writtenbyme.com

...September 13th. When we launched writtenbyme.com in April 2000, the original format was to pay author members a portion according to the online advertising we expected to receive. In May 2001, in the light of an increasingly difficult online advertising market, we announced an alternative way to calculate the value of a Dewey - it would be the sum of our online advertising revenue divided amongst the total number of Deweys per page impression.
...quarterly online advertising revenue for writtenbyme.com has been dismal, far below our original expectations, and for this reason we are suspending the program until further notice. Additionally our media serving company (BMC Australia, served by DoubleClick) has changed its operation in the current environment & has terminated our online advertising contract ending 31 August 2001. We have sought to sign-up other online media companies without immediate ... more

It's exactly twelve months this very evening since dave27 made his debut as an opinion writer, with a somewhat flimsy and feeble article on Ciao. In the year since then, there have been 700 opinions on Ciao and another 249 on Dooyoo. Such wonderful milestones as these demand something special to commemorate them and what better subject matter to mark this very special occasion than an opinion about opinions.

And so, my dears, I give you this special commemorative opinion for you to have and hold and put away carefully in bubble wrap packaging upon your mantelpiece to look back on admiringly in the years to come ... my subject on this very memorable occasion is WrittenByMe.com.

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Endangered species abound in this splendid world of ours - the tiger, the panda, the mountain gorilla, the osprey ... and now we have the dewey. Except the dewey ain't just endangered ... IT'S EXTINCT, completely defunct, deceased, passed away, gone to meet its maker ... in short, it is no more, an ex-reward scheme. However, it does still have BEAUTIFUL PLUMAGE, my dears.

For those who don't have the foggiest notion or clue to what exactly I refer, then I am talking about THE DEWEY, the currency used by WrittenByMe.com, the American writing site, which sadly is now a thing of the past because, in common with many Internet money earning programs over the last year, WBM have looked upon their chosen money model and found it wanting, lacking in substance and unsustainable, and have taken the fairly radical step of withdrawing the facility to earn money via their prog.

And so another one bites the dust, in the way that AllAdvantage and TheMail and all the rest of gone, on the sorry scrapheap of our memories, leaving behind them a sorry bunch of members, with nothing to their names but a series of uncashed facilities and reminiscences of the good times. But for a while there, it was all such a happy moment, a promise of a Shangri La where the money dripped like honey.

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But WBM is not just solely about money, although it certainly made it a more attractive experience for us poor dumb saps, and let's just take a look at what WBM was all about.

WBM is an American based site for writers which can be found as you might expect at www.writtenbyme.com. There are three categories of member on WBM: newbie, bronze, silver and gold and, to quote from the site: "The following membership status apply for writtenbyme members: -

"1. Newbie: A Newbie is a new member of writtenbyme.com. A Newbie's contributions will be featured in a new section known as New Member Contributions on the main part of the site. They can enter & read the forums but not post. They can read all articles but not rate. They can not make contributions for sale either. This is a trial period for new members. We encourage you to look around the site see how other members are rating and learn the insides of the community. We encourage existing members to read the contributions from Newbies and add them to your tracker if you enjoy their style.

"2. Bronze membership: After around 2 weeks since the Newbie joined they are automatically become a Bronze member if they have posted 4 contributions that have received on average 3 thumbs or over. Their contributions are entered in the main section of writtenbyme & these members can post in the forums. They can comment & rate on all articles. The majority of active members at writtenbyme are Bronze members.

"3. Silver membership: After around 4 weeks at writtenbyme a Bronze member will become a Silver member if their contributions receive an average of 4 thumbs or over. Silver members can rate all articles & post in forums. If a member does not receive an average of 4 thumbs they remain a Bronze member until their contributions receive this standard.

"4. Gold membership: Gold membership is awarded to members who have demonstrated a professional attitude during their membership at the site and have maintained a high standard of contributions. A Subtopic Specialist or another Gold Member may nominate a member after which the editors will review their membership. This membership is limited and allows members to bid for writing projects posted in the Commissioning section of writtenbyme.

"The Bronze & Silver memberships have the same benefits as each other and are based on the overall ratings by other members. Your current membership status will appear in your Profile page."

All clear? It actually works out like this as well, I was a member of the site for a little over a fortnight and I'd contributed about eight opinions and got either four or five thumbs on each one, and I duly graduated with glee from newbie status to bronze, giving me the new found ability to comment on and rate the writings of others.

The thumbs rating basically indicates the marks out of five and you rate ops in the following way -

Overall - One thumb only, OK, Good, Excellent, Absolutely sensational

Do you agree? - Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly agree

Writing & grammar- I will email my suggestions, N/A, Needs reworking, Great style, Don't touch it!

Enjoyment/informative - Didn't enjoy, N/A, Learnt a lot, Sensational, Standing ovation

I was all set to go and was starting to build up something akin to the Circle of Trust/Friends of Ciao and Dooyoo, except here you 'track' members and are in turn 'tracked' by them, although there is no way of knowing who is 'tracking' you. There are quite a few well known writers from Ciao and Dooyoo on WBM including Excelle, Pagan, SusanLesley, Ashford and Aspen and I'd started building up a little pool of trackers and trackees when the unpleasant news was launched on the site:

"Deweys Program Suspended - September 13 2001

"We regret to inform all members that we are suspending the Dewey Exchange program effective September 13th. When we launched writtenbyme.com in April 2000, the original format was to pay author members a portion according to the online advertising we expected to receive. In May 2001, in the light of an increasingly difficult online advertising market, we announced an alternative way to calculate the value of a Dewey - it would be the sum of our online advertising revenue divided amongst the total number of Deweys per page impression.

"Unfortunately, today we have to report that the recent quarterly online advertising revenue for writtenbyme.com has been dismal, far below our original expectations, and for this reason we are suspending the program until further notice. Additionally our media serving company (BMC Australia, served by DoubleClick) has changed its operation in the current environment & has terminated our online advertising contract ending 31 August 2001. We have sought to sign-up other online media companies without immediate success.

"This change will not affect the site or its existence. We are positive about the future - in the last 6 months we have been able to move toward more realistic business models and we are firm in our belief of writtenbyme.com. We are upbeat about the great sense of community, the great writing and recent improved quality to the writing that is writtenbyme.com."

Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

In many ways WBM is similar to Dooyoo and Ciao in that it invites contributions from members on any of the following subjects: Arts, Auto, Computers and Tech, Current Affairs, Education, Fashion and Style, Health and Fitness, Hobbies, Home and Garden, Kids and Teens, Mind Body and Spirit, Money, Movies, Music, Parenting, and Family, Pets, Romance, Shopping, Society and Culture, Sport, Television, Travel, Written Word.

However, in other ways WBM is very different because there is not half the amount of subcategorisation below this top level categorisation and you can contribute virtually anything you want below this level. For instance, under Music, there are a number of specific artists, but then there is a general category which you can drop virtually anything into, so there is a significantly wider field than you might be used to.

You are also invited to add a sub heading to your op which gives a summary and you can pull out a pull quote which is shown in a box to the right of your op. You can also attach a picture or photo and are invited to identify keywords to help searches.

Once you've graduated to bronze status you can also offer your articles for sale and WBM generously suggests the terms of sale for you - I'm not sure how many sales are generated from the WBM site so I can't comment on what you'd make via this route.

Many of the articles, as you would expect, originate from American members and there is a strange, almost surreal feel to the whole operation, with some odd religious freaks and some very reactionary writers, but the more flexible rules allow for poems, and short stories if that is your bent. It's not mine at the moment and I've confined my contributions to consumer items, much as you would find on either Ciao or Dooyoo, because that suits my style more.

The site loads and switches between pages extremely slowly and at times it feels like you're watching paint dry, so WBM can be very frustrating. It's also annoying not knowing who is rating you and some of the content is iffy to say the least, although the best ops which I've seen have been excellent. I'd already decided that WBM wasn't ideal for me or my style before the news of the death of the dewey, and when the news came it rather took the wind out of my sails.

The community feel of the site is virtually non existent, and is nowhere near the lovely experience you get with either Ciao or Dooyoo, but conversely I found little there in the way of churning, abuse or nasty pieces of work, so I guess you have to take the rough with the smooth. WBM may suit you and give you some personal satisfaction and does have a place in the sphere of creative writing. It's just not for me.

ESPECIALLY ON A NIGHT LIKE TONIGHT WHERE ALL THE MILESTONES COLLIDE. HIP HIP HOORAY AND GOODNIGHT FROM CHEZ dave27.
 

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