Agloco.com
11:21 pm January 31st, 2007 by Sal Cangeloso
I have put off posting on this for a long time, because of my mixed feelings on the subject, but it came up in a conversation today and it refreshed my interest in the subject. So here goes…
What is Agloco?
Ever hear of AllAdvantage? These where the original “get paid to surf” people, a 1999 startup whose goal was to split part of its advertising revenues with users in return for their running a toolbar on their internet browser. Users would be paid for their own browsing, but the real money would come as a result of referrals after they signed up other people. The site quickly went viral and exploded into one of the largest sites on the internet with over 10 million members in under two years. Eventually the bubble burst, online advertising revenue dried up, and the company went under. It ended up paying out over $120 million to its members and almost went to IPO, but collapsed before that could happen.
As for Agloco: same thing, different bubble. Everything is summed up nicely in their About page, but basically: the members are the owners, you get paid for surfing, and you get paid even more if you sign up people who will surf. This all hinges on a toolbar (which has not been released yet) and will run advertisements on your browser and probably have some sort of tracking involved for targeting/data collection purposes. The FAQ goes over almost everything else.
Can I Make Any Money From It?
This is the big question. Theoretically you can make a lot of money from something like this. The secret is to sign up a few people who are going to sign up a lot of people. This limits the work on your end and maximizes the payout. This all hinges on if the people you sign up (and the people they sign up) eventually install the Viewbar and use it on their browser (hopefully for the maximum time, 5 hours a month). Just because you have 1000 (or 100 or 10) people signed up does not mean you will make any money at all- people will have to install the Viewbar and use it. Many tech savvy people are planning on joining Agloco, signing up a number of people, and never installing the software on their own system (the thinking being: hey, it’s spyware, right?). If you aren’t doing it you will lose of on the money from your own hours, plus what’s the chance others will do it?
The Viewbar is still a few weeks away so there is no word on how intrusive it will be or how the company will remind people to install it. I am sure it will there will be a huge email blast to every member.
The referral network goes five degrees so there is chance for your network to really explode if somewhere down the line you aquire an industrious user or two. The question then becomes how much is each referral worth and how much are those 5 hours a month worth, and how long will it last? There has been rampant speculation and a number of studies on the subject but nothing is for sure until you get that first check. The hours your earn can be racked up as shares or cash, but it seems like if the company implodes there will be no payout because “As AGLOCO grows and the company generates positive cash flow, we will be distributing the excess cash to Members and shareholders of the company. ” Honestly, it none of it is very clear and there are not many promises.
Required Reading:
Venture Beat, TechCrunch, GigaOm
In case you are wondering, I did sign up and am going to test it out (mainly for academic purposes, but if I make some beer money I won’t complain). I am not going to post my referral link at this time because this is not an advertisment, but if you want to sign up and you want to use me as the referral just comment or email me. I will be disclosing how much I make from the program so it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds.
