For most people looking to make money online, PTC or Paid To Click is a method that is probably the easiest that anyone can do. You join a PTC program, they send you emails with links or they have links on their site that you click to visit the advertiser's website. The program pays you a small amount for every click. Sounds like an easy way to make money, right? Well, it is, but the thing you have to realize is that you are not going to make very much money doing it. The amount they pay you per click is most often a penny or less and most programs will only send out a few emails per day so even if you join several sites, you aren't going to make very much per day and maybe a few dollars per month.
Now, if you are looking to make serious money online, PTC isn't going to do it for you. There are other ways to make much more but you will have to put forth much more effort. However, if you just want to pick up a few bucks with minimal time and effort involved, as more of a hobby than a business, then it may be for you but you need to educate yourself to avoid the scams and not waste your time.
The first thing I always recommend when searching for legitimate PTC programs is to look for the ones with a low minimum payout. The payout minimum is the amount you must accumulate in your account before you can actually get paid. Some programs have a high minimum such as $30 or more. Normally, I would shy away from these programs as it takes usually months of clicking before you see any payment. There are sites out there that have a very low (one dollar or less) minimum payout so you can reach it very quickly and get paid every month or even more often. One exception to that rule that I have found though is InboxDollars. Even with it's higher payout threshold, it has enough links and other activities on the site to easily reach payout and I have been paid by this program so I know it's a legitimate site.
Most PTC sites will also have a referral program. This lets you refer other people to the program and when they join from your referral link, they go into your downline and you then earn a small amount from their clicking as well as your own. This is a great way to increase your earnings if you refer a large number of active users. The key word here is active. The fact is, a lot of people join these programs expecting big bucks and when it doesn't happen, they quit doing it and you don't make anything on inactive members. So even if you get several dozen or even hundreds of referrals, the reality is, most of them won't be consistently active in the program. The ones that are though will increase your earnings so it is worthwhile to refer, it will just take time to build it up to a significant level.
Another way to increase earnings is if the program offers other ways to earn such as paid signup offers, paid surveys, paid to watch videos, cash back shopping, paid tasks, etc., as well as paid clicks. Most of the better programs do and while signup offers are usually a one time thing, (you can't signup for the same program more than once) paid surveys and the other activities can be used regularly to earn additional money on the site. Surveys usually pay from 50 cents to several dollars per survey and the amounts for the other activities will vary. Another good program that has all these qualities, plus a low minimum payout is a program called QuickRewards. It's very easy to make a few bucks a month with this program just on your own efforts and you can also refer others to increase your earnings.
Some people may tell you that PTC sites are all scams. This is not the case, there are a lot of legitimate programs out there but like anything, there are scams as well. Many PTC sites start out legitimate and then encounter problems achieving success and the program goes under. This can happen with any online money making site that started with the best of intentions but for whatever reason, was unsuccessful.
You just have to do a little investigation and you'll steer clear of the real scams. One thing that's very easy to do is to simply type the name of the program into any of the major search engines and if it's a scam site, you'll see plenty of results telling you so. There are also a couple of sites you can check out that keep track of these programs. One is BeenPaid.com and the other is GPTBoycott.com. Check both of these sites for information on any PTC program you're thinking about joining.
One other thing I will recommend as a good source of information if you are looking to get into PTC is that you join MyLot. It is a social networking site set up like a discussion forum and it pays you to post in the forum. You can make money with the program but a large majority of the members are also trying to make money online and a lot of them use PTC sites so a lot of the discussions are about what programs they use and which ones are scams. You can find a lot of good first hand information about PTC at this site.
Just a bit of advice about referring others, always be honest when telling others about the program. If you notice, in this article, there are no inflated income claims or promises of riches. I've given you honest information about what to expect from PTC and you'll get better, more active referrals when they sign up with a realistic idea of what they can make. You'll also gain a good reputation if you stay doing it for a long time or even end up running your own program as some people do. So that's about it. Ready to start clicking?