Comparing the 'get paid to surf' programs

I also found that it isn't easy to work out which companies are the good ones. Many companies work with a variable pay scale -- you get paid a certain percentage of their income. Gotoworld is a perfect example of this: They advertise that you get paid 40 cents per hour -- and only in the fine print do you find that is only if they are being paid $12 CPM; right now their CPM is around $3.

Consequently, to accurately compare the different companies requires a bit of research to work out how much they are actually paying -- not just what they are advertising. Since I could not find this information collected anywhere else, I decided to collect it myself, and make it available to everyone.

Although the raw data is very helpful, there are inevitably factors which are not covered here, so I've also got ratings from 0 to 10 for each active company (10 is good, 0 is bad). If you have experience with any of these companies, please select the score which you feel the companies deserve, and click at the bottom to submit your opinion.

For the curious, I currently run Getpaid4, cashsurfers, and alladvantage as much as possible, and run gotoworld, dollarweb, and paidforsurf once getpaid4 and alladvantage have hit their limits. I would run EPipo, except that it hasn't been released to canada yet.

PS. If you find this information useful, please leave my ID as referrer when you sign up for programs. I want to feel that I am providing useful information, and whether people sign up for programs after reading about them here provides something of a barometer to help me judge the usefulness of this information.

Note: "Paid" means that I've cashed a cheque; "earned" means that it appears as cash on the member statistics page (ie, NOT points). Consequently the data for variable rate programs is biased downwards because it is always a month behind the fixed rate programs. All dollar values are in USD.

Inactive Companies
Company	Class	Advertised Rates	Limits	Minimum Payment	Pay period	Fees	Status	Countries	Other info
MValue	Fixed rate internet use	you: $0.50 level 1: $0.10 levels 2-5: $0.05	10 hours/month	$20	Monthly		In 'Contest Phase', becomes active Jan 24,2000	US	Right now mvalue is running a contest with prizes up to 1 million dollars. The prizes are handed out in order of 'contest points', and the only practical way to get contest points is referrals. That said, at present, referring eight people will win you $100, so it might be worth it.
DesktopDollars	Variable rate internet use	you: $0.50 level 1: $0.10 levels 2-5: $0.02	You: 40 hours/month referrals are limited to the number of hours you spend	$20 for US, $40 international	Monthly		Will be active Feb 15, 2000	All	The rates listed are if they get a CPM of $6 or higher; if their CPM is lower, the pay scale will also be correspondingly lower.
DesktopHorizon	Fixed rate internet use	You: 50 CD levels 1-5: 2 CD	40 hours/month	N/A	N/A		Inactive	All	DesktopHorizon has recently decided that they will pay in "Desktop Horizon Credit Dollars" (DHCD) instead of cash. Meaning that you don't get any money, all you can do is buy stuff from their advertisers. And pay the shipping yourself. And any import taxes/duties. DHCDs have been (IMHO, rightly) dubbed "Desktop Horizon Crap Dollars".
ItAddsUp	Fixed rate internet use	You: $0.50 level 1: $0.10 levels 2-5: $0.05	60 hours/month	$20	Monthly	"Small international mailing fee" for users outside US.	Inactive	All
Making Cash	Fixed rate internet use	You: $0.40 level 1: $0.15	Unknown	$20	Monthly		Inactive	All	Still in betatesting, no information on limits yet.
ValuePay	Variable rate internet use	You: 50% = $1 level 1: 5% = $0.10 levels 2-5: 2.5% = $0.05	$50/month direct earnings	As desired, at least $50	Monthly	$5 per cheque issued	Inactive	All	Very optimistic CPM expectations -- I expect the actual rates to be lower than the ones they are advertising.
DotAd	Variable rate internet use	You: 75% level 1: 5% level 2: 4% levels 3-4: 2% levels 5-6: 1%	Unlimited	$50	Bi-monthly		Inactive	US, Canada, UK, EU	Will be active in "6-8 weeks".
ExtraSalary	Fixed rate web browsing	You: $0.50 level 1: $0.10 levels 2-5: $0.05	40 hours/month	$100	Quarterly		Inactive	All	Also offers 'get paid to read e-mail'.
PaysU	Fixed rate web browsing	You: 30p or $0.50 or 0.50 Euro level 1: 10p or $0.15 or 0.15 Euro levels 2-5: 5p or $0.08 or 0.08 Euro	You: 25 hours/month referrals are limited to 10 hours/month and to the number of hours you spend	50 pounds	Monthly		Inactive	Most of europe, US, Canada	Plans on increasing limit to 80 hours/month.
SharkHunt	Fixed rate web browsing	You: 25p level 1: 10p levels 2-4: 5p	80 hours/month	Unknown	Unknown		Inactive	UK	Will be available in "four to five weeks".
AllCommunity	Fixed rate web browsing	You: $0.50 level 1: $0.10 levels 2-4: $0.05	40 hours/month	$100	Monthly		Inactive	All	No release date yet.
Urge2Net	Variable rate web browsing	You: 50% = $1 level 1: 5% = $0.10 levels 2-5: 2.5% = $0.05	$50/month direct earnings referrals are limited to the number of hours you spend	$50	Quarterly	$2 per cheque	Inactive	US, Canada	Very optimistic CPM expectations -- I expect the actual rates to be lower than the ones they are advertising.
BannerUnion	Variable rate web browsing	You: 40% level 1: 10% level 2: 5% level 3: 3%	unlimited	$20	Quarterly		Inactive, will be released Jan 20, 2000.	All	No information on expected CPM yet.
Bluetree	Variable rate web browsing	You: 51% referrals: 9/5/3/2/1/1/3 %	you 50 hours/month Payment is only made for referrals if you log at least 10 hours/month.	$10	Monthly		Inactive	US	Will be active some time around March 2000.

The above information is as accurate as I can make it, but it is possible that there are errors, omissions, or simply out of date information. If you find anything that I should correct, add, or update, please e-mail me to tell me.

Last updated 26/3/2000.

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