Cashium and PalmBux Both Belly Up

Two PTC sites that I was using have gone away. Cashium is probably no surprise. I was, however, mildly surprised at PalmBux's demise.

Cashium has had problems off and on for a long time. A new owner managed to pull it back from the brink of disappearing. But, just as I cashed out $2, the site stopped loading, and has never reappeared. Needless to say, I did not get my money.

PalmBux had been stable. They had a core of advertisers so that you could be sure of a few clicks every day. I had some referrals, and had been paid twice by them. However, about a month ago, I noticed that the daily clicks for standard members were dropping from 5 or 6 to 2 or 3. This probably was not enough regular advertisers to support the site. They also disappeared without any warning. I've waited to write about it, thinking that it might reappear with new owners or a new model, but it seems to be really gone.

Total money lost between the two sites? I had over $4 in my PalmBux account, so my total loss was $6. Of course, this isn't life or death, but I do resent how much time I spent to build up those amounts only to lose them.

Moral- don't rely heavily on PTC sites for income. That opportunity can go belly up faster than a dimestore goldfish.

Troubles at Palm Bux

Palmbux has recently changed owners. The good part of that is not everyone will lose money. Maybe. On the forum, several people who invested amounts, sometimes exceeding $1000, with them, are up a creek. The new owners aren't making good on losses that the previous owners incurred.

But they promised an "all new" site on Friday, Sept 24, 2010, with the ability to cash out, which had been locked for quite a while. Sure enough, some things were new. After a few days of an inability to even click ads, that was open again.

The new owners seem determined to succeed, but I'm a little annoyed. The said that cashout would again be open. But any funds one had in their regular balance has been moved to a place called "Reserve Balance." This will be fed back into Rental Balance, 10% per month, plus a 20% bonus. If everyone tried to cash out their balances immediately, PalmBux would go under immediately. The owners stated that the total would be $121,000 dollars if that happened.

So the good news is that people did not lose all that value. The bad news is that it can't ever be gotten out in cash, because rental balances can't be transferred back to the Main Balance. I think this is true... it's true at most of the Pay-to-Click sites. But, I can't check, because the Help Page at PalmBux still isn't working.

Well, this will never be on my list of favorite PTC sites. You get too little cash for the time. Most clicks are worth either $.002 or $.008- yes less than a penny. It's really disheartening when to get several in a row that don't even add up to a cent. So why do I keep doing it? Probably just curiosity to see if I can ever get any money out of it.

Palmbux

Signed Up with PalmBux

You might think that I have discarded all the pay to click schemes. Maybe I should. But the truth is that I can do some meaningless clicking in the morning while I'm drinking my coffee and waking up.

So, I signed up with Palmbux. Here's how it works. With a standard membership you are given 5 or 6 ads to click on per day. The ads load more quickly than the ones offered by Neobux, which is nice. When the page has been displayed for the required time you are given a letter (A, B, C, or D) to match and click to validate the view.

The validation in the header will then be replaced with the value of the ad which is credited to your account. It's a little confusing since the value levels are also coded A-D, but these letters have nothing to do with the validation check. An A ad is worth $0.008 (yes less than a penny, but more than some sites pay), and a D ad is worth $0.001.

I've been a member for three days and have earned $0.07. It costs 30 cents a month to rent referrals. I don't think I'm going to even try this out on Palmbux. If I can't make money on Neobux where the costs per referral is 25 cents a month and the clicks are worth a full cent, I sure don't know how you could get ahead at Palmbux, even if there is not a daily maintenance fee.

But if this kind of site appeals then so far, my experience has been acceptable. I'll report again if I reach the $2 minimum payout and succeed in having the money transferred to me.

Palmbux