Author Archives: Roope Kiuttu
Hello! I am Roope "Robert" Kiuttu, the founder and owner of YourOnlineRevenue.com. I created this website back in 2015 to help you to make money online. You can ask me anything and I'll be happy to help you out. I help people daily to make more money online and I love seeing people succeeding. If you want to get my 1-on-1 support and help to make money online as well, get started HERE.
I was talking with my ex-colleague about making money online. He had just got $60 cash back after his trip in U.K. He had used so-called cash back website where they give the money back for his purchases. One of the most famous is Ebates.
Before I always thought that this kind of website can’t be so good because I already know great ways to earn money online. But my friend’s experience changed my mind a little bit. Is Ebates worth it? Let’s find out!
Name: Ebates
Founded: 1998 in Silicon Valley
Type: Cash Back Programs
Price: Free to Join
Overall Ranking: 91 Out of 100
Check Out My #1 Recommendation to Make Money Online. It’s even much more profitable than Ebates. I have used it myself for 2 years and it gives proven results.
Ebates is a cash back website where you can literally get money back for your online purchases.
Let me give a simple example: You are planning to buy a tablet from Amazon. Instead of going straight to Amazon website, you go through Ebates’ link. After your purchase on Amazon, you get some money back. Sounds cool?
Ebates was created almost 20 years ago in Silicon Valley, California by two attorneys. The time went by and the company became larger because people were loving their service. Then one beautiful day the largest Japanese eCommerce company Rakuten approached the founders.
Two attorneys sold Ebates for $1 billion dollars to Rakuten. You can start to imagine how big their service is. At the moment Ebates’ merchandise value is more than $2,2 billion and growing.
You can get a cash back through their website in more than 2,000 online stores even up to 25%. Wherever you see the lists of the best and the largest cash back sites, Ebates is there.
Ebates homepage looks professional.
Ebates has a huge network of partners. Here are listed some of them:
If I would write the whole list of their partners, it would take ages because there are more than 2,000 in total.
You can get “discounts” in all of these online stores that are collaborating with Ebates. You just go to Ebates website, then you click their link to Walmart, buy something for $25 and get $10 back. That’s how simple it is. By the way, you can get that $10 bonus through my link to Ebates.
Here is also a picture from their website which illustrates the cash back process:
The idea of cash backs is simple.
Note: You can sometimes use also in-store coupons to get a cash back from Ebates.
$1o bonus for $25 purchase in Walmart is one of the best of their offers. The amount of your cash back depends on which online store you are using. You usually get a 3% cash back on Amazon. Here are some other offers:
You can notice that sometimes you will get an immediate discount and also a cash back. So, it depends on the offer. I recommend you to read instructions carefully before buying through an offer. Many people have complained that they didn’t get a discount they wanted because they didn’t read the rules carefully.
Maximum cash back for a single purchase is $50. So, even though you would make a single purchase of $1,000, you won’t get hundreds of dollars money back.
If you have any questions about earning money on Ebates, you can always ask me in the comments below. By the way, have you ever found it a bit misleading that they call it “earning money” even though you are actually spending and then you just get a discount or some dollars back?
If you are looking for even better discounts, you can apply for Ebates Visa credit card. Have a look at a picture below which explains how it works:
Ebates Credit Card Bonus
So, you will get EXTRA 3% cash back through Ebates purchases. Notice that it’s extra 3% and you can combine it with other bonuses. So, you can get first 5% cash back and then 3% extra with a card + $10 bonus on your first purchase.
Let’s say that you used Ebates Visa card for a $100 purchase. With these conditions, you would get $18 back. Not bad, huh? However, you won’t get $10 bonus many times because it’s only supposed to use during the first time.
Probably the most lucrative way to earn money on Ebates is their referral program. If you have lots of friends or a big audience online, you can earn quite a good money with it.
You will earn $5 for every friend you refer into Ebates. Plus, you’ll get a $40 bonus when two friends join and make a purchase. If you refer 100 friends, you have already earned $500.
You can even win a trip to Disneyland by referring people to Ebates.
You can easily get your cash backs through PayPal or mail. Naturally, I recommend taking it through PayPal because, in my opinion, it’s easier and faster. But now, pay close attention.
Ebates is a huge company. That’s why they make their payments quarterly instead of all the time. So, you will get paid every 3 months if your cash back amount exceeds $5. Remember that you need to be over 18 years old to use all Ebates services.
It’s always wise to ask this question when you are spending money online. Is Ebates a scam? Does Ebates really work? I have written a great post where I explain how to spot an online scam.
Ebates is not a scam. They have paid millions of people all around the world. They are receiving positive reviews from their members over and over again.
BBB (Better Business Bureau) has accredited +A rating for Ebates which is the best that they could get. In other words, there isn’t a good reason to believe why Ebates wouldn’t be safe.
However, in every review, I take a look at complaints what people have written about these make money online services. There isn’t a perfect service and people do mistakes. So naturally, there are some complaints of Ebates as well.
Ebates is promising to give you a big fat check every 3 months. Some of their members was a bit frustrated because his check wasn’t so big and fat.
It’s definitely true that you won’t become rich by using Ebates. If you want to make big money online, it’s better to take a look at this website. They have a step-by-step training how you can earn even +$10,000/month online.
Some Ebates reviews were writing that they didn’t receive the money what they had thought. It seems that in most of those cases they didn’t read the rules carefully enough. I would also like to give another tip.
When you buy something through Ebates, do it immediately. I mean that when you go to Amazon through their link, don’t go surfing 50 sites before you buy a product. In addition, you must accept cookies because that’s how they track your purchases.
Ebates is full of cash back offers – Choose the best ones wisely.
Ebates has a big knowledge base where you will find an answer to most of your questions. Have a look at an image below:
Ebates Support
You can notice that there’s also the question “Where’s my Big Fat Payment?” in the top 5 questions.
If you don’t find an answer in the knowledge base, you can always send Ebates an email and they’ll come back to you with an answer.
You may be wondering how is it possible for Ebates to give you money for your purchases. Well, that’s simple.
When you buy something through their link, they get some money from their partners also. Let’s say that you make a purchase for $100.
Then Ebates earns a 5% and they share you 3%. It means that they made a 2% profit. This is how it works. It’s a win-win situation. A client (you) gets a cheaper product. Ebates earns money and an online store earns money by getting a selling their products.
It’s actually called affiliate marketing and anyone can do it. You can leave a link to your friend to Amazon, Walmart or any other online store and you will immediately earn commissions (much more than in Ebates).
If you would like to learn how to make more money with affiliate marketing, I recommend taking a look at this step-by-step training. I use affiliate marketing myself and it really works. I don’t need to have my own products because I can make money online by recommending other people’s products.
That’s a crucial question. Is it worth your time? In some cases yes.
If you are going to buy something from Amazon anyway, why wouldn’t you take a nice discount? Or if you are going for a holiday with your family and book flights and hotels, why wouldn’t you get some money back?
Remember that you can get immediately a $10 sign up bonus to Walmart through my link.
On the other hand, do you remember the famous quote by Robert Kiyosaki? “The poor people look for discounts in the supermarket. The rich people look for discounts in the stock/real estate market.”
The idea is that you should be looking for bigger opportunities instead of focusing only on small wins. That’s why I recommend you to go to Wealthy Affiliate. Instead of getting a 5% cash back, you can make a living and even a fortune if you become successful. Their training takes you hand by hand to making good money online.
Another thing that you should remember when using Ebates is that don’t spend more than you had initially planned. Some people sign up and spend hundreds of dollars buying stuff that they don’t need because they are only looking for big discounts. Don’t fall into that trap.
You are smart. Make wise decisions and you will be rewarded.
I wish you all the best!
Have you ever used Ebates or some other cashback programs? What kind of experiences did you have?
Are you in the network marketing circle? If yes, you’ve probably heard about Ad Pack Pro. There’s a good chance that some people are trying to push you to it and get you to join the company. Well, if you’re considering joining the company, I recommend you read my full Ad Pack Pro review before taking the plunge.
I’m going to explore just about everything that has to do with the company so you can do your research and make the most informed decision. I will also answer a critical question that many people have asked all around the Internet, “Is Ad Pack Pro a Scam?”
You should know that this is going to be an unbiased review — I’m going to take a look at the company, their products as well as the compensation plan they offer users, then round it up with an honest conclusion.
Sounds good? Let’s dive in!
Website: Ad Pack Pro
Type: MLM
Founded: 2015/2016
Overall Ranking: 10 Out of 100
If you are interested in making money online, you may consider taking a look at My #1 Recommendation to Make Money Online. I have used it myself and their training taught me to earn quite a good money on the Internet.
Ad Pack Pro is a revenue sharing advertising platform that provides members with their AdPack services so they can get their advertisement benefits and earn up to 120% of their AdPack purchase amount.
Now, this company happens to have some shady founding details as it claims to be launched in May 2015. However, the domain name registration tells a different story. Well, the domain name registration for Ad Pack Pro website took place in March 2016. Doesn’t add up right?
Moreover, the website claims that the company is headquartered in Switzerland, but after a bit more research, I discovered that there are many other companies using the same address. Well, it’s very likely that it’s a virtual office space — meaning that the company doesn’t have a physical base in Switzerland.
Once you visit the website, you’ll find that the CEO of the company is known as Peter Muller, but you’ll also find that Ad Pack Pro itself is owned by another company called OneVision Holding. Another thing is, I couldn’t get my hands on any other information that relates to Peter Muller, and I figured that this could be because of the language barrier since it’s a Swiss company.
Ad Pack Pro promises added value for entrepreneurs. Well, where is the value?
You should know is that this company doesn’t have any product line — not even one. It’s more like an affiliate program and affiliates must try to sell to potential buyers. If someone eventually buys an affiliate membership, they’ll be able to purchase “ad packs” for €25. For the most part, an Ad Pack contains ad credits which can be used to display ads on the company’s website.
The idea is similar to many other revenue sharing companies like Fort Ad Pays. Let me explain how everything works there. But first, I would like to ask you one quick question.
Ad Pack Pro has a compensation plan, and it has to do with the investments of affiliates. In other words, affiliates are supposed to invest into ad packs to earn an ROI. Speaking of investments, you’ll have to pay €25 to earn an ROI payout of €30.
The thing is, affiliates will need to invest in more and more ad packs to make more money as a member of the company. However, the total amount of ad packs an affiliate can invest in is solely dependent on how much they’re willing to pay in yearly membership fees.
Here’s the deal:
You can choose not to pay the annual fees, but this will limit your investment. In essence, you’ll only get to invest in ten ad packs. However, paying the annual fees will increase that amount or allow you to invest in more and more ad packs. Here’s the breakdown of the annual affiliate fees:
Ad Pack Pro team is bold and beautiful but I don’t recommend their product.
Affiliates still have a job to do if they want to qualify for the daily ROI payout. What job? Well, they’ll have to click on up to ten different ads that are supplied to them by the company. The ads actually belong to other affiliates, and you’ll have to click them every 24 hours.
Ad Pack Pro compensation plan also feature referral commissions. This means that affiliates can make money through referrals, but their earning potential is dependent on annual membership fees — pay the yearly fees and earn more referral commission.
So, if you choose not to pay the yearly fees, you’ll earn 11% on level 1 personally enrolled affiliates. However, paying any of the listed annual fees will give you the chance to earn 11% on level 1 affiliates and 7% on level 2.
The bottom line? You can become an affiliate for Ad Pack Pack Pro for free, but that will limit your earning potential. So, if you’re looking to make more money as an affiliate, you’ll have to part with €39 to €999 per year — you get the point! The more you pay in annual affiliate fees, the more your chances of making more money.
In most affiliate programs you don’t need to pay anything to become an affiliate. In some programs, you need to use the money for a product but in my experience, most of them were scams.
Ad Pack Pro is not a good option. The new money comes in only when new members bring money by paying their membership fees.
What if people would stop paying the annual fees?
The system would immediately collapse. It’s not a pyramid scheme but something similar. New members pay money for the old members. If new members don’t join the system, everything collapses. The most important task for current members is to recruit new people into their system.
If you are tired of this kind of scams and looking for better ways to make money online, I have good news for you.
I found a program that taught me how to earn a great income online. I went through their training and put it powerfully into action. I haven’t looked back. I have also quit my 9 to 5 job so I have now more time to build an online business.
I can offer you 20 interactive video lessons and some other bonuses for completely free. If you want more, then you need to pay for a premium membership but I think you will get a good picture of making money online already during those 20 lessons.
What do you think about Ad Pack Pro? Have you also seen similar scams online?
Have you already found better ways to earn money online?
I would love to hear from you in the comments. I promise to give you a personal reply.
Are you looking to get paid for just voicing out your opinion through surveys? I’m pretty sure you’ve heard about a site that claims to pay its members between $5 to $75 for their opinions. In fact, the company says you can get paid hundreds to thousands of dollars a month for completing surveys! Is Paid Surveys at Home a Scam?
The site literally leads people to believe they can make a living taking surveys. So, how true are these claims? Can you truly make hundreds to thousands a month for completing surveys on this site?
Well, I don’t know about you, but these claims sound shady to me — I mean, making hundreds to thousands of dollars for online surveys? That’s not even reasonable! The good news is, this Paid Surveys at Home review will go deep into the program so we can see if their many claims are true or not.
Ready? Let’s dive in!
Website: Paid Surveys at Home (PSaH)
Type: Online Surveys
Founded: 2007
Overall Ranking: 5 Out of 100
Check out my #1 recommended program to earn money online, ranking 98 out of 100. I use their service myself and have been greatly satisfied.
Paid Surveys At Home claims that you could earn up to $75 per survey.
This site has been operating for quite some time now, and it’s owned by Patricia Johnson. Paid Surveys at Home is yet another site on the long list of online survey companies that claim to pay members for completing online surveys, taking part in focus groups and testing new products.
Well, what you should know is, Paid Surveys at Home is not an online work company. It’s more like an agent that leads you to other survey companies for a fee. This means you’ll have to pay to access the list of “paid to take surveys” websites. In other words, Paid Surveys at Home is the middleman in the picture, and they also want to get paid!
Paid Surveys At Home features a database of market research companies, and you have to register with many of these companies before you can start taking surveys. As a matter of fact, the website recommends you register with about 15 to 20 sites to get started. This is sure to be time-consuming as most surveys are likely to take 15 minutes and you might not even qualify for them at the end of the day.
Furthermore, Paid Surveys At Home claims that members can make up make between $5 to $75 taking surveys. I don’t know about you, but these earnings are pretty hard to believe. In fact, I know that they don’t exist in the world of online surveys.
I have experience of more than 60 survey sites and the best income you can expect is around $2-3 per hour. And most of the time it will be even less. That’s why I think that online surveys are not worth it.
One thing you should know is that Paid Surveys At Home is a pay to join the site and that’s ridiculous. Paid Surveys at Home wants your money because they compiled a list of sites you can find with a simple Google search. The price to join is $68, and it comes with three downsells that eventually brings it down to $7!
Paid Surveys at Home promise to grant you access to 300 survey companies as well as over 300 work at home opportunities for a fee. The bottom line is, you’re paying for FREE information.
Paid Surveys At Home are making money by charging fees from their members but also from referrals. When you click some of their links and registers to another survey site, they will earn commissions for letting you there.
The commission depends but usually it’s around 5-25% of your earnings. It doesn’t decrease your earnings but companies just pay bonuses for people who acquire new customers. This is actually called affiliate marketing and that’s how I make money online.
It means that I recommend some useful services for my audience and when they click and join, I earn a commission. However, I don’t recommend any online survey sites even though I would earn good money by doing that. My principle is that I only promote services that I would use myself.
Paid Surveys At Home claims that their members are likely to earn between $5 to $75 for completing surveys, but that’s not all. They also say members can make up to $150 an hour when they participate in focus groups and the site also allows their members to do phone surveys with a pay of $120 per hour.
Those promises are totally false and you will never earn $120-150 per hour for answering surveys. If that would be possible, I think that most people would just stay at home filling out surveys instead of going to their normal 9 to 5 job.
Paid Surveys At Home has just collected you a list of survey sites that pay money for your opinion. You could find that list in 10 seconds on my website for completely free. But as I always say, online surveys are not worth it because they payout is so small.
Have a look at this video where one experienced person explains about Paid Surveys At Home and 2 similar scam websites.
Fake Testimonial
You may be wondering if the testimonials on their website are truthful or just fake. Have a look at one example below by “Alex Peterson”:
I don’t know how does it look in your eyes but to me, it’s pretty obvious that it’s just a fake testimonial. I Googled his picture and also other pictures on their website and I was immediately able to find these pictures on other pages as well. I think that they have taken the picture from some picture bank like Shutterstock.
You may have also seen positive reviews of Paid Surveys At Home on some not-so-famous blogs. They are recommending this service and explaining how they bade big bucks. That’s a lie.
They are recommending Paid Surveys At Home only to earn commissions for each sale that they make. When somebody clicks their link, goes and pays the membership, they earn good money.
All reliable online entrepreneurs have started that Paid Surveys At Home is not worth it. You pay for something that you should get for completely free. In addition, they are just lying in front of your face.
Yes, it’s a scam. There are also other similar survey sites out there that promise you +$10 per each survey. Let’s be honest here, all of that kind of websites are just trying to fool you. After researching +60 survey sites, I have found some that actually pay you +$10.
What’s the catch?
The catch is that you first need to buy a product that costs $8-9 and then you can fill out the survey/review of that product afterward. So, in reality, you earn only $1-2 for the whole process which takes lots of your time.
If you are interested in making a living from home, have a look at Wealthy Affiliate Step-By-Step training. It has helped so many people to make a full-time income and much more from the comfort of their own homes. People from all walks of life have achieved a financial freedom through their training:
It means that literally, ANYONE can learn how to make a living online. Everything you need is a proper training, Internet connection, and persistence.
Wealthy Affiliate is not a get rich scheme. You won’t get rich overnight but for sure it’s possible to earn +$10,000/month over the time course. In addition, you will learn much more interesting ways to earn money than filling out some surveys.
I would love to hear from you. What is your opinion about online survey sites? Have you tried more interesting ways to make money online? Do you have friends who make a living on the Internet?
Let me know in the comments below and I will be more than happy to reply all your comments personally.
Are you interested in taking online surveys for money? Well, the thing is you won’t get a sustainable income from online surveys — you’re more likely to earn a couple of dollars to cater for your little needs. So, I’m pretty sure you’ve come across a number of survey sites, but how you recognize a good one from a bad one?
How could you know is Pinecone Research a scam or not? Well, this is where you get all the answers you need!
In this Pinecone Research review, I will provide all the details you’ll need to know about this company so you can decide if their surveys are for you or not. Let’s get to it.
Name: Pinecone Research
Type: Online surveys
Founded: 1999
Overall Ranking: 25 Out of 100.
Check Out My #1 Rated Program That I Use Myself to Make Money Online.
Pinecone Research is not like other survey companies out there. It’s an exclusive survey website and product testing platform. In other words, you need to get a special invite and then qualify in order to join the panelists. This implies that you do not choose them, but they choose you based on a number of factors.
For the most part, the company was founded by Nielsen Holdings and it has been in business since 1999. That’s 18 years. It’s a huge time for a business to be on the Internet. Anyway, it’s not a guarantee that their service would be worth YOUR time.
Once you successfully join the website, Pinecone Research will send you surveys via email as well as other random product testing opportunities. Surveys can pay between $3 to $5, and you can earn up to $6 for product tests.
As I mentioned earlier, you’ll need a special invitation link to sign up for Pinecone Research. Links can be provided by panelists or appear as banner ads on unsolicited websites.
Next, you’ll have to fill an online questionnaire — the information you provide will allow the site to determine whether you’re what they’re looking for or not. In other words, their choice of demographics is bound to change from time to time in order to meet the demands of their clients. So, you’re likely to be accepted by their panel if you’re in the demographic that the company and its client’s needs.
If you meet up with their requirements and get accepted, you will be sent surveys according to your demographics. The surveys will be sent to your email, and they come in a variety of topics with more focus on product and consumer-related surveys.
For the most part, PineCone Research rewards you with points for every survey you complete and you can redeem the points as money or a broad variety of gift cards.
Let’s go through 3 ways to make money with their website:
You’re eligible to get a minimum of $3 to $5 per survey, and most surveys take up to 15 minutes or more to complete. The thing is, you’re not likely to have a high survey invite rate. This is primarily because they know your demographics and will not send you surveys you’re unlikely to qualify for. Members can receive their payment via PayPal or cheque, and there’s no minimum redemption rate.
I’m pretty sure you’ll like this feature as you’ll get to test a product, write a review and get paid after you submit the same. These products can range from beauty products to electronics and more.
You may remember from our Product Testing UK review, it can take lots of time to get any products for testing. If you would have worked the same amount of time, you could have already bought the product easily.
There are also some draws where you stand a chance to win up to $500 every second week after a survey. This is like playing the lottery. So, your earnings don’t depend on your skills but your luck.
I don’t depend on luck with making money online. I believe in hard work because it seems to give the most reward and my income is growing every month. One of my goals is, of course, reach +$10,000/month mark like many other members of Wealthy Affiliate.
I guess that you are interested in hearing the exact dollar amounts of your earning potential in Pinecone Research. Well, the short answer is that can earn something but not very much.
Let’s say that you earn $3 for a survey and it takes 15-30 minutes to fill out. It means that your hourly salary is $6-12 per hour which sounds amazingly good. However, that’s possible only in theory. In practice, your earning potential is much, much smaller.
You need to wait that they send you new surveys to your email and it can take time. Recently their members have been reporting that they haven’t received even a single survey for the whole month. So, instead of $6-12/hour, you would be earning less than $5 per month.
A great thing about their service is that you can cash out immediately after one survey because they don’t have a cashout limit. You can take the money directly to PayPal, by check to your home or you can take gift cards to many different places like Amazon, Starbucks, iTunes, etc.
However, we can quickly see that Pinecone Research won’t make you a living. It’s probably not worth your time.
You would need to spend time for signing up. Then it takes a part of your thoughts and distracts from more important things of life.
Let’s see what other people are saying about them. It’s always good to have more point of views before we make our final conclusion.
You may have seen that the average rating of Pinecone research is 3,9 out of 5 stars in Surveypolice based on more than 500 hundreds reviews. It sounds pretty good but it doesn’t convince me because I have seen the same happening also on other survey sites which pay less than $2 for hour’s work.
Did you pay attention what most recent reviews are saying about Pinecone Research? Most of the people are giving them the worst rating saying, “It used to be a better service”. Let’s have a look.
Dan doesn’t get invitations to new surveys anymore.
Dan was very unsatisfied with Pinecone Research after their changes. Notice that his review was written only a few weeks ago in June 2017. The next review from Joe is even more recent and it was written in 24.6.2017.
“This survey company used to be the best.”
Pinecone Research has become even pickier when selecting people for their surveys. In the past, you got qualified easily but nowadays you need to fit exactly to get a chance to earn money with their survey. Let’s take one more review from Kim. It was written only a few days ago.
“Pinecone Research is a joke.”
Kim has experienced the same thing like other members after an update. She is eliminated from surveys and doesn’t get a chance to participate. Many people are reporting the same.
No, Pinecone Research is not a scam. However, after the big changes in their policy, it has become even a worse option. It’s not worth our time. There are much better opportunities on the Internet and in life in general.
It used to be easier to earn money and get reviews on Pinecone Research but the things have changed. You can expect that you will be disqualified from many surveys. This takes your time without any benefit because you try to take a survey but end up reading a text, “You were not qualified for this survey. Better luck next time.” Or something similar.
My recommendation is that forget Pinecone Research and use Wealthy Affiliate to make money online. They provide a step-by-step training, full support, websites and literally everything you need to make a living online.
You can get started for completely free to start learning. You will immediately get 20 interactive video lessons and I bet that they are very helpful if you are looking for great ways to earn money online.
I will also provide all the help you need and you can ask me anything you want.
In the end, I would be ultimately happy to hear from you. Reading comments from our visitors make my day and I promise to reply personally to all of your comments.
What do you think about Pinecone Research? Do you have some experience of their services?
Do you have experience of other ways to earn money online?
Looking for a way to rake in some extra cash from the comfort of your home? Well, you’re not alone on that one. There are thousands of visitors regularly on our website looking for the same thing. I know how to make money online because I am doing it all the time.
In this post, I am going to quickly show I make money online and also analyze is Tellwut a Scam? I have researched more than 60 survey sites and I must say that I don’t use any of them regularly because there are much more lucrative ways to earn money.
Now the thing is, most people tend to rely on online surveys for a source of extra cash but are they really worth it? Tellwut is one of the many survey companies that claim to reward its members for their opinions, but it’s still crucial to know if the website is worth your time or not. Just read this Tellwut review to find out.
Website: Tellwut
Type: Online survey
Founded: 2012
Overall Ranking: 30 Out of 100
Check out the program that I use to make money online. My income is growing each and every month. I have already quit my 9 to 5 because I saw that it’s possible to earn more money easily online than in any regular job.
Tellwut stands for “tell us what you think.” It’s an online survey company that gives you the opportunity to earn points for completing and creating surveys. Once the points grow to a certain level, you’ll be able to redeem the same for gift cards including Amazon, Walmart, Starbucks and the like.
Furthermore, Tellwut is sure to come in handy for businesses looking to get respondents for their market research. They’ll also need to subscribe to the website to use its services.
Here is a video where I explain if Tellwut is worth it or not. I also quickly walk you through the process how I make money online that I explain in the end of this article.
Membership on Tellwut is free; in essence, it’s not a “pay to join survey site” like Gold Opinions. You’ll get to log in to the site after verifying your email and start taking surveys. When you sign up, you also get a sign-up bonus of 100 points.
The good thing is, most of the surveys are short — containing just four to five questions. This is sure to work great for people with limited time as well as those that hate the idea of spending unnecessary amount of time taking surveys. Another thing is, everyone is likely to qualify for the surveys irrespective of their demographics. NOTE: Only if you are living in the U.S. or Canada!
One good thing about Tellwut is that they care about user engagement. In other words, most of the surveys are crafted by other members of the website — so you can expect them to be a lot more fun than your regular market research survey.
Furthermore, users claim that Tellwut has a lot of surveys and you won’t have to wait for an email to take surveys. In essence, members can access the site at anytime they want and participate in surveys for a few points a day. This means that you can take surveys every other day and earn a couple of gift cards (there’s no cash option!).
Tellwut Homepage
Tellwut won’t earn you something reasonable enough to replace your regular income (Not even close). You can join them if you’re looking to get a couple of gift cards for some of your basic needs. As I mentioned earlier, Tellwut rewards you with points for every relevant action taken on their site.
You’ll get to earn 100 points after signing up to the website, and you can also get extra 200 points when you give them a little more information about yourself. One good thing is, Tellwut doesn’t disqualify anyone for taking surveys but you have to put in a lot of time to get enough points to cash out.
For the most part, you’ll need to get up to 4000 to cash out for a $10 gift card. So we can quickly calculate that $1 equals to 400 points.
You should also know that most surveys can only earn you 10 points but the good thing is, they’re not long and exhaustive. However, 10 points are only worth 2,5 cents, less than one candy in your local supermarket. You need to brace yourself to complete up to 400 surveys.
Once you get the recommended points (4000), Tellwut will process the gift cards for 10 to 15 days before it gets to you. The gift cards you’re likely to get include Amazon, Starbucks, Walmart, Target, AMC Cinemas, Home Depot, Tango, etc.
Members can also earn points and ultimately get gift cards for creating surveys. It’s important to note that Tellwut will have to review your survey before it gets approved. You can get between 15 to 20 points once it gets approved. Members can also earn 5 to 10 points for filling out polls.
Users can also get extra points through Tellwut’s referral program. You just have to refer a friend to get 25 points. The thing is, you can’t sign up your entire household through the program since they limit accounts to one per household.
Notice that referring friends to earn 25 points is ultimately slow and not profitable at all. You need to refer 160 people before you have earned one $10 gift card. If I would refer 160 people to some other online service like this, I already earn much more than $1,000. You can see a big difference.
Tellwut is not a scam. It has received the average rating 3,8 stars out of 5 in Surveypolice based on 234 reviews. Many people have reported that they really send you gift cards when you have reached the limit.
However, we gave them only 2,0 out of 10. Why? Because the earning potential in Tellwut is so low. Those people who give it a better rating don’t know about better ways to make money online.
You will probably spend 3-4 hours to earn your first $10 gift card if you are very fast on answering surveys and your Internet connection is great. That’s much lower than a minimum salary in U.S. or Canada.
In the beginning of the post, I promised to tell you how I make money online. Here we go!
I have researched more than 60 survey sites and 250 make money online programs in total. I can’t recommend any survey sites because the earning potential was so low. But there are a few step-by-step training programs that I can recommend. All of them are created by successful Internet marketers and they know very well how to earn a living online.
Here are my top 3 recommendations:
1.Wealthy Affiliate – The Best. 15 years in the industry. Everything you need for a successful online business.
2.Chris Farrell Membership – I love the way Chris Farrell teaches. Simply but effectively.
3.Zero Hour Work Days – Inspirational and cheap program by a young online marketer.
These programs teach slightly different strategies for making money online but I am using the one that Wealthy Affiliate teaches. It goes like this:
1.Choose an interest. (What is your passion? What is your main hobby? What do you like doing?)
My interest is at the moment making money online. I have also many other interests for example language learning, fitness and I can make money with those interests as well. Actually, I have a language learning website where I am using the same strategy and earning income as well.
2.Create a website. Nowadays it’s possible to build a website in 30 seconds.
I created this website YourOnlinRevenue.com. Here I am teaching a different kind of strategies for making money online and reviewing make money online programs. Your website can be anything you want. I have seen some very successful mom or fitness blogs for example.
3.Attract visitors.
It doesn’t help if you have a website but nobody visits there. You will get visitors by writing engaging articles to your website. Most of my traffic (70-80%) comes from search engines and the rest comes directly from writing my website’s name or from social medias like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and so on.
You can use whatever source of traffic you want by I recommend Google because it brings me consistent traffic whether I do anything or not. I can also teach you everything you need to know about getting ranked high on Google.
4.Earn revenue.
This is the most exciting part. I earn income by leaving links to different kind of products on my websites. When people go and buy something, I earn a commission. I follow the principle that I am only recommending products that I would use myself. That’s why I don’t recommend survey sites for example.
I guess that you are probably interested in making money online because you have come to my website. Then I have good news for you. You can learn the whole process what I explained above and make a full-time income (and much more!).
I recommend starting a step-by-step training in Wealthy Affiliate for completely free. You will immediately get 20 interactive video lessons, 2 high-quality websites, support from successful online entrepreneurs and much more when you join. You don’t need a credit card or anything else.
I will welcome you in and lead you hand by hand to your online success. What do you think? 🙂
Ever heard of companies that give you expensive gadgets in exchange for your review? To be honest, this sounds way too good to be true. I’m pretty sure you’ve come across companies that give out free stuff like shampoo or chocolate samples in exchange for reviews, but giving out an iPhone 7 or MacBook retina for free?
Product Testing UK is a company that claims to give out expensive stuff in exchange for a review(s). But is this true? Can you just review and keep those pricey gadgets? Well, there’s only one way to find out — enter this Product Testing UK review!
Right now, I’m going to review the company so you can understand how it works and see if it’s worth a shot. Sounds good? Let’s get started!
Name: Product Testing UK
Founded: 2012
Field: Product Testing
Overall Rank: 30 out of 100
Check out the system that I use to make money online. I write reviews of different kind of products and my income is steadily rising each and every month. It’s so good that I have even quit my well-paying 9 to 5 job!
A possibility of getting a free Macbook sounds pretty exciting because normally they cost around $1,500.
Product Testing UK is a website that gives out expensive products for review purposes. In other words, you’re likely to get those pricey gadgets in exchange for your reviews. The site also claims to give you the opportunity to earn money as a mystery shopper.
The site has tons of products in various categories including gaming, technology, beauty, health, and fitness, etc. I’m pretty sure most people would be more interested in smartphones, laptops, gaming consoles and the like — well, the site has it all.
As I mentioned earlier, members can also make money as mystery shoppers. This means that you can get paid when you visit a particular supermarket, shop and write a review about your experiences.
So, it’s pretty clear that the site is all about getting free products to review and becoming a mystery shopper. Now, the issue is how you can actually get those products and make money as a mystery shopper. Let’s proceed to the next phase of the review!
According to the site, you’ll have to pick the product you want to test, receive the chosen product (based on selection) and test, review and keep the product for yourself. Sounds simple right?
For starters, when you enter their site, you’ll get to see a number of products that you can select and apply to become a tester. You’ll need to sign up and provide some personal details including your phone number, address, email, etc. There’s also a long survey you’ll need to fill before proceeding.
For the most part, Product Testing UK only accepts testers from the UK, USA, and Australia — so, people from other countries are unlikely to be accepted. What you should know is, Product Testing only give free products to people that are more likely to provide the type of feedback they need.
According to some users, you’ll have to fill out a plethora of forms and eventually get tons of emails that are chock full of spam messages. Don’t know about you but I really hate spam emails.
The truth is, this website actually gives out products for free in exchange for your review, but they only do so to a selected few. Once you visit their website, they’ll make it seem like everyone will receive free products and that’s misleading.
So, we can assume that the site is likely to pick ten to fifteen people out of thousands that sign up to get free products or make money as mystery shoppers. In other words, Product Testing would only choose the people they feel are capable of providing the exact kind of feedback they’re looking for.
Moreover, the site is great at sending tons of spammy emails and offers to every applicant, and I’m pretty sure you’re not a fan of spams. Some users who gave out their phone numbers also talked about receiving cold calls from time to time. Well, they stated this in their privacy policy — so it’s more like getting what you signed up for.
It’s always wise to take a look what other people have liked their service. It can give us some very valuable information.
Karen says, “Don’t do it.”
Karen writes in her review that Product Testing UK was asking so many details sending lots of junk email. We can logically also conclude that she didn’t get any products that she would have wanted.
“Majority of us will get nothing but an email inbox full of spam.”
Tommy points out the same thing as Karen. He received lots of spammy emails and no products to review. He doesn’t trust this company. Let’s have a look at one more review.
During a few months, Gail didn’t get any products.
They also called Gail asking for his bank details which sound very strange and suspicious.
Despite all these negative reviews, there are also some positive reviews out there. Some members have really received some products from Product Testing UK. However, the problem is that probably 1% or less will get qualified for reviews.
I can’t say it would be completely a scam but at least it’s giving lots of false hope and promises. They make it seem so easy to get many kinds of products for free but eventually only very few will be applied.
All in all, it’s not worth the hassle. Most likely you will end up spending endless hours filling out their information sheets and papers without any reward. I think it’s like playing the lottery. You may win something but the odds are against you.
Let’s say that you would spend 1-2 years on their website and would receive one or two products for a review. It would be a mistake to think that they are free products for you. Time is money. What if you would have spent that time working what you have now spent on Product Testing UK website?
You would have earned the money to buy these products and much, much more. The conclusion is that I don’t recommend joining this service. However, if you like to make money and get free products by writing reviews, I have great news for you.
I make money online by writing reviews. I have even quit my well-paying day job to have more time to do this. Let me explain how it works and how you can do it as well.
I wrote a review of HireWriters and now I am receiving commissions of their sales.
First of all, you must choose an interest. What is the subject that you would like reviews? On YourOnlineRevenue.com we are writing reviews of “make money online” products and opportunities. On my other website LanguagesAreEasy.com, I write reviews of language learning programs and resources.
How do I make money with this?
I leave links to products that I like and I think would be useful for my audience. Wealthy Affiliate, for example, has taught me everything I need to make money online.
Their step-by-step training by Kyle helped me to create a website and start adding content. Then the training taught how I can get lots of visitors to my websites through Google and other search engines.
Traffic itself is not enough but Kyle, Carson and other online entrepreneurs in Wealthy Affiliate have helped me to convert my visitors into customers. Then I earn money by just leaving links to good products.
When I started out I didn’t know anything about Internet marketing or websites. But many things have changed since joining Wealthy Affiliate. If you would like to learn also to make money by writing reviews, start a training for Wealthy Affiliate for free.
It’s 100% free to join WA. I don’t get any commissions when you register because you don’t need to pay anything. You will get:
You may be asking, “How much is it possible to earn by writing reviews?” Well, there is no limit. Some people are earning $1,000/month, some earn $5,000/month and some earn +$10,000/month and much more.
I hope you have enjoyed our Product Testing UK review.
What do you think about this opportunity?
What do you think about Product Testing UK?
I would love to hear from you in the comments below. I promise to reply to all of your comments personally. If you have any questions about making money online by writing reviews or any other thing, don’t hesitate to leave them below! 🙂
Screencast-O-Matic is a great program for creating videos. It’s completely free and their premium version is as cheap as $15. Though my links you will even get 20% discount. In this article I am going to answer you the question, “How Does Screencast-O-Matic Work?” and show you in detail what kind of benefits it has.
In the end of this post, I will also reveal a strategy what I use myself to make money with YouTube videos. It’s pretty simple and you can use it as well.
Name: Turnkey Profit Machines
Website: www.Screencast-O-Matic.com
Field: Screencast Recorders
Overall Rank: 93 Out of 100 (Check Out My #1 Recommendation, 98 Out of 100)
Screencast-O-Matic is a free software that you can use for recording your screen and webcam. I have used it for recording most of my YouTube-videos. I have loved using Screencast-O-Matic because after recording the video you can immediately upload it to YouTube.
You can also use Screencast-O-Matic to record your webcam or both (webcam and screen) at the same time. If people don’t know you, it can be effective to record both so people see who you are which builds trust and credibility.
Let’s get right into the action. Check out this video where I show you clearly how Screencast-O-Matic software works. I recorded the video by using another screencast software called Jing. That’s why the sound quality is not the best. With Screencast-O-Matic the voice quality has always been better than with Jing.
First, go to their website. I recommend using my link because you will get a 20% if you decide to buy a premium version. With a discount, it costs only $12/year. But you can also start with a free version like I did.
Screencast-O-Matic homepage
Then you just click, “Start Recording”. If you want to create an account, you can also click “Sign Up” on the right corner. You can connect Screencast-O-Matic with your Google-account so signing up takes only 5 seconds.
Okay, let’s start recording. You will be taken to the following page:
Choose your language
If you haven’t signed up yet, the program will not know your native language immediately. So, you need to choose it in the box that I have circled in the left bottom corner of the picture. You can choose any of the following languages:
This already gives you a picture how high-quality company Screencast-O-Matic is. Every company doesn’t provide services in 5 different languages.
Let’s click “Launch Recorder” to get started. Then it will download a .exe file called WebLaunchRecorder to your computer. Click it to open it and you are ready to start recording. The software takes only a few seconds to launch.
Click the file to get started
When you have clicked the file, it has automatically opened Screencast-O-Matic on your screen which looks like this:
You can see the Screencast-O-Matic control panel on the left side.
In the control panel, you can make the most important changes. You can choose if you want to record Screen, Webcam or Both. Notice that when you are recording your webcam it shows your webcam very lightly. But in the normal, it will appear in a natural light.
You can also see a couple of other features in the control panel. Max Time means that your video will automatically end when your video reaches that time limit. With a free version your Max Time is 15 minutes and with a premium version, you can record as long as you want.
Size shows how large area you are recording. You can manually change the area that you want to record by grabbing those white lines on the side, bottom or corners.
When I started to use my laptop’s microphone with Screencast-O-Matic it didn’t work. Anyway, I think that built-in microphones are not very good so it’s better to find a real one.
I bought a Blue Snowball microphone from Amazon which is probably one of the most popular mics for YouTube videos. It has tens of thousands positive of reviews on Amazon websites in total and most of them gave 5 out of 5 stars. The voice quality is great and it costs only $49.
If you use some other microphones for your videos, I would love to hear in the comments below. There are for sure many other good alternatives but Blue Snowball works for me very well.
Blue Snowball iCE Condenser Microphone
When everything is set up and you are ready to go, just click the red “Record” button and the software will count 3-2-1- GO!
You can freely do anything on your screen and Screencast-O-Matic will record everything. Once you are ready, you just click the blue pause icon. Then you can review your recording. You can add something in between or cut it a little bit if you want.
If you are satisfied with the video, you just click “Done”. After clicking that, Screencast-O-Matic will ask “What do you want to do with this recording?” and the following options will appear.
Screencast-O-Matic recorded my screen while I was writing this tutorial for you.
On the right-hand side, you can see a control panel. You can save a video file on your computer by clicking “Save As Video File”. Then you can also upload it to Screencast-O-Matic website or directly to YouTube. I love that feature because when I am recording YouTube-videos, it speeds up the process a lot. I don’t need to save it first to my computer because I can put it directly on YouTube and get more views.
With a Screencast-O-Matic Pro, you can also upload the video immediately to Vimeo, Google Drive or Dropbox.
It’s completely free to use Screencast-O-Matic. However, if you want to access all pro features, their membership costs only $12/year through my link which means only $1 per month and around 3 cents per day. Quite cheap, huh? You couldn’t buy even one candy with that price.
Screencast-O-Matic Features
In the picture above, you can see differences between Free and Pro Features. The most important things for me to have the pro was that there is no watermark. I don’t want that all my viewers see I am using Screencast-O-Matic for my videos. In addition, it’s a little distraction.
There are also more edit tools in the pro version. I think it’s easily worth the pizza ($12) to invest in a pro version. What do you think?
I haven’t had any problem with using their software. The founder of Wealthy Affiliate, Kyle Loudon, recommends it on his step-by-step online business training. He is an online millionaire and has been in the industry for more than 15 years. I think he wouldn’t recommend something that isn’t safe.
If you have had any safety issues with them, I would like to hear in the comments. I have used it already more than a year and never had any problems.
If you have any questions on how to use their software, you can always ask me in the comments and I’ll be more than happy to help you out. You can also take a look at a Screencast-O-Matic help center for more instructions. They have very clear videos explaining everything you need to know about using their software.
In the end, I would quickly like to teach you how I make money with YouTube-videos.
Basically, my goal is to get people from YouTube to my website. I don’t care so much about the number of subscribers because I am not trying to build my business solely on YouTube. My business is on YourOnlineRevenue.com where I run the show. I can decide everything that happens on my website while YouTube is someone else’s property.
I upload videos to YouTube which are related to subjects that I have discussed on my websites. Then I embed a video to my post. YouTube marketing has at least 3 clear benefits:
Most of the traffic to my website comes from Google. I love SEO and it’s great to see how organic traffic rises every month.
Keywords, internal links, and all the other stuff is important for Google rankings. But embedding a YouTube-video will give more “juice” for your posts. People will spend more time on your site when they play the video which helps rankings even more. In addition, Google loves that you add YouTube-videos to your property because Google owns YouTube.
Embedding videos will also give more views which will help YouTube rankings and get more visitors in the future. In addition, the more embeds your video has, the higher it will move in the rankings.
This one I probably need to explain more. You have seen Google ads on YouTube-videos. A person who has uploaded the video will earn little income when some of the visitors interact with an ad. Earnings change but the estimates are around $1,000 per 1,000,000 views.
I have just recently started posting videos to YouTube so I still have to upload more to make some money there. Anyway, it will be one additional source of passive income for me.
There are many ways to acquire traffic but YouTube is certainly one of the most powerful ones. People are watching more videos on YouTube than they are watching TV in total. The platform is growing year by year.
I put links into video descriptions and into my profile. Then people click them and come to my website. They are already very good and targeted traffic because they have seen my video and I have built trust. They have already taken action and clicked a link to come to my website.
This traffic brings more revenue and sales which add up hugely over the time course.
Have you tried Screencast-O-Matic or other screencast software? What did you like?
Let me know in the comments below! 🙂
Are you in search of programs that provide incredible privileges for your shopping habit? There are quite a number of companies that offer free financial tools, and ScoreCard Rewards is one of them. For the most part, these companies reward customers with points which can be used for a number of privileges including Airfare, travel packages, hotels and valuable merchandise.
So, what is ScoreCard Rewards all about? Is it the right outfit for a credit card holder? This ScoreCard Rewards review will let you in on all that has to do with this company so you can make a well-informed decision. Sounds good?
Let’s dive in!
Name: ScoreCard Rewards
Website: www.scorecardrewards.com
Type: Rewards program
Earning Potential: Pretty Low
Overall Ranking: 15 Out of 100 (Check Out My #1 Recommendation, 98 Out of 100)
ScoreCard Rewards is a program which gives customers the opportunity to receive a variety of privileges once they use the card to buy goods and services. The points you earn allows you to enjoy some luxurious privileges that are truly satisfying.
Furthermore, daily shoppers will have the chance to check accumulated points online, create wish lists and check for available privileges. The good thing is, ScoreCard Rewards allow customers to track their purchases and monitor their money circulation — this makes it secure, fun and enjoyable for customers.
Basic Requirements for ScoreCard Rewards Customers
They will immediately ask for your credit card information when you join.
For starters, you’ll have to make use of ScoreCard Rewards when purchasing products and services — this is the only way to earn points. Moreover, the amounts of points you’re likely to receive are based on the quantity of goods and services you purchase or use. It’s also important to note that the points are only valid for active accounts.
You should also know that points will not be earned for unauthorized fees, cash advances or balance transfers. Also, your points are likely to be deducted when you return money or purchases.
For the most part, the best way to redeem points on ScoreCards Rewards is for airline tickets. As for gift cards or merchandise, the company will require you to accumulate a significant amount of points before you stand a chance to get a good rate. According to some users, you’ll have to accumulate over 20,000 points before you see a decent redemption — that’s more like spending $20,000!
In the other words, you need to spend $1 to earn 1 point.
1 point is not even worth 1 cent. It depends on what kind of product you want to buy with your points but usually, the value of a point varies between 0,40-0,80 cents. It means $0,004-0,008.
There are cash back programs that pay you up to 5% rewards so why would you bother with Scorecard Rewards that only pays 0,5% cash back. We are not talking about something very profitable here. If you are looking a more profitable opportunity, have a look at Wealthy Affiliate.
One famous cash back site inside U.S. is Swagbucks but I don’t use it myself and I think that most successful online entrepreneurs don’t use such services.
When you buy some flights, book hotels and other similar things through Scorecard Rewards, you earn points. Then you can use this points for gift cards. You may be asking what kind of gift cards can you get then.
You can use points for getting a gift card, for example for following services:
So mostly getting your rewards shouldn’t be a problem because you can always buy something from Amazon.
To be honest, it’s pretty hard to find positive experiences of Scorecard Rewards users on the Internet. There are many Scorecard Reward complaints online. People are calling it a scam and somebody is saying that they don’t care about their customers.
Let’s have a look at a few examples.
Notice that this review was written very recently 26.6.2017.
A person with an account antiscam-91028 says that this system is not a bonus, it’s a rip-off. If you are spending tons of money to get rewards, it’s not a reward. So, I think he is right.
It seems that this person had a very frustrating experience with Scorecard last month.
There has been ever more complaints about their customer service. The next one is taken from 2010 so their problems are not a new thing.
Scorecard Rewards was already scamming people back in 2010.
These 3 examples show me that I don’t want to be involved with this company. Who knows if they have good intentions but something seems to go wrong very badly. Either their promises are just too big or their customer servants don’t have a helpful attitude. What do you think?
Negative reviews are certainly one of the most important scam signs.
Many people are saying it’s a scam because of their bad experiences. I wouldn’t call it a scam if they give rewards but the service is just bad. Of course, it’s not something that we would like to involve because the reward is so small. It’s just not worth it.
Have you heard the famous quote from Robert Kiyosaki? “The poor people look for discounts in the supermarket while the rich look for discounts in the stock market.” It’s partially true and it gives us a great point. It’s important to focus on right things.
If you chase little rewards of a few dollars, you will waste lots of your time. It would be a better idea to go for +$10,000/month income online because it’s possible for anyone with tools you have today. Probably you’re not aware of all tools you would have. I have good news for you.
I wasn’t aware of all possibilities a few years ago but then one day I found Wealthy Affiliate. They have a step-by-step training and a great support how you can make a full-time income online and much more. The teachers are millionaires and they know how to make a fortune online. They also know how to teach the skill for you.
I am talking about skill because I believe that anyone can learn to make a living online. It’s just a skill like riding a bike. You may fall a few times along the way but if you keep on practicing and doing the right things, eventually you will succeed.
It’s completely free to get started. You will get 20 interactive video lessons for free and my 1-on-1 support when you join. Don’t miss this opportunity, Get your free resources here!
It’s always a big discussion if cash back with credit cards are worth it or not. Companies advertise that you get money back by doing the things that you would be doing anyway. But the reality is that it always takes some time to “play” with them.
Personally, I am not a big fan of cash back systems because most of the time rewards are so small. But I know that sometimes you can find a good deal and earn a bit better. It all comes down to two questions:
Have you ever tried Scorecard or similar reward programs?
Do you think they are not worth it?
I would love to hear your thoughts. Also, if you need any help with earning money online, don’t hesitate to ask and I will be more than happy to help you out.
Is Younique a Pyramid Scheme? In this article, you will found out the answer.
Many women are attracted to this company because on the surface, it seems to be all about female empowerment through cosmetics. The website touts not only its colorful beauty products but also its Younique Foundation, a foundation for protecting young people against abuse. It all looks great, but is Younique really the safe money-making option for women that it claims to be?
Read on to found out in our in-depth review of Younique. Find out if it’s a pyramid scheme and if this alleged money-making home business is really worth the costs.
Name: Younique MLM System
Website: www.youniqueproducts.com
Founded In: 2012
Field: Beauty Products
Overall Ranking: 30 Out of 100 (Check Out My #1 Recommendation, 98 Out of 100. I use this system to make money online and I know it works.)
Younique was founded by the brother-sister team of Derek Maxfield and Melanie Huscroft. Derek has an entrepreneurship background and a business career as the founder of NetSteps, a company that sells software to party planning and direct sales businesses.
Melanie studied advertising and business education and took a 16-year break to raise her children before joining her brother in the Younique beauty products venture. Younique sales representatives sell their beauty products directly to consumers using social media to garner support for their businesses.
Younique’s beauty products are not a scam; the company does distribute beauty products, and many women love the “3D lash” mascaras. According to many customer complaints on the Better Business Bureau website, however, there have been issues with items that are back-ordered or out of stock that can neither be received by the customer nor refunded.
Customers complain that they’ve waited one month, three months, and longer for products to arrive and that wait times for customer service representatives are unreasonably long.
This line of beauty products is said to be made specifically for the Younique brand by its own team of scientists.
Products include the mascaras as well as pigments, primers, brow gels, and other eye products; lipsticks, lip balms, and lip pencils; face powders, concealers, foundations, and contouring kits; skin and body lotions including self-tanning products; makeup brushes, sponges, and other applicators; and product collections and sets.
All in all, Younique has a huge amount of different kind of products.
Younique Products
As far as its product line goes, Younique is similar to Mary Kay Cosmetics and Perfectly Posh, two companies that also use the MLM business model.
As is the case with many companies with MLM-system structures, the products sold by Younique are more expensive than what most women would consider “drugstore makeup.” Some women don’t mind paying higher prices for products they consider premium products, but some consumers are unhappy with the quality of Younique’s products and the long wait times to get them.
It’s interesting that there are tons of similar MLMs targeting women. When you get their products you “belong to the group.” You are “part of them”. That’s the feeling what this kind of business models want to give.
The common fact is that MLM-products are almost always overpriced. There are uplines, downlines, distributors, presenters, founders and million hands who want the money from the buyer.
What do you think if a regular lipstick costs $19? If you have lots of money it’s nothing, of course, but it’s just 3-4 times more expensive than its counterparts in a supermarket or Amazon.
It seems that all Younique products cost 2-5 times more than they normally cost in other than MLM-systems. Some products have naturally a bit more reasonable price. But mostly you will pay much more than you should.
Deluxe Eye Brush, $17/each. What do you think about the price?
Of course, Younique Presenters will say that their products have a very high quality and that’s the reason they pay so much. But the reality is that all these systems have the same argument, Thirty-One Gifts, Jeunesse, etc.
After researching around 10 similar MLM-systems for women I would say that Younique is not better than others.
Younique calls its representatives “presenters.” In order to become a Younique presenter, one has to purchase a $99 presenter kit. New presenters are called “white status,” and they’ll be switched to a new color once they reach a certain level of commissions. Presenters are given their own Web pages to direct potential shoppers too.
After earning $125 in personal retail sales (PRS), white status members switch to yellow status until they earn $1,000 in PRS. White-level presenters earn 20% direct commission, and yellow-level presenters earn 25%.
The next level is Exemplary Presenter status, first at pink and then, once they reach $250 in PRS plus $2,000 in Company Wholesale Sales and qualify one white status presenter beneath then, they become the blue status, Exemplary Presenters. This is where the MLM-system comes in.
Here is a video that explains Younique Compensation Plan. Notice that it lasts almost 40 minutes. It already proves the fact that their commission system is not the simplest one. Be careful with the video because the presenter is promoting their system. I added it here just for educational purposes.
As each presenter recruits another presenter, she receives a percentage of each recruit’s sales commissions. The structure goes on like this with increased quotas and more levels underneath until the presenter reach Black Exclusive Presenter status. Younique claims it has one of the simplest structures to understand in the direct sales beauty products market when in reality its MLM structure is much like that of others.
In order to make a substantial amount of money from selling these beauty products, each presenter has to not only make her sales quotas but also be constantly recruiting new presenters to earn a passive income from them.
A business model like this requires the presenter to devote an enormous amount of time and energy in order to bring in enough new members of the business to keep the business model going beyond her immediate circle of friends and family members. For many women who enter this business, this will be challenging.
While waiting for their new white status presenter kits to arrive, new presenters are directed to Youniversity Training Academy to take online lessons in how to be presenters. Each presenter also has a sponsor (the woman in the tier above her in the MLM model) and access to the business’s Facebook group, where presenters are encouraged to promote and inspire one another with sales tips and strategies.
Some consumers have complained to the Better Business Bureau that Younique presenters don’t seem to be well-trained.
They “harass” potential clients and potential new recruits with multiple messages on the same day, don’t always know how to apply their products properly or photograph them for the Internet, and display other poor customer service skills. This leads us to question whether Younique is real as empowering to its female presenters as it claims to be.
You have probably heard or even seen some MLM-marketers who are desperately trying to sell some products. I have heard too many stories of uneasy situations caused by MLM-programs. Some people have even cut their friendships because they were trying to sell something too hard.
Of course, individual mistakes don’t make a system bad but it just seems to happen way too often with this kind of business models.
No, Younique is not a pyramid scheme. However, there are many reasons why I don’t recommend it. The MLM structure of the business drives up the prices of the beauty products, so they are not a good deal for the consumer.
If you want to buy high quality makeup with a good price, I recommend buying them somewhere else than using MLMs. Of course, you “donate” some money at the same time to the seller when you buy it. If your friend is selling it, you donate her money. Do you get the idea? 🙂
If you are looking for better money-making opportunities, I recommend Wealthy Affiliate.
You will immediately get 20 interactive video lessons to get started for free. Hundreds and thousands of people have learned to make money online with Wealthy Affiliate. A person after another quit their 9 to 5 job because they have a better opportunity online.
I have quit my day job because the training in Wealthy Affiliate taught me to earn income online. Now I have a freedom to work wherever I want whenever I want. Of course, online success requires work but it’s worth it.
Some of my friends are already earning +$10,000/month online and I want to reach that level as well. What about you?
What do you think about Younique as a business opportunity? Do you know anyone who has been involved in their system?
Would you like to learn how to make money online?
