Make money online? Well, kinda sorta

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Cash Crate

The first method I tried was Cash Crate. With Cash Crate, you fill out surveys and applications with various companies and get paid a fee through Cash Crate. Some of the offers are “free” and others cost a little, but you usually can cancel the offer and get a refund.

So for about a week, I filled out a bunch of surveys and signed up for trial offers. Some of the offers were listed at “completed” on the Cash Crate Web site, and others were “pending.” I earned about $120 by the end of the week. Of course, as soon as each offer went from “pending” to “completed,” I canceled the offer. In the meantime, I received lots of junk e-mail. I used a specific hotmail account for all my surveys, so my regular e-mail account would not get clogged. I also received a lot of phone calls from solicitors.

The junk e-mail and phone calls were expected and easy to fix. The problem was with my credit card. I only used one card, which had gathered a lot of dust, so it was easy to track the activity online. I received a couple of charges on the card from companies I had canceled with. The charges usually showed up on my credit card as “J2” or “AP9” and then the name of the company. I called the companies and told them I had already canceled, but I usually got stuck with the $1 trial fee.

I eventually, had my credit card company switch my account number and issue me a new card because some of the companies I had canceled with continued to charge me.

Now, back to that $120 I had earned. After a couple of weeks, the offers that were listed as “pending” started to disappear instead of switching to “completed.” Apparently, there are only four or five companies that sponsor surveys, so if you fill out more than one with the same company, the extras don't count. Also if you cancel an offer too quickly, you lose the fee.

The $120 shrunk to about $30. I requested a check. There was a $3 fee for the check. I'm waiting for my big $27 payment to come in the mail any day now. It's been about three weeks since I requested the payment. It was supposed to be processed on the 20 th of the month. The Web site still shows my payment as “processing.”

InboxDollars

Shortly after I tried Cash Crate, I signed up for InboxDollars. I put a lot less effort into this money maker. I did just enough to get the $30 minimum.

InboxDollars has many of the same surveys and offers as Cash Crate. The difference is you get offers through e-mail in addition to the ones available on the Web site. You get a penny for clicking on the e-mails and get about two a day.

I requested the check for $30. After the $3 fee, it'll be $27 when I get it. I requested the check in mid June, and it could get here in early August.

Paid Posting Tools

It's hard to get rich with Paid Posting Tools. The idea is forum owners pay you for posting comments in threads and starting threads. They pay 12 to 15 cents per post.

I signed up for several sites to post. Not all sites are sponsored by the same “pay-for-posting” company. This means you have to reach the payment threshold of the individual companies to get paid. Some companies have a $10 minimum payment others have $15.

I'm not sure paid posting is worth it for forum owners. The theory is if you have more action on your forum, more people will join. As a paid poster, I found it challenging to post to these forums because they were new and had little action. It's like having a one way conversation, which can be a lot of work.

I cut back on my postings after about two weeks because it didn't seem like an efficient use of my time. I still have not reached a payment threshold.

Commission Junction

These technique has potential. I've recently joined, so I have not made anything, but I have not lost anything. Commission Junction is a step beyond Google AdSense. (I've made about $10 from Google AdSense in about six months.)

If you have a Web site with a lot of traffic, you could make money by putting ads on your site. That's where Commission Junction comes in. It's a hub for advertisers. Webmasters can apply to advertise for companies and get commissions.

Remember what I said about traffic? If you don't have a lot of traffic, you may not get approved by all the companies.

So far, this is the easiest method for me to make money online. Of course, I haven't actually made any money yet. But I'm sure someone out there will sign up for Web hosting eventually, lol.