Is InboxDollars a Scam? Can you get paid to read emails?
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Before I start this review, let’s put the facts on the table.
- We all read emails.
- We all love money.
- It would be really awesome to get paid to read emails.
InboxDollars promises just that and they even go as far as to make the claim that ‘Money really does grow on trees.’ But just how accurate are these claims? Can you really get paid to just read emails? We wouldn’t call ourselves professional product and program testers if we didn’t give you an answer to these questions.
You can make money, but that doesn’t mean you necessarily will make money.
Each email that you read will net you anywhere between 1 to 10 cents. But these aren’t emails you would normally want to read. They’re advertisements for various programs or products that would result in InboxDollars making hefty revenue if you followed through and signed up for the program. Aside from emails, you can also “get paid” to play games, sign up for surveys, sign up for programs, shop, and search the internet. What you aren’t told is that you will need to start spending money first and you’ll receive a measly percentage back on your spendings. This is the hidden truth behind their “get paid to” claims.
My Results
I’ve been a member for about two weeks now and I have received 14 emails for a total of $0.40 cents. That’s a little less than 3 cents per email. If we take into account the $5.00 sign up bonus and the $1.00 introduction survey, I will need to read approximately 857 more emails. At the current rate of 1 email per day, I’m looking at over 2 years of reading email just to receive my first $30 check. I don’t know about you, but I have better things to do than click on an advertisement once a day for the next 2 years just to receive $30.
The Real Source of Funds
At this point, you’re probably asking yourself how could they possibly make money by sending out emails. I decided to look into a few of the programs that are heavily promoted throughout the site. Take for example, eBay. InboxDollars will pay you $6.00 to sign up at eBay and place a bid. Not bad right? Wrong. They’re making anywhere between $25-$35 every time a new user signs up at eBay and places a bid. Stamps.com is also heavily promoted at a $10 bonus just for signing up for their free trial. However, in the event you forget to cancel the free trail after a couple of weeks, you will be billed $15.99 per month and InboxDollars makes $50. It sounds like users are getting the short end of the stick while InboxDollars laughs all the way to the bank.
I’ve tried that and I don’t like it.
If you have nothing better to do than to read emails (read: view advertisements) for the next few years, then by all means sign up and get started. I do feel that doing anything at InboxDollars aside from reading emails is a recipe for disaster. In an extreme case, suppose you sign up for the Stamps.com free trial and forget about your account. In a month you will be billed and in the event that you refuse to pay you can have your account forwarded to collections which could have a disastrous effect on your credit score. This result could yield hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in damages all for a measly $10.
Personally, I’m closing my account.
Note to self: Add professional product and program tester to resume.
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I read emails for InboxDollars for about three days, after I figured the numbers like you just did, I quit and resigned from my account. I worked also with Hits4Pay which will usually give you a $10 bonus for signing up, read emails for them for over 6 months and didn’t even come close to their minimum, and I had over 100 referrals! I resigned that account as well. I’ve decided reading emails for any substantial amount of money is a pipe dream.
I am with Inbox dollars. I made the money and yes I have gotten checks.They are not constant but I recieved a couple and i am on my 3rd. I do the surveys and they pay $1.You can do one a day and I am accepted to most of them. So I have had good luck with them.
I think I’ve only been accepted for one survey in about 4 months of membership (though not in InboxDollars). For some reason, they just aren’t that interested in my opinion, the bastards. I could give them such an opinion!
I use Inboxdollars too. I got $2 for signing up with some Xerox offer. However, I signed up with the stamps.com free (30-day) trial more than a week ago and haven’t gotten the $10 credit yet in my Inboxdollars account. I will have to wait 30 days to see if I get credit or not before I can submit a trouble ticket. That’s quite an inconvenience. Other GPTs (e.g. FTT) requires only 7 days of no-credit, then submit trouble ticket.
That stinks…gee I never had problems with them…Maybe they like me better.
i’ve been with them since the latter part of 2005 and just got my first check this past june. now that being said all i was doing was promoting, reading emails and buying gold memberships with my earnings. Now i have built my referrals and they have gold memberships. Now it is up to where just reading the emails should get me a check every month. it takes awhile but i do believe that they are a reputable company and certainly pay more than most paid to read email companies. the emails are really easy to read also. especially with firefox. 3 clicks and your done four and it’s deleted from you inbox.i’ve done it for so long now that i save them up until i get a full page in the inbox go to the oldest one and start from there.click to open, click to go to the site, click to prove i’ve read it back to the inbox and click to delete. once you get a rhythm you can go through them really fast. also once your referrals have gold memberships you make more with each click you do and each click they do.
Ok, i got the $10 for the Key Club Save offer. phew! i just need to cancel next Monday. i’m still waiting for the $10 for my stamps.com offer. denise: just curious, how many gold memberships do you have? i’m trying to figure out if it’s worth it. thanks!
Julia I’m happy you recieved your $10 dollars.I’ve recommended this site many times and I never had a problem.
Julia, I have 3 gold memberships and 85 referrals. I mostly just read emails now. if i find one that isn’t going to cost me anything in them then i do it. sometimes i go through the free stuff in the sidebar and sometimes i try for a survey but survey’s aren’t much interested in the opinion of a 53 year old divorced white woman with one grown child
so I tried surveys and after about a year of actively pursuing it figured out that this was the case. i was so happy to actually receive a check from a site like this after losing so much to autosurfing and hyip’s that i just felt i had to say something here. it is not a get rich quick thing and it takes awhile to get a rhythm going but they do pay and over the past two years they have gotten much more diverse in their offerings and i am glad about that. I got 50 last month, and will get 15 this month …not much but at least it’s something and believe me i have read so many emails trying to get paid that it is a welcome thing to see…that check in the mail. I also think that the internet being what it is…full of scammers and hackers just out there to take your money and run or collect your information to sell that it is a welcome relief to find a company that has been paying people for over 2 years. k, i’m off the soapbox now. 
I’ve had great success with InboxDollars. Gotten a check for $125+, loads of gift cards to nationwide retailers, and no problems at all. Sure you have to remember to cancel free trials, but it’s really not that hard. (Reading e-mails is definitely not worth it though).
I have just requested my first check and was irritated that they charge a $3.00 fee-todays date is Aug. 8 and they say my check will be processed on October 1st! Plus if I do not remain active between now and October 1st I will not get my check—I guess they are hoping I will get bored and quit and they can keep my money–I dont plan to quit, but I will definately not waste my time “trying” to reach payout quickly–I am angry they dont promote that they charge a $3.00 fee to cash your check as much as they promote their $5.00 sign up!
Hi Donna. That’s one of those little details they neglected to mention, eh? Did they tell you about the $.25 per day service fee for every day you leave money in your account?
Just kidding. They don’t do that. At least, I don’t think they do! :-O
LOL Oh Joe I love your sense of humor.
any one tried mypoints.com? send me an e-mail (listed on my website). i’ve been active for less than a month on mypoints.com. i like how they have MORE e-mails to read than inboxdollars (but maybe paid less each?) but i like how they have more choices/offers/trials/surveys in earning “points” (note: not dollar). i don’t think they pay out in cash/check though. maybe just gift card. AND they, so far, have sucky approval on offers. i’m just waiting for that 30 days so that i can submit a trouble ticket. i’m aiming for 1500 points for the $10 Target gift card. i only have 730 pts (including pending ones). so maybe one more month? (dunno about the fees/shipping stuff yet.) also, i don’t think mypoints.com is a referral-based program. it allows max. 5 referrals per month AND i don’t think i earn any partial point for each point my referral earn.
oh, i mean send me an e-mail if you want to try mypoints.com. i think i have to submit your e-mail through them in order to have you as my referral. or you can join directly. i just make 100 pts for a “successful” referral. =)
I don’t like my points. I cut them out I do much better with creative rewards. You can get a gift card or check and they do not take anything out like Inbox dollars when they pay out.The first time I took a check and the 2nd an Old Navy card for my daughter and I am getting ready to cash out again. I’m with them 6 months maybe.
janice: thank you! i’ll look into creative rewards. i’m still hoping to cash out on mypoints first. =)
Julia: When you are ready I can send you a link
Yes, please send me the link. I will check it out. nonalzheimerpatient.com [at] gmail.com (can you tell that I use this e-mail for GPTs?)
[Edited by Joe to dehyperlinkify the email address.]
Okay, I requested payment for my ~$30 also. I did get the stamps.com $10 credit after I submit trouble ticket. Kudo for Inboxdollars.com. They said I should receive my check by Oct 1. FYI, I also cashed out on FTT ($83). I am now doing/testing Mypoints.com, creationsrewards.net, and guessnow.com (this is pretty fun.. fun way to update myself on news on finance and entertainment).
Good work Julia. Let us know if you ever get your check and of any progress with the other sites.
Hey. I came across your website and I think the best way to rake up some money on InboxDollars is to do a survey evereyday along with the emails. If you do this you will reach the minimum in about a month. SendEarnings is the same as InboxDollars so between the two of these websites you can earn about $60 a month. I have been paid by InboxDollars and I am waiting for a check from SendEarnings.
Thats great , It doesn’t take much time each day to get through them. I just tend to get lazy though so it take me a little longer.
Like you mentioned, PTC is not really worth the time. But just clicking here and there and make a few bucks is not too bad. I tried a few PTC. I think the one I like the most is hits4pay. They pay 2 cents per click. If you pick 25 categories as your “interest”, you get more ads to click. On average, I get 20 ads to click per week. 40 cents a week. $10 sign-up bonus. It will take 8 to 9 months of clicking before getting to the $25 min. payout. What I like about hits4pay is that I don’t have to do click everyday. I can probably do it once a week and just have it in the background and click on it every minute or so while I do my own stuff on the computer.
Updates on other chump change stuff I’m working on: since I joined MyPoints.com on 7/26, I earned 1988 points by reading e-mails, trying to do surveys, signing-up for a few stuff, and making 3 purchases (vistaprint , overstock, and baby books ). I can get my $10 Target gift card with 1500 points once the points turn from “pending” to “earn”. For guessnow.com, I got $8.74 (virtual; haven’t cash-out yet) for August. It was a LOT of clicking though and I felt like I was competing with all the other members to click more. Have been too busy to really work the creationrewards.net. Maybe more update later on.
Thanks for the excellent update, Julia. Would you say all that clicking (and cookies and possible spyware/adware) is worth it?
It’s definitely not worth it if some one is seriously hoping to make money. But it’s really not that bad that since I already have my computer running and doing stuff on the computer, I can make a few bucks here and there while doing homework, paying bills, or reading the news. I have similar concern with cookies and possible spyware/adware. Oh well, we will see. I also have concern about giving my personal info to these places (and hope to get check/gift card from them). hey, it’s all about trying it out and posting the comments on this site, right? this is how we can help contribute to the blog. =) also, i do recommend these chump-change-making “opportunities” to college students who don’t have a job already AND people who do stuff online that doesn’t make money.
I am a stay at home mom and i just got started with inbox dollars and i am hoping its worth it it seems like a lot of work for 30 dollars. I mean is it worth sitting at my computer for most of the day looking at stupid emails just to earn 3 cents.
Let’s get real here people - give yourselves some damn respect and stop wasting your time with these companies.
They are making hundreds of thousands of dollars while you’re making a few cents! For the same time you are clicking to get your measly $25, you could have earned several hundred dollars or more, very easily, washing dishes in your local fast-food restaurant 2 days a week!
I mean I am steamed about that I wished there was something we could do about these survey website. Believe me I tried a lot of survey site and Fusion is the one that I actually stayed in because it made me money in a few hours. But in the end I kept calling them out for being fakes and they kicked me out of the chat room.
Inbox dollars tried that to not worth it. Lol waste of time. Every survey taking I have taking takes a long time. Not kidding.
I agree. From many logical standpoints, these websites are not worth it. I guess for stay-at-home-moms (SAHM) who like to make a couple cents, possibly, a couple dollars, while their babies nap? I have to say those GPT sites help with the diaper money. GPT sites offer a option for people to make a little money and we all definitely have a choice to play that game or not. =)
Okay, I received the InboxDollars and Fairy Tale Treasure (FTT) checks within the past 3 weeks. I just deposited them today. Hope they don’t bounce! I guess I have to wait a year to be sure. Also, I got my $10 Target gift card from Mypoints. I got the gift card in my mail approx. 5 days after I redeemed the points.
STAY AWAY FROM MY POINTS!
We have a virus on our computer at home, so my girlfriend logged in for me at work.
How convenient that now that we have enough points to redeem they’ve closed our accounts.
They say that you can only have one account per person, so don’t sign up a spouse or share a computer with anyone else or they’ll rip you off too ..
They totally suck.
We’ve both been members for over 4 years, maybe they’re just tired of paying out and are saving some money.
anyone know anything about Cash Lagoon?
Hmmmm… no one talks abt bux to. It seems to be a more promising PTC of the lot so far. I have not received any payments from them though I have requested payout some 2 weeks ago.
I was with Ad Bux. I didn’t have many referrals and I did the math… i think it would take me at least 3 months of daily clickings to get payout. So, I just stopped clicking. I stopped clicking on Inbox, Ad Buddy, Clixsense, hits4pay, guessnow, and fairytales. i’m still with MyPoints, survey spot, and my2cents.
actually, i haven’t received any e-mails from hits4pay since Halloween 2007. hmm.. i wonder if it got closed down???
you know I havnt gotten any e-mails from them either and I complained to them several times.They basically said it was because I needed to revise my profile(change the type of e-mails I recieve). Now I get less.I am so close to getting paid and it only took me 1 year.
I know it’s nice to get a cheque in the post folks, but seriously, reading all these posts - you could earn as much in two hours working at McDonalds as you are with these rip off companies in a month!!
I tried surveys and emails, and never received a damn thing! All that time wasted while they get your opinions and hard work and make millions of $$$ from it!
My hope is that one day, these firms will be held accountable and MADE to pay out instantly to online processors such as PayPal, for every piece of work submitted.
Or at the very least, they should be offering a higher rate of pay GUARANTEED by law!
Don’t waste your time with this crap folks!
Haven’t tried Inbox Dollars yet but one site that I am having great luck with is http://www.cashduck.com. It has been very easy to use and keep up with. You can do a small amount a day to earn feathers which eventually translate into gift cards to tons of retailers (just as good as check IMHO). It’s been very successful for me so far and I would recommend people trying it.
Let me know if you need more information.
I’ve been reading the paid emails from InboxDollars for almost two years now–think I started in March of 06. I now have like $32.15 in my account now. Not much but it is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. I’m keeping it up as long as I can. Like Donna I was a bit perturbed at the $3 processing charge for the check, but I went into InboxDollars with the knowledge that it wasn’t the same as a job or a get rich quick thing. It’s just little extra money thing on the side and it feels great to check the “current earnings” section after you read the emails and see the amount go up. No, it’s not like a steady income, but it is a little something and I believe if you’re the kind of person like me who looks at email and the internet alot anyway, that this is definitely worth your time.
Hey do they have that “reading the paid emails” thing in Malaysia as well..
Need some extra income man!
I have read most of your comments and I am a member of inboxdollars and very happy with my results.i have been a member for three months and have been paid twice you must spend the time to take a survey with there site to get paid $1 a day and if you are not excepted to take a survey you can take more and make it your goal to get that dollar.but I also play games for dollars.and fill out some of the 100% free offers.My referrals are getting larger but I am have not seen results there yet. but the real secret to making money with paid to read sites is to be signed up with several that pay like this one has for me and if you want proof .I would happy to send show you.
Well Steve, I guess you have nothing better to do with your time than read emails for 3cents at a time and focus on that goal of getting $1!
I’m sorry, NOT, but anyone who tries to justify this SCAM is an absolute idiot!
You can make more money in one hour at a fast food restaurant than you will make with Inbox Dollars in a YEAR!! Do you REALLY think that’s okay?
I know I don’t!
Lift your life up people, focus higher and realise that you are being USED and ABUSED by this company!
In other words: GET A LIFE! $30 in two years? Well WHOOPEEFRICKINDOODEE! I make that in an HOUR!
Did you even read my review?
Hell, just read the last line and you can get the overall gist of it all.
Yes, I read your review, it was sent to me as an email by this website. And the fact that you are sitting there waiting for responses shows you obviously have NO LIFE! So, go ahead, keep clicking on those 3 cent clicks! The fact that you’re using several of these companies means you must be making all of 12cents an hour!
Wake up and smell the html!
I meant to add…the FACT that you wrote a reply within ONE MINUTE of my post going up shows that you are really really hoping to justify this program. The reality is though, that nothing you say can!
It’s a SCAM - don’t be so gullible!!
Wow. Just wow.
For starters, I don’t have an account there and I haven’t even visited the site since I wrote this review, which ends NEGATIVELY. “I don’t know about you, but I have better things to do than click on an advertisement once a day for the next 2 years just to receive $30.” How can you possibly take this as me actively promoting Inboxdollars? There isn’t even a link to the website anywhere on this page! I ended the review by saying I’ve closed my account and won’t be going back! I take it you actually didn’t read past the first paragraph.
Secondly, all comments are forwarded to my email address and I happened to be sending one as you posted your comment. What’s your excuse for the three minute reply from you?
Bernie, didn’t your parents ever teach you the value of a dollar? NO, like I said before, you’re not going to sign up for an account with Inbox Dollars and, within hours, be making hundreds of dollars. And you DON’T HAVE TO BUY THE STUFF! You find me someone else who will offer you even 3 cents to read anything! And, yes Bernie, you can make more at a job. That’s why you must realize that Inbox Dollars is NOT like a job. But you must ask yourself, how hard is it? Working at a “fast food restaurant”, in most cases, requires you to take all sorts of crap from stupid customers and be worked to death for low wages. Inbox Dollars just requires you to click on their emails. Of course it doesn’t pay much but it DOES pay some and that’s my point! Of course $30 in two years is peanuts, but IT IS SOMETHING! It’s kind of like saving aluminum cans and cashing them in, don’t you see? Every little bit helps! And as for your comment about people who read the emails not having a life, that’s just plain not true. Even someone who is very busy has time to check and read their email. Go find something else to gripe about, Bernie. Inbox Dollars is only a scam if you let it be a scam.
Bernie my my now aren’t we a little hostile. No one is promoting this site as if its going to be enough to retire on. Just a few extra bucks.Now on the other hand you are more than welcome to come home every night smelling like a taco, but lets gets real here, who in their right mind is going to go out to work and waste gas for less than $8 an hour. I’d rather sit home in jammies and click in my spare time.I’ve known Steve for a while now way before you came on board and if you come to this site looking for a fight dont. I’ve known Steve since the beginning and everyone here is a family here to help each other.If I want nasty I can call my father in Florida.
STEVE KUDOS AS ALWAYS.
just was sharing my results!! and thanks to those of you that have joined under me in inboxdollars from this site last nignt!!
Damnit, Steve. I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times: don’t poke the caged monkeys! I turn my back for five minutes and here you are picking fights again.
Okay, just realized that there is another user here going by the name of ’steve’
All replies by ‘Steve’ are by the owner, me. All replies by ’steve’ are from some random guy who apparently is for InboxDollars.
Apologies.
Bernie apparently has too much time on his hands and he accuses Steve of that. Bernie dear, you keep answering don’t you have anything beter too do? At least at this moment I can admit I have nothing better to do.
Janice, yeah, I DO have a LOT of time on my hands, because I don’t have to go to a regular J.O.B. like the rest of you!
I work from HOME!
It seems that perhaps you are not capable of reading long sentences, but try and go back and read my last posts and recall how much money I make in a WEEK! Easily and effortlessly, from the internet for just three or four hours a DAY!
Yeah, I have a LOT of spare time on my hands which means I get to spend a lot more time with my son instead of missing out on him growing up! AND he’s learning how to make money too instead of going through the usual drone channels, only to finish education, get a J.O.B. and make someone else rich!
And there really is NO POINT in arguing with people like you if you’re going to keep deleting posts!
If you can’t win an argument, then why bother wasting your own time trying to LOOK like you know what you’re doing!?
Have fun, won’t be back this way again, but I WILL be checking my Clickbank account everyday to see how much I make! (Incidently, going to be a GREAT month this month, as I’m averaging $380+ PER DAY!!)
Good luck with your Inbox Dollars SCAM!
Bernie, if you’re really making big money working from home, why not tell everybody else how you’re doing it? No, seriously, I believe I speak for everyone when I say we’d all love to hear how it works? It sounds nice.
You know Bernie you really do have a problem.Was your goal to come here to argue with people? Don’t bother trying to insult my intelligence thats useless. At this point I can assure everyone especially myself that I have a higher IQ than you.I hope you do not take your anger issues out on your son like you do here.
As for what I do, I love where I am, love my job, and who I work with and for.
As for lack of time thats because I run around with my daughter who is a trained dancer,has classes,rehearsals and auditions.When my daughter has a TV performance we go.I follow my daughters drive, passion, and gift.And its my pleasure.
My JOB allows me to come and go as I need to.With pay.Any yes my daughter is going to college majoring in dance and journalism and will one day have the words to write about losers like you.
I dont delete posts, and I’ve already won the argument, because doing what you are doing doesn’t deem happiness, and I am happy.If what you deem happiness also includes your nasty mouth and attitude,then you are not successful but then again I am.
OK Steve…Joe what is this guy still doing here??????
Janice, for the entertainment value, of course.
I don’t know what the deleting posts reference is about. We only delete posts if you call people names or include affiliate links or other spam.
His comments have been picked up by the spam filter as spam due to the link he sues with his name. I’m tired of editing it out, so they remain in the spam folder.
Janice, unless you have an IQ of 158 or more, then you don’t have an IQ higher than mine. Average is 110 btw.
“Don’t bother trying to insult my intelligence thats useless.” - you ain’t wrong!
And for your obvious misguided judgement Janice, my goal of coming here was to let as many people as possible know what a complete waste of time and effort Inbox Dollars really is!!
“My JOB allows me to come and go as I need to.With pay.Any yes my daughter is going to college majoring in dance and journalism and will one day have the words to write about losers like you.”
point: *Any = And - and you have a high IQ huh?
And as for your daughter writing about me, well, that may be possible in the future, but more likely about how I’ve been a complete SUCCESS in my last 20 years since losing my own daughter and turning my life around!
I live in a beautiful country abroad, nice sunny weather almost everyday. I work from home, I employ college graduates for a year at a time in my Cultural Exchange program here, giving them free flights from and to their home country btw, so they can experience things in life at their young age that I couldn’t when I was their age!
“I dont delete posts, and I’ve already won the argument, because doing what you are doing doesn’t deem happiness, and I am happy.If what you deem happiness also includes your nasty mouth and attitude,then you are not successful but then again I am.
OK Steve…Joe what is this guy still doing here??????”
I never said YOU deleted the posts, so don’t jump to conclusions. And if you really think you’ve ‘won’, that’s fine. I have dealt with people like you many times in my life and I guarantee one thing, you will always want to have the last word and feel that you have the upperhand.
As for “what you are doing doesn’t deem happiness”…ummmm, okay, you’ve completely lost me there….I’m ECSTATIC that I make around $3000 a WEEK working from HOME! And let’s not forget the $75,000 plus a year I make from the Cultural Exchange business too! (which incidentally, the profits of which go to local charities!).
You have a very strange idea about people Janice.
The only one who seems to need anger management classes here would be yourself. As for suggesting I abuse my son…I think it’s you who has the nasty mouth, not me.
Good luck with your little 3cent clicks, let me know when you make as much in a month as I do,by doing them and I’ll come groveling back begging for forgiveness for speaking freely and trying to keep decent people from wasting their time.
Steve, I changed the website, I guarantee you it isn’t an affiliate link.
Holly…I believe I already did tell you how you can make money, but the post was deleted.
I have several ways online - Clickbank, Ebay and Egold are just three good earners for me.
With a good friend in Hawaii (where he lives, not me) we help others set up their online communications systems for their businesses.
My hosting site has been in operation for a year and I usually give free hosting accounts to low income earners trying to pull themselves up financially by starting some type of online web business. (Sorry Janice, I don’t give them to adult sites or those that have show gory content - just thought I should mention that before you jump over that next conclusion!)
And I build content sites for niche businesses and startups.
Those are just some of the things I do to make a great living. There’s no reason why anyone here can’t do the same - but believing that $30 for two year’s worth of clicks is justified??? Please, don’t make me laugh!
Oh, and occasionally I buy and sell domain names. Sometimes I develop them into sites, sometimes I don’t.
Buying a domain name for $9 and selling it for $100’s or $1000’s is an INDESCRIBABLE feeling! Yeah, yeah, I know you think I’m talking rubbish, but the domain name market is going to be huge by 2010. Most of the names I buy sell for $25~$50 or so, but when you’re selling 10 or more a month, it’s a nice little earner!
Bernie: thank you for sharing your methods of making money online and the Cultural Exchange Program. I’ve heard people making money through clickbank and ebay also (it’s my first time hearing egold). i’m curious, did it take you long to get a hang of doing the clickbank and ebay (and egold)?
Bernie, was it really that hard to just provide information instead of all the bitter name calling? You and I do very similar work and it sounds like you can provide a lot of insight into what you do. I know it’s extremely profitable and in high-demand right now and more power to you for taking the initiative to work for yourself.
Also, don’t confuse me with ’steve’ from above. He’s a random commenter. I’m the post author and I too am against InboxDollars.
Julia - thanks for your question.
Ebay is pretty easy once you get around it several times. Unless you have something unique to sell, or perhaps something you know someone else could use - like books, vehicles, software, etc, I don’t recommend selling just anything you can get your hands on. In the early days, I looked for anything and everything to sell - big mistake.
On Ebay, you’ll notice that many sellers have unique items such an antique of some sort or a new technology that just recently came on the market. They are successful because they found their niche market to sell to. Ebay is a great business to have from home, but can be hard work, and it isn’t the great shop in the sky it once used to be.
Egold is okay, and I have made thousands of dollars by using them, but again, it’s getting harder to earn money with them due to overflow of people using them. Also, they are heading for a law suit in April of this year. They were accused of being a Ponzi Scheme by a businessman who lost millions of dollars with them - although it was his own fault for not watching the markets close enough.
With clickbank, you simply find products you want to market and they give you an affiliate ID. You can easily change your ID to look like a more professional webpage. You’ll need to go to a domain name seller and check if the name you want is available. For example, if my affiliate ID is something like: http://myidhere.producthere.hop.clickbank.net/
I can then buy a name from a seller (I use namecheap.com), so let’s say I buy http://www.superllama.com, I can then redirect it through the name seller or where ever I decide to ‘park’ that name while I own it, to show the clickbank ad.
Now I’ll grant you, to make any decent kind of money, you’ll need to have a lot of ads on a lot of pages, but this is no longer the tedious task it used to be, thanks to a new product called Clickbank Buddy. It changes and rotates ads for you automatically on every web page you have them!
The best thing I like about Clickbank is, it’s FREE to join and you can be advertising in mere minutes. Yes, it does take time to start to see money coming in, but once you get into it, it is so easy to do.
I hope this helps.
STEVE - if I offended anyone I apologize - to you.
Clickbank is, by far, the best affiliate program to join in terms of tracking and reporting. Their member center can easily run circles around Google, Commission Junction, or any other affiliate/PPC programs.
The biggest (only?) downfall with Clickbank is that at any time, for any reason, a previous customer can request a refund (again for any reason, even ‘no reason’ is sufficient!) and instantly receive their money back and still retain the product in their possession. As an advertiser, Clickbank covers for this by keeping a percentage of your paycheck each month as ‘allowance,’ but as a publisher, if someone requests a refund your SOL. For me, this is the biggest problem plaguing Clickbank at this point in time.
Bernie thank you very much for the information. I may check into clickbank as a result of your comment. I know you’re not worried about my opinion, which I understand that, but I’m beginning to think you’re a pretty nice guy!
Thank you Holly - I am! I just wish someone would tell my wife that! lol
The thing to remember with things like Clickbank et al, is that it does take time to see money flowing into your account. And as Steve said, if a customer wants a refund, you lose your commissions in the process. It’s only happened to me once, a few years ago, so it’s not a common occurrence.
Use the tutorials on Clickbank - they make all the difference when choosing which products you want to promote!
I also recommend ‘Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business On The Internet’ by Corey Rudl (actually I think it’s now owned by his old friend as sadly, Corey was killed in a car crash shortly after I bought my copy of his guide in 2005). You can probably find a used or new copy of that on eBay for much less than it is sold for on the actual site at marketingtips.com - just remember though, if you buy it from ebay, you won’t be covered by the guarantees that the original site gives you.
It’s a GREAT publication, easy reading despite there being TWO folders to go through and they supply you with free DVDs to guide you too.
As it says in a part of the guide: “The key here is NOT to be greedy and think one product or idea will make you rich. It’s to go after small markets with small profits - building each business and THEN automating it so it is almost completely handsfree.”
I found this publication extremely helpful and saw just why I wasn’t making any money on the internet during the 1990’s!
Have a great day and I apologize to you too for being a bit hasty with my prior burbling!
Thank you! to both Bernie and Steve
this is first time i been in here. i happened to stumble on this site somehow & started reading/scanning thru these posts. im with inbox, send earnings & mypoints right now.
inbox i been with for about 3 months & already got $32 which i know i can ask for payout on but havent done it yet. i got this money mostly thru cash surveys & 100% free offers & of course clicking on emails.
mypoints i been with for years have gotten merchandise from them with the points so they are very reputable.
send earnings been with for 3 months but its a little slower getting money cause i think inbox & send are almost the same & have same advertisers etc so when you sign up for offers at one you cant sign up for the same offers at the other.
hope you all dont mind a newbie giving opinion. have a good day everyone.
Hi,
i have been with inbox and sendearnings for over a year now, i have recieved a check for over 35 dollars and up every month alternating with inbox and sendearnings (one month from sendearnings, next month from inbox and so on). thats just with doing 1 survey a day with both (each one =$1.00). surveys can be from 5 to 20 min. long. if you join both you will get paid every month. you won’t make money just clicking on emails, you have to do the surveys, use the emails as extra change. i have no complaints with them (well…maybe the 3.00 processing fee).
I’ve been with MyPoints for almost 5 years. I don’t do as much shopping online as I used to, so it takes a little longer to get points, but it’s still worth it to me. Two clicks and you get points, more for registering on sites, signing up for news letters, shopping, etc. I’ve probably earned AT LEAST one $50 gift card per month in the past 5 yrs, more before Christmas, graduation parties, etc., when I shop alot. In my house, that helps-I send them to the kids (all in college!!)and they get to eat out or buy themselves something.
Let me start by explaining that I am writing this on a laptop whose space bar is wrecked by my kids playing games, hence any run-together words left that I missed, please excuse my lack of time to keep correcting the problem by editing every occurence.
Having read all the post in this thread, I like a happy ending.
The problem was with perception, both parties are correct, to someone like Bernie, it is a waste of time they can use to earn far more by doing other things.
To someone like me (in the past) it might(seem to) be the only way we can easily derive some money for time spent on the Internet.
I did PTC / GPT a few years ago, I also supplied a service (proofreading and revenue advice and a shoulder to cry on) to some of the webmasters running these in the past, but only those that did not seem like scams.
Yet I stopped after a while as they ALL folded up after a while if they only relied on advertising to pay people to read the ads.
Many, like the “Turner Clickbux family” sites ended up as scams, and even some like MayaPaid4Mails started out honourably but dissappeared due to insolvency (and the lovely webmistress dying of cancer).
The conclusion, as one who WASTED too much time on GPT is, they are a waste of time IF you can spend that time doing a real physical job paid for by an employer, or as Bernie does, makes real money from a lucrative niche on the web. They can also so easily end up folding due to being planned badly from the start and folding up and vanishing from insolvency, so you spend all the time and at the end near payout, find they have gone and you do not get paid.
However, InboxDollars seems to have been around for ages so must have something going for it. It is just I have made a decision that I do not want to spend time on this particular one, I already waste enough time on MutualPoints, and have no time to spare for any more of this kind of scheme.
I agree that surveys are the better way to add to your income, both on INBOXDOLLARS and under your own control.
There is nothing to stop you signing up to a site like the ones listed on my website, and get all of the money for doing a survey instead of only a fraction that may be paid from a GPTD (get paid to do) site.
The best survey sites used to include Saros for the UK only, and YouGov, for UK, US only, but I no longer recruit for YouGov as they have done something to their site and I did not like the way the earnings from recruits just suddenly stopped as soon as they changed the referral code they supplied, and how there seemed to be so many problems with bugs in the surveys all of a sudden which stopped me earning much.
Global Test Market is good as it gives you points (that exchange into money) for attempting a survey, even if you do not complete it because you do not fit the profile wanted for that survey, (obviously if you do complete it you get a lot more). This is rare enough amongst survey sites to make them worth joining just for that.
HiPoints is another like that, funnily enough I do not have a link to them on my site, partly because they have stopped paying for recruiting new memebrs for them. I would join them as wellif I were you.
What irritates me is those sites that you start a survey and plough through it for 5 minutes only to suddenly be told that you are not wanted and you will not get paid for the time you spent. I suspect that they stilluse the information you gave them for some purpose, and have got it for free!
Ciao is one of those kinds of sites,I am STILL a member but usually delete their surveys as bordering on scam waste of my time for nothing. Having said that, I have been paid several times £5 when I finally accumulated enough for the rare times I decided to try a survey and was allowed to finish and not rejected, so they are not a scam as such, just very annoying! They were taken over by Greenfield Online, an organisation about which not a lot of good things have been said in the past, as you may find out if you Google them.
I now cover my broadband expenses with my owne paid survey information sites, some affiliate earnings,and Google Ads revenue.
Not any where near as successful as Bernie, but then I have a new full time job that I am having to learn so much for, that I could not spend the time yet to develop it into a full time self-employed job. Nor would I have the guts to, possibly as I have not got the talent for being self-employed, I need direction as my old boss said while kicking me out into the new job I now have.
Any road up, as they say “oop ‘t North” of the country, I belong to MutualPoints, the bought-out UK version of My Points (which it was originally called in the UK) and have had a few payments from them just from reading their emails.
It takes about 6 months or more to get £20 ($40) but if you are clearing mailboxes, why not get paid to flick through them before deleting them anyway?
My philosophy is that if you have to wait 2 years for £50 (as YouGov used to be for me) and 6-9 months for £20 from MutualPoints, and a year for Global Test Market $50 or for HiPoints to send a $50 GloboGift voucher (converts to an Argos £25 if the exchange rate is right), and so on, then in the end, if you are just spending a few minutes a day extra, not having to leave the house (travel time to and from an external physical job is non paid and non productive) then why not?
Think of it another way, if someone came up to you and said they wanted you to throw away £100 a year you would object.
Not collecting the easy money from the right sort of scheme that can still be found amongst all the scams and time wasters on the Internet, is almost like refusing the offer of money, or throwing money away, nobody would normally do so.
The problem comes from what is called Opportunity Cost in Economics, Bernie is right, if you have the time spare, and can get an activity that pays 10 or 100 times more than 3 cents a minute, then have a rethink about what you are doing. The cost of doing the email clicking is actually the loss of the larger amount of money you could potentially be earning doing something better for the same length of time.
Well, I have rambled on enough, doubt anyone will bother to get to the bottom of this, so I might as well stop now.
Philip: Thank you for the comment/reply. You provided detailed information and exactly explained why people (including myself) do GPT. I did finish reading your comment/reply. =)
Well Inbox dollars was decent until 2008. they removed one of the refferal bonuses (when your contacts click on paid emails you would recieve 10%)…They also decrease the 1.00 survey reward to .50 cents…while they themselves pocket I believe about 10-5 dollars from each survey taken by their customers.
I have received a check from them, and I am close to a second..but after this one I will close my account. Simply not worth it anymore.
I think that Inbox Dollars has gone to cheating people. I received an offer for Entertainment Book. If I purchased the book for $9.99 plus S&H, Inbox would credit my account with $8.
That was over two weeks ago. Numerous E mails to Inbox, telephone calls and E mails to Entertainment, and all I have gotten is the runaround. I think that Inbox has gotten very bad in that they are not giving you any of the credit you have earned!
Hi Pat, if you read my comments on Aug 2 and Aug 24, you will see that i have trouble getting my “stamps.com” credit from InboxDollars as well. i finally did get credit through trouble ticket submission. as you can see… it took around 20 days! i already cash in on inboxdollars and no longer active with them. but be sure to get that $8!
I am close to cashing out for my first check, suddenly my account comes up as inactive. I normally get four to five emails per day, and after two days of none, went to check on my account and found it marked inactive. Went through and updated profile, waited for the confirmation email, nothing. Whats going on? Anyone have any suggestions?
I have been with indollars for 6 months now and have accumulated $26.01. Now they stopped sending me e-mails and they do not have any more surveys for me and today I can’t even get to there site. Maybe its because I am close to the $30.00 i need to get a check.
I been with inbox dollars for about two months. I already reached the $30. I requested my check and they take off $3 for some fee. When i first joined i earned $5. After you request your first check, you’re automatically a gold star member. This gives you more emails, more referral points, more surveys, etc. The only reason why I earned money in so little time is because I ordered supplies for my company through the shopping feature. Inbox dollars isn’t a scam. The check does take a long time to process. If $30 isn’t enough money for you, just wait until you reach $100. I think $100 dollars is worth waiting for.
Erm… Ive made almost 300.00 with Inbox Dollars, mostly by doing surveys, answering emails, getting referrals and signing up for programs and canceling before they charge. Its not that difficult to remember to cancel. You just keep a log of who and what you signed up with. And in the event you forget to write it down, inbox dollars keeps their own logs FOR you. Its not that difficult really. Its all about being responsible.
Sounds like a case of sour grapes to me.
I should have over $100 just in time to request it for extra christmas cash. I get about $100 a year just playing around with it whenever I feel like it and don’t have anything else to do. I do get my checks and I can cash them. that’s all I really care about. Ever since surfing took all my money I haven’t been playing at anything online to make money. Adsense is never going to pay out, surveys are a waste of time for a 54 year old white woman with a grown child, pay per blog post is not worth the effort. I’m thinking about doing product reviews. I have something supposed to be coming in the mail to review. Should be interesting if it pans out. that’s about it for me.
I have some suggestions.
Looking at your blog you should qualify for PayPerPost and Bloggerwave with less problems than I had.
That should get you at least $20 from PPP and $10 from BloggerWave just for adding their recruiting post to your site.
Even my poor site has had a couple of recruits as well. Depends if $30-$50 is worth your time spent on it from your point of view.
Your BLOG has a rank 4! That should get you about 80% of the paid post opportunities, some are worth up to $135 an article!
Wish I had a blog as good as yours, I am envious.
If you reconsider paid posting opportunities, please feel free to join from my blog articleonthe 2 sites mentioned.
http://bloggblogg.blogspot.com/
Contact me for more ideas around Adsense for a start.
Phil.
Am currently with InboxDollars. The intial credits were prompt, but have mysteriously stopped as I started to get close to the magic $30 number!
Haven’t yet received credit from several offers, including “Stamps.com”($5), “NetFlix”($10) and numerous other $1-$2 offers.
Hard to believe it is coincidence, just as I am getting close to the $30 mark.
I smell a scam.