Hi: In the Strange Ways to Make Money thread, I told you that I'm looking at some of the other "profit programs" out there to try add some light and logic to what's being promoted on the web, and here at Adland, too. Like you, I get plenty of "join my program" messages. So, two people sent me private messages to invite me to join the Paypal Randomizer program. Now, here's how it seems to work. If I joined, I would make three separate $5 payments from my paypal account. Then, my name would go into a rotation so that when my name "comes up" I get paid $5 increments by new people joining. So, I emailed them back and asked them if it was working for them. They both said "yup, sure is." That wasn't nearly good enough. So I wrote back and asked how MUCH they have earned and how long they've been a member. One proudly said he has received 3 payments in three weeks. Thus, he's made back his $15. The other is $5 ahead of the game. First, I scratched my head. Then, I emailed several other people that have the same link in their sig files and asked if THEY had made any significant money. None of them replied. To me, it just doesn't seem worth the time or effort. Now, maybe there's folks out there making more, but if so, I don't know any. If you use this program and have made any significant money with it, do let us know. I tend to come from the school of "don't tell me, show me." So far, the conclusion I'm drawing is that putting that url in one's sig file is kind of like walking around carrying a sign saying "The Earth is Flat." But maybe someone can show me different? Anyone else tried this? What kind of result? And if it was lousy, at least you know it's not just you. :)

Dear Linda. I have joined all 3 randomizers I have been offered in here, and YES I have earned money, but not the BIG money - as I did not believe it would eighter. But today I have about x40 more than I paid - after 10 days in all 3, so I must say I can like it. System works this way. 1) You join and pay 3 x X$ - one for Your sponsor, then second to the "random" and last to admin. 2) You tell all Your friends and get the 1 of 3 pays from this. If You get the "random" at same time - You get twice. 3) You rotate in the system, and if You buy weight You will rotate and be picked out faster. I have about 20% of the weight in one system AND it works fine. Try - get some extra You too :-) Best wishes and regards from Arild

I am in three of these programs and have yet to make even a pennie! The biggest problem as I see it is that others buy weight in the programs and they get all the sign ups and the rest of us little people without a lot of money don't make anything. I will not do another.

added note. Before someone tells me you have to promote to make money I have done that even using payed adds.

Hi Linda and Arild, I think that you can count yourself lucky Arild. These "schemes" are everywhere. To me, it seems like an electronic variation of the old pyramid sales letter scheme (also known as the airplane scheme) where you send $X to the name at the top of the lists then add your name to the bottom of the lists. The problem, as I see it, is threefold: 1 - Lots of people will not be interested at all (reduces the numbers available). 2 - Lots of people will cheat the system (ie put their name at the top) 3 - Very soon, because of the exponential growth of the numbers there are not enough people left to propagate the system. (I'll demonstrate this below) OK. Some bright spark or sparks start these things off (they always make money because they are at the top of the tree). We'll use the number quoted - three. One sends to three, who in turn must send to three, and so on. 1st generation - originator = 1 2nd generation - 1 + 3 = 4 3rd generation - 1 + 3 + 9 = 13 4th generation - 1 + 3 + 9 + 27 = 40 5th generation - 1 + 3 + 9 + 27 + 81 = 121 See how the numbers are starting to blow out? It's an exponential progression, also known as a j-curve. Soon you simply run out of numbers. Watch. You can check this for yourself. 6th - 364 7th - 1093 8th - 3280 9th - 9841 Understand that you have to remove the "players" from the population pool if they are already in the "game." Yes, you can always have them re-join but if they made no money the first time, would they do that? I'll keep going... 10th - 29,524 11th - 88,573 12th - 265,720 13th - 797,161 I'm having fun on my calculator so I'll keep going... 14th - 2,391,484 - that is a serious number! 15th - 7,174,453 16th - 21,523,360 17th - 64,570,081 18th - 193,710,244 Oh-oh! On the next progression every man, woman and child in the USA will be involved in this scam, I mean, scheme. Actually, we had better start including China now. Look... 19th - 581,130,733. Yes folks, that is over 581 million people. The next level easily crosses the billion mark. Very soon the billions become trillions. Who do we find then? Can you see how these things eventually HAVE to collapse? Sure, a few people will make lots of money - the originators. Some will make a little bit of money. Most will lose. I wouldn't touch any of these things myself. However, for those who do - good luck! If you are only doing it for fun then treat it like a visit to the casino. But I definitely would not keep pumping money in to push your name further up the chain. That is a new variation to the old concept. In my mind it is dangerous. Who knows where that money ends up? Anyway, that's my take on it. If you want to play then that's your choice. Regards Gary Simpson