becomes a member using your link.  Bukisa gets a thumbs up!

3 Cheers and a Booya for Google

On December 20, 2009 (see post) I sent a Cease and Desist letter to Google for an article of mine that had been stolen by a website in India.  Today I received an email from Google advising that the article has been removed.  Woohoo!!

eHow.....The Thrill is Gone

I spoke too soon about the publishing issue being fixed.  Members are getting the 'unavailable' status again.  Photos are still missing from our articles.  But, the technical staff made some cosmetic changes on the home page; moved the search box, uncluttered the header and I don't know what else.  They're even running a contest with prizes for those of us who can spot all the changes.  I get the feeling that they aren't listening to the complaints about important issues (publishing and pictures) or they're trying to camouflage their inaction by distracting us with prizes.

eHow Glitches....Live Long and Prosper

Okay, in addition to the numerous glitches on eHow we now have another really big one.  Many how-to articles have photos along with the instructions.  These photos usually are necessary in order to complete the project.  Well, these photos are disappearing at an alarming rate.  Leaving just text where a visual is needed.  The first complaint was posted on the forums on 2/25.  As of this writing there are over 100 complaints added to that thread.  The first response from eHow staff came on 3/1, not exactly a timely response for such an important issue.  To make matters worse, here is the response:

                 Hi everyone,

For those of you guys that are missing photos, do you mind posting the links to your articles and explain which photo(s) are missing?

Thanks!

Julie

eHow expects every member, that would be thousands, to go through their article library and copy and paste the link to each article that has missing photos into the forum.  Many members have hundreds of articles.  It's a ridiculous request.  Obviously, this response sparked a whole new complaint, and rightly so.  Even if every member devoted that much time to comply with this request, the earth would have to stand still for ten years to get this glitch fixed.  If it's a site wide problem, it should be a site wide fix.

I'll close with this thought; if any of you reading this has the slightest amount of computer knowledge, go to eHow headquarters and apply for a job.  They need help!  But please get there BEFORE Fred Flintstone.