Not Recommended

The following is a list of some of the things I’ve found that I would not recommend as reasonable ways to make money online.

Hmm? This looks questionable to me...

Please note that this is only my opinion.  I don’t mean to create any bad blood.  I just want to add my input in hopes of helping other people find what is best for them.

1. Project Payday

I joined Project Payday because I could do so for free. Well, almost for free. I had to satisfy a free offer, which I willingly did (canceling shortly after to avoid being charged further).

Project Payday shows you how to utilize Incentivized Freebie Websites (IFWs). You are paid for signing up for free offers for others who are trying to get larger payouts and prizes. Eventually, you can become one of these people getting others to work for you, subsequently getting the larger payouts and prize rewards.

Project Payday sounded good at first, especially as something to do as a hobby for a little extra cash. I won’t say it’s a bad program, but I will say that I was not successful. I’m sure it has worked for some people.

When I got to my first IFW site, I quickly realized I could easily spend as much money as I would receive if I completed the required number of offers. Some of the offers even cost hundreds of dollars to complete. In addition, if I forgot to discontinue any of my offers or did something wrong, it could cost me even more. The $50 payout looked less and less profitable as I continued my research.

Ultimately, I decided the profit was not worth the investment. I assumed that while working with Project Payday, I might make some mistakes and end up with loads of unwanted products and credit card charges. Also, after signing up with just one IFW site, I was inundated with junk mail and offers. These people have to recruit to make money, and that’s what they try to do.

2. Paid to Click/Read Emails/Surf the Web

When I heard you could make money online by reading emails and reviewing ads, I immediately signed up for a couple of different services. I registered with Absolutelyfreemoney.com, Clixsense.com and Hits4pay.com. It was easy to check my email and click on ads in my spare time. I figured that as long as I didn’t make any investment, I had nothing to lose. I was trying to be realistic with myself when I assumed it would never amount to anything as significant as my own home based business. You can’t quit your job by reading emails everyday. Right?

I quickly gave up on Absolutelyfreemoney.com, which doesn’t even pay $.01 per ad reviewed for 20 seconds each. Clixsense.com caught my attention by actually crediting my account with $.01 for every ad I viewed for 30 seconds. However, after I’d viewed about 200 ads, I had to pay a $10 fee to get access to the remaining number of their ads. Perhaps against my better judgment, I shelled out the $10. I figured maybe I’d be able to get a few other people to sign up and make the bonus $2 for each person who established an account.

I’m still viewing the ads I can for Clixsense.com and Hits4pay.com. After reading every available Clixsense ad, I’ve made almost $7, not yet enough to cover the $10 fee I paid (usually there are about 6-15 new ads available per day). This means I’ve viewed almost 700 ads for 30 seconds each, which adds up when it comes to time invested. Hits4pay.com only provides you with a certain number of emails per day (sometimes you get 0 new ads in a given day), and I’ve made about $3 so far viewing each provided ad for 1 minute each. Hits4pay.com does give you a $10 sign up bonus, but you can’t get a payout until you reach $25. Clixsense.com has a $10 payout.

After over two months of clicking and viewing, I decided this online venture wasn’t for me. I’m just sticking with it to try to make back my initial investment of $10. This isn’t because the $10 is really worth the time it will take, but because I’m stubborn and want to be able to say that I at least broke even. I know I could make more money by trying to refer people to sign up, but to me this feels somewhat like an MLM scheme. I don’t really feel good about trying to get people involved in something that doesn’t seem all that profitable. I think some of these services have worked for others, but not for me.

I do not think these paid to read emails and surf the web programs are a reasonable way to make any real money online. They certainly don’t qualify as home based businesses.

3. Paid Surveys

4. Reward Sites

Yep. Still not convinced.