I Am So Done with Neobux

Finally, I have reached the next payout level at Neobux, and I am calling it quits. Since the big changes they made in March, I've been hanging on until this day when I could cashout and leave. I only get $4.90 of my $5.00 because they charge a transaction fee. The good news is that they pay instantly, which makes you believe that they are not hanging on by their toenails, paying the merest top of some payment queue whenever they actually get income.

In March, Neobux devalued their guaranteed clicks to $0.004 per day instead of $0.04. Yes, they cut it to a tenth of the value. Their claim was that there would be lots more ads to click on, and really denigrated anyone who chose to suggest otherwise in the forum. I have been able to average less than $0.015 per day from them since that time. Of course, I'm not willing to stay logged in to the site all day and continuously check for new ads. I have a life.

I really didn't want to lose the $3.00 I had in my account, so I stubbornly kept clicking until today. However, I have to say that for the return compared to the time, this was a total waste. I should have let the $3.00 go and spent the time picking up cans in the ditches. I would have made more money and gotten some exercise.

If you are higher than a standard member, or have a lot of referrals, you may be able to do better. However, if you don't want to do pay-per-click for a living, Neobux is no longer a good option.

Goodbye Neobux, and no regrets.

Neobux Makes Changes- Bad for Standard Members

Last week Neobux made huge changes to their earning structure, and none of it is good for standard members. In my opinion it has toppled Neobux from one of the best PTCs for people who don't want to make a career of it, to one of the most useless.

Without any warning, we learned on March 13, that our four guaranteed clicks for the day were now going to be worth 1/10 of a cent each instead of 1 cent. Yes, only 10% of what they had been! They claim this is a good thing, because they will be offering many more kinds of ads, and that a person can earn lots more than the past guaranteed 4 cents a day by coming back all day and clicking the increased offerings.

Advertisers are happy... they are going to get more value for their money. Neobux claims that via a poll more people are happy than not happy. Here's how it worked out for me.

I thought I'd give it a try, even though I don't want to keep going back to their site all day long. I was fine with a few minutes for 4 cents with my coffee in the morning, but not a continual nagging commitment. Since then, I've visited the Neobux site as often as I remembered. Some days, I'm on the computer almost all day, and just kept going back. Some days, that's not what my life is about. I've managed an average of 4.04 cents a day since then, with a much larger investment of time. Not good.

A piece of me wants to hang in there till I make the next payout, but I'm not sure it's worth it.

Neobux

Third Neobux Cashout

I'm not getting rich from any Pay-to-Click sites, but I don't mind clicking a few ads while I drink my morning coffee, and getting paid to do it. This is my third payout from Neobux, one of the most stable of the sites.

Last year, I did a lot of experimenting, and calculating whether it was worth it to rent a "downline" (referrals- people who are under you and whose clicks also give you a little income). My conclusion was that it was not worth it, at all! The only way to benefit from a downline on Neobux is if people freely sign up under you. So far, I don't have anyone. I've earned a total of $9.00, and wasted almost that much more in my spending of earned money to rent referrals.

Those $9.00 are not going to change my life, but I'll take it. You do need to check in at least once every 60 days or you will lose your cash and your referrals. This is one of the harshest membership policies on these pay-to-click sites.

If you would like to sign up under me, go to Neobux (and wouldn't you rather sign up under a friend than be rented to a stranger?)
Losing Money and Wasting Time
Neobux Again- Going the Right Direction?

Year End Report- 2010 Online Income

The original purpose of this blog was to track whether I would be able to earn enough income online to sustain life. The big answer is, so far, no.

Earlier, I was reporting the amount earned every day, even though it was pennies. This took way too much time, and was impractical. But, for any faithful, or incidental, readers I may have I’d like to provide a year-end report of my efforts. It's long, but some of you have indicated that you are quite interested. So, here it all is... my successes and other attempts.

There are several categories of income included here: Online writing venues, pay-to-click, and other- mostly blog advertising. I’m not going to post proof of payments... You can either believe me or not, and I have no reason to make any of this up. I will make a few comments about each income source.

Total online income for 2010 is $2666.79. All in all, not bad, but not enough. If I were to write content for eight hours a day I could probably double that, but I would go stark raving mad at the tedium. I’m currently focusing on Shared Reviews, where I think I have the best chance of building significant residual income.

Highly recommended earning sites in green! Not recommended in pink! Your may or may not like in yellow.

If any of these appeal to you, might I ask that you sign up under me? Many sites will just sell your referral to someone else, so why not help a friend? It will cost you nothing. The site names are links, with referral info if applicable.

Online writing venues
for a comparison of four of these, see Comparing Four On-Line Writing Venues
Textbroker: reliable income for decent writers, payouts twice a month. You write, you get paid. No residual income.
date	income	outgo
9/21	$98.03
8/21	$39.07
7/21	$62.71
4/21	$30.82
4/6	$33.52
3/21	$75.06
2/21	$192.75
2/6	$66.03
1/21	$131.24
TOTAL	$729.23
Shared Reviews: reliable income for diligent writers, payouts seldom on time, but always come eventually. Residual income increases as the body of your work increases. See How to Write Excellent Content for Shared Reviews
date	income	outgo
12/9	$102.44
8/26	$64.69
7/26	$35.73
6/19	$40.18
5/21	$55.00
5/18	$36.45
4/7	$42.14
3/29	$33.80
3/9	$15.00
2/18	$51.87
1/14	$60.25
TOTAL	$537.55
Helium: horrible rating structure which is required for residual income, very frustrating. I reached payout threshold, and will not go back there.
date	income	outgo
12/9	$27.88
TOTAL	$27.88
Associated Content: submit for upfront pay (slow response time), or page views only. All carry small residual income which increases as the body of your work increases.
date	income	outgo
12/9	$7.06
11/10	$5.44
10/18	$2.30
10/13	$5.00
10/13	$4.11
10/11	$4.49
9/28	$2.97
9/22	$4.35
9/21	$4.02
9/15	$4.45
9/14	$4.64
9/8	$5.65
9/8	$4.61
8/11	$4.01
7/14	$3.62
6/9	$3.12
5/12	$3.02
4/14	$2.93
3/10	$4.98
2/10	$7.55
1/13	$9.14
TOTAL	$97.46
Seed: I haven’t had a lot of luck getting content accepted here
date	income	outgo
8/17	$12.50
TOTAL	$12.50
Vertical Blogger: was offered two assignments, and then no others
date	income	outgo
2/5	$45.83
TOTAL	$45.83
Advertising
Adgitize: primarily for blog advertising, not income, but advertisers who also participate can recoup expenses and make a little money
date	income	outgo
12/23		$14.00 for ad
12/6	$ 20.85
11/24		$14.00 for ad
11/7	$21.20
11/21		$14.00 for ad
10/9	$16.50
9/21		$14.00 for ad
9/9	$15.69
8/22		$14.00 pd
8/7	$23.01
7/19		$14.00 for ad
6/14		$14.00 for ad
6/9	$10.99
5/16		$14.00 for ad
5/7	$16.97
4/16		$14.00 for ad
4/7	$20.53
3/10		$14.00 for ad
3/6	$18.96
2/7	$17.93
1/30		$14.00 for ad
1/6	$28.56
TOTAL NET	$57.19
Project Wonderful: makes pennies a day, but it’s quite trouble-free, and I did better in the second half of 2010
date	income	outgo
11/2	$20.00
TOTAL	$20.00
Chitika: contextual advertising, similar to and compatible with AdSense
date	income	outgo
10/31	$11.27
4/30	$10.50
TOTAL	$21.77
AdSense: needs large traffic numbers, very strict regulations about click fraud and content
date	income	outgo
5/25	$102.56
TOTAL	$102.56
Private Client
date	income	outgo
12/10	$55.00
TOTAL	$55.00
Surveys
PineCone Surveys: you must be invited to join this Neilson survey site which pays $3.00 for most opinion surveys
date	income	outgo
12/23	$3.00
12/8	$3.00
11/24	$3.00
11/2	$3.00
10/20	$10.00
10/19	$3.00
10/7	$3.00
10/6	$3.00
9/7	$3.00
8/23	$3.00
8/6	$3.00
7/12	$3.00
6/28	$3.00
5/24	$3.00
5/14	$3.00
5/3	$3.00
4/8	$3.00
3/12	$3.00
2/8	$3.00
1/7	$3.00
TOTAL	$67.00
My Survey: I’ve been a member for many years. You don’t get paid a lot per survey, but you don’t fill out multiple questionnaires just to be told you don’t qualify. If you are shown a survey, you will be paid
date	income	outgo
9/22	$40.00
TOTAL	$40.00
Pay to Click
Cashium: pay to click- not very stable (I make about 3 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
12/13	$2.29
TOTAL	$2.29
Neobux: pay to click- reliable, need either basic membership or natural referrals- rented referrals lose you money (I make about 4 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
11/17	$2.97
9/10	$1.97
TOTAL	$4.94
Buxto: seems reliable- I bought permanent referrals, but payout threshold is $50, so I haven’t reached that yet (I make about 15 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
11/12		$18.00 to buy referrals
TOTAL NET	$-18.00
Clixsense: reliable, Alertpay charges processing fees, so this was my net from $20.77 worth of clicking (I make about 4 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
1/9	$18.50
TOTAL	$18.50
PalmBux: has had outages, and lost money for some investors (I make about 4 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
12/13	$2.29
TOTAL	$2.29
OnBux: seems reliable (I make about 4 cents a day)
date	income	outgo
11/11	$2.11
TOTAL	$2.11
Other
Swagbucks: get paid for internet searches- all it “costs” you is that their suggestions are the top few choices returned in the list
date	income	outgo
10/4	$10.00
4/28	$10.00
1/26	$10.00
TOTAL	$30.00
Microworkers: I made cashout and will not return- too many offers are illegal or shady
date	income	outgo
3/12	$10.69
TOTAL	$10.69
Other: not at liberty to disclose source- online employment, not permanent
date	income	outgo
3/24	$600.00
2/6	$200.00
TOTAL	$800.00

Neobux Payment

OK, after I got mad because Neobux took away all my money after a 30-day hiatus on my part (I was away), I went back. I mean... I can click 4 things while I'm reading my mail and drinking my coffee, without ruining my day. Now, I'm taking my first cashout, and it went smoothly enough. Of course, they keep another 4 cents for the processing. I know that they really do have to pay a fee with PayPal, but it's just more nickel-and-diming of the user (or panny-and-half-pennying).

So I clicked "yes," and within 5 minutes the notice came that the money was in my PayPal account.

You may remember that I've tried renting referrals there and never could come out ahead of the game by doing that. I think the only way to have a profitable downline is if people sign up under you of their own accord.

You can take your first payout at $2.00. After that the minimum increases by $1.00 each time until it reaches $10.00, and then it remains at that amount. They pay to PayPal or Alertpay.

Over the months I "wasted" close to $10.00 buying referrals, and I lost $5.00 in the hiatus fiasco, but if you stick to the rules, the site does pay. And they pay more per click than most similar sites.

Losing Money and Wasting Time at Neobux- The Fine Print

Well, I just learned a really nasty lesson about Neobux, the pay to click site that everyone says is so good. I had actually racked up $5.60 in my account. Then I went hiking.

With the priority of getting the NCT miles finished (see My Quality Day) I did not log in to Neobux for more than 30 days. My account was temporarily suspended per terms of service 8.4: "After 30 days of inactivity, your account will be temporarily suspended and permanently suspended after 60 days of inactivity. An inactive user for 72 hours after registration will have the account permanently suspended."

So I asked to have my account reinstated. When they did so, I saw that my account had dropped to zero! I inquired about this and was referred to point 8.2:"All suspended accounts will have all their balances reset, all referrals taken away and no refunds will be given."

So much for Neobux, as far as I'm concerned. Thirty days is much too short a time period to set for reducing a user back to beginner status. A move, illness, family issue, or other important activity can easily keep a person off the internet for 30 days.

Caveat emptor!

Neobux Again- Going the Right Direction?

I said that I was going to give Neobux one more try, and after 8 days I am wondering if it is going much better than before.

For one thing, I figured out a much easier way to keep track of the daily profit. It's quite simple, duh. More on that in a minute. Let me first say that I have put no money into the system at all. So, at this point, this whole experiment has only cost me the time to click 4-7 links a day, and whatever time I've spent figuring this out and blogging about it.

As previously reported, I had rented first three and then three more referrals. With only three I was losing money (it takes money to maintain referrals). With six, it was a toss-up. I was making about the same amount as I could make by just clicking the links I was given even without referrals.

This time, when I had enough money in my account, I rented 10 referrals all at once. This is for 30 days, and each one costs $.25, so there is an initial investment of $2.50 (plus those maintenance fees).

I have made an average of just over 11 cents a day, profit, figured in the following manner: In my account summary, each day I have recorded the main balance (money that you can add to or cash out), and the rental balance. The main balance goes up each day and the difference from one day to the next is the gross profit (GP). The rental balance goes down each day and the difference from one day to the next is the maintenance cost per day (MC). GP-MC= net profit per day(a). I give it the modifier (a) because that is "apparent" profit. To get the real net profit per day (r), I need to subtract that initial cost per day of the rental. For any number of referrals the cost is always a quarter for 30 days. So for my 10 referrals, $2.50 for 30 days is 2.50/30 = $.08333/ day. So now, I must subtract this cost from profit(a) to get profit (r). 0.11-.08333 = $.0267 real profit a day. Once again, this is less that the average of $0.053 a day I was making with no referrals.

One has to wonder where the break-even point is where you actually make a profit with referrals. Once again, I have to conclude that unless you can get people to sign up underneath you, you can't get ahead with just renting. Of course, this will depend somewhat on the number of clicks each referral does a day. But all of the ones I have are within the range of daily averages (1-3), that Neobux says is standard.

This was enlightening, because it appeared to me that I was making a profit, with my account growing by 11 cents a day.

I wonder if I am ornery enough to keep trying this at higher levels?

Neobux

Is Neobux Profitable with Rented Referrals?

One of the unique things about Neobux is that you can rent referrals who click under you if you don't have a lot of success at recruiting direct referrals. I was pretty excited about this, but I'm not sure that one can make any money unless you also have a cadre of direct referrals too.

Last month, I reported that I had actually lost money with my first three rented referrals. Let's check this again, now that I have 6 referrals, all rented.

Keeping the computations simple... it costs $0.00833 per day to rent a referral. There is also an approximate $0.00015 upkeep charge per day, for a cost per day of $0.0085. How much am I earning a day? The average since I have had 6 referrals is $0.072, which includes my clicks and whatever credit I get from my referrals. So this does show a profit. It's not much more than what I was getting without any referrals at all. That average was $0.06 ad day.

Is this worth it? Probably not. If you don't click ads yourself on any given day, you don't get any credit from your referrals clicks for the next day.

I am coming to the conclusion that even though Neobux is reputed to actually pay out, that the whole thing is bad choice of priorities. More on priorities in the days to come.

Neobux

Daily accounting temporarily suspended until I figure out what I am going to do

Taking the Next Step with NeoBux- Am I Golden?

I've been a member of Neobux since Nov 4, and just today purchased my second set of referrals. This means that I have completed the requirements, and can now purchase a Golden Membership if I wish. Imagine my surprise when I was presented with the option to buy one immediately, for a cost of only... $90. Whew! That is serious money. Let's think about this.

First, I would like to analyze what I have made so far. I captured several graphics to illustrate this, but my computer crashed before I got most of them saved. Now that I've moved to another level I can't get those images back. I'll have to try to explain this without them.

First, how much did having 3 referrals boost my income?

• Cost per day: It costs $.25 per 30 days for a referral, so that is 0.00833 cents a day. There is an additional cost to maintain these. I don't quite understand this yet, but I have it on autopay, so I can just see the total that it costs me, which was 0.075 over the week, for a cost per day of 0.011 or, per referral: $0.00357. So to add the two numbers in bold, the cost per day is $0.0119.
• Income per day: Over the time before I had any referrals I averaged $0.0489 a day. For the week when I did have three referrals (who did not all click every day, but performed within the average range as defined by Neobux) was $0.07 total. Subtracting, that is an increase of $0.0211 a day, per referral is $0.007033 income.
• Net value: Now, let's see if that increase is worth it. Subtract The income from the expense (per referral, per day) and I lost $0.007033 - $0.0119 = $0.004886 cents a day.

That is not the direction that I want this project to go!



In the Help file, there is a potential earnings generator. You can see the results here with a standard membership with 100 referrals, and an average of 3 clicks/day by those referrals. What I think they are not doing is subtracting the cost of maintaining those referrals if they are rented. This is gross income. Of course, if you can get 100 direct referrals, you don't have to pay to maintain them.

I'm not ready to give up on Neobux yet. After all, I could go back to just collecting my 4 cents a day with no expense, and so far it hasn't cost me a cent out of pocket. I'll keep you posted.

Neobux

web ad income Dec 17 (6 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.12 Adgitize $.92 Project Wonderful $.03 Clixsense $.07 Neobux $.08 ______________________ Total: $1.22

web ad income Dec 18 (6 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.06 Adgitize $.95 Project Wonderful $.008 Chitika $.03 Clixsense $.01 Neobux $.055 ______________________ Total: $1.11

Renting Referrals at Neobux

I finally got to $2.00 in my Neobux balance today, and I wanted to start renting referrals right away. You actually only need $0.75 to rent 3 referrals, but I read on another blog that you shouldn't try it without $2.00 in your rental account, since it costs money to manage the referrals. So I waited.

It was really difficult to find how to transfer the funds to my rental balance. You need to go to your statistics page (click on your username at the top right), then under Account there should be a link called Renting Balance. Click on that and you can add funds via PayPal, AlertPay, or from your Main Balance. I was told that you could only add in whole dollar increments, but you seem to be able to add by increments of 10 cents, so perhaps that has changed. Anyway, I put in the $2.00.

Then, above your graphs is a button marked Referrals. Click that. Because I am new, my only option is to rent 3 referrals, which is the lowest amount, and only that button will be highlighted. Click it. You will get a confirmation screen, and then a message saying that the referrals have been successfully added. They will be mine for 30 days.

Once you rent, another header appears on the statistics page for Referrals. Clicking on that will show you your referrals management page. I don't understand that all yet, and will make it the topic of another post, as I figure it out.

Now I wait to see if these referrals will be active. They only assign those who have been recently active (clicked at least 10 advertisements in the past 5 days). Of course there is no guarantee that they will continue to click, which is why they have to be "managed." This means trading referrals for those who don't click to find ones who do, and extending your time with those who do actively click. These transactions cost a small fee.

This is all I know for now! But this means I have completed 3 of the four steps towards being able to have a Golden Membership. The four steps are:

1. Have 50 credited clicks (done)
2. Have been a member at least 15 days (done)
3. Have rented referrals 2 times (one done, and I can not rent again for 1 week)

I have averaged $0.05 a day there with the standard membership with no referrals. That's as much as I make from most of my ad income sources. So I'm anxious to see how much the 3 referrals change that. Of course, to make a decent amount of money you have to have one of the high level memberships. But that seems to be possibile to attain.

Since I joined on Nov 4, the Neobux site has only been down one day, and only a couple of the ads I was shown had expired (meaning that I don't get paid for them). So far I am pleased.

Why not click thru and get started at Neobux now?
Neobux

web ad income Dec 9 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.05 Adgitize $.83 Project Wonderful $.02 Chitika $.07 Clixsense $.03 Associated Content $4.73 Neobux $.04 ______________________ Total: $5.77

More Comments from a Neobux Neophyte

I signed up with Neobux just 10 days ago, and have learned a couple of things already. I'm actually fairly happy with the way things are going there, which is somewhat different from the way I feel about a lot of the sites I have tried.

I am still at the very lowest level. By choice I am not putting any cash money into the system, but am holding out to be able to pay to increase my standing with money earned at the site. The next thing that I need to do there is rent some referrals. The smallest number I can rent is 3 for a period of one month, at a cost of $.75. I estimated that it would take me almost 20 days to reach that amount in my account at the $.04 a day I was earning by clicking. However, I already have $.60 in my account after just 10 days.

I have earned more than an average of $.04 a day because there are occasionally extra click offers that show up at various times in the day. So I just check in at Neobux a couple of times throughout the day, and have managed to make the additional $.20 by that method. Not bad!

I am looking forward to renting my first referrals. They only assign referrals who have actually clicked on ads in the past 10 days, so although this is not a guarantee, there is a good chance that those referrals would actually pay. You get half a cent for each referral click. That means that in my first month with 3 referrals I might earn an extra $.015 a day, which translates to $.45 a month. Granted this is not going to make me rich in a hurry. However, this is a MUCH better system than the ones which really give you no opportunity to grow your position unless you can convince people to sign up under you.

I just did some additional research, looking at postings from people who have successfully used Neobux. It seems that you can only move money in increments of $1.00, and you have to have some cash to "manage" the referrals. I need to find out more about what that means, other than the fact that I won't be renting referrals quite so soon unless I want to deposit cash from an external source.

I think the potential to move up to a level of earning enough to make it worth the time is real, due to the willingness of Neobux to rent referrals from people who sign up directly (not already under someone else). Neobux continues to place in the top 5 paid-to-click sites when ranked by real people who have tried multiple sites. Most PTC sites that promise an immediate high return also go belly-up quite quickly. Neobux seems to be quite stable.

Of course, if you would like to get started at Neobux, I'd be really pleased to have you click the link here, and sign up under me!

Neobux
See Signed Up with Neobux

web ad income Nov 13 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $..02 Adgitize $.63 Project Wonderful $.05 Clixsense $.04 Chitika $.03 Neobux $.05 Swagbucks $10.00 ______________________ Total: $10.82

Signed Up with Neobux

Even though I am not sure that it's worth the time it takes on the pay to click sites, I signed up at Neobux yesterday. Here are my first impressions.

The signup was easy, and the site let you see sample ads and information about how it all works before joining. Basically, this is a site where Advertisers pay to post their ads, and you are paid to click them. Their ads promise $.02 a click, but this is with the highest membership level. You will start with $.01 a click. "Extended ads" pay $.015 each.

You must view the ads one at a time for 30 seconds each (extended view for 60 seconds). Their timer does not begin until the page is completely loaded, so it takes longer to work through the clicks (of course, one can multi-task at some other job). The extended view ads come up randomly- just luck if you get one. Most of the pages have those annoying boxes that ask if you are sure you want to leave this page.

To update to a Golden membership you have to stick around for a few days. The requirements are: 1. Have 50 clicks credited, 2. Have rented referrals two times, 3. Registered at least 15 days ago. I like this method better than paying $10 cash to upgrade on Clixsense.

Referral rental allows you to buy the name of someone who did not sign up under another person to be placed under you for one month. Prices for this vary by your membership level and the number purchased. Rate per referral for one month for a standard member who purchases fewer than 250 is $.25. You can see the entire chart by clicking "Help" at the bottom of the Neobux page. Referral rentals can be paid for from your Neobux account, by PayPal, AlertPay or Neteller.

At this point, let me say that all the info about how the site works is available, but it's not organized very well. You may have to do some clicking back and hunting.

So, what do I know after 2 days? I was given 4 ads to click each day (so I have $.08 in my account). The ads refresh at a specific time each day. The smallest number of referrals that can be rented is 3, so if I want do this without putting cash in it is likely to take me just under 20 days to accrue enough cash in my account.

With a standard membership you get an extra half cent when a referral clicks an ad, and as a Golden Member you get an extra cent.

Payouts can be made to PayPal, AlertPay or Neteller. The first cashout level is just $2.00. But then it increases by a dollar each time you request a payout until it reaches $10.00 and then remains at that level.

It seems to me that this program offers more opportunity to earn more than a few pennies a day, and thus could be more profitable than Clixsense. I'll keep you posted.

Neobux

web ad income Nov 3 (4 blogs, 2 web sites, writing): Adsense $.28 Adgitize $.57 Project Wonderful $.04 My Survey $.10 Clixsense $.04 Chitika $.09 ______________________ Total: $1.02