by Jan Castagnaro

Created on: March 07, 2008   Last Updated: June 17, 2011

Debate: Can surveys and other online gigs pay your bills?

Online surveys, paid to click, paid to read, and other such online gigs that are used to earn some cash, are not sound ways to live life in an effort to pay the bills. Sure, some people can make a little extra something to add to their finances monthly, but it is very uncertain and inconsistent means of earning. In other words, you cannot count on those types of online gigs to support you and pay the bills.

Many of those programs are based on the member's ability to draw in other members through referral. When a member is able to bring in other referral members, they make a percentage of earnings from what that referral makes. It is your basic pyramid scheme or MLM program. You sign up, 3 of your friends sign up, and 3 friends of each of your 3 friends sign up, and so on. This is what makes these programs an unstable source of income, because you become dependent on your referrals to help you earn. So, maybe new referrals you bring in are initially excited about this program you may have hyped to them, and then they realize it is not really for them, and there goes potential earnings.

Another thing to consider with these online gigs is that to make any real money, a person would have to literally sit at their computer all day long doing what it takes to earn with these programs. Most of these programs pay a couple of cents per completed activity, and not every member will be eligible to take every survey they are offered. If a person has that many hours to spend on the computer, you have to wonder what they are neglecting in their effort to make a few cents or few dollars every hour.

Then, many of these programs become unreliable and do not always payout when they say they will, or they go under before payments are actually paid-out. Can anyone really take the chance and count on this unreliable source of money to pay their bills? It is pretty irresponsible to become dependent on these types of programs; because they are not jobs that offer a specified salary or income that a person can consistently count on.

The use of words like pyramid and down-line would and should make any sensible person think twice about relying on these online money making programs as a method to pay their bills. A member is only successful when their down-line is equally as successful, and if you are dependent on strangers and other people to pay your bills, how smart is that?

Some people confuse freelance writing with being

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