Have you ever come across a website promising a free prize? Maybe they just give out seemingly “free” money to you like Cash Crate or Treasure Trooper do? These websites are referred to as “Get Paid To,” or GPT, programs… and the secret is that they are very profitable for the business owner. Imagine if you had an advertiser willing to pay you $1 per sign up, and you could get 1,000 people to do it for $0.50… sounds crazy? It’s not! The Get Paid To business model is still holding up in these bad times, and I want to get you in the game.

First of all, a brief disclosure.  I am not going to encourage all of you to drop what you are doing and start a business. There are a lot of GPT websites out there because it is so profitable, so you have to be a hard-worker if this is going to work. Additionally, a bit of background information would help immensely. Tons of GPT websites are started on a daily basis… and there are really only 50 “established” websites. Because too many people get started, and then stop working and give up, the GPT line of work is something that you should be interested in before getting into it.

I want to break up this series on how to make your own GPT website into two parts. First, we will cover getting started up… including things like forming your concept and organizing paperwork. Second, we will get into the actual systems that you can use to get your dream into reality. I think that all of you have the capabilities to be entrepreneurs… and the industry absolutely thrives in bad times when people are increasingly looking for second incomes. Let’s get going!

Step One: Think Up A Brilliant Idea

Here’s the key to running a successful GPT website… are you ready for it? The key to running a successful GPT website is holding your visitors’ attention! Okay, okay… so right now you are thinking that I am wrong, right? It’s not the entertainment business, I’m not making movies here. In effect, the entire function of GPT is to make money… so who cares if it’s fun or not… right?

This is where I think that many people slip up. Having a concept that really hits it out of the ball park is more important than anyone else thinks. Why? Clicking in an out of offers is BORING! In general, people will start giving up and not frequently visiting your website like they should if there is nothing interactive about it. Visitors lose focus, and stop caring about the $0.50 light at the end of the tunnel. As a businessman, it is your job to keep your guests working on your site, and conversely bringing in more revenue for your business.

Let’s check out some examples. Treasure Trooper is the webs #1 GPT by foot traffic, and #2 on our list of the Best GPT Websites for 2009. Why? They play off of the whole “tribal adventure” theme, and everything on the site makes you feel like you are running through the jungle collecting gold coins and fighting bad guys. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but because there is an interactive storyline surrounding their service… it is very hard to leave the computer screen, and that is exactly what we want!

The moral of the story is that you need a killer idea, or “theme” if you will, in order to run a successful business. Start thinking about just how you are going to captivate your audience… and put it in motion! You should jot down a few ideas, make it a bit more fine tuned, and look for the next big idea that you think people will enjoy and keep coming back for.

Step Two: Removing the Personal Liability From Your Business

We talked last week about how to start a business. Essentially, owning a business is all about removing personal liability (at least in the way that I think of it). When you really get down to it, anyone can run a “business.” However, unless you are fully registered and protected as a legal entity, your personal assets are at 100% risk. Therefore, by registering for an LLC. (recommended) or S-Corp., you will be removing personal liability from the equation and greatly enhancing your upside.

There are a few steps to take here, and I think that you should do all of the following before you officially open up your new “get paid to” website for business:

1. Register an LLC. or S-Corp
2. Draw Up Articles of Organization
3. Protect Your Service with a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service

It might be a bit of work on the front end, but don’t think that it is not a necessary step. Trust me, you will feel a lot better being able to sleep at night when you have some kind of downside “insurance” if you will.

Step Three: Forming Partnerships with Affiliate Networks

Now comes the tricky part, you need a way to offer your customers “incentivized” offers and surveys to complete for cash. What you need, instead of going to advertisers individually, is a middleman marketer… or what we call an affiliate network. In a nutshell, this is a company that services ads from advertisers and let’s you market them for profit. Typically, you can gauge how “good” a network is based on how many offers they have and how well they pay in relation to other networks. Yes, that’s right, all affiliate networks are not equal.

Because of a recent onslaught of fraud and defaulting, many networks are a bit concerned with allowing traffic through incentivized. However, unline many would have you think, there are still quite a few willing competitors on the market to service your account. Here is a list of some of the best ones just to get you started:

• AzoogleAds
• Hydra
• CPAStorm
• MaxBounty
• IncentaClick
• Commission Junction
• ClickBooth
• Copeac

Remember, NEVER advertise a non-incentivized advertisement on your GPT website. This will result in an immediate ban from your affiliate manager. You can only use the affiliate offers as they are designated to be used, and every network will tell you this information on the main page of the affiliate offer. This is just a word of caution before you start breaking rules!

Bottom Line: Get Paid To programs are increasing in popularity as household disposable income decreases around the world. If you have an entrepreneur spirit, it’s not hard to use this to your advantage and start your own GPT business! We’ve laid the groundwork, come back tomorrow for a look at how you can set it all in motion and actually build up your GPT empire!

-Jimvesting

The following post is a sponsored listing of Eyepinch, but the content and opinion has not been swayed by the nature of payment

Many new business starters have problems tapping into the internet in an effective manner. Since not all businesses have a focus on information technology, it’s a bit tough to know who to trust with your design, hosting and online-based systems. Rather than default to these so-called “big ticket” companies like Template Monster… it is much more effective to take a look at boutique services.

With a smaller sized firm, you not only get a better serviced account… but you actually get better work by far! How can this be possible? In my experience, when dealing with bigger companies… they are too concerned with getting you in and out to work with you in a productive manner. Additionally, the “best” designers won’t work for these major firms because they understand that they will underpay employees to milk out the most corporate profit. The clear choice for me has and will continue to be boutique design shops, and one of my favorites is Eyepinch!

Brilliant Design and Brilliant Past Works

The first thing that you will notice when you visit Eyepinch Web Design is… well… their design! This sounds like something so obvious for a web design firm, but you would be surprised how many websites look downright “average” from so-called design specialists. The website at Eyepinch.com is one of the best I have seen, ever. They do a really creative job animating a flash-based template… and it is simply a cool looking website that you want to associate yourself with.

Eyepinch’s slogan is “the convergence of design and technology,” and they really do walk the walk! Looking across their portfolio yields hundreds of pages of past works, and all of them are of the highest quality. The convergence of design and technology really lends itself to their work… as everything is very “cutting edge” across the board. It would seem that these guys just don’t settle for anything less.

Too Many Services to Count!

As a part of reviewing their website and business, I figured that it would be useful to list through some of their services. However, this task becomes downright impossible when a company does seemingly everything under the sun. Their big hitting points are, in my opinion, with their brand development tools. Essentially, you can have Eyepinch take your business and create an entire identity!

In addition to the corporate identity service, Eyepinch has their own web hosting branch to get you online. With this, they can provide services in Search Engine Optimization, E-Commerce and even marketing! Perhaps you are a complete novice when it comes to web development? Eyepinch has a training service where they can take you through the steps to get you caught up in practically any aspect of the web so that you don’t have to come back over and over to a professional service. This speaks miles for the company, and says to me that they are really more concerned for client relationships than anything else.

Great Management and Transparency

If you are looking for a designer, and somebody that you can actually work with at that, I would definitely trust the guys over at Eyepinch Web Design. Perhaps I have a bit of a bias since they are based close to where I reside, but after having spoken with the team I can tell that they do good work. Additionally, their website is very telling… as they don’t seem to be hiding any scars. From what I have seen, they are entirely client-focused and will work with you until your project is carried out to perfection!

Bottom Line: I believe that if you are looking for a web designer or consultant, you want to stick with the smaller boutique companies, rather than the big dogs. Quality and Eyepinch.com really go hand in hand… and their portfolio brings quite a bit to the table. With this in mind, I do indeed recommend their services!

-Jimvesting

The following is a sponsored review of Offervault.com, and has not been affected by virtue of payment for the reviewed posting.

Chances are, if you are a website owner or an online marketer of any sort… you have stumbled across quite a few affiliate networks in your time. An affiliate network is essentially an online middleman between you, the publisher, and large advertisers looking to get their product out to interested people. By signing up with affiliate networks like Market Leverage and NeverBlueAds, you can rack in some serious cash; there are many people out there that I know personally making $100k+ annually from this alone!

Sounds great, eh? Well what’s the problem. As all of these services are free, the best of us will sign up to numerous networks. Because they all claim to have the “highest payouts in the industry,” it is necessary to register for multiple affiliate networks in order to find out who has the best deal for you on a per-offer basis. Believe me, when you are making 100s or 1000s of transactions monthly, the difference between $2.00 and $2.10 is HUGE in retrospect.

Logging in and out of multiple networks to find that sweet deal is very time-consuming… and just downright painful to have to go through over and over again. There really hasn’t been a service that can simplify it all for you… until now! The answer to your struggles is OfferVault.com, a constantly updating index of over 11 thousand affiliate and CPA offers that is fully searchable for your convenience. Let’s have a closer look!

A Look at the System:
In order to get a better feel for this website and exactly how it can help you make more money with affiliate offers, I have made this quick video run-through look at the system online. If you are thinking about signing up, why not check out this look into the system before you do to see if it is really worth your while, eh?

Clearly, there is a significant advantage to running the OfferVault system. With all of the offers in stock, you can quickly determine which network presents the most advantageous opportunity to you as an affiliate marketer. Heck, even if you aren’t a “super affiliate” you can still earn a pretty penny using OfferVault to your advantage.

The Pros and Cons of OfferVault.com
Let’s have a quick look at the upside benefits and downside issues with the system that we are looking through. I have a few things that I absolutely love about this website, but a few minor issues and things I would like to see improved.

Pros:
+ Contains a wide array of advertiser offers from dozens of networks
+ Easy to navigate and search for offers
+ FREE to sign up and use!

Cons:
- Design is not very aesthetically pleasing
- No way to search for “type” of offer
- Still a few major networks missing from the list

Bottom Line: Overall, I feel that OfferVault.com is a very interesting service that is definitely worth your while to sign up to and use. Any free service like this can be a valuable tool to use, and is simply too hard to pass up. With that, I do indeed think that OfferVault is worth your time, so check it out!

-Jimvesting

Happy Monday!
Time for some Link Love!

We’ve got an interesting week planned here at theNetFool.com. First things first, our Fight to End Poverty is winding down and will conclude on next Saturday, the 28th. You can win some HUGE prizes generously donated by Motive Interactive… so take a look and move on the opportunity if you have the time. I’m going to do an interesting series of posts over the next week on building up your own “Get Paid To” GPT website. This is something that I know a lot of people have been asking about… as we would all rather be business owners than business customers. Let’s check on the week that was:

• Garry Conn – How Can I Attract More Visitors to My Website?
• Thou Shall Blog – Are You Making This Mistake in Building Trust?
• The University Kid – How to Make Money from Your Blog
• John Cow – Make Your Applications Work Together, to Work Better!
• The Germz – Top 50 Ajax Tools, Scripts & Solutions

Starting us off… it’s the man, the myth, the legend Garry Conn, showing everyone how to attract more visitors to your nice website in a Q&A type setting. Then, Thou Shall Blog brings a nice anecdotal piece on building trust in your business. The University Kid stays active with a post about how to make money from you blog… specifically through list building. John Cow puts together a nice article on how to make your applications all work together as one, increasing efficiency and ease of use. Finally, the Germz talks Ajax with the top 50 tools and solutions that use the service… definitely a cool list!

Stock Market Update

The markets were in free fall last week, and this has not really changed entering the new week. Over the past six trading days, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has been down about 10%… ouch. Equities are definitely scary at this point in time, as we have created new lows in the market and are starting to see things decay beyond points that we thought were possible.

At this point, there is wide speculation that America’s banking system will be nationalized. The first step in this would be to take 40% of Citigroup under federal control. While the number has been estimated between 25% and 40% (with America hoping for 25%), it is really uncertain. Essentially, the government here would dilute the common stock of Citi in order to get a control of one of the largest lenders in the world. Nationalization of the banking sector is something that the United Kingdom has really already done. While many think it would be a bad idea long term… it could prove necessary to keep our private sector from failing.

When will an investment in equities be worth yoru while again? It’s really tough to say… as a lot of investors are running to the bond market, or just staying with their cash under the mattress for the time being. At this point, we almost expect a bear market rally… but it still hasn’t come, which is a major concern to many. Hopefully we will see something pick up this week, but who’s to say!

Blogosphere Update

Alright, alright, I didn’t get any posts out last week (save the link love). The problem was essentially my sleeping patterns with THON. Dance Marathon (formally “THON”), as many of you know or have heard me talking about, is the largest student philanthropy in the world where we raise money for kids with cancer. The “big event” as it were was this weekend at Penn State University, so I spent all weekend (20+ hours at least) in our basketball stadium dancing for kids with cancer. While it was widely speculated that this would be the first year we wouldn’t top numbers from last year, THON raised almost $7.5 million for cancer treatment and research this year… which beat last years numbers by around a wide margin! I suppose that charity is recession resistant, eh?

Hopefully you readers can excuse my absence for the week. To make it up to all of you, this week we will be covering the exciting world of “Get Paid To” programs… and specifically how you can start your own GPT company. This is something that is highly requested throughout the internet, so hopefully we can all learn something new here. I have a multi-parter in the works, so expect that this week!

Stay bullish on the net!
-Jimvesting

We’re at the midpoint this week,
but that doesn’t mean we can skip LINK LOVE!

It’s been a pretty hectic week over here. I’m exploring job opportunities and am in the thick of it with presentations, meetings and exams. But now that most of that is out of the way, I’ll have some free time available to post here. Don’t forget about the Net Fool’s Fight to End Poverty, which runs till the end of the month! But enough of that, let’s get back to the best articles for the week:

• Search Engine Marketing Group – Why Does Digg.com Hate SEOs?
• Dean Hunt – The 5 Most Awkward Interviews of All Time
• Striking Up – Resume Tips for Tough Economic Times
• Hussein’s Blog – Top 5 Blogger-Friendly Make Money Online Tools
• The Melvin Blog – How to Get Sponsors for Your Contest

A few new names in this week’s lineup. The first comes form the Search Engine Marketing Group, and a very interesting piece on getting banned from Digg.com because of ties with “seo” content. Dean Hunt makes a debut in the lineup withthe top 5 most awkward interviews of all time, a subject that I thought was especially fitting in this current job market. Striking Up put forth a nice piece on resume tips for tough economic times (yes, there seems to be a theme with this link love, haha). Hussein gets us a quick list on “blogger friendly” MMO tools that you can use to harness the power of the internet. Finally, Melvin drums up a nice article on getting high-quality sponsors to your blog contests.

Stock Market Update

All the news this week has been equally bad as in weeks before. I have heard a good deal of “doomsday” forecasting in the air, and since the Dow Jones Industrial Average (the main benchmark for stocks) fell to around 7,500, investors are getting scared. Our previous low in November of 2008 is now being tested… if we break to the downside and create a new low, this could spell trouble in the equity markets. If you still want to invest, why not invest in a nice high-yielding ETF or corporate bonds?

The “big news” of the week was this stimulus plan finally being signed into action. This stimulus package is supposed to provide funding to all of the growth areas of the United States economy to strategically stimulate our growth going forward. The size of it is $787 billion, and President Barack Obama signed it into law yesterday. What does this mean for you? Well, it really depends how old you are to be honest. If you are middle aged, you might just love this bailout money that gives money to everything from water infrastructure to hollywood producers. However, if you are a young whipper-snapper like myself… you might just find yourself in a bind down the road as we are laden with debt. It will be interesting to see how this eventually turns out 10 years down the road when we can accurately reflect upon our choice.

Blogosphere Update

Hmm… looks like I haven’t been around for awhile, eh? I was out this weekend from Friday to Sunday night for charitable purposes, raising money for the Penn State Dance Marathon (or THON, commonly). If you would like to donate to help kids with cancer, check out the official website at THON.org and hit “donate!” (choose to donate through the “Nittany Lion Fund” THON group to help our team out!). In addition to THON, I have been interviewing and getting summer plans in order. I am not going to reveal any offers that I have received thus far until things are set in stone for safety’s sake… but feel free to talk with me if you are at all interested.

Last week, I put together a highly anticipated two-part series on how to start your own business. Be sure to check back on those posts if you are interested in making profitable on your business venture. Registering for a business is actually one of the easiest things you will every do, so don’t hesitate to read up on how exactly to do this step-by step. We’re moving through the recession with strength, so be sure to keep fighting to stay ahead… and stay BULLISH on the net!

-Jimvesting