Yay for the first sites-not-to-join post on here!
Orangebizs.com sounds like a great site when you first join for one reason - weekly payouts with no minimum after you have been a member for 14 days.
However, after hanging around for a few days, you realise that it's just not worth it. I didn't stick around long enough to find out if the site actually pays because, frankly, I got annoyed. I got about 50 e-mails from this site a day, half of which contained links that wouldn't pay me because I had clicked on them too recently (so why was I even finding them in my inbox?). Not only that, but each e-mail (the ones that pay cash instead of points) pays $0.0002-$0.00025. So after two days of clicking every single link that came into my inbox, I had a grand total of $0.0244. Weekly payouts are a little useless if I can only make about $0.10 a week.
If it wasn't spamming my inbox so incessantly (I got a new e-mail every 10-30 minutes most hours of the day), I probably would have stuck around just to see if they paid so I could report back to you guys. But I was annoyed. So I deleted my account, and I'm recommending that you guys spend your time on more useful sites.
Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tips. Show all posts
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
The Scam Equation
You've all seen zillions of scam sites, I'm sure... they all have a few things in common, and present all their information in exactly the same order, it seems.
1. This is an unbelievable offer and totally not a scam! (insert annoying flashy image here)
Just to catch your attention - and it usually does prompt you to scroll down, even if it is just to check for the paypal link before closing the window.
2. "Ten years ago, I was exactly where you are now... laid off, two kids to feed, my wife couldn't support us all... I fell for a whole bunch of scams before I found the one thing that actually works, and I'm about to share it with you."
They always start with a big long anecdote. They want you to know that they understand your situation, they have been there, and they are here to help you get out of that rut.
3. A long-winded explanation filled with more anecdotes explaining just how easy this oportunity is and how you can make money in your sleep or earn hundreds with just a couple hours of work.
Everyone wants easy money. So of course the offer they're giving you is something so simple a child could figure it out, and of course it will make you a millionaire overnight. This is usually accompanied by a few pictures of fancy cars and such that they apparently own.
Sometimes this section will be slightly different and tell you that this is not a get-rich-quick scheme and will require real work, but it can still bring you a decent salary from home. This probably appeals to more people today (it certainly tends to catch my eye) - but they still neglect to tell you what the actual job is.
4. Proof of payment.
At this point, they want to try and drag you in with big numbers. So they show you a series of screen shots of paypal or scanned cheques. These are all very easy to manipulate, and therefore completely un-trustworthy.
5. A quick reminder.
Now they take all the information that has just taken you an hour to read (because you have to find the actual "facts" in the muddle of anecdotes and bragging) and break it down into a few short bullets just to make sure you're still with them and still realise what an amazing oportunity this is.
6. Testimonials.
"I made $10,000 in just a week after joining this program! Thanks so much!" There are programs available these days that will generate fake testimonials for people to use on their website. That's why they all sound the same. All the website owner has to do is copy/paste the text into the website and add a picture of someone holding a big cheque.
7. This is what I'm willing to give you.
They want to let you know everything you're going to get from them before they let you know that it will cost you money. This is normally a picture and explanation of some amazing e-book or software that is supposed to change your life.
8. Guaranteed satisfaction.
"This is, of course, a no-risk offer. I need to ask for a fee to cover the cost of the software; or to pay my small staff for all their hard work; or to make up for the time (and money) I am losing at work in order to help you out - but if it doesn't work, I'll give you your money back."
9. An incredible deal!
It seems like every one of these sites has a perpetual sale going on that will only be available today. Apparently they all usually charge around $200 for you to join their program, but for today only it will only cost $95! They want to pressure you into buying right now, while they have your attention. Most of us can't afford to throw away $95, but we definitely can't afford $200 either - so we'd better sign up now!
But I can almost guarantee that if you check the site again in a week, a month, a year, they'll still have the same "sale" advertised.
10. Pay me!
The last thing on the page is always the credit card and paypal links. They want to make sure they have you totally convinced before you see the price or even know that it will cost you money. For that reason, I usually scroll down and find the cost before even reading the site.
If you are going to risk signing up with one of these programs (but why would you?), watch out for paypal scams. Make sure you're on paypal's website and not a copycat site before entering your username and password - otherwise you might find some money missing.
Remember: Any real job will explain what the job is up front. They will not ask you to pay a membership fee or buy a book or spend money on anything before you know exactly what it is you are going to be expected to do. In fact, if they are a legitimate job, and they have real expenses (like some jobs offline making you pay for your uniform), they will be nice and take those expenses out of your pay instead of your pocket.
Oh! And I've found the solution to my days without posts... I'm going to start post-dating things so that there's only one post a day even when I might write 5 a day and then be lazy for a week, lol.
1. This is an unbelievable offer and totally not a scam! (insert annoying flashy image here)
Just to catch your attention - and it usually does prompt you to scroll down, even if it is just to check for the paypal link before closing the window.
2. "Ten years ago, I was exactly where you are now... laid off, two kids to feed, my wife couldn't support us all... I fell for a whole bunch of scams before I found the one thing that actually works, and I'm about to share it with you."
They always start with a big long anecdote. They want you to know that they understand your situation, they have been there, and they are here to help you get out of that rut.
3. A long-winded explanation filled with more anecdotes explaining just how easy this oportunity is and how you can make money in your sleep or earn hundreds with just a couple hours of work.
Everyone wants easy money. So of course the offer they're giving you is something so simple a child could figure it out, and of course it will make you a millionaire overnight. This is usually accompanied by a few pictures of fancy cars and such that they apparently own.
Sometimes this section will be slightly different and tell you that this is not a get-rich-quick scheme and will require real work, but it can still bring you a decent salary from home. This probably appeals to more people today (it certainly tends to catch my eye) - but they still neglect to tell you what the actual job is.
4. Proof of payment.
At this point, they want to try and drag you in with big numbers. So they show you a series of screen shots of paypal or scanned cheques. These are all very easy to manipulate, and therefore completely un-trustworthy.
5. A quick reminder.
Now they take all the information that has just taken you an hour to read (because you have to find the actual "facts" in the muddle of anecdotes and bragging) and break it down into a few short bullets just to make sure you're still with them and still realise what an amazing oportunity this is.
6. Testimonials.
"I made $10,000 in just a week after joining this program! Thanks so much!" There are programs available these days that will generate fake testimonials for people to use on their website. That's why they all sound the same. All the website owner has to do is copy/paste the text into the website and add a picture of someone holding a big cheque.
7. This is what I'm willing to give you.
They want to let you know everything you're going to get from them before they let you know that it will cost you money. This is normally a picture and explanation of some amazing e-book or software that is supposed to change your life.
8. Guaranteed satisfaction.
"This is, of course, a no-risk offer. I need to ask for a fee to cover the cost of the software; or to pay my small staff for all their hard work; or to make up for the time (and money) I am losing at work in order to help you out - but if it doesn't work, I'll give you your money back."
9. An incredible deal!
It seems like every one of these sites has a perpetual sale going on that will only be available today. Apparently they all usually charge around $200 for you to join their program, but for today only it will only cost $95! They want to pressure you into buying right now, while they have your attention. Most of us can't afford to throw away $95, but we definitely can't afford $200 either - so we'd better sign up now!
But I can almost guarantee that if you check the site again in a week, a month, a year, they'll still have the same "sale" advertised.
10. Pay me!
The last thing on the page is always the credit card and paypal links. They want to make sure they have you totally convinced before you see the price or even know that it will cost you money. For that reason, I usually scroll down and find the cost before even reading the site.
If you are going to risk signing up with one of these programs (but why would you?), watch out for paypal scams. Make sure you're on paypal's website and not a copycat site before entering your username and password - otherwise you might find some money missing.
Remember: Any real job will explain what the job is up front. They will not ask you to pay a membership fee or buy a book or spend money on anything before you know exactly what it is you are going to be expected to do. In fact, if they are a legitimate job, and they have real expenses (like some jobs offline making you pay for your uniform), they will be nice and take those expenses out of your pay instead of your pocket.
Oh! And I've found the solution to my days without posts... I'm going to start post-dating things so that there's only one post a day even when I might write 5 a day and then be lazy for a week, lol.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Another Twitter Tool
Just found another useful Twitter management site - Buzzom.com - it connects directly into your Twitter account, so you don't have to sign up with them.
This site will load your Twitter follows and followers and allow you to easily stop following anyone who isn't following you back and follow anyone who has followed you if you're not following them already. It then has an option to follow more people, and you can search Twitter accounts by keywords in their bio or in their actual updates to find people relevant to your site.
This is exactly what I've been looking for since I started trying to use Twitter for promotion/advertising.
This site will load your Twitter follows and followers and allow you to easily stop following anyone who isn't following you back and follow anyone who has followed you if you're not following them already. It then has an option to follow more people, and you can search Twitter accounts by keywords in their bio or in their actual updates to find people relevant to your site.
This is exactly what I've been looking for since I started trying to use Twitter for promotion/advertising.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Another PTC tip
If you are going to try and make any sort of income on PTC sites, I recommend you find two or three good sites and stick to those. Do your research before joining any of them... check blogs like this one, forums, scam lists, and figure out which ones you're likely to be able to make some money off of in a decent amount of time - and, more importantly, which ones will actually pay you when you reach the minimum payout.
Do not join every possibly legitimate site you find. The reason I say this is that many of them will have the same PTC ads and offers, and most of them will say that you aren't allowed to apply for the offers if you already applied for them from another site.
So it's better to concentrate on a few sites to maximize your profits. Otherwise your earnings will be spread thinly between multiple sites and you'll never actually reach the payouts on any of them.
Do not join every possibly legitimate site you find. The reason I say this is that many of them will have the same PTC ads and offers, and most of them will say that you aren't allowed to apply for the offers if you already applied for them from another site.
So it's better to concentrate on a few sites to maximize your profits. Otherwise your earnings will be spread thinly between multiple sites and you'll never actually reach the payouts on any of them.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
About referals
I came across a discussion on myLot the other day by someone who totally didn't understand how referals work. They said that they never use people's referal links, nor do they ask anyone else to use their referal links. Why? Because they were under the impression that when a site says that you get a certain percentage of what the refered person makes, it meant that the person would lose that money and give it to you.
Contrary to what this person believed, referals are beneficial to you and do not detract from other people's earnings at all.
Lets say the site says you get 20% of the money earned by the people you refer. This means that if the person you refer makes $1, that person gets $1 and you get $0.20. If you can get a big enough referal base on a site, you can make quite a bit of money without spending much time on the site.
Referals aren't hard to get. You can post referal links on your blog or website if you have one. You can post them on your various profiles all over the internet. Post them in forum signatures, twitter... anywhere you think they might get seen. I even go on sites like Yahoo! Answers and search for people who want to know how to make money online, and give them my referal links.
No matter where you post your referal links, though, you should write something about them. You don't need to write a long article like I do, but letting people know you're a real person who has had good experiences with the site will likely get you more referals than just spamming your link everywhere.
Another good way to get more referals is by using sites like GetRef to trade referal links with other people. Whenever you sign up to a site using the referal link someone has posted on GetRef, you get points. You can use these points to post your own referal links, which other people will click on to get points... and the cycle continues. It's also a great way to find legitimate money-making sites.
Contrary to what this person believed, referals are beneficial to you and do not detract from other people's earnings at all.
Lets say the site says you get 20% of the money earned by the people you refer. This means that if the person you refer makes $1, that person gets $1 and you get $0.20. If you can get a big enough referal base on a site, you can make quite a bit of money without spending much time on the site.
Referals aren't hard to get. You can post referal links on your blog or website if you have one. You can post them on your various profiles all over the internet. Post them in forum signatures, twitter... anywhere you think they might get seen. I even go on sites like Yahoo! Answers and search for people who want to know how to make money online, and give them my referal links.
No matter where you post your referal links, though, you should write something about them. You don't need to write a long article like I do, but letting people know you're a real person who has had good experiences with the site will likely get you more referals than just spamming your link everywhere.
Another good way to get more referals is by using sites like GetRef to trade referal links with other people. Whenever you sign up to a site using the referal link someone has posted on GetRef, you get points. You can use these points to post your own referal links, which other people will click on to get points... and the cycle continues. It's also a great way to find legitimate money-making sites.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
More Twitter Tips
Ok, so yesterday I posted a whole bunch of sites designed to make you get more followers. Today I woke up to an e-mail inbox with over 50 e-mails saying "so-and-so is following you on Twitter", and most of the so-and-sos were obviously bots. Not only that, but I had to go through one by one and follow each of them, because I agreed to do so when I joined those sites.
Obviously, having bots as followers doesn't do you much good... and having to add them yourself one by one is just tedious.
Enter TrueTwit. It's a website that makes everyone who follows you on Twitter have to verify the fact that they are human before they can follow you (via the familiar test of typing the words in the picture into the text box). Not only that, but when someone follows you you will automatically start following them.
Both problems solved^^
Also, one of the few humans who added me yesterday directed me to some useful software called TweetDeck. It has a lot of useful features. You can manage multiple twitter accounts, you can search keywords (I have a section open that shows me everytime someone posts something related to "Make money online"), you can organize your contacts into groups and have the updates of each of those groups up on the screen... The best part is, it's all in one window. You can split this window into sections however you like, to show whatever you want to see (I currently have my direct messages, my human friends and the search box I mentioned before). The only negative I have found so far is that it doesn't tell you when someone follows you, though you can follow, unfollow, favourite and do everything else to other people.
Obviously, having bots as followers doesn't do you much good... and having to add them yourself one by one is just tedious.
Enter TrueTwit. It's a website that makes everyone who follows you on Twitter have to verify the fact that they are human before they can follow you (via the familiar test of typing the words in the picture into the text box). Not only that, but when someone follows you you will automatically start following them.
Both problems solved^^
Also, one of the few humans who added me yesterday directed me to some useful software called TweetDeck. It has a lot of useful features. You can manage multiple twitter accounts, you can search keywords (I have a section open that shows me everytime someone posts something related to "Make money online"), you can organize your contacts into groups and have the updates of each of those groups up on the screen... The best part is, it's all in one window. You can split this window into sections however you like, to show whatever you want to see (I currently have my direct messages, my human friends and the search box I mentioned before). The only negative I have found so far is that it doesn't tell you when someone follows you, though you can follow, unfollow, favourite and do everything else to other people.
Monday, August 3, 2009
About paid surveys...
I've joined many paid survey sites over the years, and to be honest I actually enjoy doing the surveys for the most part... so it was no huge loss to me. However, I have never reached the minimum payout on these sites before.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't try them out, though. I just never qualified for many of the surveys because I'm Canadian and it seems they all want American data. So you might have a lot more luck than I did, since I have heard of plenty of people making good money off of these sites.
Make sure you check the terms before signing up, though. Some sites will pay you per survey, others will simply enter you into a draw for some huge sum (which rarely results in you making any money at all). Also, keep an eye out for focus groups. You can generally make more money off of these than you would off of surveys, and all you need to do is go into a chat room at a certain time and discuss your experiences with certain products.
This doesn't mean you shouldn't try them out, though. I just never qualified for many of the surveys because I'm Canadian and it seems they all want American data. So you might have a lot more luck than I did, since I have heard of plenty of people making good money off of these sites.
Make sure you check the terms before signing up, though. Some sites will pay you per survey, others will simply enter you into a draw for some huge sum (which rarely results in you making any money at all). Also, keep an eye out for focus groups. You can generally make more money off of these than you would off of surveys, and all you need to do is go into a chat room at a certain time and discuss your experiences with certain products.
Twitter Directory
Remember earlier when I said I was looking for a site that would let me look up twitter users based on their interestes? I found one!
http://wefollow.com
http://wefollow.com
PTC Quick Tips
While I'm already sort of on the subject, I'll post some tips that will help you out when you do find a legitimate PTC site.
1. Use an alternate e-mail address to sign up for offers. It'll save you a lot of spam.
2. Avoid the offers that will send texts to your cellphone. Often these are services that will send you things like daily horoscopes and charge you $2 per text, effectively nullifying whatever you're making from the site that directed you to it.
3. Refer people! This is often a much faster way to make cash. If you've found a site I haven't checked out yet, you can refer me too^^
4. Don't put in your actual phone number if you can avoid it... there really isn't much they can do to verify your phone number, so long as it's one from your area it should be fine. I say this because within the last two hours I have gotten a call from Washington and three from Arizona, and I can only assume it's because I put my number somewhere I shouldn't have.
Again, I'm sure I'll come up with more eventually, and when I do I'll edit this post.
1. Use an alternate e-mail address to sign up for offers. It'll save you a lot of spam.
2. Avoid the offers that will send texts to your cellphone. Often these are services that will send you things like daily horoscopes and charge you $2 per text, effectively nullifying whatever you're making from the site that directed you to it.
3. Refer people! This is often a much faster way to make cash. If you've found a site I haven't checked out yet, you can refer me too^^
4. Don't put in your actual phone number if you can avoid it... there really isn't much they can do to verify your phone number, so long as it's one from your area it should be fine. I say this because within the last two hours I have gotten a call from Washington and three from Arizona, and I can only assume it's because I put my number somewhere I shouldn't have.
Again, I'm sure I'll come up with more eventually, and when I do I'll edit this post.
Defeating Scams Through Common Sense
A friend on MyLot made a comment that reminded me I had been planning on making this post... so here it is.
It's true that there are a lot of scams out there, and therefore I wanted to post some tips to help you guys detect a scam before wasting your time on it. To be sure, nothing here is fool proof, but knowing which offers are more likely to be scams can save you a lot of time. If anyone has anything to ad, feel free to comment, e-mail or contact me on twitter and I'll add them to this list.
The site might be a scam if:
1. You have to pay to get paid. There are countless sites out there that want you to pay for membership or a one time starter fee. There are others that will make you pay for "training" and will claim to have a low price for a limited time (though somehow this limited time seems to be endless). Bottom line - if you have to pay to make money, you most likely will never see that money again. You're better off trying the free sites. If they turn out to be scams, you've lost a bit of time, but you haven't lost any money.
2. The site claims you can make hundreds of dollars a day. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Getting money from paid-to-anything sites can be a slow process, and most sites have a minimum payout requirement. If the minimum payout is over $50 (I generally say $30 to be safe), it's likely the site is making a lot of money from advertisers and not having to pay their members, simply because there aren't that many people reaching that minimum.
3. Other people say it's a scam. I don't go crazy with research when I find a new site, but I will check on forums to see if anyone else has experience with it. I also generally go to google and search "[site name] scam" to see if anything comes up. If you do google searches like I do, make sure you actually read the articles that come up. Some people will say a site is a scam, when others say the same site is legit and has paid them. This is usually just because the first person didn't put enough time into it, or didn't read the rules and got booted for some reason (and then got angry and complained in their blog). Read over whatever you find and make your own educated decision. This is another area where sites like myLot can help. Because it's a paid-to-post site, a lot of people on there are looking for the same oportunites you are. So many of them will have heard of and/or tried out whatever site you're looking at, and can therefore give you their opinion on it.
4. The "testimonials" sound fake. There are now programs out that will make fake testimonials for you, because people have figured out how valuable testimonials are to their business. Sites like PrizeRebel (sorry, it's my favourite, if you haven't guessed) have realistic, believeable testimonials... many others have crazy, over the top success stories. Again, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
I'm sure I'll come up with more later, but these are the main ones.
It's true that there are a lot of scams out there, and therefore I wanted to post some tips to help you guys detect a scam before wasting your time on it. To be sure, nothing here is fool proof, but knowing which offers are more likely to be scams can save you a lot of time. If anyone has anything to ad, feel free to comment, e-mail or contact me on twitter and I'll add them to this list.
The site might be a scam if:
1. You have to pay to get paid. There are countless sites out there that want you to pay for membership or a one time starter fee. There are others that will make you pay for "training" and will claim to have a low price for a limited time (though somehow this limited time seems to be endless). Bottom line - if you have to pay to make money, you most likely will never see that money again. You're better off trying the free sites. If they turn out to be scams, you've lost a bit of time, but you haven't lost any money.
2. The site claims you can make hundreds of dollars a day. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Getting money from paid-to-anything sites can be a slow process, and most sites have a minimum payout requirement. If the minimum payout is over $50 (I generally say $30 to be safe), it's likely the site is making a lot of money from advertisers and not having to pay their members, simply because there aren't that many people reaching that minimum.
3. Other people say it's a scam. I don't go crazy with research when I find a new site, but I will check on forums to see if anyone else has experience with it. I also generally go to google and search "[site name] scam" to see if anything comes up. If you do google searches like I do, make sure you actually read the articles that come up. Some people will say a site is a scam, when others say the same site is legit and has paid them. This is usually just because the first person didn't put enough time into it, or didn't read the rules and got booted for some reason (and then got angry and complained in their blog). Read over whatever you find and make your own educated decision. This is another area where sites like myLot can help. Because it's a paid-to-post site, a lot of people on there are looking for the same oportunites you are. So many of them will have heard of and/or tried out whatever site you're looking at, and can therefore give you their opinion on it.
4. The "testimonials" sound fake. There are now programs out that will make fake testimonials for you, because people have figured out how valuable testimonials are to their business. Sites like PrizeRebel (sorry, it's my favourite, if you haven't guessed) have realistic, believeable testimonials... many others have crazy, over the top success stories. Again, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
I'm sure I'll come up with more later, but these are the main ones.
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