It is quite common for people, famous or a complete nobody, to get paid to post links online. The idea idea is that you get paid a small reward, either commission or a fee per click/impression on that link.
This is not a new concept and has been going on for a very long time but is this something you should try?
I would like state at this point, that this post is about an 'average Joe' posting links to make money and not a celebrity or public figure.
Famous people always have, and always will do product promotions and they operate, for the most part, on a legitimate level.
For the purposes of this post, I am solely focusing on links that are posted on social media, forums, blog post comment sections, article directories, and so on, by an average person trying to make some extra cash.
My overall opinion - do not get involved in this. Your time is much better spent doing other things online to make money.
How Much Will You Get Paid?
You post a link to a useful source or article which you think a person would find interesting. Someone clicks on the link you posted on the Internet...
An advert/product placement is shown to the user BEFORE they go to the final destination of the link...
You get paid a small commission...
There are a lot, and I do mean a lot, of services which pay you to post links on the Internet. This means they all have different payscales. Each company has a different set of criterias, ad display methods and so on. Some are pop ups, product placements or videos.
Some examples are;
- www.shorte.st
- www.spaste.com
- www.adf.ly
- www.sharepop.com
- please note: I have not personally used these services so I cannot vouch for them. As far as I am aware they are real, they pay on time and promote high quality products. I am using them as examples, that's all.
Paid Per Click
Paid Per Click, is self explanatory.
You get paid for every click of the link. This is usually very low, around the $0.001 per click.
Meaning if you get 1,000 clicks, you earn $1.00. Again, this varies depending on the product and service that is providing the link, some are 10x this amount.
The pay is also better depending on the demographic. 1,000 clicks from the United States and Canada will be worth more than 1,000 clicks from Thailand.
Each country has different "buying power" per citizen so naturally consumer rich countries will have higher rewards for getting the right people in front of their ads.
Paid Per Impression
The same principle as the PPC earnings but the only difference is that you get paid per person who sees the advert, not by the number who clicks on them.
You need to choose carefully because some adverts will be much more suitable, and profitable, when it is a visual ad as opposed to a clickable one.
However, my guess is the paid per impression applies to 'pop-up' ads, which are not very popular.
Paid Per Sale/Lead
The last method of getting paid is when a user perform an action of some sort. This could be to submit and email, install an app or perhaps buying something.
Whatever the criteria is you only get paid once they have completed a certain action, such as an email sign up or download.
Where Can You Post Links?
Generally speaking, most people do not have a large following or community online, and by a large following I mean tens of thousands of active and engaging followers.
This means that your average Joe has no choice but to join Facebook groups, hashtag discussions, forums, chat rooms, blog commenting and so on, because these are the only places where a link will be visible.
You could also try solo ads and handing out flyers to people but then again, for the mediocre earnings you are expecting, is it worth it?
Also, don't forget that the quality of these sources will be terrible. 80% of all reputable blogs and website do NOT allow people to leave link of this nature, they are very obvious, and so your audience is going to be very, very small!
Not only that but a large portion of the other people who are a part of these groups and forums, will also be people who are trying to leave links, so very few will actually click on any links.
Moral Implications & Spam Factor
The biggest issue here is the moral and spam issue.
What you are effectively doing, in my opinion, is spamming. You are taking links, with irritating ads attached, and posting them anywhere you can just to get clicks. The content that you are linking to will inevitably never be the true purpose of your distrubtion here.
People often use "click-bait" article to draw the clicks in, just for the money. These kind of tactics are very dubious and should not be pursued.
We all know how irritating pop ups are or those video ads where you can't skip the first 20 second advert. Why would you want to expose people to that?
Especially if the product itself is mediocre and low quality. Which brings me to my next point.
Can You Trust The Link Supplier?
How do you know the companies providing these links are legitimate? Using this type of money making is on the lower end of the trust scale, in my opinion. Both you and the suppliers know very well how irritating these types of ads are and the CTR will be incredibly low for this very reason.
Here are a few questions you should ask yourself, bearing in mind you are representing these products/service ads, because you are the one posting them...
- Will the supplier pay on time?
- The products that are promoted, are they real?
- Are the ads misleading?
- Are the products promoted honest or misleading?
- Will YOU get in trouble if someone blames you for promoting an illegal product? (ponzi schemes, con artists, etc.)
Remember that once you put a link on a blog forum, the destination for that link can change at anytime. You will not know what is being promoted, if the suppliers change their minds.
Also don't forget that the vendor themselves are a third party. They also get paid by the actual product merchant to get people like you, who do all the work, to generate traffic to these links.
The vendor gets paid a lot more than you do, I can assure you!
Legal Boundaries
The Internet has exploded in the last 10 years and along with it, the scams. A few favourites around this time are Forex, Stock trading and Bitcoin trading systems and software. Automatic software which promises you thousands of dollars per day in profit.
Yeah, right!
These types of low quality, misleading and outright scammy systems cost thousands of dollars by the end due to cost of software and the loss on the stock markets...
Would you be comfortable promoting content which had a link to a product like this? Bearing in mind that you get paid $0.10, if you're lucky, while the vendor gets a $250 commission from the product creator?
If this product turned out to be a scam which ruined a lot of people's lives, would you be OK with that?
Would you be happy to take responsibility for the link you posted? Afterall, it has your name on it....
Why You Should Avoid This Method
Personally, I would not bother trying to make money with this strategy. It does seem like an easy option because you do not need a website, a mailing list or a product but the rewards are so small and it is not a long term strategy for making money. It is not even a viable short term method to be fair.
The amount of time and effort you are going to have to put into this will quickly outway the mediocre rewards. I have stated my opinion here quite clearly and I would urge you to find another way to make money online.
You could try blogging or completing small tasks for small rewards.
What do you think? Is it worth the effort to post links for money? Leave your comments below!