Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Wednesday Opportunity. Ahh, this is where it all started for me. My first forte into making money online. I remember reading up on this and thought “Hey, this could be my escape from jobs”. But first, let me explain what this is all about.
If you have been surfing the net for quite a while, you’ve seen all that crap on getting a free iPod, X-Box 360, PS3, Wii, Plasma TV, Computer, etc. When you saw that, your inital thought was “It’s a scam” or “There’s a catch”. Well, let me tell you this: You’re wrong on the first count but right on the second count. It is NOT a scam, but 100% legit. But there IS a catch though. Of course no one is going to say “Here is your free iPod, just input your address and we’ll send it to you within 3 to 5 business days”. There are indeed hundreds of these legit companies out there that want to send you free toys (they will even pay the shipping).
Here’s the thing – there has to be something in for them as well. There are some of these well known companies out there such as Blockbuster, Gamefly, Netflix, Stamps.com, among others that pay these guys to place them on their sites in hopes of getting more customers. And in order to receive your free gift, you have to whip out a credit card (OUCH) and sign up for these offers (some companies require you to sign up with one offer, some several) and stay with them for a set amount of time. A vast majority of these companies require you to refer a set number of people to your site using your referral link, and get them to whip out THEIR credit cards, sign up for these offers, and stay with them for a set amount of time. Then once they approve all that, you get your gift. And there’s the catch.
This is where Project Payday comes in. Project Payday takes advantage of all of this and gives you a way to make some fast cash. As their site says, you can indeed make money the first day of trying this. You see, there are thousands of people wanting these free gifts, even going as far as PAYING YOU to be their referral. There are hundreds of forums out there dedicated to this freebie stuff, but two well known ones are The Free Lunch Room and Anything4Free. The latter I frequented the most during my days in this stuff (I still stop by today just to reminisce). People out there want you to sign up under them and be their referral so they can be one step closer to getting that freebie they’ve been looking for. You can either get paid to be a referral or they can sign up under you at one of your sites and be your referral. That way, you both win. Everyone pays a different amount, anywhere from $20 to $100 a referral (or more), depending on the site.
Then there is the other side of the fence, where YOU are the one paying for referrals to YOUR freebie sites. And now you have to compete with these other people looking for freebies by matching or beating the money they’re offering others to get some referrals to get your freebie. Like I said before, freebies range from iPods to X-Box 360s to PS3s to Wiis to digital cameras to even cold hard cash via PayPal. Yeah, good stuff there.
Alright, so you’ve heard what this is all about. Now let me tell you about my experience with this. I do indeed have a credit card (well, a debit card anyway, which is like a credit card). I have done five of these trades (their terminology on the forums). I invested a total of $55 in this to go green for people (aka be their referral, more terminology). I came out with $145 that they paid me to be their ref. Hey, a $90 profit there. I haven’t gone to the other side of the fence.
Now that you have heard all the great stuff about this, it is time for me to loosen your hopes and spirits on this. There are loads of cons on this that ultimately prevent you from making this a legit business model. The first con is that it only works for people living in the United States or Canada (the U.S. being the most preferred). While there are companies out there that reside in other countries, they are rare and hard to find. Secondly, not everyone has a credit or debit card. And these freebie companies DO NOT allow you to use a Visa/Mastercard/AMEX gift card that you can get at Wal-Mart, Advance America, etc. No idea why, but it’s the rule. However, there ARE some sites that don’t require a credit card, but their point system sucks compared to the ones that do require a credit card. Third, once you sign up with one offer and done it, you can’t do it again. I.E., if you signed up for Blockbuster at someone’s site, you can’t sign up for Blockbuster at someone else’s site. This eventually will prevent you to get paid for being someone’s referral because you’ve already done the offers and the other offers you aren’t even qualified for or they cost too much (the dreaded Offers Of Doom, or OOD as they call it). Then you’ll have to go on the other side of the fence, which brings me to my fourth con. Getting referrals is INSANELY HARD. If you browse around on the forums and look at your competition, you will find threads that have pages upon pages with posts that have nothing but “Bump” or something similiar. That is just to bump their topic back to the top. This is because they want to be seen and hope they get some refs. And if you’re paying for refs to get your gift, you can only bump your thread once every six hours, and believe me, in MINUTES your thread will be on the third page or worse. But luckily, there are people browsing the forums 24/7, so in the few minutes your thread is exposed you can hopefully get someone who’s interested. Of course there ARE other ways to get referrals, such as conga lines (hard to explain), referral trains (i.e., someone who has a site that gets a load of traffic and they’re offering to put your referral link on it in hopes of you getting some referrals), among others. But the most well known way is a site called GetRef.com, but there are shitloads of horror stories about that, so I’m not going there. Whole different ballgame.
So overall, this is NOT something you can make thousands of dollars a month with consistently, as Project Payday claims. Even these so called “PPD Mentors” tell you not to use this as your primary source of income, but rather a profitable hobby. I even asked this question on the forums, and they told me NOT to even try to make a living with this. From that point forward I looked elsewhere to make money online. So my recommendation – go for it if you live in the United States (most preferred) or Canada, have a credit or debit card, and need just a bit of emergency cash (small cash, like $50 or so). And if you do need a hobby and make a bit of money on the side with, this is it. But to make money you can rely on? Nope.
And always remember – If it doesn’t work for me, it won’t work for you. Chase the pipe dream. Live the pipe nightmare.
P.S.: If you even remotely interested, you can sign up and complete one offer at one of my freebie sites under me. This is to get a Wii for free (or $250 cash). Link: http://www.YourNintendoWii4Free.com/index.php?ref=4405927
Wed, Sep 23, 2009
The Wednesday Opportunity