Beware The "Prelaunch" Specials: The Newest Scams

I've been reflecting on my online progress over the past few years, and naturally some patterns have stood out. There is one in particular that I fell for twice, and lately I've been seeing ads for several similar types of programs. What eye-catcher is this? The all-new, completely revolutionary earning system... _________ now in prelaunch! Join now and be on top of everyone else when it starts!

Yeah, it's tempting. That's why I fell for it twice. You see a short video or read some info on this brand new program, and it looks remarkable. On top of that, you can have the "privilege" of being one of the original members, practically one of the founders.... It's too good to be true. And yeah, it is.

So what's wrong with joining a pre-launch? Isn't everything brand new at some point or another? Every trend has to start somewhere. Well, yes. But unless you were seriously a founding member of Google or Amazon, you've probably noticed that you've really never been involved with the beginning of a trend. Trends start with a very small group of people, often only one person, who has a great idea and who gets it starting, eventually making it public. There is no in-between. Either it's in development or it's already out, and if it's something you can already join... it's out. You're not one of the first; you're one of the many.

Rippln was my biggest mistake in this area. I joined Rippln just over a year ago and was, as I remember, very excited about this new social network. I sent Facebook messages to people telling them about it (sorry to any of you who are reading this!) and chatted with the other members about how great this was going to be. Apparently, people were signing up on the pre-launch left and right, and it was no wonder: this was going to be a social network that pays you! But, as the days to the official "launch" drew nearer, Rippln started to change. It wasn't a friendly new social networking site... it was an expensive pyramid scheme. They began to email me, asking for hundreds of dollars so that I would attend special "training" webinars, and the fun games that they promised were just gimmicks in the end. There wasn't even a decent product with Rippln, just a promise and a feeling of being a part of the beginning of something big. No one joined under me, but as I saw the true nature of the scam, I was relieved and decided to quit before they took any of my money away. My question was, "Since when have social network media required hundreds of dollars just for basic training?" Yeah, I failed big.

My Perfect Inter.net was another pre-launch that I joined. It was not an all-out scam like Rippln, but the quality fell very far from the ideals that it projected beforehand. It was supposed to be the perfect "Internet," with everything you wanted all on one page--emails, games, sales from your favorite stores, latest messages and updates from friends, and news. Oh, and it also pays you to refer people. I joined and made an account when it was still "WazzUb" and didn't think much about it. After it officially launched I visited my page, looked around and played a game of solitaire, and then left. I've only returned two or three times since then. Yeah, it has what it was promising... but the layout is awful! Brightly flashing colors, more ads than features, and an overall headache of an experience was what I found.

Moral of the story? Don't fall for the pre-launch. It's an illusion, a way for people to profit off of you without having to give you anything at all right away. If you're seeing ads for it, it's too late to be one of the first members anyway. Look for something established and proven, something that has both positive reviews and positive results. Clixsense, Amazon Turk and SFI may not be fast earning opportunities and they may not look exciting compared to others, but they have a track record.

Traffic Exchanges: A Testimony

The traffic exchange is a simple idea. You view my site, I'll view yours. The more sites you view, the more views you get to your own site. It sounds like an amazing way to generate traffic... until you realize the nasty shortcoming of the fact that it's a seller's market. No one who surfs is looking to buy anything or join anything. You'll get a lot of views, but pretty much no attention at all.

I never put much stock in traffic exchanges either, until recently. My first Clixsense referral was from a TE, but otherwise... I had nothing. And then I met Lucie. One day last month I was doing some spare surfing on a few traffic exchanges, and I was on the look for anything that could boost my online income. I signed up for several programs, but this training was different. Lucie was promoting a claim that she could teach me to get a good, steady income from traffic exchanges alone. It was free training, so I signed up, but I wasn't convinced that she was anything more than a desperate affiliate until a few days later. I was continuing to surf, and I recognized her profile picture on an ad for another traffic exchange. Under her picture she was credited with having earned over a thousand dollars on that site alone.

Do TE's even pay that much money? Some of them give out odd pennies for prizes or hold lotteries at regular intervals, but a thousand dollars is a lot. Lucie was not a desperate affiliate. She was doing very well, and she was offering me her system for free.

Did it work for me? Surprisingly, yes! I got my first signup within only a few hours after completing step one of the system. When I started active list building after finishing the training, I got two subscribers within the first couple days. It's slowed down since then. One subscriber was active and signed up under me on a traffic exchange, and since then he has been actively referring people under himself. I have quite a downline on that site now! Unfortunately, it's not a site that pays money for anything. Just credits.

This weekend, my free trial for Traffic Wave came to an end, and I did not renew it. I had set aside some money just for that purpose, but after researching and looking up options, I decided to put that money into SFI instead so that I could become an Executive Affiliate. I moved my list over to MailChimp (not an autoresponder, but when my list is too big to handle on a one-on-one basis I should have no problem signing up for a paid TrafficWave subscription. The good news is that I shouldn't have to wait long. Three paid TW referrals will completely pay for my own account, and so I'm hoping that within the next month I can return to that. In the meantime, I'm continuing to surf. I'm getting new referrals almost every day, with a click-through rate of about 3% (which is decent for a TE).

Do I recommend traffic exchanges to the average marketer? That depends. If you plan on only surfing on one site for only a few minutes here and there, then don't. If you are willing to put the work into it, joining a bunch of programs and surfing for several hours a day after designing your own splash page, then go for it! Because now I know--it works if you know how!

Interested in Lucie's course? I'd love to share it with you and help you out wherever I can! Just give me your contact info on my squeeze page here or my website here, and I'll send you the first step ASAP!

Update (Hint: Clixsense rocks!)

Hi everyone,

Last May I did a lot of experimenting to reach my goal of making $100 in a single week online without investments, in the end finally succeeding via paid surveys. Yes, surveys are good, but there is one site I just can't leave alone: Clixsense. A PTC, simple and low paying, but consistent and effective. I've actually been earning enough on Clixsense alone to pay for Japanese lessons since fall, which I have found to be a beautiful and artistic language. Did you know that there are three different ways to write in Japanese? Once you get the hang of it, it's also a lot of fun to trace kanji on scraps of paper just for the sake of it.

But back to Clixsense. Throughout all of my referral hunting, Clixsense remains the only site where I actually started a downline. Recently a referral of a referral upgraded, and I got paid without doing a thing (which is awesome, by the way). But now it also sent me off on a tangent. How can I get more referrals, and has anything in that field changed since I looked at everything last year?

I was looking around, and I found something that caught my attention. And I think I'm gonna give it a try. Behold, the Clixsense Auto Chain! Unlike most chains, you don't need to join anything. The only program is Clixsense, and it's easy as anything to set up! Let's give it a go:

Clixsense Auto Chain, get many free referrals!!!

Start Earning Today!

Get many direct PTC referrals for ClixSense FREE and start earning money.

With Clixsense Auto Chain you can get a good number of active referrals for Clixsense totally FREE. All you need to invest is 5 minutes a day.

To understand the purpose of Clixsense Auto Chain, it's ​​necessary to know what Clixsense is and just how it works. ClixSense is a PTC (Paid To Click) and one of the best known. You register (see the link below) and you see ads after you log in. You're paid about $ 0.01 per ad viewed and $ 0.01 for each ad your referrals view. The more referrals, the greater the benefits. We all know that to make money with these systems the most important thing is to have active referrals, but sometimes that can be very discouraging and hard to keep up. With Clixsense Auto Chain, your referrals will be very active because they know they will get referrals in turn. Many of these systems (e.g., Neobux) only give you referral earnings if you were active that day. It is therefore important to have a good list of referrals and to be active yourself to keep it going.

By joining Clixsense Auto Chain, you will not only get a good number of FREE referrals, but your referrals will also get a good number of referrals, and best of all, all these referrals through Clixsense Auto Chain will be fully active because they will know for sure that they will get referrals and their referrals will also turn asset because it will get up to turn your referrals. Just follow the instructions and start making money with Clixsense.

How does Clixsense Auto Chain work?

Clixsense Auto Chain bases its operation on the system of duplication. Add your link once to the system, and before you know it, your link will be duplicated and promoted many times automatically by your own download.

Who can participate in Clixsense Auto Chain?

Everyone who already belongs to ClixSense and anyone interested in joining it can take part. To join Clixsense Auto Chain, copy and save all the text of this letter in your notebook, or a blogger after adding your link published this letter in forums, free ads, emails etc. added your link with the title: ” Clixsense Auto Chain, gets many referrals for free.”

Want to know more? Here's what sets Clixsense Auto Chain apart from conventional chains.

Conventional chains require your participation, often involving extensive registration and annoying upkeep as you keep trying to keep your link at the top.

More than that, a conventional chain requires supervision of at least one person who can easily become overwhelmed with problems, increasing as the chain grows and reaching a point where it is quite difficult for the supervisor to whom you are controlling the following referral, in addition to handling high traffic of mails. New users of the chain first ask the supervisor via email the link by which must in the string, and then the supervisor should send the link to the payment schedule given to get referrals. The supervisor should monitor and save these links and then give them to new users of the chain. Some users go as far as to accuse these supervisors to give referrals to others when you touched them. 

Clixsense Auto Chain  is automatic, does not need anyone’s supervision and also avoids the kind of accusations typical of a conventional chain.

Nor is it necessary to join Clixsense Auto Chain unsubscribe from ClixSense and is perfectly compatible Clixsense Auto Chain join but also belong to any other chain ClixSense.

Since Clixsense Auto Chain bases its operation on the power of duplication, a greater number of participants got higher level of duplicity of our link, reaching more people than many of them may already be registered with ClixSense and many others not even ClixSense have heard, these are the people who will become your referrals cycle at the end of your link.

Remember Clixsense Auto Chain's operation is based on the duplication of LINKS. You might not get  referrals instantly, but as more people join the chain your own link will be broadcast to many others. That's when referrals come pouring down.

Follow Clixsense Auto Chain standards. Do not try to cheat to get referrals tomorrow; you’re hurting yourself and everyone else. 

To join Clixsense Auto Chain, follow these steps:

STEP 1. Copy everything full text Clixsense Auto Chain, do not change anything, to be effective Clixsense Auto Chain everyone should read the whole text, and save it to your notebook computer or computer. (Later you’ll need it).

STEP 2. In the list you see below this paragraph just click on the link that is in the highest position in the list (if the link does not work copy the link and paste it in the address bar of your browser) and join ClixSense (if already ClixSense a member of this step is not necessary) once registered your link located at ClixSense for referring users.

SIGN IN ANY OF THESE LINKS SO YOU CAN BE PART OF THE CLIXSENSE AUTO CHAIN

http://www.clixsense.com/?3299436

Position 1. 

http://www.clixsense.com/?4924848

Position 2.

http://www.clixsense.com/?4748418

Position 3.

 http://www.clixsense.com/?4746490

Positon 4.

Position 5. http://www.clixsense.com/?5382446

STEP 3. Open your notebook with all the message and delete the link number 1, then passes the link number 2 to position 1, the link number 3 to number 2, the link number 4 to number 3, the link number 5 to number 4. thus the link that was when you saw Clixsense Auto Chain first in the number 1 position become vacant will be gone and ranked No. 5, add your link to the position No 5. (Do not forget to add http:// before your link).

STEP 4. From here is where the real power of Auto Chain starts.

Start searching for online forums, bulletin boards, message boards, bulletin boards, chat sites (chats), discussions, discussion groups, online communities, everything that serves to spread the message and publishes Auto Chain the ALL AUTOCHAIN MESSAGE without changing anything except your link at number 5. Do not write it by hand, would spend hours writing, simply copy the contents of your scrapbook and paste to all these sites. Studies of this system are estimated to put 200 ads, my advice is to put more of these ads the first day and then put 1, 2 or 3 each day, so your referrals continue to increase every day.

You can also send it to your contacts and friends, but do not spam; it's annoying and a crime. Spam is when you send messages to people who did not want them and have not given you permission to write them.

It is proven that for every 200 people who see this type of ad, at least 15 joined. These 15 new members will do the same as you doubling your link.

You send 200 listings come together 15 people.
1. 15 (1) = 15 people = Your link is duplicated 15 times.
2. 15 (15) = 225 people = Your link is duplicated 225 times.
3. 15 (225) = 3375 people = Your link is duplicated 3375 times.
4. 15 (3375) = 50625 people = Your link is duplicated 50,625 times.
5. 15 (50625) = 759375 people = Your link is duplicated 759,375 times.

Realistically you’re not going to get to the end of your cycle 759,375 referrals, but suppose you get 100 referrals (a ridiculous figure watching the level of duplication of your links). Was it worth losing 5 minutes a day?

How do you win?

Assuming that we won those 100 referrals in a program and that the program will pay 0.01 cent per click or email and clicks or maximum daily emails are 4′re winning:
$ 0.04 for your daily clicks.
$ 4 daily for the clicks of your referrals.
$ 0.04 x 30 days = $ 1.2
$ 4 x 30 days = $ 120

What makes a total of $ 121.2 monthly PTC or PTR, if you participate in several PTCS Autochains or Pars imagine how much you can earn per month for those 5 minutes a day. Even having achieved only 10 referrals for PTC and earn $ 12 per month for PTC or PTR and your participation has paid off.

Welcome at Clixsense Auto Chain, start enjoying REFERRAL BENEFITS!

Simply the Best PTC World!

Share and Enjoy

My Study "Ends"

Day thirty has come and gone, and I'm so busy that it's hard to find time to write. My latest escapade is Twitter Marketing, which I'm trying after reading an e-book on how to make money online. It's surprisingly easy--establish your niche, provide quality content (often by subscribing to the RSS feeds of related blogs that you know and trust), and then sell only the best products. You can open as many accounts as you want in as many niches as you want, and selling as many products as you want. This method is actually much more work than it sounds, but I'm taking it one niche at a time, for now focusing only on my Online Income account. The trickiest thing is building a following, as last time I checked I had only about twenty-seven people. But I'm following more and hopefully it will build up (supposedly I can pass a thousand in a month if I do it right). If I have a thousand people on each of ten different accounts, and if only three or four of them buys anything per week, I'll have reached my goal! The best part is that it's mostly automated, and I can be sure of providing people with quality insight and content, which has been one of my biggest fears about monetizing Twitter.

In other news, results, etc.: I am now making three times my original rate at Neobux. Granted, twenty cents a day is still pathetic, but at this rate I'm expecting it to pick up nicely. Now it should be only about three or four days until I can rent my next three referrals, and then very soon after until I can rent three more. I've had bad luck with Clixsense lately, only making a few pennies a day instead of dollars, but hopefully it won't matter too much--I should be able to upgrade my account soon anyway, since my sponsor doesn't seem to be following through. I do have a good $3 coming in for sure next week from Protypers.

As for getting paid to draw, I took and drew several pictures I thought would be good... but they weren't high enough resolution to sell. I'll see if there's anything I can do to fix that, and if not I'll have to request a refund, as I just don't have the supplies needed.

I have not been paid yet from Richgo PTR, and I expect I never will. That makes it painful to go on the site every day and watch several ads to remain "in good standing." I'll admit, the way they do the payments is sketchy. They pay out only $50,000 a week, supposedly, and upgraded members (again supposedly) get first dibs, and they're drawn at random. The only way I can get paid is if they genuinely run out of upgraded members demanding payment and just so happen to draw my name instead. So... this would be kind of like winning the lottery, only with a lot more work put into it. I don't know if I'll bother waiting the full thirty days or not.

This blog, as you already know, has been a total failure in terms of making money. I did what I was supposed to, but it went nowhere. I also fell dramatically short of my goal of $100 a week--making a measly $5-10 a week instead. But I still have two months to figure it out before my wedding, and there are still many options I haven't tried yet! As I continue to earn money and re-invest it, I'm able to move on to more and more advanced options and services. I'm hoping to climb it like a ladder and stop after I've reached my goal.

As the thirty days have now ended, this blog will probably cease to be much of a priority for me. I'll try to keep you posted on the big things, but I really have much more important stuff going on in my life right now. Cheers!

Day 28: Updates and Info

I'm almost done now with my 30-day project, but I feel like I'm only just starting to figure things out! I have several notes and discoveries to jot down today, and most of it very positive.

• RichgoPTR did actually contact me last night to say that they have received my request, etc. Yes, they did suggest I upgrade, but it was still optional, and there was a decent explanation as to the limited payouts--they claim they can only afford to pay $50,000 every day and the priority always goes to upgraded members. I will hold them at their original word that basic members would get paid within 30 days. I will remain active so I can at any point be considered a member "in good standing" and so that they won't have any excuse not to pay me.
• I don't remember if I mentioned this, but I spent some of my Clixsense money on a "Get Paid to Draw" program after researching it and deciding it was worth it. I've only read through the e-book and watched some of the drawing tutorials so far, so have had no opportunity to try it out, but it looks fun, if not promising as well.
• Protypers.com, one of my moneymakers, has just bumped up the payouts another 50 cents per thousand captchas at any time of the day. That's huge, if you can't tell. I expect my profits there to get almost as big as they are at Clixsense. Ok, maybe not that high, but at least to the point where I can have weekly or bi-weekly checkouts.
• Donkeymails is awesome--so far. No, it doesn't pay very much, but there is NO payout limit at all--meaning that if you realize you can't earn more than five cents a day and decide to give up on day one, you can actually withdraw that five cents that you earned. A refreshing load of confidence, at least. And there's also the fact that you seriously could spend all day earning on that site, which, despite the fact that you're only earning fractions of pennies, is a cool thought. Be warned, though--I have just read up on it and apparently it has a reputation for randomly deleting people's accounts after they request payouts. I have not yet requested one, so I can't say one way or the other. But so far so good!
• I joined and explored Hourly Chic Pay. It's a cross between investing and surfing, where you get paid hourly according to your investments and the success of the website. They also promise a free $12 for signing up so that you don't have to put your own money in to invest. That might be true on a technicality, but I was disappointed to find that the $12 is not in your account--it's spread out among their different payment processors (which unfortunately don't include PayPal or Payza) on $3 per site. On top of that, you have to have at least $10 on the given processor to withdraw. That frustrated me. Maybe someday I'll be able to invest in Hourly Chic Pay, but right now at this point I think it's not worth it.

So, that's my report for the day. The good, the bad and the awesome. Two more days until my final concluding report, and until then be sure to follow me on Twitter or join me in Clixsense. You won't regret it!

Day 27: Scam Alert!

Yes, I took a day off yesterday--largely because I had nothing new to report and also I had better and more productive ways to spend my time. But today's different: last night and earlier today I decided to investigate the site I was telling you about (Richgo PTR) that was hinting at a large paycheck very soon. I've been suspicious of it from the start, which is why I never overly encouraged any of you to sign up. The English was horrible, there were parts of the site that seemed less than professional, there weren't any forums to see what other people were saying, and I couldn't figure out how they could afford to pay $150 per click.

Be that as it may, I've been optimistic as ever and put a lot of effort into making the required amount of money to withdraw. Today I reached that amount and requested payment, but let's go back to my research itself. I looked up reviews of the site in several places. It's been listed as a scam on several different sites (never a good sign), though it is also a secure site--no viruses or x-rated content that will suddenly leap out at you.

What did people say themselves? Most people were asking whether or not it was a scam, and some people said it was. The best odds I could find were that they pay half their people. Some claim to know people who have gotten incomes, or that they got money themselves once or twice before suddenly being cut off (usually after being upgraded). There were some horror stories of people being told that they had to upgrade before they could take money out, and then after they upgraded they kept getting the same message. Fortunately, that didn't happen to me.

My payout request went very smoothly and simply. RichgoPTR did not ask me--or even suggest to me--that I upgrade, nor did they make the payout requesting process any more confusing or hassling than it needed to be. Just a few clicks and that was it! Now, the question is: will I get paid? According to the site, free members should get paid within thirty days if the member remains active in the site and "in good standing." I've heard that they push it out to four months (though so far they haven't done that) but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. They did say that they would be in touch with me shortly, hopefully within the thirty days. If in a month they haven't contacted me or anything, I'll write them and see what's up.

Ten thousand dollars would be awesome, even if I didn't get it till fall. It seems that most of the people complaining about it being a scam are the people who paid $166 for an upgrade, so I'm hoping that that's the ploy--they take your money and run. Sure enough, I had been planning on buying an upgrade first thing if I got paid, but now I wouldn't dare.

My verdict? RichgoPTR is almost certainly a scam. At best, it's unreliable and unstable, and you can only hope that the instability works out in your favor. Don't invest a penny in it, and don't assume that the money you earn is anything more than numbers on a screen.

In the meantime, Clixsense still reigns as the absolute best PTC. I've gotten two checks from it already, and I highly recommend it to any of you who are thinking about generating an online income. But my search isn't over! I still have three days remaining in this study, after which I'll write down everything I've learned and every conclusion I've come to. Follow me on Twitter for more tips and updates, and beware of scams!

Day 23: Five Strategies for Working Online

There are many different ways to make money online, but whichever you decide to pursue will require some degree of strategy. No matter how optimistic you are to start out, you'll go nowhere if you don't have a plan or don't know how to space out your time and money correctly. Here are some strategies I have found to be useful:

1. If you can multitask, do. Don't overload yourself or take more than you can handle, but many PTC sites will allow you to have something else on the screen at the same time as the advertisement and still give you credit. Even if it doesn't, try to find other things you can do. Do you have homework? Are you working on a craft or manual project? Then have your computer at hand, running through ads while you get something else accomplished.
2. Budget time and money. If you don't, you'll lose it all. Decide before getting involved how many hours or minutes a day you want to devote to this project, and how much money you're willing to invest in it. It's fine if your initial strategy won't work out; you can always change it. But it is important to have something to refer to so that you don't get carried away.
3. Have patience. You won't be an Internet millionaire overnight, no matter what you put into it. Likely it will take months or even years before the income starts paying off, and you need to be willing to work on it steadily until then.
4. Look at all the options. There's always something better out there. With so many programs available easily online, take your time in deciding what's for you. Join a few sites and work on them all at first, and then after a couple weeks see which one is making money. I've already cashed out two checks from Clixsense, and I'm not even close on the other sites. What does that tell me?
5. Set standards. How desperate are you for cash? Are you honestly willing to be a telemarketer or send spam mail to make a few dollars, or do you want to keep your dignity and find other means? There's no right or wrong answer, here, but it's a good idea to know where you stand.

As always, you can follow me on Twitter for more updates and tips or check Clixsense out for yourself if you want to start making your own Internet money!

Day 22: A Hundred Dollars? Per Click?

I cringe when I think about how much I've been neglecting this blog. Views have been dropping too, and it's no wonder. The content isn't as fresh as it was a few weeks ago, the posts have gotten lazier and possibly less helpful to others, and I'm only writing one post a day now instead of three. And I'll confess--I've considered dropping this altogether. I've gotten so busy, and a certain number of my projects have been so promising, that I feel this log is no longer needed--its original purpose of making me money is completely obsolete, and I have a solid plan now that I'm following.

But I had decided to keep this up for thirty days, and so I figure I won't stop so close to finishing--in a little over a week I'll be all done with this, as far as my commitment goes, and I can focus on my wedding and my actual earning money instead of this study.

I mentioned yesterday that I've been making so much money that I wouldn't bother telling you because you wouldn't believe it. I'll tell you a little bit about it now, but first I want to mention a few things:

• I fully realize the following and programs like it could well be a total scam. I have invested no money into it and, for the most part, expect to receive no money in return.
• Yes, there are strings attached. Payouts take a suspiciously long time (thirty to ninety days after the request, or a "reasonable" amount of time after).
• I'm not putting all of my eggs in this basket, tempting though it is. I'm keeping up with Clixsense and Neobux, programs that I know and trust, at the same time.

I found some ridiculously good PTCs. Ridiculously! The lowest on the list pays ten cents per click, and the highest? How does $200 sound? Per click? Yeah, I'm suspicious too. But these programs were all free to join. The big hangup is that even though you could make several thousand dollars in a day, you'll be lucky to earn enough to cash out within the next month. So, unless a flock of you join up under my referral and start clicking on ads like mad, I won't have a check by any of these companies by the time I finish this blog--though, if such a check ever does come, I'll be sure to tell you and probably also show a proof.

Today, when I decided once again to look for a good data entry job, I found more--only with these sites, you could earn up to $1000 per click! What's the deal? (Well, part of it is that you have to earn over two million dollars before cashing out, in which case the money's as good as nonexistent.)

I'm still working it out, but if so much as one of these programs is NOT a scam... I could well have a six figure income as of next month. That would be nice. And, as I've joined a lot of these, hopefully at least one will pay out before I get married. Needless to say, all I care about is getting one hundred dollars a week by the beginning of August. And I'm looking at all the options. And this if one of these is legit, well, I've got it made.

Please follow me on Twitter for more tips and updates, or join me on Clixsense if you want to start making your own online cash. If your curious about joining a site like the ones I've mentioned above, Mail Cash 24 is one of my favorites so far. Good luck!

Day 21: Earner's Report

Well, I'm having to go down to only one post a day now because I'm so busy. I've commenced packing for my wedding in a couple months and have joined enough sites that I could literally go from one to the next to the next and stay busy all day. That being said, I realized that today marks the 2/3 mark in my experiment, and it's time for a report!

When I started out, if you had asked me how much I'd have earned by this point, I would have said, "Probably not much. Maybe a couple sales or so." I would have been wrong on both points, but for opposite reasons. I've earned a substantial amount--so much over the past couple days that you won't believe me if I tell you, so I'll keep quiet. But I do have a steady income now, and am incredibly optimistic about my goal of $100 per week. I haven't made any sales, though. At least not unless you count referrals. The blog has done nothing for me but help me organize my thoughts and eat up a lot of time (about an hour per post).

Where has my money been coming from? PTC sites, mostly. Clixsense has hit it off so well that if my sponsor doesn't automatically upgrade me in the next few days, I'll simply upgrade myself, now that I can easily afford that. I'm currently deciding which accounts of mine I should focus on upgrading. True, it's kind of frustrating that I'm working so hard on this money just to put it back in the system, but once I reach my goal I should be able to relax and use the money for what I want.

So, what have I done right, and what have I done wrong? Here are a couple lists.

What I've done right:

• I was willing to start small, working for pennies and fractions of pennies in the hopes that they would add up eventually.
• I looked into many different forms of income. If I had decided to do this blog and nothing else, then I would be overly frustrated by now, begging over and over again for someone to buy something or click on links.
• I put everything into it. I've spent hours and hours on traffic exchanges, only to get a few clicks and referrals as a result--but that's all it takes. A click here, a signup there, and before you know it you've got a downline! But you won't get any results if you only put in a few minutes every day.
• I didn't spend. I've come across so many tempting offers that required a payment that several times I've almost given in--I did give in, in a couple $1 instances which I regret. I've stayed with the free options, and now I'm making enough money that I can actually afford to look into some of the pricier options. But a rule I've formed is that I'm not going to put my own money into this. It has to be money I've earned online that I can earn again, or else there's a chance I'll ruin everything.
• I kept a log of my efforts. Even if it hasn't earned me a penny, I'm glad I started this blog. Writing down my thoughts, successes and failures has been an immense help in deciding where I should go next.

What I've done wrong:

• I did invest a couple dollars. I weakened because of some great advertising and gave away occasional dollars in the hopes of striking gold, which didn't happen. The big reason for that is because after they make you spend one dollar, they'll ask for more. The won't just leave it there.
• I put all my eggs in one basket. Several times this month, when I thought I found THE solution, I spent all of my time and effort on it, not bothering to look for a better alternative. I cringe when I think of the many wasted hours out there, the subscriptions I've never used, the possibilities I hadn't recognized.
• I didn't bother to look for reputations. I know, I've mentioned several times in the past few weeks that reputation is important, but I didn't listen to my own advice. I often blindly joined something or signed up for something only to learn later that it was a total scam. Ouch.

One week left until I end this project, cash in hand. I'll probably keep it going, more or less, but without the dedication that I've been giving it. I'm getting married, after all--I have enough on my plate as it is. Please follow me on Twitter for updates and tips, and check out Clixsense if you want to start generating your own online income!

Day 20.1: It's in the Reputation

I was looking around for the best data entry jobs available yesterday, frustrated at how many scams were out there but still hopeful that there had to be something legitimate and awesome. I've done these searches practically every day since I started this experiment, but yesterday I finally decided to take a different route: I would search according to reputation. I was still on that e-mail processing kick, so for a start I typed in "earn money processing e-mails proof," and that changed everything. Many of the sites that had been on the top of the list suddenly disappeared, and instead I found some others, lesser known, that actually offered proof of their payments.

My biggest find actually wasn't in the area of e-mail processing or data entry at all, but rather a list of the top twenty PTC and PTR (paid to read) sites. Not the same Neobux and Clixsense that I already know about, but sites that actually pay dollars. Dollars? Per click? Honestly, I hadn't even thought there was such a thing. There's a catch, of course--the minimum payout for some of these sites could be as high as $1000, so you can't expect to be cashing out a check every week or two. Anyway, I joined the sites and will let you know how they go. Currently I am compiling a list to describe them that I will share probably today or tomorrow.

I learned a lesson in that. You need to look for reputation instead of claims. Is there any proof of the payments? Are there any forums where people talk about their personal experiences? By the way, that's also how I discovered Instant Cash Sweepstakes, a short survey site which I visit several times a day. It appears that I might have two referrals on there, though I can't say for certain yet. If you are one and you're reading this, thank-you!

I still recommend Clixsense over everything else so far--it's been dependable, consistent, and at the rate I'm going I should be able to cash out $8-10 every week without upgrading. Not to mention, it's the only site that's actually paid me since I started this experiment.

Please follow me on Twitter for updates and tips!

Day 19.1: Data Entry

Yesterday, as I continued my ongoing exploration of ways to make money online, something caught my attention: get paid to process e-mails. This was good pay, too--$15-25 for every e-mail, as many as you want. You're getting serious pay for copying and pasting and then clicking send! Of course, a deal that good is also likely a scam, so I began my research. Sure enough, you have to pay $15-25 just to sign up for one of these jobs, and I found reviews saying that they were pure scams. Looking closely, you can even see on the sites themselves that whoever wrote it does not know English very well and did not bother to put a lot of work into putting the site together. Very fishy! But is there really a job like that? Can you get paid money for processing e-mails without having to pay for it first?

It took some searching before I could figure out just what I was looking for: an online data entry job. "Data entry" encompasses a lot of miscellaneous jobs, such as processing e-mails, taking surveys, and filling out forms. It doesn't sound as glamourous as "Get paid to copy and paste!" but data entry jobs are very real, and there are a lot of legitimate countries that will pay for you to assist in small tasks. However, there are also a lot of scams that claim to be good data entry companies. How can you tell the difference?

• You shouldn't have to pay up front. If they're really going to pay you, then why do they need your money?
• Look at the site. Does it feel legitimate and professional? Can you find all of the answers to any questions you have, and is it free of typos and bad grammar?
• Ask why they need you. Is it a job that they really need humans to do, or is there a computer service that could do the same thing for less? If they really just need you to copy and paste e-mails, why don't they just use an auto-responder instead?

If you want to know for sure what some good companies are, I've joined a few that have proven to be legitimate. Amazon Turk, while not exclusively a data entry company, does include a lot of that same work. Different employers have different reputations, but in my experience I've always gotten paid for my work. Protypers.com is another good data entry service. Though the pay is not much, the job is very simple: fill in captchas to help provide options for the visually impaired. 

Lastly, I have recently joined Onlinejobsfree.com, a fabulous organization that provides you with multiple streams of income by doing data entry work. I've only been a member for about a day, and so I can't offer a full report, but it appears to be legitimate and a great option for people who want to earn some cash on the side but don't want to trouble with possible scams.

Hopefully these tips are useful to you, and remember to follow me on Twitter for tips and updates! You can also join me on Clixsense (my best moneymaker so far!) or freeinternetmoney.com.

Day 17.1: The Neobux Strategy

First of all, a progress check. When I dropped down to only two posts per day instead of three, my views dropped in proportion. It shouldn't have been a surprise--besides, the last post I made every day was also almost always the most successful. But at the same time, it does feel wonderful to be able to relax a little in the day, too, and invest more of my time and energy in things that actually pay.

By the end of the day, I'm hoping to be able to afford rented Neobux referrals, and so I thought it was fitting that I jot down a post on what I have discovered so far regarding the Neobux strategy. First, it is important to note that it is almost entirely different from Clixsense. Clixsense works on a faster and more immediate system. You can easily get two or three dollars a day without any referrals at all! But there's also a lot more chance involved. There's no way to hire referrals, so instead it is necessary to get actual people to sign up under you. What's available from one day to another also changes. You could find yourself getting a lot of money one day but struggling for a few cents the next. It's a gamble.

Neobux is different. There aren't nearly as many ways to get money through Neobux. It is almost entirely a PTC (paid to click) site, where your income comes from clicking ads and referring others. But  Neobux has one thing that Clixsense doesn't: rented referrals. I believe it costs about 60¢ to rent three referrals, and then three cents each to renew them every month. After reading up on their referral system, the best thing to do with Neobux is to keep investing your money in the referrals. If one of them isn't active, recycle it and get another. It takes a long time still before you start earning any real money, but it's also very dependable and well worth five minutes a day to keep up.

And that's the Neobux Strategy. Slow but dependable. I still don't think it holds up to Clixsense, which I would much more strongly advise if you were interested in earning money through a PTC. I advise joining one or both of these sites. They cost nothing more than a few minutes occasionally if you can spare it, and even if you can only check in once every few days the money still adds up. You've got nothing to lose!

Day 16.2: $10.80

I cashed out my Clixsense money for the first time today: $10.80, or a little more (I forget how much PayPal takes out). Granted, only a tenth of my weekly goal, but at least it should cut the load off of my Amazon Turk job if it doesn't get any worse. One fun discovery I made today is that Clixsense can actually pay you for listening to the radio, not even signing up or downloading anything to do it. What? That's crazy! The more I learn about Clixsense, the more impressed I am. I also discovered Instant Cash Sweepstakes (which is actually a paid 3-question survey program with sweepstakes every hour). I have 75¢ so far. It's fun and takes only a few minutes at a time. Not a huge income, mind (unless you win the sweepstakes). But a couple dollars here and there isn't bad at all. And it's fun besides!

Within the next week I should easily be able to upgrade my account, if my sponsor doesn't upgrade it for me. I think it will be totally worth it. And then when my downline keeps growing, I think the difference might be a very good one. I am also only a few pennies away from being able to rent referrals on Neobux, though it hasn't been nearly as profitable as Clixsense. The only real advantage is that you don't have to worry about not getting any referrals. Just keep renting them, and I guess it's all taken care of!

So Clixsense wins yet again! At this point, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to make some decent cash on the side. Check it out!

Day 16.1: Confessions of An Optimist

In case you haven't already gathered, I'm a serious optimist. I can't help it. No matter how many times I've been disappointed (and it's been a lot), I can't help assuming that next time, it's going to work. That's what got me started on this experiment, and that's hopefully what will drive me to be able to earn at least a $100 a week from home. My innate optimism has been a mixed blessing for me, however, and for this post I decided to write about how much optimism is too much.

First of all, if you're going to be an entrepreneur either you're already an optimist or someone's holding a gun to your head and forcing you. (I doubt that's the case.) It's necessary to be an optimist if you're going to try new things. You have to have the vision to see your endeavors prosper, and you have to see a light at the end of the tunnel if you're going to chase it.

My problem is that I get so caught up in chasing the light that I don't realize that it's actually coming from an oncoming train and not the end of the tunnel at all. I get carried away with things. I obsess over something and then if it doesn't work out, I'm devastated. While being an optimist might be a necessary attribute to an entrepreneur, it's also vital that you be a realist. You can't simply walk around with high hopes and your head in the cloud and expect that good things will show up. You have to see how they will show up and what you can do to make that happen. You have to anticipate your own weaknesses and work out a way to combat them. That's an area where I really struggle. I'm a rotten salesman, period. Something could be cool and awesome and totally free, like Clixsense, but despite my own personal enthusiasm and even the fact that I'm going to get my first paycheck tomorrow, none of you will click on that link. And if you do, I'll be totally shocked and surprised and thrilled and incredibly grateful. Now see, you (almost certainly) didn't click the link. I love it, I'm excited about it and telling you... but I'm not getting any results.

So why is it that all of my plans hinge on referrals? Ok, true, Traffic Exchange Profits does have a way of working around that, but what about everything else? Why do I keep thinking I'll make it work, when it never does? I don't know. I guess I just can't stop.

Please follow me on Twitter for more updates and--please--check out Clixsense if you want to make your own cash online!

Day 15.2: Halfway Point

Well, tonight marks the halfway point in my 30-day experiment. Money earned is about $15, money earned from this blog is zero. Here's a list of what works and how much, from my experience the past two weeks:

• Clixsense--over $9.
• Other PTCs--over $3 combined.
• Protypers--about $2.
• Amazon--about 20¢ (practically no work involved).
• Writing articles--nothing.
• Traffic exchanges--nothing.
• Fiverrs--nothing.
• This blog--nothing.

So patterns are starting to emerge, and I am thrilled to say that some things are working, though not the things I thought. Honestly, when I started I thought that for sure any money I got would be from this blog and from other articles I wrote.  But I guess I just don't have the touch there.

Please follow me on Twitter for more tips and updates, and by all means check out Clixsense! It's an awesome opportunity, and you've got nothing to lose!

Day 15.1: First Paycheck!

It is now official: I'm getting my first paycheck from Clixsense on Friday. I passed the minimum $8 today, so it's already guaranteed. Quite a fitting note for the halfway point of my project! Honestly, I wasn't expecting to cash out money this soon. What am I going to do with it? Reinvest it! There are actually several options. First, I plan on saving up for another week or two until I can upgrade my account--but if my sponsor upgrades me before then, my money will be mine to do with whatever I want. I've decided that I should put it into a downline builder or something, or possibly upgrade my account on a traffic exchange site. Actually, according to Free Internet Money (or Traffic Exchange Profits, sometimes I get the two mixed up), that's exactly what I should do. I forget which site is the most important that I upgrade, but it could double my traffic and explode my downline. And I already know that traffic exchanges can work if you put enough effort into it.

Clixsense has definitely proven to be a real money-maker for me, and I want to get an upgrade there as soon as I can. I'd be collecting profits from nine more people and I'd have a lower threshold for cashing out checks, so I'd get much more money faster. A no-brainer, if you ask me.

Eight dollars isn't much for two weeks of work. I admit that. Amazon Turk is faster and higher paying, so why don't I just focus on that instead? It's because Amazon Turk isn't going anywhere. There's no mode of advancement or downline profits. I earn what I make and no more. While that's better for the short run, I don't feel like it will be as profitable in the long run. Also, I might note that I haven't even earned a dollar on all of my other PTC sites combined!

I'm excited to see what will happen after I upgrade. Will the difference be noticeable or just a faint touch? Will I go from making money to making serious money? I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but my ultimate goal is to be able to generate $100-$150 per week by the time I get married in the beginning of August. While I think I could do that on Amazon Turk, I'd prefer to have at least some of that money come in more automated by other sites. Fortunately, it looks like it might be possible!

Stay tuned for updates! In the meantime, please follow me on Twitter for tips, or join me in Clixsense or Free Internet Money. I'm already proving that it works, so why not give it a try for yourself?

Day 14.2: Sweet Success

I've made a couple discoveries this evening that have given me reason to celebrate! First, I've been discussing lately the success I've been having with Clixsense. After looking up my stats tonight, I realized that tomorrow I can easily take out my first payment! Not even ten bucks, but it should be enough to reinvest in something that will help out my traffic even more. Or I might just decide to leave it in until I can upgrade my account.

The second discovery is equally exciting: mailing lists work. I've heard it time and again in my research, but never wanted to get too involved with it. It sounded too much like spam, and I didn't need to be working on putting together a "list" on top of everything else. I'm busy enough as it is! But I did join a few safe-lists a while ago just to experiment with it. I get hundreds of e-mails to that address every day now, and so can only read a few of them in a sitting. Each one gives me "credits" for reading the email and clicking on the link, and each credit is one more person that I can send my own e-mails to. For the past week or so, I've been sitting around reading e-mails whenever I have some odd spare time and collecting credits. Yesterday I finally decided to try it out for myself. I sent out emails to two different lists and promptly forgot about them when I didn't get any immediate referrals. I was honestly puzzled this afternoon when I was checking up on my sites and saw that one of them had gotten nine views in the past day! I tried to think up what I was doing differently when I remembered the e-mails.

To put this into perspective, I've been using traffic exchanges right and left, milling through hundreds of sites every day on seven different exchanges. It's gotten me two views and one referral (with nine referrals under her). I didn't get any referrals with the letters I sent out, but I got nine views in one day for copying, pasting, and clicking--about five minutes total of work.

What does this mean? It means I'm going to be reading a lot more e-mails and storing up credits. It wasn't as responsive as the traffic exchanges, but hopefully it won't take many more e-mails to do that! If this e-mail thing works as well as I think it will, my Free Internet Money plan will have another step to it: join a safe-list. Any safe-list, and preferably two or three. Read e-mails for a week or so before sending your own, and you will get results. Period.

So those are my two bits of excitement today, and now I'm super encouraged to keep at it! For more information on the Free Internet Money plan I'm following, please click here. To join Clixsense and start generating your own online income, click here. And please come back tomorrow for more!

Day 14.1: Adaptability

As you can tell, if you're a regular reader of this blog, I did wind up deciding that I should spend less time here and more time out making money. I've had to adapt my plans to go along with what actually works, now that I've been in the game to get a bit of a feel. There are some things I've tried, like this blog, that haven't made me a cent, while Clixsense is proving to be more amazing with every visit.

That's one thing that's really hitting me at this point: adaptability. If you want to make it as a freelancer, you need to be willing to alter your plans. This is not to say that you should go hopping from one thing to another. Try several different plans simultaneously, and after a while shift your emphasis. Invest in what works, and drop what doesn't. I'm not ready to drop anything completely, yet. This blog has been a great success for me in terms of publicity, and it's been a fantastic log for me to record my progress, successes, and mistakes. But this isn't where the money's at.

The good news is that there is money out there and I am getting it, more every day. The Free Internet Money plan is actually working, and so I think that's where I should spend my time and effort!

Day 13.2: Investing Time

In my last post I talked about investing money into my projects, but now it's occurred to me that I should probably look into time investments as well. If there's one thing about working online that's caught me off guard, it's how much time everything takes. I easily spend over twelve hours a day working on all of my projects, publicizing, writing these blog posts, running through my PTC sites. Even though I've done all I can to use my time efficiently, there seems to be no end to the amount of work I need to put into it.

Twelve hours a day is a lot. Even though I'm doing work that I like and I'm finding this study very interesting, it's also getting exhausting at this point and harder to keep up. I'll try to keep going through the month, but at that point some things will need to change. I have a life. I have a family that I like to spend time with and a wedding coming up in eighty days. Even though I am currently on a hiatus from my usual job at Comic Booked (which is how I can ever possibly afford to spend so much time on something like this), I do have other things to do.

How much time is the ideal amount to put into projects like this? I don't know. Part of the reason for that is that "this" is much more than one project. It was supposed to be just this blog, at first, but then I got involved in so many other things that it takes me all day to do them all. Perhaps I should cut down on the things that aren't working and keep at the things that are. So what has been working? Amazon Turk. Clixsense. Protypers.com, a data entry job that doesn't pay much, but does pay. What hasn't been working? ...Actually, the thing that hasn't been working the most is this blog. I started this with the strict goal of three posts a day for thirty days, after reading something that said that if I followed all the right steps I'd be sure to be generating an income by the end of the month. Technically it was right--I started this blog, followed all the steps, and am now generating a growing income online. But the income is not coming from here at all. What makes matters worse is that this is also by far the most time-consuming of my projects. Not only do I have to write three articles a day, but I have to format them and post them in all the right places to get views. It takes a long time.

I'm hesitant to give up on this blog. I keep feeling that if I can just keep it up for a couple more weeks, something will sell. Someone will click on something; someone will interact with me here or something! But it's eating up all of my time, every day. Is it really something I can afford, knowing that I'm making money doing other things?

At any rate, being able to document my thoughts and experiments here has been far too valuable to stop altogether. Maybe I should just move it down to one or two posts a day instead. I don't know. Maybe I should just hold out until the thirty days are over.

That said, I still advise you to follow my Twitter feed (@onlineincome19) for updates and tips. I haven't posted it in a while on account of a lost password, but hopefully tonight or tomorrow it will be up and running!

Day 12.3: PTCs: Can You Make Money by Clicking?

Ok, since I know that none of you joined anything through this blog, so I figured that I'd cover the basics of what you'd find in a PTC, a site that pays you to click ads. When I first heard of that idea, I was very curious. I've looked at hours of commercials on TV, but I couldn't imagine getting paid for such a thing. But I was too curious to ignore the opportunity, so I got accounts at the two best known PTCs out there: Neobux and Clicksense. And I got started. Here's a review of my experiences with the two sites right now, and a bit of what you could expect if you joined.

Neobux. Probably the best known PTC with a good reputation. Unfortunately, the ads pay almost nothing. It does have one distinct advantage in that you can rent referrals, and the referrals can help a ton when it comes to earning money. A disadvantage is that you can't have referrals or advertise the site to others until you've earned enough money and have been there for over two weeks. I've been on it for a week and a half and have about 34 cents. Not impressive. But I'll stick with it anyway to check out the referrals.

Clixsense. With Clixsense you can do more than just watch ads. I've only recently found out that you can do offers identical to some of the options on Amazon Turk, and there are many opportunities to make even more money. You can make several dollars a day independently, and then with referrals, it can pick up pretty quickly. Also there are some really awesome games on the site. You don't get paid for them or anything, but they're fun.

So what does this say about PTCs? The clicking itself doesn't earn you much money at all, and my advice is to look at what the rest of what the site has to offer before joining. But Clixsense at least is surprisingly worthwhile. Even without referrals, you could earn a premium upgrade within a week!