$ 1 Per Click!

I was a certified MLM aficionado, Clickbank affiliate, a paid to surf babe, cycler enthusiast and what-have-you before I started to blog. I was quite active with my legal (and not so legal) marketing schemes because of the promise of a quick buck. Okay. I got burned. The MLMs and cyclers will earn you money if you were on the top of the pyramid. Ooppsss!!! I said it! The MLMs and cyclers are modified pyramid and Ponzi schemes. The paid to surf , pay-per-click and read email stuff were more like it but the returns were too slow. Pay up is something like 5 to 10 cents per click or read and even less in paid to surf. Clickbank could bring in the big bucks if you know where and how to market the products. The thing is Clickbank has a 30-day return of goods and when that happens, the affiliate loses money. So! I brushed my hands off those things. However, I chanced on these two pay-to-click sites that pay $1 per click! What the heck?! I joined! Hop over the sites and check them out.

Safelist's Saga

I was clearing my desk this afternoon when I chanced upon the three old notebooks that I used when I was involved in internet marketing. These notebooks contained my accounts and passwords to the various programs that I have joined in my short 2-year stint in online money making schemes.

I was doing advertising through e-mail marketing and paid ads on surf sites. I was actually shocked to find out that during the peak of my crazy internet episode I was a member of about 10,000 safelists. Now, you may ask, what the heck is a safelist?

A safelist is a type of e-mail marketing and advertising where the members signed-up and agreed to receive each others messages of advertising. Usually, the safelist administration reserves the right to mail its members. A member logs in into his account and types in his ads and send it to the safelist's members. Types of safelists include: Paid, Credit Based and Free.

I did not actually log-in to each of my accounts. I had three safelist submitters where I just typed in my ads and have it sent to available safelists of the day. Being a member to more than 10,000 safelists translated to approximately 100,000++ sent e-mails. Sometimes, I pay extra for a one-time send to 5 million e-mail addresses. Effective?

I sent 4,000 credit mailer with the subject Check this Out. A credit mailer gives you credit to advertise once you view an advertiser's site. Anyway, out of the 4,000 email ads I sent only 56 emails were credited or clicked through. That is only 1.4 % of 4,000 which means the click-through rate is not good.

Maybe the heading was not catchy enough. The content of the ad, none . All I wrote in the ad was my blog's URL. Anyway, the experiment resulted in 56 additional surprised (as in what the heck am I doing viewing this blog?) visitors to my site.

Scam 101

You won the sum of £1 000,000.00 GBP from our monthly Uk Lottery Promotion,

you are hereby adviced to
get back to us, to claim your prize.
Contact: Dr.Frank Millan
Email:claims.uklottery2008@yahoo.de

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Your email address has won $4.6M from the UK Lottery online draws
held on the 18th April 2008 Lucky Number:MX014926583
Contact Mr. Jonathan Ong with your official name,country,address,sex/age,
tel,occupation,date of draw on(jonathanong20000@yahoo.com.hk)
Tel+447045772228 for delivery of your cheque
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Your E-Address was selected for category B in this weeks
InternationalUnited Kingdom Lotto programme.
These are your details.Your draw has a total value of
One Million Pounds(£1,000.000.00).
ticket number:56475600545188fileXYL/26510460037/05

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Overnight, I won a total of 2 million pounds and 4.6 million dollars. That is according to the three e-mails I received. These e-mails are, obviously, fraudulent. You might agree with me that nobody in their right mind will believe these scams. Believe me, there are countless victims world wide.

This e-mail scam is similar to the Nigerian Advance Fee Scheme. You will be asked to send your personal details. Once you've done that , the scammer might stop since he has your details which could translate to identity theft or he might proceed with the next step. If the scammer continues, then his next step would be to ask you for processing fess which could amount anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000.

My first experience with this kind of scam was in 2001, although I've been using the internet,(dial-up internet connection with a speed of 28 kbs ?) since 1998. I received a letter from a certain woman who claimed she was dying of cancer. She said she found my e-mail add from a church organization data base. Being naive to scams, I answered her e-mail. She said she was going to leave me $ 48 million because she has no family and relatives to leave the money to. Taking into consideration my-no-knowledge of scams, who would not fall for that? Mirriam, that was her scam name, sent me phone numbers and addresses where I can reach her solicitor.

I e-mailed the solicitor and he said that I need to forward my personal details and about $15,000 for processing and transfer fees. The large amount of fees set me thinking. I became wary and I asked my cousin who is a lawyer. He said that the scam is commonly known as Nigerian 419 which started (through slow mail) in the early 80's. Poof! goes my $48 M.

There are so many scam programs in the net today. There are MLMs, affiliate marketing, money randomizer and cycler, surf sites, pay per click or view and others. Be wary. Practice diligence.