Another day another waste of time

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You know things are getting bad when you starting seeing ads for “cashback websites” on primetime TV. The latest one I’ve noticed are “quidco” who are a UK firm (where I live btw) who offer you money back if you buy certain products/services through their site, it’s essentially a big affiliate program. Don’t get me wrong you can in theory earn some money with this but the idea of making back £5 on £1000 life insurance policy doesn’t exactly get my pulse racing. I have visions in my head of happy consumer’s spending money on sub-par products just for the cash back, don’t forget:

You still have to buy the product!

Also bear in mind that you’re handing your personal details over to these guys who will most likely be spamming you to death for the next 100 years until you finally tap-out. Am I a born sceptic or just hard to please, I can’t tell but my view on these “free for all” systems that allow anyone to make money has never really changed, it can’t work, it doesn’t work and it never will.

One thing I will say is you can’t really lose anything with these cashback schemes apart from your time, this is different from the daily “stock market secrets” eBook that gets pedalled to my junk folder. The real scams always involve some crazy up-front investment with promises of millions down the line, I wonder how many people get sucked in, probably more that you’d think.

So is it possible to earn real money on the web?

Well yes it is but as mentioned many times before it always involves time and effort. Sometimes it’s in research of the idea/concept and sometimes it’s just 100% application. My main money making “scheme” is web-development and internet marketing which in a nutshell is building websites and getting as many people too them as possible (like how I summed up a few years work in one sentence?). Well actually it’s not going to take years but at the same it’s not like you’re going to get to a certain level and quit, its lifelong learning and not in the pretend university way.

The Idea that I have a system is also a bit of a misnomer, I have concepts and ideas that are never set in stone. The web is constantly changing and how people are finding websites is too, just look at the rise of social media companies like facebook and twitter. Traditionally seo people are terrified of social media but I think it just provides even more opportunities, ten years ago if you wanted to reach a few million potential customers it would cost you thousands. Now with a good idea and some effective viral marketing you can do it for about a £10!

Still you’re not going to see any of these money making ideas that actually work in the mainstream any time soon,  its way to complicated to fit into a 30 second TV spot. Until next time…