Warning Signs

As most of you in the PTC industry know, sites disappear at an alarming rate. Most sites disappear after only 2 to 3 months. Today we are going to look at three fairly large sites that have disappeared or gone off-line recently to see if we can discover some warning signs that would help us evaluate other sites that may be in trouble.

Lets first start off with CrewBux.com. This was a very large and honest site for a long time. However, about 2 months ago they stopped paying their members. At first, the payments were pushed back, then back again and again. Finally the site just stopped making payments to almost all of their members. They continued to have post about a few members being paid; however, most members were NOT getting paid. Reviews of their forum showed that members were complaining about payments and no support. So, the warning sign here is if a site is pushing its payment time back then they are not bringing in enough funds to cover the members payment requests. In addition, check a sites forum, if members are complaining that they are not being paid, BEWARE!

For the second site, we will take a brief look at Clickin.me. This site came online around late July 08 and had tons of ads all over the industry. They grew at a great rate and where up to 60,000 members in roughly 2 months. At first they paid everyone quickly. However, at about the 2 month point, they came up with wire transfer payments instead of using the industry standard of paypal or alertpay. This required members to submit their bank account information which most people did not feel comfortable with. A clear sign that they were trying to get people to just cancel their accounts. In addition, the length of time to set up the wire transfer was quoted as from 4 to 16 weeks. Another clear method of stalling payments. During this time, the sites stats for payments sent did not go up by any noticeable amount. Then in Sept. they disappeared. The warning sign here is that if a site comes up with some strange payment method or with a lengthly set up time, beware!

Last of all let's look at 07bux.net. This was another large site that clearly went scam. At first, this site went off line and then came back with a new script. They told everyone that they could not upgrade the old database into the new script, so everyone lost their earnings, referrals, and accounts. They just riped people off. Several sites have tried this approach lately, for example clickptc.us used this method of scamming people only a month ago. This is a clear sign that the site is riping you off and is in trouble. Thankfully, the members on 07bux sent in tons of disputes to Alertpay. Alertpay has since blocked their account. They lost their account with paypal a few months ago for the same reason, members complained that they were not getting what they paid for. This has made it very hard for 07bux to operate; so, the site is currently down. There are two warning signs here, the site losing the right to use either paypal or alertpay and trying the new script scam.

If any site you are working with shows any of these warning signs, you should not invest in that site until you are sure they are legit.

Warning signs:
1. Pushing payments back
2. New strange payment methods or lengthly setup times.
3. Losing Paypal or Alertpay
4. New script so you need to start a new account because we can not use the old database.

How to make money on a PTC site

You will never make good money on a PTC site unless you have referrals. If the only person adding money to your account is you, you will only make .05 to .15 per day; this is not even worth your time. However, each referral can add from .02 to .07 to your account every day (assuming you are only a standard member). Referrals are the keys to making real money on a PTC site and you should focus your efforts on getting referral instead of clicking the ads. You have two options on how to get referrals. One, you can buy them from the site. I never buy the referrals, they are simply to expensive and it is easy to get your own referrals. The other choice is to get your own.

How to get your own: Find several other PTC sites that are using the aurora script and that are large and active. Active users are the key to any successful PTC site. The reason I suggest aurora scripts is because most of the sites using this script have relatively cheap advertising cost and give you a great amount of control over your ad credits. Once you have found several good cheap active sites to advertise on, place your ads on as many sites as your budget allows. Start off small, and focus on one or two sites to promote. As you get paid from the PTC site, use part of your earnings to place more ads.

You will have to continue to place ads if you want to continue to make money on any PTC site. The reason for this is because your referrals will quit. 90% of people who join a PTC site never get referrals and they wind up quiting. After just a few days, people start to quit and the percentage increase every day by about 3% on average. This is what most of the PTC site owners are banking on; people quiting before they ever make it to payout and roughly 90% do. So, only roughly 10% of the people you get as referrals will stay active on the long term.

How to pick a PTC site for advertising

Remember, the key to making money on PTC sites is getting referrals to do the clicking for you. With this in mind, picking other PTC sites to advertise on is the best way to accomplish this. However, do your research before you purchase advertising credits (also know as ad credits). Before you ever spend a dime, consider the following items:

1) How active is the site?
2) What is the cost of each ad credit?
3) What flexibility do I have with my ad credits?

How active is the site: It is always a good idea to check out how active a site is before you spend any money there. Many sites fake their stats. If the site is a bux-clone site, it is very easy to cleck how active the site is; just make a note of how many clicks the ads have every few day. These numbers will give you a basic idea of how many people are clicking ads every day. On sites using the aurora scripts, it is a little harder. The easiest way is to buy the cheapest amount of ad credits and post an ad. You will know immediately how many clicks your ads are getting. By the next day, you will be able to see how many people are clicking every day. However, we would like to know this BEFORE we spend money. I would go to the sites forum and to simply ask the members there. They should and most likely will help you.

What is the cost of each ad credit? Well, this is an obvious one. Check around for different sites to find the best deal. Remember though, the more active a site is, usually the more expensive the ad credits are.

What flexibility do I have with my ad credits? This is a factor you really need to take into consideration. If you are promoting a PTC site, more than likely you are promoting more than one. You need to be able to change your ads around to take into consideration sites that are more popular than other, sites that disappear or go down, etc. Only sites using the aurora script allow advertisers to add and remove credits to ads, create ads on the spot, and make changes to ads. So, try to focus your advertising dollars to sites using the aurora script.

Paid To Click sites (PTCs)

So what are PTCs? They are sites that pay members to click on ads. Most pay $0.01 per ad and $0.005 for every ad your direct referral clicks. Almost all of these sites have a premium upgrade that gives you a highier rate of pay for your clicks and for that of your referrals. In addition, you can buy referrals from the sites instead of going out and getting them on your own. There are many variations of the theme, but they are all basically the same. However, there are tons of scams out there, so it is very advisable to check a site out before you invest any funds with them. Check to ensure that they pay (I would not invest until they pay me my first payout first), check out their forums to see what members are saying and more importantly, what they are complaining about.

Here are a few of the trusted sites that I have found:

ParadiseClicks.com: This is a great site with many ads and paypal/alertpay pay options. Payrates for ads range from .0025 to .02 depending on the ad and view time.

ParadiseClicks

TheBluesPTC.info: This is a new site that operates like a traffic exchange. Members are only allowed to cash out for ads. However, if you are trying to get referrals for your other programs, this is an excellent way to get advertising for free. There are always over 200 ads per day that range in value from $0.01 to $.05.

TheBluesPTC

Clickingbank.org: This is a great site with tons of payment proofs on their forum. They have 10 to 15 ads per day for standard members and 10 additional ads per day for premium members. Payrates for ads are .01/click and .005/referrals click.

Clickingbank

Clickersheaven.com: This is a site where you can earn big money. However, standard members can only cash out for ads. Premium members can cash out for ads or cash. Payrates are .02/click for standard members and .03/clicks for premium member.

Clickersheaven