Bukisa, the Online Publishing Hype of 2008

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Bukisa, the Online Publishing Hype of 2008

Posted on December 30th, 2008 in Writing Business by Patrick Bernauw

Authors were spamming you to join because of the high earnings, the network and how easy it was to publish your work with Bukisa. Others were asking you if Bukisa was reliable… or just a hype. Well, my Bukisa Adventure sure was a very short one!

I joined Bukisa on December 17, 2008 with an “English account”. It sure was easy to publish your work, text only in my case, because the audio-, video- and slideshow-button did not work with me. I send a mail to Bukisa and received an answer right away, but the problem did not get fixed.

At first, I was very pleased with the site. While I’m writing this (December 30, 2008) my profile got 189 views, I’ve published 28 articles and I’ve earned – virtually of course, there is a payout minimum of $50 – $4.69 since joining not even two weeks before.

I opened two other accounts, in Dutch, on December 18 and December 21. Most of my articles got published right away, 1/3 was reviewed by Bukisa and published the next day. I was extremely pleased to see that my Dutch articles also did it very well. Dutch is my native language and being a full time offline writer since 1988, I have something like an audience down here in Flanders, a solid bunch of readers, even some fans. So I linked and promoted my Dutch Bukisa pieces on a number of my blogs and sites, bookmarked them socially, invited some friends to join Bukisa, and so on…

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Bukisa had no problems with my “How To Articles” that were in fact creative writings (there is already a lot of poetry and storytelling published on Bukisa), they made no problem of my Dutch (they have a Dutch spell checker!) and they did not mind my “creative linking” either.

Until yesterday, Monday 29 December. (No, I Don’t Like Mondays!)

I logged in to watch my stats (and my earnings grow!)… and all of my articles of one Dutch account (except one single piece!) were suddenly “disapproved” and un-published. In my other Dutch account one article was “disapproved” – after it got approved by Bukisa, as all the articles that had vanished from the site were already approved by Bukisa.

I’ve send Bukisa a message right away. What was the reason for this sudden disapproval of all of my articles (except one single piece) and of one single article in my other account? Why this rather extreme measure had been taken? Why was this done without any further notice, without any explanation, without a warning of some kind?

I did not get an answer from Bukisa. I was feeling like some lonesome cowboy, Wild Bill Hickock maybe, badly mistreated in the Bukisa Desert.

Image used with permission

So, today, Tuesday 30 December, I’ve send a second message to Bukisa, saying I firmly disapprove the actions taken by Bukisa. Or to say it better: that I firmly disapprove the actions Bukisa has not taken. Because it remains One Great Historical Mystery to me why all these articles that first were approved suddenly got disapproved by Bukisa. I can’t imagine no reason for doing that. I’ve read the Bukisa Terms of Use again, I’ve read the Bukisa Blog Section again… I’ve done nothing against the rules, it’s only my own work I’ve published there, and Bukisa had already approved all my stuff!

Now, if Bukisa has a sane reason for banning all my articles except one, or one single piece in another account, there should be at least some kind of an explanation, don’t you think so? Un-publish all my work without further notice really is not serious and/or professional, don’t you think so? A writer should at least be given some respect, don’t you think so?

Some of my fellow writers were asking me what were my experiences with Bukisa. Well, my Bukisa Adventure has become a short story. A very short one, leaving me tired and deeply depressed, seeking comfort with my offline writings, as you can see here:

Image used with permission

And if you ask me if Bukisa is reliable or nothing more than the hype of the moment, I will say you this one thing: to my knowledge, only one hype truly delivered, and I honestly have not seen the Future of Online Publishing (and its name is not Bukisa either). So…

Happy New Year to you all… and Beware of the Fool’s Gold:

Image used with permission

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Tags: articles, Audio, Bukisa, earn money, Earnings, getting paid, hype, make money, making, money, online, online publishing, Online Writing, payout, Publish, publishing, slideshow, video

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23 Responses to “Bukisa, the Online Publishing Hype of 2008”

Glynis Smy
December 30th, 2008 at 7:40 am

There, just as I decided to join and see what was going on! I will continue and hope I don’t get wiped out unannounced as you were. Happy New Year.
R J Evans
December 30th, 2008 at 7:47 am

I get four or five invites per day from Triond members (most of whom only have one or two articles on Triond anyway!). The best way in the world for me to click the ‘block’ button! )
Patrick Bernauw
December 30th, 2008 at 7:51 am

Hi Glynis, glad I’ve done at least one good dead this year!
Jasin
December 30th, 2008 at 9:19 am

Wondered where you went Patrick, sorry it’s not working for you there, hopefully they’ll fix it and get all your things back on.
HatedNation
December 30th, 2008 at 9:49 am

Well, I am running some tests over there myself and so far there not any more promising than right here. However for writers who publish much more than I do, there are many other sites that will publish and pay bettter than either of these two.
Patrick Bernauw
December 30th, 2008 at 10:32 am

UPDATE!

After I protested, I got a mail from Bukisa, saying they send a mail to tell me that my content was being removed, because the Bukisa management had decided “to currently not publish articles that are not in the English language.” They cannot pay the same Bukisa Index for articles that are not in English and they do not understand why I didn’t receive their mail. And they apologized, too.

I wrote back, saying that I accepted the apologies, but this did not change my opinion about the Bukisa Way of (Mis)Treating Authors. Why there was never a warning on the site, in the blog section, the FAQ, the Terms of Use or wherever… that this maybe could happen? There was even a Dutch spell checker on Bukisa! Why there never was a warning when I submitted all those articles in Dutch? Why all these articles had to be instantly removed?

This time I got an answer from a Bukisa co-founder, that they did not understand what went wrong with their mail system, that they did understand my frustration and that they decided “to reverse our decision for past content that has already been published. But, we will no longer be accepting new non English content as of January 1st 2009.” – Bukisa wants to work with multiple new languages, but not for the moment…

So, this is, altogether, Good News! I do appreciate the gesture too. To be continued?
nobert soloria bermosa
December 30th, 2008 at 4:50 pm

great post and somehow a very memorable experience,happy new year
Joshua Miguel
December 30th, 2008 at 5:18 pm

Tnx for sharing your experience. I also joined Bukisa recently, i wrote one article just to try it out. Honestly it paid well, but i prefer posting stuffs here in triond… the community here is friendlier and besides, i write for the sake of arts and learning… not for any monetary rewards. tnx again.
Debra.
December 30th, 2008 at 5:22 pm

Thank you Patrick, for that enlightening bit of information. I have not joined Bukisa, but have been asked numerous times. I haven’t really made up my mind about it. It seems the longer I wait the more feedback I get and not all of it is good. So thanks for sharing.

God bless and Happy New year!
Unofre Pili
December 30th, 2008 at 7:37 pm

A very enlightening article. Online writers owe you for writing this article.
Dialga
December 30th, 2008 at 10:07 pm

Well, I just signed up a Bukisa account on December 15th, and so far, I have two items published. My plan was, and for the moment still is, to re-publish the same articles I have on Triond on Bukisa, because they don’t have an “Original Content” policy like Triond and Associated Content do.

I’ll keep my eye on them, that’s for sure.
Michele Cameron Drew
December 31st, 2008 at 3:26 am

Wow, I’m sorry Patrick. I do hope that they get everything straightened out and reinstate the policy of accepting other language submissions. Good luck and happy new year!

-M
gracie marie
December 31st, 2008 at 7:06 am

Well that just sucks! Go after em!
goodselfme
December 31st, 2008 at 11:33 am

Sorry for the the snags. glad they accepted some for the time being. I read some of your”Bukisa” articles and they were extremely appreciated. I too miss the social interaction as I had on triond. The “family” atmosphere here is so refreshing. I hope your new year is better.
Wordsmythe
December 31st, 2008 at 4:55 pm

My “adventure” with Bukisa lasted exactly one day. I posted three quicky article and when I found a conspicuous typo in one, couldn’t find out where to edit or even if I could. Finally did track it down. One article had headers that I bolded. They publshed as plain text. Tried to upoad an avatar, and despite following directions exactly, never got it to work. Add in complete lack of any actual help for writers, very little exposure for new content, high payout, and I’d had enough. Deleted my content and left.
eddiego65
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:07 am

What a terrible experience! Thanks for sharing!
JK Kristie
January 6th, 2009 at 7:31 pm

I feel happy and at peace working for Triond that I can’t even look at other writing sites. Triond is too good to be true.
nutuba
January 8th, 2009 at 9:15 am

This is interesting information and I’m glad to hear the experience turned out okay (so far) for you.
AC Hamilton III
January 19th, 2009 at 8:44 pm

Thanks for the information.
Joanna Maharis
January 22nd, 2009 at 5:03 pm

That’s really awful of bukisa to do such a thing. It’s also rather disappointing to hear that the folks over there have that kind of reputation. Great article though. I really enjoyed reading it, in that it was entertaining, in addidion to being informative.

Take Care,

Joanna Maharis
James DeVere
January 23rd, 2009 at 3:30 am

……………………………………………………………………….
Hello Patrick, I am not having such a bad time in there
but I do find it a little unintuitive. God knows how you use
the flippin invite link. The ask you to invite people and I really hate
the function that opens my email address book.

I really like Constant-Content.com. They are of an exceptional
standard I think an of course our beloved Triond. Thanks for the warning.
j
dawn xoc
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:06 am

Bukise’s loss it Triond’s gain….and ours. I love your music, it has a kind of Tom Waits feel and evokes lots of imagery. I hope that makes sense.
clay hurtubise
February 2nd, 2009 at 10:06 pm

I too tried Bukisa, and left. The other day they sent me an email claiming to have fixed many of their problems. The interesting thing is, they included a future ‘wish list’ for their site: items Triond already has. Hmmm.
Thanks,
Clay