Sunday, November 30, 2008

An Early Review of Gomez Peer



Ah, hopeless futility, how I love thee.

I signed up for Gomez Peer a little over a month ago by following a link like the banner ad above. According to the site FAQ, Gomez Peer runs in the background of your computer, checking the performance of various websites, and pays you for your processing time. You are not automatically approved just by downloading and running the software, and you are only processing when you are online. The maximum amount that you can earn is $45 per month.

I did a little research via Google and decided to give it a try, though downloading software from a money-making opportunity website is usually the equivalent of hitting your PC with a sledgehammer. I'm pleased to report that the software appears to be clean and that it can be easily removed by uninstall with no apparent lasting effects.

So far, that's about as positive as I can get with Gomez Peer, but at least it is something.

My first problem is that I still haven't been approved or disapproved from the program despite the FAQ saying that it generally took two weeks. Part of this may may be my own fault. For one thing, I did go on vacation and have my computer turned off for a week. For another thing, my testing the ability to cleanly uninstall software may have thrown off whatever takes place as part of the Gomez Peer review process. In any event, regardless of what I've done, I still feel there should have been a response by now.

My second problem has to do with the small fortune I've managed to amass in my month long experiment. Here's a screen capture of my Gomez Peer window:




So far for my computer's time, I've managed to earn 15 cents. To put this into perspective system-wise, I have a blistering processor and Comcast cable Internet access, which is pretty swift. Except for that week, actually 9 days, that my computer was turned off, my computer has been running quite a bit.

Needless to say, I'm in no fear of feeling ripped off because I earned more than my $45 limit.

One potential solution is referrals (who then have to wait God knows how long to be approved), and apparently you will earn money off of your referrals. For instance if you click the banners at the top or bottom of this post and sign up, you will become a referral for me. My assumption is that it will take many of you to do this in order for me to work my way up to $45 per month via running the peer. However, I will get $1 for each referral who is accepted into the program, double if you are on dial-up.


Bottom line is that I'm not ready to have a bottom line on Gomez Peer just yet, though I suspect that it is a useless program for those who don't have access to creating referrals. You only need to earn $5 to get paid, so I'm going to hang in there and see if I ever get approved and, if so, if I ever get paid and what happens after that. If you would like to support this experiment, click on the banner ad below and become a referral for me.

I'll give periodic updates.




Thursday, November 20, 2008

Exchange Links

Want to increase your search engine traffic? Let's exchange links. Put a link to me on your site and then put a comment in this article giving your site address. I'll add you to the links section.

Checking out before checking out


As sort of a postscript to yesterday's story about iGameTester and iVideoTester, you really don't need to do what I did to find out whether the site is worthwhile, which is to purchase the stupid thing with a grimace and a deep feeling of being hopelessly screwed.

These are information for money sites, and there are three basic steps you can follow to make sure you aren't taken in by a scam and still get the information you are looking for.

1) Never join an information for money site.
2) Research via search engines or scam sites to find out other people's experiences.
3) Find the advertised information yourself for free.

1) Never join an information for money site.

This is the most important of the three steps. Just don't join them. They are all, with no exceptions that I've found, some degree of scam, and you actually can get the information on your own.

These sites prey on the notion that you are unhappy with your job/income/life and make promises that simply won't materialize. If you were unhappy before you signed up, you will be very unhappy after realizing that the yellow brick road you just helped to pave leads to nowhere.

This is not to say that the fields of dreams are all overgrown with briars. Take game testing and domain flipping, for instance; both of these are legitimate money-making opportunities. The problem is that very few people can actually make money this way, but lots of people can lose money trying to find out the "secrets" to success.

2) Research via search engines or scam sites to find out other people's experiences.

Simply put the name of the site into your Google search bar and start reading. It is sometimes helpful to add words like "scam" to your search. But there is a big WARNING that comes with this advice.

Scammers have found that it is helpful to flood the Internet with positive reviews of their sites or even partly negative reviews. Worse, some of these scams, like the Autopilot Profits program, actually create thousands of little scammers trying to sell the program. If you ever wondered what the Autopilot Profits program entailed, all you have to do is type "Autopilot Profit" into search engines and start looking. At first you might be confused. All you are seeing are sites that give glowing and vague reviews about the system and encourage you to buy it. In fact, on Yahoo there are over 3 million such sites while Google lists about 1.5 million. Then it hits you.

The system is about selling the system.

I haven't, and won't, purchase Autopilot Profits because now I know exactly what it is. It's a system for selling Autopilot Profits.

And then consider the site, ihatescammer.com. It is a site that does nothing but direct you to scams under the guise of being a consumer protection site. But even here a careful reader can often find information that is helpful. In their ad, and all their articles are ads, for game testing, they declare (somewhat buried) that a great game tester program to join would be one that listed at least fifty companies you could apply to. At the end of the exceedingly long article, they give you a link to their recommended company. Without spending a dollar, I can tell you that what you are going to get when you sign up is a list of 50 game companies. This list will include such obscure names as Microsoft and Electronic Arts.

This brings me to suggestion number 3:

3) Find the advertised information yourself for free.

Once you research and realize that game testing sites are all giving you links to places like Microsoft, you can just go directly to Microsoft. You don't have to pay someone $35 for a link to Microsoft, do you? If you are a huge fan of games and really want to be a game tester, look on the boxes of all your games and go to the developers' web sites. You've just saved yourself some money, and, who knows, maybe even found yourself a dream job.

And in the case of Autopilot Profits, why sell someone else's garbage? I mean, if you really want to be a scammer, just set up your own scam. There's a lot more money in being the primary scammer than in being the scammer enabler.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Make Money Testing Video Games--Not!



Okay, so I'm right there with you. We should know better. But given a moment of weakness or plain curiosity, we might find ourselves reaching for the credit card to buy into one of these services that advertises everywhere we gullible people congregate.

First of all, before we dive into the details, iVideoGameTester.com and IGameTester.com are useless, simple ploys to separate you from your money. You should stay away at all cost and keep the credit card in your wallet.

Curiosity overwhelming me (and since I'm doing this blog), I decided to find out for us what this is all about. Haven't we all wondered what magical tips hide behind that credit card page that will nearly ensure our success? Behold! Here sits the magical job listing that will allow you to sleep until noon, play a couple hours of video games while eating a burger, AND GET PAID FOR IT! So my credit card and I paid $34.95 to join these sites. Had they worked, I'd be playing a video game right now instead of writing this post. Sadly, here I am.

So having sent my money off to people that we all instinctively realize are the types of folks who take lollipops from disabled children, I anxiously arrive at the awe inspiring page of secret knowledge. Yes, it really is just one page, and not even a very long one. Here's what I got for my money:
  • An introduction congratulating me for taking this fantastic step in my life and encouraging me to share your success stories with them.


  • Brief advice on writing a resume.


  • Links to game companies and job sites.


  • A notice that I have just been given everything I need and encouragement to keep trying until I succeed.


Dismissing the other garbage, what about the links to game companies and job sites? That's what we were, apparently, after.

There are about thirty apparent links to companies. I call them "apparent" links because about a third of them no longer work.

The first link is to Microsoft Playtest, which I have just provided to you for free. This actually seems pretty interesting. You enrol with Microsoft, giving them your demographic information and your gaming habits, and then they contact you with opportunities to test games. This seems like just the sort of thing I wanted for $34.95 except that Microsoft doesn't actually pay you to do this. If you get called to participate in a study, which will take place at a specific time, you are then allowed to pick one or more gratuity items (software) from Microsoft. I haven't been selected yet, so I don't have any idea what is available. This is not a bad thing to be made aware of if you are a fan of gaming, but not exactly the job you were looking for.

There's a link to Nintendo (you should be getting an idea now of how you can find all these sites by yourself), which then tells you that they use employment companies to find testers and that all testers must live in Redmand, Washington. Here's the link: http://www.nintendo.com/corp/tester.jsp

You have Activision, which is hiring for testers for Guitar Hero so long as you live in Woodland Hills, California. And then this becomes the pattern for the handful of game companies who are hiring testers. Internet be damned, if you don't live in the neighborhood of Bioware (Austin, TX), you need not apply to be a tester.

But in the end it really doesn't matter because of all the links provided, Nintendo, Activision and Bioware were the only folks hiring. A couple other places were looking for testers, whom they termed "volunteers", but there was absolutely nothing that the average person from Indiana, for instance, could use.

So it was on to the job site links. Gee, who would have ever thought to look for a job at Yahoo Hot Jobs? That $34.95 is looking better every moment. So I go to Hot Jobs and type in the suggested keywords, "tester" or "beta" or "game". Guess what? There's hope yet because there are tons of jobs! Oh wait, those aren't jobs. Those are ads for iVideoGameTester.com and IGameTester.com trying to get more people to pay them $34.95.

So the bottom line is this: If you like games, go to manufacturer websites and see what jobs they have to offer. If you are a local, you might just find something. Or, as in a couple of cases, you may be able to volunteer to test games or even get gratuities from Microsoft. What you definitely shouldn't do is to pay someone $34.95 for this information. It is true that information is valuable, but not this kind of information.

If I ever hear back from Microsoft Playtest, I'll do a follow-up post to let you know. In the meantime, if you have a particular site/offer you want me to try on your behalf, let me know in the comments section.