But wouldn't the affiliate links be enough to cover the payments? I don't mind having to use all the revenue to pay my users for the first couple of weeks/months...
VPS/VDS should be fine. Whether your affiliate links cover your payouts, will depend on how appealing the sites you advertise are. Nonetheless, you should make SOME revenue by selling referrals. In the first month, if you have a cashout set at $10, only 5-10 of the big time promoters will reach it. PM me your MSN/Yahoo and we can talk on there if you have any other questions. I'd be more than happy to help.
I'm thinking about a cash out of $10 for regular members, and $5 for premium members those who want premium access will have to pay, so that gives me some funding...
If you want to run a scam PTC site for only the server/domain cost, there are sites that give the scripts free. What I would've done (my hosting account got destroyed cause of a funding issue) would be advertise at the DP Freebies section about free advertising, asking for title, link, and 1 line description. I would then add about 50-60 of these links, then 10 links of my own affiliate links, then go on the offensive in advertising. What you also could've done is what strawberryclicks.info did. Get the script, install, add over 100 links and start to get WAY too many members. The consistent stream of membership would provide a nice number of referral packages as well as premium. Advertisers would love it and want to advertise.
But getting the members with no capital is difficult... maybe state in the TOS that payments may take up to 60 to process?
I can tell you first hand that you need more than a couple hundred bucks because memberbase can spiral out of control and your first payout can be a slapper. Also you need to have money set aside in case you have no more advertisers so you can buy the ads for your users to click until you can find advertisers. Better to be safe than sorry and do it proper.
That WOULD be a good idea, but perhaps a lower target rate since PTC sites send out emails at low earnings (1/4c, 1/2c, 1c, etc) so it will take them awhile to accrue enough earnings to cashout at even the $5 rate. This is discouraging for some members and they will not even want to join let alone try. I'd say set cashout at $5 and $3 for premium. You should be good to cover costs using some methods because some members will join, click a few views, and never return. Management is a cinch depending on the script. If you get cashcrusader, do spend the extra money to buy the upgrade Ad Management system. It will save you so much time and hassle. Otherwise, you are going to have to login each day and manually send out emails and do other things that the Ad Management plugin automates. Do your research on which script you want to purchase. Just because it's cheap or free, doesn't mean it will be the best option as there are many holes that hackers like to use to just play around with your site. Defacer hackers have a field day with PTC sites. Good luck in your efforts! ps-- I do have the CC script with the Ad Management plugin if you want to buy. It's registered to the domain 1clickeffort which I've been using right now for MFA, but it still has a PR1. =D
Couple of hundred bux for payments IS more thsn enough... 60 days to get paid? you mught as well scrap your idea now! Bux.to has logical reasons for 60 days for standard members, they have a member base of 3million plus users, so point bringing them into the equation. Member base: start site with lots of ads, it will get promoted itself. Also look to cheap ads on other PTC sites for promotion.
Well, 60 is exaggerated, but what I mean is that I could make sure to the users that the first users are going to be paid within a longer time frame. Maybe 30 days at most.
Advertisers come after the members increase. But the thing is paypal doesn't allow ptc sites so alertpay etc.. have to do the work. I have to convert mine to alertpay.
Although my post comes a bit late, I agree with you that most of the ads on PTC sites are self sponsored, but I doubt the click-through-rates are very high... What I don't understand is how to make money from selling referrals and premium upgrades. Sure, you'll earn money at first, but after some time the members who have purchased those refs/premium will make more money through their membership upgrades and their bigger downline, which in turn you have to pay them back. For example, I invest 100 bucks in referrals and break even with my investment after a month. In the second month I'll start earning extra money from those refs and so the site owner has to pay even more. That wouldn't be good for your budget in the long run. So, is this a sustainable business model? I don't understand that 100%. Would be nice if you could give some insight on it?!
The business model itself is very erm, can't think of the word. But it's a fine line between profit and loss. Some sites actually have to rely on users becoming inactive with their balances etc.