A number sites, for example ‘expertscolumn’ practice one of the most common scams. That is to stop your earning before you can reach the threshold.
How?
Let’s take it slow.
You join, you post, and there you see; you’ve earned 5c! You post again, get comments, get views, and now you’ve reached 10c! You keep going. You are sure you can make this measly $5.00 pay out.
You’ve reached $4.00 and things start to move a little slower, but nothing to worry you.
You hit $4.65 and that is it. You can’t make another 1c no matter how much you post.
And oh! You post and post and post and think…and then you stop posting.
A year passes and you haven’t earned 1c more.
You can’t see your views, you don’t see any comments under your articles, you don’t know what is happening.
Years ago, expertscolumn did pay. But for the past year? Nope. For the past year they have pocketed what articles earned, and left the user pondering.