Paid-to-Click or PTC programs has been around for a long time. It is one of the online money making opportunities that required no monetary capital other than spending time clicking on advertisements and get paid for doing the clicking.

With the advent of site templates (which mostly utilized php scripts and mySQL database), such PTC programs have been sprouting like mushrooms. Every daring entrepreneurial individual would just buy the site templates (also called scripts) and installed it on their website and within minutes a new PTC clone is launched.

One of the advantages is that, members have more choices on which PTC programs to join or sign up. The problem however is with the limited number of Advertisers who are willing to spend on paying for advertisements in which the members of those PTC will click upon and get paid (usually $0.01 for every click). With limited Advertisers, start-up PTC would have problem in delivering advertisement clicks for its members.

How this affect the members is that, for those deprived of clicks due to unavailability of ads, may just discontinue with the program and give up claim on their earning. In this case, such members have in fact invest their time on clicking ads in the beginning but unable to reach the minimum cash out level ranging as high as $10.00 (some even up to $20.00). Such scenario is common and it is not healthy for the PTC community including the Advertisers.

So how do we earn real cash for clicking on ads without being cheated or give up half way ? Earning real cash means, seeing the amount due actually get transfered to your bank account or PayPal account.

The tricks are to spot potential problematics PTC site and comply to certain safe practices, as listed below:

1. Skip those PTC sites that impose minimum cash out value exceeding $10.00. Assuming that you have no referral and each click will earn you $0.01, it would take you 1,000 clicks to earn the $10.00. And assuming that you can clicks on average of 5 ads per day, it would takes you 200 days (6.6 months) make the 1,000th click.

2. Skip those PTC sites that advertised their competitor banners and/or other ads text (for example Google adword). This just illustrates that the PTC site owner is desperate for cash and willing to include banner ads and Google ads.

3. Sign up with the PTC and try it for a couple of days. If after several days and you still can't manage to click on a single ad, quite the PTC and concentrate others. This happens when the PTC site owner is unable to secure ads contract from the Advertisers.

4. If the PTC site has been delivering consistent number of ads, it time to put serious efforts like be more active and be aggressive in recruiting downliners or referrals. Referrals can boost your earning and help you to reach the minimum cash out level faster.

5. Do not waste your hard cash in buying referrals or upgrading to premier membership. There is no guarantee that purchasing referrals or becoming a premium member will make you earn more.

6. Once a while, search for the PTC site to see if it has been placed under scam radar observation. A PTC site that received plenty of complaints or branded as "scam" might just be a real problem.

7. Use free traffic exchange and other type of website promotion to source for downliners. This is more economical then spending money on Google Adword and other sites.

About the author:

Richard W Sinyem is an internet entrepreneur. He researches and promotes various affiliate programs and online opportunities to make money in the home-based business industry.

His website is EzRich.ws and his chronicles of internet entrepreneurship activities are blogged at http://www.ezrichproject.blogspot.com

Source: www.articlesbase.com