(If there was a league table for the worst puns, that title must be a contender)
I cannot help but note that there are
a) few opinions written on this site, and
b) even fewer that are recent ( with one exception)
So, slipping into helpful mode, I will try to do two things.
Firstly, ... Read review
Advantages: An (almost) free hand to write what you want. Disadvantages: Poor promo, but embryo help is now at hand.
(If there was a league table for the worst puns, that title must be a contender)
I cannot help but note that there are
a) few opinions written on this site, and
b) even fewer that are recent ( with one exception)
So, slipping into helpful mode, I will try to do two things.
Firstly, a brief resume for those who have never been here.
If you have ... ...site, but don’t let that put you off. There are contributors from all around the globe – and wherever you are you will get paid. (I thought I should put that in early, for the benefit of my more mercenary friends)
Contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, this is not an opinions site like Ciao or dooyoo. Yes, you can review products, if you wish. But here you can write whatever your little heart desires. Fiction, short ... more
(If there was a league table for the worst puns, that title must be a contender)
I cannot help but note that there are
a) few opinions written on this site, and
b) even fewer that are recent ( with one exception)
So, slipping into helpful mode, I will try to do two things.
Firstly, a brief resume for those who have never been here.
If you have writing aspirations, check this out. Themestream is a US based site, but don’t let that put you off. There are contributors from all around the globe – and wherever you are you will get paid. (I thought I should put that in early, for the benefit of my more mercenary friends)
Contrary to what you may have read elsewhere, this is not an opinions site like Ciao or dooyoo. Yes, you can review products, if you wish. But here you can write whatever your little heart desires. Fiction, short stories, poetry, subjects too numerous to mention. The Themestream world is your lobster. I defy you to write on a subject, on which there is no category to post (albeit loosely).
There is no editing. You write. You post.
Obviously, if you abuse this privilege, you will be dealt with.
But if you are a genuine writer, you will find endless opportunities to contribute
Registration is free. No personal details or shoe size are required. And once registered, you can contribute willy-nilly. There is no payment for a contribution (I must contradict some other contributors here), but every page read generates two cents. It may not sound much, but the hit rate can be surprisingly high. If I tell you that Themestream have recently introduced a “cap” of $350 per article, because they were having to pay out too much, that may give you an idea of the potential.
The downside is that new contributions disappear into oblivion after a couple of days or less, and the rating system is obscure, to say the least.
In the past, the secret has been to promote your Themestream pages outwith the site, via e-groups, or any other legal means you can find. Because it is very difficult to get “ratings” in Themestream. And only if you are rated, does your piece remain accessible. Unrated articles soon disappear to page oatcake, and ultimately to archive (which in my humble opinion is a synonym for Recycle Bin).
BUT
Secondly, something new.
Themestream have eventually responded to something members have been shouting for for ages. And indeed, achieving by the back door. Not up and running as I write, but in the pipeline. Themestream are creating a facility for you to add a hyperlink to any article you submit, taking your reader to other articles of yours, or ( more importantly), to your catalogue. Which at the moment you are not (officially) allowed to create. But, if the recent blurb is to be believed, Themestream are going to provide a facility for you to create your own catalogue.
It all sounds too good to be true.
Be assured, I will be trying it out.
And I will come back and update this when this facility comes alive (if). And I will give you an honest opinion, sceptic that I am.
More follows.
* * * * * *
Update 9th Feb
It has come alive!
There is now a range of facilities on offer to increase your traffic. Called "Traffic Builder", it is to be found in Contributor Central.
Now I haven't road-tested much of this yet, but I'll tell you what I know. And forgive me if I don't explain it too well. I'm a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to all this technology. Up until the other week, I thought a hyperlink was an over-active sausage.
1. Tell Friends is a fast-track way to email your Themestream articles or catalogue links to whomsoever you wish to pester.
2. Banner Creator (obviously) is a tool with which to create buttons and banners linking to your TS articles or catalogue, to put in your website (unless, like me, you don't have a website)
3. Subscribe to Me Link An abbreviated URL going directly to your TS catalogue.
4. Article Links A facility to create abbreviated URL's for each of your articles. You can, of course, use these within your TS articles to encourage readers to visit more of your pages.
Suggestions as to how best to use these facilities are offered in some detail in the Traffic Builder page, under the intriguing heading "Maximising Your Tools".
I'm a new kid on the TS block, and I think I can make use of at least some of this. But browsing the site and studying the work of old hands, it is clear many have been doing most of this "by the back door" for ages. So I reckon this is TS recognising what's going on, and making it official.
So, first impression - helpful, but probably not the best thing since sliced haggis pudding.
Advantages: None. Will be sorely missed. Disadvantages: If they had given us a chance, I'm sure many contributors would have been willing to forego payments for a while, to enable them to get sorted out
Themestream is gone, kaput, vamoosed, just like that! The first I knew was when two friends forwarded e-mails they had received, to me. I never received an email from Themestream itself. I went to the site to check and nothing was on there any different from usual. I began to wonder what was going on.
Since both of these friends were in England, with English e-mail addresses, I wondered if Themestream was just closing it's doors to foreign contributors ... ...I figured maybe that was why I hadn't received any email from them, since I'm currently in the US. Maybe I should have asked at Themestream itself, but I didn't.
Well, I went to the site this week and it is gone. Totally. Apparently, they have gone bust and can't afford to pay the contributors among their other creditors ... I guess that means they paid staff and then that was it. Or maybe the server they used, or maybe they still owe the server. ...
poet831 15.04.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of themestream.com
Advantages: Earn money for writing articles on a variety of subjects Disadvantages: Lack of community spirit
www.themestream.com is a wonderful rewards site that pays you in dollars (it is US based) for writing articles on a number of subjects and themes. The site is geared more towards those who enjoy writing from a personal point of view, rather than say DooYoo or Ciao which ask for mostly opinions on products and services. You can submit short stories, poems, recipes, personal stories etc. and the site seems to promote articles that are written from ... ...products and services etc.
Themestream offers you two options, either to sign up to receive newsletters in your inbox, giving details on articles written on the subjects that interest you, or you can register as a contributor and start to earn some cash by writing articles yourself.
The site itself is fairly easy to navigate and offers a good range of categories to choose from. It attracts a huge membership as you can sign up from any country so ...
Squiggles 27.01.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of themestream.com
Themestream is another site similar to this but with a slightly different spin again. Themestream is an American site which is an excellent place to publish articles and reviews on a variety of different subjects and get paid for doing so just like here. The difference is that they are not so much interested in consumer reviews as those about virtually everything else. Yes, you can write about movies and video games, but you can also publish articles ... ...about anythingelse which takes your fancy. It is therefore more like a writers resource and an excellent site with which to complement your dooyoo activities. Themestream is quite easy to use although new users will find it a little difficult to navigate at first. The interface is quite different from that of the one seen here. To submit an article you must first go to the ‘contribute’ option and then choose from a list of subtopics those ...
wampyrii 19.03.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of themestream.com
Advantages: get 2 cent per member read, good quality articles Disadvantages: the recent re-structure of the payment system had lowered site traffic and made it more difficult to get a decent return for your efforts
...there was a very useful US Writing site called THEMESTREAM.
But all that has changed from March 1st this year. Themestream had been paying contributors 2 cents per read from any source i.e someone not a member clicks on your article - you get paid, a member clicks on your article - you get paid. Better yet - any contributor that had posted an article before September 30th 2000 was getting 10 cents per read! That ended too as TS finally got to ... ...the minority of members who were bleeding the site dry.
What do I mean? Well my husband had been writing on the site since around August last year and after a slow start he had ben getting a decent amount of reads for each of his articles. I also joined and wrote a few film reviews and so on. It was harder for me, because I usually don't get time to spend too much time on-line, so cannot read/rate/comment too much. Thus it has the effect that no ...
nipples 20.03.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of themestream.com
After over six months on ThemeStream, I'm here to open your eyes up a little bit to this much acclaimed site. Here's the Pros and Cons.
THE CONS (The Bad!)
Availability
First off is the availability of the site. Constant down time for supposed updates will embarrass you and your friends and be a bad reflection on your work. Having such a large site may take a lot of maintenance but there must be a better way to handle it than having the site down ... ...of Navigation
The site was much easier to navigate before they came out of preview mode. Four months ago they completely revamped their categories and while their "librarian" is working constantly, it still leaves something to be desired in terms of user friendliness. Plus there are more changes coming. They should have had this figured out the first time around.
Search Capabilities
This is a major problem with ThemeStream and always has been. ...
prelude210 08.12.2000 (09.12.2000)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of themestream.com
