The internet has no shortage of quick cash opportunities and they are heavily advertised everywhere. Upon closer inspection, you could tell that some of these sites are downright scammy while others look more legitimate but still harbors some level of suspicion.
So what’s with all these things that say you can make money online clicking ads? Is it worth doing or is it just a hoax? I dig deep into the topic to help you answer these questions once and for all.
How Can Clicking Ads Make You Money
Clicking ads are sometimes known as Pay To Click in the digital advertising world. It is the reverse of what companies do when they place an ad and hope for visits. You get paid by an intermediary to click on certain ads and every time a click is made, you accumulate a little revenue. Once you have made above the minimum withdrawal balance, you can then pay yourself the funds.
If you look at your favorite mobile apps or game, especially the free-to-download ones, you will notice that most of them run ads to cover their operating costs. They will sign up for an advertising firm that connects them to companies wanting hosts for their adverts. They run the adverts, and every time a viewer clicks on the ads, the company will pay them a small amount of profit.
Pay To Click sites harness this system and use it to both your benefit and theirs. They make revenue back from the firms that run the ads every time you make a click-through on their sites. Once done, a percentage of the profit will go into your account. PTC sends traffic to their sponsor sites while you get a share of the money.
Sounds simple, right? But does that mean all sites are created equal? Not really. As I’ve pointed out, there are the good ones which you can try and the bad ones that must be totally avoided.
Where Can I Find Legitimate Sites
To ensure you stay clear from the bad apples, I turned to the internet for some clues. The trouble with this method of search is that even the bad ones are now good at specializing in SEO and they could look very legit from every angle. Just when I thought I had found something interesting, it turned out to be just another quick-cash scheme.
After spending a fair amount of time, it’s evidently clear there are numerous fraudulent websites out there offering such services and if you pick the wrong one, you might end up losing money (and time) instead of gaining it.
To avoid being a victim of online scams, take our advice and only apply for subscriptions to legitimate sites that have been reviewed by real users. They aren’t perfect in every way, but at least they have kept to their words and paid members for the effort rendered.
Legitimate PTC #1 – Neobux
Neobux actually incorporates paid clicking ad jobs with gameplay and survey taking. They offer users lots of little ways to accumulate funds and are one of the most popular sites in use at the moment. They regularly offer special deals and discounts, operate a referral program and provide a secure platform for you to work from.
The rumor is that they don’t pay as much as other sites but this is an unverified fact. The average rate for PTC is only a few cents per 30-second clip, so keep that in mind before you get stuck in.
Legitimate PTC #2 – Scarlet Clicks
Scarlet Clicks boast a minimum payout of $1.5 per 1000 clicks, which isn’t too shabby in the paid-to-click world. They claim to have paid out more than $2 million in advertising money since their inception. If this is a rate you can click to, then head over to their page and give it a shot. They work with different types of advertising and also offer a range of different payment options, inclusive of cryptocurrency.
Legitimate PTC #3 – AyuWage
As well as paying you to click on ads, AyuWage actually pays you for surfing the internet, too. It offers multiple ways to earn for the user and multiple platforms for advertising to marketers. Rather importantly in the trust stakes, AyuWage has been around since 2009 and recently partnered up with Neobux, so both firms seem to be doing very well.
Legitimate PTC #4 – YouGetProfit
YouGetProfit focuses on providing numerous earning sources for each user. They have been in operation since 2013, are free to join and have two separate referral levels to help you out. Their minimum withdrawal is only $2 and they make payments instantly.
As an additional piece of information: the length of time these companies have operated for can often give you clues to how reliable they are. Scam firms tend to go out of business quickly!
Legitimate PTC #5 – Star Clicks
Star Clicks has been around since 2008 but unlike other PTC sites, it has got a paid version. You can view the ads as a free Silver member or become a paid Gold or Platinum member to enjoy higher ad-view rates and bigger referral commissions. Click rate typically starts from $0.01 to $0.02 per click.
Since upgrading the membership is the only means to earn more, you need to justify if the return can cover for the membership cost. Also, the sign-up details will also require information like your phone number so you got to make sure you are comfortable with that.
Ad Clicking for Cash – The Pros
So, are there any benefits to clicking ads? Not much, but a few things could appeal to you.
- You can make a little extra money if you log in and work every day.
- The task doesn’t usually take much concentration and you could do it while watching TV.
- It allows you to work from home.
- You can pick and choose whatever working hours you like.
Ad Clicking for Cash – The Cons
The disadvantages that come with this type of task will make you think twice though.
- It is not a high rate of return and most sites have minimum withdrawal amounts.
- Even so, it will take a lot of time to rake up enough to get the payout.
- You won’t make enough money to pay your bills or mortgage – that’s for sure. So don’t put too much hope on this.
- Mundane tasks can be frustrating and boring for some people. If you give up before reaching the withdrawal amount, your hard-earned cash will default to the firm.
My Verdict – Is Ad Clicking Worth Your Time?
If you have the free time and don’t want to take on a side project that needs massive focus and concentration, I don’t see the harm in trying to make money online clicking ads. The brutal fact, however, is that it will take a painfully long time to make any significant amount of money no matter how legitimate the sites may be.
At the end of the day, there are far better and more creative ways to make money online. You got to find work that is worth the hours spent and in today’s economy, we are talking about earning in dollars – not cents in decimal points.
Better Alternatives To Make Money Online
For the inexperienced, Fiverr is a place to render services – from novice to professional – in the form of gigs. In other words, it’s freelancing with a low barrier of entry and your services can be anything from graphic and design to consultation work (if you are qualified for that).
In general, you get paid a minimum of $5 per task. You can charge higher fees based on the level of expertise as well as for tasks that are more demanding. Keep in mind however that Fiverr will take 20% from every transaction you make. To really take advantage of what the platform has to offer, I suggest promoting your gig outside of the marketplace such as using social media or through blogging.
Actually, if you are really good or passionate about something, I would suggest doing affiliate marketing instead. Leverage from the growth of eCommerce and earn sales commissions from customer referrals. You can be affiliated with big stores like Amazon and Jet.com or if there’s a specific brand in your niche, find out whether they have an affiliate program or not.
Just like Fiverr gigs, you should definitely create a blog to market affiliate products. It could take a while to earn your first commission but once it happens, it will not stop as long as you are sharing interesting content all the time. Soon, you’ll be running a full-time online business, generating income all year long, like these folks in this awesome blogging community.
By the end of this, I hope you are clear on what ad clicking can AND can’t do. And most importantly, you have realized how best to use your time to make smart money. If you have anything to share or add to this topic, please leave them in the comment space down below.
Jose says
Making money by clicking ads is a waste of time. I have had some success with Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) though and I currently make about $4 per hour of actual work. I also use Prolific for surveys and make about $6 per hour of work. But there are only a couple of surveys available per day so the opportunity is still limited.
I am actually thinking about doing some Fiverr gigs to earn some extra income using my skills. I’ve seen a few freelancers who have had success with it.
Cathy says
Hi Jose, Fiverr gigs are not bad if you have the skillset and deliver the job properly. Just make sure you know how to stand out among your competitors and consider promoting your skills through blogging and social sharing.
Nimrodngy says
When I thought about making money online, I’ve considered this clicking ads opportunity before. Then I realized the time spent on this activity is too much and the earnings are insignificant. Totally not worth my time.
Katja says
I totally agree with you about clicking ads for money. I tried it in the past but find it too time-consuming and extremely boring in comparison to what the gains are. It doesn’t seem to serve any valuable purpose. Nowadays, I prefer to focus my energy writing for my blog, which I think is the better route to earning a passive income online.
Cathy says
Same sentiment here too, Katja.
Digger82 says
NeoBux and Scarlet Clicks seem ok as far as pay to click programs work, but I agree that it is probably just an awful waste of time when there are so many better alternatives out there. If you look at Scarlet Clicks stats in the screenshot, it has $2.2+ million paid out to around 821,000 people, or like $2.69 cents average per person.
Not exactly setting my hair on fire with those numbers!
Cathy says
Glad you did the math, Digger. The outlook seems grimmer than we thought!
Donny says
This is one thing I knew about when I started my make-money-online journey. Tried quite a number of these so-called PTC sites and came across so many scams that made me work long hours with no pay at all. Got sucked up with those that promised high returns like 50c or even 25c per click – those are just lies.
Even after finding some legit ones – one thing was for sure, they are pure wastage of time. Due to my location access, I have very limited ads to click.
Cathy says
Yup, restricted location is one of the reasons why so many people don’t enjoy doing ad clicking anymore. It’s the same as doing online surveys.
Nuttanee says
I have heard about PTC before but never really pay much attention because the compensation doesn’t look as great. In my opinion, doing referral or affiliate marketing is so much more rewarding. However I can’t deny, clicking ads do sound like an easy-peasy thing to do.
Cathy says
Clicking ads are just very time consuming and low-paying in my opinion. If you are someone with a long-term mindset, it isn’t something you would enjoy doing.