Tsu is not a scam or a pyramid scheme

Recently Jon Dunn on Tsu pointed out that some Google searches implied that Tsu was a bit dodgy.

I think the other results relate to Texas Southern University.

The definition of a pyramid scheme is that you use money paid in by some people to pay others, so that it will eventually collapse when people realise they will never get paid. It's a scam rather than a business.

I think this idea is due to a misunderstanding of how the Tsu algorithm works. It's true that people get paid based on what those they recruit make, but none of them needs to pay in any money. All the revenue comes from the advertising on the site and in the app (available on Android and iOS). The company is taking 10% to cover their costs, but still has some way to go before they are profitable.

The fact is that people are getting paid just about every day. Some of them post pictures of the cheques they have received to encourage others. The biggest I've seen is this one by songwriter Andrew Fromm.

He's by no means a typical user as his contacts in the music industry means he could recruit people who can easily grow a large network. He has 29,000 followers himself, so he can earn many dollars a week from his own views regardless. I know of many other people who have had hundreds of dollars from Tsu over the eight months since it started.

Personally I've made about $40 and I've given about half of that to charities on the service. There are about forty of those now and they seem to be doing well. The recent Tsu Madness event raised over $1000 that went to a wildlife charity. There are various events such as #FiveCentFriday that encourage regular giving. You can give as little as one cent, so just about anyone can donate.

It's still going to take me a while to get to $100 (threshold for a payout), but before then I may use some of my funds to buy some art from an artist on there. I've said before that the Tsu market has great potential and it seems to be taking off. It just needs a few more features to make life easier for those selling goods and services. The site is still evolving as they find their way.

The fly in the ointment is the fact that Tsu is not growing so fast of late. They have reached around four million users, but public statistics seem to indicate that fewer than 1 in 40 is visiting daily. I know a lot of my child accounts are dormant. Somehow they need to keep people engaged and actively recruiting. I think that some of the newcomers do not understand that they stand to benefit from getting their friends to join up and use the site. There is still massive growth potential, so it will be a long time before new users stand no chance of building a network. I've written about that too.

I'll keep using Tsu because it's fun. There are nice, friendly people there and we have a laugh. If I make a little extra money, then that's a bonus. As always, you can find me at http://www.tsu.co/steevc

Tsuper Powers

Being part of the Tsu Madness tournament has been a very positive experience for me. I had lots of support from people I don't know that got me through the first round, but in the second round I was up against BigFollowing who could muster more votes than me. I still did pretty well considering I'm just a regular user. This campaign has already raised twice as much as last time with over a week to go. The eventual winner gets to decide which charity gets all the money. Of course people are free to donate to any of the charities instead or as well. The scale of the charity donations on Tsu has greatly impressed me. People can choose to publicly display their donations and some are for many dollars.

I have benefited in the tournament by gaining a fair few new followers. I hope some of them will stick with me and engage in some discussion as that's what I'm there for. I also benefited financially as my views were way up and my daily 'monetization' has increased. I've passed on some of that extra money to the Tsu Madness fund.

My Tsu earnings

In my early days at Tsu it looked like I was not going to reach the payout threshold for years, but I've steadily built my following and network over the last 8 months so that it looks like I could get paid this year even if I continue to make charity donations. I do intend to spend some of it buying a picture from an artist who accepts Tsu Dollars as payment. There are a number of companies and individuals doing this now and some are listed on the Tsu Market. As I have said before, there is massive potential for this sort of commerce.

In the long term a large Tsu network of people you have recruited, and their recruits, should give a steady income as the membership increases, I'm starting to see that even though many of the people on my network are inactive. It's obviously good to get in early on this for maximum benefit. I do not consider this a 'multi-level marketing' scam as some critics have accused, Nobody has to pay anything to use the site. All the income is from the advertisers, with the Tsu company taking 10% to keep things running.

People ask how I have managed to gain so many Tsu 'children'. I've gained a lot via the tsumatic site where anyone can advertise their profile link for free. Now that you can make your profile truly public on the web people can review your posts before deciding whether to join up. I hope this will result in less dormant accounts where people only signed up to see what was there.

As always I am open to any questions about my experience on Tsu. I don't claim to be a social media expert, but I will always try to help. Of course you can check out my profile too.

Vote for me! It's Madness!

When I joined Tsu it was full of talk of how to maximise your money making and some people were busy trying to game the system. A lot of those people have been banned or gave up and it's now settled down into a nice place to be. One of the most impressive aspects has been the charity work. There are around 40 charities on there that each have a Donate button on their profile. You can donate as little as one cent and it all goes to the charity. This really kicked in when the Nepal earthquakes happened and many hundreds of Dollars were donated. Tsu founder Sebastian Sobczak set up TSU and Shikshya Foundation Nepal specifically for this cause, but other charities also helped there. I find it amazing that all this money is what people have earned from using Tsu. I've heard people call it a pyramid scheme, but nobody has to pay anything to join. Some people are making a lot of money and being very generous with their donation. Others make a little and give what they can. They may never get to the $100 pay-out level, but they can still do some good.

Of course people tend to want to make giving more fun, so various challenges have been organised to encourage donations. I've given to many of these. One of these is Tsu Madness, which was run in March. It's run like a sports tournament where popular Tsu members are played off against each by people voting for them other until two remain to fight for the title. The winner gets to nominate a charity to receive all the money raised from the tournament account and donations.

Tsu Madness is running again this month (June 2015) and I'm surprised to find myself entered as a wildcard. I'm by no means famous, but I've got to know a lot of people on Tsu by participating.

I'm up against people with far larger followings, so I don't expect to get too far, but I'll play along. My nominated cause is Charity Water. I think clean water is a basic right that we should have got to everyone by now, but much work still needs to be done.

I'll try to do a few posts to promote myself in the contest and to help it make some more money. I'll be donating some of the money I have too.

So please consider joining Tsu, even it's only to participate in this event. There are lots of cool people to follow and interact with, so maybe you will decide to stay.