The waste of PTC and the PPC gamble - My experience with ClixSense and AdHitz

Hello there fellow WAer! This article is fairly long, so here’s a summary if you don’t want to get through the whole thing:
If you ever hear about something called PTC (Paid To Click) sites (like ClixSense and a lot of sites that end with “-bux”), or less-known ad networks like AdHitz... then ignore them completely. They are not worth your time and money.
If you want to try your luck at using PPC (Pay Per Click) networks, then stick with Google Adwords. And learn how to use it correctly using the PPC Classroom here at WA, so that you lose as less money as possible.
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Hmm... I see you are up for some TL;DR after all? Very well. Go make yourself some tea and I hope you find my rambling informative enough :D
So... you probably own a handful of websites, and maybe some web 2.0 places like Squidoo lenses and Hubpages Hubs. And I guess you are promoting affiliate products and services from places like the Google Affiliate Network ( soon to be put to sleep :( ), ClickBank, Amazon, and maybe others on your different sites. Maybe you are even promoting your own products and services. But I wonder if you are trying to promote Wealthy Affiliate itself...
Personally, I don’t have any website or Squidoo lens where I talk about online business. I’m not an authority on the topic and I don’t plan to become one. I do plan to create a “ProBlogging Resources” page on my main site where I talk briefly about Wealthy Affiliate, but aside from that I rarely share my affiliate link.
Now, here’s the thing: A loooooong time ago (in a Mario galaxy far far away), I used to use a little something called PTC sites, which stands for “Paid To Click” sites. In a nutshell, a PTC site is a kind of website that pays you for clicking on ads (and sometimes completing surveys and micro-tasks), and watching those ads for a period that could range from 5 seconds to 1 minute.
Now, before you get all excited and go “woohoo!! eazy monies!!11 where do I sign???”, let me tell you that on average, you earn $0.01 for each 30 seconds ad you click on (and watch). One cent for 30 seconds of your life. There are not that many ads for you to click on each day (you get access to more ads if you pay for a premium membership... damn), but even if there were enough ads at a given time for you to spend an hour clicking on... that would make you earn about a buck.
One dollar for an hour of clicking on ads... I don’t know about you, but I think an hour of my time is worth MUCH more than that. Alas, I didn’t think so back then... and thus I wasted massive amounts of time clicking on ads. I earned like... $25 or something after 3 years of clicking... eh.
The start of a bad idea...
As I explained, regular users of PTC sites earn cents by clicking on ads... but who provides the ads?
Those ads are provided by advertisers, which could be people just like you and me. Anybody can sign into a PTC site and pay for any number of “clicks” (which are really cheap) on almost any kind of URL... even affiliate links.
So, at the end of last year I signed for the WA starter membership when Kyle and Carson opened it up, and I thought to myself...
“Hey... I remember seeing that most ads on ClixSense were about bizopps and making money online... so, why don’t I promote Wealthy Affiliate there? I bet there’s a lot of people in there that would appreciate finding out about a resource like WA! You know, a place where they can learn how to forge online businesses instead of just clicking for pennies... yeah, that sounds good. Let’s do it!! :D”
So I went to ClixSense, revived my old account, and went on to spend about $70-freaking-bucks on different kinds of ads (5 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute ads) and a doo-hickey called the ClixGrid, which is like a game where you pay a fixed amount of money and get as many clicks as you can get from it, for a month.
My rationality was:
“Come on, thousands of people will stumble upon my affiliate link! It’s not possible that at least ONE of them will not go premium... right?
... RITE???”
... and boy, was I wrong.
The results after thousands and thousands of clicks on my affiliate link?
22 referrals. And from those 22 referrals, only 1 set-up his account... and then, he never got to use WA again.
Think about the FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU- meme right now. Yeah... that’s how I felt after the little “experiment” I ran, and the money I wasted. But I deserved it, really. I was naive in thinking I would find people actually interested in building online businesses at a place like ClixSense.
This is why...
PTC sites and pyramid schemes - Robots that can only build robots
When we analyze the advertising side of PTC sites we will find a bunch of people promoting ClickBank products about affiliate marketing, business opportunities, MLM programs, free reports (just insert your email address to receive spam from me!!) and other “make da monies onlinez!!11” stuff. But mostly, you will find advertisers promoting other PTC sites and programs.
This is so because... well, that’s what will get you the most “conversions” on PTC sites. Any other stuff you try to promote will most likely give you no conversion at all.
I’m saying this because most regular users on a PTC site don’t care a crap about the ads at all, even if some of those ads are about making money online (which is what you would be trying to do in a site like that one... technically).
That’s because users are there just to CLICK on the ads, not to see them. Click, click, click, click and click some more. If anything, users may pay attention to other PTC sites being promoted by advertisers, so that they have more places where they can click, click and click for more pennies. Otherwise, I can almost assure you that most users will do what I used to do when I opened up an ad:
They will change the window and let the ad run out of time without watching it. And if the system doesn’t let change the window, then you do something else on those 5 or 30 or 60 seconds... like read an ebook or blog post on your mobile device or something... or even play freaking Cut The Rope or Happy Jump.
As an advertiser in PTC sites, every click you buy is very, very cheap, yes... but each click is worthless as well. Unless you are promoting other PTC sites, that is.
Here’s the thing: PTC sites offer the equivalent of an affiliate link. When another person signs for a PTC site using your aff-link, and she clicks on ads every day, you receive a percentage from those ads... as long as you are also clicking on ads each day. You earn fractions of a cent per referral click, but if you recruit a lot of people, and they all click on ads every day, then the commissions you receive start adding up...
In forums on those PTC sites you will find legends about people making full time incomes by clicking on ads each day as well as heavily promoting a bunch of PTC sites through other PTC sites, email marketing and maybe SEO and social media too.
Probably those legends are true... just like it may be true that some “dedicated” people are killing it promoting MLMs and bizopps... however, those are not “business” models I would ever feel inclined to follow.
Why? Because those “business” models create NO real value. They are not illegal, mind you, but they are worthless.
To me, all PTC sites are kind of like MLMs and pyramid schemes: as a regular user, they promise you that you will earn lotz of moolah if you refer more people to the PTC service, and if you click on ads everyday... and in turn, those referrals you “catch” are promised to make tonz of dough if they refer more people through their aff-link and click on ads everyday... and the same goes for the next layer of referrals, and the next layer of referrals, and so on and so forth...
But where is the value in doing all of that? Who’s life is actually better from doing all that?
To me this is like a robot that builds robots that builds robots that builds robots that builds robots that build robots... etc. If all those robots can do is to make more robots, then all those robots are worthless and useless. Robots that create robots that create robots ad infinitum help nobody and don’t make the lives of anybody better.
Now, on the other side of the coin (the advertiser’s side), PTC sites are kind of like casinos: as an advertiser, they lure you with the promise of selling LOTS of copies of the “make da monies on da internerdz” products you are "affiliating", or capturing LOTS of email addresses via your squeeze page, or capturing LOTS of leads for the MLM or other PTC sites you are promoting...
It’s NOT guaranteed that you will sell anything at all, but it just looks very, very probable due to the sheer number of users!! And look at how cheap the clicks are!! What do you have to lose?? Bet your money with us!! :D
And you bet your money. And you waste all of it for nothing in return... except for the illusion that maybe... just maybe... one person in that whole PTC site will not be watching pr0n on her smartphone when the ad with your affiliate link or whatever was running in front of her.
To me, that’s all PTC sites (and PPC networks, to a degree) sell to advertisers: an illusion.
They are not a scam, as they deliver what they promise. They even advertise themselves as a neat idea (get paid for ads YOU want to see, instead of websites and the media forcing ads onto you!). But the truth is that... they are worthless. If you care about creating a true online business, a business that makes the lives of other people better because of your work and what you offer, then you can utterly ignore those PTC sites thingies.
AdHitz - A better idea... but still bad
You might think that after this experience I learned not to waste my money on the illusion of earning a lot by spending a little... but you would be wrooooooooooong! D:
After my massive failure I learned about a site named AdHitz, which is run by the owners of ClixSense no less. AdHitz is an ad network similar to Google Adsense/Adwords. You can use this service to put ads on your website and earn money from clicks on those ads, or you can publish your own ads through the AdHitz network.
How is it different from Google Adsense/Adwords? It’s cheaper than Adwords, and you can promote affiliate links directly. However, the ads AdHitz displays are NOT contextual. This means that if you put AdHitz ads on your website about quinoa recipes, you will probably just get a bunch of ads that promote mostly money making products... no good at all.
So... because I was a masochist with money to spare, I decided to try my luck with AdHitz and promote Wealthy Affiliate in there. I spent $15 for my first campaign, with a daily budget of $5. It took a very long time for this campaign to be over, because I didn’t receive many clicks each day... maybe because I didn’t use a bigger daily budget? I don’t know.
Once my campaign ended I earned 3 WA referrals... and surprise-surprise, none of them even bothered to set-up their account.
It’s kind of funny. I like to imagine people browsing shady sites about making money online (sites that have AdHitz ads on them), then finding my ad, then clicking on it and filling their basic account info (OHH, MORE FREE STUFF!! YAY!!)... and after that they get bored, and then they keep on browsing looking for the next bizopp or the latest highest-paying PTC site or survey site... and forget that they even signed up for WA... forever.
But hey, at least those people clicked on my ad because they felt genuinely attracted to it (for a brief moment...), and not because they were paid a cent to “look” at it (i.e. to leave it running while they watch cartoons on their smartphones).
Ok... NOW you might think that I learned my lesson once and for all, and that from that point forward I would stay away not only from those dumb PTC sites but also from shoddy PPC networks for good...
*Insert a picture of Confession Bear here*
I have one more WA campaign running on AdHitz right now. A campaign of $50 dollars (ouch, right??) with a daily budget of $5.
Why $50? Not because I’m earning a lot from my online endeavors (...YET), but because I had that money “trapped" on my Payza account (which is kind of like PayPal... but meh). Transferring those 50 bucks to my PayPal account would be a hassle, so I decided to just pour all that money into one more final campaign of doom on AdHitz, and close my Payza account.
So far I’ve only gotten 1 referral from that campaign... and s/he didn’t set up his/her account either (what a shocker!!1). I’m receiving very few clicks each day, and I suspect it’s because I didn’t set my daily budget higher... like $10-$15 a day or something. So, that campaign will probably be done at the end of this year or something... but I don’t have my hopes up.
If I get ONE referral to go premium, I will think of all my failed experiments as justified. And if I don’t get jack diddly squat... then it doesn’t matter either, because I learned from the experience... and I got to share it with you guys, so you get to know more about this stuff and don’t screw up like I did!! :D
SO... do I recommend you guys promote WA on AdHitz?
I can’t stop you from doing it, but my suggestion is that you stay away from that place. As I mentioned, their ads are not contextual and the most likely scenario is that you will lose the money you “invest” in that place.
This is why, to me, PPC in general is kind of like a casino: you bet a certain amount of money that you will recover THAT amount of money, as well as make a profit from it. But if you are going to do PPC gambling for your niche sites, then you should as well do it in a good casino... err, I mean a good ad network, like Google Adwords.
Conclusion
Yeah... PTC sites. Stay way from them. You don’t need those crappy places.
PPC? If you want to try your luck with this form of traffic generation, and have enough money to experiment, then focus on using Google Adwords. AdHitz may allow you to promote affiliate links directly, but because the advertising is “random” instead of contextual, it’s pretty much worthless in my opinion.
Also, if you find an ad network as good as Adwords, share it here on WA! :D
And... there you go. I hope you found this informative enough. Thanks for reading, and expect more gibberish from me in the future! :D