starting out in Paid To Read (PTR) Programs.

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So you'd like or need to make a little extra cash each month (who doesn't??) This guide is intended for anyone starting out in Paid To Read (PTR) Programs. There are lots of ways to make money online in your spare time, we'll go through several here, starting with the basics of PTR. You will not get rich doing PTR - but you can make enough to pay your internet bill and take yourself and your sweetie out for a nice dinner! I'm currently making an average of $120 a month just from my PTR sites, and working to raise that amount. Getting Started - Email Account First, you will want to open a new email account - because you will be getting HUNDREDS of emails per day from your sites. I'd recommend a free account through yahoo or gmail, as they have the most storage space and you won't have to worry about your Paid Emails getting bounced back from a full inbox. After you click on the link of the program you want to join, you'll type in your new email address and Submit. You should get your Activation email within a few seconds. If it takes longer - do NOT submit your information again - the scripts at the site will mark you as a "cheater"= trying to open multiple accounts. PTR sites will only let you have one account per IP address (your computer/ISP's address) If you don't get your Activation email within 10 minutes - send an email to the WM through their Contact Us link at the site. After you Activate your account, simply enter your personal information along with how you want to get paid (see below). Most PTRs have "check- boxes" near the bottom of the enrollment page, determining what kinds of emails you'd like to receive. They also include boxes to detect cheaters. Never click any box marked "I DO NOT SPEAK ENGLISH" or "I'M A CHEATER, TAKE MY MONEY". You get the picture.;) Read the options carefully. If you select Searches on your options, be prepared to actually*do* the searches. Many WMs will decrease your emails (therefore your earnings) if you simply click the link without doing the full search. There is some controversy at many of the forums regarding Search Ads. WMs are NOT supposed to allow "incentivised" searches or forcing people to search, it breaks the terms of the contracts with the Search Engines. That said, think about the long-term effect of performing a valid search. If the advertiser who has bought the ad gets a good return, they will place more ads, which will give YOU more money. You're going to have to wait out a timer anyway, why not give the advertiser a return on his/her investment to encourage them to place more ads? What constitutes a valid search?? Here's an example taken from another site: HOW TO DO VALID SEARCHES 1. Choose one of the categories or search or do a search for something you want. 2. Click search results - (that's necessary). That means wait for the page to open, and look at it before moving on. 3. You have done a valid search. Thank you very much. How simple is that?? Another thing with Searches: Make sure that the Country you live in is accepted as a Search Country. The site will list which countries are acceptable. It's a good idea to create a folder for each new Site that you sign up with in your email account. This way you can move your sign-up info, payment info, ads you've placed, etc... in this folder and keep your inbox nicely organized. Also, after you've logged in, set a Bookmark for that page. I create a new folder in my Bookmarks labeled PTRs so I can quickly and easily access each site. Payment Processors Next, you'll want to be sure you have a way of receiving the money that you'll be making. Most sites pay through Payment Processors like Paypal or eGold . Paypal is the oldest and most trusted of the payment processors. There are more out there, seemingly more every day! If you've already got a Paypal account, make sure that it is a Personal Account, not a Business or Premier Account, as these will incur fees every time you're paid. My account was bumped up to a Business Account when my daughter used it to list some jeans on eBay, and accepted a credit card from the winner of the auction. If something similar happens to you, Paypal*does* allow you to demote your account once. Simply send them a ticket through their Contact Us form (located at the bottom of any page at the Paypal site). i personaly only use paypal. Protecting Your Computer Sadly, there are a lot of mean-spirited, if not just downright evil people out there that get some kind of sick thrill by creating and distributing viruses online. I can't emphasize this enough: Protect Your Computer! Make sure your firewall is on, and install a resident anti-virus software. There are several good, FREE ones to download. Avast! is the one I use, AVG is another good one. My computer came with Norton installed, but it doesn't seem to work as well as the others. You'll also need to install a good anti-spyware application. AdAware is great, I run it once a week just to keep things running fast & smooth. Signing Up and Avoiding Scams Now you're ready to start signing up with some good PTRs and start making some cash! I have the best paying PTRs listed on the link Pay Sites. You will see ads (and be tempted) by sites that offer $1, $10, even $100 per click. You may have already signed up and are actively clicking at these. Sadly, these are complete scam sites. Don't feel bad, almost everyone starting out in PTR has made this same mistake. Here's a way to help you determine if a site is legitimate, or a scam: While you're at the site's homepage, go to their Advertising Link. Here's an example from a well-known scam site:$333 Solo eMail To Searchers 63sec $0.63 Let's do the math, shall we? This site claims to have 15,000 members. If this webmaster charges 63 cents for an ad, and promises to pay his members $333 EACH for clicking on the link, he's losing the staggering amount of $4,994,999.37 for each ad he sells! "Why would anyone do this?" you ask? Because this dishonest WebMaster is unfortunately making 63 cents over and over and over, while never paying anyone a dime. Plus, he's probably got his own Search ads listed on his site, and is making more money by having his members perform valid searches. There are lots of people who have been scammed by dishonest WMs such as this one, who've just given up and written off the entire Get Paid To (GPT) world as a scam. While there are many online scams, there are also many honest, paying sites. I found GetPaidForum to be an invaluable resource to determine if a site is honest and paying. Before I sign up with any site now, I do a search at the forum to see if the site is listed in the Praises and Applause section - or the Complaints section. If there's no information at GetPaidForum, I do a search on google and include "scam?". Example: "sitename.com scam?" This has also been an effective way to see if they'll pay, or just let me make money for them. How Many Sites Should I Join? This is entirely up to you, depending on how much time you have and how much money you want/need to earn each month. I strongly recommend starting small - no more than 8-10 sites, because it's very easy to get overwhelmed and hit "burn-out" with too many emails every day. I was doing 36 sites right after I began doing PTRs and it was taking up most of my day - plus, about half of those sites were NOT worth the time - only paying 1/4 of a cent or less per email. I would not recommend joining any site that has a higher payout than $10. It's far more encouraging to be able to reach your payout within 2 weeks. I mainly stick with the sites that have a minimum of 1/4 cent per link that I know will pay me within hours of request - although my main focus is now 1 and 2 cent link programs. Earning From Your Sites Now you've signed up and you're starting to get emails. LOTS of emails. I currently get over 400 emails a day! How can I get through all of these and still have time to sleep?? Glad you asked! I use a multi-tabbed browser - Opera. I've used several different browsers - Maxthon, Firefox, and of course IE, but had different problems with each. IE doesn't have multi-tabs, and would just take too long for PTRs. Maxthon is actually my favorite, but it doesn't effectively block pop-ups. Same with Firefox. Opera blocks those nasty pop-ups and also has a built-in protector. You can get it for Free here: http://www.opera.com/ So here's my method of getting through allllll those emails: A few of the sites that I know send 50+ emails per day, I select Site Inbox on my Profile at the site. That means that I have to go to the site and that day's emails are there, and not sent to my yahoo account. Doing this method will open 3 consecutive windows (or tabs): the main Inbox page, an Email page (that contains the link you're working on) and the actual Results page (that shows the timer and link value) I start with my Yahoo tab, then go down the list, clicking each link. I sometimes have up to 15 tabs open at once (including the Site Inbox tabs). Then I just go down the line, performing searches, checking out new programs, etc. After all the searches have been done, I close and go to the next batch. It's organized and gets everything done quickly. PTCs I encourage you to do some "discovery" work on each of your sites. Most have more than just emails - some have games, PTC (Paid to Click) and Contests PTCs. Many have their own forums, where you can "meet" some very nice people and share ideas, not to mention sometimes the WM will put pertinent information at their forums. When I have some extra time, I like to visit the PTC sections - sometimes they have 1, 2, even 3 Cent ads there. You can usually also find lots of Points ads there. I like to do the Points and cash them in for advertising. (more on this later) I've won several of the Contests on lots of different sites - some are as low as a 3 cent prize, some are $1 prizes. so here you have it my