So what is it? Well according to them, PeopleString.com is trying to become the next best thing to…..Facebook. Their spiel is that on thier social network site they will share in the revenue they make from all those ads. This may sound very familiar because MyLot.com works very much the same way but is has been established as legitimate for many years now. In any event, PeopleString claims they give back 70% of advertisers income to their members. But obviously the advertisers are hoping that you're paying attention to their ads. I don't know about you but when I am on Facebook, I tend to ignore most of the ads. Well PeopleString can't have that, in order to convince advertisers to sign up with them they need to show the members click on the ads.
So to ensure this, members get credit for using different things they offer on the site and sponsored by advertisers, to please them and generate income, The more you use it, the more credit you get. Because of that, it also becomes a money making opportunity. I go into detail later how all that works, don't worry! On top of that, they have a patented free email system that lets you use video email as well as technology to track, recall and destroy emails once they have been sent. Think about how many times you've sent off a reckless email and wished you could take it back. So this technology is pretty impressive.
In any event, signing up for PeopleString.com is Free which I know all of you love. There is an option to upgrade to Entrepreneur Membership Status for a one time fee of $200. All this does is give you higher percentages of the payouts and better email storage options. But remember it is optional, and they do not push it down your throat which is always a good thing in my book.
For those of you who care about this official kind of thing, you should know the parent company, BigString.com, is a publicly traded company listed on the NY Stock Exchange with a million users. BigString.com is basically behind patented email service that I mentioned earlier that lets you track your emails and recall it, erase it once sent (after a set period of time), and can put a tag on it so it cannot be printed. So PeopleString doesn't seem to be a small fry company considering this type of back up parent company. Personally I take stuff like this with a grain of salt, sort of like BBB ratings. It's nice but it doesn't guarantee anything in my mind. I tend to pay more attention to the word on the street of the people that actual use the company. But to each their own.
How do you make money with People String.com?
When you sign up for your free membership and log in the first time you are bombarded with "Deals of the Day" that offer points and credit options. For returning members this is fine, a new member will be confused by this. Once that is closed down, you end up looking at a page that looks like your Facebook page, but with way more ads. All the things you would expect are there, invite friend, "write something," profiles, all that stuff. So the social network piece is there, you would just start inviting friends and start conversations.
To make thing easy for you they let you link instantly to major email sites, (MSN,GMail, Yahoo etc) IM and Social Networks. Really, you can instantly click to your Facebook page! The ideda is that this would be your home page, then you would be able to get to those other places easy. But that is neither here nor there as I am here to try to tell how how you can make money with this thing.
They keep track of two sets of numbers. Money Credits and People Points. Remember those Deals of the Day they bombard you with when you log on? You either earn Points or they give you Credit. It tells you right there on the ad how much and what type of point/credit you get. With these offers you will recognize elements of some of the other programs I have talked about here in the past. It is like Paid Surveys (My Survey), Pay-per-Click (Clixsense) and getting paid to fill out forms, ( Fusion Cash) all wrapped into this one social network site.
People Points are earned for the things that show you are using the site. The number of People Points you gather is what they use to figure out how much of the 70% they give back ends up in your account. You can get these points if you click on ads on the site, or you use their branded Google Search Bar, or you sign up for a free newsletter and if you use their email. You get points each time you log in, so you could sign in and out up to 4 times a day for more credit. Believe it or not, you get 10 points for linking to your Facebook account. Why would they reward you for using their rival? My best guess is there is some computer information sharing thing happening. But I think you get the picture. Use all the stuff they throw on there, and you get points. Points convert to dollars from the company. 100 points is worth One Dollar.
Money Credit is for when you do things that go to the next step. If you BUY something from an advertiser, you get lots of Money Credit. If you take a survey, or write reviews you will earn Money Credit. To make spending your money so much easier they have this thing called Shopping Mall where it links to major online shopping spots that PeopleString.com negotiated ways to give cash rebates for purchases. Shop online through these links, you get money credit to you account. This should all sound familiar if you have used SwagBucks.
How to make more money with PeopleString.
1. Mailbox-Cashbox is their signature money making offer.
Filling out an interest survey gets you $1.50 to your money credit. Next, you get a postcard in the mail with special codes. This verifies that you are a real person. Go back to Mailbox-Cashbox area of the site, enter those codes, and you officially entered to the program. PeopleString will now send you advertiser's postal mail with unique advertiser codes that you enter into your account. You can even set the number of mail that you want to receive. Some will arrive in your mail, and some will be found on your Mailbox-Cashbox online account. Credit is earned based on the number of advertisement codes you enter. This whole thing is kind of like Hits4Pay, but to me it gets complicated as they do it through the mail! Confused? You are not alone.
In order to build up your Mailbox-Cashbox account members will receive up to $1.00 per person for getting other members to sign up and to enter their Mailbox-Cashbox codes.
2. Referrals To People String
All of this is well and good, and there is evidence that people actually make money with these programs, yet the expectation has been described as minimal. The real money comes from referrals which I get, they need to build up membership on these new sites and the quickest way to do it is with referrals.
At PeopleString.com, when you refer a new member, you not only get People Points, but you are also awarded 5% of the revenue that new member brings in. If you refer 100 members, and they each earn $25 in Money Credits, it falls out like this $1.25 a person X 100= $125). The idea is that those 100 people will love is so much that they go off and start referring more people that we in the business call it your down-line. You earn 2% of down-line revenue.
Between the original referrals and their down-lines, and getting all of your referrals to sign up for Mailbox-Cashbox, there is potential money to be made.
At the end of the day, getting massive number of referrals for programs like this is always much easier to achieve for trained affiliates because we know how to get in front of a large number of people using various internet marketing techniques. Most people find getting referrals daunting without such training. So you may need to focus on your individual efforts or convincing your family and friends why it's worth it to them to socialize on PeopleString vs Facebook.
3. Entrepreneur Package
As I mentioned earlier they have an upgrade membership that gives you a greater share of the advertiser dollar earned at PeopleString. Like it or not, most programs will have some kind of up-sell offered. It is how they make even more money. With PeopleString.com, you pay them $200, a one time fee, and your earning percentages are upped to 20% on your referrals and 6% on your downline. This package also gives you a domain name with 20 email accounts, and unlimited video email. I want you to remember guys, this site is free, and there is no huge push to upgrade, From where I stand, it is just an option to use when you find you are making money, particularly from referrals. Some will pay the $200 right off the bat, thinking they will get all these referrals to sign up and get the 20%. Me? I like to see how it works first before I spend my hard earned dollars, and so should you, if you get my drift. ” ?
When will PeopleString.com give me my share of the profits?
Free members will get paid once a month if they reach a $25 threshold, which rolls over if you did not meet it. Payment is by through a partnership with AlertPay, direct deposit or the old reliable check in the mail. You must fill in a IRS W-9 tax form before getting paid. All the information I read on the forums confirmed this, people did paid. Entrepreneur members will get paid twice a month, if they meet the threshold, of course.
What if I live outside the US?
According to the website, everything except the Mailbox-Cashbox is available to members outside of the US. Mailbox-Cashbox is only activated if your country can get vast numbers to join. That whole thing is advertiser driven. To get around that obstacle, outside the USA members can set up a Internet marketing campaign to target USA members to sign up under them, and then they get the % share. With that being said, I have to say the most common forum complaints I found were from outside the US members complaining about not getting paid and accounts being shut down. If I lived outside of North America, I'd probably pass on this one as a money maker.
Okay so now that we've babbled on about how this works. What's the dirt on this company because we all know no company is perfect. All of them have cons and it's always important for you to know what they are because we all view certain cons differently. At least knowing them can help you make an educated decision. So with that in mind, let's break them down. ” ?
Cons
• Complicated for no good reason. The first thing that stands out to me is how confusing and complicated their main money making offer, Mailbox-Cashbox post card system, seems to be. If you are familiar with Hits4Pay, it pretty much the same thing, you get credit for viewing ads, only PeopleString.com makes you put advertisers codes into their site yourself. I found all kinds of confusion out there about the post card thing. Bottom line? Way too complicated for many people, when it does not have to be.
• Large payout requirement. Like most of these non-traditional opportunities there is always a minimum payout amount before they send you a check. For PeopleString that magic amount is $25. It's not outrageously high, but let's keep it real. Without referrals it will take awhile to reach it as you can assume the advertisement payments are along the lines of Hits4Pay, Clixsense and other Pay-per-Click programs which don't pay a lot for viewing ads. That being said, you know I feel about multiple streams of income. The more the better especially when you get paid for stuff you're already doing for free. But I'm a wild boy like that with my wacky way of thinking.
• Expensive upgrade fee. Compared to Clixsense which only charges about $10 for an upgrade fee and offers similar money making options, $200 seems excessive to me and most people. If you're anything like me, I would at least wait until I earned my first $200 and use that $$ to upgrade, and even then, I'd have to have amazing monthly results to consider it. That being said we have to keep this all in perspective. The upgrade is purely optional so it's not like you're being forced to pay it.
• Lack of training on how to use the site. When the first thing you see is ads, and then you see a Facebook style page, and there is not an obvious TAKE A TOUR HERE button, you are just asking for confusion. To be fair, I saw on the PeopleString.com website there are links to two options for webinar/video training series. There are several videos on the forum on how to use the site. But you should not have to search that hard to find out how to use something like this.
• No sense of the number of advertisers. 70% sharing income sounds good, but 70% of nothing gives you nothing. Yeah, that is kind of extreme, but it is why I took so long investigating this thing. I simply cannot tell how many advertisers are joining up and if there is a good balance between earning from ads, surveys and signing up for newsletters and how much is based on referrals. What I do know, is everything I read mentioned how minimal the amount earned from using the site, and that referrals is the true money maker.
• Program may be on it's last legs. When this thing first started, in 2009 , there was all kinds of online chatter and blog posts by enthusiastic members trying to build referrals. I first started to look at this in the spring of 2010 and when I went back a second time a few months later, I did not find nearly the amount of chatter or current posts. Yea, there are still some blog posts trying to drum up referral business, but not at the same level. So I have to tell you it is a kind of red flag for me, as I have seen Beta tested sites like this fizzle. It could be just a fluke, but I am just tellin' ya what I noticed. I checked out the site, it is still there, up and running and functional.
Conclusion Is It a Scam?
Honestly, I'm really undecided about this company which is probably why I never joined even when it was being hyped up to me via private emails and all the banners I saw all over the web at the start of 2009. It just never sat right in my stomach. I also just felt it was too complicated to understand how to make money. My thought was if I don't understand how this damn thing works, how am I going to convince my loyal users to join it? So with that in mind I have passed on this opportunity and will continue to do so. Yes there have been some people that have been paid. There is no denying that. But it doesn't look like a lot of that has been happening recently that me and my research team can find. In my years of experience in this industry, that's usually a sign of sinking ship. I'm no Popeye the sailor man but I know that people shouldn't board sinking ships or stay on them. But that's me. You do what you feel is best for you. I could be totally wrong. I'm more inclined to stick with something similar that has been proven over the years at MyLot.com it's not perfect either but they consistently pay me every month and have been for years. It's where I go when I want to do some social chatting that gets me paid for my nonsensical online conversations.
Anyway, if you have joined People String and have been paid recently I would love to hear from you below. If you haven't been paid or experienced other issues, with this company, we'd like to hear from you too. The more information from both sides, the better. In any event this wraps up my review regarding PeopleString. I wish I could definitely say it's something you should try but I can't if I wouldn't try it. That's not my style. So we'll be moving on to the next one!
With any Pyramid scheme.. only those on top get the rewards.
Suckered into the $200 for the Entrepreneur and then the Rewardstring
upgrade for $250. In about 2+ years… made about half back.(maybe)
They stopped paying out and the so called person in charge is an ass-hole.
They closed the forum because of the negativity.
NO SUPPORT.
Scam?? That could be debatable.
But a rip off scheme… ?? Not so debatable.
RUN!!!… DO NOT SIGN UP OR GET INVOLVED.
I don’t think Peoplestring is a scam, but just another FAILING dot.com company. I have been in it since 2009. As of January 2012 up to the present, they have not been paying, or giving credits for viewing ads, etc. They do not answer their emails, or have they posted any anoucements. BUT, since they are a public traded company on the NYSE, they must post their SEC report. The lastest one does not look good.
Peoplestring is NOT A SCAM. IT IS a victim of our failing economy, as are many business’s. I am not happy this is happening too them, but I don’t think they are either.
….am I the only one consistantly getting paid from p[eoplestring? I get my snail mail on a regular basis, took only 2 weeks for the first postcars and I am making easily 1200.00- 1400.00 a month and yes I have been paid many times over. My downline is also going strong. Perhaps its our networking group. We enjoy the site, help eachother with questions and I myself find the page easy to use. Maybe because I am used to marketing on myspace and other social sights. I believe with the right direction, things could look brighter for the people who are confused. Scam????? I believe the car I am driving with a full tank of gas (Which I pay monthly for with peoplestring) would have to make me lean towards “NO WAY! 🙂
Sounds like you’re the exception to the rule. And it’s hard to believe anything stated without any proof.
Peoplestring is a scam.They just deleted my account and stole the money which was in my Peoplestring account.Peoplestring is a pure pyramid ponzy website.They tell you that they get money from advertisers but its a lie.They get money only from members upgrades.That way they can pay to older members.So you see its a pyramid,new members money is needed to pay older members.Thats why the made the Rewardstring website to bring in new fresh money.
People String is a Big Scam for Non-Us Accounts. I have earned $105 in peoplestring but they still did not send me the payments my Alertpay account. When ask about that they are telling that “Payments are sent approx 7-10 days after the post to your PeopleString account”. This is the 3rd time. Do not register anyone at peoplestring is a big scam for non us
One of the things I have come to respect about Eddy is how he calls things plain and simple. His business is for the everyman, and so looks at things from the everyman point of view.
Like I said earlier, I looked at this for a few days, signed up and everything, and chose not to continue. I did not want to get into all my reasons earlier since I was responding to a comment. But my real thing was I quickly saw, all of my training here and in affiliate marketing elsewhere screamed at me the only way you would make money is if you built up a line of referrals, and it is interesting that is the area that Tim mentioned he was willing to put the work in and do. My fear was the site was just not gaining enough popularity to make me want to put that effort in.
(note the next comment is not about People String, just a tidbit I picked up)
On another note, just FYI about the You Tube proof. I like many workathomenoscam loyalists got myself entangled in a real live scam before I knew Eddy and knew up from down in all of this. Guess what one of the things that they did that I fell for? You got it a You Tube video of someone opening a check. I found out later (too late) that what this company did was send payments out to a few people and asked them to make YouTube videos of it. There were two main classic “tells” for this company that had I known……. ahh well I found Eddy as a result of that bad experience.
So bottom line, even for a legit compnay like People String, you cannot always use You Tube as your proof, like Eddy said, a screen shot of an actual check in your name is much more real.
By the way…. that scam? What I SHOULD have known better and did not was I had to pay them first to give me work AND the threshold was sky high before a payout. How dumb I was then, and smarter now!
It just means we have to do all of the tricks Eddy tells us when looking into something, and not rely on just one.
Tim, I wish you luck with People String! You have more patience than I do— and my affiliate marketing interest is in other areas….
Sue
Hi Eddy,
Thanks for replying. Actually I have read the article that you posted. I feel that you wasn’t fair in your judgement of people string. You say that you never joinned because it sounded to difficult. You make a good point with your article, and I do repect what you posted, but no one looks at how you make your money with the site. As a free member you make 5% off of your direct down line, and 2% off of level 2-6. This means if you go out and get ten people, and those people get ten, and so on, to make a good income every year, you and your down line would have to make just $10 dollars a month. The grand total after just one year is over $200,000. If you are upgraded that would be over $600,000.
People now a days are always looking for proof of if something works and how well. I have found that what ever you question might be you can find it on youtube. So with that said I found a video that shows total earn and payment recieved. If that is not good enough then when my next check comes in I will personally record me opening my check and showing it to the world. Here is just one of the links. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IICjKE2rzE. No this isn’t me, but like I said if this isn’t good enough I will do as I said and post a video that show my check.
Finally, the last thing that bothered me about this page, wasn’t what you said at all. It was what Alexander said about the W-2. Everyone knows you have to pay your taxes. If you don’t fill one out you can pay taxes on the money you make on people string. I would actually be more concerned that a site was a scam if I didn’t fill out this form. Just like any 9-5 job you have to have your tax information.
Anyway, I just feel this is all one sided, and no one is really giving people string a chance.
Hey Tim,
No problem buddy. I definitely always try to respond especially when someone responds in a professional manner which you did. In any event, I appreciate the you tube video. It’s was uploaded recently so that’s a good sign. But I would definitely prefer seeing proof directly from you since you seem to be doing well with it. So I eagerly look forward to when you come back here and post that. I think that’s just the best way to validate your experience. I totally agree with you in that you can damn near find anything on youtube. But in my experience it’s always better when the stuff comes from the person that’s actually telling people to join. That’s why in most of my reviews when I personally recommend an opportunity, it’s usually because I’ve tried it and documented my results with video. It has a stronger effect than me saying hey some random dude on youtube made money with company x so join under my link. Because what that tells my readers is that I’ve never made any money with it so why should they join under me. That’s the issue in general when people are trying to get referrals. They expect folks to join under them on blind faith. This industry is too shady to be doing that. So personal proof is always better in my opinion. So we’ll definitely look forward to your video.
I agree that the comments have been one sided so far which I find a bit troubling. Because I’ve had other reviews where I didn’t personal recommend a company but the folks that did well with the company came out in full force to express their experiences which gave a nice balanced view of the company. See my ameriplan review as an example of this:
https://www.workathomenoscams.com/2007/09/25/is-ameriplan-usa-a-work-at-home-scam/
So hopefully there will be more folks like you who have done well with this company that will actually chime in to give a more balanced view of their experience. More importantly, let’s hope they can back this up with some screen shots or video of their recent payments like you’re willing to do.
In terms of the W2, you’re absolutely correct. I even wrote an article explaining this https://www.workathomenoscams.com/2010/04/15/weekly-work-at-home-recap-04-16-2010/ because I’ve had other people question a company’s legitimacy because of this. It’s a common misconception. That’s why detailed information is important. There are too many sites out there that are giving blanket advice with good intentions but being lazy about better explaining exceptions.
Everyone should be wary because there are a lot of identity theft schemes out there. But like I say all the time on this blog, don’t assume. Just do your research and know. But a lot of times people just find it easy to make assumptions. It’s just part of this industry. But I can appreciate your frustration with it. However it’s just best to try to educate people and that really helps combat the issue.
In any event, I look forward to hearing from more people like yourself who have had great experiences with peoplestring. We’ve encouraged comments from both sides. Right now the negative comments are out numbering the good ones. But hopefully that will change as this article makes it’s way throughout the web. Thanks again for sharing your experience and being respectful. We always welcome another voice because that’s what this site is about. Hope to hear back from you soon.
I think you are all missing the point to people string. Unless you treat it like a business you won’t make anything. We look at this site and many others like it as a scam because it isn’t that get rich fast thing everyone is looking for. Truth be told to be successful in anything you do, you have to seek out information to effectively run your business. Everyone that makes money with the program has their own way of doing it. Those same people went to find the key information to becoming a success. When signing up did you ask your upline for help? Did he/she contact you? Did you use the site for more than a week before going to youtube to find this information form anyones channels. My guess is no. If you did the research and looked into it you may have not hyped up this mylot site you talk about. My next advice is if you are going to do this why not put more effort into your work. It’s not hard to cut down a site cause it’s not what you expected it to be, what is hard to do however is learn the skill and teach it to anyone who wishes to learn that skill.
P.S. You compaired people string to a PTC website, and a low payout at that. Do you even know that the $200 dollars you pay to upgrade is for a 2 year membership. So inconclusion $10 dollars times 24 months equals $240 dollars. Yeah I will stick with people string atleast I can make more that $10 dollars a month with them.
Tim,
Thanks for chiming. It’s always good to hear from various sides when it comes to these opportunities which this site is all about. Judging by your comments though, it’s definitely apparent you haven’t really read my body of work. So you’re jumping to a lot of conclusions
I of all people constantly preach that a business isn’t a job and requires time, effort and energy that is often unpaid when you’re first starting out. I’ve referenced this many time for people that are looking to be a successful full time internet marketer like myself. So if any one understands the concept of running a business, I do. Because I do it for a living. So all the comments you’re referencing regarding what it takes to run a successful business I agree with. No argument here in terms of that aspect.
In terms of Mylot, I’m referencing it because it’s comparable and has been around way longer than peoplestring and consistently pays albeit in lesser amounts. But every month like clock work, I get a check from mylot and so do the thousands of members it has. Obviously no company is perfect and anyone that has actually read my body of work knows that I’m always quick to put out the cons of any company regardless if I’m recommending them or not. That’s the problem with internet marketing as I see it. People aren’t willing to be real about a company. It’s either they claim a company is the best thing since slice bread or they totally down a company because they’re just motivated to push something else. Anyone that has actually read enough of my reviews knows I try to give as much of a balance view of a given opportunity as possible. If pointing out some of the cons of a company makes me a bad guy, so be it. I’m just calling it as I see it. That’s why I encouraged comments because I was actually interested in other people’s experience which is why your comment is actually visible to the world. If I was just about downing this company as you claim, your comment would have never seen the light of day. So hopefully that’s all cleared up.
That being said, you haven’t really addressed some of the issues I and others have pointed out regarding the actual company in terms of recent payments, small number of advertisers, sustainability, etc. If this company is what you claim it is. When’s the last time you’ve been paid? Care to share some proof of this payment? That’s really the concern here. There hasn’t been much discussion of late of people earning money. When I want to hush naysayers, I show and prove. Because the truth tends to shut most reasonable people up. So I welcome any proof in the way of a screenshot or video that you have actually been paid recently by this company. I think that holds a lot more weight with people then criticizing folks that are just sharing their experience which just happens to be negative.
I know where you’re coming from though. I’ve researched tons of companies and I hear the scam claims. A lot of times it’s because people went into an opportunity with an employee mentality. They didn’t realize that it was a business and takes more than just showing up to get paid. So I keep that in mind when doing my research. I’ve been in the business long enough to discount those opinions. But the feedback here hasn’t been a lot of that. I get the impression that these people did give this opportunity the old college try but the company just isn’t thriving as it claims to be. Hey but like I said in my article, I’m open to feedback from people that are successful. But seeing recent proof of payments would really help that argument. That’s how I prove my point when people doubt an opportunity I recommend. So I’ll be waiting to hear back from you with such proof.
Either way, I appreciate your comments. If you’re making money with this opportunity, that’s great. Hopefully more of you that are will chime in and show some proof of this. I think that would be great for people to see that want to make an informed decision. So I definitely welcome more feedback from people that are successful with this company.
Take care.
Hi Eddy thanks for the in depth review. I just recently started on this site and needed something like this to know what to do. Just like you I think the site really is way to complicated for the average user never mind someone who only uses the computer for email. From what I can tell most of the ads are coming from company’s like adsense or bidvertiser (I may be wrong) which means as long as the site gets decent traffic I don;t see why they wouldn’t pay. I’ve stuck with other programs I posted about on my blog though since they are much easier to understand then the complication people string has to offer.
@Eddy Salomon:
Of course if you’re going to play, you have to get in the game, and that means giving your personal information. I just want people who work online to realize that their information is valuable to the site offering rewards, and to make sure that they get enough back to make it a fair transaction.
Eunice,
That’s a totally fair point and I totally agree with you. Thanks for the further clarification. 🙂
This kind of thing always is so frustrating for me because I really do GET that the ONLY way a new and upcoming online business can stay afloat is to get legitimate advertisers, and advertisers want to see volume of people on the site. So they all are trying to if not reinvent the wheel, at least make a creative kind of wheel. So whats an entrepreneur to do?
I did sign up for about three days, just to see for myself, I am always trying to learn about this kind of thing. One thing I did notice somewhere is that People String is supposed to separate itself legally from the parent company. May-be that is why the email problem started with some? You would think that would be positive, separating out—but with this thing, all of Eddy’s red flags make you wonder.
Here is the big problem for me with their main idea. I can guarantee you my friends would send me evil eyes and “unfriend” me if I sent them an invite to join another social network! Of course I’m not a young whippersnapper like lots of yall— I value my friends and my self esteem can’t take getting an “unfriend” message!!! So the basic premise to build an advertiser friendly site with a Facebook thing with portals to what you use, is flawed, at least for us BabyBoomers!
Sue,
That is so true! How many more social networks does one need to be one. We only have but so many hours a day. lol Great point!
Eddy,
When I read the account of how this offer works, I thought it must be a spoof. I was getting a good laugh until I realized that no, this is real. So I decided to analyze the way it is put together and this is what I came up with:
The aim of this website is to maximize their intake and minimize their outgo. The intake is subscribers’ names and email addresses. The outgo is what the website pays out for credits to the subscriber. The names and email addresses of subscribers is what advertisers pay for. Therefore, the idea is to construct a website that will attract as many subscribers as possible and yet make it difficult, if not impossible for them to earn more than a little money. If any subscribers are really gung-ho for making money, well, offer them premium membership that puts them on a fast track, but make them pay through the nose for it.
The website is cleverly constructed to balance nicely the factors in this equation. The first page promises mastery and compensation. It sounds so easy to make money. It takes advantage of any social websites the subscriber already uses. It’s homey. Then the fun begins. There are ever more complicated obstacles to overcome. To make any real money involves using snail mail, and they control it from their end. Most people get discouraged and give up without making any great amount of money, but the company has their name/email address in their files.
As for being listed on the NYSE, so were Bernie Madoff and Enron.
This is a very clever operation. Eddy, you are very smart and have a lot of experience identifying scams, but after months of looking at it you can’t positively classify it as a scam. Speaking for myself, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck””well, it isn’t a swan.
I would like to tell all my fellow coworkers who are trying to make an honest buck on the internet: Your personal information is valuable. Don’t give it out unless you get something substantial in return. Time is money. Don’t waste yours on undertakings that work like a reduction gear””big effort in, little compensation out.
Eunice,
Thanks for chiming in. Your conclusion is very interesting to say the least. I’m sure there is some truth to what you’re saying. That being said I don’t agree with it totally. The exchange of information with advertisers for some reward happens in all facets of our lives every day. It’s become a necessary evil to get discounts from your favorite stores, airlines, etc. I don’t think a business model that facilitates this makes it a scam. I know everyone is paranoid about identity theft and spam. But just because companies want some of your personal information in exchange for giving you rewards doesn’t mean they have malicious intent. We’re all in the business of making money. So advertisers collecting information so they can send you marketing material based on some interest you’ve volunteered is fine in my book. That being said, I do have an issue if said company makes it very difficult to opt out or sell my information to other people that I haven’t expressed an interest in. But personally I have no problems exchanging some of my personal information if it allows me to make money for something I would already do and have clearly expressed to an advertiser that I would like more information.
This all boils down to doing research. If I find a company has a history of misusing information then I’ll avoid working with them regardless if they pay me or not. I don’t want to be spammed with nonsense. But we all have to be very careful of jumping to conclusions that because companies are requesting information about you, it’s some type of scam. Proceeding with caution is always a good idea but over generalizations aren’t. I know when I sign up for companies like this that it’s because advertisers want to reach me and that’s fine with me. Most companies are upfront about this. I’ll taking getting paid by advertisers for my attention any day vs the old model of marketing where big tv networks, newspapers and magazines have kept all their advertising dollars to themselves. Even earning a few cents or bucks for my attention is better than earning NOTHING which most of us have when viewing advertisements or exchanging our personal information.
Everything should be about a balance. In terms of the NYSE listing, I’m totally there with you. I feel the exact same way about BBB approvals and some of the other so called badges of legitimacy. I take them all with a grain of salt and prefer to focus on the opinions of real people which is what I alluded to in the article above. But some people do really weight heavily on stuff like that. So to each their own.
At the end of the day, although I don’t neccessarily agree with your assertions that sites that facilitate a symbiotic financial relationship between Advertisers and consumers are suspect. I do agree that the PeopleString’s model is flawed for the reasons mentioned in the article. I know in this industry folks love running around labeling everything a scam because they don’t like a company’s given policies or if they have failed to make money with a company even when it may be their own doing. I personally don’t like throwing that word around in those situations. The fact of the matter is this company has been paying people. I’m not sure if it’s been happening recently or not which is why I wouldn’t join. Is it a full blown scam yet? I can’t say at this point. Will it be later? Maybe. I’m not a psychic. I’m just not the type of person to leap to conclusions unless I have all the data points I need. But that’s just how I roll. However with that said, I totally respect if the data you have has lead you to your own conclusion about the company. You have to go with your gut.
Either way thanks for chiming in. The one thing I think most of the people that have chimed in seem to agree with is that this probably an opportunity to pass over at the moment.
Hello Eddy,
Your review is an excellent one, considering the fact that you haven’t even joined PeopleString. And, even if you had, you would still have come to the same conclusions, as I have been a member since April of 2010, and have come to the same conclusions myself. So, congratulations on an excellent job of researching!
I totally agree that PeopleString is more confusing that it ever needs to be. Basically, it is an Internet portal / Social networking site / GPT (Get Paid To) site all wrapped up into one site. I think a lot of the problem stems from the fact that it was waaaaay over-hyped. Seriously, folks, you are not going to get rich from this site, you are not going to make megabucks from this site by just chatting with your friends. You can earn PP (People Points) just by performing 5 tasks 4 times a day, such as logging in, checking your PeopleString email, playing Spin the Wheel, and People Lotto, by checking your Mailbox-Cashbox and by visiting a shopping vendor. Hint!!! There are some really good videos on YouTube on how to use PeopleString! Unfortunately, promoters make it sound like all you have to do, is do these activities and — caching! you’re swimming in cash! It just is not so! The reality is, that the average person will make between 5,000 to 7,000 (tops!) points a pay cycle. How do I know this? Because I have done these activities 3 times a day for most everyday for the past 3 mos. The last mo. I had a total of about 6,500 PP. How much did I earn as a result of this activity? Hold your breaths now — here it comes — a grand total of $1.98! You can also earn PP by doing many of the GPT offers, but I’m solely referring to the 5 task that you can perform 4 times a day.
So, I can only conclude that their advertiser count MUST be low, as they advertise that advertisers spend MILLIONS of dollars to advertise. If, PeopleString is indeed sharing 70% of their advertising income, I think that these results speak for themselves.
As to the GPT part of their website — yes, there are pages and pages of offers that you can painstakingly go through. I have found it to be exceedingly picky and annoing to do, as the list are in a frame that you must use scroll bars to scroll down, plus you have to scroll down on the web page as well. There are videos that you can watch for pennies, but, again, you have to find them. 🙁
For me, PeopleString’s great advantage has been that it is a website portal. You can access all of your favorite websites by just clicking on them once you have added them to your list on the left hand side. It is also very easy to access your Yahoo! email, or Gmail right from PeopleString’s page. It is just so convenient to do! However, Eddy’s point about computer sharing information really concerns me …..
As to being paid on time …. for the first 2 months, when my PP balance was cleared out, my account was updated immediately. However, at the end of July, when my PP was cleared out, it took about 3 days for my account to be updated. To be fair, when I emailed them about it, I did get a response back the same day. They clearly stated that they pay their members WHEN their advertisers pay them — so they are dependent on being paid by their advertisers.
Do I think that PeopleString is a scam? No ….. I think that it was started with the best of intentions, and some very innovative technology. Whether they can survive as a business remains to be seen, and I for one would not feel comfortable promoting it at this time until they have proven themselves to be reliable.
Alexander,
Thanks for sharing your experience with this company. I really appreciate it.
The W2 thing is common and something that has to be done to report your earnings to the Feds. But it should only be necessary after you’ve reached the limit required to report to the government. So I’m there with you in that respect. I always feel its unnecessary to ask me for that info until I’ve started earning money consistently. But every company treats that differently.
Work Equality? (Funny name your mom gave you. lol),
I agree there are definitely a lot of sites doing this social media spin on their opportunities. Every one seems to think if something gets big, you need to copy it or jump on the band wagon. But they feel to realize the reason some things get big was because it was done right or filled a void. In which case, people aren’t usually looking for alternatives at that point. For instance I’m perfectly happy with Tylenol. I don’t look for replacements for it. So I hear your point.
Kandy,
Thanks.
Rhoda,
Thanks for the kind words. I have a great research team that helps me with this stuff. So their hard work is what you’re seeing in this review. In any event, your comment was very detailed and even useful to me. Truth be told your comment could have been the review on this company. lol So great job on your end. I really think it’s great to actually hear from people that have used the site and can objectively tell you the good and bad which you have. So thanks for sharing this information with us. At least they are still paying. But it definitely doesn’t appear they have the advertising backing they’re claiming. Hopefully this company will prove to be a winner later on. If it does, I’ll be happy to join. But for now based on my research and feedback from users like you, I’m sticking with proven stuff.
Thanks again!
Great article! Thanks so much.
Hi,
Last year i opened an account at peoplestring. I signed up about 200 people who were actively using their accounts. In january all of a sudden none of us could enter our emails and that we have not been able to do up till today.
I never got any response to my request to reactivate the account in order to get acces to my email. I never got answers to how to get paid the revenue i supposedly have in the account. All of the other peoples accounts are closed and some of us, including me have lost valuable information as we cannot acces our emails no matter what. Admin is not responsive at all to the countles request that have been send for help.
They have also facilitated people that ask for help to get millions out of Africa for their so called relatives who died. I send emails to them about that spamming and they never took any meassures. I fi believe it is a scam? yes I do.
Good in-depth review. I think there are a lot of similar sites out there, but they are just putting a ‘social networking’ spin on it. The problem is that the rate they pay is usually really poor.
This site gives me mixed feelings as well, but for the most part I’m just really unimpressed. The main reason I joined was for the paid snail mail. It took me months to ever get my post card and I have not received any postcards ever since. The points never really seem to add up to as much as you’d hope and they’re constantly adding new things to get points for that sometimes credit and sometimes don’t. I also don’t like the fact that I have to fill out/submit my W2 to get paid whether I make $2 or $2,000. It seemed nice to be able to get paid for stuff you’re already doing and get paid to social network, but it’s just not that great. Overall, I wouldn’t recommend and don’t really think it’s worth the time.