ALT-3 Fastest Money Making Sites
In the wide world of money earning opportunities on the internet, there are a surprisingly large number of websites and companies that specialize in money-making opportunities for the average web surfer. Affiliate networks enable people to represent mainstream merchants and earn a commission from sales that they generate on behalf of those merchants. Paid-To-Read programs offer members an incentive to read advertisements and view websites. Some companies give those with a knack for writing an opportunity to put their skills to use for a monetary reward. Survey sites generally offer some form of compensation to panelists for giving their valuable feedback on products and services.
A different type of incentive program that seems to be gaining popularity with internet users in recent years is the Rewards/Offers program. MyPoints.com is one successful and long-standing example of a Rewards program. In this situation, the member is being rewarded in one way or another for doing things that they already do online anyway, such as read e-mails, make purchases, and participate in trial offers for various internet goods and services.
The one thing that separates MyPoints from most other Rewards programs is the fact that MyPoints does not offer a cash incentive to its members. As the name implies, MyPoints allocates a specific point value for each action completed by a member. So let's say for example that a member receives an advertising e-mail from MyPoints. The member will earn 10 points for reading that advertisement, provided that they click through on a link in the e-mail and visit the advertiser's website. Another example would be incentives offered for shopping through MyPoints. The member is awarded points based on the dollar amount of the purchase made with the participating merchant, such as 10 points per dollar spent.
This system is truly beneficial for both the merchant and the member (who is often also a consumer). Not only are members encouraged to make purchases from merchants in order to earn points, but they are only paid in gift certificates that are redeemable with those same merchants. The member ends up earning a specific item that interests them and the merchant makes sales. Everyone wins.
On the other side of the coin, the Rewards programs that seem to be gaining quite a bit of popularity with people in recent months and years are ones that offer members an actual cash incentive. There are a number of reasons why this type of incentive is problematic and tends to undermine more stable and legitimate Rewards venues.
First of all, the offers themselves differ greatly from the traditional Rewards program. The offers that generally yield the highest incentives are ones where the member initiates a trial membership of some sort, such as taking advantage of a two week trial of America Online or Netflix. Another typical offer seen in cash-based Rewards programs is one in which the member will earn a small amount of money to enter a contest. These contests are usually sponsored by a person who slapped together a large number of affiliate buttons and banners on a page and asks the member of the Rewards program a series of questions that relate to various affiliateships that they themselves hold. Each page has a long list of affiliate buttons and the member of the Rewards program can opt-in to receive information about each to their e-mail address. By answering all of these questions, the member is supposedly entered into a drawing to win some type of popular electronic item, like an Xbox 360 or a Blackberry.
The ratio of actual merchants to junk affiliate advertisers is extremely small. Due to the nature of the offers themselves, a member is subject to a large amount of spam in order to earn even the smallest incentives. Many cash-based Rewards programs even encourage their members to use a throwaway e-mail address when completing offers so as to avoid the inevitable spam.
Secondly, the type of incentive itself poses a problem. When the member is offered a cash payment for giving attention to the advertiser, there is no way to ensure that the advertiser will see a return on their investment. Most advertisers realize that advertising is something of a gamble, but as noted previously, there are ways for Rewards programs to create a circular flow where everyone gets what they want. The introduction of cash incentives leaves a gap in the circle where there is a chance that that money will not recycle itself.
The reason this occurs just happens to be the next problem - greed. Rewards programs that offer a cash incentive are highly attractive to those who are looking for a get rich quick scheme. When they join a program like this and see that all they have to do to earn $50 is get approved for a Visa or Mastercard, they are seeing quick money, not an offer that they are genuinely interested in. They will get that credit card, receive the incentive, and never use the card. They'll initiate the trial membership with America Online, and then cancel it as soon as they've been rewarded. They will sign up for several dozen newsletters and enter hundreds of contests, but send all of the e-mail to an account they never look at.
This type of behavior on the part of the member is a detriment to advertisers' budgets and it gives a bad name to the traditional Rewards programs. The owners of the cash-based Rewards programs are contributing to the delinquency of the members by pandering to their lust for a quick buck. At the end of the day, the advertiser is the one who loses.
So do incentivized Rewards programs help or hurt? That is largely dependant on the type of member that the program attracts and the type of incentive offered to the member. As outlined here, there are both good and bad programs, and each person must decide for themselves which kind of program meets their individual needs.
