Want To Earn Money Online? Seriously...give up!
By Leo
@d_e_v81 (360)
Singapore
October 30, 2010 2:55pm CST
I have been through them all...
PTC, PTS, Affiliate, forex, selling things on e-bay, adsense...you name it...
experience is a cruel teacher...but you learn...
First PTC:
you get paid to click on advertisements. get referrals earn more money. oh c'mon...seriously? if you earn 1 cent per ad you view, and the minimum payout is even $1, you need to view like 100 ads before reaching payout.
That is just the Best Case Scenario. Many PTCs pay you much less. even going up to $0.0001 per ad view with a minimum payout of $5 which means you have to sit through 50000 ads. I mean what the he11?
Don't get me wrong. If you are happy with rotting in your seat watching ads the whole day and getting $1-$5 every month for your effort...well...hoorah for you. Just not my cup of tea.
Paid to take Surveys (PTS):
Those living in the US, maybe you have some success with this. For the rest of the world, apparently, our opinions do not matter as much. Ask anyone who has tried signing up and they will share their experiences of how many times they see this popping up: "Sorry, this offer is not available in your area". Sure you read claims on people's blogs or forums as to how other people had made money with PTS but seriously, you gotta wonder, are they just doing this to promote their own affiliate link or do they really mean what they say?
Affiliate marketing:
I am not saying you can't make money with this. you can! and lots of it too! All you have to do is sign up for clickbank or any such sites. Select a product. Write an article that is filled with key words so it is SEO friendly so you get ranked high on Google's search list so that people will see you and click on you and then if they decide they want to buy, then you will get the commission.
Those of you who have done this or are doing it will realise the catch in this. It is extremely difficult to get high rankings in Google or any other search engine for that matter. Plus, one article or review is never enough. you need to write like tons of them before you get noticed.
Adsense (or anything like it like Bidvertiser etc):
Forget it! Again the traffic component comes into the equation. More people come to ur blog, higher chances they click on ur links and you get paid.
In order to be at the top of search engines, you need to be constantly updating your posts or you will not get as much exposure. Seriously, how many people can visit your blog in a year? And how often do you actually have the time to freshen up your blog? Furthermore Adsense have this irritating habit of telling you that you will not get your earnings because of this or that.
Selling things on eBay:
Unless you live in a garage with tons of things to sell, forget this idea. Sure, you can make 100s of dollars but face reality! after some time you are going to run out of things to sell. And then what? rob your neighbour?
Of course there are people who have contacts to direct suppliers, buy in quantity and sell things on ebay. kudos to them. but what if no one wants to buy them? or you incur a loss? how many people do you know who are actually having a monthly income from doing so?
Forex:
I have a confession to make. I have been addicted to Forex for 3 years. Yes...I was profitable. Then I realised a huge fallacy in this business and stopped before my profits were eaten up.
1) No system/strategy you use will consistently make you money in all markets. Traders start having this "it has been workin so long so it must be good" mindset. Until of course, the market changes pattern (from trending to sideways), and their system (and their money) goes to he11.
2)Then there is this other psychological bluff that plagues all forex traders. "dont give up. others have done it. you can too. lets tweak this system a lil here a lil there. keep losses small and profits big." This is what really happens over and over again. some keep winning $5 everyday for a year just to have 1 losing trade eat up $10000. Others keep losing 2% of their account 50 times just to win 2% for the next 50 times. where does this leave em? back to that old place called "Square One"! dont even get me started on newbies and traders with a gambler's mentality.
HErez the bottom line folks! Only 2 people make money in forex. The big dogs (Banks/insiders) and the Forex brokers. people like you and me only get to ride their tails. and of course platforms hunting down stops etc does not help much either.Why do you think you see so many forex ads these days?
Don't get me wrong. You Can make money online.
You can write stuff on places like mylot/helium/reviewstream etc.
You can sell stuff on ebay.
you can sell affiliate products.
You can get paid to click on adverts till you rot in your chair.
But get this.
No. you will not get rich overnight.
No. it will not e easy. you need to put in a lot of effort and time. many of us have something called a "life" which we would rather spend our time on.
As for me, I participate in mylot because I Like it. I write reviews on reviewstream and get paid $2.50 per review but more importantly because I Like it. I invest in Unit Trusts because I Like it. I park half my monthly salary in my portfolio which returns me 10% per annum. In other words, without compounding, I double my savings every 10 years but I do compound so I will have more plus, I dont have to monitor the market all the time. Just once a year adjust my portfolio. Every month half my salary is automatically distributed to my portfolio.
Unit trusts is my only money maker, my retirement fund, my nest egg. Everything else is a hobby because I (you guessed it) Like doing them. Of course I can make more with affiliate products with a lil more effort but with my unit trusts in place, I am not interested in spending the time doing that cos I dont enjoy helping other people sell their things (and working like a dog in the process).
Bottom line is...you CAN make money online. I make $60 per year (not including my unit trusts) for my hobby. Change your mindset. If this is what you like to do...do it! the little you make is just a bonus. Stop looking for the holy grail that will make you a millionaire in 5 years via PTC, affiliate marketing etc cos there isn't one.
I am being realistic. Even if my realistic views and expectations seem pessimistic to you...just remember, the optimist invented the aeroplane, the pessimist invented the parachute...
dont say nobody warned you.
1 person likes this
16 responses
@RebeccaScarlett (2532)
• Canada
30 Oct 10
I make a couple hundred dollars a month spending about one hour a day writing. If you write for a legitimate site that pays you upfront for your articles, and you are a good writer, you can make good money. I have a baby to look after, and I'm doing other things part time, but if I spent just four hours a day writing for Demand Studios I would earn $2700 USD/month, as it takes me less than an hour to write an article at $15/article. That is a good full time wage for 20 hours of work a week. I can pay all my expenses with 2000/month.
Of course you are completely correct that no one is ever going to get rich without working hard for it, but if you treat your online earning like an actual full time job, it is possible to get actual full time earnings.
Also, people in other countries with a favourable USD exchange rate make that $10/month stretch a lot further.
1 person likes this
@d_e_v81 (360)
• Singapore
30 Oct 10
Totally agree with where you are coming from! I like to write so treat it more like a hobby than a full time job. Im just afraid if I treat it like a job it will take the 'fun' out of the equation. Will check out Demand Studios. PM me ur referral link if any in case I decide to sign up. :)
@flaredust (728)
• Indonesia
31 Oct 10
The bottom line is, there are two ways, first do online business as hobby or second do online business as a serious job. Why lots of people didn't success in online world? because they still have their main job instead of focusing all the effort to find opportunity on online world. Usually people find online earning as a side job or even only a getaway from their reality of tight income & wanna make rich in different but easy way. If that what they search, for the God sake, leave it at once. But if we can read & catch the opportunity also can build up entrepreneur mind, we can try to start our own business there. I give one example, open the online store, it's way cheaper then we open a physical store that can cost us thousands dollars. How can we success from online store? that the question entrepreneur must answer themselves 
@d_e_v81 (360)
• Singapore
1 Nov 10
Yes, agree with you, you can do this and do that...question is not what makes you money but to match it with what interests you/like. Opening an online shop does interest people and people have been successful in it. but I'm not inerested in that venture. plus it takes some luck to establish yourself.
Good luck with your future endeavours.
@puccagirl (7294)
• Israel
31 Oct 10
Well said. I very much agree.
It is indeed possible to make money online, but it is very time consuming and takes a lot of work. There are no short cuts or secret tricks that people are constantly looking for, and everything that seems too good to be true, always is!
So working hard, for a long period of time, is the only way to do it!
@sweetloveforeve (13120)
• Portugal
31 Oct 10
i understand what you mean^^ and yes is very hard to make money online^^ you need to work much to make good money^^ unless you have a blog with a lot of traffic or a site is impossible to have a lot of money. being rich online is almost impossible. for me i dont want to become rich. i only want a normal salary every monthes so i can help my mum and save money to go see my bf^^ i understand that you work in some sites to save money^^ thats great^^ anyway i want to ask you something^^ in the site you write reviews you said you get paid 2.50 dollars per review. so how many reviews can we make per day? bcs if there is no limit i would like to try that site^^ can you explain me more about that?^^
@louis6161 (92)
• China
31 Oct 10
thanks for your great article , I think it wasted much time when you wrote it
why I signed in the my lot ,there are two reasons
1.I can earn money when I post my opinion in the my lot
2. I can use english to communicate to others , I am from chian
@silentwill (1685)
• Philippines
31 Oct 10
Since I do have some idle time at work and there won't be anything else productive I can do during that time, I won't give up just yet. But I'll keep what you've written here in mind.
@browneyed (2522)
• United Kingdom
1 Nov 10
Hmm. I hear you. I think a healthy dose of realism is definitely needed when trying to make money online. However, on the other hand, I think it's possible to make a respectable amount of money online too, enough to (eventually) not need to work an offline job. It's not easy, though, but it's possible.
I'm not looking to be a millionaire online, but I am looking to one day make enough to live comfortably. It's a curiosity and desire I can't shake off.
@strawberrychocodahi (4818)
• Philippines
31 Oct 10
This is what you called a total burned out! Well I am also into that same boat but what else can we do, keep it going at least it pays us extra money and yes you are right, people should know that online earning is only good as an extra savings and not to be considered as their bread and butter.
Not unless okay, not unless a person can work online because his job is a programmer or a graphic artists or someone professionally educated and working with clients using only internet as a means of doing the project.
There is really a no get rich quick scheme and earn you thousands of dollars in just a day or even a month. But to be optimistic, you own a site (domain, not just blog)that has been running good with traffic and has a high page rank. But that didn't just happened overnight right? it will really take time and dedication.
@KingRezz101 (52)
• United States
30 Oct 10
Thank you for your opnion I'm new to online sites and this could save me some time. I still want to make money online though but Iam trying to find the best way. I don't really want much just $10 a month wold be fine since I'm kind of young. Anyway great response.
@mlotta (218)
• Managua, Nicaragua
30 Oct 10
That was excellent! I never knew that people would fall for ridiculous scams like the ones I'm about to tell you (and that's from my experience).
You see, there's a website called inboxdollars, and it claims to have been seen on "TV". "Inboxdollars is soooo nice. I made over $40 in one month from this". The truth is that inboxdollars (at least in my point of view) is a scam! Why? It's because I've been in inboxdollars, and they don't pay like they said they would. Their support system is mediocre, and every time I check my email, I'm flooded with literally hundreds of unwanted e-mails just so that I get paid $0.005 per email. At that rate, I've barely even made $4 in one month from this service.
Then, there's treasuretrooper, another website that pays treasures (treasures----if you want to gain only $3 a month, which is pathetic) and money. People also claim that they've made 100s of dollars a year on that site. That site is also a scam because I've been in that site, and it doesn't look good.
Cashcrate is another site where you don't get much money (unless you do those offers, which can be very time-consuming, as well as being very bad on your e-mail service) and you don't get much services. I forgot to tell you that Cashcrate and Treasuretrooper has a forum, but it doesn't help you most of the time anyways. Cashcrate is a big scam and a time consuming deal. It's soo little money, that McDonalds pays more in an hour than those three sites (each) can pay in a single month.
I don't remember hearing news that mylot is a scam, because this site never was a scam in the first place. Sure, it may pay $1 maximum per day (that is if you are extremely active in here), and thats little money, but that money will begin to accumulate over time.
Maybe that's why most sites (except for a few, like mylot) are scams. They don't have a support center, and those sites are seldom helpful.
There are other sites, like e-books, promising that you will win hundreds of dollars every day, when all you're winning is a very big deficit of thousands of dollars every month. You've seen those commercials on TV (Money Commercials) saying that you can earn $200,000 per month just by sitting in your computer and doing almost nothing. However, those strategies are very false, as those strategies will not only get you in trouble with the law, it will cost you financially. What if the money that you've been winning came from the Federal Reserve of Money (I don't know what name it is, but its where they store all US dollars)? Then what. A person can't let their love for money, their greed and desire get in the way of family or other stuff.
Oh, and one more thing. MLM sites and pyramid sites are extremely dangerous for people, especially investing money in them, only to lose millions of dollars due to a mistake that they've made.
I hope you understand (actually, I know you understand) the concepts of scam sites, and illegal money-making schemes.
Have a nice day.
@d_e_v81 (360)
• Singapore
30 Oct 10
You know, I have been a victim for most of the sites you have mentioned. lol. I terminated my membership in all of them. I mean, there are folks who enjoy spending hours reading unwanted emails and doing surveys but I don't. Even if they are not scams, like what you say, Id rather work in McDonalds (fortunately I dont have to) which reminds me Im hungry...and McDonalds is callin me...lol. Thanks for the in depth input!
@hakuyo (200)
•
30 Oct 10
WOw, thanks for sharing this great, great article! I also tried to earn money online and there were lots of scam sites, i have been a member of them( wasted my precious time at those scam sites) but i like earning money online even though i know that i am not going to get rich by doing those things that you mentioned. I am a member of survey sites and they pay you a lot! like valuedopinions and brandinstitiute.
by the way, how long did you spend writing this?
@d_e_v81 (360)
• Singapore
30 Oct 10
Have you been paid by them? reason why i gave up on surveys is cos, i dont enjoying taking part in them plus many offers not available in my area. Id rather spend my time doing nothing than spend my time doing something I dont love.
i took like....10 mins? lol. itz the weekend + itz my hobby. :)
@ceecee1217 (122)
• United States
30 Oct 10
Finally someone put's in a realistic opinion on all these so called online money makers! Thank you :o)
@calpro (930)
• India
2 Nov 10
Hi
Should say great article and great research done on all online money making ways.
Good thing is you have got the right pick at last like writing reviews and articles.
Definitely you can make good income.Online money making ways could add up few bucks to your pocket but cannot make you rich.
Great job done
@Krizz420canada (531)
• Canada
31 Oct 10
Wow it does sound like you tried it all but I'm sorry to say not everyone has the same luck as you. I know I won't make millions online or thousands a month but i do and have been earning at the very least a couple hundred a month off my online ventures.
It's like I always tell people you must find something that works for you then work that system hard and so on. I make good money writing online mainly because for some reason I have no problem coming up with topics people want to read about.
It is hard but again it all depends on the persons drive to succeed that will show you a good outcome.
@rjtinrivera (4)
•
31 Oct 10
I totally agree. You cannot make money making online your source of income because it will never be stable due to the fact that it is online. To be honest I'm new in this line of business but I just want to get something extra and I choose the ones that are really interesting.
