Turn Web Surfing Into Cold, Hard Cash

Thanks to a new Internet business model, the simple clicking of a mouse can bring you bucks

As more websites are established every day, the competition for readers' eyeballs intensifies. High traffic translates into advertising revenue. To increase traffic, some Internet businesses are resorting to traditional forms of advertising, like TV commercials and billboards, while others are advertising online, primarily with banner ads.

Until now, companies would pay websites to post ads.

Or they might take part in a banner exchange program or a partnership. But now, advertisers will pay Web surfers directly, if they allow a special type of banner ad to stay on their screen while they surf.

Reporter Candis Callison presents the story on video. To watch it, click on the video button. To read the story's main points, see below.

• Starting in July, AllAdvantage.com will pay subscribers as much as $20 a month to surf the Web. The catch? You have to keep a viewbar with a roster of rotating advertisements on your screen. The company's founder says you should get used to this type of viewbar, it could be a new business model for the Internet.
• As a subscriber, you download the viewbar and leave it on your screen while you surf the Net. You'll get paid 50 cents an hour for a maximum of 40 hours, or $20 a month.
• In two months, subscribers have bombarded AllAdvantage.com with email requests for the viewbar, and 1.3 million people have signed up for the service.
• Money behind the paychecks comes from advertisers who for space on the viewbar. In return, AllAdvantage.com tracks which ones subscribers visit, passes this onto its advertisers, and targets ads directly to subscribers. Subscribers can receive additional pay for referring new subscribers to the service.
• Don't think you can fool AllAdvantage.com by simply leaving a browser open on your screen while you go about your daily life. If your mouse doesn't move periodically, you won't be paid for the time.
• A spokesman for the Better Business Bureau told The Money Machine that the AllAdvantage plan would not be considered an illegal pyramid scheme, because the consumer doesn't have to pay into the recruiting program in order to receive its rewards.
• AllAdvantage.com's privacy statement, which will be available on its website, says it will not sell, rent, or give away any identifying information about people who sign up.
• Company CEO Jim Jorgensen says this program will be a new model for Internet advertising: Giving advertisers a profile of the computer user.
• But will it be able to attract enough advertisers to support a growing pool of subscribers? Some analysts say the idea may be a tough sell, citing the fact that Net demographics are poorly understood.