Clicking for charity

From the outset the Tsu social network has made charity a feature. Charity organisations can register their credentials and will then have a 'Make a Donation' button on their profile. Any user can click that to donate some of whatever funds they have accumulated through using the site. You get paid based on views and by recruiting, so it's no extra effort really.

There are currently 67 charities listed (link on this post). These cover a wide range of causes. I'd like to see some from the UK, so if you know of any then please tell them. I know that some have raised many thousands of dollars so far.

I've probably given away about half of what I have made so far on Tsu. There are lots of campaigns run by users to boost donations. I did one in February where I sponsored people in my running group. Other people matched my donations. And this is all with money that we would not have otherwise.

Tsu has undergone a big change in recent months. They released a major re-design of the site and changed how some aspects work.Previously you could post on your own profile or to a group. Now there are global 'topics' where posts must go so that people can find what suits their interests. 'Channels' can be created within these topics by users for more specific areas. People are still adjusting to this, but I think it has some real benefits.

If you haven't visited in a while then check it out. They have an extensive FAQ that should answer most questions. If you are not a member then please use this link. I get a small bonus from recruiting people and you can do the same. They really want to attract more people who create original content. Artists, musicians and others can benefit directly from their work and they don't need to pay to make it visible there.

Wow, an app

If you've been reading this blog then you will know that I like Tsu. It's a good social site that has a good mix of people. Of course it also pays you and I've made over $100 there that I was able to redeem recently. There have been a few other sites with similar models that I have tried over the last year, but none of them was as fun to use and so I didn't use them enough to earn a significant amount.

Now there'a chat app which also pays users from advertising revenue. It's called WowApp and it seems to offer a similar set of features to Skype. Like Tsu it offers the option to transfer money to charities. You see ads in the app (Window, Apple, iOS and Android, no Linux) and web site, but they are not terribly obtrusive.

I'm trying it for now with a few people and have made about a cent. I've only recruited one person whereas others have hundreds and they are making a lot more.

I'll still have to use Skype, Facebook, Google and WhatsApp to stay in touch with friends, but this is another option.

If you want to try it then please use my referral link at https://www.wowapp.com/w/steevc/Steve-Clark

Tsu really does pay you

One of the issues Tsu has had is that people think it's some kind of scam or pyramid scheme and that they will never get paid. Well, I can happily report than even a bumbling amateur like me can get paid. This week I received a PayPal transfer of $100 (minus some fees), two days after I claimed it. I've never had to pay anything in. I've just given time I would have spent on-line anyway.

It's taken over a year to get to this point, but in that time I have given many dollars to charities and bought a painting using my Tsu earnings. If I hadn't done those I could have claimed some months ago, but I don't really mind. I never expected to make more than beer money from Tsu.

There are some people who have made thousands, but they either worked on it a lot more or are very well connected and so could build a network of top people who would make them some good money. I have limited social connections. I have amassed a lot of Tsu 'children', but they are mostly amateurs like me and many gave up when they didn't see the cash roll in.

I do have some cool children now who I expect could do well on Tsu if they stick with it. These include:

• GVader who makes fun videos about gaming
• Jared from How To Play In A Band, a site with useful resources for musicians
• Diary of a Blind Lady is a blog by a friend who documents how she is losing her site, but still manages to laugh
• Brian is also a friend and he's embarking on a new music career. He's into the UK festival scene
• Alexandra is a young lady in the USA who I suspect wants to get into modelling

If you are considering joining Tsu then please do it via one of these people as it will give them a welcome boost. I'm already doing relatively well there.

As always, I welcome any questions.

Getting the word out about Tsu

As previously blogged Facebook have been blocking any links to Tsu. This has made it hard for people to invite their friends over as a lot of them do not use many services outside Zuckerberg's empire.

Luckily several people have provided ways to work around this. One of the longest standing is Tsumatic. Not only do you get a personal page, but you will appear on the site's front page as long as you visit each day to 'boost' yourself.

Jon Dunn runs the TsuCoach site and now has a landing page you can use. Just change this URL to include your Tsu user name instead of mine: http://tsucoach.com/invite.php?user=steevc

Dexter Roona has a similar service on Tsu Made Easy: http://tsumadeeasy.infobunny.com/tsu-private-invite/?id=steevc

Tom Peace has run the Tsu forum almost since Tsu started and it's a cool place to discuss the service. He has always allowed Tsu profile links in signatures there and they probably helps as people looking for information about Tsu will find their way there. He now provides an extra service. If you create a post in this section inviting people to Tsu then buttons in the site will lead people to your page. These are assigned randomly to one of the people with an invitation page.

If you know of any others please let me know and I'll update this page.

Tsu's afraid...

The Tsu social network has now been running for over a year. It's still relatively new, but has managed to sign up over four million people all around the world. It's been interesting to see where it's been successful. Initially the USA had the most active members. Morocco got big when an account was opened for their king and lots of his subjects joined. India has also done well as you might expect with its massive population. Recently Pakistan saw a boom when a media star there joined and spread the word. Pakistan is currently top of the chart for visitors and views, but Brazil is rising fast.

Of course the big mover in social networks is Facebook and they seem to feel threatened by little Tsu to the extent of not allowing any links to Tsu and they also removed all existing Facebook posts that came via Tsu. Tsu lets you cross-post to your other social networks. This means that all my holiday pictures were removed from Facebook. It is also hampering people inviting their Facebook friends to join Tsu.

If you try to put a Tsu link into a Facebook post you are told that it is 'unsafe'. There's is an option to tell them otherwise, but I'm not sure anyone has had a proper response to that. You also cannot put a link in a Facebook instant message.

Tsu founder Sebastian Sobczak stated today that Tsu is actually spamming Facebook less than some other sites with access to the API and that Facebook should restore the deleted content.

This action has not gone unnoticed and there have been several articles on high profile sites about it. ZDNet reported this first (I think). It's also been on Huffington Post, Octafinance, DeMorgen (in Flemish) and, most recently, on CNN.

The publicity may be helping Tsu a little as it can lead to people wanting to join. In some cases the journalists provide their own profile link and thus gain in their own network.

There is a hint of hypocrisy here as Tsu previously blocked links to a site with a (very) similar business model. I think that other site went too far in copying some of the Tsu ideas and there may have been legal action, but I don't know exactly what happened.

I'm sticking with Tsu for now. I've been steadily earning a little each day and should be able to claim my $100 payout before the end of the year at the current rate, and I enjoy the banter I get there. There's massive potential for growth and for people to do very well via the referral incentive.

I still think it's the idea place for creative people who want to be rewarded for their work. They will earn from views, but there are also people 'tipping' good content via Tsu money transfers. As well as liking a post you can give real money. I don't see many other sites that can offer anything like that.

See you on Tsu

Bitcoin for fun and (a little) profit

Everyone knows about Bitcoin, but how many actually have any? There are many ways to buy it now, but you need to have some specific need to justify the cost. What if you just want some to play with?

The answer is faucets. These are sites that will give you a small amount of Bitcoin in exchange for being exposed to some advertising and usually you need to respond to some CAPTCHA (to prevent automated access). It really will only be a small amount, generally less than a cent's worth, but if you do this a few times each day it can build up.

Here's my suggestion of one way to approach this:

1. Get a Xapo wallet. This a place to store your bitcoins. It will be on their servers and secured with your password. There's an app (Android at least), and you can even get a debit card
2. Open a Bleutrade account. This is also a wallet, but also allows you to trade in many other cryptocurrencies
3. Go to Moonbit and log in with your Xapo email address. You can visit as often as every five minutes to claim whatever amount has accumulated. There are bonuses for visiting daily, recruiting people, and some random bonus for no apparent reason. You can play with this, but we will exploit it below
4. Use the Moonbit referral link to log in again with your Bleutrade Bitcoin address. You should be able to find that on the Wallet page if you click the + on the Bitcoin line and then Deposit. When you claim on the faucet with this account your Xapo account will get 25% of the amount too. This will build up over time.
5. Once you have accumulated a reasonable amount of Bitcoin on Bleutrade use it to buy some of their Bleutrade Share. When you have enough of this you get a share of their trading profit twice a day. You probably need at least one share to get anything, but it will then give you a small amount each day. It's not much, but what do you expect for so little work?
6. Of course you can use your referral links (as I am here) to recruit more people and earn from their efforts. 
7. You can transfer your Xapo funds into Bleutrade to use there, but there is generally a fixed fee for this, so wait until you have a reasonable amount, e.g. $1 worth

I have tried some other wallets, including a local one on my PC so I could experiment with transferring between them. I have yet to actually buy anything with Bitcoin, but I have donated some to some projects. I've accumulated a few dollars worth. The price is not fluctuating much these days, but it would have to go up a lot to make me rich.

There any many other faucets, but I find Moonbit to give a reasonable return without being too annoying. Others want you to play games or watch videos. That's fine if you have the time. Bleutrade have their own faucets, but I don't make much from those. Bitcoin Zebra is related to Moonbit and gives a random amount each hour when you visit. Another simple faucet is freebitco.in.

I have looked at the Bitlanders social site that rewards you with Bitcoin, but it could take years to make a few dollars and I don't find it that interesting otherwise. I've also tried an Android app that pays random amounts each hour if you look at some ads, but the rewards are too small to be worth it to me. 

As with most things you are not going to make a lot for doing so little, but everything you make has some real worth and if you have the time you could make something worth having. I suspect some people play lots of faucets each day. The choice is yours.

I prefer to spend time socialising on Tsu where I make a nice little income, but I'll keep building my Bitcoin pot for future use.

Let me know your thoughts. I find cryptocurrencies fascinating and I think we will all be using them in some form in the future.

Group Therapy

The Tsu social network is about 10 months old now. That's a fairly long time in internet years and it should be reaching maturity now. The expectations for what a service should offer are set by the big guns like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Although each site should have some unique features to mark it out people expect certain features.

The latest new feature on Tsu is groups. Although you can follow people who share your interests it is useful to have a place for like-minded folk to discuss their interests without all having to follow each other.

There are a limited selection of groups available so far as they have to be approved by the team. This is partly because groups generate earnings as in other areas of the site and this could be abused. It should also prevent lots of similar groups being created. The creator and administrators of the group get a percentage, but some also goes to a nominated charity. In the current beta phase (first 30 days) nobody gets anything.

I have joined some groups, but quickly left some as they were just full of irrelevant posts that were filling up my stream and the admins were not dealing with them quickly enough. I think there have been changes since then so that you only see posts by friends unless you actually go to the group page.

More groups are being approved each week and I will look into those. I've created a couple of possible groups to see how that goes and have also been asked to be an admin on others.

In my opinion groups work best when they are for a fairly specific topic. Otherwise there will be an overwhelming number of posts and it will be impossible to find the good stuff unless there are good filtering tools. Perhaps posts with the most likes and comments should be highlighted. There also needs to be search within a group. I hope to see the feature evolve.

Any thoughts? Discuss here or on Tsu.