Time is running and already 9 month are gone since I started the Making Money Experiment. I’m still happy with my money making progress and I’m currently working on even more projects that will hopefully bring me even more cash.

Because I’m currently heavily involved in creating a new website, this report should only be a very short one (also because not to bore you all)!

The best money makers for June 2008 were as follows:

1. $100.00 from Bux.to (also I won’t see this money anytime soon because of many delays)
2. $38.50 from Selling Links on my blog (no details or links about it, sorry)
3. $37.00 from Affiliate Sales (thanks to my niche site)
4. $13.44 from NeoBux, an amazing new PTC. They pay within seconds!
5. $10.67 from My Homepages Friends, a nice Get-Paid-To-Search service
6. $03.22 from Speedyads, contextual ads like Google Adsense
7. $02.94 from different other sources like Triond and such

That will give me a total of $205.77 for the month of June, not as much as last month but still very nice!

My blog is still ranked with a Pagerank of 2 and my Alexa rating has levelled of at around 183,000. At the moment I get an average of around 120 unique visitors per day, the last days even more than 150.

July will be a month full of work for me. As you may have noticed, me and Tiberius have stopped our project called Shrtnd.com because it wasn’t really worth it. I’m now working on creating a completely different website at this domain and you may already guess what it is about, no?

Ok, should be all for now. Thanks to all my readers, subscribers and especially the many commentors on my blog posts!

See ya,
Querblogger

Most online money makers, like PTC sites or advertising networks for example, offer a so called referral program. That means you get paid a certain amount of money for each of your referral’s activities. In the case of a PTC you would get paid according to your referred member’s clicks, like on NeoBux for example where you would get $0.005 for each advertisement click they do.

Many people are facing huge problems in getting those refs for their money making programs, they don’t know where to start and what to do in order to refer new members for getting paid more money. But on the other side they need those refs for differnet reasons, e.g. for getting paid faster (reaching a certain minimum payout limit) and (obviously) to make more money at all.

Because I’m personally at a point where I can say that I have at least a little knowledge about getting refs, I will share 10 tips with you that you might follow in order to build a small downline for your programs. The following list won’t provide a too detailed view on those different methods, but enough to give you some ideas from where to start. Ok, now 10 tips for getting referrals (in no particular order):

1. Write a Squidoo lens or create a Hubpage

Probably the best idea to refer new members is creating a Squidoo lens or a hub on Hubpages about the program you want referrals for. Both terms, a lens and a hub, are only other words for creating a website that you can constantly update with fresh information. Squidoo and Hubpages offer this service totally free of charge, you only have to create an account on their sites and you’re able to start your own lens or hubpage. Both websites are extremely popular and receive a lot of daily traffic and that in turn means that a lens/hub you create with them will most likely get a nice share of that traffic and hopefully brings you some referrals. Be sure to include your referral links and/or banners on these sites and provide good content, e.g a review on the money maker.

2. Create a Blog

First of all, you don’t have to start a blog like mine where you would have to pay for hosting and a domain name. There are dozens of free blogging platforms on the net that you might choose from. A very popular one is Google’s Blogger service (that’s where the journey of TMME began). After signing up with them you’re able to create a blog within minutes, it isn’t that hard. Just like writing a Squidoo lens for example, you should write about the money maker you want to get refs for, e.g. review the site or show your earning statistics. Your blog should be updated constantly and you’ll see first results soon. Don’t expect too much in the first days or even weeks, it needs some time before your posts get indexed in the search engines and rank high enough.

3. Create a Site on MySpace

Also I personally don’t like MySpace very much (ugly sites etc.), it’s worth a try to get some refs from creating a profile there while placing some referral links. MySpace is probably the most poular site on the whole web and chances for getting some traffic are fairly high, especially when networking with many friends.

4. Make a Video

For all of you who have some creative abilities, I would suggest creating a video and uploading it to major video platforms like Youtube, Metacafe or Revver for example. Videos can get viral when done well and if you place your ref links or a link to your lens, hub or blog on it, you’ll get decent traffic and a huge exposure for sure. Referrals will follow!

5. Refer your Friends

This sounds too obvious I know, but often times people forget about this. If you have many friends, preferable friends that at least know what the internet is, you should ask them for joining your money makers. Talk about the benfits to give them an incentive for joining under you.

6. Article Marketing

Article marketing can only be done if you already have a website, blog, lens or hubpage for example. Basically you have to write articles about your money makers and submit them to major article directories like Ezinearticles or Articledashboard for example. In the article you can often time only provide links in your author’s bio box at the end of an article. There you should point readers to your already existing site where you promote the money maker and have placed some referral links. Most times it isn’t allowed to directly place your referral links right within the text, therfore you should already have a website as said above wherte you can point readers to. The benefits from using article directories is the great exposure to your site and more “link love” to your site because those directories are already ranked very high in major search engines.

7. Buying Referrals

Well, this tip obviously will only work if you already have some money to spend. But usually it’s the most easiest way for getting referrals to your programs. To mention NeoBux again, there you can buy your first 10 refs for only $3.00! Make sure to re-invest your first earnings to buy even more refs. You’ll see an aconstant increase in your earnings for sure!

8. Use Referral Exchanges

This method is the moste “dangerous” in my opinion, as far as I’ve personally tested it. A referral exchange works simple, you join a certain money maker (PTC etc.) and in turn get some points/credits that you can spend to “buy” referrals to your own programs. It’s dangerous because the people who join a program under you, only do it to earn some extra points. In other words they’ll most likely be not active at all and totally useless. I would personally not suggest referral exchanges as being the best method for getting refs, but if you want to try one feel free to head over to GetRef, the most established exchabge rigth now.

9. Paid Advertising

You can also use paid advertising for getting referrals to your money programs. For example you could create an ad campaign on a PTC site where you have to pay for a certain amount of clicks. But please notice, not every click will bring you a new ref! Most times the conversion rate is far below 1%, meaning for 1,000 clicks you would get less than 10 refs (usually only 5 or so).

10. Forum Signatures

If you are a active member on differnet forums, it’s worth a try to place your referral link in your profile signature. But first make sure if it’s really allowed! If you want referrals for a PTC for example, it would be good to use the sig on PTC forum.

I hope those 10 tuips will help you at least a bit in getting some referrals for your money makers. A last recommendation: Combine different methods for getting the most out of it! Spare no efforts, it’s really worth it!

See you,
Querblogger

The NeoBux (info) admin has just recently announced that an application for using Paypal as an extra payment processor recently got accepted by the Paypal staff. That’s another sign for how serious the whole business behind NeoBux must be. Many other PTC’s, including the (probably not forever) famous Bux.to , got their Paypal accounts frozen or suspended because of their questionable business models. Most of them have moved to Alertpay as an alternative payment option. But NeoBux seems to make a big difference!

Exactly three weeks ago, PayPal reviewed the NeoBux website and our business strategy and concluded with assurance that we have nothing that goes against their Terms of Service.

They even explained the reason why others had their accounts frozen in the past and it made perfectly sense but this will remain classified.

PayPal will be our new payment processor in the future side-by-side with AlertPay[…]

Usually Paypal, as the most popular and professional payment processor, wouldn’t accept a PTC if its business model is bad or not working at all. It seems NeoBux’s model seems to be working great and fulfils their criteria.

The admin also stated that Paypal support will be implemented not today or next week, it’ll take some time to include PP as an extra payment option while retaining the instant payments, which by the way is the greatest feature of NeoBux in my opinion.

It’s exciting to follow one great news after the other. NeoBux is maturing its presence in the PTC world with great strides, be careful Bux.to! (hehe, couldn’t resist complaining a bit here…)

Bye,
Querblogger

PS: My recently rented refs on NeoBux are doing fine, my balance is growing slow but steady

It’s a long time since I’ve last written about the new and amazing PTC called NeoBux. Many positive things happend the last days and the NeoBux staff is really awesome in adding new and exciting features to that real innovation in PTC. The latest feature that finally got realised is Rent-a-Ref, a new way of purchasing referrals like never seen before.

NeoBux - Real Innovations, Serious Business

First of all, and before I’ll talk about Rent-a-Ref, let’s sum up some of the greatest features of NeoBux:

• $0.01 per click and $0.005 per referral click ($0.01 when you have a golden account)
• Realtime statistic updates, including referral origin, your own clicks and your referral’s clicks
• INSTANT payments, successfully tested two times - I got my money within 5 seconds!
• An amazing live support, chat and a forum where the site admin posts nearly everyday
• Constant work on adding brand new features like making purchases directly from your account balance…
• Unlike on other PTCs, a serious staff and brilliant coders - You can really “feel” the professionality!

The above list is in no way exaggerated, I must admit I felt in love with NeoBux because they ARE the innovation in PTC! I’m even thinking about putting all my PTC efforts at only this one. You may know that I’m a member on Bux.to too, but their staff seems to be very incompetent in leading a successful PTC, which you can see from all those growing payment delays, void promises and a script that doesn’t get finished after several months. Although I have no doubt that Bux.to makes money, I have more and more doubts if they really can manage their own popularity. Well, I should stop complaining now because I want to talk about NeoBux…

Rent-a-Ref

Ok, let’s talk about the latest and maybe so far the greatest feature that the NeoBux team just officially released some days ago, it’s called Rent-a-Ref.

So far I’ve never seen a PTC before where you can rent referrals instead of buying them. But NeoBux makes everything possible. From now on you can rent your refs on a monthly basis with affordable pricings:

• Pay $0.20 per ref and month as a Golden Member
• Pay $0.25 per ref and month as a Pioneer Member (those who joined before April 30th 2008)
• Pay $0.30 per ref and month as a Standard Member

If that wouldn’t be enough, they also introduced a feature called AutoPay. AutoPay automatically deducts a small fee from the first click that one of your referrals does each day. So you’ll pay the ref for being another day in your downline and you’ll also get an 10% discount on those referral fees, but only if you enable the (optional) AutoPay.

If a bought referral stays inactive for 14 days, it will automatically be replaced. But if you ever feel one of your bought refs doesn’t click as much as you want him/her to be, you can “recycle” those refs while paying $0.05. The refs will be replaced with new active ones nearly instantely.

Personal Conclusion

I’ve personally bought 2 x 10 referral packages this week directly from my account balance. I got the refs within one minute! I also eneabled the AutoPay function, so my referral earnings are a little smaller than they normally would be, but on the other side I’ll have my refs until I turn off this option. So whenever I feel like not wanting to pay for my refs anymore, I turn it off and my refs will be gone after the remaining days.

So far my refs are doing very well, although there are not too many ads to click on right now. But they make at least 60 clicks a day and my balance is growing. I will re-invest my earnings in more ref packs whenever my account balance is big enough.

In total I have 67 referrals now, 47 came from my promotional efforts from my blog, my Squidoo lens and ad campaigns on other PTC’s. Thanks for joining!

NeoBux is and will be THE big thing in the PTC market for the next days, weeks, month and maybe even years to come. I don’t say this to gain new refs or such, but because I see how serious the NeoBux team. They release one exciting feature after the other, have a growing member base (already over 100K) and, after doing some calculations, run a sustainable business compared to many other PTC’s. I LIKE IT!

You can join NeoBux with my referral link by using the banner above!

See you,
Querblogger

Well, this should be my 4th short update on my progress with “My Homepages Friends”, a new site I just recently joined to make me some money from just searching the net as I regulary would. Have a look at my original post about getting paid for searching the internet to know what I’m talking about!

After nearly two weeks being a member on My Homepages Friends I’m very lucky about my current earnings from this site. So far I have done 127 searches and there are already £2.15 in my account. That’s nearly $4.20, depending on the current exchange rate. You can check the rate by simply typing it into Google, in my example simple type “2.15 pound in dollar” into the Google search field and Big G will tell you the exchange rate (Google knows everything, even the answer to life, the universe and everything).

My 13 referred friends have made a total of 274 searches so far, which brought me another $0.37 (10% of their earnings). Thanks to all!

As I already said, I really like MHF and I have no doubt that they won’t pay. They have officially partnered with Yahoo! as their underlying search engine and I highly doubt that the guys from Yahoo! would make a partnership with a scam site!

You can join My Homepages Friends with help of my referral link (if you want to support me)!

I’ll soon write about some methods for getting referrals for MHF, so you all can start to build a nice downline in order to make some more bucks. Everybody needs some extra cash! Well, more on this later.

Cheers,
Querblogger

It seems all the efforts in building my first affiliate niche site have really paid off so far. Today I made my third affiliate sale and another $37 arrived in my Clickbank account.

Although this may sound a bit like bigheadedness, I won’t boast about how a good affiliate marketer I am. On the contrary, I’m such a noob in the affiliate business and it’s maybe only luck that I make my first money from this site. I only want to show you that it IS possible to make money from it!

Now I’m at a point where I seriously think about starting some other niche sites in order to make some good money. Sure, not enough for quitting my dayjob right now, but enough to have some extra cash in the pocket. Well, I’ll work on it.

See you later,
Querblogger

PS: I’ll soon write the next update about my progress with “My Homepages Friends”, the site where you get paid to search the internet!

Exactly one year ago, the todays probably most popular PTC was born…Bux.to! On June 12th 2007 the guys/gals behind Bux.to started their business and, against many difficulties that usually arrise from owning a PTC site, they have managed to constantely grow their business. Till today over 6 million people have already joined Bux.to. That’s an average of over 16,000 people each day!

But is this an anniversary that’s really worth celebrating?

Bux.to is facing some heavy problems lately. Payments are delayed for several months and many members start complaining about it. More and more people doubt that Bux.to is a legit business and can handle those many members.

The new script that should fix many of those problems, like catching cheaters or doing automatic payouts, is delayed for weeks and weeks, although it got announced again and again that it will be here soon. Well, the Bux.to members are waiting for months now.

I personally thought that they would release the new script, called Bux Reload, today at Bux.to’s first birthday. But it seems there’ll happen nothing special today. The only birthday “gift” they gave to their users was a special referral offer where you could save some bucks and get a free t-shirt. Ok, that isn’t bad at all…

You have exactly two options

Besides all those problems, there’s also another side. The Bux.to staff has paid their members §1,000,000 since June 12th 2007, an incredible amount. It clearly shows that they are really making money.

They are working on many other side-projects in order to fund their business. They have recently started the Bux.to Shop, have arranged the Bux.to Idol and are currently working on the Bux.to Academy (a fund raising service for web startups) and their very own payment processor called Paybux.

Sure, payments are still delayed at the moment and I understand everybody who complains about it, but if you have a closer look at their whole business model and engagement, you may see that they ARE working on fixing those problems. But I must also admit that they should release more details on what’s exactly going on.

You have exactly two options. First, you may quit Bux.to and stop complaining about it again and again. Second, trust the people behind Bux.to and make real good cash (although delayed for now).

I would personally prefer the second option!

Happy Birthday Bux.to!

Ciao,
Querblogger

UPDATE 6/12/2008 21:00pm:

There actually happens a DDoS attack on Bux.to! The site is down because their servers get flooded from pings from a BotNet. A guy named “Burimi” appeared on the Bux.to forums stating he’ll shut down Bux.to forever, right before the site really went down. It’s very sad and bad news on Bux’s birthday, but I think the attack won’t last that long (at least I hope so)…

UPDATE 6/12/2008 23:00pm:

The DDoS attack seems to be over now. Bux.to is loading fine again! Must have been a script kiddie, because otherwise the attack would have last much longer in my opinion (and a real hacker would have taken real damage to the site)

Welcome to my third short update on my progress with My Homepages Friends, a site where you get paid to search the internet. Today I will only make some things clear that may have you kept wondering about MHF lately.

First of all, the official search engine that now powers My Homepages Friends is the almighty Yahoo!. The MHF team has arranged a deal with Yahoo! so they can make revenue from pointing users to their search engine. Everytime a search is done, MHF gets some revenue that will be shared with their members, you and me. It’s definitely a good sign that they have partnered with this famous search engine! Their whole business looks very legit, because otherwise it would be way too complicated to arrange such a deal, especially because Yahoo! doesn’t offer a affiliate program for using their search technology natively.

Second, and some not so good news, the statistics for counting your friend’s daily searches are sometimes broken lately. That doesn’t mean that you’ll lose all the revenue from your referred friends, I think it’s only because the My Homepages Friends staff is currently working on moving their site to the new domain. As Paul from Make Money Online Dot Net said in return to a comment on his post about MHF:

From what I can tell they are developing on their live site, not the best thing when you’ve got over 100,000 members! Time to invest in a development environment boys?

Well that says it all ;). But don’t panic! I think they’ll fix those minor problems soon and we’ll get the “lost” earnings from our friends back soon.

Ok, enough with update three. So far I can only say that MHF will be an awesome money maker if they really pay (which I only slightly doubt). So far I’ve earned 0.41 pounds, which is around $0.80, just for doing 40 searches as I would do regulary anyway.

Feel free to join under me!

See you,
Querblogger

Today I have my second update on my progress with My Homepages Friends for you. The original post about getting paid to search the internet describes that site in a more detailed way, so please follow that link first if you want to know more. So far I can say that I’m really impressed with this service, although I didn’t got paid yet. If they really pay, it would be a great income source, especially while only searching the web in order to make that cash. Especially with many friends (and their friends and friend’s friends) you could earn a real nice amount of cash!

New Name

First of all, the site formerly known as “My Search Funds” is now named My Homepages Friends! It has nothing changed so far, beside the name of the company. So, don’t panic!

Earnings

Ok, in the last update I told you that I haven’t received an update on my earnings from searching the web. I stated that one has to wait for up to 48 hours (plus even longer on weekends) before seeing any updated in the account earnings. Well, it seems my account already got updated!

So far I’ve only done 17 searches and I already earned 0.29 pounds, that’s around $0.57…a nice amount for only 17 searches.

The 7 friends in my downline brougth me another 0.08 pounds ($.16)!

So, by doing some easy calculations, it turns out that each single search is worth around 0.017 pounds, respective $.03! But I’m not 100% sure, if this amount will change in the future (either upwards or downwards).

Search Engine

In my first post I told you that My Homepages Friends uses Google as their search engine. Today I’ve done some new searches and I was redirected to Yahoo. I don’t know the excact reason for this, maybe they “rotate” different search engines from time to time.

Ok, enough with update number two, I’ll write more on My Homepages Friends when there’s new infor available!

Cheers,
Querblogger

Yesterday I’ve written a post on how you get paid to search the internet. I joined a program called My Homepages Friends, which pays you up to $0.06 for each single search you do with help of their toolbar (well, basically it’s only a search plugin for your browser which redirects to their search page). At the moment they are using Google as their search “frontend”, so if you use Google anyway, it can only get better for you because you’ll now be paid for searching with Big G.

Anyway, now for my first stats after joining that site:

First of all, so far I’ve done only 17 searches with help of their toolbar. On the other site, those 17 searches could have made me my first dollar. Unfortunately my earnings haven’t updated yet. But there are reasons for this. Usually it takes up to 48 hours before your account balance updates. If there’s a weekend in between, it takes a little longer. I hope I’ll see some updates at the beginning of next week.

Second, I’ve already managed to get 4 friends (referrals) with help of my first post about My Search Funds. Much thanks for joining under me! My friends earnings (and therefore my personal revenue) will get updated a week after they have done their searches, so I have to wait even longer before announcing some more stats about it.

Well, that should be all for now. I keep you up to date with more information about MHFand I will also write a tutorial on getting referrals, so you can grow your referral tree and make some good cash too! If you’re interested in joining this site, feel free to use my referral link and become my friend!

Bye bye
Querblogger