Just Another Writer

My World, My Opinion…

Going Green: A Breakdown of Costs March 27, 2008

Filed under: Money — News Writer @ 11:03 pm

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Okay.

I finally have a few moments. I still can’t tell you how much money I’ve made from promoting these sites yet, because I’m waiting to see how much time it takes me to deal with canceling the “offers”. In other words, I don’t want to be horribly unethical and inflict something terrible on others, so I’m waiting to see if it is (A) merely a pain in the ass or (B) a royal time-sucking pain in the ass that I would never repeat in a million years.

Here’s a list of the offers I had to take to make the money I made on the first site I did:

    Blockbuster (1/2 credit)–free to sign up, but I have to cancel the service in two weeks or I’ll be charged….something.

    Lifelock (1/2 credit)–free to sign up, but if I don’t cancel by in thirty days, I’m out a billion dollars or something.

One credit makes you “Go green” on that site. This one was really easy, and I’d recommend it to others. So, if you’re an organized person who’d like to make $20, contact me and I’ll hook you up.

Of course, once you’ve completed the referral, you can do the same thing yourself. I’ll be going for $450, which by the time I pay for completed referrals will be a grand total of $230. This is not looking like a way to get rich, but it IS another source of income. You know, multiple streams and all that.

I completed referrals on three other sites and chose the following “offers”. It says something that these are the best ones I could come up with:

    Bella Clear–It cost about seven dollars to have it sent to me, and I have to send it back within 15 days or my credit card will be charged nearly eighty dollars. A month. You can see how organization is important if you are going to do this.

    eAuction Success–This one cost $1.95, but if I don’t cancel in 14 days, I’m out sixty bucks a month for this informational product. There are several other informational products offered by this company, but you can only order one. I am starting to see where the real money is in this, though. I have it on my list to see what it takes to get myproduct offered on one of these sites.

    Allure Patch–This contains green tea or something, and set me back a couple of bucks. It will cost me $89.95 a month to continue with this weight loss effort if I don’t cancel in 10 days.

    Boca Java
    –I paid $19.95 for a cute set of mugs and a bunch of expresso. It’s going in the pile of gifts for people I don’t know I’m giving gifts to yet. If I don’t cancel in 14 days, I’ll get expensive shipments every month.

    Web.com–This is a hosting service that I have no gripe with. Their customer service was great when I called to get my $25 in Adwords. I paid about $10 to sign on with this one, so that was a really nice perk. Of course, I will continue to be charged every month until I cancel.

    Girls Gone Wild–It was seven dollars or so to order the video. Subsequent monthly videos cost $19.95. I suppose watching the same girls all the time gets a bit tame…I am ticked off at them because they haven’t given me credit yet for signing up, so I haven’t went “green” on that site yet.

So you can see how this is a way to make actual money, but that it might not be the easiest way. One thing I am learning about making money online is that there isn’t an easy way. I enjoy writing, so PPP seems easy to me, but it might not for someone else. Completing these offers makes me want to tear my hair out, and I’m not going to do it anymore. I’m going to promote the sites I already have in “green” status. Also, you can keep those sites green without having to complete any more “offers”, which means you keep your cash machine going.

I’ll let you know how it turns out once I start canceling things.

 

5 Responses to “Going Green: A Breakdown of Costs”

  1. Kelvin Says:

    When you have too many of these, you’d need to start out-sourcing the cancellation part. I wonder if any of these are really hard to cancel. Canceling America Online was such a pain in the ass.

    Kelvin’s last blog post..Seamus and Magellan - Day 2

  2. Michelle Says:

    @Kelvin–If they are like AOL, I’m going to end up canceling my credit card and getting very, very drunk. AOL was evil. The guy I talked to when I canceled actually yelled at me.

  3. Kelvin Says:

    What the… yelled? Wow. The guy I talked to was just really annoying and persistent while ignoring my request to cancel it. Finally I started asking him how long he’s worked there and so on, and he suddenly understood that I wanted to cancel it, after like a good half hour. I was about to bring up the class action suit against AOL’s cancellation process from years ago too. (And yes, they lost.)

    Kelvin’s last blog post..Seamus and Magellan - Day 2

  4. Charlie Gilkey Says:

    FWIW, my assessment is about the same as yours, Michelle. I’ve tried a few things on Project Payday, and I think the huge time draw of having to figure out when to cancel, what I got, and so forth are just not worth it, seeing as I’ve spent probably 10 hours and haven’t made enough to justify the time.

    I also don’t want to be glued to the screen all day and pestered by people wanting to go green.

    All in all, it might be worth it for some people, but I’m not one of those. I’d rather be writing and creating, since that’s sustainable over the long haul.

    Thanks for keeping us posted.

    Charlie Gilkey’s last blog post..The Daily Productivity Planner: Plan Your Day By Your Productive Capacity

  5. nadya Says:

    I enjoyed your post and I agree: when it comes to making money online, there are many ways to do it and each person needs to find his/her own niche. I have found that trying to make money while having a 9 to 5 = NO LIFE! So I decided to be happy with what I have, work towards a raise or two and maybe tighten the belt a little. Although I do kinda miss PPP, I don’t miss the pressure I was put under to read everyone’s stuff or run the risk of being deleted.

    nadya’s last blog post..Service allows you to offset environmental impact of books

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