Get paid to search with SearchCactus
Written: Jan 29 '01 (Updated Jul 06 '03)
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The Bottom Line
Search cactus DOES pay you to search. Use them for initial searches and then use Google to get more results.
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| Full Review |
Note: As of July 6, 2001, SearchCactus.com has decided to change their pay rates (from 2¢ to 1¢)
Updated July 6, 2003, SearchCactus.com has changed from 25 max searches to 15 max searches within a 24-hour period. I am updating this epinion to reflect the new changes.
Searchcactus.com is an internet search engine that pays you to search. To sign up you must be a U.S. or Canadian resident. This company launched on April 3, 2000 and currently pays 1¢ per search for a maximum of 15 searches within a 24-hour period.
~~ Qualified paid searches ~~
To be credited for your search, you must click on the search results that feature an “eye” icon next to the advertiser and you must stay on that advertisers’ page for at least 20 seconds. After 48 hours has passed since you clicked on a certain advertiser you may click on that same advertiser again and get credited, provided they still have the eye icon next to it. You can either choose one of their search categories or type in your search in their search box.
GETTING PAID
~~ Signing up ~~
When you first sign up at www.searchcactus.com, you are given a onetime $2 signup bonus. You will be asked for your name, home address, email address, and demographic information. You are allowed a different account for 4 separate individuals within a household.
~~ Other ways to get paid ~~
You can also get Quick Cash where you get paid for signing up for special promotions and offers. Unfortunately, even though these Quick Cash deals can give you up to $25 per completed sign-up, you are either applying for a new credit card, membership club, or a bunch of spam email. I have been using their Quick Cash deals when I am in the need of a low rate credit card.
~~ Referrals ~~
You are also given a commission for each person you get to sign up under you. These are your referrals. You will be given a 25% commission for your referrals’ earnings, excluding their signup bonus and Quick Cash earnings.
~~ Requesting payment ~~
You can request a check from them once you reach a balance of $20. There is a $2.00 processing fee on all checks sent outside of the United States. You log on to your account and press the Send My Check button. They state that if you request your check on the 25th of the month, you should receive your check by the 15th of the NEXT month.
LAYOUT OF THE WEBSITE
On 3/01/2001, SearchCactus decided to change the layout of the home page making it difficult to find many qualified searches by clicking on their search categories. If you are just searching to earn money, I highly suggest using their search box instead. Categories such as business, health, entertainment, career, shopping, and real estate will yield the majority of the "eye" icons, but lately I’ve found maybe only 1 or 2 paying results in each category.
~~ Quick links ~~
As for conducting your searches, there are now quick links that will quickly yield non-paying search results. This is actually an improvement with their actual search functions. You can easily search for weather using AccuWeather, maps/directions powered by Mapquest, TV listings from Zap2It, movie times from CinemaSource, yellow & white pages, stock quotes, classifieds, horoscopes, and many more.
There is a new job finder link under the employment submenu. You can even download songs from their music link. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how to personalize the song search. They already have 10 songs listed ready to be downloaded, with no search box for specific songs. Personally, the new layout is not very user-friendly for me. Many times I cannot remember how to get to a certain page on their website and it takes me awhile to find it again.
As a search engine, it looks like they have improved and added more advanced search features. Although some of the search results have yielded dead links, I have sometimes found links to websites that were not included in a Google search. For the serious searcher, it may look a bit cluttered with all of the advertising banners on the search directory pages.
SWEEPSTAKES
SearchCactus has recently included a sweepstakes for the opportunity to win a Porsche or $50,000 cash. You get 5 entries when you first join and for every new member you refer who activates their account with searchcactus. You get 10 entries for each Quick Cash deal you complete, with an additional 25 bonus entries after every 3 completed Quick Cash deals.
THINGS TO WATCH OUT FOR
1. Log in to your account before you start your searches.
2. Make sure you click on advertisers that have an “eye” icon next to them. The first time I tried my searches, I would click on some advertisers and I wouldn’t get credited for them. I finally noticed that only SOME of the advertisers had an “eye” icon next to them.
3. When you refer someone to them, use your referral code, NOT your user name. Your referral code can be found by logging onto your account, choosing the Referral info button, and scrolling to the bottom of the page. Your referral code is a 6-digit number.
THINGS I LIKE ABOUT THEM
1. As far as a search engine goes, they do return a fair amount of results that match your search inquiry.
2. There is nothing to download.
3. You get 15¢ per day, provided you do your max of 15 qualified searches. This pays you $4.50 per month. At this rate, you can get a check every 134 days (almost 4 ½ months).
4. I received my first check from them on 12/19/01 for $20.14, so they DO pay. They made the check out on 12/10 and it was postmarked on 12/14. I expect the delay could have something to do with the post office and not the company.
THINGS I DON’T LIKE
1. Every time you login to your account, you get a couple of pop-up ads. These are not too bad; you just have to close them.
2. You only receive commission for your referrals for the first 12 months after those people sign up under you, after that you only get paid for the searches that YOU do by yourself.
3. You have to look for the advertisers that have the “eye” icon next to them. Sometimes there are a lot of them; most of the time there are only a few.
4. When you click on an advertiser, the new page opens up on the same window. You can always right click on your mouse and choose Open in a new window. If you are doing legitimate searches, this feature could be annoying because you have to click back to your search results. If you were just clicking to get paid and not paying much attention to the advertisers, this wouldn’t be so bad because you don’t have to close any new windows.
5. You do not get all the possible results from your search inquiry. There are some web pages that I look for, but are not listed with them. These advertisers still have to sign up with them to have their page listed.
6. Sometimes the same advertiser is listed under different search categories. This results in having to hunt for different advertisers, which means more searches to do.
7. Lately, they have been sending quite a few emails every other day with announcements of new Quick Cash deals.
OVERALL
Searchcactus.com does appear to be a stable company and they DO pay. Normally, I do my searches while I am doing something else. I will click on the search result, go to a different open window, conduct my business (usually reading other epinion reviews), and then go back to the search result, normally the page has loaded up by then. Unfortunately, finding only 5 or so qualified searches a day lately, it will take MUCH longer than the projected 134 days to cash out.
Lately, I have been using them to find low rate credit cards to do balance transfers and for free financing help. They really will pay $17 just to apply for a credit card even though I could have easily called up the credit card company for the same deal. I’m getting paid for something I needed anyway, so why not get it through Searchcactus?
MY THOUGHTS
I will use Searchcactus for my initial searches to see if any qualified searches come up. But personally, I much prefer using Google for additional results. The main attraction for me to use Search Cactus is the reliable source of paid for searches. Searchcactus.com used to be one of my favorites, but lately they have made it really difficult to really earn money there. If you were planning on doing some searches anyway, I would recommend trying out SearchCactus first.
Recommended:
Yes
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About the Author
Location: Bay Area
Reviews written: 36
Trusted by: 194 members
About Me: Love games, 4wheeling , bodyboarding, volleyball, skydiving...until I had the kids
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