Untrustworthy Sites

There are a lot of untrustworthy sites out there.  I know because I test them and report on them.  Some stay and others disappear.

Of course there are different reasons for sites "going bump", sometimes it is because they are scam sites and other times it is bad management, planning or economics that has let them down.

"BuxAdNet" - an advertising site for Bux sites (PTC sites) had really bad management.  The owner never made any money but neither did the people who helped keep the site active.  Ultimately the site died - in fact don't bother looking for it because it has gone, alone with the sister PTCRankings.

Other sites you can look at and think "no, thanks" because they look too good to be true (in which case they usually are) or don't have the experience.  Ragabux and IconBux fit that mould for me.  I'm not saying they are scam sites, I'm just saying I don't trust them and because this is my site they make it on to the untrustworthy sites list.

Do your research, including checking the pages on here and let me know what you think.

Forums Revisited

A little while ago I wrote about a new forum I was using.  The people there were great but unfortunately the admin didn't see the long-term picture and instead of sticking with the project decided to close it down.  This is a shame because there was the potential for something great.

Anyway... life moves on and you can still find me on forums.  The one you'll see on most is eMoneySpace, so feel free to contact me there if you choose to use it.  It's a little PTC heavy, but other money making sites are also discussed.  It's large active and this one won't be closing down any time soon!

Links, Affiliates, Banners and Referrals

Today I'm going guide you through a few of the terms that often used on blogs and websites like this, and how you can profit from using them.


Links

"Links" are ways of getting from one website to another through a simple mouse click (or from one part of a website to another part). But why would you want to link to somebody else's site? The answer is simply because you might be able to profit from send people their. Some sites will pay you for sending traffic their way, others for people performing actions once there (like buying something). People know that you are the one who has sent the traffic to their site because you would have used an "affiliate link".

Affiliates
Affiliate links are links that contain a unique id for you (or your site).  When someone clicks on a link of this type you will be associated with that person and their actions.  Some sites will put information in cookies to make sure that even if they don't do anything for a few days the "affiliate" will get the benefit.  And the benefit of being an affiliate is usually money.

Some sites run their own affiliate programme and others outsource this work to companies like Commission Junction.

Banners
One of the best places to have your affiliate links are inside banners (like the one below).  Banners can come in many shapes and sizes and are usually made available in a variety of designs, so you should pick the one that best fits your blog or website.

Banners are also very useful thinks to place inside your signatures for any relevant forums.  This also means the more you blog the better more you affiliate link will to available for others to click on.

Referrals
Referrals are the people you have sent to a site and have signed up to that site.  The vast majority of referrals are automatically associated with you because they have used your affiliate link. Sometimes you get a one-time payment from a referral signing up to a site, other times this person is associated with you for a duration of time (or indefinitely) and you get paid more the more they do on a site (this is how Paid to Click sites usually work).

So my advice to you is to use affiliate links and banners when are where you can to get referrals and earn passive income.

Forums

When you first start to earn money online you can spend a lot of time searching the web for information on which sites are the most trustworthy and where to be spending your time for a good return.  One of the best resources for finding information is on forums.

Forums are large repositories of information, from people posting about their experiences to debate the merits of different sites.  Furthermore, forums are great for asking your own questions and getting quick answers.

I've used a few forums and each forum can be useful in it's own way, but one forum I'm very active on is The Truth About Online Money Making.  This forum is still new (which appealed to me because I'm still new) but is run by some very knowledgable people.  I found I could post questions there and get honest answers quickly.  The people on this forum are friendly and helpful.  Even for someone like me I find new ways of earning online everyday.

The Truth About Online Money Making has different sections for whether you are looking to ask questions, find information, read blogs, share links or just fancy a fun chat.

If you have any questions for me you can head over to The Truth About Online Money Making and post there.

Mike and Stu

Does Time = Money?

The old belief is that time equals money: the more time and effort you put into something the more successful and profitable it will be.

When I first started to compose this blog post I instantly started to thing about "passive income", which is when you do little (or even nothing) but earn automatically.  I've discussed a few passive income options available to internet earners, and if you click here you'll see those posts.  But the majority of passive income streams are built on the hard work and time you put into a project beforehand.  For example, a passive income stream generated through the work your referrals might be doing on a site meant you had to spend a great amount of time building that referral base.  Alternatively you might have to spend time updating a website, writing a blog, sending out newsletters or posting urls to direct traffic to your site.

So it might seem that I agree with "time = money", but I don't!

There are sites out there which require you to spend ages completing tasks and clicking links for very small amounts.  Often these sites workout to be paying only $1.00-$0.50 per hour!  However, there is no skill involved.  Some sites can be paying you $4.00-$6.00 per hour, but these require good quality reviews to be completed, so a level of skill is required.

Clearly time does not equal money, but time plus skill equals money.  Therefore, when looking to earn on the internet you should use the skills you have.  If you can write well then writing reviews will be much more profitable you than clicking advertisements.

If you want to go down the passive income route, don't be disheartened if you don't see much money in the early stages as it will take time to build up your stream (and eventually river).  Have a strategy and stick to it.  Set targets and work on improving what you do, analysing both what did right and what you did wrong.

If you are not going down the passive income route the ultimate trick is to work out the quickest way you can earn money online - it's different for everyone so don't go wasting time where you won't make money.

Which Sites to Trust?

This blog is dedicated to testing and reporting on different sites.  We aim to highlight different methods of earning cash, using the Internet, without ever having to put a penny in yourself.

The number of sites you could join is a daunting number and not all of them will be legit!  We can't test all sites but we can report on the ones we have tested and you'll find these here Trustworthy Sites.

On that page, you can also see a list of the sites that we are currently testing.  If you have a site you'd like us to investigate or test please contact us and we'll take at look at that site - hey, it's better to waste our time than your time right?!

But please don't just take our word for it, as different people will have different experiences.  Read other blog, checkout forums and above all else only start investing your time (never money) when you are happy with a site.

Thank you for reading this public service announcement!

Mike and Stu

My Average Day

I have an email asking me what my average day was like - how much time I spend earning on the web and what my income was.  I've decided the best way to answer that is by recording my day and tallying up at the end, so here goes...

9.00am-9.30am - Time for a coffee!  I turn on the computer and head straight over to Inbox Dollars.  My first 5 searched of the day will be found through this site, which will earn me $0.06.  The site I search for is  Slice the Pie!  And over the next 30 minutes I drink my coffee and listen to music - posting reviews as I listen.  I posted 8 reviews and made $1.89.

9.30am-10.00am - I look at my Adf.ly account and my AdSense, noting that I made $0.21 and $0.89, respectively, before turning my attention to the boring part of the morning... my Paid To Click sites.  I have 6 of these on the go at the moment (2 because of the PTC Experiment) and the rest being tested for a review on the blog. NeoBux made me about $0.50 with referrals (in the last 24 hours) and the rest which includes the likes of ClixSense, PTCBox and BuxP have probably made only $0.25, with varying numbers of personal and referral clicks. It takes 30 minutes to get through this lot, partly because I have an increasing number of referrals to manage.

10.00am-4.00pm - It's time to do what I get paid for and go to work.  I'll complete this post later!  Still to do: forums, more music reviews, and surveys.

4.00pm-4.45pm - I decide to check out e-rewards, Valued Opinions and NPolls find a couple of surveys.  Surveys are one of the most profitable ways to make money on the internet and in 1 hour I have made £1.50 on Valued Opinions, $0.20 on NPolls  and the equivalent of $2 on e-rewards.  Usually if I can't find surveys on these sites there are others I will check out.

4.45pm-5.30pm - This is the last stint on me earning on the internet for the day and I spend it on Slice the Pie, earning a further $2.51, but also seeing that my referrals have been busy and added a further $0.38 to that sum.

In total today:

• Adverts = $1.10
• PTCs = $0.75
• Surveys = $4.20
• Music reviewing = $4.40

Grand total = $10.45 for 2.5 hours work, though there are other days when this can be higher this seems average, bringing in $70-75 per week (quite a nice 2nd income earned for the time most people send on Facebook).

New Website Domain!

It seems the money can be made on the Internet!  And we have decided to use some of our earnings by buying the dot com version of our blogspot.  This was a two-minute job thanks to the fantastic people at Bluehost who I've worked with in the past.

The extra flexibility in having a site over a blog can be useful when looking to expand operations, but for now there won't be much difference in the look and feel of the site.

We are still new and there's plenty to still learn, write about and discuss on this site, so I hope you bookmark us and keep following our progression.

Many thanks,

Mike and Stu

Make Your River Flow

So, a few days into this blog and I've recommended a few sites (don't worry I'll be pointing out ones to avoid too), but I've avoided pointing people to one single BIG MONEY MAKING SITE.

Why?

Well the simple answer is, because there isn't one.  Well there isn't one for everyone.  Each and every person has to find the site, affiliate program or referral system that suits them, their lifestyle and how much they want to earn.  Some people might claim to be made rich from one or two sites, but be aware these claims might not be 100% reliable, so check things out and feel free to ask me too.  Additionally, you shouldn't have to pay to join a money making scheme (read: SCAM) and I'll blog more on these another day.

I was prompted into writing this post because I was worried that people are looking to make money off "passive income" and the Internet without having a sensible strategy in mind, or even knowing where to start.

What I do want to point out is that any site I do recommend has been tried and is still be used by myself, to generate income.  Each site will stream a small amount of money in your direction.  Survey sites (like Valued Opinions and Survey4Profit) for example, often pay quite well but can only offer a couple of surveys per day.  But by having a few survey sites on the go and also trying out other sites like ClixSense or Snap Dollars can mean you have many streams of income.

Here's the thing... whilst no stream by itself earns much, they can all feed down to make one might river!

It does take time to start seeing results, but if you stick with it, put the time in and look at different strategies (which I will be blogging on in not too distant future) you can make a nice income from the internet.

I'm going to continue introducing trusted sites that will make you money.  I'll be honest about the income streams, posting my results and experiences. 

Paid to Web Surf

Hi All,

So, if you've landed on this page you might be want to learn how to earn money online - the good news is that you can do that, the bad news is that it won't make you rich.

There are plenty of really good sites online where you can earn extra cash.  You can do this by:

1. Click on ads
2. Completing surveys
3. Reviewing products
4. Listening to music
5. ... and many more

What I'm going to do, is create this blog so that you know which sites to trust and which sites to avoid.  I'm going to explain the pros and cons of each site, letting you know if they have referral programmes (which is often the most lucrative method of earning) what you can expect to earn and keep you updated on any changes.  I'll add "labels" to the posts and place these on the right-hand side of this blog so that you can see all the post on that topic easily.

Many of these sites are used by myself, but some are not, so please keep me informed of any sites you find that I might be interested in.  I'll try to add new ones frequently, so please pop back and see what new ones have been found and reviewed.

Mike