Get Paid to Surf? - Addlebrain.com

Get Paid to Surf: Does it really work? [NOTE: SERVICE NO LONGER OPERATING]

April 2, 2000

Get Paid to Surf the Web! It sounds like a come-on that just won't quite work. Unbelievably, though, it actually does (sort of).

There has been an explosion in the number of companies that will offer to pay you cash to keep their ad window on your screen while you use the Internet. Companies with names like Go2World, Surfing2Cash, ePipo, and others promise riches if you'll watch their ads and tell your friends about their service. Some of these services work, while others just seem to be full of empty promises.

I'm generally skeptical of these type of services, so I haven't installed many on my computer. I have been using AllAdvantage for several months, and I signed up to try ePipo, but ePipo hasn't completely launched their service yet.

I've been pleased with AllAdvantage. Ever since I signed up, I've been carefully following the amount of money I've collected while surfing, and have found their counts to be pretty accurate. AllAdvantage offers to pay you 50 cents for every hour you spend online, plus money for referring others. They pay for a maximum of 25 hours in any month, and send you a check once your account balance reaches $20.

When I first started using their service, I was logging my allowable 25 hours, and every two months, I would get a check in the mail for about $24. I was shocked that I actually got the check. Since then, I've signed up some friends, who have signed up others, and some visitors to Addlebrain.com have signed up, which has increased my referral revenue. The dreams of riches are a bit far-fetched, but I do consistently receive a monthly check for about $30. Not bad for not doing too much work. In addition, you can use AllAdvantage and a free ISP at the same time, so you'll get double benefits. My $30 AllAdvantage check combined with the $19.95 I'm saving by using a free ISP means that I'm about $50 richer each month.

The same privacy considerations about free ISP's apply to these services (see article), but you can close AllAdvantage's ad window if you don't want to be monitored. The downside, of course, is the extra disk space and system resources that get taken up by running another program.

As for the other services, I haven't used them, so I can't comment from first-hand experience. I have heard, however, that their pay structure is a bit different from AllAdvantage's, and you're not always guaranteed to make a set amount per hour. For example, they may not pay you if they can't book a sufficient number of advertisers. AllAdvantage is the biggest, and arguably the best. If you're looking for a pay to surf program, AllAdvantage is worth considering.

[NOTE: ALLADVANTAGE IS NO LONGER OPERATING]