I actually made (a little) money
Aug 21 '01
The Bottom Line Most earn money sites are not worth the time it takes to earn the required amount of money that will make the site cut you a check.
Introduction
This review comments almost entirely on sites that require the user to view ads while surfing the internet; throughout this review I will review to these sites as "paid-to-surf" programs. Almost all of the paid-to-surf programs began just about the same time that I started college. I wasn't making any money there, and I spent all of my time on the computer, so signing up for these seemed like a no-brainer. As one cohesive unit, my friends and I signed up for about seven of these sites, giving each other referrals, and we hoped that would lead to more referrals. Our eyes were not flashing dollar signs or anything, but we did hope this pyramid scheme would lead to a consistent paycheck of around twenty dollars a month per site ; for college kids with no money that extra 100 or so dollars sure seemed like a nice bonus. To them it would be beer money; to me it would be a nice dinner away from campus.
Our Plan
After building up a small referral base, my friends and I would each seek out referrals. The chain would basically go on forever, because each of us would refer a few people, and then those people would refer a few people, and the cash would start pouring into our accounts even when we couldn't surf! When we were actually surfing, we would have several of the viewbars open at one time; thus, we would be making $1.50 or so an hour, and that was without counting referrals! Okay so five broke college kids are now looking at $1.50 an hour multiplied by the five hours of surfing we already did in a day; that's $7.50 per day, 50 dollars per week, over 200 dollars per month without even counting referrals! Well maybe we did have dollar signs in our eyes. Still, this 200 dollars wasn't even counting the dollars we'd make off of Ignifuge just for having it as our start-page . That's a whole lot of beer, and maybe one or two nice dinners for me; anything beats those starch-filled meals on campus.
How Our Little Scheme Really Panned Out
Okay, so we expected too much. The checks didn't exactly start rolling in. First, we had to reach the minimum payout level; then we had to wait for the next pay period. My friends and I consistently earned checks for $20-plus for several months after we first implemented our little scheme. Most of these were from AllAdvantage, with Ignifuge checks handed out to two members of the group -- one to me. The other members couldn't scrape up the required amount before Ignifuge decided to stop paying people (over one year ago). All but one of us had given up on GotoWorld after a few months; since it opened up its own browser we could not view other advertisements while running it. Spedia sounded nice but just kept having problems; a few members of the group had their accounts canceled by Spedia for using some fake-surf program that moves the mouse for you every few seconds. (My own fake-surf program was perfect, though. I tied a string to my mouse and attached it to myself, pulling it every once in a while as I studied. Later on I acquired a cordless mouse to do much of the same thing.) It became apparent that a few of the other programs weren't going to pay us, including my favorite at that time, GetPaid4. AllAdvantage tried to stick around, but the company ended up making it impossible for someone to get a check, so ultimately I canceled that one, too. The only two that stayed on my computer were Ignifuge.com and my then-favorite, Freescholarships.com.
Today I am ad-bar free
Now, I am a recovering ad-baraholic. I make more money at my job now in two hours than I ever did using paid-to-surf programs consistently for almost one year. Ignifuge.com, as of last month, is no longer my start page. I get angry just thinking about them ignoring their other customers and me ... still churning out the ads but not giving their customers a penny for it. The only way I can avoid thinking about Ignifuge is by removing it as my start page; that way I don't think about how much I hate them every time my browser loads. Freescholarships.com was such a great idea. (For those of you who don't know, you could go to the site and view ads, which were chances in their scholarship lottery; 10,000 dollars was actually awarded every day ... and then 500, and then 100, and then nothing.) It is upsetting to me that the site closed because it was truly doing a community service -- providing advice to college students and awarding some of them (or their parents) scholarships. Epinions is doing a community service as well; in my opinion, it truly is the best paid-to-surf program out there. The pennies are rolling in, but no one here really does this for the money do they? I certainly don't!
Conclusions
I would not recommend anyone using a paid-to-surf program unless you read recent reviews on epinions and are absolutely certain you will get paid for (what seems like) doing nothing. Even if you do find one that will pay you over time, though, is it really worth it? Are your hours really worth 50 cents to you? Mine aren't! I found epinions last month when I entered something like "Ignifuge sucks" into a google search; an epinion popped up. I read it, and realized that I was not alone out there. Paid-to-surf programs, for the most part, have screwed everyone. Ironically, it was as I was searching for information on a site that I absolutely abhored, that I found a site that I absolutely adore. =) (cheese but it's true.)
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
dunceisme
|
|
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Reviews written: 12
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
Thanks for reading my reviews!
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.