$10 more in gift cards posted to my Swagbucks account yesterday.
All offers I have completed on Points2Shop since my last cash out have been stuck in 'approval limbo'. I completed an offer on Cashle, Points2Shop's sister site, and am waiting to see if it actually posts. So far, I have over 10 offers that have been in 'approval limbo', some of them for over 3 months.
Speaking of which, this problem started in earnest some time before their website revamp. I really think it even started before I decided to cash out.
I have not bothered contacting their Customer Service, as from what I have seen, the canned response is "just try the offer again". Well, hey, you know what, screw that. I already completed it once, and it should post. In my opinion, I shouldn't have to try to complete the same offer three times. With their Daily Surveys, that's not even possible. And at 10-15 minutes per survey or offer completion, if I have to retry the same offer 3 times in order for it to actually POST, that's half an hour to 45 minutes of my time for what amounts to a maximum payoff of 90 cents! If this continues, despite having cashed out on them and having declared them legit, I'll be dumping them into the same reject-bin as GamingLagoon. I only have so much time in the day to devote to this. I'll just spend more of my time on a different website that doesn't play these games. There are plenty of fish in the sea, so to speak.
Edit/Update:
Less than 15 minutes after posting this entry, my latest Daily Survey on Cashle was approved. Not bad, since I only took the survey yesterday. I got credited 90 cents. Unfortunately, pretty much every other offer I completed in the past 2 months is still in approval limbo. I'm guessing they pretty much always will be. I don't feel like retrying them or taking it up with their Customer Service. Hopefully, it was something related to the website revamp and will not continue to be a problem in the future.
The Paypal minimum to withdraw from Cashle is currently $1.00. That should be pretty easy to rack up, as long as I qualify for another survey soon (maybe even today?).
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Nomiminumbux
I saw an ad for Nominimumbux while doing my daily ad-clicks at Neobux. It looks nice, well put-together, and doesn't ask for a ton of personal information, so I decided to join. I couldn't find much information on it since it seems really new. There's no minimum cashout on it, but new members have to click at least 300 ads to cash out. I get 5 ads per day on a Standard account, so it will take about 2 months to hit cashout, as long as I click consistently.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
TrekPay, Neobux, and Scour developments
I stuck with TrekPay even though they rubbed me the wrong way the first few days I was a member. I stopped getting the "WE'RE WATCHING YOU" type messages, and haven't seen any accusations of cheating since.
Now, one of the things that irks me is the abundance of "VISIT THIS WEBSITE AND CLICK ADS" links on TrekPay - especially aonsidering that the websites involved are, in some cases, essentially violating the TOS of whatever network they're a member of. I highly doubt Trekpay cares, and it's honestly not their job to care. I have noticed that you'll get the full 3 credits whether you click the ads or not - I just don't know how well Trekpay tracks it, and I don't feel like finding out.
Otherwise, Trekpay is super easy. They don't even make you wait a set period of time once you've visited the site - you get your credits right away. Unlike places like Neobux, the websites you visit are actually - *gasp* - occasionally interesting and useful. I was shocked.
So, anyway, how does Trekpay work? Well, for starters, you don't earn money directly. You earn credits. Credits are converted to money each week - I think they do it on Tuesday, since that's when I suddenly had money in my Trekpay account. The credit-to-dollar conversion rate varies, so there's no real way to tell how much money you've actually earned. I don't know if I like that - I feel like it's way too easy to get jacked around by them that way. And if the conversion rate were to continually change in their favor, I could see putting in a ton of work and getting very little return. But there's no saying that'll happen - we'll see.
Anyway, my first 40-odd credits were converted on Tuesday. I now have 11 whole cents! Oddly enough, not ALL of my credits were converted to money. Or were they? I really can't tell, I'll know more by next week. Either way, I'm nowhere near the $5.50 minimum cashout at the moment.
In other news: Neobux ads are taking FOREVER to load lately. I've had to let them sit for minutes at a time before the counter actually starts. It's a minor irritation for me, since it's not like I don't have other things I can do while the timer loads, but it is annoying.
For a while, Scour was also taking forever to load. Lately, it hasn't been nearly so bad. It still takes a very long time. I also noticed that on Scour, the "Redeem Points" button had also mysteriously gone missing from my profile. A quick visit to their blog revealed that points no longer matter. They attempted to gloss things over, but tacked this on the end: "Please note: The previous point reward system is still discontinued as of September 1, 2009." From what I can tell, then, the point system is discontinued - period. You gain nothing by searching on Scour - I guess I'll be sticking with Google and Swagbucks.
Now, one of the things that irks me is the abundance of "VISIT THIS WEBSITE AND CLICK ADS" links on TrekPay - especially aonsidering that the websites involved are, in some cases, essentially violating the TOS of whatever network they're a member of. I highly doubt Trekpay cares, and it's honestly not their job to care. I have noticed that you'll get the full 3 credits whether you click the ads or not - I just don't know how well Trekpay tracks it, and I don't feel like finding out.
Otherwise, Trekpay is super easy. They don't even make you wait a set period of time once you've visited the site - you get your credits right away. Unlike places like Neobux, the websites you visit are actually - *gasp* - occasionally interesting and useful. I was shocked.
So, anyway, how does Trekpay work? Well, for starters, you don't earn money directly. You earn credits. Credits are converted to money each week - I think they do it on Tuesday, since that's when I suddenly had money in my Trekpay account. The credit-to-dollar conversion rate varies, so there's no real way to tell how much money you've actually earned. I don't know if I like that - I feel like it's way too easy to get jacked around by them that way. And if the conversion rate were to continually change in their favor, I could see putting in a ton of work and getting very little return. But there's no saying that'll happen - we'll see.
Anyway, my first 40-odd credits were converted on Tuesday. I now have 11 whole cents! Oddly enough, not ALL of my credits were converted to money. Or were they? I really can't tell, I'll know more by next week. Either way, I'm nowhere near the $5.50 minimum cashout at the moment.
In other news: Neobux ads are taking FOREVER to load lately. I've had to let them sit for minutes at a time before the counter actually starts. It's a minor irritation for me, since it's not like I don't have other things I can do while the timer loads, but it is annoying.
For a while, Scour was also taking forever to load. Lately, it hasn't been nearly so bad. It still takes a very long time. I also noticed that on Scour, the "Redeem Points" button had also mysteriously gone missing from my profile. A quick visit to their blog revealed that points no longer matter. They attempted to gloss things over, but tacked this on the end: "Please note: The previous point reward system is still discontinued as of September 1, 2009." From what I can tell, then, the point system is discontinued - period. You gain nothing by searching on Scour - I guess I'll be sticking with Google and Swagbucks.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Points2shop Prize Proof
Finally edited together my 'proof' for Points2shop - here is the prize I received in the mail. Note that it actually came directly from the Amazon seller to me.
Unfortunately, I have been having some difficulty with OTX surveys not loading in Firefox. I don't like IE and can't always remember to switch to IE for doing OTX surveys, and once you have attempted a survey for the day it won't let you attempt another one, even if the survey didn't load correctly. So it has been costing me. I finally got around to installing the IE Tab addon for Firefox. Hopefully, this addon will solve problems with some other survey sites that insist on Internet Explorer. If you're having trouble with this in Firefox, go to Tools --> Add-ons and run a plugin search for IE Tab.
Today, I actually got SIX ads to click on Neobux, instead of the regular four. Exciting. I still have no referrals, but the money seems to accumulate a little bit faster, possibly because I'm staying on top of it a little bit better, possibly because they seem to be feeding me more ads to click lately.
Waiting for the ads to load and verify has started to take quite a long time. If you're having trouble with it hanging on 'loading advertisement', just let it sit. Eventually, it will load and verify, but it can take quite a while. It's not like it's hard work to just let it sit and load, though.
TrekPay Responds
TrekPay responded to my question/complaint. They didn't even bother with a semi-polite form letter. Instead, I got a half-assed mass mailing:
Posted by: Support Rep: admin Post Date: 2009-08-26 13:14:38
Hi,
We have done some changes to our security and you may have noticed that we are using a security certificate (https) on our site.
We had a problem with our ticket system and are not sure if tickets got answered or not. We can find this out but it would take a bunch of extra time that is difficult to spare as we are adding additions to our business.
I am including a general answer to many questions in this ticket. If your question is not answered within its content then please open another ticket.
………………………..
Once a week we convert some of your credits to cash. Check your account balance.
We do not have a preset value to a credit. We are a profit share business.
Each week between Tuesday-Thursday calculations for conversion of credits will be made and values of credits are determined at that time. The dollar amount will be displayed in your back office. You can then decide to withdraw these funds to your PayPal account. (you must have at least $5.50 to withdraw)
This is a profit share program so it is difficult to state what a credit will be worth.
We are still in pre-launch and will be adding other money earning methods shortly.
also....
When you refer someone there are bonus credits added to you. If that referral purchases searches from Trek Advertising you will get 12.5% of the buy. Referrals will become more important when we add our next steps, you will have to wait for the official announcement.
………………………….
The T icon is only activated by our cheat team. If you do not see one then it is a good thing. If you happen to see one please click on it and all is ok. If the T icon does not disappear do not worry, it is either a malfunction or a fake one made by somebody else.
……………………….
When you get a cheating message, do not take it as a personal attack. It is only our system and it notifies our cheat team to watch your account more closely. Everyone will have this happen to them sometimes. If it happens all the time then it will become a problem.
……………….
We do not have upgrades available. Everyone is a free member.
……………..
If your question was not answered within this ticket then open another one.
My reply:
Your 'cheating' message is antagonistic. It's not that people are taking it personally so much as the fact that it is poorly worded. Trust is an important component of the relationship between a website such as TrekPay and its members, and a message such as that does nothing to build trust. If a lot of people are getting offended, implying that it is the fault of the people for getting offended by the message is a poor tactic. Further stating that everyone gets the 'we think you're cheating and we're watching you' message every once in a while and that is normal or o.k. doesn't help. Perhaps if you reworded your message more tactfully, members would not get so upset.
As you can tell, I'm not thrilled with how TrekPay treats their members. I may still stick with it just to see how it pans out, but anyone who plans on joining probably shouldn't expect too much help from Customer Support if they ever have a problem.
Edit:
Received another 'cheating will not be tolerated, we are watching' message while attempting to normally surf websites through TrekPay. And, of course, did not receive credits for it. I'll attempt to use this website over the course of the next few days, but if this continues, I'll be dropping it and adding it to my 'STAY AWAY' list.
Posted by: Support Rep: admin Post Date: 2009-08-26 13:14:38
Hi,
We have done some changes to our security and you may have noticed that we are using a security certificate (https) on our site.
We had a problem with our ticket system and are not sure if tickets got answered or not. We can find this out but it would take a bunch of extra time that is difficult to spare as we are adding additions to our business.
I am including a general answer to many questions in this ticket. If your question is not answered within its content then please open another ticket.
………………………..
Once a week we convert some of your credits to cash. Check your account balance.
We do not have a preset value to a credit. We are a profit share business.
Each week between Tuesday-Thursday calculations for conversion of credits will be made and values of credits are determined at that time. The dollar amount will be displayed in your back office. You can then decide to withdraw these funds to your PayPal account. (you must have at least $5.50 to withdraw)
This is a profit share program so it is difficult to state what a credit will be worth.
We are still in pre-launch and will be adding other money earning methods shortly.
also....
When you refer someone there are bonus credits added to you. If that referral purchases searches from Trek Advertising you will get 12.5% of the buy. Referrals will become more important when we add our next steps, you will have to wait for the official announcement.
………………………….
The T icon is only activated by our cheat team. If you do not see one then it is a good thing. If you happen to see one please click on it and all is ok. If the T icon does not disappear do not worry, it is either a malfunction or a fake one made by somebody else.
……………………….
When you get a cheating message, do not take it as a personal attack. It is only our system and it notifies our cheat team to watch your account more closely. Everyone will have this happen to them sometimes. If it happens all the time then it will become a problem.
……………….
We do not have upgrades available. Everyone is a free member.
……………..
If your question was not answered within this ticket then open another one.
My reply:
Your 'cheating' message is antagonistic. It's not that people are taking it personally so much as the fact that it is poorly worded. Trust is an important component of the relationship between a website such as TrekPay and its members, and a message such as that does nothing to build trust. If a lot of people are getting offended, implying that it is the fault of the people for getting offended by the message is a poor tactic. Further stating that everyone gets the 'we think you're cheating and we're watching you' message every once in a while and that is normal or o.k. doesn't help. Perhaps if you reworded your message more tactfully, members would not get so upset.
As you can tell, I'm not thrilled with how TrekPay treats their members. I may still stick with it just to see how it pans out, but anyone who plans on joining probably shouldn't expect too much help from Customer Support if they ever have a problem.
Edit:
Received another 'cheating will not be tolerated, we are watching' message while attempting to normally surf websites through TrekPay. And, of course, did not receive credits for it. I'll attempt to use this website over the course of the next few days, but if this continues, I'll be dropping it and adding it to my 'STAY AWAY' list.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Trek Pay
So, a friend sent me an invite to Trek Pay. They didn't want a whole lot of personal info, so I figured what the hell. I signed up.
It literally took TWO MINUTES of being a member to be accused of cheating. My crime? Clicking on a link. You know, like you're supposed to, in order to earn credits.
Now, I try my hardest to play by the rules. I'm not trying to game the system, since that endangers the very websites I hope to benefit from. Accusing a two-minute-old honest member of cheating when they haven't done anything wrong is not good customer service, and it's not a good way to win loyalty or grow as a website, either.
This is the ticket I submitted to TrekPay's support:
Subj: "Confused by accusations of cheating (currently using Firefox browser)"
Body:
"I'm running searches and trying to click on websites to visit them, as I am supposed to, in order to earn credits. I'm currently using the latest version of Firefox. Every time I click on a link - not even trying to open in a new tab or anything, just a regular everyday left-CLICK - on a link, it still pops open in a new window and it says "manually entered URL, cheating will not be tolerated, we are watching".
Well, I haven't manually entered any URLs and I'm trying to open it in the same window. Is there a reason for why this is being displayed even though I'm not even trying to open the website in a new tab?"
I'll update if/when I receive a reply.
So far: not impressed.
It literally took TWO MINUTES of being a member to be accused of cheating. My crime? Clicking on a link. You know, like you're supposed to, in order to earn credits.
Now, I try my hardest to play by the rules. I'm not trying to game the system, since that endangers the very websites I hope to benefit from. Accusing a two-minute-old honest member of cheating when they haven't done anything wrong is not good customer service, and it's not a good way to win loyalty or grow as a website, either.
This is the ticket I submitted to TrekPay's support:
Subj: "Confused by accusations of cheating (currently using Firefox browser)"
Body:
"I'm running searches and trying to click on websites to visit them, as I am supposed to, in order to earn credits. I'm currently using the latest version of Firefox. Every time I click on a link - not even trying to open in a new tab or anything, just a regular everyday left-CLICK - on a link, it still pops open in a new window and it says "manually entered URL, cheating will not be tolerated, we are watching".
Well, I haven't manually entered any URLs and I'm trying to open it in the same window. Is there a reason for why this is being displayed even though I'm not even trying to open the website in a new tab?"
I'll update if/when I receive a reply.
So far: not impressed.
Friday, August 21, 2009
I Received My Points2shop Prize
Today, I received my prize from Points2shop. I'd ordered a music CD (Good Apollo I'm Burning Star Vol. IV by Coheed & Cambria, if you're curious). I'll post photos of the package and prize in a little while
To recap: I received confirmation that my prize had been ordered the third day after I requested it. I never received a tracking number for the prize, even though the message told me I would receive one. I was a little bit worried about that. A tracking number would have been comforting.
I just now visited their website and, unfortunately, it seems to be down. d'oh. They'd been talking about an update, I guess maybe their update hasn't gone as planned? I'm not sure. All I know is that it only occasionally loads properly, and if I try to visit another page, I get an Internal Server Error. I hope that my point balance hasn't been wiped out - that would be a shame, considering the fact that I've just confirmed that they pay out.
Edit: I just visited the website again, and it appears to be working properly. Nevermind.
To recap: I received confirmation that my prize had been ordered the third day after I requested it. I never received a tracking number for the prize, even though the message told me I would receive one. I was a little bit worried about that. A tracking number would have been comforting.
I just now visited their website and, unfortunately, it seems to be down. d'oh. They'd been talking about an update, I guess maybe their update hasn't gone as planned? I'm not sure. All I know is that it only occasionally loads properly, and if I try to visit another page, I get an Internal Server Error. I hope that my point balance hasn't been wiped out - that would be a shame, considering the fact that I've just confirmed that they pay out.
Edit: I just visited the website again, and it appears to be working properly. Nevermind.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Points2Shop Has Shipped My Prize...
I received this email from Points2Shop today:
"Your order is approved and ordered at Amazon.com. As soon as we receive the tracking number we will update the status of your order. You will receive notification of this by email."
This means I should get my CD soon. I haven't received a tracking number yet.
Unfortunately, many of the offers and surveys I've taken on Points2shop recently seem to be stuck in "approval limbo". I hope that it doesn't turn out to be the same situation as GamingLagoon all over again. From the announcements, though, it looks as if they are doing a major site overhaul. Hopefully, the 'approval limbo' is linked to this, and things will get better once they're done updating the website.
Anyway, Points2Shop is also linked to something called Cashle. Instead of Amazon points, you earn cash. Cash can be converted to Amazon points on Points2shop, but Amazon points cannot be converted to cash. I mainly ignored Cashle since many of the offers only give you a few cents, but some of the Daily Surveys look like they have a decent payout, so I may switch over to Cashle for a little while and see what my experience with that is.
As for Reviewstream, I got burnt out on review writing and let it rest for a little while. Part of the problem is that they only want to pay the full rate for certain kinds of reviews. I'm not sure about some categories, but I know that makeup and electronics reviews are in demand. And I was sort of sick of reviewing makeup and shampoo. Right now, my opinion is to only review things such as food if you're willing to accept the bulk rate. Nonetheless, I'll be writing a few more reviews over the next few days while picking my brain for more ideas for Associated Content articles.
"Your order is approved and ordered at Amazon.com. As soon as we receive the tracking number we will update the status of your order. You will receive notification of this by email."
This means I should get my CD soon. I haven't received a tracking number yet.
Unfortunately, many of the offers and surveys I've taken on Points2shop recently seem to be stuck in "approval limbo". I hope that it doesn't turn out to be the same situation as GamingLagoon all over again. From the announcements, though, it looks as if they are doing a major site overhaul. Hopefully, the 'approval limbo' is linked to this, and things will get better once they're done updating the website.
Anyway, Points2Shop is also linked to something called Cashle. Instead of Amazon points, you earn cash. Cash can be converted to Amazon points on Points2shop, but Amazon points cannot be converted to cash. I mainly ignored Cashle since many of the offers only give you a few cents, but some of the Daily Surveys look like they have a decent payout, so I may switch over to Cashle for a little while and see what my experience with that is.
As for Reviewstream, I got burnt out on review writing and let it rest for a little while. Part of the problem is that they only want to pay the full rate for certain kinds of reviews. I'm not sure about some categories, but I know that makeup and electronics reviews are in demand. And I was sort of sick of reviewing makeup and shampoo. Right now, my opinion is to only review things such as food if you're willing to accept the bulk rate. Nonetheless, I'll be writing a few more reviews over the next few days while picking my brain for more ideas for Associated Content articles.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Neobux Paid Me
I finally reached the $2.00 minimum payout on Neobux and cashed out. They paid me almost instantly. By the time I opened a new tab and logged into Paypal, my payment was already there:
It's $1.98 because Neobux apparently takes fees out when they pay you. They inform you of this when you go to cash out, though.
I would like to stress that this was done WITHOUT a premium account, without renting referrals, and with no actual referrals (nobody clicked my referral link, nobody loves me... *sniff*).
You'll also see a payment from Ciao - my final payment, actually. Took them about a month, in comparison.
I also recently requested a prize from Points2Shop. It was a pretty cheap price - a CD from a band I happen to like, used, for about 3 bucks plus maybe another dollar or two for shipping. It didn't come up in the Points2Shop searches, I had to manually enter the product ID, but I wasn't told it had to be specially requested or anything, so hopefully the request will go through normally. If so, it should arrive in a few days.
I've been plinking away at Swagbucks, as usual. Swagbucks and Neobux are favorites of mine, by now. I like ReviewStream but I've been having difficulty thinking up new reviews (that they'll accept at full price, anyway). Same with Associated Content. Those two definitely take more time and energy, although they pay a lot better.
Regarding Surveyspot, I have not yet qualified for a single paying survey. Regarding Opinion Outpost, many of the surveys they offer seem to be surveys I can also take through Dollar Surveys. I'd rather get the 1 buck (transferred to my Paypal within a week) than "points" I have to save up, so it's not hard to guess why I tend to go with Dollar Surveys. That, and they don't ask for tons and tons of personal information about myself.
It's $1.98 because Neobux apparently takes fees out when they pay you. They inform you of this when you go to cash out, though.
I would like to stress that this was done WITHOUT a premium account, without renting referrals, and with no actual referrals (nobody clicked my referral link, nobody loves me... *sniff*).
You'll also see a payment from Ciao - my final payment, actually. Took them about a month, in comparison.
I also recently requested a prize from Points2Shop. It was a pretty cheap price - a CD from a band I happen to like, used, for about 3 bucks plus maybe another dollar or two for shipping. It didn't come up in the Points2Shop searches, I had to manually enter the product ID, but I wasn't told it had to be specially requested or anything, so hopefully the request will go through normally. If so, it should arrive in a few days.
I've been plinking away at Swagbucks, as usual. Swagbucks and Neobux are favorites of mine, by now. I like ReviewStream but I've been having difficulty thinking up new reviews (that they'll accept at full price, anyway). Same with Associated Content. Those two definitely take more time and energy, although they pay a lot better.
Regarding Surveyspot, I have not yet qualified for a single paying survey. Regarding Opinion Outpost, many of the surveys they offer seem to be surveys I can also take through Dollar Surveys. I'd rather get the 1 buck (transferred to my Paypal within a week) than "points" I have to save up, so it's not hard to guess why I tend to go with Dollar Surveys. That, and they don't ask for tons and tons of personal information about myself.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
MyPoints Is Legit
I actually got this gift card in the mail last week, but I've been busy and hadn't gotten around to taking a photo of the letter and the gift card:
So there it is. My Bath & Body Works $10.00 gift card from Mypoints.
Was it worth it? Well, honestly, I didn't put a whole lot of 'work' into getting this gift card. It was just a slow burn - clicking Mypoints ads sent to my email every day or every other day, and using coupons from the Mypoints website or filling out whatever offers or surveys struck my fancy. Is it a huge payoff? Not really. But it was "free". Did I put a ton of effort into it? Honestly, no. If you put a lot of actual effort into using Mypoints, in my opinion you're doing it wrong.
So there it is. My Bath & Body Works $10.00 gift card from Mypoints.
Was it worth it? Well, honestly, I didn't put a whole lot of 'work' into getting this gift card. It was just a slow burn - clicking Mypoints ads sent to my email every day or every other day, and using coupons from the Mypoints website or filling out whatever offers or surveys struck my fancy. Is it a huge payoff? Not really. But it was "free". Did I put a ton of effort into it? Honestly, no. If you put a lot of actual effort into using Mypoints, in my opinion you're doing it wrong.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
MyPoints
I just redeemed my first MyPoints gift card - a $10.00 card from Bath & Body Works. I should receive it in the mail in 2-4 weeks. Once I've received and used it, I can vouch for MyPoints. I'll keep you updated.
I'm also 1 Swagbuck away from redeeming another $5.00 Swagbucks gift card. So far, I've bought one relative a birthday present using gift cards I earned through Swagbucks, so using the website has definitely paid off.
I set aside my ReviewStream reviews in order to work on some other stuff, but I'd better get cracking on those reviews if I want to make my loan bill next month.
Gaming Lagoon denied every single offer I completed, yet again. Don't bother with Gaming Lagoon - seriously.
I have received two samples through StartSampling, so far - one for Sun Crystals and another for Aveeno shampoo and conditioner. Samples are particularly useful for those who wish to write reviews about products but don't want to have to buy half the store. You also get 'Frequest Tryer Miles' which can be redeemed for gifts. The gifts kind of suck, though (a tote bag, a free shirt, or a restaurant.com gift card) and it seems like they're available in limited quantities. I guess it's better than nothing. Considering the fact that the 'best' gift (the restaurant.com card) is available on Swagbucks for a measly 45 SB, it may not be worth all of the effort. The StartSampling forums still make the website worth joining, though.
I'm also 1 Swagbuck away from redeeming another $5.00 Swagbucks gift card. So far, I've bought one relative a birthday present using gift cards I earned through Swagbucks, so using the website has definitely paid off.
I set aside my ReviewStream reviews in order to work on some other stuff, but I'd better get cracking on those reviews if I want to make my loan bill next month.
Gaming Lagoon denied every single offer I completed, yet again. Don't bother with Gaming Lagoon - seriously.
I have received two samples through StartSampling, so far - one for Sun Crystals and another for Aveeno shampoo and conditioner. Samples are particularly useful for those who wish to write reviews about products but don't want to have to buy half the store. You also get 'Frequest Tryer Miles' which can be redeemed for gifts. The gifts kind of suck, though (a tote bag, a free shirt, or a restaurant.com gift card) and it seems like they're available in limited quantities. I guess it's better than nothing. Considering the fact that the 'best' gift (the restaurant.com card) is available on Swagbucks for a measly 45 SB, it may not be worth all of the effort. The StartSampling forums still make the website worth joining, though.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Swagbucks Now Offers Paypal
So I just noticed through the Twitter feed that Swagbucks now offers a $5 Paypal to the address you signed up for Swagbucks with. Since I've redeemed gift cards from them in the past, I know that they definitely come through on their prizes. So this is good news for those of you who are only interested in cash. A $5 gift certificate from Amazon still costs slightly more than half of the 80 Swagbucks that a $5 Paypal apparently costs - but sometimes, you just need cash.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
List O' Survey Sites Continues, July 1st - Plus Other Updates
NOT WORTH MY TIME:
http://consumer-opinions.com/ - looks very amateurish and the 'Contest rules' section is very out of date.
forummodalis.com - portal page
http://www.survey550.com/ - 404
http://marketprofiles.net/ - looks amateurish. Also, you can only be entered in a drawing to win prizes. Why bother when you can take surveys elsewhere and be paid every time?
allpaidsurveys.com - not an actual survey site. Worth exploring for its links to other survey sites but they are not well-organized. Also has links to very annoying I WILL SELL U MY SEACRET METHOD!!1 type websites.
survey904.com - Looks legitimate and professional but I can't see anywhere for survey-takers to sign up
webmysteryshoppers.com - parked portal page
survey552.com - 404
zoomerang.com - 404
survey087.com - useless link list
foodquiz.com - no longer offering surveys through the foodquiz.com website
consumercorner.com - site is closed
onlineval.com - link list
survey233.com - 404
surveypayday.com - link list
isay.com - parked/portal page
preres.com - in order to participate, you must go to the opinionwizard.com website
firstlook.com - does not appear to be a survey site any longer
survey446.com - 404
survey889.com - portal page
survey767.com - portal page
survey153.com - portal page
survey199.com - link list/portal page
survey327.com - portal page
surveysignup.com - parked/portal page
surveychoice.com - 404
researchhouse.ca - no longer appears to be a survey site
focusgroups.com - lists focus group locations, etc. but does not appear to be a survey site
surfbuzz.com - parked/portal page
quesionmarket.com - portal site
questionmarket.com - no longer accepting new registrants
gmrnet.com - offers "a chance to win prizes", looks amateurish
WORTH LOOKING AT FURTHER:
consumerlink.com
http://www.gmi-mr.com/
mysurvey.com - I believe this may be affiliated with Mypoints.com somehow
https://www.surveysavvy.com
http://focusline.com/ - has been around since 1996. Most of the page refers to 2008 dates, so I'm a bit worried it may be outdated.
gozing.com - Clicking on the BBB Accredited link on the bottom leads to a page indicating that its accredition has lapsed (as of this date, in any case). It's apparently run by Greenfield Online. I don't know how good/bad it is, its BBB rating looks like it's B- right now, and indicates that "This company's business is providing the sales of cellular phones, accessories and survey programs" - paid surveys aren't mentioned. It looks interesting but I would be wary.
product-testing.com
songpeople.com - looks interesting. Not surveys, but interesting.
pickthehits.com - I don't know what to make of this one, you have to contact them via email - I probably will.
userworks.com
opinionwizard.com
ithinkinc.com
executiveadvisoryboard.com
cobbey.com
buzzback.com
jurytest.com - this one looks odd, but interesting
surveysavvy.com
busreslab.com
Other Updates:
Thanks to Reviewstream, I can pay my student loan payment. Combined with money I made from Associated Content, money from doing some odd jobs for other people and some money I received as a birthday gift, I am also able to pay my phone bill. I've been worried that all of this was a huge waste of time, but if I was able to pay 2 bills, it wasn't. I will also be able to buy my cousin a birthday gift with the gift cards I earned through Swagbucks, which is nice and would otherwise be impossible (as I am essentially flat broke after paying bills).
DollarSurveys.net still hasn't deposited anything in my Paypal account. Well, guys, it's been a week and I'm close to calling that one a bust. Edit: DollarSurveys actually paid me today - $3.25. I'll post images tomorrow
At Points2Shop, I'm close to the 1000 point mark just through taking stupid easy Daily Surveys. I'd like to save up a decent number of points before ordering something and possibly being able to vouch for the site once my prize arrives. I probably could order something now (10 bucks is about where money starts getting 'useful' on Amazon) but I'd rather just wait.
A relative sent me an email with a link to this Yahoo! User Experience Panel. It's Yahoo! so I feel pretty safe assuming it's legit. I don't know if it'll help anyone - I'm guessing the odds of being selected are pretty low.
When I went into this, I expected to find a fistful of scams. I've definitely found my fair share of scams, but Internet, you surprise me.
http://consumer-opinions.com/ - looks very amateurish and the 'Contest rules' section is very out of date.
forummodalis.com - portal page
http://www.survey550.com/ - 404
http://marketprofiles.net/ - looks amateurish. Also, you can only be entered in a drawing to win prizes. Why bother when you can take surveys elsewhere and be paid every time?
allpaidsurveys.com - not an actual survey site. Worth exploring for its links to other survey sites but they are not well-organized. Also has links to very annoying I WILL SELL U MY SEACRET METHOD!!1 type websites.
survey904.com - Looks legitimate and professional but I can't see anywhere for survey-takers to sign up
webmysteryshoppers.com - parked portal page
survey552.com - 404
zoomerang.com - 404
survey087.com - useless link list
foodquiz.com - no longer offering surveys through the foodquiz.com website
consumercorner.com - site is closed
onlineval.com - link list
survey233.com - 404
surveypayday.com - link list
isay.com - parked/portal page
preres.com - in order to participate, you must go to the opinionwizard.com website
firstlook.com - does not appear to be a survey site any longer
survey446.com - 404
survey889.com - portal page
survey767.com - portal page
survey153.com - portal page
survey199.com - link list/portal page
survey327.com - portal page
surveysignup.com - parked/portal page
surveychoice.com - 404
researchhouse.ca - no longer appears to be a survey site
focusgroups.com - lists focus group locations, etc. but does not appear to be a survey site
surfbuzz.com - parked/portal page
quesionmarket.com - portal site
questionmarket.com - no longer accepting new registrants
gmrnet.com - offers "a chance to win prizes", looks amateurish
WORTH LOOKING AT FURTHER:
consumerlink.com
http://www.gmi-mr.com/
mysurvey.com - I believe this may be affiliated with Mypoints.com somehow
https://www.surveysavvy.com
http://focusline.com/ - has been around since 1996. Most of the page refers to 2008 dates, so I'm a bit worried it may be outdated.
gozing.com - Clicking on the BBB Accredited link on the bottom leads to a page indicating that its accredition has lapsed (as of this date, in any case). It's apparently run by Greenfield Online. I don't know how good/bad it is, its BBB rating looks like it's B- right now, and indicates that "This company's business is providing the sales of cellular phones, accessories and survey programs" - paid surveys aren't mentioned. It looks interesting but I would be wary.
product-testing.com
songpeople.com - looks interesting. Not surveys, but interesting.
pickthehits.com - I don't know what to make of this one, you have to contact them via email - I probably will.
userworks.com
opinionwizard.com
ithinkinc.com
executiveadvisoryboard.com
cobbey.com
buzzback.com
jurytest.com - this one looks odd, but interesting
surveysavvy.com
busreslab.com
Other Updates:
Thanks to Reviewstream, I can pay my student loan payment. Combined with money I made from Associated Content, money from doing some odd jobs for other people and some money I received as a birthday gift, I am also able to pay my phone bill. I've been worried that all of this was a huge waste of time, but if I was able to pay 2 bills, it wasn't. I will also be able to buy my cousin a birthday gift with the gift cards I earned through Swagbucks, which is nice and would otherwise be impossible (as I am essentially flat broke after paying bills).
DollarSurveys.net still hasn't deposited anything in my Paypal account. Well, guys, it's been a week and I'm close to calling that one a bust. Edit: DollarSurveys actually paid me today - $3.25. I'll post images tomorrow
At Points2Shop, I'm close to the 1000 point mark just through taking stupid easy Daily Surveys. I'd like to save up a decent number of points before ordering something and possibly being able to vouch for the site once my prize arrives. I probably could order something now (10 bucks is about where money starts getting 'useful' on Amazon) but I'd rather just wait.
A relative sent me an email with a link to this Yahoo! User Experience Panel. It's Yahoo! so I feel pretty safe assuming it's legit. I don't know if it'll help anyone - I'm guessing the odds of being selected are pretty low.
When I went into this, I expected to find a fistful of scams. I've definitely found my fair share of scams, but Internet, you surprise me.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Paid By Reviewstream - Reviewstream is Legit
Two hours after sending Reviewstream an email requesting payment, I received my payment of $90.80. Wow, that was fast!
So I can now say that they are definitely legit. I can also say that I'll be able to pay my student loan bill next month. Thank you, ReviewStream, and bless your little hearts.
I'd like to mention that I did this without a legion of referrals. In fact, I have no referrals at all. Nobody has been up-voting my reviews (I don't think I've gotten a single Helpful vote, although I work awfully hard on them). That's right, I wrote 47 reviews (I got paid the bulk rate for 2 of them before wising up). It wasn't easy. They tend to get accepted faster as you write more. I think out of all of the reviews I have written, perhaps 2 have gotten rejected for the full rate, and that was before I learned how to write them in a way that I knew would get them accepted for the full rate. Writing a good review really doesn't take that long once you have practice and you're writing to a template. You can see the reviews I've written by checking my review blog, ShinyReview.
So I can now say that they are definitely legit. I can also say that I'll be able to pay my student loan bill next month. Thank you, ReviewStream, and bless your little hearts.
I'd like to mention that I did this without a legion of referrals. In fact, I have no referrals at all. Nobody has been up-voting my reviews (I don't think I've gotten a single Helpful vote, although I work awfully hard on them). That's right, I wrote 47 reviews (I got paid the bulk rate for 2 of them before wising up). It wasn't easy. They tend to get accepted faster as you write more. I think out of all of the reviews I have written, perhaps 2 have gotten rejected for the full rate, and that was before I learned how to write them in a way that I knew would get them accepted for the full rate. Writing a good review really doesn't take that long once you have practice and you're writing to a template. You can see the reviews I've written by checking my review blog, ShinyReview.
Waiting...
The points I've been waiting for on MyPoints are still pending.
Nothing at all in my Paypal account from DollarSurveys - but I did get tons and tons of spam! I'll be taking my surveys through Points2Shop unless/until I see something from DollarSurveys actually arrive in my Paypal account, since they both run off of the same survey services (and the number of surveys you can take per day through those is limited) and I would like to benefit the most (or at all) from any surveys I take.
The gift card I requested a few days ago from Swagbucks is still pending - I haven't gotten my gift card number yet. They've always delivered in the past, so I'm not really worried about this, and I'm back up to 11 SwagBucks already again - almost 1/4 of the way to my next gift card.
Regarding ReviewStream - I made a formal payment request from them today. I won't state the amount I requested, since I don't want to jynx myself. I wasn't quite sure how to make the formal request - they didn't offer any suggestions or guidelines, so I just emailed them and asked for the money to be sent to my Paypal account. Yeah, I've been busy writing a lot of reviews - I've been sweating bullets lately, since I've had no way to pay my student loan or phone bill.
Still nothing worthwhile from SurveySpot, besides them expecting me to take surveys for free. Is the chance to not get paid for surveys why I signed up for SurveySpot? I think not. I think I can do that pretty much anywhere else on the Internet.
Nothing at all in my Paypal account from DollarSurveys - but I did get tons and tons of spam! I'll be taking my surveys through Points2Shop unless/until I see something from DollarSurveys actually arrive in my Paypal account, since they both run off of the same survey services (and the number of surveys you can take per day through those is limited) and I would like to benefit the most (or at all) from any surveys I take.
The gift card I requested a few days ago from Swagbucks is still pending - I haven't gotten my gift card number yet. They've always delivered in the past, so I'm not really worried about this, and I'm back up to 11 SwagBucks already again - almost 1/4 of the way to my next gift card.
Regarding ReviewStream - I made a formal payment request from them today. I won't state the amount I requested, since I don't want to jynx myself. I wasn't quite sure how to make the formal request - they didn't offer any suggestions or guidelines, so I just emailed them and asked for the money to be sent to my Paypal account. Yeah, I've been busy writing a lot of reviews - I've been sweating bullets lately, since I've had no way to pay my student loan or phone bill.
Still nothing worthwhile from SurveySpot, besides them expecting me to take surveys for free. Is the chance to not get paid for surveys why I signed up for SurveySpot? I think not. I think I can do that pretty much anywhere else on the Internet.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Progress, Monday June 22.
Associated Content accepted another article. It's currently processing, and I hope it posts later today.
I redeemed my third Swagbucks prize, another $5.00 Amazon gift card.
MyPoints - I finally have enough points for the $10.00 Bath & Body Works gift card, however, some of those points are still "pending" and I can't order it until they officially post.
Sendearnings - up to $16.93 (cashout is $30.00)
ReviewStream - Writing several reviews a day and up to $18.80 (cashout is $50.00). A dozen more are still pending. You can find links to posted reviews here.
Neobux - up to 50 whole cents!
Points2Shop - 764 points. Not really a 'minimum' cashout, but it's the equiv. of about $7.64 on Amazon. Got my sights set on a $25.00 pair of 'pirate' boots. It's gonna be a while. Some offers I completed last week are still 'pending' but others post almost immediately - I'm hoping this doesn't turn into another GamingLagoon situation.
Survey Spot - As of yet, I have not qualified for any paying reviews.
MyLot- have been signing in and posting every few days, I'm up to $2.54 (that only took, what, 6 months?).
Gaminglagoon - What's that? My pending offers are still pending? Surely, you jest.
I have found a few other places to join but won't be discussing them until I have an idea of how they may pan out.
A relative also emailed me a list of paid survey websites. The list is incredibly long! I don't think I could ever evaluate all of these, although I'm sure some will clearly be garbage the moment I look at them. I plan on leafing through it over the course of this week, however.
I have a lense on Squidoo, predictably called Shiny Little Pennies.
I redeemed my third Swagbucks prize, another $5.00 Amazon gift card.
MyPoints - I finally have enough points for the $10.00 Bath & Body Works gift card, however, some of those points are still "pending" and I can't order it until they officially post.
Sendearnings - up to $16.93 (cashout is $30.00)
ReviewStream - Writing several reviews a day and up to $18.80 (cashout is $50.00). A dozen more are still pending. You can find links to posted reviews here.
Neobux - up to 50 whole cents!
Points2Shop - 764 points. Not really a 'minimum' cashout, but it's the equiv. of about $7.64 on Amazon. Got my sights set on a $25.00 pair of 'pirate' boots. It's gonna be a while. Some offers I completed last week are still 'pending' but others post almost immediately - I'm hoping this doesn't turn into another GamingLagoon situation.
Survey Spot - As of yet, I have not qualified for any paying reviews.
MyLot- have been signing in and posting every few days, I'm up to $2.54 (that only took, what, 6 months?).
Gaminglagoon - What's that? My pending offers are still pending? Surely, you jest.
I have found a few other places to join but won't be discussing them until I have an idea of how they may pan out.
A relative also emailed me a list of paid survey websites. The list is incredibly long! I don't think I could ever evaluate all of these, although I'm sure some will clearly be garbage the moment I look at them. I plan on leafing through it over the course of this week, however.
I have a lense on Squidoo, predictably called Shiny Little Pennies.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Up To Speed
Sites I Have Hit Payout On, And Have Paid Me:
Associated Content - Another article awaiting review.
Swagbucks - Roughly 10 points away from another gift card.
Sites I Am Close To Payout On, But Have Not Yet Gotten Payment:
MyPoints - I have nearly accumulated enough points to request my first gift card. That only took a few months, eh?
Sites I Am Not Close To Payout On, But Are Good Prospects:
I have not personally cashed out on any of these sites yet, and therefore cannot vouch for them in good faith. You are still welcome to join them if you want, but I won't give them my endorsement yet (so to speak).
Survey Spot - Still haven't qualified for any paid surveys.
NeoBux - Surprisingly, one of the best "get paid to click ads" websites I have encountered. I started out with only 4 ads to click per day, at 1 cent each, but am now up to 6 ads, and one of them counts for a cent and a half (which hardly makes sense, but ok).
SendEarnings - Yep, it's still slow as slow gets. I don't waste much effort on SendEarnings, lately. In any case, NeoBux is looking much more promising.
Points2Shop - The daily surveys are the only real way I get points. Honestly, I don't feel like giving away all of my personal information or signing up for stupid "free trials". That's about 50 points (50 cents' equivalent, I guess) per day, when I qualify at all. So it's going to take me a while. Assuming I only qualify half the time, that's roughly 150 points a week. But I guess it's not bad if you're saving up points for something special.
ReviewStream - I'm not a big fan of ReviewStream for regular reviews, they'll gyp you out of the full review rate and give you the Bulk Rate whenever possible. Nonetheless, I get the sense that it's fairly legit. I have recently submitted several ReviewStream reviews for the full rate, and one has gotten approved so far. You can find links to them here.
Scour - 183 points so far. I don't focus on Scour, but run my searches in it when I remember to.
Sites I Have Looked At But Haven't Really Touched:
Textbroker
Sites I Have Doubts About:
GamingLagoon - My Completed Offers are still pending. Big surprise.
Hits4Pay - Yep, they still want my SSN. A reader recently commented in defense of Hits4Pay's request for a Social Security number. I already understood that this was for tax purposes, but I'm not comfortable giving my SSN out to every Tom, Dick, and Harry. I've been poking around PTC sites for a while and honestly, since I am not an aggressive recruiter, it is highly unlikely that I will be making more than $600.00 from them.
Hits4Pay's BBB report can be found here. It's an A-, actually not a bad report. However, it is ultimately up to individuals whether or not they wish to divulge such information.
Associated Content - Another article awaiting review.
Swagbucks - Roughly 10 points away from another gift card.
Sites I Am Close To Payout On, But Have Not Yet Gotten Payment:
MyPoints - I have nearly accumulated enough points to request my first gift card. That only took a few months, eh?
Sites I Am Not Close To Payout On, But Are Good Prospects:
I have not personally cashed out on any of these sites yet, and therefore cannot vouch for them in good faith. You are still welcome to join them if you want, but I won't give them my endorsement yet (so to speak).
Survey Spot - Still haven't qualified for any paid surveys.
NeoBux - Surprisingly, one of the best "get paid to click ads" websites I have encountered. I started out with only 4 ads to click per day, at 1 cent each, but am now up to 6 ads, and one of them counts for a cent and a half (which hardly makes sense, but ok).
SendEarnings - Yep, it's still slow as slow gets. I don't waste much effort on SendEarnings, lately. In any case, NeoBux is looking much more promising.
Points2Shop - The daily surveys are the only real way I get points. Honestly, I don't feel like giving away all of my personal information or signing up for stupid "free trials". That's about 50 points (50 cents' equivalent, I guess) per day, when I qualify at all. So it's going to take me a while. Assuming I only qualify half the time, that's roughly 150 points a week. But I guess it's not bad if you're saving up points for something special.
ReviewStream - I'm not a big fan of ReviewStream for regular reviews, they'll gyp you out of the full review rate and give you the Bulk Rate whenever possible. Nonetheless, I get the sense that it's fairly legit. I have recently submitted several ReviewStream reviews for the full rate, and one has gotten approved so far. You can find links to them here.
Scour - 183 points so far. I don't focus on Scour, but run my searches in it when I remember to.
Sites I Have Looked At But Haven't Really Touched:
Textbroker
Sites I Have Doubts About:
GamingLagoon - My Completed Offers are still pending. Big surprise.
Hits4Pay - Yep, they still want my SSN. A reader recently commented in defense of Hits4Pay's request for a Social Security number. I already understood that this was for tax purposes, but I'm not comfortable giving my SSN out to every Tom, Dick, and Harry. I've been poking around PTC sites for a while and honestly, since I am not an aggressive recruiter, it is highly unlikely that I will be making more than $600.00 from them.
Hits4Pay's BBB report can be found here. It's an A-, actually not a bad report. However, it is ultimately up to individuals whether or not they wish to divulge such information.
...What?
There are some very odd people currently using the MyPoints search engine - I recently screenshotted this gem:
I really cannot think of a logical reason that this would be a Top Search query, anywhere, ever. Does anybody have any ideas, or know something I don't?
I really cannot think of a logical reason that this would be a Top Search query, anywhere, ever. Does anybody have any ideas, or know something I don't?
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Ciao to Ciao
It looks like Ciao.com is shutting down. They say it's 'merging with Bing', but Bing doesn't appear to be a review site. If you've earned any money from Ciao, it's still yours, but they won't be paying out anything new. This makes me terribly sad - I wasn't earning a lot, but I'd paid a bill with some money from Ciao. It was a nice source of a little bit of income.
I don't know if the newly merged Ciao will be paying for reviews. It doesn't mention that they will, so I'm guessing probably not. I suppose one shouldn't jump to conclusions, but I don't see any reassurances in the letter that it will be otherwise.
My personal opinion is this: from what I've seen on the website, Ciao was probably bleeding money to nonsense reviewers, plagiarists, and users who did not contribute any sort of unique or worthwhile content. This is my own speculation, it is not a fact, but I cannot help thinking this. The plagiarism and garbage reviews were rampant, and I can't see how Ciao would be able to sustain itself when much of its content was either copied or nonsense.
Ciao isn't the only paid review site out there, though. There is an alternative, a website I didn't like as much because I don't like the interface, so I never used it much - it's called ReviewStream. The payment system is a bit different - $2 for review, unless you let them give you the bulk rate, and $.10 per rating. You can't really log in - you submit reviews with your email address, and your account balance is tied to it - so it's not as socially gratifying. You also have to wait for your submitted reviews to be approved, and the minimum cashout is higher at $50.
If you have reviews on Ciao, do what it says and save them. I'm going to find out if they can be "recycled" or if Ciao will be keeping them up. It looks like I'll be hopping over to ReviewStream now.
So I guess, to Ciao... "ciao".
I don't know if the newly merged Ciao will be paying for reviews. It doesn't mention that they will, so I'm guessing probably not. I suppose one shouldn't jump to conclusions, but I don't see any reassurances in the letter that it will be otherwise.
My personal opinion is this: from what I've seen on the website, Ciao was probably bleeding money to nonsense reviewers, plagiarists, and users who did not contribute any sort of unique or worthwhile content. This is my own speculation, it is not a fact, but I cannot help thinking this. The plagiarism and garbage reviews were rampant, and I can't see how Ciao would be able to sustain itself when much of its content was either copied or nonsense.
Ciao isn't the only paid review site out there, though. There is an alternative, a website I didn't like as much because I don't like the interface, so I never used it much - it's called ReviewStream. The payment system is a bit different - $2 for review, unless you let them give you the bulk rate, and $.10 per rating. You can't really log in - you submit reviews with your email address, and your account balance is tied to it - so it's not as socially gratifying. You also have to wait for your submitted reviews to be approved, and the minimum cashout is higher at $50.
If you have reviews on Ciao, do what it says and save them. I'm going to find out if they can be "recycled" or if Ciao will be keeping them up. It looks like I'll be hopping over to ReviewStream now.
So I guess, to Ciao... "ciao".
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Progress
Alrighty.
So far, I am up to 157 points in Scour. Still a few thousand to go, but getting points is easier than I thought it would be. I was using the Scour engine to run phrases through (checking for plagiarism on Ciao) but realized that when they reviewed my account for payout, it might look suspicious to them. So I stopped doing that (Scour wasn't pulling up much in that area that was useful for me, anyway).
I am around 100 points away from cashing out on MyPoints. I was frustrated with MyPoints - I get disqualified for every single one of their surveys, and accumulating points has been very, VERY slow. However, they recently introduced something called the "Frogpond", where you can visit and write short reviews about websites to get points. 25 points per website! And on MyPoints, that's a pretty good amount of points. I don't get anything for referring you (their referral system works off of email only) but now that points are easier to get on MyPoints, it may be more worthwhile to look into it.
I have also joined SurveySpot. I have been taking free surveys - not making money yet. I guess before you get a chance at paid surveys, they want to make sure you're trustworthy/serious. That's the impression I get. SurveySpot is a member of the BBB Online Reliability Program, so I trust them right now. They don't use referral links, but if you want to maximize how much you benefit from this and make the most out of joining, your best bet is to find a link to it and join through somewhere like Points2Shop, where you get points for joining.
And as for Points2Shop, accumulating points there isn't as rough as GamingLagoon. Unlike GamingLagoon, they seem to actually approve offers you complete! It's hard for me to find offers - I'm choosy and loathe giving away any of my contact information unless I think a website is trustworthy - but their daily surveys really aren't bad (when you can qualify, anyway, and you won't always qualify). I'm nearly up to 500 points there, which I guess is like 5 bucks on Amazon.com, which really isn't all that bad when you think about it.
So far, I am up to 157 points in Scour. Still a few thousand to go, but getting points is easier than I thought it would be. I was using the Scour engine to run phrases through (checking for plagiarism on Ciao) but realized that when they reviewed my account for payout, it might look suspicious to them. So I stopped doing that (Scour wasn't pulling up much in that area that was useful for me, anyway).
I am around 100 points away from cashing out on MyPoints. I was frustrated with MyPoints - I get disqualified for every single one of their surveys, and accumulating points has been very, VERY slow. However, they recently introduced something called the "Frogpond", where you can visit and write short reviews about websites to get points. 25 points per website! And on MyPoints, that's a pretty good amount of points. I don't get anything for referring you (their referral system works off of email only) but now that points are easier to get on MyPoints, it may be more worthwhile to look into it.
I have also joined SurveySpot. I have been taking free surveys - not making money yet. I guess before you get a chance at paid surveys, they want to make sure you're trustworthy/serious. That's the impression I get. SurveySpot is a member of the BBB Online Reliability Program, so I trust them right now. They don't use referral links, but if you want to maximize how much you benefit from this and make the most out of joining, your best bet is to find a link to it and join through somewhere like Points2Shop, where you get points for joining.
And as for Points2Shop, accumulating points there isn't as rough as GamingLagoon. Unlike GamingLagoon, they seem to actually approve offers you complete! It's hard for me to find offers - I'm choosy and loathe giving away any of my contact information unless I think a website is trustworthy - but their daily surveys really aren't bad (when you can qualify, anyway, and you won't always qualify). I'm nearly up to 500 points there, which I guess is like 5 bucks on Amazon.com, which really isn't all that bad when you think about it.
Monday, June 15, 2009
EasyHits4U, LinkReferral, and Getting Referrals
I decided the EasyHits4U wasn't worth the revenue I was losing - at least, for this blog. Well, that was short lived! So this blog is no longer participating in that. I still have the account and may use it for other websites (I have friends I'm sure would appreciate the hits). Instead, I will be relying on other ways of bringing in traffic. So, the ads are now back up. I didn't foresee struggling with this as a side-effect of my blog, but there you go! I'm learning about this stuff on the fly.
Now, my assessment from my very short experience:
EasyHits4U seems to be good only if you want a ton of hits with a fairly low conversion rate. Using the website was interesting, so interesting that I may actually continue to use it even though I'm not actually using it to get hits at the moment. I don't have any problems with "hoarding" hits for future use on different websites or blogs. I discovered many interesting websites even in the day that I was using it, but the majority of them were the types. And frankly, those really irritate and bore me.
If you are less interested in a sheer volume of hits and would rather have a lower volume of targeted traffic (you have to do a little bit more work to get it) you may be more interested in LinkReferral. It's hard to explain how it works, but I'll try. You get added to a directory of links. Your ranking is really, really low - in order to improve it, you have to accrue credit by visiting other websites, rating them, and writing short reviews about them. So you're potentially also helping other webmasters and bloggers improve their websites and blogs, as well as discovering interesting new places on the Internet. You can also make posts in the forum to earn credit. This credit improves your ranking in LinkReferral's directory. I would like to point out that am not currently using LinkReferral for this specific blog because I have ads on this blog and that is against the rules, but a friend showed it to me, and I thought that the concept was interesting. It was also relevant enough to blog about, since so many "get paid to ___" programs rely on referrals to generate any decent amount of money - so, here I am.
Now, my assessment from my very short experience:
EasyHits4U seems to be good only if you want a ton of hits with a fairly low conversion rate. Using the website was interesting, so interesting that I may actually continue to use it even though I'm not actually using it to get hits at the moment. I don't have any problems with "hoarding" hits for future use on different websites or blogs. I discovered many interesting websites even in the day that I was using it, but the majority of them were the types. And frankly, those really irritate and bore me.
If you are less interested in a sheer volume of hits and would rather have a lower volume of targeted traffic (you have to do a little bit more work to get it) you may be more interested in LinkReferral. It's hard to explain how it works, but I'll try. You get added to a directory of links. Your ranking is really, really low - in order to improve it, you have to accrue credit by visiting other websites, rating them, and writing short reviews about them. So you're potentially also helping other webmasters and bloggers improve their websites and blogs, as well as discovering interesting new places on the Internet. You can also make posts in the forum to earn credit. This credit improves your ranking in LinkReferral's directory. I would like to point out that am not currently using LinkReferral for this specific blog because I have ads on this blog and that is against the rules, but a friend showed it to me, and I thought that the concept was interesting. It was also relevant enough to blog about, since so many "get paid to ___" programs rely on referrals to generate any decent amount of money - so, here I am.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Just Joined Two More Sites
...shall we see how they pan out?
I joined EasyHits4U in order to try to get some traffic. Not that many people know about this blog. I think it's a shame since I really do try to be genuinely helpful, and I try to update regularly. If you arrived here via EasyHits4U, please spend a moment to read this blog. Even if you think ppc/paid survey/review for money/get free stuff search engines are a load of crap, I hope that my enthusiasm and wit will make this blog worth reading.
For those interested in EasyHits4U, you can't have Adsense ads up. It's against the program policies! That's why I have taken my ads down for now, until I get a decent flow of traffic. You can actually make money directly off of EasyHits4U, but honestly, it's not going to be a lot even if you sit there and click madly all day long. I like to keep it running in the background and click when I remember to. While some of the sites are just Internet crappy crap, I have actually found some neat sites and fellow bloggers through it.
I have joined Points2Shop. I don't yet know how it will pan out. Unfortunately, it is one of those "COMPLETE FREE OFFERS" sites, which I loathe. Yes, you can play games for points, but the games are limited and you have to spend points in order to compete - no guarantee that you will win more points. Still, it has daily surveys, and you get a point just for logging in every day. That's 365 free points per year (which comes out to about $3.65, so don't get too excited).
The interesting thing about this one is that there's no dinking around with gift cards. You buy things directly from Amazon with your points, and they seem to have a 1 point: 1 US dollar ratio.
And, of course, the well-known Neobux. I've held off on joining because I've heard good and bad things about it. You only get 1 cent per ad you click. On the other hand, clicking ads isn't much work, is it? It's one of those things you can just do for 2 minutes a day. You get about 4 ads. That's, uh, $1.00 a month. Minimum payout - I'm not sure, I think it's 2 bucks. I'll check later. I guess Neobux is another one of those "get referrals to make anything worthwhile" websites.
But I'd have to say that one of the websites with the best payoff-to-effort ratio is still Swagbucks. That's why I have some advice for you:
I joined EasyHits4U in order to try to get some traffic. Not that many people know about this blog. I think it's a shame since I really do try to be genuinely helpful, and I try to update regularly. If you arrived here via EasyHits4U, please spend a moment to read this blog. Even if you think ppc/paid survey/review for money/get free stuff search engines are a load of crap, I hope that my enthusiasm and wit will make this blog worth reading.
For those interested in EasyHits4U, you can't have Adsense ads up. It's against the program policies! That's why I have taken my ads down for now, until I get a decent flow of traffic. You can actually make money directly off of EasyHits4U, but honestly, it's not going to be a lot even if you sit there and click madly all day long. I like to keep it running in the background and click when I remember to. While some of the sites are just Internet crappy crap, I have actually found some neat sites and fellow bloggers through it.
I have joined Points2Shop. I don't yet know how it will pan out. Unfortunately, it is one of those "COMPLETE FREE OFFERS" sites, which I loathe. Yes, you can play games for points, but the games are limited and you have to spend points in order to compete - no guarantee that you will win more points. Still, it has daily surveys, and you get a point just for logging in every day. That's 365 free points per year (which comes out to about $3.65, so don't get too excited).
The interesting thing about this one is that there's no dinking around with gift cards. You buy things directly from Amazon with your points, and they seem to have a 1 point: 1 US dollar ratio.
And, of course, the well-known Neobux. I've held off on joining because I've heard good and bad things about it. You only get 1 cent per ad you click. On the other hand, clicking ads isn't much work, is it? It's one of those things you can just do for 2 minutes a day. You get about 4 ads. That's, uh, $1.00 a month. Minimum payout - I'm not sure, I think it's 2 bucks. I'll check later. I guess Neobux is another one of those "get referrals to make anything worthwhile" websites.
But I'd have to say that one of the websites with the best payoff-to-effort ratio is still Swagbucks. That's why I have some advice for you:
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Scour.com and More about GamingLagoon, Hits4Pay
Hit cashout on Ciao again. My first time, it took a week and a half - this time, it took 3 days. Why? Well, now I have a backlog of 44 reviews. The more reviews you write, the faster you make money, I suppose. I guess I'd better get cracking on those reviews again, eh?
I've also returned to my Scour.com efforts. I dropped it before because of complaints that Scour was not paying people who hit cashout - they were banning people and other shady things instead. However, I have since decided that perhaps this was because people were violating the Terms of Service (I see it constantly on other websites, right?) and unlike certain online counterparts, Scour actually DOES something about this. The only way to find out is to try to hit cashout on Scour myself, and either verify that it's legit or get conveniently banned. We shall see. Either way, it's gonna be a while - I've only got 90 points. If you want to give it a shot in the meantime, I say go for it.
GamingLagoon is on my shitlist. GamingLagoon has been sending me spam mails about their NEW OFFERS, so I signed up for another free "send me spam email" type offer to see if they've gotten any better about denying everything. For those not in the know, GamingLagoon is another free gift card/free stuff/free money type website. You can save up points to get stuff like a Nintendo DS, convert your points to Paypal money, or get gift cards with them. It's not nearly as good as Swagbucks, in my opinion - earning points is super slow, you have to sign up for "offers" (most of which involve too much money, or too much personal information), and they tend to reject the offers you've submitted as completed and refuse to reward you points, even when you have proof. I'll update this blog post with some images later, in order to demonstrate what I'm talking about. Nonetheless, persistent members claim that they have gotten their gift cards and such, I highly suspect that the only REAL way to do this is to recruit aggressively. If you're into that, I guess GamingLagoon can probably work pretty well for you. But I can't recruit people in clear conscience if I know that there's no way for them to be successful on the website without recruiting a whole bunch of people, themselves. I guess it's all about what you are or are not willing to do in order to earn points.
Hits4Pay still wants my social security number, but they're not getting it. I doubt I'll ever make enough off a PTC website to warrant needing my SSN for tax purposes.
I've also returned to my Scour.com efforts. I dropped it before because of complaints that Scour was not paying people who hit cashout - they were banning people and other shady things instead. However, I have since decided that perhaps this was because people were violating the Terms of Service (I see it constantly on other websites, right?) and unlike certain online counterparts, Scour actually DOES something about this. The only way to find out is to try to hit cashout on Scour myself, and either verify that it's legit or get conveniently banned. We shall see. Either way, it's gonna be a while - I've only got 90 points. If you want to give it a shot in the meantime, I say go for it.
GamingLagoon is on my shitlist. GamingLagoon has been sending me spam mails about their NEW OFFERS, so I signed up for another free "send me spam email" type offer to see if they've gotten any better about denying everything. For those not in the know, GamingLagoon is another free gift card/free stuff/free money type website. You can save up points to get stuff like a Nintendo DS, convert your points to Paypal money, or get gift cards with them. It's not nearly as good as Swagbucks, in my opinion - earning points is super slow, you have to sign up for "offers" (most of which involve too much money, or too much personal information), and they tend to reject the offers you've submitted as completed and refuse to reward you points, even when you have proof. I'll update this blog post with some images later, in order to demonstrate what I'm talking about. Nonetheless, persistent members claim that they have gotten their gift cards and such, I highly suspect that the only REAL way to do this is to recruit aggressively. If you're into that, I guess GamingLagoon can probably work pretty well for you. But I can't recruit people in clear conscience if I know that there's no way for them to be successful on the website without recruiting a whole bunch of people, themselves. I guess it's all about what you are or are not willing to do in order to earn points.
Hits4Pay still wants my social security number, but they're not getting it. I doubt I'll ever make enough off a PTC website to warrant needing my SSN for tax purposes.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Ciao and Swagbucks Cashouts
Currently up to my eyeballs in Message box spam in Ciao. Also angry - discovered some members who had copied my reviews. I reported them - unfortunately, one of the continually frustrating things about Ciao is that they do nothing about the plagiarists.
Otherwise, I am pennies away from the $5 cashout on Ciao after just 2 days of renewed activity. That's not bad, really. I won't be cashing out at $5, however - it's not worth it, at this point. I'll wait until there's more in my account.
On Swagbucks, I just 'bought' another $5 Amazon gift card. My order has been verified, and I am currently waiting for the gift card number.
If you haven't joined these two sites yet, you're definitely missing out!
In the meantime, at MyPoints, I am about 150 points away from ordering my first gift card.
Otherwise, I am pennies away from the $5 cashout on Ciao after just 2 days of renewed activity. That's not bad, really. I won't be cashing out at $5, however - it's not worth it, at this point. I'll wait until there's more in my account.
On Swagbucks, I just 'bought' another $5 Amazon gift card. My order has been verified, and I am currently waiting for the gift card number.
If you haven't joined these two sites yet, you're definitely missing out!
In the meantime, at MyPoints, I am about 150 points away from ordering my first gift card.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Ciao - Legitimacy Verified
I have written 40-odd reviews on Ciao. A while ago, I requested some payments. Two separate payments, totaling about $23.00, when all is said and done. I was paid via Paypal.
Well, nothing happened for a while - no money in my Paypal account - and I thought perhaps I'd been had. I was also frustrated by the rampant plagiarism and spamming on Ciao. So, at the end of April, I just sort of gave up.
Wasn't I surprised when I was informed that Paypal had a payment waiting for me?
Here, you can only see one of the payments (for $18.00), I'm guessing the other one went through at the end of April (about when I gave up).
Well, the money is in my account - for real - and I can say that, while Ciao certainly takes their sweet time paying you, they DO pay you. Be prepared to wait for a month and a half, however.
I'm back on Ciao again - after all, $23.00 for writing a few reviews isn't bad. There are other websites where you can write reviews for money, but they are not as user friendly and they have some shady tactics. I'll review one in more depth later this week.
Until then,
Ciao!
Well, nothing happened for a while - no money in my Paypal account - and I thought perhaps I'd been had. I was also frustrated by the rampant plagiarism and spamming on Ciao. So, at the end of April, I just sort of gave up.
Wasn't I surprised when I was informed that Paypal had a payment waiting for me?
Here, you can only see one of the payments (for $18.00), I'm guessing the other one went through at the end of April (about when I gave up).
Well, the money is in my account - for real - and I can say that, while Ciao certainly takes their sweet time paying you, they DO pay you. Be prepared to wait for a month and a half, however.
I'm back on Ciao again - after all, $23.00 for writing a few reviews isn't bad. There are other websites where you can write reviews for money, but they are not as user friendly and they have some shady tactics. I'll review one in more depth later this week.
Until then,
Ciao!
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Legitimacy Verified - Associated Content and Swagbucks
I actually got my Associated Content payment deposited in my Paypal account several days ago, but a lot has happened since then in my personal life. I had to put a few things on hold for a while, and I have not been able to update this blog.
Here's the screenshot of the payment. It's only $3, but it's $3 more than I had, right?
As for Swagbucks, I got my first Amazon gift certificate code today. I actually redeemed the Swagbucks a few days ago, but it takes some time for them to post the code (my guess is that they request codes from Amazon either in batches every week, or else they request them on an individual basis, I don't know). You don't have to worry about missing it - they send you an email when the code is ready. When you go to My Account and check under My Gift Cards, there it is. I think it's clever - this way, you don't have to worry about your spam filter causing you to miss a gift card code that was emailed to you.
Here's a series of screenshots, from putting in my request for the gift card to actually entering it into my Amazon.com account. I have pixelated anything that might compromise the security of my account or otherwise cause problems (including the gift card code, my last name, and order numbers). Please do not email me asking for these things "as proof". I'm not going to send them to you, because I'm not stupid. Anyway:
And now the actual redemption of the gift code:
So there you go. I'm now $5.00 richer, which isn't a whole lot but it's free money so I can't really complain. You won't be rolling in dough but if you're a gamer looking for a way to support your monthly WoW habit, or you're trying to figure out how to buy birthday or Christmas gifts that you otherwise can't afford, just run a few searches a day (some in the morning, some at night) on Swagbucks.com. It's not that hard to win, and it's somewhat useful as well. I haven't downloaded the toolbar because I generally loathe toolbars, but I've heard that it's quite handy, so maybe I'll change my mind.
As for this $5.00, it's going to help pay for my brother's birthday present.
Here's the screenshot of the payment. It's only $3, but it's $3 more than I had, right?
As for Swagbucks, I got my first Amazon gift certificate code today. I actually redeemed the Swagbucks a few days ago, but it takes some time for them to post the code (my guess is that they request codes from Amazon either in batches every week, or else they request them on an individual basis, I don't know). You don't have to worry about missing it - they send you an email when the code is ready. When you go to My Account and check under My Gift Cards, there it is. I think it's clever - this way, you don't have to worry about your spam filter causing you to miss a gift card code that was emailed to you.
Here's a series of screenshots, from putting in my request for the gift card to actually entering it into my Amazon.com account. I have pixelated anything that might compromise the security of my account or otherwise cause problems (including the gift card code, my last name, and order numbers). Please do not email me asking for these things "as proof". I'm not going to send them to you, because I'm not stupid. Anyway:
And now the actual redemption of the gift code:
So there you go. I'm now $5.00 richer, which isn't a whole lot but it's free money so I can't really complain. You won't be rolling in dough but if you're a gamer looking for a way to support your monthly WoW habit, or you're trying to figure out how to buy birthday or Christmas gifts that you otherwise can't afford, just run a few searches a day (some in the morning, some at night) on Swagbucks.com. It's not that hard to win, and it's somewhat useful as well. I haven't downloaded the toolbar because I generally loathe toolbars, but I've heard that it's quite handy, so maybe I'll change my mind.
As for this $5.00, it's going to help pay for my brother's birthday present.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Associated Content
The article I submitted to Associated Content was reviewed (it took about a week) and is currently processing. I now have a $3.00 payment pending, and have submitted another article.
Update:
The article was published. You can find it here: Budget Beauty For An Ugly Economy
Update:
The article was published. You can find it here: Budget Beauty For An Ugly Economy
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Progress
Here's how things are going so far:
MyPoints - 515 points. Time investment: minimal. Have not yet qualified for a survey.
SendEarnings - $13.37. Roughly $18 left to go, but it's very slow going with this website. Time investment: minimal. I qualify for a survey maybe every 3 days.
MyLot - $2.10. Haven't really posted anything, just some ratings and halfhearted replies. Time investment: minimal.
Ciao - Have earned several dollars more since Monday's cashout of $6.10. Not counting whatever I earned yesterday, since it does not seem to update on the weekends. I could almost cash out twice over. It definitely snowballs after the first (rough) week and a half. Time investment: moderate.
SwagBucks - 28 Swagbucks. Last few days have been slow going. Either my luck is lousy, or they're not letting me win as often. Maybe a combination of both. Roughly 18 more to go before I can cash out that $5.00 Amazon gift card and decide whether it is worthwhile or not. Technically, I'd have 5 SB more if I hadn't bought that raffle ticket. Since I've been a member for about a week, that's still not that bad. Time investment: minimal to moderate.
Obviously, nothing terribly exciting. My last Ciao cashout will not get processed until next month, so I can't tell you whether it has gone through or not, or whether or not the money will actually land in my Paypal account. But judging by my interactions with Customer Service so far, I have no doubt that it will. Ciao and Swagbucks are the most promising websites so far.
MyPoints - 515 points. Time investment: minimal. Have not yet qualified for a survey.
SendEarnings - $13.37. Roughly $18 left to go, but it's very slow going with this website. Time investment: minimal. I qualify for a survey maybe every 3 days.
MyLot - $2.10. Haven't really posted anything, just some ratings and halfhearted replies. Time investment: minimal.
Ciao - Have earned several dollars more since Monday's cashout of $6.10. Not counting whatever I earned yesterday, since it does not seem to update on the weekends. I could almost cash out twice over. It definitely snowballs after the first (rough) week and a half. Time investment: moderate.
SwagBucks - 28 Swagbucks. Last few days have been slow going. Either my luck is lousy, or they're not letting me win as often. Maybe a combination of both. Roughly 18 more to go before I can cash out that $5.00 Amazon gift card and decide whether it is worthwhile or not. Technically, I'd have 5 SB more if I hadn't bought that raffle ticket. Since I've been a member for about a week, that's still not that bad. Time investment: minimal to moderate.
Obviously, nothing terribly exciting. My last Ciao cashout will not get processed until next month, so I can't tell you whether it has gone through or not, or whether or not the money will actually land in my Paypal account. But judging by my interactions with Customer Service so far, I have no doubt that it will. Ciao and Swagbucks are the most promising websites so far.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Catching Up...
So, how are things going with these websites?
MyPoints - did not qualify for any surveys since my last update. They have another survey service you can sign up for to earn points, but I didn't want to give the service all of the personal information they wanted, so I didn't sign up. Currently at 470 Points. Time invested: Very little.
SendEarnings - Seem to qualify for a survey every 3 days or so. Have not failed to be credited for a survey, although it can take a few days. Have been regularly clicking mailings. Averaging 11 cents per day (averaging in the occasional successful Survey attempt). Currently at $12.27. Time invested: Very little.
MyLot - have been half-heartedly replying and rating. Some of my replies were to news articles. Only one new post. Currently at $2.03. Time invested: Little to Moderate.
Ciao - Cashed out once already, at $6.10. Doing well, between $1.00-$2.00/day, writing 3 reviews per day. Someone who writes a few articles a day should make around $5.00/week, in my opinion. That's not money you can live off, but it's not bad for what isn't a whole lot of work.
Swagbucks - Currently at 16 Swagbucks. Would be 21, but I spent 5 on the monthly 1000-Swagbuck raffle. Stupid? Maybe, but 5 Swagbucks is about 1 day of using the search engine, so in my opinion, it's not a huge loss for the potential gain. Do they actually award the prizes? I don't know right now.
I also recently joined Associated Content, and have submitted one article, which is awaiting review. At this point, I have no average per day. Time invested: Moderate.
MyPoints - did not qualify for any surveys since my last update. They have another survey service you can sign up for to earn points, but I didn't want to give the service all of the personal information they wanted, so I didn't sign up. Currently at 470 Points. Time invested: Very little.
SendEarnings - Seem to qualify for a survey every 3 days or so. Have not failed to be credited for a survey, although it can take a few days. Have been regularly clicking mailings. Averaging 11 cents per day (averaging in the occasional successful Survey attempt). Currently at $12.27. Time invested: Very little.
MyLot - have been half-heartedly replying and rating. Some of my replies were to news articles. Only one new post. Currently at $2.03. Time invested: Little to Moderate.
Ciao - Cashed out once already, at $6.10. Doing well, between $1.00-$2.00/day, writing 3 reviews per day. Someone who writes a few articles a day should make around $5.00/week, in my opinion. That's not money you can live off, but it's not bad for what isn't a whole lot of work.
Swagbucks - Currently at 16 Swagbucks. Would be 21, but I spent 5 on the monthly 1000-Swagbuck raffle. Stupid? Maybe, but 5 Swagbucks is about 1 day of using the search engine, so in my opinion, it's not a huge loss for the potential gain. Do they actually award the prizes? I don't know right now.
I also recently joined Associated Content, and have submitted one article, which is awaiting review. At this point, I have no average per day. Time invested: Moderate.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Ciao Success?
I hit payout today, 9 days after I joined Ciao. It would have been 7, but my account wasn't 'earning' anything over the weekend. I panicked and emailed Customer Support, so now I look like an idiot. Customer Support never got back to me about it, but when $2.00 showed up in my account this morning after a weekend of nothing, I figured out that maybe Ciao just doesn't credit on the weekends. Either that, or Customer Support did something about it without emailing me back. They've been pretty good so far, after all.
Apparently, payments are processed on the second week of each month. So it could be processed this week. Or I may have to wait 4 weeks, and won't find out until next month. I'll keep checking my Paypal account. After all, the money's no good to me until it winds up there. I've got a whole bucket o' things to review, until then.
Keep in mind, this was done mostly by myself. While I have referred three people, one was only right before this, and the other two haven't been very active. So it is possible to earn money on Ciao without referring tons of people. Will it be oodles of money? Highly unlikely. But these days, any amount of extra money is a good thing.
Apparently, payments are processed on the second week of each month. So it could be processed this week. Or I may have to wait 4 weeks, and won't find out until next month. I'll keep checking my Paypal account. After all, the money's no good to me until it winds up there. I've got a whole bucket o' things to review, until then.
Keep in mind, this was done mostly by myself. While I have referred three people, one was only right before this, and the other two haven't been very active. So it is possible to earn money on Ciao without referring tons of people. Will it be oodles of money? Highly unlikely. But these days, any amount of extra money is a good thing.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Hits4Pay and Gaming Lagoon
These two websites have left a bad taste in my mouth, for different reasons.
Hits4Pay
I signed up for Hits4Pay a few months ago, but haven't had anything to do with it since. Part of this is because they ask for your Social Security Number, ostensibly for tax purposes. I really don't believe this. After clicking on a few ads every day - getting, at most, .02 per ad - I highly doubt that I'm going to make enough to warrant sending me a tax form for it. In fact, I highly doubt I'm going to even hit payout. All in all, I got a bad feeling from the website, and after looking up a few reviews of it, I've pretty much never gone back. A search at bbb.org for Multiple Stream Media (the company that runs the website according to their About page) turned up nothing. This means that they are probably unlikely to be a BBB Accredited business (unless I just searched for the wrong thing), which means that I'm not giving them my Social Security Number, no matter how many positive 'member testimonials' I read.
In any case, I don't see the point of continuing to visit Hits4Pay, since they refuse to pay you unless you give them your Social Security number (which they aren't getting from me). They could very well be legit, but I guess I'll never find out!
That aside, from what I have gathered from the 'member testimonials' themselves (such as the ones in the comments on this Reviewopedia page), it's impossible to really make anything off of Hits4Pay unless you recruit a legion of zombie followers (that is, spam referral links and get a bunch of people in your downline). You won't be able to make much money just clicking ads. That said, do you want to have to convince 100 people to divulge their SSNs to a random website?
GamingLagoon:
GamingLagoon made me angry in quite another way. Supposedly, you use points to buy electronics or gift cards. You accumulate points by filling out offers. There's a "verification" time period where they verify that you filled out the offer before rewarding you with the points. I should have earned enough points to buy a World of Warcraft Game Card. Instead, 90% of my offers failed verification. If you put them on the spot about it, you get a bunch of bull about how you must not have had cookies enabled on your browser - or once you verify that they were, in fact, enabled, the good old "Well the cookie corrupted". I'm pretty sure I know where they can shove their corrupted cookies. All I have to show for joining is an inbox full of spam. Although there are members who state that they have gotten their items or gift cards - and I fully believe them - it's not worth the grief of arguing over the stuff that was denied verification, and I won't be filling out any more of their offers. Whether they actually pay out or not, they've already proven to be too much of a hassle.
Hits4Pay
I signed up for Hits4Pay a few months ago, but haven't had anything to do with it since. Part of this is because they ask for your Social Security Number, ostensibly for tax purposes. I really don't believe this. After clicking on a few ads every day - getting, at most, .02 per ad - I highly doubt that I'm going to make enough to warrant sending me a tax form for it. In fact, I highly doubt I'm going to even hit payout. All in all, I got a bad feeling from the website, and after looking up a few reviews of it, I've pretty much never gone back. A search at bbb.org for Multiple Stream Media (the company that runs the website according to their About page) turned up nothing. This means that they are probably unlikely to be a BBB Accredited business (unless I just searched for the wrong thing), which means that I'm not giving them my Social Security Number, no matter how many positive 'member testimonials' I read.
In any case, I don't see the point of continuing to visit Hits4Pay, since they refuse to pay you unless you give them your Social Security number (which they aren't getting from me). They could very well be legit, but I guess I'll never find out!
That aside, from what I have gathered from the 'member testimonials' themselves (such as the ones in the comments on this Reviewopedia page), it's impossible to really make anything off of Hits4Pay unless you recruit a legion of zombie followers (that is, spam referral links and get a bunch of people in your downline). You won't be able to make much money just clicking ads. That said, do you want to have to convince 100 people to divulge their SSNs to a random website?
GamingLagoon:
GamingLagoon made me angry in quite another way. Supposedly, you use points to buy electronics or gift cards. You accumulate points by filling out offers. There's a "verification" time period where they verify that you filled out the offer before rewarding you with the points. I should have earned enough points to buy a World of Warcraft Game Card. Instead, 90% of my offers failed verification. If you put them on the spot about it, you get a bunch of bull about how you must not have had cookies enabled on your browser - or once you verify that they were, in fact, enabled, the good old "Well the cookie corrupted". I'm pretty sure I know where they can shove their corrupted cookies. All I have to show for joining is an inbox full of spam. Although there are members who state that they have gotten their items or gift cards - and I fully believe them - it's not worth the grief of arguing over the stuff that was denied verification, and I won't be filling out any more of their offers. Whether they actually pay out or not, they've already proven to be too much of a hassle.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Swagbucks & The Search For Swag
A person I met on Ciao - he has a good rep, does good reviews - told me about Swagbucks. Now, I'd heard of it in the past - and may have even checked it out - but for whatever reason, I never signed up. It's a gift-card website (like MyPoints) that also offers prizes you can "buy" directly with your points. He said he'd gotten his gift card and it didn't take too long (unlike my months-long estimates about MyPoints) so I decided to sign up and try it out.
I started yesterday with 3 Swagbucks. As of today, I have 6. My goal is 45, to get a $5.00 Amazon gift card. I don't know what the hell I can buy with $5.00 (maybe pay for shipping for something) but that's not the point. The point is to find out if it's possible to get it, how long it takes, if it's possible to do it on your own rather than having to recruit a whole bunch of people, and if they actually "pay out".
They don't ask for a ton of personal information, which is a good start. Like MyPoints, you can accrue Swagbucks by shopping through their website. The interesting thing is that they seem to have a different list of websites to shop through, and it includes sites like Newegg.
Unlike MyPoints, they do not offer any sort of pay-per-click method of earning points. There are Polls, but they seem to be for amusement only, although you can earn points by submitting a poll question that they use. The main methods of earning points appear to be using their search engine (which will randomly award points), posting in their blog, shopping through their website, and referring friends. And while the gift card values may be lower, the number of points to buy them is also lower.
I run a ton of searches every day for various reasons, so that's no problem for me. They have a toolbar you can download, but I dislike and distrust most toolbars. I'm sure theirs is fine, but I won't be installing it after all of the trouble I've had removing crap like Yahoo! Toolbar from browsers in the past.
Doing the Math:
I seem to be averaging about 3 points per day (from searches) but I've only been a member for one day, after all. At this rate, it will take 13 more days to accrue the 45 points necessary for a $5.00 gift card.
It doesn't require a ton of effort - just regular everyday use running searches through their search engine (they have an algorithm to detect if you're running bogus searches and spamming searches, so doing that won't help you much).
Observations:
The blog is somewhat boring at the moment. The search engine isn't quite as good as Google, although they claim otherwise, and their Image search is annoying (it takes you to the webpage, not the image itself). On the other hand, it tends to spit up different results than Google, which can be useful in and of itself. I tend to run searches through different engines to see what each one picks up, so this isn't a problem for me.
I started yesterday with 3 Swagbucks. As of today, I have 6. My goal is 45, to get a $5.00 Amazon gift card. I don't know what the hell I can buy with $5.00 (maybe pay for shipping for something) but that's not the point. The point is to find out if it's possible to get it, how long it takes, if it's possible to do it on your own rather than having to recruit a whole bunch of people, and if they actually "pay out".
They don't ask for a ton of personal information, which is a good start. Like MyPoints, you can accrue Swagbucks by shopping through their website. The interesting thing is that they seem to have a different list of websites to shop through, and it includes sites like Newegg.
Unlike MyPoints, they do not offer any sort of pay-per-click method of earning points. There are Polls, but they seem to be for amusement only, although you can earn points by submitting a poll question that they use. The main methods of earning points appear to be using their search engine (which will randomly award points), posting in their blog, shopping through their website, and referring friends. And while the gift card values may be lower, the number of points to buy them is also lower.
I run a ton of searches every day for various reasons, so that's no problem for me. They have a toolbar you can download, but I dislike and distrust most toolbars. I'm sure theirs is fine, but I won't be installing it after all of the trouble I've had removing crap like Yahoo! Toolbar from browsers in the past.
Doing the Math:
I seem to be averaging about 3 points per day (from searches) but I've only been a member for one day, after all. At this rate, it will take 13 more days to accrue the 45 points necessary for a $5.00 gift card.
It doesn't require a ton of effort - just regular everyday use running searches through their search engine (they have an algorithm to detect if you're running bogus searches and spamming searches, so doing that won't help you much).
Observations:
The blog is somewhat boring at the moment. The search engine isn't quite as good as Google, although they claim otherwise, and their Image search is annoying (it takes you to the webpage, not the image itself). On the other hand, it tends to spit up different results than Google, which can be useful in and of itself. I tend to run searches through different engines to see what each one picks up, so this isn't a problem for me.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
MyPoints
I was having a rough time earning points on MyPoints. After you fill out their Preferences and surveys, it's slow going unless you want to sign up for a bunch of offers that generally require some sort of financial involvement on your part (even the "free trials").
However, that was before I discovered all of the BonusMails that Gmail was shunting into my Spam folder. Arrgh. I quickly went from around 210 points to 335 points. Later that day, after digging up more long-lost BonusMails and receiving a few BonusMails and SurveyMails, I had hit 365 points.
On March 2nd, I received 2 BonusMails. I didn't complete either offer, but I still received 5 points each for clicking the link and at least looking at them. One was for a sort of neat Tidycat Litter System that I really wish they'd had when my old cat was still alive. I also considered buying it to see if I could train my pet rabbit to use it, but considering the fact that she tipped her last litter box over and wore it as a hat, I decided against this. In any case, my point is that the offers are worth checking out even if you don't generally complete them or buy anything, because you do occasionally find something neat.
I also received 2 SurveyMails. I didn't ultimately qualify for either, getting "kicked out" about halfway through each - which kind of sucked, but I think I may have still gotten 10 points apiece just for attempting to take a survey (and not qualifying). That's pretty nice, considering the fact that another website, SendEarnings doesn't give you anything at all if you don't qualify. In any case, I also attempted to qualify for another survey... also disqualified. Man, I suck at qualifying for this stuff. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I'd claimed to drink more beer, I would have qualified for at least one of those surveys. That'll teach ME to not be a raging alcoholic.
Anyway, that totals up to about 20 definite points that day. I would have gotten 30 more, had I qualified for the surveys.
Doing the Math:
So how "worth it" does that make my MyPoints efforts? As of March 5th, I am averaging 10 points per day. At an average rate of 10 points per day, and my current total of 365, in order to get a gift card with a value of approximately 2,000 points, it will take approximately 164 days (6 months).
But let's be more specific. Let's set our sights on a specific reward card with a specific value. One that I, personally, would actually use: a $50.00 Staples gift card, for 6750 points. At this rate, that would take nearly (but not quite) a year... 640 days, or slightly under 22 months.
That's a long time!
So why not do the other stuff? Why not complete a bunch of offers and stuff? Well, because I'm trying to accomplish these goals with the minimum personal investment. I consider every offer I sign up for to be a "risk" in some way. Some of them want some sort of financial investment... some of them want me to divulge information I consider none of their business at best, or dangerous at worst. The surveys I consider to be marginally safe.
That doesn't mean that I won't consider buying things from Offers that I actually want, just that I'm not going out of my way to buy a bunch of junk for a few points. If I do any online shopping, it'll likely be using their website as a gateway, in order to accrue points for the money I spend. I consider that to be a pretty good deal, especially for places that award amounts like 4 points per dollar spent. I'm going to spend the money anyway. Why not get a kick-back for it? So if you do a lot of online shopping at places that they have deals with, you'll probably be doing pretty well for yourself.
That's if they pay out, which I have not yet verified. They have gotten a ton of great reviews from members, so we'll see. To that end, I'll select a "cheaper" gift card to go after. Something I'll still like and use.
The Game Plan:
The American Red Cross Donation looks interesting, and I'd love to do that... unfortunately, I don't know a way to verify it since I don't think it would be a physical card in my hot little hands. So I'll go with something else. I happen to know that my aunt loves Bath & Body Works, so I'll aim for a $10 gift card there. $10 at Bath & Body Works doesn't go far, but hey, it's $10 more than she had. Anyway, it costs 1400 points.
At my current rate, that will take 104 days. I may be able to speed it up a little bit with a survey here and there (if I ever qualify for one!). So let's plink along for another 4 months and see where that gets me. 4 months for one $10 gift card? Well, I'm certainly not in this to make a living, just to see if it works - even if it works slowly.
It is important to note that so far, MyPoints has not taken away points for what I like to call "bullsh** reasons". It's early in the game, but this is still important. I don't have my hard-won earnings yanked away for reasons I can't understand, and I'm not worried that they're going to go down the tubes. This is a good sign.
My Progress:
March 2nd: 365 points
March 5th: 395 points
Average: about 10 points per day.
However, that was before I discovered all of the BonusMails that Gmail was shunting into my Spam folder. Arrgh. I quickly went from around 210 points to 335 points. Later that day, after digging up more long-lost BonusMails and receiving a few BonusMails and SurveyMails, I had hit 365 points.
On March 2nd, I received 2 BonusMails. I didn't complete either offer, but I still received 5 points each for clicking the link and at least looking at them. One was for a sort of neat Tidycat Litter System that I really wish they'd had when my old cat was still alive. I also considered buying it to see if I could train my pet rabbit to use it, but considering the fact that she tipped her last litter box over and wore it as a hat, I decided against this. In any case, my point is that the offers are worth checking out even if you don't generally complete them or buy anything, because you do occasionally find something neat.
I also received 2 SurveyMails. I didn't ultimately qualify for either, getting "kicked out" about halfway through each - which kind of sucked, but I think I may have still gotten 10 points apiece just for attempting to take a survey (and not qualifying). That's pretty nice, considering the fact that another website, SendEarnings doesn't give you anything at all if you don't qualify. In any case, I also attempted to qualify for another survey... also disqualified. Man, I suck at qualifying for this stuff. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I'd claimed to drink more beer, I would have qualified for at least one of those surveys. That'll teach ME to not be a raging alcoholic.
Anyway, that totals up to about 20 definite points that day. I would have gotten 30 more, had I qualified for the surveys.
Doing the Math:
So how "worth it" does that make my MyPoints efforts? As of March 5th, I am averaging 10 points per day. At an average rate of 10 points per day, and my current total of 365, in order to get a gift card with a value of approximately 2,000 points, it will take approximately 164 days (6 months).
But let's be more specific. Let's set our sights on a specific reward card with a specific value. One that I, personally, would actually use: a $50.00 Staples gift card, for 6750 points. At this rate, that would take nearly (but not quite) a year... 640 days, or slightly under 22 months.
That's a long time!
So why not do the other stuff? Why not complete a bunch of offers and stuff? Well, because I'm trying to accomplish these goals with the minimum personal investment. I consider every offer I sign up for to be a "risk" in some way. Some of them want some sort of financial investment... some of them want me to divulge information I consider none of their business at best, or dangerous at worst. The surveys I consider to be marginally safe.
That doesn't mean that I won't consider buying things from Offers that I actually want, just that I'm not going out of my way to buy a bunch of junk for a few points. If I do any online shopping, it'll likely be using their website as a gateway, in order to accrue points for the money I spend. I consider that to be a pretty good deal, especially for places that award amounts like 4 points per dollar spent. I'm going to spend the money anyway. Why not get a kick-back for it? So if you do a lot of online shopping at places that they have deals with, you'll probably be doing pretty well for yourself.
That's if they pay out, which I have not yet verified. They have gotten a ton of great reviews from members, so we'll see. To that end, I'll select a "cheaper" gift card to go after. Something I'll still like and use.
The Game Plan:
The American Red Cross Donation looks interesting, and I'd love to do that... unfortunately, I don't know a way to verify it since I don't think it would be a physical card in my hot little hands. So I'll go with something else. I happen to know that my aunt loves Bath & Body Works, so I'll aim for a $10 gift card there. $10 at Bath & Body Works doesn't go far, but hey, it's $10 more than she had. Anyway, it costs 1400 points.
At my current rate, that will take 104 days. I may be able to speed it up a little bit with a survey here and there (if I ever qualify for one!). So let's plink along for another 4 months and see where that gets me. 4 months for one $10 gift card? Well, I'm certainly not in this to make a living, just to see if it works - even if it works slowly.
It is important to note that so far, MyPoints has not taken away points for what I like to call "bullsh** reasons". It's early in the game, but this is still important. I don't have my hard-won earnings yanked away for reasons I can't understand, and I'm not worried that they're going to go down the tubes. This is a good sign.
My Progress:
March 2nd: 365 points
March 5th: 395 points
Average: about 10 points per day.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
More About Ciao
So far, my progress on Ciao has been pleasing, even though I haven't reached my first payout yet. However, something happened that amazed me.
I had been having issues with my password since my account was created. I contacted them about my problem via email. I received an automated reply, and didn't think much of it. I have not had many good experiences with online customer services (including one infuriating exchange with Myspace.com).
So you can't blame me for being surprised when I was emailed a day later, not by an automated reply, but an actual polite human being offering to help solve my account problem, if I was willing to be patient for a little bit longer. Because of the nature of the problem, it wasn't unreasonable for them to ask me to wait another day or two. I emailed them back with an affirmative and waited.
Another day passed, and I got another email. My problem had been addressed and fixed. I logged into my account to check -- it had!
So apparently, their customer service is handled by real, live human beings - and they actually try to help you. It's sad that I should be impressed by something like this, but I really am. It's not often that you get good customer support from a large website.
It's definitely a huge point in their favor, and yet another indication that it is worth spending a little bit more time using Ciao. I am certainly being won over.
I had been having issues with my password since my account was created. I contacted them about my problem via email. I received an automated reply, and didn't think much of it. I have not had many good experiences with online customer services (including one infuriating exchange with Myspace.com).
So you can't blame me for being surprised when I was emailed a day later, not by an automated reply, but an actual polite human being offering to help solve my account problem, if I was willing to be patient for a little bit longer. Because of the nature of the problem, it wasn't unreasonable for them to ask me to wait another day or two. I emailed them back with an affirmative and waited.
Another day passed, and I got another email. My problem had been addressed and fixed. I logged into my account to check -- it had!
So apparently, their customer service is handled by real, live human beings - and they actually try to help you. It's sad that I should be impressed by something like this, but I really am. It's not often that you get good customer support from a large website.
It's definitely a huge point in their favor, and yet another indication that it is worth spending a little bit more time using Ciao. I am certainly being won over.
Ciao - Ranting and Raving For Cash
Ciao.com is a rare gem: a website where I get paid for writing a few paragraphs about how much I hate my MP3 player.
I reached Ciao through SendEarnings or MyPoints (I honestly cannot remember which) about two days ago. I initially joined because I'd seen a lot of buzz about it on MyLot, and some people swore by it. I knew that the payout was fairly low (I later discovered that it was $5.00).
I have read on blogs and heard from members that Ciao isn't as good as it used to be. Apparently, you used to get a flat $1.00 fee for publishing a review. This was changed to .25, and now to the current "incentive" program where you get paid a few cents for each positive rating your review receives. That system still sounded o.k. to me - write a good review, get rewarded more.
I'd choose this system over a flat rate any day. There's more potential to make money this way. I can easily make that $1.00 off of a review over the course of a few days, and after that, it'll just keep making more. With a flat rate once I've gotten it, that's all I'll ever earn off that review. With the current system, my reviews will continue to earn for me (I believe up to $3.00).
In any case, I took the plunge and joined. After staring at the wall for a while, I decided to write my first review on St. Ives Apricot Scrub, a product I had some mixed feelings about.
I looked at my account all day that day, but although I got many comments on my review from other members, the balance remained 0. I assumed that the product I had selected was not one that you got paid for reviewing, and almost didn't go back to the website. However, when I logged into Ciao the next day, I was greeted by a pleasant surprise: 33 cents I had not possessed before.
After this small success, I wrote three more reviews: one for the Sunbeam Bread Maker I own, one for the Creative Zen Micro (a combination rant and funeral dirge for my dying MP3 player), and one for Diesel For Her (a perfume I like that most people hate).
These efforts netted me 45 more cents the next day, bringing my total to just under a dollar. With such a low minimum balance necessary to reach payout, I'm starting to see how one might easily generate a trickle of extra cash from Ciao.
I befriended a few people, and rated a few people (who kindly rated me back). Currently, I'm accepting some Friend Requests, but I'm not going to befriend plagiarists or rate shoddy reviews positively. I'm just not going to reward bad work. I suppose that may not please some people in the community, but they'll get over it.
What I've been up to:
Feb 28th:
I joined Ciao and immediately wrote my first review on St. Ives Apricot Scrub.
It got a bunch of comments and positive ratings, but I didn't see any money in my Earnings section. Discouraged, I logged off and went to bed.
March 1st:
Logged in to discover that I was 33 cents richer. Woohoo!
Wrote reviews on Diesel For Her and Zen Micro 5 GB.
Befriended several other users, who immediately began nagging me to rate their reviews positively.
March 2nd:
Logged in and discovered another 46 cents in my account, bringing me to 79 cents. More nagging "RATE ME" spam. Checked out users' reviews. A few were good, decent, legitimate reviewers, but there was an upsetting amount of plagiarists, people who copy-pasted product reviews, and "Engrish" word salad. De-friended the offenders, reported some for plagiarism.
Wrote a review for Eisbrecher's album, "Eisbrecher".
Recruited my friends Reese and Jaime. Sent my mother an email with a referral link, which she might get around to reading and clicking eventually.
Friended some users who actually wrote coherent and useful reviews.
March 3rd:
I was awake for rollover. Saw my account total go up another 70 cents. Part of this was due to my referrals posting reviews of their own, but most of it was my own work. Ciao is looking good so far.
I wrote a review for The Sims 2 Expansion Pack: "Seasons" and Friended a few more good reviewers.
March 4:
Only made 20 cents. Apparently, I am alone in my awe of The Sims 2. Friended a few more people.
Wrote three more reviews: One for the video game Cubivore, one for Maybelline Purestay Foundation, and one for Clean & Clear Morning Burst.
More RATE ME spam and friend requests from people who don't actually bother to write reviews. I wish that there was an Ignore button.
Doing the math:
At an average of 40 cents per day, I should reach payout in around 9 days. If I make closer to 70 cents per day, it will be around 6 days.
From what I have gathered, you can make a maximum of $3.00 per review, not counting the Premium Fund (which I will talk about in later posts). I spend an average of 15-20 minutes writing a review. If you stop to think about it, that could amount to $3.00, total, for 15 minutes of my effort. Keep in mind that there is no guarantee that I will make the maximum amount of money off of a review. Once it gets too old and nobody reads it any more, it stops earning (except maybe very occasionally). A review might only ever earn me 50 cents.
Still, all said and done, that's not a bad. Still, I do not wish to misrepresent Ciao. Although it's panning out well for me, it seems like it will only be good for a little bit of extra cash. I'll consider myself lucky to make $5.00 a week - assuming I don't have trouble cashing out. Remember: at this point in the course of this blog, I have not yet hit payout.
My observations:
I've noticed that there are a few reviewers who seem to speak somewhat-broken English, but their reviews are still pretty good. Then there are some who write their review entirely in text-message shorthand, which irks me to no end. I know it's a review about a cell phone, but that doesn't mean you need to type out the review AS IF you typed it on a cell phone.
Finally, there appear to be a few who have simply copied and pasted the product specifications into the review box. Nonetheless, there are a LOT of very good reviews and reviewers. I can see how writing a good review that stands out in the crowd could become exceedingly difficult.
I'll write more about how bad the issue of spam and plagiarism is on Ciao, but for now, I'll state this: It's bad, it's annoying, it may threaten the longevity of the website. Still, I'm not having trouble earning money at all so far. Out of all of the programs I'm describing, Ciao may be the best so far.
I reached Ciao through SendEarnings or MyPoints (I honestly cannot remember which) about two days ago. I initially joined because I'd seen a lot of buzz about it on MyLot, and some people swore by it. I knew that the payout was fairly low (I later discovered that it was $5.00).
I have read on blogs and heard from members that Ciao isn't as good as it used to be. Apparently, you used to get a flat $1.00 fee for publishing a review. This was changed to .25, and now to the current "incentive" program where you get paid a few cents for each positive rating your review receives. That system still sounded o.k. to me - write a good review, get rewarded more.
I'd choose this system over a flat rate any day. There's more potential to make money this way. I can easily make that $1.00 off of a review over the course of a few days, and after that, it'll just keep making more. With a flat rate once I've gotten it, that's all I'll ever earn off that review. With the current system, my reviews will continue to earn for me (I believe up to $3.00).
In any case, I took the plunge and joined. After staring at the wall for a while, I decided to write my first review on St. Ives Apricot Scrub, a product I had some mixed feelings about.
I looked at my account all day that day, but although I got many comments on my review from other members, the balance remained 0. I assumed that the product I had selected was not one that you got paid for reviewing, and almost didn't go back to the website. However, when I logged into Ciao the next day, I was greeted by a pleasant surprise: 33 cents I had not possessed before.
After this small success, I wrote three more reviews: one for the Sunbeam Bread Maker I own, one for the Creative Zen Micro (a combination rant and funeral dirge for my dying MP3 player), and one for Diesel For Her (a perfume I like that most people hate).
These efforts netted me 45 more cents the next day, bringing my total to just under a dollar. With such a low minimum balance necessary to reach payout, I'm starting to see how one might easily generate a trickle of extra cash from Ciao.
I befriended a few people, and rated a few people (who kindly rated me back). Currently, I'm accepting some Friend Requests, but I'm not going to befriend plagiarists or rate shoddy reviews positively. I'm just not going to reward bad work. I suppose that may not please some people in the community, but they'll get over it.
What I've been up to:
Feb 28th:
I joined Ciao and immediately wrote my first review on St. Ives Apricot Scrub.
It got a bunch of comments and positive ratings, but I didn't see any money in my Earnings section. Discouraged, I logged off and went to bed.
March 1st:
Logged in to discover that I was 33 cents richer. Woohoo!
Wrote reviews on Diesel For Her and Zen Micro 5 GB.
Befriended several other users, who immediately began nagging me to rate their reviews positively.
March 2nd:
Logged in and discovered another 46 cents in my account, bringing me to 79 cents. More nagging "RATE ME" spam. Checked out users' reviews. A few were good, decent, legitimate reviewers, but there was an upsetting amount of plagiarists, people who copy-pasted product reviews, and "Engrish" word salad. De-friended the offenders, reported some for plagiarism.
Wrote a review for Eisbrecher's album, "Eisbrecher".
Recruited my friends Reese and Jaime. Sent my mother an email with a referral link, which she might get around to reading and clicking eventually.
Friended some users who actually wrote coherent and useful reviews.
March 3rd:
I was awake for rollover. Saw my account total go up another 70 cents. Part of this was due to my referrals posting reviews of their own, but most of it was my own work. Ciao is looking good so far.
I wrote a review for The Sims 2 Expansion Pack: "Seasons" and Friended a few more good reviewers.
March 4:
Only made 20 cents. Apparently, I am alone in my awe of The Sims 2. Friended a few more people.
Wrote three more reviews: One for the video game Cubivore, one for Maybelline Purestay Foundation, and one for Clean & Clear Morning Burst.
More RATE ME spam and friend requests from people who don't actually bother to write reviews. I wish that there was an Ignore button.
Doing the math:
At an average of 40 cents per day, I should reach payout in around 9 days. If I make closer to 70 cents per day, it will be around 6 days.
From what I have gathered, you can make a maximum of $3.00 per review, not counting the Premium Fund (which I will talk about in later posts). I spend an average of 15-20 minutes writing a review. If you stop to think about it, that could amount to $3.00, total, for 15 minutes of my effort. Keep in mind that there is no guarantee that I will make the maximum amount of money off of a review. Once it gets too old and nobody reads it any more, it stops earning (except maybe very occasionally). A review might only ever earn me 50 cents.
Still, all said and done, that's not a bad. Still, I do not wish to misrepresent Ciao. Although it's panning out well for me, it seems like it will only be good for a little bit of extra cash. I'll consider myself lucky to make $5.00 a week - assuming I don't have trouble cashing out. Remember: at this point in the course of this blog, I have not yet hit payout.
My observations:
I've noticed that there are a few reviewers who seem to speak somewhat-broken English, but their reviews are still pretty good. Then there are some who write their review entirely in text-message shorthand, which irks me to no end. I know it's a review about a cell phone, but that doesn't mean you need to type out the review AS IF you typed it on a cell phone.
Finally, there appear to be a few who have simply copied and pasted the product specifications into the review box. Nonetheless, there are a LOT of very good reviews and reviewers. I can see how writing a good review that stands out in the crowd could become exceedingly difficult.
I'll write more about how bad the issue of spam and plagiarism is on Ciao, but for now, I'll state this: It's bad, it's annoying, it may threaten the longevity of the website. Still, I'm not having trouble earning money at all so far. Out of all of the programs I'm describing, Ciao may be the best so far.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
SendEarnings: The Slow Burn
SendEarnings has fallen into a mental category I've decided to call "Slow Burners". It isn't going to amass you large amounts of money within a short period of time. The money you're required to earn before payout is a bit high compared to websites like MyLot and Ciao, at $30.00. I suppose that makes victory that much sweeter.
While the build-up is slow at only a few cents per ad you click, and maybe 50 cents for completing a survey, it doesn't take much effort at all (again, compared to websites like MyLot and Caio). You get several ads per day. You click them. You earn a few more cents. The $5.00 Sign-up Bonus I got wasn't bad... it was a pretty good start. After a few surveys and about 4 months of steady ad-clicking, it's up to about $10.43. For absolutely no effort beyond that required to click a mouse, or 5 minutes dedicated to a mindless survey here or there, that's not bad.
To be honest, I have not filled out many of their surveys or offers, and that's where the real money is at. I'll be spending a little bit more time filling out surveys from this point on, although it requires dedicating more time and effort to SendEarnings. But we'll see how quickly I accrue money by doing that, as compared to merely passively clicking on ads.
I will not be completing many trial offers, even free ones, because I don't appreciate the junk-mail or the information that it's necessary to surrender. Some of them are superficially lucrative, but require you to divulge important personal information that you may not want to divulge, or else they require a credit card/some other form of financial investment, and you don't receive credit for the offer until your payment has gone through. I don't consider this to be "worth it", so I'm happy with the ads and surveys.
They also have "Cash Games". I won't be spending much time on that. The games are free, and I enjoy them, but in order to get a chance to earn some money, you have to put in a financial investment. $10 for a "premium" account, and then $1.00 per tournament you enter. Those dollars will kill you quickly, especially when they were so hard to earn, and your chances of winning the tournament seem pretty slim. I'll stay away from those, unless I have the urge to play a few free games of Bejeweled.
So far, I seem to be earning about $1.00 a month simply clicking ads. That means I won't see payout for... what... almost 2 years? I'll see how much I can speed that up with surveys, though. Currently, I'm waiting to be credited for 2 surveys. I've completed and been credited for 3 without problems, and it can apparently take a few days.
And, of course, there is the "Referral Center". That's where you refer new people to SendEarnings . There are some pretty strict referral requirements, however, but we'll also keep an eye on that one as well.
My Progress:
March 1st - I have earned $10.45 up to this point. This includes the $5.00 sign-up bonus, $4.45 for clicking ads for the past few months, and $1.00 for filling out surveys. I am currently waiting for 2 surveys I completed to be credited to my account.
Attempted to fill out a survey. Did not qualify for any.
March 2nd:
Checked my email and discovered that one of my surveys had been credited. It took two days. I won't complain - it was an easy 50 cents.
Attempted to fill out a survey. Did not qualify for any.
Today:
Started out with $10.97 in my account, woke up to an email with an ad to click. Got 2 cents for my efforts. Woo.
I saw an email from the survey service that SendEarnings uses about how a program I downloaded for the purposes of taking a survey did not register correctly, and that I should re-download it. I took a survey a few days prior to that which required me to download a program... I did it because I actually trust that SendEarnings would not send me to a scammer, and the survey was actually interesting (whether or not this was stupidity on my part, who knows). In any case, I'm not downloading it again through a freaking email. I mean, come ON. I now trust that survey service less after their "download this again through this link lololol" crap. If that costs me 50 cents, so be it. Since I have not been credited for the particular survey involved, I suppose it has.
Attempted to fill out a survey. Told I did not qualify, and there were none available. Attempted again an hour later. Successfully completed a survey.
There'll be more paid ads today, and I may attempt to take another survey, so I may update the blog later today. Otherwise, it'll go into my next SendEarnings entry.
About the surveys:
One of the reasons I stopped paying attention to my SendEarnings account when I initially signed up for it was the fact that I didn't qualify for ANYTHING. I would try and try to qualify for Surveys, to no avail. Thankfully, that seems to have improved, and I can generally qualify for at least one survey every few days. I guess that's not so bad.
The irritating thing about the surveys is that some of them HAVE to be done in Microsoft Internet Explorer. I primarily use Firefox. This was a serious problem when my main PC ran Linux, another reason I didn't fill out Surveys very much.
Last, sometimes you get halfway through a survey and get disqualified. What a waste of time. I've also had surveys just... glitch on me. Also a waste of time.
Sometimes it will tell you there are no more surveys available for today. Wait an hour or two, and try again, and it may try to hook you up with another survey.
Doing the Math:
Assuming that I just round up to the nearest whole number as my account balance, if I manage to fill out at least one survey per day for 50 cents, at an average of 2 ads per day (which is what I seem to get), so let's make that 54 cents... it'll take about 36 more days, or a little bit over a month, to hit payout.
Keep in mind that it may not be possible to qualify for a survey every day, and that I normally don't bother (but am doing so for the sake of this experiment).
While the build-up is slow at only a few cents per ad you click, and maybe 50 cents for completing a survey, it doesn't take much effort at all (again, compared to websites like MyLot and Caio). You get several ads per day. You click them. You earn a few more cents. The $5.00 Sign-up Bonus I got wasn't bad... it was a pretty good start. After a few surveys and about 4 months of steady ad-clicking, it's up to about $10.43. For absolutely no effort beyond that required to click a mouse, or 5 minutes dedicated to a mindless survey here or there, that's not bad.
To be honest, I have not filled out many of their surveys or offers, and that's where the real money is at. I'll be spending a little bit more time filling out surveys from this point on, although it requires dedicating more time and effort to SendEarnings. But we'll see how quickly I accrue money by doing that, as compared to merely passively clicking on ads.
I will not be completing many trial offers, even free ones, because I don't appreciate the junk-mail or the information that it's necessary to surrender. Some of them are superficially lucrative, but require you to divulge important personal information that you may not want to divulge, or else they require a credit card/some other form of financial investment, and you don't receive credit for the offer until your payment has gone through. I don't consider this to be "worth it", so I'm happy with the ads and surveys.
They also have "Cash Games". I won't be spending much time on that. The games are free, and I enjoy them, but in order to get a chance to earn some money, you have to put in a financial investment. $10 for a "premium" account, and then $1.00 per tournament you enter. Those dollars will kill you quickly, especially when they were so hard to earn, and your chances of winning the tournament seem pretty slim. I'll stay away from those, unless I have the urge to play a few free games of Bejeweled.
So far, I seem to be earning about $1.00 a month simply clicking ads. That means I won't see payout for... what... almost 2 years? I'll see how much I can speed that up with surveys, though. Currently, I'm waiting to be credited for 2 surveys. I've completed and been credited for 3 without problems, and it can apparently take a few days.
And, of course, there is the "Referral Center". That's where you refer new people to SendEarnings . There are some pretty strict referral requirements, however, but we'll also keep an eye on that one as well.
My Progress:
March 1st - I have earned $10.45 up to this point. This includes the $5.00 sign-up bonus, $4.45 for clicking ads for the past few months, and $1.00 for filling out surveys. I am currently waiting for 2 surveys I completed to be credited to my account.
Attempted to fill out a survey. Did not qualify for any.
March 2nd:
Checked my email and discovered that one of my surveys had been credited. It took two days. I won't complain - it was an easy 50 cents.
Attempted to fill out a survey. Did not qualify for any.
Today:
Started out with $10.97 in my account, woke up to an email with an ad to click. Got 2 cents for my efforts. Woo.
I saw an email from the survey service that SendEarnings uses about how a program I downloaded for the purposes of taking a survey did not register correctly, and that I should re-download it. I took a survey a few days prior to that which required me to download a program... I did it because I actually trust that SendEarnings would not send me to a scammer, and the survey was actually interesting (whether or not this was stupidity on my part, who knows). In any case, I'm not downloading it again through a freaking email. I mean, come ON. I now trust that survey service less after their "download this again through this link lololol" crap. If that costs me 50 cents, so be it. Since I have not been credited for the particular survey involved, I suppose it has.
Attempted to fill out a survey. Told I did not qualify, and there were none available. Attempted again an hour later. Successfully completed a survey.
There'll be more paid ads today, and I may attempt to take another survey, so I may update the blog later today. Otherwise, it'll go into my next SendEarnings entry.
About the surveys:
One of the reasons I stopped paying attention to my SendEarnings account when I initially signed up for it was the fact that I didn't qualify for ANYTHING. I would try and try to qualify for Surveys, to no avail. Thankfully, that seems to have improved, and I can generally qualify for at least one survey every few days. I guess that's not so bad.
The irritating thing about the surveys is that some of them HAVE to be done in Microsoft Internet Explorer. I primarily use Firefox. This was a serious problem when my main PC ran Linux, another reason I didn't fill out Surveys very much.
Last, sometimes you get halfway through a survey and get disqualified. What a waste of time. I've also had surveys just... glitch on me. Also a waste of time.
Sometimes it will tell you there are no more surveys available for today. Wait an hour or two, and try again, and it may try to hook you up with another survey.
Doing the Math:
Assuming that I just round up to the nearest whole number as my account balance, if I manage to fill out at least one survey per day for 50 cents, at an average of 2 ads per day (which is what I seem to get), so let's make that 54 cents... it'll take about 36 more days, or a little bit over a month, to hit payout.
Keep in mind that it may not be possible to qualify for a survey every day, and that I normally don't bother (but am doing so for the sake of this experiment).
Monday, March 2, 2009
Adventures in MyLot
I'll be rotating between blogging about MyLot, Sendearnings, MyPoints, and Ciao. Each post on each respective site will discuss what I've been up to on that website since the last time I talked about it, what sort of progress I've made, general observations, and interesting or amusing incidents.
Initial Observations About MyLot:
I joined MyLot a few months ago, and initially lost interest because I was only making a few cents per day and could never think of anything interesting to post about. I've since started to revise my opinion - but we'll see. I can't recall how I joined it. I may have simply found it through an Internet search.
I think that MyLot would be interesting even if money weren't involved. My new-found interest has a lot to do with how much the community has grown even since I joined. As I described it in a previous post, MyLot feels like a combination of an internet forum and Yahoo! Answers. The minimum payout at Mylot is fairly low, at $10.00.
I've noticed a few things about the community there:
- It's very international. There are a lot of members from the US, Britain, Australia, Germany, India, China - you name it. Some members are even from countries where they can't possibly receive their payout, and just hang around because it's interesting. Before you sign up for it, though, make sure you live in a country where they can actually pay you... if you're in it for the money, anyway.
- There seems to be an obsession with fruit. I don't know why. There are a lot of questions about fruit, the ways fruit is good for you, and how to replace everything in your diet with fruit. I don't understand this. Is there some kind of crazy fruit diet in another country that I don't know about? I suppose I could go on there and ask. In fact, I did.
Other incidents of note:
-There was a user posting entries from an encyclopedia of animals, one entry after another. My guess is that he was doing it to get his post count up. Possibly just to troll. It was amusing for the first few posts, but after about 40, it wore pretty thin. It doesn't matter, since they'll all get deleted. All of that irritating non-effort for nothing. Poor little guy.
My progress:
March 1st:
tl;dr version:
Post Count: 22
3 were Discussions I started
1 was a Top Discussion
I referred one member
I made 25 cents
I am Rank 6 (but I reached Rank 7 between writing this blog entry and posting it)
Long version:
I started out March 1st with 82 posts, and ended the evening at 104... more posts than I've ever made in one go. I received one Best Answer on March 1st. I've been trying to work my way up to 100 posts so I can see my Ranking, which is displayed as a little star with a number next to your name. I reached that goal, and my Ranking is currently 6. I also Referred one member: my brother, the esteemed Scarywizard. He didn't do anything that day.
Despite having made 22 posts, I only earned 25 cents. This was an improvement over the 09 cents I earned the previous day, however. Of these posts, 3 were discussions I started myself. The most popular was Do You Believe In Altruism? with three lengthy replies. I later saw that it had made it into the "Today's Top Discussions" section. I'm sort of proud.
I'm going to see if starting more discussions earns more money.
Rather than having to list and link to all of them, you can see what discussions I started or commented on by taking a look at my profile.
My Thoughts About Ranking:
According to the FAQ, the higher your Ranking, the higher-quality your discussions and responses supposedly tend to be (since it's based on member ratings), and I suspect that it may influence the money you earn per post or reply. Of course, if you just have a ton of friends who up-rate you, I could see how a system like this could be broken - but all in all, it seems like a good system, as the users with the higher Rankings do tend to post the more popular discussions and worthwhile answers.
Spamming in MyLot doesn't do you much good. Most spam posts are deleted, and one-word answers for the sake of answering don't really earn you much money. I don't know their algorithm, nor have I attempted to crack it, but it seems like the more popular your discussion is, the higher rated it is, and the more responses it gets, the more you earn. That's not really a bad system. It seems pretty fair, for the most part, and tends to keep "sh**-posting" down (although it doesn't get rid of it entirely). Whether or not you find what the rest of the community finds interesting relevant to your own interests is another matter.
Initial Observations About MyLot:
I joined MyLot a few months ago, and initially lost interest because I was only making a few cents per day and could never think of anything interesting to post about. I've since started to revise my opinion - but we'll see. I can't recall how I joined it. I may have simply found it through an Internet search.
I think that MyLot would be interesting even if money weren't involved. My new-found interest has a lot to do with how much the community has grown even since I joined. As I described it in a previous post, MyLot feels like a combination of an internet forum and Yahoo! Answers. The minimum payout at Mylot is fairly low, at $10.00.
I've noticed a few things about the community there:
- It's very international. There are a lot of members from the US, Britain, Australia, Germany, India, China - you name it. Some members are even from countries where they can't possibly receive their payout, and just hang around because it's interesting. Before you sign up for it, though, make sure you live in a country where they can actually pay you... if you're in it for the money, anyway.
- There seems to be an obsession with fruit. I don't know why. There are a lot of questions about fruit, the ways fruit is good for you, and how to replace everything in your diet with fruit. I don't understand this. Is there some kind of crazy fruit diet in another country that I don't know about? I suppose I could go on there and ask. In fact, I did.
Other incidents of note:
-There was a user posting entries from an encyclopedia of animals, one entry after another. My guess is that he was doing it to get his post count up. Possibly just to troll. It was amusing for the first few posts, but after about 40, it wore pretty thin. It doesn't matter, since they'll all get deleted. All of that irritating non-effort for nothing. Poor little guy.
My progress:
March 1st:
tl;dr version:
Post Count: 22
3 were Discussions I started
1 was a Top Discussion
I referred one member
I made 25 cents
I am Rank 6 (but I reached Rank 7 between writing this blog entry and posting it)
Long version:
I started out March 1st with 82 posts, and ended the evening at 104... more posts than I've ever made in one go. I received one Best Answer on March 1st. I've been trying to work my way up to 100 posts so I can see my Ranking, which is displayed as a little star with a number next to your name. I reached that goal, and my Ranking is currently 6. I also Referred one member: my brother, the esteemed Scarywizard. He didn't do anything that day.
Despite having made 22 posts, I only earned 25 cents. This was an improvement over the 09 cents I earned the previous day, however. Of these posts, 3 were discussions I started myself. The most popular was Do You Believe In Altruism? with three lengthy replies. I later saw that it had made it into the "Today's Top Discussions" section. I'm sort of proud.
I'm going to see if starting more discussions earns more money.
Rather than having to list and link to all of them, you can see what discussions I started or commented on by taking a look at my profile.
My Thoughts About Ranking:
According to the FAQ, the higher your Ranking, the higher-quality your discussions and responses supposedly tend to be (since it's based on member ratings), and I suspect that it may influence the money you earn per post or reply. Of course, if you just have a ton of friends who up-rate you, I could see how a system like this could be broken - but all in all, it seems like a good system, as the users with the higher Rankings do tend to post the more popular discussions and worthwhile answers.
Spamming in MyLot doesn't do you much good. Most spam posts are deleted, and one-word answers for the sake of answering don't really earn you much money. I don't know their algorithm, nor have I attempted to crack it, but it seems like the more popular your discussion is, the higher rated it is, and the more responses it gets, the more you earn. That's not really a bad system. It seems pretty fair, for the most part, and tends to keep "sh**-posting" down (although it doesn't get rid of it entirely). Whether or not you find what the rest of the community finds interesting relevant to your own interests is another matter.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
First Post - What It's All About
This blog is meant to chronicle my adventures in pay-per-click, review, and gift card websites. I know there are a lot of websites dedicated to making money off of these things, so I guess I'll start by stating this: I don't expect to earn any kind of income off of these.
I'll start with my mission statement. The aim of this blog is:
1. To explore well known pay-per-click websites that "pay out" to citizens of the United States of America. Other countries may be included in this, but why would I join a website that only pays out in India if I live in Illinois? Please don't send me emails about international websites that don't pay out in the U.S.
2. To verify that these websites are legit and do, in fact, pay out. If I earn money, it's worthless to me if I can't access it, I get jacked around on payments, my rewards are taken away due to some technicality before I can claim them, et cetera. It doesn't matter if the payout is a nickel. The key point is that it pays out.
3. To assess whether or not the effort invested is worth the reward. If I spend 5 hours earning 50 cents, the effort is not worth the reward, and the website is not worthwhile.
4. To determine the most efficient way to utilize the program in question. Every system has tricks. Every system has more efficient and less efficient ways of accomplishing the same task. My aim is to decide what the most efficient way of earning money is (even if I don't really earn all that much).
These are the websites I have selected to explore:
Mylot - A social discussion website, somewhat in the vein of Yahoo! Answers. It feels a lot like a cross between a message board, Yahoo! Answers, and Myspace. You get paid a few cents for every discussion you post, rate, or reply to, and for every image you upload. I think your community ranking may also influence this. I'll be chronicling how many posts I've made, my ranking, earnings, where the earnings came from, stuff like that.
Sendearnings - A Pay-per-click/Pay-per-survey website. You are emailed ads, and you earn a few cents for every ad you click on. You also earn a few cents for every survey you fill out, and you can earn up to a few dollars for participating in certain offers (like credit report services, trial memberships at websites, et cetera). I'll be discussing how many ads I've clicked on, the types of offers I've participated in, surveys, stuff like that.
Ciao - I didn't check this one out until recently. You write product reviews, rate and comment on other members' reviews, and get paid for doing it. I didn't check it out for a while because... honestly, I don't know why. I wish I'd looked into it sooner, though, and I'll explain why.
MyPoints - This website rewards you for filling out surveys and completing offers with points you can spend on gift cards from various retailers. I've heard very good things about it, and joined recently - now I want to see how my efforts pan out.
Other Websites, Programs, and Methods - I will touch on other websites - including programs and methods - either as I discover and explore them or as the topic comes up. I have explored a few other places such as Hits 4 Pay and Gaming Lagoon. They aren't on the list above for specific reasons, however, and I'll get into that in further posts.
I would like to note that I have not yet hit payout on any of the above websites. I only recently joined them. I joined many others, but these are the ones that have proven most interesting and have gotten the most positive commentary from their members. I will be chronicling my exploits on these websites on a nearly-daily basis, and if/when I hit payout on them, I will be posting if, how quickly, and how payout was received.
I'd like to go on to say that I'm doing this partly because I'm currently unemployed. Being unemployed sucks. Without a job, I feel sort of purposeless. I'm an artist - mainly, an illustrator and graphic designer. The current economy is unfortunately not kind to artists. Scrabbling for money lately hasn't been fun, and these sorts of things are intriguing to me, so if I can explore a topic that other people on the Internet find interesting - and maybe make a few bucks in the process - then I think everyone wins.
I'll start with my mission statement. The aim of this blog is:
1. To explore well known pay-per-click websites that "pay out" to citizens of the United States of America. Other countries may be included in this, but why would I join a website that only pays out in India if I live in Illinois? Please don't send me emails about international websites that don't pay out in the U.S.
2. To verify that these websites are legit and do, in fact, pay out. If I earn money, it's worthless to me if I can't access it, I get jacked around on payments, my rewards are taken away due to some technicality before I can claim them, et cetera. It doesn't matter if the payout is a nickel. The key point is that it pays out.
3. To assess whether or not the effort invested is worth the reward. If I spend 5 hours earning 50 cents, the effort is not worth the reward, and the website is not worthwhile.
4. To determine the most efficient way to utilize the program in question. Every system has tricks. Every system has more efficient and less efficient ways of accomplishing the same task. My aim is to decide what the most efficient way of earning money is (even if I don't really earn all that much).
These are the websites I have selected to explore:
Mylot - A social discussion website, somewhat in the vein of Yahoo! Answers. It feels a lot like a cross between a message board, Yahoo! Answers, and Myspace. You get paid a few cents for every discussion you post, rate, or reply to, and for every image you upload. I think your community ranking may also influence this. I'll be chronicling how many posts I've made, my ranking, earnings, where the earnings came from, stuff like that.
Sendearnings - A Pay-per-click/Pay-per-survey website. You are emailed ads, and you earn a few cents for every ad you click on. You also earn a few cents for every survey you fill out, and you can earn up to a few dollars for participating in certain offers (like credit report services, trial memberships at websites, et cetera). I'll be discussing how many ads I've clicked on, the types of offers I've participated in, surveys, stuff like that.
Ciao - I didn't check this one out until recently. You write product reviews, rate and comment on other members' reviews, and get paid for doing it. I didn't check it out for a while because... honestly, I don't know why. I wish I'd looked into it sooner, though, and I'll explain why.
MyPoints - This website rewards you for filling out surveys and completing offers with points you can spend on gift cards from various retailers. I've heard very good things about it, and joined recently - now I want to see how my efforts pan out.
Other Websites, Programs, and Methods - I will touch on other websites - including programs and methods - either as I discover and explore them or as the topic comes up. I have explored a few other places such as Hits 4 Pay and Gaming Lagoon. They aren't on the list above for specific reasons, however, and I'll get into that in further posts.
I would like to note that I have not yet hit payout on any of the above websites. I only recently joined them. I joined many others, but these are the ones that have proven most interesting and have gotten the most positive commentary from their members. I will be chronicling my exploits on these websites on a nearly-daily basis, and if/when I hit payout on them, I will be posting if, how quickly, and how payout was received.
I'd like to go on to say that I'm doing this partly because I'm currently unemployed. Being unemployed sucks. Without a job, I feel sort of purposeless. I'm an artist - mainly, an illustrator and graphic designer. The current economy is unfortunately not kind to artists. Scrabbling for money lately hasn't been fun, and these sorts of things are intriguing to me, so if I can explore a topic that other people on the Internet find interesting - and maybe make a few bucks in the process - then I think everyone wins.
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