Had I known I would be doing a blog about how I withdrew my first ever revenue here in bitLanders, I would've noted of my some little but important details about my bitLanders journey like the date I first joined this community, how it felt at that time, what my expectations were, if I had goals and what were they, etc. Imagine how dramatic it would've been. Just kidding.
Seriously, this idea never occurred to me starting my way into this virtual social community. And, I think it would have actually come across as something relevant but not too necessary. Who needs to know about your first revenue out of participation in this rather cool place? But still, I would love to share this blog with you because you might find some interesting things and details about "withdrawing" your first revenue. To be much clearer, things and details about my experience in withdrawing my first revenue that might be (about a hundred percent possible) similar to what you might find necessary for your own experience, if you are a newbie like me too (that is, you've never withdrawn any reward yet, even though you might've purchased some things in the shop).
ANYWAY, LET'S KEEP GOING...
INTRODUCTION: BITLANDERS AS HOW I SEE IT
Let me start of by a short introduction of this virtual social platform I am writing on. I don't like technicalities and fact-based statements that sound like I am writing a formal and well-researched report. I love to keep my blogs emotion-based and highly opinionated ones. So, rather than give you a technical description of what bitLanders is, I will just tell you what bitLanders is as how I perceive it.
bitLanders is a virtual social platform that allows people, that is its members, to express themselves through various forms of artistic medium such microblogs, blogs, gallery and movies.
Oops, did that sound technical? Sorry.
"JustAGirl IN BITLANDERS" image owned by: JustAGirl
So, did I just say that I perceive bitLanders like Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites (SNS) which are mainly targeted to express people's ideas? Hmm, yes. BUT! Although I see bitLanders pretty much similar as to the aforementioned SNS's in a way that they have very similar functions in people's lives, it's not exactly the case in its entirety. What I meant about all these stuff is that, aside from giving a very beautiful and cool place to express people's inner selves, bitLanders also offers the opportunity for people to earn a kind amount of monetary reward in exchange of expressing themselves through various forms (which were already mentioned). Yes, you can earn some money in bitLanders!
In short, this is bitLanders as how I see it...
social media community + earning opportunity = bitLanders
Although I have to be very clear here, bitLanders is not a money-making site or a quick-money scheme. And with this, it makes bitLanders a much interesting place to stay in since those two things are just about the top description of scam programs or flimsy revenue-sharing sites.
WHAT TO DO IN BITLANDERS?
Before I proceed to the process of how I withdrew my first revenue here in bitLanders, I believe that to make a smooth transition to also cover the process of how I was able to accumulate the revenue I was able to withdraw for the first time since I joined.
There are four different ways to express yourself in bitLanders. There are microblogs, blogs, movies and galleries. By doing these things, you get to earn an increase in your "buzz score" which dictates your daily revenue. I am not familiar with how it gets calculated though and the algorithm thing and stuff.
"MEDIA OF EXPRESSION IN BITLANDERS" image owned by JustAGirl
Of these four, the first thing I made, I believe, was microblog since in the beginning, as part of the newbie tutorial, I was required to try out doing my first microblog. Although not long after that, I also started posting my first blog. Out of these four media, microblogs and blogs are the ones I preferred making.
I also tried creating a gallery. Although, being not so fond with taking pictures myself, it didn't really sit well with me. And that, so far, I only had one gallery of photos posted up in my gallery section. Meh. With movies, however, I started pretty slow. I only uploaded one movie (I guess) before I was able to hit my first withdrawal goal. Although at this point, as of writing the draft of this blog, I already have about 30 short videos posted up my movies section. And expect that to increase further since I had started getting acquainted with doing it.
To make it easier for the eyes, here are the four ways to express yourself in bitLanders:
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Microblog - short statements of any form limited to 160 characters; can be accompanied with a photo; or can be an animated emoticon
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Blog - an article personally made by the member; no plagiarism
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Movie - videos of certain format; must be original
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Gallery - a set of photos owned by the member
Another thing to do in bitLanders which might have a bearing on the buzz score is by taking time to appreciate other members' works. There are these so-called daily quests, but I'll be saving that for another blog. But mainly, I would like to bring up now is the activity of interaction within the community through reading other members' microblogs and blogs, viewing their galleries and watching their movies. Another cool stuff is the survey chat which I need not elaborate further unless you are really pretty new to the site. But I'd choose to save this one up too for another blog.
ALRIGHT! LET'S NOW PROCEED TO THE REVENUE THING AND ITS WITHDRAWAL...
MY REVENUE: SHOP, WITHDRAW OR DONATE
"MY REWARDS PAGE: SHOP NOW, WITHDRAW OR DONATE" image owned by JustAGirl
Talking about rewards or revenue, bitLanders does not only limit its members to have their revenues withdrawn for themselves. In fact, there are three options to choose from: you can either:
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spend your earned rewards in the shop and purchase some bitGoodies (gems; which are necessary in submitting works for review or promoting) or bitFashionista items
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withdraw your rewards though your preferred medium, either Payza or PayPal
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donate your earned rewards to your chosen charities.
If you choose to spend your revenues with options 1 and 3, you won't have to read on this article any further as shopping for bitGoodies and bitFashionista items and donating to charities do not require complex procedures and all. And these two options won't hurt too. Option 1 will make your avatar really cool and you can submit more works up for review or promotion with more gems in your account. Option 3 is all about charity, need I say more?
"BITCHARITIES" image owned by: JustAGirl
HOW DID I WITHDRAW MY REWARDS: MY FIRST EVER 10$ BITMILES PAYPAL PAYMENT
Yes, I did humbly set my withdrawal goal to only 10$.
As soon as I hit that ten-dollar mark in my reward balance, I immediately went off to withdraw it. I'd like to note though that before I was able to hit ten dollars, I already had tried purchasing some gems for my blogs and bitFashionista items to clothe my avatar, and I had also tried donating a humble amount of bitmiles (revenue currency) to my chosen charities.
"BITGOODIES: BUY GEMS" image owned by: JustAGirl
For easy reading, I decided to discuss the process I went through in numbered form, pretty much like a tutorial or guide. So, here's what I did, step-by-step, to withdraw my FIRST bitLanders revenue, my first ever 10$ bitmiles PayPal payment:
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I went to MY REWARDS section by clicking the gBM icon at the upper right side of the page, beside my avatar icon, along side gem count icon and buzz score.
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In that section, directly below the section title, on the right side, there were options to shop now, withdraw, or donate. I clicked on "withdraw".
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This directed me to a page of some bitGoodies to choose from, bitmiles payout options, to be exact. You can choose from either Payza or PayPal of four different amounts to be withdrawn: 10$, 25$, 50$ and 100$. Since I only had 10$ to withdraw and only PayPal account, I chose 10$ BITMILES PAYPAL PAYMENT.
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I was directed to the checkout page to confirm my choice and I clicked on the blue "redeem" button.
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I was asked to input an additional data to proceed with the process: my email address. TAKE NOTE: The email address that has to be placed on the box is the one linked to YOUR PAYPAL or PAYZA account and not the one linked to your bitLanders account, unless you're using only one email address for both.
NOW IT'S DONE... SOMEHOW.
"WITHDRAW REWARDS TUTORIAL" video owned by: JustAGirl
BITLANDERS ACCOUNT VERIFICATION
Since I am new in the community, that is I have never made my first ever withdrawal of my revenue, bitLanders required me to undergo account verification for security purposes as per bitLanders Customer Support. They made this formal through an email sent to my email address associated with my bitLanders account after successfully following the procedure in the previous section. So, you cannot verify your account beforehand, only when you are ready to make your first withdrawal. This is same for every member who is in the same position as I am (new member and making his/her first ever withdrawal).
To complete the verification process of my account, bitLanders Customer Support required me to email them as response to the email they sent the following:
Identification Document (ID)
Take a photo of YOUR OWN one clearly readable ID such as passport, driver's license, school ID, etc. According to the email they sent, you can also opt to send national ID card and health insurance card. In my case, I took a clear photo of my SSS or Unified Multi-Purpose ID (UMID) wherein my personal infos are readable such as my name and photo. Remember that it is important that details in the card (ID) are readable as well as that your photo is clearly recognized, so take a good capture.
"SAMPLE ID FOR ACCOUNT VERIFICATION (CENSORED FOR SECURITY)" image owned by JustAGirl
Selfie Verification
Another requirement, and the last, is take a selfie holding your chosen ID plus a paper with the word "bitLanders" written on it. It is important that your entire face is captured in the selfie and that the ID you're holding is still readable with the photo in it clearly seen in the selfie, which I think is the most important thing about it. Selfie verification works to verify that your selfie face matches your ID face. Must be too elementary to be even explained, sorry. I took a selfie holding my SSS ID and a paper with my own bitLanders handwriting in it.
IDENTITY SHY?
Don't worry. All the required documents for account verification won't be published and would remain private. However, if you are too shy to disclose your identity even only to the people behind bitLanders, you won't be forced by the management to do so. But you won't be able to withdraw your rewards. According to the Customer Support, and I quote it:
For security reasons we cannot send your Rewards until you provide us with a scan or a picture of an identification document where your name and document ID is clearly visible.
If you do not wish to disclose your identity and would rather stay anonymous, your may only use your earned Rewards to purchase any virtual item available on our Online Store to enhance your avatar or perform premium tasks on the website. Or you may choose to donate to charities by purchasing donation gift cards on the store.
BEWARE! Don't attempt to provide fake ID and selfie as it is strictly stated in the FAQs and also in the email sent to me by the Customer Support that if one does so, his/her account will be terminated. That means, goodbye bitLanders. Goodbye rewards.
Please NOTE: Providing fake identification document will lead to the termination of your Account.
HOW LONG ACCOUNT VERIFICATION TAKES AND OTHER IMPORTANT NOTES
According to the email they sent me, it will allow up to 7 days for their team to review the documents I sent them. And in my experience, it did take 7 days for them to respond to me approving the documents I sent and verifying my bitLanders account.
DO NOT CANCEL YOUR PAYZA OR PAYPAL ORDER!
This is very important. If you're done with the entire verification process, do not cancel the order you made for your withdrawal. Instead, just wait for a few more days since the management is already working with your withdrawal request. I know this because I asked them directly, and according to them, if I would cancel my existing order and withdraw again, I would have to wait for more business days until I got my order verified again. In my case, I waited up to only four more days until my PayPal account got 10$ in it. Not too long of a wait, right?
"PAYPAL CONFIRMATION FOR BITLANDERS TRANSACTION" image owned by JustAGirl
DO NOT USE MULTIPLE ACCOUNTS
Multiple accounts are not allowed in bitLanders and so, using one same identification documents for different accounts won't be approved.
QUICK REFERENCES
For quick references, here are some of rather relevant and helpful blogs by some of our fellow members here in Bitlanders regarding withdrawal of revenues, Paypal, etc.
1. How to withdraw your earnings in BitLanders? by @shaiera
---to be further updated.
Thank you for reading!
