Make Money Online with PoorTornado

Yesterday, I wrote an article about the failure that was Agloco, where I said that I should have smelled a rat.  Now, I’d like to follow up with what I think are important features of a site that pitches that you can make money online.

1) Can you make money at the site?

The first thing you should look for I would hope is the most obvious: does the site pay you?  What do you have to do to earn money?  Make sure that the site actually claims that it pays you for something!

2) What do you have to do to make money?

Every site has its own method for users to make money, not all will be your cup of tea.  Make sure that the activity that the site would have you doing is palatable to you.

3) Do you have to pay anything to join the site?

If so, SCAM ALERT.  Almost none of the legitimate “make money online” sites will charge you to join.  Make money with surveys, just pay 100 dollars to join?  Dream on!

4) Does the site actually pay?

Some sites are absolute scams!  If the site has a forum, look for people to post scans of their checks that they have been sent, or screenshots of online funds transfers they have recieved.  A simple Google search can tell you a lot about a company, also. If you suspect a site of being a scam, search in Google “sitename” + “scam”, and more than likely your suspicions will be proven true by 8-10 items on the first results page being about how the program you searched for was a scam.

5) How does the site pay, and are you eligible?

Some sites only allow Americans.  Some sites don’t allow Americans.  Some allow Canada/USA, some only allow European users.  All sites are different, make sure that you can join!  Also, sites pay different ways.  Many will simply send you a check.  Others will want to send you funds using Google Checkout, Paypal, or other e-wallet type places.  If you don’t have an account at the place where you will be receiving funds, make one for free!

6) Is the site clear about its payment structure?

Learn everything about the site that you can before you start investing significant time, so that you have as much information as you can get about it.  Try to determine the best way to make money in the least boring/time consuming way possible.

7) Is it worth your time?

If you’ve gone through steps 1-6, you should have enough information to make an informed decision  about whether the site is worth your time. If you can make significantly more money flipping burgers for McDonalds, maybe you should find something else to do.  If you don’t quite know whether it’s worth it or not, it rarely hurts to try the site out for a couple days and re-evaluate when you feel like you have a more complete picture.

Everyone knows about the dot com craze (and then bust) of the 90s, and I imagine almost everyone who was involved with the internet at one point heard about Alladvantage. For those who don’t know, Alladvantage was the first of a new kind of website called “Paid to Surf”.

What is Paid to Surf? Your internet English is hard to understand!

Paid to Surf programs are those which pay their users to surf the internet. This is a bit of a misnomer, actually, because what they are actually paying you to do is download, install, and run a small advertisement bar at the bottom of your desktop. Alladvantage paid its members 50 cents per hour to surf the web with their software running, and also had a lengthy referral structure. I was in junior high school at the time, and at the time earning 5 or 10 bucks a month (Alladvantage paid for a maximum of 10 hours a month, I think) was awesome. I was an addict.

And…? Quit stringing me along and tell me what happened!

And, Alladvantage busted out when all the other dot coms fell. Advertising revenue went into the toilet, and Alladvantage had no contingency plan. Oh well, I think I made about forty bucks from them before they shut down. Yes, they did actually pay.

Fast forward to 2007

Some of the original founders of Alladvantage came together to start what was essentially a Web 2.0 version of Alladvantage. Claiming they had learned their mistakes and spewing forth a stream of idealistic rhetoric, the Agloco craze of the internet was born. It was like the ‘make money online’ niche of the internet exploded. Even John Chow fell for Agloco’s sensationalism. Agloco networks were made. Entire sites posting top Agloco blogs were made. Almost all of these blogs had one goal: recruitment. Agloco offered a referral plan that it said would pay off big when it actually started paying members. If you could recruit hundreds of other people to Agloco, then you could theoretically stand to make much more than mere pocket change.

Wait, “actually start paying members?” Huh?

Let me take a step back. Agloco was launched with the same business model as Alladvantage, the advertising bar software. However, they had not completed it yet. They simply opened up their site so people could start gathering referrals. So people started merrily recruiting, advertising, building websites, blogging and generally going crazy over a site that had never sent anyone a dime. The viewbar, as they called it, took forever to come out. When it finally did, it was extremely buggy and rarely displayed the advertisements as it was supposed to. Even after the viewbar was released, Agloco still said nothing about payment. The Agloco community began to divide itself into two distinct camps: the skeptics, and the believers. I found myself somewhere in the middle, which shows that my “I smell a rat” sense isn’t as good as it should be.

Agloco kept up a blog, that I believe as of this post is still up, at http://blog.agloco.com. WARNING: Only read if you would like a laugh, or want to study how well a blogger can string readers along. The Agloco blog almost always acted like nothing was wrong at all, continued to promise updates to the viewbar and incoming solid payment plans. And then, the posts stopped coming. After a few months, the site’s secure SSL certificate expired, and a few weeks later I received the following email:

“Dear PoorTornado,

We would like to update you on the status of AGLOCO’s operations. We continue to believe in the AGLOCO concept, but our revenue is currently not sufficient to give Members a meaningful distribution. And though there are increases in membership, the resulting revenue is not enough to support operating costs. As a development team we are unable to continue to use our savings to fund the operations. If any Member would like to pursue continuing the operations of AGLOCO, you may contact us at agloco1@live.com .

We would like to thank every Member for supporting our effort to bring a piece of the Internet directly to the user. We hope that we can find a way to keep the operations going.

AGLOCO Development Team”

My advice to everyone: learn from Agloco’s marketing techniques and vague plans. It’s incredibly unfortunate that this website didn’t find more success, as I’m sure we’d all still be blogging away about how great Agloco is otherwise. It could have truly become an easy way for anyone and everyone to make money online, but be careful. Learn, just as I have, how to smell a rat.

First of all, let me say hello internet! Starting a blog has been a long time coming, and will hopefully be a lifelong hobby. The question that of course must first be answered is why should anyone read this?

1) Everyone could use a little extra money.

There are few people in this world who are satisfied with their financial situation to the point where they wouldn’t want more money. Acquisition of stuff is something that we as humans love to do, and making money online is an easy way to do fuel your drive to acquire. Let’s face it, I started looking into making money online as a kid to fuel my gaming habit. You may not like games, but earning a little extra money online can give you the excuse to buy a few more things.

2) Earning money online can be fun!

There is no bigger drag than a job you don’t like. Making money online can be easy and fun to do, as many sites make earning money a game. Getting involved in the ‘make money online’ community can do wonders for your understanding of the economics of the internet, the last frontier with nearly zero barrier to entry!

3) You make your own schedule.

Going to work every morning at 8am is a drag. Making money online will wait for you to sleep in, won’t mind if you take a break whenever you want, and allow you to quit anytime you want. It’s almost the complete opposite of a traditional part time (or full time) job!

All in all, enjoy my ramblings. I encourage you to comment; we might even be able to set up a link exchange!

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