SmilingPartners

Every now and again there appears on the internet marketing horizon a new product touting the ability of its promoter to make a full time decent living from just a few minutes a day filling out online surveys. Usually they’re a directory of the places to sign up for these lucrative surveys; there might be some instruction, but not much.

I’ve avoided most of these schemes, but the latest caught my eye, so I forked over my $19 (a $20 discount because I’m smart enough to exit sales pages now to find that “wait, don’t go box” to see if I can save some money). Again, I was caught up in the newest way to make easy money. One of these days I’ll learn.

I dutifully signed up for the first page’s offerings, figuring if I don’t make my $19 in a month, I’ll get my refund. So let me tell you about the past few days.

First off, I’m only interested in those sites that actually give me some money for the survey. Being entered into a drawing doesn’t work for me. I’m one of those poor souls who don’t EVER win those things. So that took me a few hours, because they all have a bunch of other offers to look at after you’ve signed up. Those lead to more sign-ups and more offers and more sign-ups and more offers, and etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Although they promise they don’t sell your information, they apparently have a whole bunch of friends they give my email address to. I’d signed up for a new email account specifically for the offers, and it was filled the next day with offers. The spam filter was also kicked into overdrive, as I found another 50 or so clearly spam mails.

It took a few mails to figure out that I was in a merry-go-round of offers, with each company suggesting that I sign up for other offers, generally all the same. It was like company A offered companies B, C, D, and E. Then company B offered companies A, C, D, and E. Then C offered A, B, D, and E, and so on. It got quite confusing to try to figure out if I’d signed up for one or the other already, so I just signed up again. I’m registered 3 or 4 times with a few companies, because they apparently aren’t able to check for duplicates.

The surveys themselves aren’t bad or difficult, but I found myself spending 25 minutes this morning on a survey that pays $.90. Not exactly the best return on my time. The best paying are the offers that require you fulfill an application process, signing up for a free month of this that or the other thing, requiring that you give a credit card number, and of course putting the onus on you to remember to cancel the membership before you’re charged. There are a few that actually require you stay enrolled for at least one billing.

Since I’ve had enough experience with continuity programs in internet marketing, I’m not about to give any of these people my credit card number. Either I forget to cancel or the cancellation process is so annoying it’s uncomfortable.

I’m pretty sure I’ll make the $19 back, and when I do I’ll cancel all these survey spots. I don’t see any way that this can become a source of any real money without taking part in the trial offers. And it seems dishonest to me to sign up for them when they’re something I don’t want or intend to keep at.

So I guess it’s back to the reality that there really is not any quick and easy, use no effort kind of make money scheme. You really do have to work. It’s not overwhelming work or difficult work. It’s just work you have to keep at.

I really do want that bright shiny make a bajillion dollars product still…