Kooday refund update: I finally got it

This actually happened about a month ago. Out of nowhere, a message appeared in my e-mail box. It was from AlertPay and it was regarding Kooday. Here is what it said:

Your request for a refund has been granted and you may access your account to see the credit. The credit that was applied to your account is the 12.67% of difference between the payments sent to and received from the seller.The credit you received is the 12.67% of same amount you lost when sending money to that specific seller. Please consider yourself fortunate as not all members will be able to get reimbursed due to the nature of such programs.

Please note for future reference when submitting a dispute you are only to submit once ticket per seller/issue. Opening multiple tickets only results in delays and may reflect negatively on your claim.

So how much did I get back you might ask?

$17.91

That's a pretty small chunk of what I initially invested, but hey, there are people who lost thousands, so I can't really complain.

HYIP Refund: how I got (some of) my money back from a closed HYIP program.

Wow, this was unexpected.

I checked my e-mail box in the morning today and there was an e-mail from AlertPay (which is a payment processor much like PayPal). At first, I thought it was in relation to my refund request from Kooday. It turned out that it wasn't - it was actually concerning my refund request from UniteTrade which I filed a while ago and completely forgot about.

UniteTrade was a High Yield Investment Program (aka HYIP aka pyramid program aka scam) that I tried participating in just for the experience. It was a pretty popular HYIP program, but just like the rest of these programs, it was short-lived. When it closed down, I decided I'll try to get my money back, so I filed a dispute with AlertPay, which is the payment processor that I used to invest my $5 into UniteTrade. I wasn't really expecting anything to come out of it, so eventually I just forgot about the whole thing.

Well, today (months after I initially filed the dispute) I received an e-mail from AlertPay saying that my account was credited, or in other words, I got a refund. However, it was not a full refund. I only got back 13% of the amount that I initially invested. That's perfectly understandable - HIYPs always grab the money and run in the end, so to recover any money from them should be considered a triumph. There was a line in their e-mail that said exactly that:

"Please consider yourself fortunate as not all members will be able to get reimbursed due to the nature of such programs"

So big props to AlertPay for giving me my HYIP refund.

Stay away from HYIP programs, people. They're all schemes and scams. If you really want to earn money online, just use legit and trusted programs. You can check out my paid survey sites list and GPT sites list for some ideas.

MyTesterJobs: just don't bother with it

I've been looking through my traffic stats and I noticed that a significant amount of people end up on this page because they are looking for MyTesterJobs-related information. Well, this entry is targeted mostly at those of you who are here to see if MyTesterJobs pays people or not.

Is MyTesterJobs a scam? It's hard to tell. I did a Google search for 'mytesterjobs payment proof' and I did not find a single site, blog, or forum that claimed to have received any sort of payment from MyTesterJobs. In fact, the majority of the pages I visited say the same thing I just told you - nobody has seen anyone post an actual MyTesterJobs payment proof.

Does this mean that MyTesterJobs doesn't pay? I don't know. In fact, it seems that nobody does. If a website has been around for more than half a year and not a single payment proof can be found through Google, that should raise a red flag in your head.

But lets assume that MyTesterJobs actually does pay. The minimum payout threshold on that site is $50. An average offer or task or 'tester job' that they give you is only worth a couple of cents. I just checked my account on there prior to writing this post and I still have the same old 3 'jobs' available to me that were there months ago. The biggest paying one is a few cents shy of a quarter. So how long do you think it will take you to reach $50 on MyTesterJobs?

Do yourself a favor and just don't bother with MyTesterJobs. It's not worth it, even if the site is legit. You will never reach the minimum payout threshold.

Instead, you can join one or two GPT sites that pay you to complete offers, take surveys, and do other tasks. Here is an entry I wrote about my favorite 3 GPT sites.

Best GPT sites: a quick overview

There is a number of reputable and time-tested GPT (Get-Paid-To) sites where you Get Paid To complete different tasks like completing surveys, signing up for offers, receiving cash-back from shopping online, and other similar tasks. There are actually tons of these sites on the web, but some are better than others. I myself am a member of a couple of GPT sites, so let me tell you which ones are my favorites:

CashCrate 

With CashCrate, you can earn cash or you can earn prizes. CashCrate pays you cash for filling out surveys, signing up for offers, shopping online, watching videos, and getting referrals. You can also earn points by doing other activities, like playing games on their site, and these points can be converted into gift cards and actual items (iPods, digital cameras, etc.).

Payout minimum is $20 and they pay by check via mail.

Treasure Trooper



Treasure Trooper is just like CashCrate, but it has a really cool treasure hunting theme a la Indiana Jones. That's what makes the site really engaging and fun. Sometimes it almost feels like a game, really. Along with cash, you can earn points in the form of silver coins, gold coins, pearls, golden keys, and fun things like that. These points can be exchanged in Mabutu's Trading Hut (I told you they have a theme going..) for gift cards, actual items, or other items that play into the treasure hunting theme (map fragments, secrets, etc.). So yeah, Treasure Trooper is pretty damn fun.

The payout minimum is $20 and they pay to PayPal.

DollarForest



DollarForest is just like CashCrate and Treasure Trooper. They also give you a $1 bonus just for signing up. The best thing about DollarForest is that the minimum payout amount is at only $2. They pay via PayPal.

Well, there you go. I may add a few other sites to this list as time goes on, but these GPT sites here are my favorite ones. Check them out and pick the one that you think is best for you.

Time to change my approach

I did some thinking last night on whether I should keep writing this blog or not.. It never really took off, plus lately I've been busy with a bunch of other projects, so I pretty much have had no motivation to keep writing updates here. Only very few people ever read them anyway..

Well, I've decided to keep it going. I decided to make this blog more honest. Not that I've been lying or tricking people, no. By 'honest', I mean I will no longer hold back my concerns and skepticism about certain programs. This way, my entries will not seem promotional like some of the past ones do.

I believe this is the result of my experience with Kooday. While I truly thought that Kooday was going to be a legit, successful program, I've always had a thought in the back of my mind that maybe Kooday is just a big, elaborate scam, which is what it turned out to be in the end, it seems.. But I never mentioned these concerns in my Kooday entries on here. To be honest, I guess I didn't do it because I did not want to scare away my potential referrals. And I had a lot of people join Kooday through my referral links. Thankfully, though, none of them ever invested any money into it. Good for them.

So from now on, more honesty and less hype. Useful content is what people look for when they want to learn to earn money online, so that's what I will provide. I will post updates whenever I have time, so check back every now and then!

Tagvillage update - the Bazaar has been launched.

Wow I really haven't been here in a while, have I? Maybe I should post more updates like in the old days, what do you think? Hmm..

Anyway,

Tagvillage finally launched the Bazaar last week. Currently, only the Tag Bazaar is operational. They say the Item Bazaar is due to launch very very soon. I hope that's true because the Item Bazaar is pretty much what everyone has been holding their breath for..

But yeah, the Item Bazaar has been live for about a week and Tagvillage has been monitoring it closely. So closely that the already have a bunch of changes and improvements that they will introduce very soon! This is what they had to say in the latest update:

1. Auctions Page Sorting
We are going to change the auctions list page into a sortable list. We are adding buttons at the top of the page. These buttons will say "Live", "Pending", and "Ended". If you click the "Live" button, you will only see the auctions that are live and taking bids. If you click the "Pending" button, you will only see the auctions that are upcoming. If you click the "Ended" button you will see the auctions that have cancelled, sold, or closed from the Buy It Now feature.

2. Limited Live Auctions
We are going to set a limit to the number of live auctions at one time. We will start with a low number and increase with time as our membership grows and activity within the Bazaar grows. Therefore, members will only have a limited number of Tags to bid on at one time.

3. Pending Auctions Queue
We are going to make a page called "Pending Auctions". On this page, all upcoming auctions will be announced. There will no longer be a "Starting Time" counter. Instead, each Tag will be placed into a queue on a first-come first-served basis. When a live auction ends, the next auction in line will begin.

4. Limited Number of Tag Auctions Per Member
We are going to set a limit on the number of Tags a member may place into the Bazaar at one time. This number will start low and increase as our membership grows and activity within the Bazaar grows.

5. Name Your Own Reserve Price
We are going to add an option for members to name their own Reserve Price. For example, you may have a Tag for over 200.00 Credits and you want to sell it. You may decide you would take less than 200.00 Credits for the Tag. So, we are going to allow you to name your own Reserve Price point.

6. No Reserve Price Auctions
Some members may wish to take a chance by running a Tag with no Reserve Price. We are introducing a new type of auction to the Tag Bazaar. If you wish, you can place a Tag into the Bazaar with NO RESERVE PRICE! In this case, the Tag will begin in the 30 second count-down stage and will continue until the timer reaches zero. We will still limit the number of timer resets, but it will be controlled by a different formula that respects the sellers and the bidders.

7. Feature Tag Auctions
We will announce a special Feature Tag Auction into the Bazaar. This auction will begin in the 30 second count-down stage and will continue until the timer reaches zero. There will be a reduced limit on the number of timer resets that will make these Tags very desirable.

There you have it; expect those updates to go live in the Tagvillage Bazaar soon.

An open letter to CEO David Ruebush and Tagvillage.

The following is a message that I posted on tagvillage's official Facebook group.


An open letter to CEO David Ruebush and tagvillage.com.

I'm sure that a lot of members of tagvillage were also members of Kooday. In the light of recent events with Kooday, promoting tagvillage to potential referrals is becoming increasingly hard. Because of similarities between tagvillage and Kooday (keyword buying/selling), many people assume that the same people are behind both of these sites. I always argue that tagvillage is going to be more than just a search engine. I tell people that there will be a rewarding social network, a Bazaar, and other things that we might not know about yet. However, my main selling point for tagvillage is its transparency. I direct people to tagvillage's whois site, where contact info and pictures of all members behind tagvillage are available. This brings me to the point of this message. I don't want my referrals to be blind believers that tagvillage is transparent. Heck, I myself am just now realizing that the only picture of the CEO Mr. Ruebush i ever saw was a small square headshot. I'm sure that many people have heard Mr. Ruebush's voice via skype or a direct phone call or whatever it may be. But a certain Mark Huntala character also made a lot of audio appearances..

This message is not an accusation. This message is a call for tagvillage to assure its members that tagvillage is not going to be another Kooday. Kooday always said that there were programmers behind the scenes, tirelessly slaving over every detail of their 'search engine'. But were there any programmers at all? Tagvillage also always tells us that they have staff members working at an office, developing all kinds of different things. Well then, on behalf of myself and all the other current tagvillagers/ex-koodays.. can we see you, Mr. Ruebush? Can we see your staff? Can we see the people who are working on making tagvillage into a brand that we are all excited about and want to be part of for years? Can we see you and your staff so that we know that our hard earned money and time are not being spent in vain like they were with Kooday? Can you, Mr. Ruebush, get together with your tagvillage staff in your tagvillage headquarters and smile for a quick picture that will put a lot of minds at ease? An image speaks a thousand words, but the only word I want running through my mind when I see that picture is 'trust'. When I see it, I want to tell myself "yes, i trust these people." Can we trust you, tagvillage?

So is Kooday a scam after all?

Ladies and gentlemen, at this point in time it seems that Kooday, a project that I and many other people had much hope for, is going belly up. Over the past two months, Kooday hasn't given it's members any proper updates on what exactly is going on with the site and what we can expect to happen in the near future. Most updates promise 'exciting news next week'. That's great and all, the only problem being is that when 'next week' comes, we are told to wait one more week. Or two. Or we aren't given any update at all. Not only that, but the payments to AlertPay have stopped. Profit Share Deposits have stopped. Everything about Kooday seems to be coming to a stop..
Kooday's domain name registration is due to expire this summer. As much as I want to see things go back to the way they used to be, i'm not keeping my fingers crossed.

Tagvillage referral link and review

If all you are looking for is a Tagvillage referral link, then I won't waste your time - click here to join Tagvillage

If you want to learn more about Tagvillage, then read on! I have been an active member of Tagvillage since the very beginning, so I am quite knowledgeable about the website, so if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you.

Now on to the review and all the latest news.

Tagvillage has been up and running since February. After a number of setbacks (which you can read about in earlier entries in this blog), tag trading was finally launched and has been running successfully for about 2-3 months now. Personally, I've built up my tag inventory to 33 tags, together valued at $615.09. To do this, I spent $535, only $20 of which were spent out of my own pocket. How? The answer is active tag trading. Whenever someone buys a tag that you own, you make profit. Then you can spend that profit on buying another tag or two, which someone else will buy from you later, making you more profit. And so on. You are getting the picture now, right? Since Tagvillage is a relatively new and interesting project, the site is very active. Unlike Kooday, which has been a bit cold to its members lately and lacking in updates, Tagvillage is very responsive to the members and there is at least one update per week. There are also all kinds of guides and instructional manuals available on the website. So basically, on Tagvillage, members get a lot of support, which is a huge plus.

There are a few ways to make money with Tagvillage. First of all, you make money from direct sales of your tags. Each tag sale results in about %15 profit to you. The second way to earn is by accumulating daily Activity Points. These can be earned through purchasing tags (you get 1 point per purchase). Also, if you have active referrals on the site, their activity gains you points. This is what Tagvillage loves and wants the most: for people to refer others to the site. So at this moment, having active referrals is the best way to earn Activity Points. When Tagvillage launches their social networking site, which is currently in development, you will be able to earn Activity Points in many news ways, which we don't know about yet.

The most exciting latest news on Tagvillage was about a 'top secret project', which the admins have been teasing the members with. However, not much is known about it. The only thing we've been told is that members who own either a lot of different keywords or a few high priced ones will soon be making a lot of money. This is because Tagvillage will open its doors to advertisers soon. And if an advertiser is going to target a tag that you own, then you will earn money from it. And apparently you will make a lot. More news on this top secret project should be revealed soon.

For now, you can check out Tagvillage on your own. Unregistered members have limited access to the site, so if you want to see what the actual site looks like and have access to all the manuals and discussions, you need to register. Registration is free. However, if you want to start tag trading, you will need to fund your account. I'm not sure what the minimum deposit is now, but it's definitely no less than $5 and no more than $20. Once you have funded your account, consider yourself an active member of Tagvillage and enjoy the rise of this exciting project.

Opinion Outpost check

Today I checked my mailbox and found a pleasant surprise - a check from Opinion Outpost. I have to admit I wasn't expecting it to arrive so fast (I requested it less than 2 weeks ago). But hey, I'm not complaining!

This time i cashed out $50, leaving about $25 on my account. Here is my most recent Opinion Outpost payment proof:

 

Tagvillage update - tag trading starts, gets disabled again

So as promised, tag trading was re-launched on Sunday. However, it didn't last very long. About 40 minutes into the relaunch, tagvillage had to disable tag trading again because of a new bug. While tag buying transactions seemed to work just fine this time, many users' credit balance was not represented properly in their Back Office. This is the issue that needed to be fixed and so far, it's been 3 days and counting since tag trading was paused. There has been no word yet on when they will enable it again, so for now we can only wait for updates.

Another day, another tagvillage delay

I woke up today all excited, because this morning was supposed to be the re-launch of tag trading on tagvillage. The time for the restart was officially set for 10:00 AM US Central time. Well, the hour struck, I was sitting on my couch with my mouth open in anticipation and... nothing. Tag trading did not begin. Credit to tagvillage admins, they let us know right away that they were still waiting on some 3rd party guys to catch up, so we the users had to be a bit patient.

Well, it is now 6:36 PM in Florida and the latest update from tagvillage brought us news of another delay. This time, the problem seems to be with one of the servers that keeps sending faulty information to the users, displaying incorrect amount of credits and not listing any referrals.

Long story short, tagvillage restart has been rescheduled to tomorrow, Sunday January 23rd, at 12:00 PM US Central time.

Let's hope that this time things go smoother.

In other tagvillage news, we now have new referral links. These are more 'pretty' and much simpler. Here is mine:

http://www27.tagvillage.com/join/shimmi

Since new members are only accepted through invitation, you can use my link if you would like to register on tagvillage.

Tagvillage update - another delay

Well, here we go again. The re-soft launch did not happen between '8 AM and 12 PM' as was initially suggested. We were then told to wait until 6 PM central time. Well, it's 15 minutes past 6 and the restart is now delayed 'indefinitely'. The reason for it is not exactly clear, but it seems that some members have more than one account registered with the same e-mail address and that is causing a problem, therefore delaying the re-launch for everyone else. Until that is cleared up, tagvillage cannot do the soft launch. Other than that, all the bugs have been fixed and the the tag trading platform is ready to go. Seems like it won't happen just yet. More updates to follow.

Tagvillage soft-launch problems *UPDATE*

As promised, tagvillage gave us an update on today's problems. As I suspected, the problems arose mostly because people were trading the same 'big' tags at the very same time, only miliseconds apart. The software could not exactly handle this properly, so what happened happened. Luckily, the tagvillage team says that it is an easy fix, but it's going to take them until Monday to complete it. And here is the most important paragraph in the update:

We apologize for the inconvenience. Please bear with us. This is not a fatal error. It is simply a bug in the communication between systems and can be repaired. However, we do want to make a few announcements. In the spirit of being fair to all our members, we feel it is necessary to flush the system and start Tag Trading over again from scratch. Because hundreds of people were not getting Credits for their sales, they could not participate fully in the trades of Tags that were important to them. Many people profited greatly, but others were unfairly excluded. THIS is not OK with our CEO. He feels aweful about that. While tagvillage is a place to make money, it is NOT a place for profiteering and unfairly excluding people with disadvantages.

So there you have it. On Monday, tagvillage is going to re-do the soft-launch from scratch. That is very good news for members like me, who lost most of their credits today.

Tagvillage only accepts new members through invitations right now, so if you want to join, here is my invitation link. New members will not be able to participate in soft-launch tag trading, however. They will have to wait a week until soft-launch is over and then they can start buying tags as well.

Another Kooday payment received in AlertPay

Lets take a break from tagvillage for a bit.

Here is my second Kooday payout proof.

You might remember my post from 2 weeks ago about the first ever AlertPay payment that I received from Kooday. Well, a couple of days ago I got another e-mail from AlertPay informing me that another $5.00 payment that I requested has made it into my account:

 

There it is, my second Kooday payment. I have 2 more pending. I currently make about $5 a week, allowing me to cash out every week. Not too bad.

Tagvillage soft launch - Major problems

Tagvillage soft launch went live a little more than 3 hours ago. Everything seemed to be working just fine. People were actively buying tags. The most popular ones were obviously all the big names like iPhone, Google, Amazon, Apple, etc. I got to participate in this crazy battle for 'big' tags and was quite excited about it because I knew that soon their price would be driven up way out of my price range. Well this excitement did not last long because soon I found out that, while my credit balance was reduced every time I bought a tag, I was not always credited whenever someone bought a tag from me. This applies mostly to all the 'big' tags because they were selling like hot pancakes and my guess is the system could not keep up with everything and completely mixed things. In the end, while I bought the tag 'google' about 5-6 times, I was not credited for selling it even once. Needless to say, I ran out of credits very fast and could not buy any more tags.

I was relieved to find out that I am not the only person with this problem. Pretty much everyone on tagvillage was affected by this and sent countless e-mails to the admins, who told us that an update about this whole situation is going to be posted in the News section later today. I have no idea how they are going to take care of this. At this point, the only plausible solution seems to be starting the whole thing over again after the trading platform gets fixed.

Now we wait...

Tagvillage Review - it's Kooday + social networking

*Update* I just read the latest news on tagvillage and registrations will not be closed during soft launch. This means that you can go ahead and register if you'd like. Since they are keeping it invite-only for now, you can register through one of my links.

Ever wish you joined Kooday at the very beginning? Well, there is a new money-making project on the horizon, and it is going to be pretty similar to Kooday.

The name of this project is tagvillage. It is currently in pre-launch. However, soft-launch is only days (literally) away. Soft-launch is going be pretty much like a test phase during which the developers will get a chance to see at how functional the site is and take note of things that they might need to work on a bit more. New members will not be able to register during soft-launch. However, once the site is ready to launch, registrations will open once again. I don't know if they are going to be by invitation only (like in pre-launch) or if anyone will be able to sign up. If you are quick enough to read this before the soft-launch, you may sign up for tagvillage right now through my invitation link.

What is tagvillage going to be all about, anyway? 

Like I already said, part of it is going to be very similar to Kooday. Those familiar with Kooday know that Kooday is all about buying/selling keywords and accumulating profit-share-credits from it. Once a week, users are paid based on how much profit shares they have. This is a very very basic explanation of what Kooday is and how it works, so if you want to know a bit more, you can check out one of my older posts on this.

Tagvillage is going to have a pretty much identical keyword buying program. However, on tagvillage, keywords are called 'tags' and the two terms are actually a bit different. Tags are more dynamic and encompassing than keywords. There is a great article on the difference between the two in this Facebook group (you might have to join it before you can find and read the article. It is also available on the tagvillage site, but I am not sure if non-members can access the page. You can still try by clicking here).
Just like Kooday, tagvillage is going to let users buy/sell tags and get profit share credits. Users will be paid every Monday. How much you make depends on how many profit share credits you have.

This is where similarities between tagvillage and Kooday end. Unlike Kooday, tagvillage is going to have a whole social network side to it, where members will be able to interact and earn points from doing different activities. These points are also going to go towards your weekly earnings. Basically, tagvillage will pay you for being an active member. I cannot give any more details about this right now because nobody actually knows yet how exactly this tagvillage social network is going to work. Once the soft-launch happens, I will be sure to post an update about my experiences and opinions on tagvillage.

Kooday payment proof

Hey everybody, and Happy New Year! I finally have some free time, which means that I can make some posts now!

Let's start with Kooday. I've been with them since August and it's been a long, drawn-out ride so far. Their search engine is still not officially launched, however users are encouraged to perform searches in order to test it for now:

"Kooday is designed to pinpoint what you're looking for, through a stepped approach. This is a test period, and some results are expected to be slower than others. Please help us test our new features."

In the latest update from Kooday, we were told that most of the programmers are on vacation, but when they are back, we should expect a lot of important/exciting news and upgrades. One of these upgrades is the long overdue new design for Kooday. Like I've mentioned before, the registration page looks very shady and not at all welcoming. It makes Kooday appear like a cheaply designed scam site, and I won't be surprised if many members decided not to register and participate because of this scary design.

Which brings me to the point of this post. About 3-4 weeks ago, I requested my first money withdrawal from Kooday. Today, I finally received it in my AlertPay account! Here is proof of payment that shows that Kooday does pay:

I now have 25,000 profit share credits on Kooday, which earn me about $5.00 a week. The minimum withdrawal amount is $5.00, so basically I can request a withdrawal every week! I am currently waiting on my 2nd withdrawal, which should arrive sometime next week.

If you'd like to join Kooday, click here. Once again, don't be thrown off by the poorly designed registration page (this will change very soon). All of the interesting Kooday bits (news, FAQ, updates, messages from developers) are only available to members. You don't have to pay to register. You only pay if you want to participate in buying and selling keywords.

I'm off now until the next update! Cheers!