Understanding PTC sites

Update: I just created a thread at the Warrior Forum to get suggestions on how to attract advertisers to a PTC site. You will find that thread here. Feel free to add your comments or suggestions.

Hi everyone,

For the past week, I have worked hard with Teodor at getting members and advertisers for his new PTC site Wiki-Clix. It allowed me to get a crash course on PTC sites.

First things first, PTC means Paid To Click. Some sites combine PTC and PTR, i.e. Paid To Read, which means reading emails.

Some other PTC sites offer a multi-level referral system, which means there are multiple levels for your downline, just like here at APSense.

In this article, I will give details about Wiki-Clix. It is a PTC site with only one level of referrals, i.e. direct referrals. You make money with your referrals but not with theirs.

There are 3 ways to make money at Wiki-Clix:

1. Member: Clicking on ads
   
2. Referrer: Getting referrals who will click on ads
3. Advertiser: you place ads, people click on those ads, you get sign-ups

To reduce confusion in the rest of the article, the member will be called the clicker.

As a clicker, there are 4 different levels:

1. Beginner ( free )
2. Premium ( $3/month )
3. Maestro ( $10/month )
4. Founder ( $600/year )

All the details of the different membership levels can be found when you join. I will give some here.


Pay rates

                                                           Beginner         Premium          Maestro            Founder

Pay per click	$0.0050	$0.0100	$0.0200	$0.0400
Pay per referral click	$0.0010	$0.0020	$0.0050	$0.0150

Max. direct referrals                        50                      200                   300                   100,000
Max. ads to click per day                4                        5                        20                     25

N.B: The Founder doesn't have to click ads daily.


Advertising

You will see 2 types of ads at Wiki-Clix:

1. PTC ads ( the ones members have to click )
   
2. Banners ( 468x60 )

For advertisers, the most important type is the PTC ad, because it's guaranteed to be clicked a certain number of times. How many depends on the ad package you purchase.

I wasn't familiar at all with the prices for ad packages for PTC sites. At Wiki-Clix, there are packages you from 50  up to 50,000 clicks.

The numbers most looked at by advertisers are the 500-click and the 50,000-click ones.

At Wiki-Clix, with the pre-launch promo, you get 500 clicks for $6, and 50,000 clicks for $250.

Funny, this afternoon, I saw a friend here at APSense, I looked at his main site, it gives information about PTC sites. I was glad it was the case, since I could discuss the subject with him and get his input on Wiki-Clix.

The first thing he told me was that 500 clicks for $6 is way too expensive. I was taken by surprise, because Teodor had me convinced that his prices are very competitive. My friend told me about one site that is very popular, it has more 100,000 members, I think.

I checked that site. The only I way could see the prices of the ad packages was by joining, which I did, since it was free to join anyway.

Well, it did say we could pay $0.75 for 500 clicks. However, at that site, there 3 types of advertising: standard, mini and tiny. The price I just mentioned is for tiny.

Which brings a very good point about surfing on PTC sites.


Delay in seconds

At Wiki-Clix, there's only one type of PTC ad. When you click it, you have to wait for 20 seconds before going on to the next ad until you clicked your 4 ads for the day, if you are a Beginner.

At that other site, the tiny ad lasts 10 seconds. The clicker gets payed $0.001 for the click, the referrer gets nothing. And the ad is not geo targeted. I'll get to that later.

The mini ad lasts 15 seconds, the clicker gets $0.005, the referrer gets nothing.

The standard ad lasts 30 seconds, the clicker gets $0.01, the referrer gets $0.005/$0.01. Does it mean one of these amounts, or something between? I have no idea.

The advertiser decides what type of ad he buys. It is challenging, because how will you know what the clickers prefer?


Price comparison

Now, this is where it gets interesting. That other PTC site charges $5.50 for 500 clicks, whereas Wiki-Clix charges $6. But, each click lasts 10 seconds. Which is the best deal? Difficult to say, in my opinion. However, the fact that the other advertisers might buy tiny or mini ad packages complicates matters. I mean, what are the expectations of the clickers? Do many of them want to make money as referrers as well?

There's one other very interesting detail about ad packages. I looked at the price for 50,000 clicks on some sites. Well, first, the other site I describer so far doesn't offer it. The biggest package is 5,000 clicks for $50.

Another popular site, who has a multi-level referral system, asks $249.95 for 10,000 clicks. They have more people to pay, since there are 10 levels of downline.

Still another site, this one having been around for a number of years, asks $140 for 10,000 clicks, $690 for 50,000 clicks. Not bad.

Well, let's see for Wiki-Clix. For 10,000 clicks, you pay $60. For 50,000 clicks, it's $250. Now, that's very good, isn't it ?

Teodor had mentioned another site. I checked it. It has the same features as Wiki-Clix, meaning it was built from the same script. You pay $15 for 500 clicks, and $375 for 15,000 clicks. No comparison.


Geotargeted ads

Earlier, I mentioned that the tiny ad type for another site was not geotargeted. Sometimes. the words used will be demographic targeting. What this means at Wiki-Clix is, you can choose for which countries your ad will appear. It is useful for products that can be sold only in North America, for example. It also means the tiny ads will be clicked by people who can't buy the product if they are not from North America, which is money wasted for the advertiser.

Popularity of a PTC site

For a PTC site to work out right for everybody, i.e. the members, advertisers, and owner(s), the key is to get as many different advertisers as possible. Else, since members get their minimum 4 ads to click per day, the money to pay them has to come from somewhere. I wonder if that's not the main reason for the PTCs that failed throughout the years.

After all, advertisers are aware that members will click mostly for the little money they will make, they won't check the ads. And if there are not many advertisers, members keep seeing the same ads all the time, and they lose interest.

I guess you realize anyone can be an advertiser, with prices as low as $6 for 500 clicks. It's a number game. The more attractive your ads and splash pages are, the more success you will get, the more money you will make selling and getting sign-ups to your programs.

If you have questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.