MAKING MONEY ONLINE WITH PTC SITES...

PTC (Paid To Click) sites really are the most popular ones, as a means of making money online.  Hence, I'm starting off with my take on PTC sites. 


WHAT DO YOU DO : Here a member makes money while surfing the net/viewing specific websites put up by the PTC site for a certain time, typically 30 or 60 seconds, after which the account is credited with the amount promised to view the site.


HOW MUCH: On an average, $0.001, $0.01, $0.02 is the typical rate which is paid for view ONE site for 30/60 seconds.


PROS : If you want something totally brainless, and on autopilot, go for these sites!  It's what they promise in the marketing hype "earn doing little", though you would never earn the figures they promise, but I'd come to that a little later. 


CONS : Actually the same as PROS!  TOTALLY BRAINLESS and as we all know, the world pays for the use of brain MUCH MORE then it does for physical labour in the 'Real' world.  Unfortuantely, the same rule applies to the 'Virtual' world too!!
Second, the payout is pathetic, but then so is the work, to be fair!
Third, In my opinion, no other work at home opportunity is so FULL OF SCAMS as this one!  So, you would really need to choose your sites very carefully.


STRATEGY FOR SUCCESS : PTC sites' payment structure relies quite heavily on referrals, going as deep as 10 levels (typically 3-6 levels) in case of some sites.  So, do plan to focus there, if you want to make good money.


DOING THE MATHS: As you can work out, as a free member, you would probably get 4-6 ads per day to click on.  Taking a rate of $0.01 per ad (which is a HIGH rate for a genuine site), that would amount to something between $ 1.2 to $1.8 PER MONTH!!  Even with referrals et al, I don't think it would be wise to depend on PTC sites as a main income stream for your work at home options.


MY SPECIAL TIP:  Don't let the low payouts and a miniscule number of ads as a free member discourage you.  I know of someone who has managed to constantly earn $300/- pm just from PTC sites.  But he is a member of over 30 PTC sites(!!) and works on them 3-4 hrs a day, every day.  If you feel, this is your calling in life, by all means, go all out with PTC!  The point is, it CAN be done. 


To find out about GENUINE PAYING PTC sites, click here.  My advice would be to keep A FEW genuine ones in your kitty, and click on these when -

• You want a break from your regular 'brainy' work
• You are waiting for your main work sites to open!  After all, it would take precisely 5 odd minutes to do your day's work on one site.

BEWARE :  Especially BEWARE of the sites promising $1 or $10 (!!) rates PER AD viewed.  THEY ARE NOTHING BUT SCAMS!!!! 


REMEMBER, If something is TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE......chances are that IT ISN'T, especially in the quicksand world of PTC sites!!

NEW AGE JOBS FOR MAKING MONEY ONLINE

I discussed freelancing jobs in my last posts which are essentially doing job on the net which are your core skills from years of education/work.

Now, we discuss the fun and more interesting jobs available on the internet for you to make money.  The best part being that for most of these you really don't need much 'technical/educational' prowess or "experience".  If you have a computer and a reasonably decent speed internet, and a fairly good command over English (for at least some of these jobs), you are on!

For the sake of convenience (and not to smother you with too many details at this point), I'm LOOSELY categorising them as follows.  Pl note:  there can be 'spillovers' from one category to the other:

1. PTC (Pay to Click) sites
2. Paid Surveys
3. Small Tasks
4. Writing Jobs
5. Article Marketing
6. Affiliate Marketing
7. MLM (multi Level Marketing)
8. Having a Website/Blog

Okay, that was a very general overview to give you an idea of what you are getting into.  Basically almost ALL the jobs you would encounter on this road of 'making money online', would fall into one or more of these categories.

Now, let me give you a categorisation based on skills needed for most of internet jobs:
1. Basic Computer skills (PTC, Paid surveys, most of the Small Tasks)
2. Decent level of English, and a flair for writing (Writing jobs, article marketing)
3. Network Marketing and writing skills (MLM, Affiliate Marketing)
4. Good level of subject knowledge, fair degree of command over language, a flair for writing, and a reasonable awareness of marketing techniques & SEO (Making a Website/Blog)

You would notice that 'a good command over Language (mostly English unless you are targeting other languages)' and 'a flair for writing' are more common skills needed for almost all the jobs on the net - from easy to the tough ones.  DON'T LET THAT PUT YOU OFF. 

The command over English basically translates to being able to converse decently in the language, NOT the ability to use flowery prose and complex vocabulary.  Similarly, a flair for writing is just that - a FLAIR.  You need not be in league of Shakespear and company - in fact far from that!  If you were in that category, I doubt you are going to get much traffic :) You should just be able to string together conversational sentences that grammatically too, would make sense.  Of course, there are exceptions here.  Some websites insist on getting a particular profile of professional writers and researchers; So, if you aren't in that category, you may miss out on these, but there are plenty others who don't have a very high threshold.

From my next post, I'll take you through each one of these categories, what they entail, pros and cons, and most importantly, HOW MUCH can you make from each of these!

LIST OF GENUINE SITES OFFERING FREELANCE WORK

As promised in my post on 'Freelance work' sites, here's the list of some GENUINE sites offering feelancing work:

1. http://www.guru.com/
2. http://www.academia-research.com/
3. http://www.elance.com/
4. http://www.bidhire.com/
5. http://www.odesk.com/

There are, of course, many more.  But these are definitely some of the most reputed ones.  I'd keep on adding to this list as and when I get more in this category. 

Point to Note: Many seemingly legit sites may ask you for membership fees for joining and offering your services.  My advice would be to IGNORE these, and focus on the FREE membership ones.  One golden rule to remember always - NEVER pay to get a job, whether to a recruitment consultant in the 'real' world or to such sites in the 'virtual' one!

FREELANCING YOUR SKILLS!

One very 'decent' and 'real' way of making money on the net is - FREELANCING. 

How it works primarily is - there are sites which act as 'middlemen' between the service provider(that's you) and Employer(one who wants the job to be done).  Employers post their available projects, and you can post your profile on the site and scan the jobs offered, according to your interest and skill set. 

Now, most of these jobs follow the 'BIDDING' process - that means, you, along with many many others who have the same skill set, bid for a particular job, keeping in mind the difficulty level of the job and the budget offered.  After the bidding process is over, the employer would make his/her decision, and the project would be awarded to the best suited according to the employer.

POPULAR SKILL SETS
Mind you, this is just a representative list.  End of the day, there is hardly any skill these days which doesn't have a virtual counterpart! In my research I've found these skill sets more in demand on these sites - Writers, editors, translators, proofreaders, web developers, all programming people, virtual assistants, accountants, and the like.  I'd advise you to browse through the pages of the links I provide in my next post to get a feel of what is 'in demand' on a particular day.

PROS -

• Like I mentioned earlier, this is as REAL as it could get in your quest for earning online.
• You utilise your unique skill set/experience/educational background to switch from the 'physical office' mindset to the 'virtual office'.
• You are paid decently enough - depending upon your skill level you could earn almost close to /even more than a full time job.

CONS -

• The biggest downside of this is, the VERY TOUGH competition to get accepted after you have placed your bid for the project along with people who may be veterans in this arena; this is especially true if you are a novice in this game.  For a typical project, you could easily find 25-30 people (with formidable resumes) vying for the employer's attention.
• Another thing which I find annoying about this is the WAIT PERIOD.  It could be 2-3 WEEKS before you would get to know the results - positive or negative.  So, if you want to start earning right away, well, you can't depend on this option.

SO, WHAT ARE THE WAYS OF MAKING MONEY ONLINE?

One can make money online by performing various kinds of ........JOBS(duh!) 

The sheer number of ways one can earn from the net can be quite confusing for a newbie, not to mention overwhelming. 

But basically, the ways of making money using the internet for a work from home scenario would fall into one of these TWO categories:
1. Freelance skill-centric / conventional jobs (which are similar to the jobs done in a physical office)
2. New age jobs (most of which came into existence because of internet)

I'll discuss these in greater detail a while later.  Right now, I want to talk about the very pertinent matter of HOW MUCH can you earn.  Well, the straight answer is  - Depends on how much time, effort, blood, sweat (&money) you are going to put into this 'venture'.  It also depends on how resilient you are, how persistent and determined you are and MOST IMPORTANTLY, how serious you are.  In that way, really, working on the net to earn money isn't very different from working in an office or whatever you are currently doing to make ends meet.

NOTE OF CAUTION : In case, you are looking for a quick BIG buck without really putting your hundred percent into it.....well, you are in the wrong place, mate.  Anything of that sort ain't gonna happen! AND if you get charmed by that email from a 'well-meaning friend', claiming to have YOUR best interests at heart, what do I say.....except that you would DESERVE the 'scamming' you are going to get.

MAKE MONEY ONLINE - REAL OR VIRTUAL?

"Work from home", "work at home", "internet jobs", "making money online" - these words/phrases are some of the most searched keywords on Google, yahoo and other search engines. You check any online forum, and these would invariably be some of the top hot discussions of the day. It would seem that people no longer are interested in brick and mortar offices/workplaces, for some reason or the other.

So, given this background and sufficiently intrigued as an educated and very aware stay-at-home mom, who's NOT looking for "bread-and-butter" from the internet, and who's already using net furiously for a lot of other things like shopping, social networking etc., I decided to research this virtual sphere. I've spent past few months researching the "Work from home internet job opportunities".

My prime motive for a critique of this new burgeoning phenomeon has been to evaluate whether the "to-good-to-be-true claims" are just that or there is some substance to them. My email box has been bombarded with - "Make $300/a day without doing anything", "Earn in your sleep". "Turn your computer into an ATM" and so on and so forth all these months, since I made it known to the web world that I "may be" interested enough....

That brings me to this blog. The good news is you CAN make money on the net. The bad news is :
1) For every genuine income opportunity, there exist at least couple of hundreds, which are SCAMS.
2) Earning money online, and raking in OBSCENE amount of dollars while you are getting a haircut, are two different things!

In my next posts, I'd share the results of this thorough snooping around in lalaland....