Earning Money with Xomba
A couple of weeks ago I signed up to write for social bookmarking site Xomba. I had run across Xomba before and had been approached by other folks to sign up but chose to pass on the opportunity after visiting the site. At that time the site looked very spammy and I didn’t want to be associated with it.
My View of Xomba Changed
After reading DeAnna’s blog post on Xomba, I decided to give it a try. DeAnna did a good job of reviewing the site. You should check out her post.
I also read a few of Kidgas’ post on Xomba. By the way, congrats Kidgas for becoming Xomba’s Money & Investing Feature Writer.
My Take on Xomba So Far
Xomba has quite a few tutorials on how to post Xomblurbs and Xombytes. They also give basic sound advice on how to earn consistent money with Xomba. In their Setting Goals section in their Beginners Tutorial, they mention that consistent regular posting is the way to go. They give a very doable initial goal of posting a combination of 3 to 5 Xomblurbs/Xombytes for a period of at least 3 months to see some results.
From viewing the profiles of a few of the successful Xomba users, the ratio of Xomblurbs to Xombytes leans heavily towards Xomblurbs. Xomblurbs require linking to an interesting article and writing a minimum of 50 word intro on the article. 50 words is easy, as a matter of fact, this paragraph is 65 words (It’s a great way to create backlinks to your own articles).
Xombytes are member-written articles that must contain a minimum of 150 words. How easy is that? Keep in mind; however, as with everything on the internet, quality earns more consistent income than crappy quantity. 
How Much Can You Earn?
It’s up to you. Some folks are earning in excess of $1,000 a month. One stunned Xomba member earned over $680 in one day. Apparently AOL had linked to his article for particular keywords for the day and he made a record of $680. Unfortunately, the next day the ride was over, but $680 is still $680!
Referrals
Xomba has a referral program. For every person signed up under your account you earn 10% of their income. The 10% does not come from the person referred; it comes from Xomba’s cut of the income. Therefore you get 10%, the referral gets 50% and Xomba gets 40%.
Google AdSense Account
Before you sign up, you need to have a Google AdSense account to earn money with Xomba. They split the revenue share 50/50. Since the money is paid directly from Google AdSense, Xomba is an open opportunity to international writers. Once you have an AdSense account all you need to do is sign up and begin posting.
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Comment by jen on 13 October 2009:
Thanks for posting this. I had been wondering what it was about!
Comment by Crystal on 13 October 2009:
Great info! I’m away from home right now but will completely check out Xomba when I get back. From the little I’ve seen already, it looks like a go and I’ll be using you as my referrer. Thanks again, Felicia!
Crystal´s last blog ..Strength is a Must!
Comment by Cyn on 13 October 2009:
I heard about Xomba about a year ago, but I found the site to look too unprofessional and a bit spammy. It looks like they have since revamped it a bit. I have –oddly enough– benefited from Xomba, though. A couple of strangers wrote Xomblurbs about one of my other blogs.
Have you written anything for them yet, Felicia? If so: How is the submission interface (one click submission like eHow, or several pages like Associatd Content)?
Do they have an editing/approval step (like associated content), or is it published immediately (like hubpages)?
Comment by Felicia on 13 October 2009:
Yep, I published a Xombyte to test it out. Actually, I took one of my removed eHow articles and placed it there.
The interface is simple and easy. One click submission like eHow and it’s published immediately.
My only word of caution is not to copy and paste directly from Word. It appears that Xomba is allergic to text taken straight from Word. Using a text editor like Notepad or something that strips out all of Word’s behind the scene coding will avoid a host of problems.
Comment by Cyn on 13 October 2009:
Oooh– great idea. I have a couple of eHow articles that were pulled in the last sweep. I\’ll give those a test run on Xomba. Signing up with your referral link.
Cyn´s last blog ..If You Own A Blog: Notice of a Class-Action Lawsuit Against Yahoo for PPC Ads
Comment by Steph on 13 October 2009:
I tried Xomba a while back too, and thought it seemed kind of spammy at the time as well. However, the eHow links I put up there did well – I made a little bit of adsense and some more traffic to the article. Maybe I’ll have to check out this site again to see the improvements!
Comment by Kristen on 13 October 2009:
Felicia,
My name is Kristen Malmed and I am the Online Communications Specialist at Xomba.com.
We are so glad to hear that you are enjoying Xomba!
Just so you know, you can copy and paste from word…all you have to do is click on the icon in the rich text editor that looks like a clipboard with a W in front of it and then paste your content into they box that appears!
Please let us know if you have any questions!
Comment by Felicia on 13 October 2009:
Thanks for the info Kristen. I’ll try it with my next post.
Comment by Deanna on 13 October 2009:
Hi Felicia,
Thanks for including a link to my article on Xomba in your post. Xomblurbs are really a great way to promote your articles and earn extra money. It’s a win-win situation. I also use them to promote posts from my blog. It has brought a lot of traffic to Write Moms.
Cheers,
DeAnna
Deanna´s last blog ..Taking a Second Look at Associated Content
Comment by Kidgas on 13 October 2009:
Felicia,
This is getting spooky. First the comment issue and now this. I just posted a few words about Xomba on my blog and wrote a Hub on it as well. I started writing the Hub last night on my laptop but didn’t post until today.
I like my experience at Xomba. In fact, I am now a featured writer there in the Money & Investing section. I have earned 30% of my AdSense revenue through Xomba this month.
My only question regarding all this: Am I in your head or are you in mine??
Kidgas´s last blog ..A Few Words About Xomba
Comment by Kidgas on 13 October 2009:
Oops, forgot! Thanks for your congratulations.
Kidgas´s last blog ..A Few Words About Xomba
Comment by Felicia on 13 October 2009:
What can I tell you. Great minds think alike.
Comment by bikki on 13 October 2009:
felicia,
Great post. out of hubpages, infobarrel and xomba which one is best to write. i am currently writing on hubpages and earing few cents in a day.
Comment by Felicia on 14 October 2009:
Bikki, it’s hard for me to say. I’ve only written one article on Infobarrel, I’m rather new to HubPages and I just started on Xomba.
Why not try your own experiment? Write for all three and see which works the best for you.
Comment by Tiffany on 14 October 2009:
Felicia, thank you for sharing this! I actually haven’t heard too much of this site before now (I think I’ve seen the name mentioned here or there), but after reading this, I think I’ll have to check it out.
Tiffany´s last blog ..Tips on How to Find Thrifty or Cheap Halloween Costumes
Comment by Crystal on 15 October 2009:
Ok Felicia – I signed up and I think I signed up with you as my referrer. I clicked on the link in your blog post and after I completed the process on Xomba, I saw a message that said tidbits had earned 4 points. So I must have done it right, right? I immediately posted a Xomblurb and that went smoothly. But now that I’m trying to surf the site and see other members, I’m getting a little frustrated. For instance, it doesn’t seem that you can search for another user. Hmm. I emailed them to see if I’m missing something so hopefully there’s an easy answer. Anyway, I’ll be interested to see how you feel about your Xomba experience when you’ve had more time there.
Crystal´s last blog ..One of the Many Joys of Retirement
Comment by Felicia on 15 October 2009:
Thanks for signing up Crystal. I’m still learning the site and I’ll report back in about a month or so.
The only person I was able to find so far on Xomba was Kidgas. I’m still feeling my way around.
Comment by Crystal on 16 October 2009:
Got an answer from Xomba explaining that users can be found if you know the user name by simply typing in xomba.com/user/user’s name. It works! I already had it figured out and found you that way before they clued me in. Would still be nice to have a search feature on the site so that you didn’t have to wade through 900+ pages of a single letter hoping to spot the user you seek if you don’t have their full user name.
PS re: today’s post – Glad you got reinstated. I’m anxious to see how your plagiarism problem resolves.
Crystal´s last blog ..One of the Many Joys of Retirement
Comment by Samantha on 1 February 2010:
Felicia,
) and find it kind of confusing to set up for Google AdSense. I already set the adsense code in my profile, but do I actually have to set up each URL of each Xombyte or Xomblurb in my AdSense channels in order to receive my earnings or is that just to track the number of impressions that I’m getting on those sites?
I signed up for Xomba yesterday (under your link of course
Samantha´s last blog ..Competing for Wages on Elance
Comment by Felicia on 2 February 2010:
Setting up AdSese channels are only for our tracking purposes. When I set up my channel, I set up one for Xoma. It could be very confusing and time consuming to set one for each Xombyte or Xomblurb. I guess you can track particular bytes/blurbs to see if the field is lucrative. I think I read somewhere (I can’t remember where), that some folks are doing that. Once they find a lucrative field, they stick with it. I’m not that sophisticated. I just have one channel that tracks everything.
BTW, Thanks for using my link to sign up.
Comment by Angela on 22 June 2010:
Thanks for telling us about Xomba, Felicia. I’m signing up under your link now.
Going to make bookmarks to some of the articles that I have on my blog. Will report my findings later.
Angela´s last blog ..Pray with Your Legs
Comment by Tranced on 3 August 2010:
Thanks for your Xomba review.Last week,I signed up for InfoBarrel,Xomba and Snipsly.What attracted me to Xomba is the high page rank of the site.It seems,many people underestimate the site but it has good traffic.