Sunday, September 6, 2009

What is PTC?


Paid-To-Click
is an online business model that draws huge amounts of online traffic from people aiming to earn from home. Paid-To-Click, or simply PTC websites act as middlemen between advertisers and consumers; the advertiser pays for displaying ads on the PTC website, and a part of this payment goes to the consumer when he views the advertisement.

How Paid to click sites work

Paid to click sites are aimed at two kinds of people: advertisers looking to “bribe” people to visiting their website (similar to how traffic exchanges work where you can view other peoples’ sites in exchange for them visiting yours) and people looking to make relatively easy cash simply by viewing ads as well as taking advantage of paid to sign up offers (where you can earn money by signing up for free trials and other special offers). In a nutshell, here is summary of how paid to click sites work:

For users in a typical day:

- you sign up (most sites are free to join, with upgraded membership options for more features)

- spend time visiting websites and advertisements. They usually don’t pay much (typically $.01 per ad), but if you click on these sites often earnings can add up after a while.

- at sites with paid to sign up programs, if there are free trials, discounted memberships, etc that interest you, you are welcome to take advantage of them for more money.

- at most PTC sites, you can actually refer new members and earn money either 1) whenever they click on advertisements too (you get a percentage off of what they earn), chanel handbags 2) if any of them get upgraded memberships (the only downside to this is that most people will only get a free member at first, so you will probably want to try and offer them to get incentives to get a paid membership instead if you want them to upgrade, either that or refer lots of people and hopefully sooner or later some of them will upgrade), or 3) if any of them buy advertising credits (anyone could purchase advertising if they wish, and can be handy if you are looking for easy hits and referrals to the ptc sites you use).

- ideally, you should do this once every day if possible for maximum earnings potienital (slackers will usually not earn much with these systems and could lose their ptc accounts if they are inactive too long).

For advertisers:

- you purchase advertising credits (where one credit = 1 page view). Many sites have bargain packages where you can get say 1000 credits for say $10.

- get people to visit your sites. The more hits you get the better as you get more potiential leads and customers that way.

- some PTC sites have guaranteed sign up offers where you can “bribe” people to become a lead or sign up. I did this at Global Domains International at clicksia. Of course, you will want to come up with terms on how you credit people on the offer (such as registering for a free trial, getting x number of clicks at a ptc site you are advetising, etc before crediting their account), since there are posers who will pretend to sign up but never actually become a qualified lead or customer (been there done that).

- there are ways to improve your conversion rate, such as using splash pages, advertising sites that people will want to visit, as well as installing live chat on their site.

Honest review of paid to click sites:

I’ve been in the paid to click business since last year, and here are my thoughts. On the positive aspect about these sites is that typically these sites are 100% free to join, and you do earn money simply by viewing sites and advertisements that various advertisers have to offer. Some typical advertisments you are likely to run into are:

  • other paid to click sites
  • Forex sites (such as Forex eToro and FAP Turbo, which are high yield investment sites that you can take advantage of if you have the extra money to invest)
  • mlms (such as Global Domains International, matrix programs, etc)
  • Casino sites (can be worth checking out if you are into gambling and the like), and others

Most sites do not pay much, typically anywhere between $.005 and .02 per click (varies by ptc site and ads that are presented), though ther are some that pay as much as $1 or more per click, such as Rich PTC. Of course, there are ways to make up for the extra low pay rate, such as referral systems that allow you to refer others and earn a percentage of what they make by viewing advertisements (more if any of them upgrade or buy advertising space), upgrade options for more features (such as rental referrals, more advertisements to view, and better earnings ratios per ad you and your referrals click on).

Most systems like Freebirdbux have one tiered referral systems, where you only make money from ads you and your direct referrals view (if they refer others, you will not make anything off of their referrals). Whereas some systems like Clixsense have multitiered affiliate programs (clixsense has 5 levels worth of referrals you can get, for a maximum earnings potiential of $4000 or more) downline systems, where you can earn off of both your referrals and their referrals spanning x levels deep. The only downside to ones with downline systems is that at least in my experience is that 1) you do have to be actively promoting the system yourself and build a good ammount of 1st level referrals, which can be tricky at first if you are unfamiliar with affiliate systems, and 2) every referral is different, and some will be more active than others. I’ve gotten referrals that never seem to promote the system or be active, and so you will probably have to work with your downline and try to encourage them to promote the system as well, aftar all, they make money too by clicking on ads and building a referral base too.

Some ptc sites like
Matix Mails, have “paid to sign up” offers where you can take advantage of special offers (typically survey sites, free samples of various products, free trials, and other special offers) and earn extra bonuses by completing the offers. For example, one offer that is out there is that you could earn $16 simply for applying for a student discover card (regardless if you use it or not). The only downside to paid to sign up offers is that typically, the word “free” is not to be taken literally as there is usually a catch to the so called free offer (for example, if you got Real Arcade’s unlimited pass ), you would get it free for 30 days. However, if you kept it beyond 30 days, then you would expect to pay a monthly subscription fee (I think it is per game you get) after the 30 days are up unless if you cancel. Perhaps the best way to get the most out of paid to sign up offers are:

  • not spending more money than it costs to join if possible
  • starting with 100% free offers (they do not pay as much as others, such as survey sites, but do not involve any real financial obligations on your part), and
  • only taking advantage of offers that interest you

Source: Ryan Jones' blog