Where do they come up with these names?!? - UPDATED
Written: May 07 '01 (Updated May 16 '04)
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The Bottom Line
If you have some time on your hands and want to make a little bit of extra money, this a one way to go.
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Update. Things have changed on the site, making it very hard to earn. They also dropped the number of searches you can do and you can only get paid for certain sites every couple of days, making the daily earn rate very low. I decided that since I didn't like to do the searches anyway, I gave it up when I reached cash out over a year ago. I closed my account and moved on. It just wasn't worth the effort for a few cents a day.
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Search Cactus is yet another pay to search site. I stumbled onto this one while checking out MyCoupons.com rewards forum. People kept talking about it, so I thought I would check it out. Figured it was another paid to search program. Couldn't be to hard to figure out. Well.....
Looking back, I should have been able to figure this out, but at the time I couldn't. First thing I do when I go to the site is to log in and check my balance. Why? Because this site does not tell you when you have completed your paid searches. You can search all day, but you only get paid for 20 searches a day. Sometimes I don't stay at the site for 20 seconds and then I don't get credit, but if I didn't check my balance at the beginning and end of my searches I wouldn't notice. You are also allowed one site per day and sometimes a site will be under two categories. Such as Borders could be under shopping and under books as well. You will only get paid for one, but might not notice right away that you have already done that site. Checking your balance at the beginning helps eliminate that problem. I'd rather know for sure than guess.
Once I check my balance, I am ready to go and I put in my first word. I tend to use the same words every day. I check out MyCoupons.com for extra words if the ones I have (such as Adult - if you can handle porno sites for 20 seconds at a time, weddings, viagra, wine, books, and so on) don't get me the 20 words I can get daily. Usually my list, and I have about 15 words, will get me the 20 searches per day allowed. Sometimes I can get all 20 in 2-3 words. Depends on the day.
How do you know if you will get paid for clicking thru the link? This is easy. There is a picture of an eye right in front of (to the left) of each link. No eye, no money for clicking thru. All of the eyes are at the top, so if the first 6 out of 10 listed on page one have eyes, those will be the only 6 on that topic that pay. No need to look further. If all 10 have eyes, there may be more on page 2, if it says "Next 10" at the bottom of the page. Once in a while after you visit the site for 20 seconds and hit the back key to go to the next search, when you get back to Search Cactus all of the other sites are gone. There may have been 6 sites under Books and after you visit the 3rd one and back into Search Cactus again, there may only be 1, or none! This is more than a little annoying, but it happens often. Why? Dunno.
When you first sign up, they give you $2 as a sign up bonus. According to the site you can make over $100 with their Quick cash, but I never had even came close. You have to sign up for credit cards and such, and some of the offers require you to buy stuff. I don't do any of that. I only do the newsletters and such that are free to sign up.
How do you earn "Quick Cash"? You sign up for things like credit cards, newsletters, books clubs, or you can download software. This money is usually credited from immediately up to as long as 4-6 weeks. The few things I signed up for I got the money credited to my account in about two weeks.
Another way to earn is thru referrals. You get 25% of what your referrals make. If your referral gets their 40 cents possible a day (searches are 2 cents each for up to 20 searches a day), you get 10 cents. Adds up fast if you get several referrals. This is good for the first 12 months your referral is a member.
You can have up to 4 accounts per household, but one per person and email address. My husband is signed up under me and he uses the same words I do as well. Makes it easier for him. Our computer remembers the key words for us, so all we have to do is click on them. Search Cactus is for US and Canadian members only for now. Will this change? Who knows? Is there an age limit? I am not sure. The site didn't say and since we don't have any teenagers living with us, it never came up.
You can cash out your account when you have at least $20 in your account. You must cash out by 5pm the last day of the month to receive a check the following month. Checks are mailed out on the 25th of the month. I received a check May 3rd for March, so they pay a month behind. If you do not have at least $20 in your account, it will roll over and you can cash out the following month if you get enough in your account.
So far this has been a decent site. I wish it would tell me when it is finished crediting me for the day, but it doesn't, so I deal with it. It is simple, but boring. You can earn up to 40 cents a day searching and if you do this while doing something else and just go back now and then for the next search I find it isn't to bad. Just to sit and do nothing but Search Cactus bores me to tears. I have to read epinions or something while I am doing it so I don't sit and count to 25 (to be safe) and then back into the site for the next word.
It is slow, but they do pay. With so many sites going under, I would rather earn slow and sure than to have them close up shop on me.
Note: I have never used their customer service so I have no idea how they are at responding.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
LisaDo
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Member: Lisa D
Location: Back home in Indiana!
Reviews written: 552
Trusted by: 273 members
About Me:
Proud SAHM, Navy wife and member of SHLEPS!
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