Yesterday I ran an experiment with an online operation called "The Task Pay." The test was simple: run traffic to the website, reach the "instant payment" threshold, and then see if they actually follow through.
The first challenge of legitimacy failed: the supposed pay scale is $5 for click referrals, and $10 for signups. As it turns out, my balance went up by $10 for every click. What's worse, it went up $10 every time I logged in, which means it was registering MY clicks. This is a cautionary note, because they do say on the site that they have anit-cheating measures in place. They could say that I cheated by clicking on my own link, and use that as an excuse not to pay me. Not cool, and not a good structure.
The second challenge also failed: multiple payment options mentioned on the landing page (Western Union, Moneygram, PayPal), but no place on the website itself to actually include information on how to get the money to these services. One could presume you might do this when cashing out, but again this is usually the first step in registering, not something you do after the fact.
The third challenge failed. This has to do with the details. On one section of the site, it says the minimum payment threshold is $300. On another, it says $200. Within the member section, it says there are multiple tiers of payment, and each takes a different length of time to process.
Hold the phone...process? This is the internet, folks. When you get paid, you get paid. There's no time to process.
I actually hit the payment threshold for "instant payment" -- $1,000 -- overnight. So I clicked on the redemption button. This took me to a page where I could "download" the form to request payment.
Hold the phone again...how is this "instant?"
Anyway, when you click the download button, you're taken to a typical CPA (cost per action) site where you pick from a list of advertiser "special offers." In this case, there was an offer for a $50 Coke or Pepsi reward with which you can buy a 24-pack of whichever you like ($50 for pop? yeah...right). To get it, however, you have to complete THEIR advertisers' offers: one bronze, one silver, one gold, and TWO platinum level offers.
Are you with me? You have to BUY stuff in order to complete the offers that would qualify you to be able to download the form so you can request your payment from The Task Pay. And therein lies the death of the legitimacy. There's no mention anywhere on the original site of having to buy stuff in order to get paid. By my definition, The Task Pay is not a legitimate opportunity.
This is why I prefer, whenever possible, to leverage existing networks. For example, one of my favourite opportunities is with a company that specializes in website hosting. Everyone in business needs a website, so that's a piece of cake. But this particular opportunity (costing all of $10 a month) happens to pay a commission on website sales. The commissions aren't big, but they add up.
This particular website/domain host happens to include cPanel hosting, and can use a Wordpress blog as the main feature of the site, which is great for ease-of-use and client side design and content. If it's a personal or business blog, info or content site, photo, portfolio, music, resume, or a general marketing platform using HTML, all the standard tools (including branded email) are available.
It happens to be that this opportunity pays $1 from every monthly payment. That's not a lot, but it's decent considering you only need 10 referrals to essentially have a free website. What's more, it pays this on five levels, meaning you get paid a dollar for every referral your referrals make, and so on down five levels. The paranoid in the crowd will say, "that's a pyarmid scheme!" ...but in reality it's not. It's just a way of multiplying commissions for an actual product. If you do the math, the company still makes its profits, and you only get paid for your actual work.
Having said that, there are a few types of professionals I like to present this opportunity to, simply because the nature of their business centres around providing web space for those who work with them.
[Read more...]
The first challenge of legitimacy failed: the supposed pay scale is $5 for click referrals, and $10 for signups. As it turns out, my balance went up by $10 for every click. What's worse, it went up $10 every time I logged in, which means it was registering MY clicks. This is a cautionary note, because they do say on the site that they have anit-cheating measures in place. They could say that I cheated by clicking on my own link, and use that as an excuse not to pay me. Not cool, and not a good structure.
The second challenge also failed: multiple payment options mentioned on the landing page (Western Union, Moneygram, PayPal), but no place on the website itself to actually include information on how to get the money to these services. One could presume you might do this when cashing out, but again this is usually the first step in registering, not something you do after the fact.
The third challenge failed. This has to do with the details. On one section of the site, it says the minimum payment threshold is $300. On another, it says $200. Within the member section, it says there are multiple tiers of payment, and each takes a different length of time to process.
Hold the phone...process? This is the internet, folks. When you get paid, you get paid. There's no time to process.
I actually hit the payment threshold for "instant payment" -- $1,000 -- overnight. So I clicked on the redemption button. This took me to a page where I could "download" the form to request payment.
Hold the phone again...how is this "instant?"
Anyway, when you click the download button, you're taken to a typical CPA (cost per action) site where you pick from a list of advertiser "special offers." In this case, there was an offer for a $50 Coke or Pepsi reward with which you can buy a 24-pack of whichever you like ($50 for pop? yeah...right). To get it, however, you have to complete THEIR advertisers' offers: one bronze, one silver, one gold, and TWO platinum level offers.
Are you with me? You have to BUY stuff in order to complete the offers that would qualify you to be able to download the form so you can request your payment from The Task Pay. And therein lies the death of the legitimacy. There's no mention anywhere on the original site of having to buy stuff in order to get paid. By my definition, The Task Pay is not a legitimate opportunity.
Why Does It Matter?
I like finding legitimate opportunities; things that actually pay when they're supposed to in the way they're supposed to. This is because, like most people in business (I like to believe), I want the people on my team to be able to benefit as much as I do. If the system is legit, I'd like others to have a crack at it.This is why I prefer, whenever possible, to leverage existing networks. For example, one of my favourite opportunities is with a company that specializes in website hosting. Everyone in business needs a website, so that's a piece of cake. But this particular opportunity (costing all of $10 a month) happens to pay a commission on website sales. The commissions aren't big, but they add up.
This particular website/domain host happens to include cPanel hosting, and can use a Wordpress blog as the main feature of the site, which is great for ease-of-use and client side design and content. If it's a personal or business blog, info or content site, photo, portfolio, music, resume, or a general marketing platform using HTML, all the standard tools (including branded email) are available.
It happens to be that this opportunity pays $1 from every monthly payment. That's not a lot, but it's decent considering you only need 10 referrals to essentially have a free website. What's more, it pays this on five levels, meaning you get paid a dollar for every referral your referrals make, and so on down five levels. The paranoid in the crowd will say, "that's a pyarmid scheme!" ...but in reality it's not. It's just a way of multiplying commissions for an actual product. If you do the math, the company still makes its profits, and you only get paid for your actual work.
Having said that, there are a few types of professionals I like to present this opportunity to, simply because the nature of their business centres around providing web space for those who work with them.
[Read more...]
To view the opportunity directly, visit:
