Paid to Click! Thousands of money hungry, desperate people are flocking to these sites to sign up thinking that they are going to make lots of money by doing virtually nothing. They couldn't be more wrong.
For those people who are unaware of this concept let me briefly explain how it works, although it is pretty self explanatory.
Basically your are paid to click on an advert!
Explanation over!
Sounds great doesn't it? What could be easier? Sitting in the comfort of your own home, sipping a cup of tea (or something a little stronger), whilst happily clicking your mouse and making money whilst doing it!
Unfortunately it's not as great as it sounds. Many of the online PTC sites have one thing in common, they either work for or own the site ads you are paid to click. So why are they paying you to click them? Because they want you to buy whatever it is they are offering, and mostly what they are offering are scams.
Many of the sites operate in the same way. You sign up to the site. They publish a list of several (usually about 12 or so) sites/ads to click on.
You are obliged to stay on the site for at least 20 or 30 seconds. This is to ensure that you see whats on offer and start to read, hopefully then buying the scam. The scams are normally get rich quick schemes or something along those lines. You are also only allowed to click on an ad once per day. That's to stop you earning too much money too quickly.
For this you are paid...wait for it...about 1c per click. However, in the kindness of their hearts they will offer other clickers for you to buy or rent of which you will receive a percentage of their earnings. As discussed on my Scams blog post, if you have to pay for anything, alarm bells should be ringing.
So lets think about this. Let's assume that you have registered with one of these sites. Just how much money will you make and how long will it take?
As previously stated many of these sites will have on average 12 or so ads. So you click all of them and you have earned 12c and it has taken you 6 minutes to do this. I'm sure some of you are thinking "So what? Any free money is good" and you would be right to think that but nothing is ever that simple. All sites that give you money have their terms and conditions, and the rules of these sites are that you have to earn (on average) $75 before you can claim your money. For those of you without a calculator, that means that it will take you 625 days before you see your money. Would anyone really spend that long waiting and clicking? Probably not, and most don't so they give in. But that's fine for the scam merchants because they don't have to pay anything and in the meantime have probably made money from you if you were seduced into buying into the scam.
Now there are a lot of forums and social networking sites where people have raved about these sites - the 'professional clickers' as they would like to be known. They will tell you how much money they have earned, how many other clickers they have bought or rented and how great their affiliate site is. The chances are that they are just trying to get you hooked so that they can earn a 25c referal fee. OK, so if that works, they will reach their payout target a little sooner but not much really. What many clickers do is to sign up with several different PTC sites thinking this will boost their earnings and of course, that makes sense. If your signed up to 10 sites, your earnings increse 10 fold. $750 at the end of two years sounds a little more inviting and you would be tempted to stick around for that length of time in the knowledge that just a few minutes each day would perhaps pay for a holiday or new TV in a couple of years. And that would be where you are wrong. Back to the terms and conditions. All of these sites have the same rules.
They can suspend your account at anytime without prior warning or explanation!
Go and have a look at some of the forums where people discuss their HUGE earnings. Check out how many of them complain that their accounts have been stopped or even those who SHOULD have been paid but never were.
Do you want to spend two years of your life clicking just to suddenly find you have been wasting your time?
My advice to anyone even contemplating joining one of these schemes is DON'T BOTHER! No matter how inviting it may sound. No matter if your best friend tells you how great they are. No matter what kind of great reviews you may read. You are WASTING YOUR TIME.
There are more inviting and genuine ways to make money online such as affiliate programs and online surveys. If you are serious about supplementing your income in your spare time then these are really the two best ways to go.
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Wednesday, 25 February 2009
Get Rich Quick! - No Such Thing.
We are bombarded by millions (seriously) of Internet ads promising get rich quick schemes..."I make $5000 a day", "Join now and never work again", "I'm rich and you can be too!"...the list is endless. Apart from the promise of eternal wealth for doing almost nothing these sites ALL have one thing in common; they ask you for money!
Only one word describes these sites...SCAM! They basically fall into two categories:
1. They tell you how to make money online by joining affiliate programs, online surveys, pay per click programs etc (all of the information they give can actually be found online for free and even then you will not get rich)
OR
2. They tell you to become THEIR affiliate by selling their scheme to others for which you will get a slice of the payment (basically a pyramid scheme). And do you really think you get paid?
Unless you can come up with a cure for cancer or invent a source of free energy or win the lottery, the chances of most people becoming rich overnight are almost zero.
If you know anything about google AdWords you will know that people will pay a lot of money to get their sites seen on google so that people will click on them and ultimately pay to get their "so called" get rich schemes. If you are in any doubt, just type in 'money' or 'make money' into google and see how many sponsored links their are. Last time I checked there were 83. Not only that but there were almost 1 billion results (non sponsored). What does that tell you? Well, the simple answer is that there are a lot of people out there who are trying to take advantage of your desire to make money online. And that is just google - goodness knows what the results are for all f the other search engines such as Yahoo or MSN.
There is one simple rule of thumb when it comes to making money online and that is..
If you have to pay, it's a scam
It's quite simple really. Just follow that one rule and for the most part you should be fine.
I am not suggesting that if something is free then by definition it must be genuine, merely advising you that when it comes to making money via the Internet (unless you are a genuine business with your own website), if it costs you money, you are being had.
So the next time you are tempted by that professional looking website which promises that it IS genuine and that all other offers are fake but then goes on to ask you for money before revealing its secrets, remember this...
When was the last time you saw Donald Trump or Sir Alan Sugar offering you a guaranteed method to get rich quick? Do you really think that anyone who GENUINELY became rich doing this sort of thing, would sell their secrets so that thousands of other people could do the same and reduce their market?
Only one word describes these sites...SCAM! They basically fall into two categories:
1. They tell you how to make money online by joining affiliate programs, online surveys, pay per click programs etc (all of the information they give can actually be found online for free and even then you will not get rich)
OR
2. They tell you to become THEIR affiliate by selling their scheme to others for which you will get a slice of the payment (basically a pyramid scheme). And do you really think you get paid?
Unless you can come up with a cure for cancer or invent a source of free energy or win the lottery, the chances of most people becoming rich overnight are almost zero.
If you know anything about google AdWords you will know that people will pay a lot of money to get their sites seen on google so that people will click on them and ultimately pay to get their "so called" get rich schemes. If you are in any doubt, just type in 'money' or 'make money' into google and see how many sponsored links their are. Last time I checked there were 83. Not only that but there were almost 1 billion results (non sponsored). What does that tell you? Well, the simple answer is that there are a lot of people out there who are trying to take advantage of your desire to make money online. And that is just google - goodness knows what the results are for all f the other search engines such as Yahoo or MSN.
There is one simple rule of thumb when it comes to making money online and that is..
If you have to pay, it's a scam
It's quite simple really. Just follow that one rule and for the most part you should be fine.
I am not suggesting that if something is free then by definition it must be genuine, merely advising you that when it comes to making money via the Internet (unless you are a genuine business with your own website), if it costs you money, you are being had.
So the next time you are tempted by that professional looking website which promises that it IS genuine and that all other offers are fake but then goes on to ask you for money before revealing its secrets, remember this...
When was the last time you saw Donald Trump or Sir Alan Sugar offering you a guaranteed method to get rich quick? Do you really think that anyone who GENUINELY became rich doing this sort of thing, would sell their secrets so that thousands of other people could do the same and reduce their market?
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
Online Surveys - The Easy Way To Make Money
Remember the days when you were casually walking down the high street trying to think of what to buy for that special someone or maybe rushing to the bank in your lunch break? Then out of the blue some complete stranger would jump in front of you and ask you if you would just take a couple of minutes to answer a few questions?
The first time this happened to me I thought that I would be doing my bit to save the planet by discussing product packaging. Great, I thought, now I can really give my opinion and ensure that plastic coated products would never again slice off my finger tip whilst trying to open them with a hacksaw. How wrong I was. The survey was just a compilation of unrelated questions, mostly about car insurance and the only reference to product packaging was whether or not I liked the new look of some chocolate bar. And as for a couple of minutes…make that 20. My reward? Being told off by my boss for taking too long on my lunch break. Of course this experience, as is the case for most people, made me determined never to be solicited in such a way again. From that point forward if I ever saw someone who even remotely looked like they were about to pounce, I would dive into the nearest shop or begin a fake coughing frenzy in the hope that their sense of self preservation would kick in and avoid me.
This method of market research used to be amongst the most widely used and you cannot deny that a lot of people earned a decent living doing it. Any organisation or business worth their salt who offer any kind of consumer product, should consult their customers as to their opinions, it’s the best way to ensure that they are marketing and targeting correctly. But, oh how annoying.
Thankfully street market researchers are few and far between these days. Businesses have found a different, cost effective and more targeted approach to determining what their customers think. Online surveys.
There are literally thousands of online surveys these days many of which are outright scams to get your email address and start bombarding you with junk mail. However, there are a few out there that are genuine. You just need to look around and find one or two that are right for you and sign up. The respectable businesses will actually employ these organisations to target only those consumers who meet their criteria. So for example, if you are a 47 year old male you wouldn’t be asked to complete a survey about your opinions on menopausal supplements for women.
So what’s in it for you? Well unlike those street surveys, you will actually get paid for your time. OK, you won’t get rich but payment can range from pennies to pounds. I personally make about £5 or £6 pounds each week filling in surveys whilst waiting for the roast to cook, some members make a great deal more. I’m not retiring to Monte Carlo just yet but when you consider that this equates to £260 per year I could at least afford the flight. And as a wise man once said…Nobody ever went broke taking a profit.
One of the best I've found is Survey Savvy a great survey site which also pays you for your referrals
The first time this happened to me I thought that I would be doing my bit to save the planet by discussing product packaging. Great, I thought, now I can really give my opinion and ensure that plastic coated products would never again slice off my finger tip whilst trying to open them with a hacksaw. How wrong I was. The survey was just a compilation of unrelated questions, mostly about car insurance and the only reference to product packaging was whether or not I liked the new look of some chocolate bar. And as for a couple of minutes…make that 20. My reward? Being told off by my boss for taking too long on my lunch break. Of course this experience, as is the case for most people, made me determined never to be solicited in such a way again. From that point forward if I ever saw someone who even remotely looked like they were about to pounce, I would dive into the nearest shop or begin a fake coughing frenzy in the hope that their sense of self preservation would kick in and avoid me.
This method of market research used to be amongst the most widely used and you cannot deny that a lot of people earned a decent living doing it. Any organisation or business worth their salt who offer any kind of consumer product, should consult their customers as to their opinions, it’s the best way to ensure that they are marketing and targeting correctly. But, oh how annoying.
Thankfully street market researchers are few and far between these days. Businesses have found a different, cost effective and more targeted approach to determining what their customers think. Online surveys.
There are literally thousands of online surveys these days many of which are outright scams to get your email address and start bombarding you with junk mail. However, there are a few out there that are genuine. You just need to look around and find one or two that are right for you and sign up. The respectable businesses will actually employ these organisations to target only those consumers who meet their criteria. So for example, if you are a 47 year old male you wouldn’t be asked to complete a survey about your opinions on menopausal supplements for women.
So what’s in it for you? Well unlike those street surveys, you will actually get paid for your time. OK, you won’t get rich but payment can range from pennies to pounds. I personally make about £5 or £6 pounds each week filling in surveys whilst waiting for the roast to cook, some members make a great deal more. I’m not retiring to Monte Carlo just yet but when you consider that this equates to £260 per year I could at least afford the flight. And as a wise man once said…Nobody ever went broke taking a profit.
One of the best I've found is Survey Savvy a great survey site which also pays you for your referrals
Monday, 2 February 2009
Affiliate Programs
Anyone who has ever used the internet will be fully aware of just how many money making schemes (and scams) there are out there.
It’s true that with the right training and knowledge there is money to be made from comparatively little input and finance and if done correctly, you can begin to see a steady stream of income in a matter of weeks.
There is no doubt that making money online (or Online Marketing as the experts would call it) requires determination and a set of skills and resources that can either be learned or obtained for free. However, there are many types of rouge out there who would have you believe that you can only make this happen if you buy a book; enrol on a paid online course or subscribe to a (non-existent or useless) newsletter, often selling your contact details on (ever wondered why you get so much junk mail in your inbox?).
One of the most popular and fastest growing ways to make money online is to become an affiliate.
Affiliate marketing simply means working in partnership with businesses and promoting their products on your website. Most of the larger businesses will offer an affiliate program and will provide you with various resources to do this, for example banner adverts, copy text to add to your site, links and/or feeds. For them, it is another route to market and increases their exposure to potential customers. For you, it is a risk free opportunity to sell someone else’s products without doing anything other than placing their information on your site and taking a percentage of any sales generated.
There are many successful individuals who earn a great deal of money just by following this path alone. However, on average you could expect to earn in the region of around 2.5% per sale but look out for those who offer huge commissions of 30% or more. Depending on which business and what products you are promoting this kind of commission really could see you earning a living rather than just pocket money.
So if you have a website or are thinking about creating one, either for business or personal use, affiliate programs can be an invaluable source of additional income.
If you are still sceptical, remember this. In 1995 a man called Jeff Bezos launched a website selling other peoples books. In 2008, his company entered the the S&P 100 index and was recently valued at $15 billion.
It’s true that with the right training and knowledge there is money to be made from comparatively little input and finance and if done correctly, you can begin to see a steady stream of income in a matter of weeks.
There is no doubt that making money online (or Online Marketing as the experts would call it) requires determination and a set of skills and resources that can either be learned or obtained for free. However, there are many types of rouge out there who would have you believe that you can only make this happen if you buy a book; enrol on a paid online course or subscribe to a (non-existent or useless) newsletter, often selling your contact details on (ever wondered why you get so much junk mail in your inbox?).
One of the most popular and fastest growing ways to make money online is to become an affiliate.
Affiliate marketing simply means working in partnership with businesses and promoting their products on your website. Most of the larger businesses will offer an affiliate program and will provide you with various resources to do this, for example banner adverts, copy text to add to your site, links and/or feeds. For them, it is another route to market and increases their exposure to potential customers. For you, it is a risk free opportunity to sell someone else’s products without doing anything other than placing their information on your site and taking a percentage of any sales generated.
There are many successful individuals who earn a great deal of money just by following this path alone. However, on average you could expect to earn in the region of around 2.5% per sale but look out for those who offer huge commissions of 30% or more. Depending on which business and what products you are promoting this kind of commission really could see you earning a living rather than just pocket money.
So if you have a website or are thinking about creating one, either for business or personal use, affiliate programs can be an invaluable source of additional income.
If you are still sceptical, remember this. In 1995 a man called Jeff Bezos launched a website selling other peoples books. In 2008, his company entered the the S&P 100 index and was recently valued at $15 billion.
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