PTC Sites are a Total Waste of Time
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I felt that I needed to rant about something.
A while back, I made several posts touting the benefits of Pay-to-Click (PTC) sites. Now, there are a few good ones out there. In fact, there are some great ones out there, I'm sure, but I don't plan to have anything to do with them, thanks to Pay2Surf.
Aside from the site shutting down and not paying people, one of their requirements (to be paid) was that you couldn't spread 'negative talk' about the site around the web. If you were caught talking bad about the site, you would be banned and forfeit all of your earnings and investments made in the site. Pretty crappy, huh?
I've sent numerous emails to the admins of the site, talked to them via their SSANZ support site, and have been promised that they were working on version 2.0 and would verify and pay me. Guess what? The domain name is for sale, the site isn't coming back, and I'm not getting paid.
I've sent an email to the admin letting them know that I would most likely be seeking legal advice in this matter.
I don't like scammers. I really, really don't like being lied to.
Thanks, Pay2Surf, you've made me an angry blogger. Oh, the same goes for Visit4Cash as well (same admin).
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The Dark Side of Marketing
We all know the real reason that we've started trying to make money online. The whole purpose of our venture is to, well, make money online! Of course, nobody really gets into business who doesn't expect to get some kind of gain from their efforts.
But what about people who rip others off? What about the idiots who use innocent affiliate marketers to scam people out of their hard earned cash?
Yes, this kind of thing goes on. It's unfortunate to think that there are many of us who unwittingly cause people to hurt. Where am I going with this?
Acai diet plans. No, I have not done any marketing of this all-too-popular product. Do they work? According to many major media outlets it is a fine product. The problem comes in during the billing process, it seems. That free trial ends up costing lots of money.
What does that mean to us?
For many affiliate marketers, nothing. We generate a lead and the actual sale is between the customer and the company. All we do is send people toward the product.
I would recommend that all of you who are marketing Acai berry diets watch this video. The 'best' part is when they try to ask questions of the company that is selling the product and they just scatter like roaches and start slamming doors. Frankly, it looks like some kind of drug raid, even though the company is supposedly a legit company.
Come on. We all know that honest businessmen and women DO NOT act this way.
I am bringing this up as just something to think about. I'm sure we all have marketed things we didn't use or recommend ourselves. Hey, we are into making sales with a broad selection of products and services to market. The more the merrier. This stuff that happens may not be our fault, but it is unfortunate that we could get mixed up in this kind of crap.
Anyway, what do you do when you find out that a product that you have helped to sell or a company that you have helped promote has been unethical with their customers?
If you like these posts and want to stay in the loop, please subscribe to my RSS feed and follow me on Twitter. And if you really like this stuff, you can buy me a coffee! Oh, and if you like being an insider, be sure to join the mailing list...I never spam, but you will get some insider specials!
How Do ‘Pay to Click’ Sites Work?
UPDATE: If you are reading this, please know that the owner of Pay2Surf never paid out. So much for a reputable PTC site.
Anyone who has done any kind of digging around the net looking for ways to make money online has stumbled on the plethora of 'Pay to Click' sites. The premise sounds good: click an ad/view a page, get paid. But are they an effective way to make money?
For me, the extensive list of these sites sends up a red flag. Why? Honestly, most of them look spammy, cheesy, or just plain stupid. And besides, who in their right mind would pay you to click a link? Well, lets take a look at how they work...
For this article, we will be looking at one site in particular - Pay2Surf.net (one that I know for a fact is legit).
How to Pay to Click Sites Make Money
First, in order to get paid it's necessary that a site is able to generate money. Pay2Surf makes money by selling both advertisements (banners, text) and allowing site owners to pay for traffic. Essentially, the site owner pays for x amount of unique visits, and the site is placed in the 'view ads' section for people to click on until the amount of paid visits is reached.
Another way that Pay2Surf makes money is by selling referrals. How does that work? Basically, when you sign up for an account (without using a referral link) you are nobody's referral. Users of the site can 'purchase' these unreferred users, and they are placed under the user as their own referral. Make sense? No? I know, it sounds a bit confusing, but if you start using their service you will learn quickly.
How Do I Make Money With Pay to Click Sites?
Now that we've covered how Pay2Surf gets their part of the cash, lets look at how YOU make money (because that's why you are here, right?) with these sites.
Basically, you sign up, view the ads for 15-30 seconds, and the money is credited to your account. Yes, that's it. Yes, it's worth it for Pay2Surf AND the advertiser. Why? Because traffic = potential customers/RSS subscribers/ad clickers.
But if you want to make more money from the system (instead of relying on the 10 or so ads per day you are viewing), you need to get referrals. There are two ways to do this: 1) tell friends, blog readers, etc. about the service and give them your affiliate link to sign up with or 2) purchase referrals from Pay2Surf directly. Now it's beginning to make sense, eh?
Conclusion
You CAN make money with these 'pay to click' sites, but you have to be smart about it. Don't set your expectations too high. If you think you will be able to quit your job within a couple of months, you are mistaken. In fact, I doubt that anyone has ever made this kind of money off of these sites (except maybe the site owners). And for crying out loud, go with a reputable site, like Pay2Surf.
If you like these posts and want to stay in the loop, please subscribe to my RSS feed and follow me on Twitter. And if you really like this stuff, you can buy me a coffee! Oh, and if you like being an insider, be sure to join the mailing list...I never spam, but you will get some insider specials!
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