Webupon

I am amongst many, many people looking to make a little extra money on the side using the Internet, having long given up on dreams of finding a get rich quick scheme that actually seems authentic and that might actually work.

Let me say, right from the start, that this is not a page aimed at recruiting you to my referrals list (there isn’t one) or anything else along those lines – I am not looking to make money out of you, my simple aim is to write an informative article.  Suspicious?  Jaded by all of the erroneous claims of sites that claim to make you a ‘non-skilled sit on your arse at home guzzling chips millionaire’?  Me too (no matter how hard I try at the former part of that statement, the money just isn’t coming in).

The schemes I have tried range from the blatantly bogus, including sites where you click to view ads and receive a certain amount of money for each viewing etc. (into which I have poured many fruitless hours of my life) to the seemingly legitimate; complex roulette systems or doing things like completing surveys etc. for cash and entries into prize-draws.  With the latter I do see my balance growing, ever so slowly getting closer to the minimum payout level, but I don’t want to put in a couple of year’s work, just for $£20 or hundreds of entries into draws for cash prizes and cars with ridiculous odds.  I want cold, hard cash and I want it now!

One thing I haven’t tried yet is sending any of my information to one of the countless millionaires that are seemingly being picked off, one by one, in the farthest corners of the world, leaving estranged relatives to deal with the release of their fortune by routing it to my bank account leaving me with a cut of the prize, since I’m such a trustworthy stranger.  Anyone?

This example, like many others brings a moment of calm reflection and begs the question: why should we expect to earn money so easily over the Internet when it isn’t like that in the real, physical, world?  The answer, clearly, is that we shouldn’t.  At least if you keep your expectations low you can rarely be disappointed.  You should view the Internet as an arena where everyone is out to con you and it’s made all the more easy by the fact that they can hide behind web-sites, making them seem genuine and making you a faceless statistic, rather than a person with a jutting lower lipped sad little ‘why would anyone do this to me?’ face.

Do not give up though.  What kind of a friend would I be if I just dashed your hopes with no offer of a resolution?  Not a very good one, no…

…“Dear special friend, I have on good authority you trustworthy character with dim-witted impressionable personality.  My Uncle, Jeff, emperor of Switzerland was recently killed by erroneous mice after cheese fortune of his.  He leave in his will 14,368,299lb Gouda behind to me but I no access because mouse-cheeselord have very close eye on my bank.  Send me details and I send cheese to you and you may keep enough to cover your pizza expenses…”.  No?  Very well then, it was worth a bash…

One of the schemes I am currently trying is Amazon.com’s mechanical turk (aside from Triond.com, naturally).  Since it is run by Amazon I thought I could safely assume it is legitimate so I thought I’d give it a try and it seems to be working for me.  I’m earning roughly $2-$10 daily, although because I’m a UK resident I don’t have the option of receiving my earnings in the form of a pay check; I have to spend my earnings on amazon.com (which I’m fine with, since I spend a fair amount of money on their UK site anyway and their .com is cheaper for certain items even when you factor in postage).

It can even be fun, rewording articles, answering surveys or any number of other odd-jobs available, for a reward you can see.  It is a slow, steady earner and you won’t be able to earn more than about $4 per hour, but since that’s more than I’ve ever got from anywhere else I really don’t mind.

To conclude – if you spend a few hours a day in front of a computer anyway it’s worth giving it a go – it can amount to a free book every week that you wouldn’t have had otherwise.  You’ll never earn enough to quit your job, but you won’t know what earning potential you have if you don’t try it, even if you give up after a day you’ll still have a few cents to put towards your next amazon.com purchase.