Have you recently seen offers like this one?

There are many variations to these parameters: 5% daily for 60 days for a total 300%, 2% daily for 200 days for a total 400%...

That's what the "X% Autosurfs" based on a Ponzi scheme are offering.

There has been quite a proliferation of such sites lately which is giving a bad name to the whole 'autosurf' term, so let me tell you something before I talk about the Ponzi autosurfs.

There *ARE* honest autosurf sites based on a sustainable business model. This is how they operate:

* Advertisers pay for page impressions.

* The autosurfing members deliver the page impressions using the autosurf site's script.

* The autosurf site pays each member based on the impressions generated by him or her.

Let's compute a meaningful piece of data I will use later: the cost of an Autosurf Page Impression to advertisers that pay for them.

Let's take a look at one of the honest autosurf site advertising packages (Autovisiting.com as of May 2005) :

Other autosurf services offer advertising packages for as low as $.20, so that's the cost to the advertiser, somewhere between $.20 and $1 per thousand.

These services pay a fixed $.05 to $.10 per thousand impressions to its autosurfing members, obviously less than the advertiser's cost. That's the market value for the autosurfer's work of delivering page impressions.

Notice that I'm talking about page impressions instead of page views. This is the autosurf world, so I'm not assuming that autosurfers are actually watching all the sites. Moreover, advertisers know this. That's why the price on this type of advertising is so low. In accordance, that's why the payout to autosurfers is so low.

To learn more about how to become an autosurfer and benefit from honest paid autosurfing, read my past article about free to join autocashing programs .

Again, the business model:

* The advertiser pays for page impressions.

* The autosurfer members deliver the page impressions.

* The service pays each member based on the impressions generated by him or her.

* Everybody gets what they expected, everybody wins.

I hope that title sounded scary enough! ;) But I'll try to scare you more anyway.

Let's focus on a typical one of "the others" that promises to pay 1% of the money you invest for every day that you autosurf 100 sites.

Say you invest $10,000 in it (ouch) and you expect to be paid $100 for each day that you autosurf those 100 sites. So you're earning $1 for each page impression you generate, right?

Honest autosurf sites charge $.20 to $1 per THOUSAND page impressions to advertisers. An advertiser that really paid for page impressions in our questionable program would be paying at least $1,000 per thousand impressions, and that would be only to cover costs.

Did that market price discrepancy trigger some alarms already?

Do you think that advertisers are going to pay one thousand bucks when they can pay twenty cents for the same service?

Do you still really think you're being paid for your autosurfing work out of advertisers' money?

The truth is you're not really being paid for it. You're assigned that "work" to make you believe that you're involved in an honest program so you can promote it in good faith and, as a consequence of your good faith word-of-mouth promotion...

THAT'S what you're really being paid for (if you're being paid), and only until the scheme collapses and doesn't pay out anymore.

So in essence this is just another "get a too-good-to-be-true return for your money for little or no work" Ponzi scheme.

The sad thing about it is that many people still join these schemes and even defend them in the forums, or at least they do while they're being paid.

Oops! I'm running out of time today and have more to write about the subject. This is what I'll tell you about in next issue:

* Ponzi autosurfs' awful Terms of Service.

* Identifying Ponzi autosurfs: The Danger Signs.

* A look at the past of Ponzi autosurfs, which accurately reveals their future.

* Still willing to take the risk?

By the way, do you know any friends or relatives already involved in such a scheme and telling others to join in? Please do them a favor and let them know about this page. Thank you! :)

Take care,