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Paid Autosurfing - A Brief History (part Two)
By Jody Molloy, Mon Dec 5th
The community had recovered confidence when some of thoselegitimate webmasters neared 12 months in operation. It must'vebeen quite a "baptism of fire" for some of the smaller sites asthey became targets for hackers, DDOS (dedicated denial ofservice) attacks, extortionists and a sometimes hostilemembership that usually only wanted to generate a reliablesource of income. Webmasters began to realise the full effect of the many hiddencosts incurred in operating an autosurf program. More often thannot, site policies were geared towards allowing the maximumlevel of earning capacity for each member as possible, ratherthan ensuring that enough revenue was being generated andwithheld in order to make monthly payout commitments. The greatest short-coming of most autosurf programs is, and hasalways been, that they rely too heavily on new members joiningwith fresh upgrade cash to fund the payouts. This practiceskirts dangerously close to the textbook definition of a Ponzischeme.
When new memberships decrease and payout commitments are growingeach month, webmasters must find those innovative ways to markettheir site to a larger and more responsive audience or tightentheir Terms of Service to restrict the earning capabilities ofthe current membership, until such time as revenue increases. All traffic exchanges write a contingency clause into theirTerms of Service, just for the purpose of protecting theirincome and viability. Again, we'll examine that in finer detailvery soon. Issues arising from the complexities of dealing with such alarge number of autosurf programs and an ever swelling communitywere gradually addressed during the months following theIndustrys' birth. Some more innovative webmasters found ways tochannel the collective opinions of the membership into targeteddiscussion forums and information/evaluation sites about theoperational state of autosurf programs and the state of theIndustry in general. The birth of the "resistance" or "alliance" had come. Greater promotion of these forums provided a generallyheightened awareness of the ever-present "moral transgressions".Most often, the uninitiated and inexperienced became easy preyfor these cyber-thieves. However, by the time the community waspassing a rather uneasy first anniversary, many founding membershad suffered serious financial losses. It seemed that no amount of research or investigation would everbe able to accurately predict the long-term viability of ANYprogram. At best, only an "educated guess" was all thejustification a disgruntled membership base needed to apply thebrakes on fresh cash-upgrades. Even membership growth of manysites slowed to just a trickle. The second year emerged disastrously with many high-profileprograms folding under the weight of a highly expectantmembership base (compounding terms being widely utilised to fulleffect) and the untimely collapse of several larger, higherpercentage paying and therefore riskier
HYIP's/MLM's etc thatmany PTS webmasters had a tendency to invest members funds into.Predictably, having a "domino effect" on the PTS industry thisway caused many members pockets to become deeper. Yes, as one might expect, a now HIGHLY anxious membership basewas now more vigilant than ever with their upgrade cash,however, some adventurous surfers soon fell for the "discounted"upgrade offers made by some webmasters. Some of these "bonuses"were only a final attempt to seize some new upgrade cash beforeclosing their doors without warning. (There is a tip in theresomewhere...:)) By half way into the second year, the community had emerged witha greater sense of stability than ever before. The developmentsof recent months had left many observers with the knowledge ofthe trials and errors of those that had failed. Easy comparisons were soon being drawn on the most successfulautosurf business models as the community continued to strive,under the constantly watchful eyes of the independent discussionforums. Now, with new leaders emerging as industry "favourites", itseems some shine has rubbed off some of the "old guard". Therehas even been a gradual move away from the traditional "1% for365 days" autosurf program model to higher percentage paying(but lesser days of valid upgrade) sites that while on thesurface may seem to carry greater risk, but are proving theyreally are no riskier than traditional models on a communitywide basis. With nearly 500 active programs at the time of authoring this,the Autosurf Industry by most learned accounts, would mostlikely be considered to be in a prosperous upward trend aspopularity gains momentum. Undoubtedly, there will be moreturbulent times ahead as the community struggles desperately togain acceptance, recognition and reputation throughout theInternet whilst working closely with each other to identify,deter and expose those would-be thieves who view the communityas easy prey for their larceny. With this in mind, I feel it is incumbent on ALL members of thecommunity to unite and form a "Union" whereby the interests ofall parties are self-governed and disputes legally adjudicated.This will require a MASSIVE communication effort on the part ofWeb Hosts, Payment Processors, webmasters, surfers and industryobservers. A tall order, indeed; but NOT impossible. Until such time as this can be achieved AND greater controls areintroduced to vastly improve the QUALITY of advertising throughautosurfs; in the minds of the Internet business community, PaidAutosurfing will continue to be snubbed in favour of methodsthat are more reliable, flexible and produce greater responserates to a MUCH wider audience. Food for thought..... About the author:Jody is co-webmaster of Australian Online Rewards.com, is asuccessful paid surfer since April 2003 and is active innumerous business networking organisations both online andoffline. Jody will be writing further articles based on hisobservations in the future. Please visit us and join our mailinglist for further guidance....http://www.australianonlinerewards.com
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