| REVIEWS
Cruising
Cyberspace
Web
Site Pick Of The Month
By Pam Wegmann
I recently received
a phone call from the regional director of a company named Cybergold who
called looking for information but shared information on his company with
me. The company, based in California, is an example of the epitome of cyber
business and e-commerce. I found the business concept so fascinating
that I felt compelled to share the information with you. The company’s
only purchase location can be found at
http://www.cybergold.com
This site is a true
child of the Internet. It is a spend and earn community, an online
marketing company that literally pays you to interact with their participating
merchants and advertisers.
By setting up an
account with Cybergold, you will receive varying amounts of cash to participate
which you can then spend as you desire.
That’s correct.
You earn real money. Once you have some balance established, you
can spend it online, get it credited to your Visa Card, electronically
deposit it into your current bank checking account, or give it to a charity.
Here are a few examples:
You will be paid cash to do such things as try a free trial of Disney Club
Blast, switch your long distance provider to Qwest Communications, trade
stock, or purchase music CDs, books, toys, health products or digital
content such as sheet music, maps, photos, video, software, etc.
You can even get paid to go to a casino online.
The company brings
together (in their words): “advertisers who recognize the value of
incentives brand marketing, a sizable and rapidly expanding community,
demographically desirable consumers, and authors and distributors of creative
works.”
Unlike many retail
sites which go overboard with clutter, I found this site visually simple.
It’s logically laid out and grouped. I did however, have a
few navigation problems. Once I was well down the path of some of
the sub-pages, I could not get back to the Home page without clicking several
times on my back browser button. There was no automatic link back
to the Home page that I could easily find.
There are six main
sections to the site whose file folder buttons are at the top of the Home
page.
The Earn button leads
you to merchants who will pay you to make a purchase, fill out a survey,
or try a service. The Spend button takes you to an array of digital
products. The Games button will lead you to the casino or to trivia
games.
And because Cybergold
is a true community, they provide an Email button for establishing a free
e-mail account, and Webscout which is a search engine for perusing the
vast amounts of information on the Internet. Also, you can check
your account balance at any time.
All transactions
are secure and the site carries the Trust-e seal of approval along with
a site privacy statement. They promise they will not release your
demographic info to third parties unless you give prior approval.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that they will not use it to promote their
own company to new online merchant and advertising partners.
Take some time to
cruise on over to this site. Depending on your buying habits, there
might “be gold in them there (cyber) hills.”
Knowledge is Power!
:-)
November 1999
Questions/Comments
can be sent to pam@info-matters.com
or faxed to 504.738.0016. You can also reach Ms. Wegmann at 504.738.0070.
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