What is PTC?

Paid-To-Click (PTC) is an advertising scheme where companies pay money to a PTC website to show their adverts to viewers. These viewers sign up to the website and start "clicking" adverts. For each click they earn a small amount of money (usually $0.01).

There is usually a limit as to how many ads you can view per day and this limit is different for different sites.

If you refer someone to the site, you earn a proportion of what they earn (usually 50%). These are called "direct referrals" because they are usually referred by a direct link that you have posted somewhere.

If your resources are limited and you can't refer many people you can "rent" referrals from the PTC website for a monthly fee. This fee is less than what you would make from each referral and therefore you make a profit if you rent a referral who is active.

If your rented referral is not active you can recycle them for a small fee, thus weeding out those referrals that aren't making you a profit, and replenishing them with new referrals. Ideally you are aiming for at least 1000 referrals before you can start making significant amounts of money.

So lets do the math:

Say you sign up for a PTC site that pays you $0.01 per click and $0.005 per referral click. You can click a maximum of 10 ads per day. You have 1000 referrals which are all fully active.

10*$0.01 + 1000*10*$0.005 = $0.10 + $50

You can see that the amount of money that you make from clicking is minimal ($0.10 per day or about $3 per month) but the commission that you are earning from your referrals is phenomenal! $50 per day equates to about $1500 per month! And you're only spending a few minutes a day looking at adverts!

Now you can see why PTC can be so alluring! But how do you make it work...?

How to make it work

A lot of people sign up for PTC programs and then lose interest. Why? Because they're not making money! This is because people get daunted by how little money they make by clicking on adverts. They forget that its the referral clicks that will make them rich.

Here is my 5 step guide to making PTC work:

1. Sign up to all three of the sites below and read the FAQ and some of the Forum posts of each one. This will give you an idea of how each site works, and what some of the other users are getting up to. You will find some amazing success stories on the Forums so if you're needing some inspiration that's the place to look!
2. Start clicking adverts EVERY DAY. The first few weeks are all about making enough money to start renting referrals. This may be the most tedious part because its slow, but if you persevere the rewards will amaze you! During this time you can also start spreading the word to your friends and getting a few direct referrals.
3. Once you have about $5, spend most of it by renting referrals. Keep checking on their activity for the next month while still clicking your own ads. This is important as most sites will not let you earn referrer commission if you are not active yourself. You will immediately notice an increase in your daily earnings. Keep spending your income on more and more referrals. Also keep tabs on their activity, because you don't want a referral (that you are paying for) to be inactive and therefore a waste of money. Recycle those that aren't active.
   
4. When the profits really start picking up, consider upgrading your account. Each site has different upgrade options, but the general idea is that by paying for an upgrade (about $10) you will earn double per click. This should really make a difference when you have 50+ referrals!
5. Sit back and watch the profits roll in! It's an exponential increase: the more money you make, the more referrals you can buy, making you even more money... and so on. When you are earning a monthly salary that suits you, stop renting referrals and start cashing out! Congratulations, you're one of the few people who are successfully earning money online!
   

Here they are: My top 3 sites!

So here they are:

2. NEOBUX


Neobux is probably one of the most reliable and trusted PTC sites out there! It has a long history of hassle-free cash payouts and was the first site to implement instant payouts.
Starting out, you earn $0.01 per click and $0.005 per referral click.
Referrals cost $0.25 to rent per month.
A gold membership upgrade enables you to earn $0.01 per referral click.
The only downside to this site is that you can only view 4 ads per day.
All in all, this site is definitely my favourite! There is no doubt at all that you can make serious money on this site (after dedication). Just check out their forums and you will see some of the success stories.



1. VCBUX


This site is very new, and was launched early 2011. It is very similar to Neobux, and also pays out instantly which is quite rare for a PTC site.
Starting out, you earn $0.01 per click and $0.005 per referral click.
Referrals cost $0.84 to rent per month.
You have the option of upgrading to golden to increase your earnings

3. Readbud



This site is slightly different but has very good earning potential. You get paid to read and rate articles. Payments are between $0.01 - $0.20 per article. You can cash out after $50.
You earn $5 per direct referral. There is no renting of referrals.

Referrals

I thought I'd add a post about referrals because it is probably the most confusing topic around PTC but also the most important.

A referral is someone who has signed up after you and is affiliated to you. You earn a portion of whatever they earn in 'commission'.

There are two types of referrals:
1. Direct referrals are people who, when signing up, enter your name as a referral. This can be by word of mouth or, more commonly, through an advertising banner. All PTC sites provide advertising banners that you can distribute on websites or through paid advertisement (eg. Google ads). When someone clicks on your advert they are directed to the signup page for the PTC site you are advertising and your name is automatically entered as the referral. Direct referrals are yours forever and you never have to pay a monthly fee to keep them.
2. Rented referrals are people who have signed up to the site but never entered anyone as their referral. They are then sold to other members by the PTC site for a monthly fee. As a PTC member you pay a monthly fee for each referral you rent and in turn you earn commission on their clicks. If  they become inactive you can recycle them for a new one.

Direct referrals are obviously the cheapest way to get referrals (besides the advertising costs if that is the way you want to do it). The problem is that if they become inactive there is nothing you can do, and most sites have a limit as to how many direct referrals you can have. Rented referrals are the ones that can really make you money. If you manage them right they will be the sole reason why you are successful with PTC.

Here is my current strategy. I will update it as I learn more about managing them:

Start renting referrals as soon as you can afford it. I started after I had about $1. If you have some extra cash then investing a bit (say $20) will make a huge difference and speed things up significantly. I didn't do this because I wanted to make money from nothing, so it'll take a little longer to get started.

Manage a few referrals in the beginning and see how they behave. I generally recycle them if they haven't been active for about 4 days. Also if you have someone who only clicks 1 advert every 2 days its not really worth keeping them. Do the math with each referral and gauge whether they are worth keeping or not.

Keep putting all the money you make back into renting more referrals. It will start off slowly but the more you have the more you'll make. Once you have 500 referrals that are all active, sit back and watch the cash roll in.

Once you have enough cash to upgrade your membership for a year, DO IT! It makes a huge difference! After that, you can sit back and rake in the cash!

Just remember to keep clicking every day!

P.S. Here are some links to some referral strategies. They've helped me alot!


Neobux:         Referral Strategy
                      Autopay Explained (NB!)

GagaBUX:     Referral Strategy