Paid to Surf Being PAID TO SURF is an area of work from home jobs which sounds very appealing at first glance.I am sure you have seen the ads..."earn up to $500 a day surfing the web!". Sounds too good to be true, or is it? Let's take a look at the whole idea of earning money by surfing the web. Let's see if it is really possible for the average person to be paid to surf the web. The basic context of earning money surfing the web is this: you sign up for a Free membership which entitles you to surf other members sites on the Internet, in exchange you get traffic to your own web site which actually forms the first means of being paid to surf the web. The ratio of credits received for each website surfed and range from 2:1 to 1:1 and all points in between. This means that for every 2 websites you surf, your website gets 1 visitor up to a ratio where for every single website surfed you get one single visitor. This is one way for the average person with a website to get some 'free' traffic to their website, which as you know can be very difficult for netpreneurs. OK, that is the basic 'free' membership traffic exchange sites, and at this level you are being paid to surf by the receipt of other people surfing your website. Now for the 'earn money to surf the web' offer. In order to earn cash for website surfing you will have to 'upgrade' your account to qualify to earn money surfing. This means you will have to pay the site a 'membership' fee in order to participate in their 'paid to surf' program. This is where it begins to look like you COULD really make a decent income by just surfing the web. HOW MUCH MONEY YOU COULD MAKE? This will depend upon the number of 'upgrade' units you purchase, not merely by how many websites you surf. Each website is a little different but they all work basically the same. You will be paid a daily percentage of your 'fee' for surfing a certain number of websites. EXAMPLE: Paid to Surf Site X offers earnings of 3% per day to surf their site. This would mean that for every $100 of upgrade 'fees' you would earn 3% or $3.00 per day for surfing, let's say 50 websites. Sounds pretty good, right? That means that if you bought $1,000 worth of upgrades you would earn $30.00 per day and if you broke the bank and invested......I mean bought upgrades worth $5000 you would be paid $150 each day to surf 50 sites! This is an over simplified explanation of being paid to surf, the actual calculations are not as easy as this example shows. All paid to surf sites require you to buy an 'upgrade unit' which actually 'expires' after a period of time. This period could be 10 days to 60 days or more, depending on the program. You will have to dig deeper into your actual return based on each program. Don't think you can compare each site based purely on the stated % return, you have to factor in the expiration date of the upgrade units. But it still looks pretty attractive, making 100's of dollars just for surfing the web. Basically, it appears that anyone, with a few dollars to 'invest' would be able to earn money surfing the web. THIS SOUNDS LIKE YOUR SHIP TRULY HAS COME IN......RIGHT?? SO WHAT IS THE CATCH??? The whole problem with these high percentage programs (some offer as much as 12% daily) is 'sustainability'. Obviously for a site owner to pay you 3% daily they HAVE to be earning MORE than 3% to pay you and still stay in business, that is simple business 101. If you are going to be paid to surf the Internet, then the company paying you to surf must be earning more money from your 'fee' than he/she is paying you to surf the Internet They can call their 'membership fees' what ever name they like, but it really is a form of high risk investment. You will notice they NEVER refer to your fee as an investment and I am sure this all has to do with walking a VERY THIN legal line. ARE THEY LEGITIMATE OR PURE SCAMS? This is a question that can only be answered if you KNEW the heart of the person/s behind the company. I am certain there are well intentioned people who start these companies and for a variety of reasons, simply can not make a go of it, and have to close. There will be others who KNOW from the beginning they are going to run their little CON for as long as they can, and when there is enough in the pot will take your 'paid to surf' earnings AND your fees, and simply leave town! So to speak! ENTER THE PONZI SCHEME.... The business of being paid to surf the Internet lends itself very easily to the Ponzi scam. For those unfamiliar let me explain. In the simplest of terms, a Ponzi scheme offers very attractive returns on your investment...errrr I mean fee. They have a 'believable' explanation as to how they will earn enough money to repay your high rate of return and if you are greedy enough it is amazing how gullible we ALL can become. When they first get going they WILL see that their members are getting paid to surf as promised. This way they develop a 'reputation' as being a company that delivers on their promise and it looks like you could earn a decent living by being paid to surf. This encourages even more members to join and each new member adds to the 'pot'. The more members, the larger the collective pot becomes......simple. Now for the con, they are not investing the money and earning large rates of return, they are simply taking NEW money to pay out OLD members returns. This can actually work for a great LONG time if there are sufficient new,paid to surf members joining daily. It is more complicated than this simple explanation, but this basically shows how a PONZI scam can easily be adapted to the paid to surf business. As with all ventures....caveat emptor! Buyer Beware! ARE ALL SITES CROOKED? No, I do not believe that at all. There are many paid to surf companies which I believe have proven to be sustainable offering a 1% daily return, which is 365% per year. This, if compared to the bank is a very attractive return, however, unlike the bank there is ALWAYS an element of risk. You could LOSE every penny you put into any of these companies. For that matter, you COULD lose every penny you put in the bank also. This rate of return would give you $10/day per $1000 of investment, which does require you to surf the Internet in order to be paid to surf. You can not simply buy your upgrades, do nothing and then be paid to surf, if you have not actually been surfing the Internet. Again, it is a HIGH risk investment and you should NEVER put any more into one of these companies, than you could afford to lose.I would not personally recommend putting ANY of your own money into ANY of these programs,without checking http://www.autosurf-surfing-guide.com. This is a new site of mine, which I have devoted entirely to the business of autosurfing.