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.

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 MAKE 5 BAZILLION DOLLARS IN 2 WEEKS WITH THIS SCAM!!!!!!! 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.

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.

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).

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.