Easy ways to make money for kids

The truth about earning money with online surveys: Internet ScamBusters #150

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Internet ScamBusters™
The #1 Publication on Internet Fraud

By Audri and Jim Lanford
Copyright Audri and Jim Lanford
All rights reserved.
Issue #150

Hi Everyone,

Today’s issue is about one of the most common questions we get that we’ve never addressed before: Can you really earn money with online surveys?

Before we answer this question, in the wake of Hurricane Wilma, we again want to remind you about disaster scams. Once again, scammers began sending out charity relief and other disaster scams before Hurricane Wilma even hit land!

The number of Hurricane Wilma scams is growing quickly. If you haven’t yet read about these types of scams, we recommend you check out our page on Hurricane Katrina scams (since these scams were the most prevalent and we focused our info on disaster scams on this page).

We also wanted to let you know about our newest website, which is a blog called ChristmasRants.com. It’s “your entertaining and impassioned guide to the Christmas season.” We just started it last week — you’ll find lots of great tips throughout the Christmas season. You can check it out here.

On to online surveys…

Online Surveys: Can You Actually Earn Any Money?
You’ve very likely seen pitches like this that you receive via spam:

“Earn $140 per week! Earn $560 a week! Earn $6,270 a year! All by just sitting home, sipping coffee, and filling out surveys.”

Is this too good to be true?

Yes. Although it does make sense that a few companies are willing to pay for market research by using online surveys, we believe this is not a good way to spend your time.

Here’s how the scam works: Scammers use spam and promise you quick money for little effort. They claim that you only need to spend a few minutes and you’ll earn excellent money. Of course, you have to pay the “low” price of $34.95 to learn how to do this.

So their goal is to get thousands of people paying $34.95 (or whatever amount is charged) for the info.

This would be fine if they didn’t spam — and actually delivered what they promised. However, the vast majority of these online survey products are worthless.

Now, you may be thinking, “Well, I’ll go online and find a site that screens out the scammers and ranks paid survey sites, and that way I’ll find the legitimate online survey companies.”

This makes sense on the surface, but unfortunately, many of these “ranking” sites may actually be middlemen who are paid commissions by the survey companies for referrals. Often, whoever pays the most to the ranking site gets the highest rating, and the online survey companies they rank well are not necessarily reliable.

Are there legitimate online survey companies? Yes, there must be, but unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to find them. It’s like picking a needle out of a 77,300,000 haystack (type “online surveys” into a Google search for similar results).

In fact, legitimate online surveys often are quite long, which means they take awhile to fill out. That’s one of the reasons the hype isn’t true.

(As an aside, if you do online surveys, you shouldn’t scam the online survey companies either. Don’t have your kids fill out the surveys or just make up answers. After all, legitimate companies want legitimate answers from legitimate respondents.)

Given that the hype is wrong, how much can you realistically expect to earn doing online surveys?

A friend of ours decided to find out. She is one of the fastest typists we know, and she’s extremely efficient and skilled at administrative work.

Since she wanted some extra income she could earn at home in her spare time, she spent a week or so to see how much she’d earn filling out online surveys.

The results? She earned about $0.37 an hour!

Would that be what you’d earn? We don’t know. But we believe there are lots of better ways to earn money by working at home.

We’ve found that people WANT the hype about online surveys to be true. However, in order to make money on the Internet working at home, it takes (gasp!) work. The promises about online surveys are at best not realistic.

Note: Yes, you definitely can earn money on the Internet working at home. Many people do this very successfully. But not by doing online surveys, stuffing envelopes, or medical transcription.

Now, we’ll probably get a lot of email telling us that we’re wrong. We’ve followed this area for quite awhile, and we believe that our advice about online surveys is correct for the vast majority of our subscribers. (Please don’t send us these emails, btw.)

Nonetheless, if you’re determined to go ahead with online surveys anyway, here’s some advice:

First, ignore all spam solicitations. They are all scams.

Second, use Google or your favorite search engine to see if you can find info on the company, including complaints. (Not finding complaints means nothing, btw. People are often too embarrassed to complain when they realize they’ve been scammed. Or the company may have changed their name or website ten minutes ago.)

One last point: It should be obvious that in this issue we’re not talking about free online surveys and polls that you find on many websites. For example, we’re not referring to answering the QuickVote poll on the CNN website.

Bottom line: Save your money and your time — avoid online surveys.

Check out some great feedback from ScamBusters.org subscribers on this article on online surveys here.

That’s it for today. Wishing you a safe, healthy and productive week.

Here you go… I know people who would be great at webcam modeling, can I make money referring them to you? Yes, you can get paid for referrals by becoming an agent. Our Webcam Model Affiliate Program pays agents a 10% commission of each referred model’s weekly earnings.

How much do webcam models make, and what can I make as their agent? Our average webcam model will make between $500 and $1,000 per week working 20 to 25 hours, with some models making much more. Based on that average, our agents make $50 to $100 per week for each active model. Recruit 10 active models, and you could make $500 to $1,000 or more each week. If you recruit 50 working models, you could earn $100,000 or more per year.

As an agent, would I get paid for referring other agents to you? Yes. We have a 2 tier affiliate program, so you get a 10% commission from the earnings of each agent you refer.

Can I be both model and agent at the same time? Yes. We actually encourage models to become agents too so they can make even more money by recruiting their friends. The only restriction is that a model cannot get paid as an agent for recruiting herself.

Do you accept agents and models from outside the U.S.? Yes. We accept both agents and models from any country, but all models we hire must be able to speak English.

To start as an agent, how many models do I have to have with you? None. You can start with no models. Of course you will not be paid until you recruit your first one, and she or he starts making money.

Is there a minimum number of models I need to maintain in order to continue as an agent with you? No. You can have as few or many models as you want, you will still be paid the same for each model.

Do I need to have my own website in order to become an agent? No. Although having a website does help, it is not required. Agents can advertise our website directly using their agent affiliate link.

How do I make sure I get credit for all my referrals? Each agent is provided with their own affiliate link to our website. Someone only needs to click on your affiliate link once, and they will always be associated with your agent code, no matter when they apply, even if it’s a year later.

How will I know when someone signs up using my code, and how much commission I have earned? Every time someone applies using your agent code, our system sends you an email notification. You can then track that application as well as your earnings through our Agent Portal.

Do you provide traffic stats so I can see where my referrals came from? Yes. Detailed traffic statistics are available through our Agent Portal. Traffic data includes daily unique visitors, complete referrer data, signups by referrer, and model data by referrer. ????: Money Maker Discussion Forum http://www.moneymakerdiscussion.com/foru…p?p=105020

I have never recruited models before, where would I start? Ads on Craigslist and Backpage are a good start since they are usually free or very inexpensive. Another effective way is through friends, networking, and placing ads in local newspapers. Tradeshows and special events have worked great as well.

Can I refer male models too or do you only pay agents for female models? Since we accept both female and male models, agents are paid the same for both.

Do I need to provide support for my models or contact them to get paid? No. All you need to do is refer the models to us, we take care of everything else. As long as models you referred keep working and making money, you get a 10% share of their earnings.

I have my own webcam site. Can I still be an agent for you, so my models have a chance to make more money? Yes. We do not require agents to be exclusive to us, so you are free to promote and recruit for other sites as well.

How often do agents get paid, and what payment options do you offer? Agents get paid weekly, each Monday, for the previous work week, and we can pay by either PayPal, Epassporte, direct deposit, or check (for U.S. residents only). We do not hold back pay nor deduct for chargebacks.

Is there a minimum amount I need to make before you pay me? No, we do not have a minimum payout, so if you make 1 cent in a week, we will pay it to you during that pay period.

Are there banners I can use to promote your agency on my site or in ads? Yes, you can find our approved promotional banners for agents by clicking here.

Here is how you get started guys…

http://www.internetmodeling.com/3627/bec…_agent.htm