If you remember, awhile back I thought I’d try my hand at reviewing books. (See Online Book Reviewer). I have officially thrown in the towel on this venture. Can you make money reviewing books? Yes. Did I make money reviewing books? Yes. Do I want to continue doing this? No.
There are a few reasons for this. Originally, I had the option to review books on my blog and get paid for it. Not all the books I reviewed were paid, but there were some that gave me that extra incentive. Recently the rules were changed. Now, book reviews would be paid based on the blog’s popularity instead of a fixed amount. Well, I’m not going to win any popularity contests, so that seriously cut into my profit margin.
Then the new policy stated that only reviewers with a level 4 or higher could even apply for these paid reviews. I’m stuck at level 2. I mean, really stuck there even though my editorial analysis score is 73% (the average rating is 58%) and I have received several perfect review scores recently. I thought maybe I could do a few more free reviews to bolster my status, but when I went to pick a new book, I discovered that the webmaster placed a bogus book on the list to make sure that reviewers were reading the book information before choosing a book. I always do, so I didn’t trigger the trap, but it was annoying.
I figured I still had the chance to win the daily drawing. Even if I didn’t win randomly, eventually I would get to the top of the heap and they would HAVE to give me some money. So 477 entries later, I did win.
The retweets for cash option also underwent some changes. Now, instead of just liking, retweeting and commenting on the tweet, I would have to add the book to my virtual shelf. Only the system didn’t recognize a book that I already had added to my shelf and so I get this message:
And that was the final straw. You may still see some book reviews on my blog now and then, but they won’t be for this particular organization.
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Surviving Mexico 