Today we're taking a step back from our usual crusade against those dastardly villains at TV Licensing to review a new paid to search website, Qmee.
We apologise in advance to any regular readers offended by the off-topic nature of this post, but do hope you'll please bear with us.
Background Information
A few years ago there was a very popular programme called My Search Funds, which effectively paid users to search Yahoo! That may sound a bit strange, giving money away for almost nothing, but the idea of "paid-to-search" is a fairly common form of web arbitrage. The idea was that the user would type their normal search queries into the special My Search Funds toolbar, which generated Yahoo! results as normal, but which paid a small reward for every sponsored result clicked. A user would typically make 2 or 3 pence by clicking on a sponsored result, which isn't much but quickly added up over the space of a month. There was also a referral programme, which incentivised the promotion of their scheme by webmasters. Sadly My Search Funds died a couple of years ago, and there has never really been anything to plug the gap until the launch of Qmee.
What is Qmee?
Qmee is the newest kid on the paid-to-search block. It works in a similar manner to that described earlier, but this time it is rewarding clicks made on selected Google/Amazon/eBay search results.
Typical Qmee Amazon search results.
How Does Qmee Work?
The user installs the special Qmee app, which blends seamlessly into the background of their regular browser. Every time they perform a Google/Amazon/eBay search the app checks for relevant sponsored results, which then appear in a small side window. A reward is earned every time one of these results in clicked. According to Qmee each click can earn anywhere between a few pence and a pound. Our experience, as shown in the image below, is that most clicks generated between 5 and 10 pence. We estimate that regular users of Google/Amazon/eBay could easily make close to £1 a day by using the app. Heavy users will obviously make more, but the key thing is that the searches must be natural. Qmee has measures in place to detect any unusual search activity, which is designed to defraud their advertisers.
Typical Qmee eBay search results.
Payment by Qmee
Qmee has a massive strength over most other paid-to-search programmes in that the user can choose to withdraw their earnings or donate them to charity whenever they like. Qmee sends payment by PayPal almost immediately, so there's no hanging around waiting for the cash to arrive. Better still, as Qmee is aimed at the North American and UK markets, there is the option to receive payment directly in GBP. We've been using Qmee for a few months now and as the image below shows it really does pay:
Qmee is not going to make anyone a fortune, but with regular use it will certainly earn enough for a few refreshing pints or ice creams this summer.
If you'd like to try Qmee please use our link to tell them we sent you: Try Qmee now.
2 comments:
I installed Qmee and tried it out and I would say that it is rubbish.
1. The suggestions appear in a sidebar and they have done something to disable the 'Open Link in a New Tab' option. This means that you cannot select two or three possibles and look at them side by side.
2. If you look at a result and then press the Back button you cannot select something else to look at as the Qmee results sidebar disappears after 30 seconds.
I contacted them and they said that the first problem is because of the way that they have chosen to code this. They ignored the second problem but gave me a load of puffery about how wonderful Qmee is.
When I pressed them on the second problem they said that this is deliberate to get the Qmee results out of the way if they are not wanted.
The tone of the responses came across a they know what people want and that if I want something different then I am doing something wrong.
Thanks for your comment Stephen, but you seem to be missing the idea of "natural searching".
If you scroll backwards and forwards with the deliberate intention of clicking on multiple Qmee ads, then the system is designed to counteract your unusual browsing habits.
As we said - Qmee is a way of rewarding natural searching (e.g. searching you would do anyway without the Qmee plugin installed).
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