SEC Files Complaint Against 12DailyPro

It was always just a matter of time. In the case of 12DailyPro, unlike most ponzi autosurfs, it didn't last long enough to crash under it's own weight. The Feds got to it first. The SEC has filed a complaint against 12DailyPro in California.

SEC complaint against 12DailyPro and Charis Johnson

The SEC has labelled 12DailyPro a ponzi scheme, has accused the owner Charis Johnson of misappropriating almost $2 million, and has stated that the sale of 'membership upgrades' is an illegal and unregistered sale of securities in the form of investment contracts.

I think one of the most important parts of the SEC's complaint is that the membship upgrade fees are illegal. All the ponzi autosurfs I know of say that the money people pay is a membership fee, not any kind of investment. Just one of the ways they try to present themselves as legitimate and legal. But of course it's all bullshit, but the ponzi promoters have been using this as one of their main arguments for years. But according to the SEC, none of those disclaimers is worth anything.

The fact is, members aren't being paid for providing a service (viewing web ads) because it's a service that isn't worth anything. As the SEC pointed out, because it's an autosurf, there's no way to know if the members are even watching. Also, members who pay more in upgrade fees earn more for doing the same amount of work. So clearly the members earnings has nothing to do with the 'services' provided by that member.

The point I'm trying to get at is that pretty much ALL ponzi autosurfs work the same way. And according to the SEC, they're all breaking the law. Yes, the people who get in early make money. That's how a ponzi works. But it's still a scam. And it's still illegal.

Kottke Gives Up on Full-time Professional Blogging

A year ago Jason Kottke gave up his job as a web designer to become a full-time blogger. He asked his readers to sponsor his blog by making donations. He received nearly $40,000 in donations, but even though his blog was very popular, in the end it didn't work out.

Kottke won a Bloggie Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. Kottke.org was listed in CNET News.com's BLOG 100. It was #22 on the Technorati 100 list of popular blogs. And #40 on the similar Feedster 500 list. Clearly, Kottke was a blogger's blogger. But at the end of the day, the donation/subscription business model didn't work out for his blog.

And I doubt it'll work out for many blogs, unless they're really good and have really really exclusive content. Content people want so bad they're willing to pay for it. I think the number of blogs that fit into that category is extremely small. The same goes for subscription-only podcasts. If you can pull it off, great. You'll become a member of a very exclusive club. For most of us, it ain't gonna happen.

Human Clickbots Swarm Parked Domains

Andrew at Traffick.com blogged about click arbitrage on parked domains. He wonders if advertisers are throwing their money away. My answer is hell yes! Click arbitrage involves buying clicks (through a Google Adwords campaign, for example) to bring traffic to your site (in this case a parked domain) then selling clicks from that traffic to other advertisers at a higher price.

Andrew questions whether it makes any sense for advertisers to pay MORE for the clicks than they would've paid using Adwords. After all, he reasons, the traffic to a parked domain page probably isn't all that great. That's a HUGE understatement.

Why? Because there's currently a huge amount of PTRE (paid to read email) traffic going to those parked domains. Hundreds of thousands of "human clickbots" reading an incentivized email, then clicking the special tracking link that takes them to the parked domain page. The PTRE member typically earns between 1/4 and 1 cent for clicking that tracking link and waiting for a timer (shown in a separate frame) to expire.

But it doesn't end there. The clickbots know that if they want to get more paid emails, they need to make it worthwhile to the person who's paying them. So they click an ad link. Or two. Or three. Maybe they just click a random link. Or maybe they try to guess which link will pay their benefactor the most. Or maybe they're clicking so many links in so many browser tabs that they don't really know what they're clicking.

With enough browser windows open, and a little practice, they can click dozens of links per minute. For hours. And since they get paid a small percentage of their downline's earnings as well, they use some of the money they make to recruit even more human clickbots.

I can only guess, but I suspect PTRE programs are sending millions of clickbot visits to parked domains every day. Presumably the useless human clickbot traffic can't be a huge percentage of the total, or else advertisers would bail. But it may be a way for the various tiers of ad server companies to bulk up the traffic numbers they can deliver. The problem for advertisers of course is that the vast majority of that traffic is absolutely useless.

Free Google Website

Just came across the Google Page Creator (Beta, of course). Anybody with a Google account can now have a free 100Mb website. It's easy enough that just about anybody could do it, even if you don't know anything about HTML.

I've put a quick page together describing my experience with the Google Page Creator. Here's the link to FreeCashSpace's Google Home Page.

Build Your Own Computer -- Ultimate Budget Box

ArsTechnica has created a system guide for what they call the Ultimate Budget Box. A desktop computer created for normal SOHO activities -- document creation, a little web surfing, email, etc. They reckon they can put together a good, reliable machine for under US$500. I'm going to list their recommended components here to remind myself to have a look around next year and see if I can put the thing together for under US$350.

Motherboard: Biostar Geforce 6100-M7 $65
CPU: AMD Sempron 2800+ Retail $75
RAM 512MB PC3200 DDR $40
HDD: Hitachi Deskstar 7K80 80GB $55
Optical Drive: NEC ND-3550A DVD-RW/CD-RW $38
Case: In-Win Z720 $44
Speakers: Any $15
Monitor: KDS Xtreme Flat 7x 17" $114
Mouse: Microsoft Basic Mouse Optical $10
Keyboard: Any $6
Total Cost: $462 + s/h

More Drama With 12DailyPro

This 12DailyPro thing is just getting crazier, and sadder, by the day. The latest news is that the convention that they've been planning for months has been cancelled at the last minute -- too late for most people to get refunds on their plane tickets and hotel reservations. Charis, 12DP's owner blamed it on the media, and many of her supporters are backing her up by saying they believe if it had gone ahead, it could've resulted in serious, and lethal, violence.

I believe that's possible. A lot of 12DailyPro's members are truly desperate. Many of them are financially ruined and emotionally shattered. This is one 12DailyPro member's anguished message to his fellow members:

This is really taking its toll on me in every way. I'm trying so hard to be patient and supportive, but no matter what I do, I feel so helpless, desperate and let down. Cry I know I am not alone in feeling frustrated, we are all going through various emotions....What can we do to reclaim our funds? Nothing. We cannot issue chargebacks or do anything to get back part of what we lost. We just basically lost it all. This is one of the worse feelings that I have ever had. The ones that are responsible for doing this to all of us, obviously don't care and have been using our money on things that are not as important like the medicine that my mentally challenged son or I need, or groceries, or in our case, christmas presents because we didn't get a christmas this past year because of this. It was so depressing. Have you ever had to tell your child that there are no presents to open on christmas? I felt so low at that point, but not nearly as low as I am feeling now. I'm just feeling so bogged down with the realization that I was taken advantage of and I trusted the wrong people.

and an equally painful reply:

I feel for you. I'm kinda in the same boat too. But keep your chin up,have faith . Things will work out soon.I have learned if you think positive positve things will happen. In my life I have figured out that no matter how tight things become I have overcome the situation one way or the other. Think Postive. Don't feel bad I have a a 9yr old complaining there is not enough food to eat etc,etc. Keep the faith.

In just a single forum discussion area, there were dozens of similar messages. So many of these people entrusted Charis with money they really couldn't afford to lose.

My first thought was that anybody who gets mixed up in any kind of online ponzi scam deserves to lose their money. Sometimes the only way to learn is the hard way. There's an old saying that you can't con an honest man. And there's a lot of truth in that. It's hard for me to believe that anybody looking at one of these schemes wouldn't have at least a tiny notion that something was fishy But reading these people's stories it really does seem that they were willing to put their trust in the people who encouraged them to join, and in Charis. And didn't worry about how it was going to work, just as long as it did.

Here are some more links:

16 Feb 2006 Better Business Bureau Reliability Report for StormPay
16 Feb 2006 Charis Johnson Cuts Off All Communication (Pogue's Blog)
18 Feb 2006 The FBI's Probe in StormPay and 12DailyPro Heats Up (ABC4)
18 Feb 2006 Autosurf Investments = Ponzi Scheme (Coin on the Side)
20 Feb 2006 Modern-day Firm Brings to Mind 1920 Ponzi Scheme (AZCentral.com)
21 Feb 2006 Who Has the Money? 12DailyPro Members Look for Federal Help (ABC4)

I came across a blog called Psychology of Compliance that's absolutely brilliant. There are a couple of entries about 12DailyPro (here and here), but there are lots of other posts well worth reading. Including one about how fraud often involves a parody of reason. And another that describes a recently-busted pyramid scam targeting Cambodians living all over the US.

I've said before that he head-games involved in these scams can be seriously twisted, and I'm glad to see that somebody -- even if it is a bunch of lawyers (but hey, at least they're real lawyers!) -- is looking at some of the techniques these scammers use.

When Fake Lawyers Defend Real Losers

That damned Cory Doctorow! Mr. Big Shot Award-Winning Writer A-List Blogger always gets all the attention! Lots of us nobodies blogged about the lost/stolen camera story but he's the only one important enough to get attention from a Canadian QC wannabe?

Terry at The Affiliate Marketing Blog does a good job of explaining why people who pretend to be lawyers are total wankers, especially when they so obviously show their complete lack of knowledge about the law (like not knowing the difference between libel and slander). Cory also did a fine job pointing out the many screw-ups of Mr. Deveny, QC so I won't try to follow in their wake.

I'm just going to say that I can be just as "deflamorty" as Doctorow any day of the freaking week! What do I have to do to ParisHilton myself into the spotlight? Look at me, fake lawyers! Look at me!

Losing Touch With Fairness and Decency

In over 7 years of participating in various 'Get Paid to...' earning opportunities, I've met a lot of really great people. I've also occasionally run across a total lunatic (Hi ET!). And unfortunately, I'm seen a lot of people who seem to be so desperate to make money that they've completely lost any sense of fairness or morality they might've once possessed.

Although I've been dealing with those kinds of people for years, the recent collapse of the 12DailyPro ponzi scam and all the associated drama has made me think about it a lot more than usual. I've often wondered if these people are the same in the 'real world' or if the fact that it's all happening online somehow changes the rules for them.

Then yesterday I started seeing links to the story of the woman who lost her camera in Hawaii. Finally today I followed a link from Gizmodo and read the whole story. What a shocker! If you haven't already heard about it, read it here -- Camera Unlost, But Not Quite Found.

It wouldn't have surprised me if Judith had never heard anything about her lost camera. These days, we just can't expect a lost item, any lost item, to be returned. Especially not if it's valuable. But to learn that somebody had found it and then be told she wasn't getting it back is just un-freaking-believable. I honestly don't know how some people can stand to look at themselves in the mirror. Has their sense of morality, fairness and decency -- their very understanding of right and wrong -- become that twisted that they don't see anything wrong with what they're doing?

Reading about things like this reminds me that these kinds of things happen everywhere and involve all sorts of people. Not just people involved in GPT programs. Sorry about what happened to you, Judith. That's a serious bummer.

Blogging My Bookmarks # 2 -- Weedshare.com

Another site that I always have a lot of with when I rediscover it in my bookmarks is Weedshare.com (settle down, it's not what you think). Weedshare is about music. And file-sharing.

Basically, 'weedified' songs are WMA (Windows Media Audio) files with a special license that let's you play each song 3 times for free. If you want to play it more, you buy it (all the songs I've seen cost around $1).

Then you can share it with your friends, put a link on your website, on file-sharing networks or whatever. If somebody buys one of your shared files, you get 20% of the sale price. And if they share it with somebody who ends up buying it, they get 20% and you get 10%. And the next level of sharing gets you 5%.

Oh, and they put $5 in your accout to get you started, so you can get your first 4 or 5 songs for free.

So you get to listen to some cool music from musicians you may not have heard of (although they've got some famous ones, too). You get to share that cool music so that other people can discover these artists, too. You share files and help musicians make a few bucks. And you just might end up making a few bucks, too. How cool is that?

FBI Launches Investigation of 12DailyPro

Here's a copy of the FBI press release:

FBI INITIATES ASSESSMENT INTO ONLINE COMPANY

Charlotte, NC – Kevin B. Kendrick, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in North Carolina here, announced the FBI has initiated an assessment into the alleged allegations surrounding 12dailypro.com, an internet marketing company.

The FBI, in concert with the United States Attorney’s Office of the Western District here, is conducting this assessment to determine if further federal investigation into this matter is warranted. The FBI routinely assesses these types of allegations due to the potential for wide-spread victims and to determine if federal violations have occurred.

The FBI encourages anyone with information or who suspect being a victim, please contact the National Fraud Information Center at 1-800-876-7060 or the Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.

Link: http://charlotte.fbi.gov/pressrel/2006/ce021506.htm

It's great to see the authorities investigating 12DailyPro, and hopefully it will lead to a lot more online autosurf ponzi scams getting shut down.

Not only are these kinds of scams devastating for the people who lose money in them, but they also have a serious negative impact on the reputation of other online earning opportunities. As I've shown since starting this blog, there are lots of ways to honestly and legally make money online. They're not 'Get Rich Quick' schemes. They're not even 'Get Rich Slow' schemes. They're about making a few extra bucks, and your ability to earn doesn't rely on somebody else losing out.

For some of the media coverage of the 12DailyPro scam, here are some links:

7 Feb 2006 -- 12DailyPro Administrator Asks for Money
8 Feb 2006 -- StormPay trying to resolve problem
9 Feb 2006 -- 12DailyPro Members Advised to Close Bank Accounts
10 Feb 2006 -- Tennessee Launches Investigation of StormPay
10 Feb 2006 -- FBI, SEC Probe Web Sites Offering Large Returns for Looking at Ads
10 Feb 2006 -- Feds probe Web sites offering big paydays
11 Feb 2006 -- 12DailyPro Members Taking Action to Recover Money
16 Feb 2006 -- 12DailyPro's Charis Johnson Breaks Her Silence

And if that isn't enough for ya, Will Ferrell has written some great stuff about the whole 12DailyPro scam here and here. Great work, Will!

MSN Money -- Real Work-From-Home Jobs

Liz Pulliam Weston has an article at MSN Money about four different work-from-home opportunities.

1. Becoming a home-based call center rep
2. Starting your own online business
3. Online auctions
4. Mystery Shopping & Paid Surveys

It's a good article, with realistic advice, good examples of those who've 'made it', and some good links to companies and websites offering online earning opportunities.

Hat tip to Marta Wells at WorkFromHomeMomma for the link.

eJury -- Get Paid to Convict

Years ago I participated in a mock jury. If you've never heard of them, it's basically where a legal team tests their case before a trial starts. It's helps the lawyers find the strengths and weaknesses in their case, get an idea of general public attitudes, etc. We spent most of a Saturday listening to lawyers and answering questions, and for our efforts we got a free buffett lunch, a check for about $70, and the chance to learn about how trials work.

Now you can do the same thing, except you participate online, and instead of putting in an entire Saturday, you can do it in about 30 minutes and get paid $10. The company that's come up with this idea is called eJury, founded by Christopher L. Bagby in 1999.

You have to be a U.S. citizen over 18 years old, "of sound mind and good moral character", and have never been convicted of, or currently under indictment for, a felony. You also have to take an oath, promising that you're not a lawyer, legal assistant, paralegal, insurance adjuster, etc. and that you're not married to one, related to one, and you've never even seen one except on TV (or something like that).

They pay between $5 and 10 per trial, and they pay using PayPal. How many cases you get depends on where you live (they select eJurors from the same county where the actual trial will take place), and claim that in Tarrant and Dallas counties (where eJury was started) they average a case a week.

They even have a previous case for you to read so you can see how it works. Looks pretty cool.

Three Whys and the Reason

Seth Godin has posted a great blog entry called The Reason about why we often do things the way we do because that's the way we've always done them, or for legacy reasons -- reasons that might've made sense once, but not any more. The QWERTY keyboard layout is a classic example.

Reading his post reminded me of a book I read a few years ago by Ricardo Semler called The Seven-Day Weekend. Here's an excerpt:

Ask why. Ask it all the time, and always ask it three times in a row. This doesn't come naturally. People are conditioned to recoil from questioning too much. First, it's rude and dangerous. Second, it may imply we're ignorant or uninformed. Third, it means everything we think we know may not be correct or true. Fourth, management is usually frightened by the prospect of employees who question continually. But mostly, it means putting aside all the rote or pat answers that have resulted from what I call 'crystallized' thinking, that state of mind where ideas have so hardened into inflexible and unquestioned concepts that hey're no longer of any use....

Any parent of a toddler (as I am) understands the value of questions. When the child asks the first why, you give a careful, adult version of the 'right' answer. This is closely followed by the second why from the child. You then stutter a little, and respond with even more care. Now, after this second explanation, a third why makes its way from that tiny mouth. After that third why, no matter what the subject, there is only one solution: Buy the kid an ice cream.

It's the same with most questions: Why do I have to wear a suit and tie, or why does that person make more than I do, or why does the company have to grow. Or why does the product only come in black, or why can't I exchange it after 10 days, or why do I have to stand in line for this or that.

None of these quandaries will hold up over three consecutive whys. The first and maybe second pat answers will break down by the third time they're questioned.

Semler is the unorthodox CEO of a very unusual Brazilian company called Semco. Semco is one of Latin America's fastest-growing companies and is considered one of the best to work for, with a waiting list of thousands of applicants trying for a chance to work there.

What's so different about Semco? For a start, nobody has a title. They get to set their own salaries (and everybody else knows how much it is). Employees evaluate and participate in the hiring of their bosses. Every employee has access to the books (and the company runs courses to teach them how to understand them). Employees set their own schedules. They dress however they want. In other words, the people at Semco question everything, and change the rules when they don't make any sense.

Ricardo has writter two books about the Semco story, and they're both worth reading. The first is called Maverick! The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Company, and the other's called The Seven-Day Weekend The Wisdom Revolution: Finding the Work/Life Balance.

If you're the type of person that questions everything, and have wondered what it would be like to work at a place where everybody questions everything, you really ought to read these books.

Huge List of Freeware Applications

Came across a link at DownloadSquad for Neowin's Freeware Alternative List. It's a HUUUUUGE list of freeware applications (mostly for Windows) listed by category (Anti-virus, Audio Players, Encryption, Firewalls, etc.).

Anybody interested in free software ought to check it out.

Get Paid to Search -- Blingo, A9, & MSN Search

A couple of days ago I blogged about Yahoo looking into rewarding people to use Yahoo Search. Of course they're not the first to do it.

Blingo

Blingo has been around for a while, giving away prizes to searchers. They're powered by Google results, and they've given away over 15,000 prizes so far. Prizes include:

• PlayStation Portable or $249 Visa Gift Card
• 2Gb Apple iPod Nano or $200 Visa Gift Card
• Toshiba or Samsung Portable DVD player with 7" screen or $175 Visa Gift Card
• 1Gb Apple iPod Shuffle or $100 Visa Gift Card
• $25 Visa Gift Card
• $10 Apple iTunes Gift Certificate or Blingo Movie Ticket Certificate (good for one adult admission)

You don't even have to register or anything. Just search using Blingo, and if you win a prize, you tell 'em where to send it, and kick back and wait for it to arrive. They've also got a Blingo toolbar for IE users, and Firefox can easily add Blingo to their Quick Search box. I've added it to Quick Search, and of course I don't use it all the time, but I probably average at least a couple searches a day.

Amazon A9

Another way to be rewarded for searching is by using Amazon.com's A9 search engine. You sign on at A9 using your Amazon ID, and when you make a purchase at Amazon, if their system decides you've used A9 often enough recently, it'll knock 1.57% off your total.

A9 is powered by Google results, but they also offer a lot of added features. You can search for regular web results (from Google), or for books (from Amazon), images (Google), movies (IMDB), people (ZoomInfo), blogs (IceRocket), Wikipedia (Answers.com) and more (over 200 more!). I often use a 3-column layout, with web results, Amazon results, and IceRocket results provided. A9 has a toolbar for IE, Mozilla, Netscape and IE users. And Firefox uses can add it to their Quick Search box by installing this A9 Search Plugin for Firefox. They also have a number of tools available, including your search history, bookmarks, a dairy (take notes as you browse) and a website recommendation service. I haven't used the tools since I don't have their toolbar installed, but if you don't already have a toolbar installed, or have room for another one, it might be worth a try.

MSN Search and Win

And last but not least, it looks like Microsoft has decided to test the waters of search rewards with MSN Search and Win. For now, this doesn't appear to be a permanent feature, but simply a promotional game that runs until the end of February.

From what I understand, winning is based on searching for the right keywords. Maybe the prizes are paid for by advertisers or sponsors. I'm not sure. If you've searched for one of the winning keywords, you get a special 'Search and Win' link in the sponsored results. You click on it and find out if you've won a prize or not.

Prizes include:

• Netflix 1 year subscription
• 12 month magazine subscription from Amazon.com
• $500 Amex gift certificate
• xbox 360 game
• Panasonic 42" Diagonal plasma HDTV
• Canon PowerShot 5.0 MP Digital Camera
• and heaps more...

The fine print says you have to be over 18, a U.S. resident, and you have to claim your prize within 10 minutes of your instant win notification. MSN will send you the prize within 90 days. There's a limit of one prize per category per person, and the odds of winning a prize are 1 in 3,992.

As a search engine, MSN Search doesn't do a lot for me. But it's getting better. And they have a toolbar available for IE users.

People are already winning, and you can read about their prizes, and more importantly their strategies, at Live from Redmond... and at Threadwatch.

Also, Oilman has posted what he believes to be a list of the winning keywords.

Hat tip to TheSearchEngineMarketingWeblog for alterting me to Microsoft's move into incentivized searching.

If other search companies jump on this bandwagon, searching could get very interesting. Will incentivising become the best way for search engines to embiggen their market share? I want a prize, dammit!

$50 from Suntrust Bank

Here's an easy way to get a $50 Visa gift card by opening up an online bank account. Bank Bonuses has a post about the SunTrust Visa Gift Card offer. SunTrust is an Atlanta-based bank that operates primarily in the south-eastern US. But if you're using it just as an online bank, then it doesn't really matter where the branches and ATMs are, does it?

SunTrust will send you a free $50 Visa gift card when you open up a checking account. The fine print says you have to do it between 13 Feb and 31 March 2006. They'll send you a redemption certificate, which has to be filled out and mailed back to them, postmarked no later than 21 April 2006. Everybody who does that, and whose account is still open and in good standing as of 31 May 2006 will receive their gift card no later than 15 July 2006. Oh, and there's a limit of one free gift card per household.

The SunTrust Free Checking Account has no minimum balance and no monthly maintenance fees. It offers unlimited check writing, a free SunTrust Visa Check Card, free online and telesphone banking, a free bill pay service, and free use of SunTrust ATMs.

Apparently, with all the online bank deals going on these days, it's not that hard to make a few thousand dollars a year just moving money around. I wonder if that'll ever catch on here in Australia? Hmmmm....

Blogging My Bookmarks # 1

I've got about 2.4 bazillion bookmarks and I've decided it's time to clean them up. I bookmark all sorts of things 'so I can blog about it later' and then I never seem to get around to it.

Until now.

OK after deleting a couple of bookmarks for sites that don't exist any more, I've come across my first blog-worthy bookmark -- for peercast.org. Peercast is a peer-to-peer radio network. You install their software and you can listen to other Peercasters, or become one yourself. It works for audio (MP3, Ogg Vorbis, WMA) and also video (supposedly -- I couldn't get a connection to anybody sending video) and while the selection didn't overly impress me, the idea does.

I really like the idea that with torrents and podcasts and Skype and PeerCast, P2P could become a lot more than sharing pirated copies of the latest Shakira single. I like the idea of new sales and distribution systems for independent artists.

And of course I like the idea that I could have my very own radio show. Heh.

Smart Ways to Save Money Online

A post at LifeHacker linked to TDavid's excellent post at MakeYouGoHmm.com called 14+ Money Saving Computer User Ideas. It's some really great advice about saving money using your computer. Such as using VoIP phone service, ditching online subscriptions for services you don't use enough to justify the cost, and buying annual or lifetime subscriptions for services that you do use enough to justify the expense.

He also suggests two other tips that I agree with -- joining reward clubs, and using music (like Yahoo Music) subscription services to 'try before you buy.' A few of his other tips I'm not so sure about -- building your own MythTV media computer instead of using TiVO, and buying a UPS and anti-static mats. Not that there's anything wrong with buying those things if you want the added peace of mind, but I've been using computers for over 25 years and I've never had any mishaps or meltdowns from either power surges or static discharges.

Go read TDavid's other tips, and if you've got any comments, or tips of your own, put them in the comments.

Shopping Rewards -- CashBackOutlet

I just joined a new (new to me, anyway) rewards program called CashBackOutlet. I had just decided to buy a new 256 Mb USB flash drive after hearing about a good deal at Buy.com. I knew that Buy.com was a merchant partner at MyPoints, so I'd earn 2 points for every $ I spent. The drive was on sale for $14.99, which means I'd earn 30 points, which works out to be worth about $0.21 (I redeem 3500 MyPoints for a $25 Webcertificate).

Then I remembered reading about a website called evreward.com. It's a directory of online shopping rewards programs, so you just type in the store where you're shopping (in my case it was Buy.com) and it shows which of over 40 online rewards programs that store is partnered with, and what rewards are offered.

When I saw that CashBackOutlet offered up to 8% cash back rewards for Buy.com purchases, I decided to investigate. Once I did, I saw that I didn't qualify for the 'up to 8%' part -- that's only for music downloads -- but that I would earn 2.4% in vDollars. Then I found out that vDollars can either be spent on future purchases (at face value, so for my purchase that would be $0.36) or converted to cash at a rate of 100 vDollars - 70 US cents (making my cash back reward worth $0.25).

Either way it worked out to be a slightly better reward than MyPoints, so I thought I'd give them a try. So not only did I get a GREAT deal on a new 256 Mb USB flash drive, but I found a new reward program, too.

If you're into online shopping rewards, you really ought to check out evreward.com and find some reward programs that work best for you.

Which Browser is Best for You?

There's a great (but very looooooong) round-up of articles about web browsers at InternetWeek called IE7 Vs. Everybody Else that is well worth the read if you're interested in comparing web browsers.

I know most netizens just stick with the browser they get with their OS (which means Internet Explorer for most people), but I've always liked to try different ones. My browser history looks like this -- Lynx --> Mosaic --> Netscape --> Opera --> Mozilla --> Firefox. Along the way I've also tried Arena, IMB Web Explorer, Amaya, iCab, AvantBrowser, CrazyBrowser, Flock, Konqueror, and probably a few others that I don't remember.

For a long time I was a huge fan of Opera, and I still like it even though I don't use it as my default browser these days. I guess one of the things I like best about Firefox is the use of extensions. Because in many cases, if another browser has a cool feature that Firefox doesn't have, an extension will be created so that Firefox users can enjoy that feature, too.

Anyway, after reading (most of) the browser round-up, I'm thinking I'll download the IE7 beta just to see the changes. If nothing else, I'll be happy if it works better than IE6 and works OK with the sites I visit where I have to use IE (including my online banking...grrrr).

LongorShortCapital.com -- Brilliant Investment Advice

I'm not really into the whole investment thing, but I try to at least glance through the business section of the newspaper on my way to the comics and classifieds. I want to learn more about investing in shares, but it seems like I've always got all my money tied up in things like the Dog Butt Towel Holder. But I still like to read the odd investment site, and Long or Short Capital certainly qualifies.

The 'advisors', including Mr. Juggles and Johnny Debacle write some really great stuff, including Johnny's guide to piracy.

Pirates.

Piracy used to be an important industry providing raping and pillaging services for emerging market economies and sovereign states. Fine countries such as Trinidad and Tobago were built on the pirate economy. Can you imagine England if pirates hadn’t been around? It would now be the United Kingdom of Mexico and London would be New Seville, had it not been for an enterprising fleet of bucaneers.

Pirate Opportunities

Over the past couple decades, shipping companies, luxury cruiselines and international boating have all seen large increases in net profits. However, there has not been a commensurate rise in piratery.

Link: Piratery fka Piracy: Primer to Investing in Cutlasses, Rum and Pillaging

You don't get that kind of deep analysis of high-return investment opportunities in emerging markets at TheStreet.com, that's for damn sure!

Oh, and did I mention they pay you to read it? That's right, baby! The guys at Long or Short Capital understand that time is money, and that by reading their blog you're investing your time and energy in them. So to offer you a return on that investment, they pay a quarterly dividend to their subscribers. The last divident (Q2'06) was $1.50 per subscriberholder. w00t!

For a daily (more or less) investment-related chuckle, check out longorshortcapital.com. It's a gas.

Get Paid to Search -- Yahoo! Search Rewards

Yahoo! has sent a survey to randomly selected Yahoo!Mail users asking if they'd be interested in being rewarded for using Yahoo!Search as their primary search engine. It would involve downloading and installing a Yahoo!Toolbar for your browser, and they don't reward you with cash. But here are some of the rewards they're considering:

• No Yahoo!Mail ads
  
• Unlimited Yahoo!Mail storage
  
• Outlook access to Yahoo!Mail
  
• 5 free music downloads per month
  
• Save $3/month on a Yahoo!Music subscription ($3.99 instead of $6.99)
  
• Donation to charity
  
• $5 PC-to-Phone calling credit (~30 min) for Yahoo!Messenger With Voice
  
• Save $7/month on 3-DVD Netflix account ($10.99 instead of $17.99)
  
• Save $5/month on Yahoo!Personals account ($19.95 instead of $24.95)
  
• 250 frequent flier miles/month
  

Not great incentives, but I'd be willing to give it a try. The Outlook access to Yahoo!Mail could be useful, or maybe the 5 free music downloads. It wouldn't be worth it if I felt the search results weren't good enough, but as long as I find what I'm looking for, then it's all good. I hope they give this a try.

Netflix Screws Big Customers

I've been a big fan of Netflix ever since it launched. $18 a month for an unlimited supply of DVDs. Or at least that's what they want you to think. But apparently, it just ain't so. Turns out if you're a heavy user, you get a raw deal from Netflix -- they purposely slow down your deliveries so you can't get as many DVDs each month.

And that, my friends, is a load of bullshit. Hey, I understand that Netflix can't afford to lose money, but if they're going to offer 'unlimited' DVDs per month, then they need to work out their pricing so that they make a profit even if they lose a bit on the power-users.

Go to MSNBC.com to read the rest of the story -- Netflix Renters Sent to Back of Line.

AOL Certified Email -- Electronic Postage

Seth Godin get's it. John at ByTheBayou gets it, too. 'It' is the AOL Certified Email plan that I blogged about a few days ago (AOL Wants a Cut of the Paid Email Action). They both understand that if enough email service providers adopt this strategy, it could mean a lot less SPAM-related dramas for customers. And it could also mean much better results for legitimate email marketers.

Todd at Geek News Central doesn't get it. He says it's all a grab for cash by greedy companies who don't want to get rid of SPAM unless they get paid to do it. But the problem isn't how to keep SPAM out of our inboxes. The trick is to do it in a way that doesn't interfere with the rest of our email.

It's bad enough when I've agreed to receive emails from a company but I never see them because they don't make it through my provider's SPAM filters. But it's even worse when regular email ends up sent to a SPAM or 'Bulk Email' folder and I don't see it. Not to mention having to click a button to allow images or to follow a link.

Why should it be a hassle for me to receive emails from people and businesses I want to hear from?

Why should I have to explain to Mom that I didn't get her email because it was inSPAMerated because she mentioned that Mrs. Weldon's niece got out of rehab after kicking her addiction to Valium and Xanax, and that Mr. Pearson had won the lottery and used some of the money to give free anti-malaria medication and bednets to several villages in Nigeria?

If an email marketer isn't sure it's worth spending 1/4 cent to make sure I get their email, then maybe they should just keep it.

$2.95/yr Domain Registration at iPower

Thanks to a post about free web hosting at QuietMommy's Space of Random Stuff, I've found a great deal on domain registration -- $2.95/yr at iPower Web Hosting Solutions. Thanks for the heads-up, webgurl!

For less than $3, you get free parking, domain and email forwarding, domain locking, and free registration change. The fine print says the $2.95 price is only good for a maximum of 2 years, then it renews at $8.25/year after that. And there's a limit of 100 domains per customer at the special price.

I've still got one domain that I'm not doing much with at the moment, but once I get that one up and running, I'll definitely be buying another. I'm currently paying $8.10/yr for domain registration with Recut Technologies (a GoDaddy reseller), and I've got no complaints. But I might give iPower a shot with my next registration, just to compare the service.

Scams Going Down?

Anybody who spends much time looking into the various 'Get Paid' opportunities knows that there's no shortage of scams out there. One of the most popular over the last 6 - 12 months or so has been 'autosurf' programs. The basic formula is that you pay in some money (they usually call them 'upgrades' rather than investments), then you click a button that starts an autosurf script -- you're shown a series of websites, kinda like a slide-show. Once the script has shown you a minimum number of websites, you earn a certain percentage of your investment (I mean 'upgrade').

One program offered 12% every day that you autosurfed at least 12 sites. After 12 days, your 'upgrade' expired, and you could collect an amount equal to 144% of your initial investment (minus fees and charges, of course).

Of course these programs are nothing but old-fashioned Ponzi schemes with a new twist. They're illegal, but many have managed to slip under the radar of law enforcement authorities. But it looks like one of the biggest auto-surfs has finally received some attention, and is under investigation.

Here are links to a couple of news stories:

http://www.abc4.com/mediacenter/default.aspx?videoId=36003

http://www.abc4.com/mediacenter/default.aspx?videoId=36152

The payment processor mentioned in the story, StormPay, has basically kept afloat by handling payments for all sorts of scams that other payment systems like Paypal wouldn't touch. With any luck, they'll end up in jail along with the people behind all the big Ponzi autosurfs.

Edited to Add: I've found some posts at GPT Insanity that have a lot more info on this whole 12DailyPro thing, so I thought I'd post some links:

GPT Insanity: So Is AutoSurfing Legitimate?

GPT Insanity: StormPay Controversy Part Deux

GPT Insanity: StormPay: The Plot Thickens

There are several other related posts, and while I don't share the author's views, they are definitely worth a read if you're interested in some of the more controversial aspects of the 'Get Paid' world.

Get Paid to Drive -- Sydney, Australia

I picked up the Saturday paper (yeah, I occasionally read a newspaper made out of real paper) and read about a new advertising company that's started up in Sydney called Ad4Car. They're looking for drivers with well-maintained cars and good driving records who want to earn rewards by having their cars wrapped in vinyl ads. And although it wasn't listed as an official requirement, I think it helps if you're young, attractive and popular -- applicants have to take "a 3-minute psychometric test to determine their sociability".

Ad4Car will pay for their vehicle registration and insurance, fuel and more. Advertisers are matched to driver profiles, although the company says it doesn't have any clients yet. But they've got over 1000 people interested in driving for them.

I've read about similar 'Get Paid to Drive' schemes, including some seriously dodgy situations where people pay to get on a list of potential drivers, or even just to get access to a database of 'car ad' companies. Most seem to come and go fairly quickly, and I suspect Ad4Car will do the same.
Also mentioned in the article was another Sydney company called Kahdo. Same basic concept, but instead of using drivers' own cars, they get a subsidized lease (works out to $5/day) on a SMART fortwo coupe. There are some usage and travel (500 kms per month in a designated area) and parking (on-street or public parking, no garaging) requirements, and the cars are tracked by GPS. And again, while not an official requirement, I suspect being young, urban and extremely hip are important as well.

I'm making a note to myself to check whether either of these companies are still in business a year from now. And if they are, I'll check whether they've expanded from 'young and hip' urban drivers in microcars to middle-aged suburban parents in people-movers and station wagons.

AOL Wants a Cut of the Paid Email Action

After years of being forwarded the Bill 602P "5-cent email tax" email, I didn't pay much attention when I first heard about AOL's plan to charge people who want to email their customers. But after seeing it on a few different blogs, I decided it must be the real deal and took the time to read about it (NY Times link).

If you haven't heard, AOL is going to start charging companies a small fee (1/4 cent to 1 cent) to give their emails priority -- the go straight to the inbox instead of through all the SPAM filters, etc. These messages would be called "AOL Certified Emails" and the senders can only pay to send the messages to people who've agreed to receive them. In other words, it'll be just like PTR, except AOL isn't giving any of the money to the members.

I can remember reading discussions about these type of email payment systems years ago (I'm thinking Jakob Nielsen was a big proponent, but I'm not sure and I can't find a useful link). I think it makes sense, especially if you combine it with a micropayment system, and maybe some kind of decent reputation management system as well. But to me the key is that the recipient sets the price and gets the bulk of the money.

If AOL want 1/4 cent to certify the email, fine. But I want to be able to charge an additional 1 cent to give you permission to send me your "Travel Tips" newsletter. If I like it, I might drop the fee (and maybe be able to add you to my personal whitelist so you don't have to pay AOL, either) . If you want to send me ads for Viagra and penis enlargement nasal spray, that'll involve a $5 fee. Per email. Otherwise, there's no chance in hell your email will ever see my inbox.

Use Your Free Time for a Side Business

Over at Achieve-It!, Brad Isaac talks about 4 good reasons to start a side business:

1. Independence and self-esteem you usually don't get working for somebody else.
2. Putting your eggs in more than one basket.
3. Better use of free time than watching Mama's Family marathon on TNT.
4. If you're not careful, you just might learn something.

As Brad points out, a side business is different from a small business. It's just something you can do at night or on the weekends if you have a "real" job. In other words, it's something you do on the side.

My wife and I have one side business going at the moment that developed from her interest in making jewelry. And now that we've got that one streamlined so that it isn't taking up all of our free time, we're working on starting up another. We're having fun, making a bit of extra cash, and learning heaps -- including how to work as husband & wife and as business partners.

I think if you've got some free time, starting a side business is a good way to use it. If you don't have any free time, then you need to seriously think about how you could change your life so you get some. And then think about starting a side business. It may turn into a small business. Or maybe even turn into your full-time real job. Or you may never make a penny of profit. But even if it doesn't work out, it's still better than watching that Mama's Family marathon, isn't it?

Hat tip to LifeHacker (yes, again!) for the link.

Get Free Stuff -- AbsurdlyCool Freebie Finder

A new website was recently launched called AbsurdlyCool Freebie Finder. According to their blurb, it checks a lot of the top freebie sites and lists them all in one convenient place for you. And it even tries to filter out all the scams, leaving you with nothing but heaps-o-freebie goodness.

I've just quickly checked through the offers, and there's all sorts of freebies listed -- T-shirts, caps, pet food samples, magazines, chewing gum, catalogues, shampoo and the list just goes on and on and on and...

If you love freebies (and who doesn't???), check out AbsurdlyCool Freebie Finder.

Celebrate the Internet on OneWebDay

Thanks to a post at Joho the Blog (link), I've found out that 22 September, 2006 (and every 22 September afterwards if it's successful) will be OneWebDay. It's kinda like Earth Day. A day to celebrate the Internet. Or as they put it -- "to create, maintain, advance, and promote a global day to celebrate online life."

I love it.

The Net has had a HUGE impact on my life over the last 12 years or so. In terms of my personal life (not least because I met my wife online over 10 years ago), my professional life, my academic life, and of course my shopping life.

And I really like the idea of lots of local celebrations and projects going on all over the world to celebrate and promote the Net. If you're interested in learning more about it, or maybe even starting or volunteering for a project, go over to the OneWebDay website and check it out.

Edited to add: Can't believe I forgot to mention that the other reason why I think OneWebDay is cool is because it's also my birthday. Does that mean double presents???

The Future of Google

Regular readers (Hi Mom!) know I'm a Google fanboy (but sadly, not a shareholder), so I had fun reading these short essays about the Future of Google in Business 2.0.

Other Google fans would no doubt love to see the creation of GoogleNet and even GoogleTV, although 'Google is God' might be pushing it too far.

And for Anti-Googlers, the downfall of Google, caused by privacy issues and those damned Search Engine Optimizers, is another possibility.

Actually, I think whether you care about Google or not, if you're interested in the future of the Net, it's worth reading.

Free Audiobook Podcasts

Thanks to a link at BoingBoing, I've just read Xeni Jardin's NPR story on free audiobooks available as podcasts. These audio versions are created by volunteers, fans, or even the authors themselves and I think it's a brilliant idea.

Whether you look at it as a way to free (as in free speech and free beer) literature, to find new audiences for books and authors, or as a long tail creation and distribution model, it looks good from any angle.

I'd been introduced to LibriVox some time last year through one of my fellow volunteers at Distributed ProofReaders, but I hadn't heard of Podiobooks before. Very cool!

Go grab yourselves some free audiobook podcasts, and maybe even volunteer to record a chapter or two!