The work arounds never work for me. I can see it this morning and it looks like it went up a few pennies.

Can see and redeem IS this morning. Up a few dollars which is always a reason to celebrate... What? Gas prices likely to go up on the West Coast? What? Drought likely to cause higher food prices? What? A car repair? What? No raise on the job? No freelance work? Someone else isn't buying my short story, poem, publishing my book,...?

Well I got one thing to be a little happy about...

My IS was the second highest ever, which is good. However, I am mostly happy because I was the first to start the IS thread this time.


Thomas

My IS is up 38% this month. I have been carrying out a campaign to place links to my reviews in national publications. Hits on recent topical reviews have skyrocketed and it's nice to see the money has too.

Rudi

I wrote 18 new reviews last month (a ~10% increase in review count) and my income share went down over $18.

To be fair this is only my second month with a Top Reviewer hat, so I have no idea what the average should be yet.

cut to Alex T. shrugging.... 'beats me'....

Trying to make any sort of logical sense of IS earnings going up and down doesn't work. We don't really know how IS is determined and since I too (and many others) have had months where lots of new reviews were written--but IS was less than in months where far less new reviews were written, I can't begin to understand it. Some months only one out of 4 new reviews seems to earn a few new pennies.. while other months 3 out of 4 reviews earn a few new pennies. Hit counts look the same so what's different one month to another? Perhaps clicks to site selling stuff? I gave up trying to make sense of it a long long time ago.

Just enjoy writing epinions reviews and essays and consider it a nice bonus that you earn a few pennies for doing it and some people become regular readers. You'll never get rich, or even earn a dollar an hour for efforts you put into your writing.

Mine is happily about $3 more than last month! I like this trend ... hope it keeps up!

Related Note: I had written one for my anti-fatigue prescription medication a year ago (for MS-related fatigue). It was already in the database. The hits soar every month, but the IS is really low considering that I have over 300 hits on it. I never understood the surge of hits on it -- in March, 92 hits -- until I heard a news report that its nickname was "Viagra for the brain!" Apparently, people must have wanted to find out more about the drug that lets you stay awake for days at a time without the effects of sleep deprivation. They must be clicking on my review and leave when they see I'm discussing the intended (and legitimate) purpose for the drug. Oh, well -- the two magic words: sex and productivity. Hope they're not mixing their prescriptions.

Every site where I write has advised contributors that they must assume responsibility for "getting the word out there." I see a trend here.

Given modern realities, every site where I write provides instruction and suggestions in the art of "getting the word out there"; researched, compiled and written by the site's experts. Except one, that is.

Guess which one...

(Michigan) Mark, based on all the advice posted here by members so far, I can guarantee you that you will get lots of outside hits by posting links to your reviews at the Internet Power Tool Database, iptdb.com. Now, if you can just find it, let me know?

I was hoping to cash out today, but no bonus yet?