With so many companies operating on the Internet, it can be hard for each individual company to stand out. One very cheap and effective way is to get other people to do their marketing for them and for this they are more than willing to pay you.
Some companies pay you simply to accept advertising on your screen while on-line, with the potential to earn further sums by getting other people to sign up under you while others pay you to read e-mails, or complete surveys.
Other companies encourage you to spread the word by paying you commission on sales. Until recently this almost exclusively related to US companies with payment in dollars but there are now several companies paying out on UK sites in sterling.
Alternatively, you can earn from simply referring people to sign up for various schemes. You either get an initial payment or qualifying points, or you receive credit when the first order is placed.
Whenever giving your details online in this way, I would suggest you open a separate free e-mail account to keep your personal address private. Many companies offer free services, so you don’t need to rely on hotmail with their junk mail problems. For me, the best service around is from Yahoo. Not only do you get a huge inbox – currently 100MB but shortly to be increased to 250MB – and can send and receive messages up to 10MB but you also get:
Virus scanning
To help keep you safe, Yahoo! Mail partners with Norton AntiVirusT to scan all incoming messages and alert you to harmful viruses.
SpamGuard
By helping put spam in its place – your Bulk folder – SpamGuard frees you to focus on the messages that really matter, without automatically deleted messages that may not be spam..
Filters and blocked addresses
Set up to 15 filters to stay organised. If you don’t want mail from specific senders, you can block up to 100 addresses.
free survey directory
Web Surfing
Companies have realised that they can earn more advertising revenue if they share it with the people who are viewing the ads. By encouraging people to sign up with an incentive of cash, viewing figures are far higher than any new company could ever hope to achieve normally. Predominantly American in origin,these are no longer as lucrative as the market has become saturated, but worth considering if you are in a position to refer others.
Options available fall into three main categories:
1. Getting paid simply for being on-line. Here you place a small ad bar on your screen which remains there whilst on line, showing a rotation of ads. You get paid per hour for the time on line, and also receive referral income on the time online of your down line.
2. Get paid to read e-mail or complete surveys. You complete a questionnaire when you sign up and whenever you meet the advertisers criteria you are sent an e-mail. You acknowledge the e-mail, usually by visiting the advertiser’s site, or completing a survey and get paid accordingly.
3. Get paid to surf or view ads. This is much more time consuming in that you get paid only when you visit advertisers’ sites, or use a particular company’s search engine for your browsing. Worth considering if you spend a lot of time browsing or are already on line, maybe downloading a file or simply have unmetered access.
For a selection of the opportunities available in the UK, click here
Affiliate Schemes
If you have your own website, many companies will pay you to have links to their site. In some cases you will be paid simply for the number of visitors. However in most cases you will earn a commission on sales made as a result of the link. Always free to join, although some may wish to vet your site first, and extremely easy to set up as the companies provide you with all the coding and graphics you need.
Click here for a selection of opportunities available.
Miscellaneous Opportunities
Even without a website, providing you have Internet access, there are ways to earn from other companies.
QNA Surveys
Whilst not available to everyone, if you’re an IT or Business professional in any business sector (includes most people running their own business) one site I’d strongly recommend is QNA. Once you join QNA, every survey you take earns a financial reward. You can either collect it personally in the form of Amazon or Virgin vouchers or donate it to one of their partner charities. Unlike other sites where you might wait weeks for payments, you can expect to receive your Amazon vouchers within an hour of completion (working hours only) with Virgin vouchers being posted out to you the next day! The one I completed yesterday has already paid me £5 and took no more than a couple of minutes to complete.
An online survey will carry an incentive of £5 or £10 (the typical online survey will be worth £10) with telephone surveys paying £5 to £10 and face-to-face interviews or focus groups offering a reward of £25 to £75
As a member your name is placed in the QNA Monthly Draw – whether you have completed a survey in that month or not. The prize is usually a typical “must-have” techno-gadget such as the latest iPod.
