Bux.to Trial Start

Note: Requested payment on 27 Jan 09. Will append to the bottom of this post updates on my attempts to get paid.

Bux.to is one of a number of sites that claims to pay members to view ads. While this review is called the "Trial Start," I have, in fact, been a member of Bux.to for several months. I went ahead and joined because this is one of those "make money" methods (or schemes) that requires some time to reach a real and reasonable starting point. For me, I determined that this would be when I requested payment. That day came yesterday, but let's back up, first, and talk about what Bux.to is.

Bux.to is free to sign up to. Once signed in, you can view a certain number of ads per day based upon the level of your membership. Free members, such as myself, get about 8 ads. Premium members get at least 20 according to the site FAQ.

Once a member, you click on an ad name and your browser is taken to view an ad for 30 seconds. You may only view one ad at a time. Once that ad has been registered, you may go back and click on another ad. For each ad, free members are paid one penny. Premium members are paid 1 1/4 cents.

Seem like an act of futility? Sure, but the goal here is to get referrals. You get paid the same whether you or your referral watch the ad, so the more referrals you get, the more money you make without doing anything at all.

Speaking of referrals, you can buy un-referred members through the site, which I did. In fact, here is my experience so far:

I signed up in around the first of October and purchased 35 referrals for $34.95. Over the course of about 3 months, I and my referrals slowly built myself up to about $35.23. At that point, considering myself ahead, I requested payment. Now for the fun part. We're going to see how long it takes to get paid (if we get paid).

Initial Thoughts: Bux.to clearly pays some people. From searching around the web, there are a good many testimonies of people who have received payouts. The problem that I see is that the payouts are significantly delayed (and some people have claimed to never be paid), which raises serious questions about the legitimacy of Bux.to. If they were really making and managing their money, would it take nine months or more to pay out? This absolutely screams ponzi scheme. What's more, the ads are the same handful over and over again, and all of them are "get rich quick" ads. Are these ads really paid for? Are the ads really for sites that Bux.to runs? Is there more money coming in that Bux.to is sending out?

These are serious questions, and I hope to be able to answer them over the coming months. In fact, I may have a little something up my sleeve that might allow us to use Bux.to to earn money even if they don't pay out cash, but you'll have to stay tuned for that one.