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I read the title for this article and thought "They aren't talking about me." Then I thought about it and realized they were, indeed, talking about me. I graduated from college in 2007 and quickly realized that the majority of employers prefer experience over a degree. So I sat at home every day with my shiny new diploma and no way to pay my bills. I was looking online for jobs and at some point came across ads for some GPT sites. I joined a few of them and spent the next few days happily clicking away.

I knew I wasn't going to make a lot of money, but I was unemployed, so I was getting a little desperate. I figured that what I earned from these sites would at least let me put a little money into savings until I could get a real job. This gave a lot of motivation, and I spent hours everyday the first couple of weeks doing everything I could to make money. I clicked like my life depended on it, tried every survey I could and looked at every offer I saw, knowing I would reach payout soon.

However, pretty soon I realized what was really going on. I was spending hours every day clicking ads and seeing minimal results. This was time I could have been spending looking for an actual job, but here I was clicking ads for fractions of a penny. I quickly learned I would make far less than I originally thought, but instead of getting me to quit, it simply motivated me to join more sites and spend more time clicking. The promise of reaching payout loomed in front of me and I knew if only I clicked a little faster

Then reality set in and I acknowledged that I couldn't live with my parents forever. I joined a temp agency and stated bringing in a real paycheck every week. My bills were finally getting paid and GPT sites seemed like nothing but a distant memory.

When my boyfriend and I found out I was pregnant, we decided I should become a stay at home mom when the baby was born. When my temp position ended early, we figured I should start early as well. So I quit the temp agency and stayed home with the cats, who besides being glad they were fed and played with more often, didn't really seem to care that I was home. So I was sitting around the house feeling a little guilty because I was no longer bringing home any income when I remembered all those sites I used to visit on a daily basis. I reactivated all of my accounts, and suddenly I was clicking and reading in between doing the dishes and folding new baby clothes.

A year later, I'm still a member of most of these sites, although I've learned to be a little more wise with my time. My boyfriend no longer asks what I'm doing when he sees me clicking away on the computer, but I think he still wonders why I'm doing it.

Learn more about this author, Michelle Swank.
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