The Scoop...

Get paid to surf the Web!

Earning money just for surfing the Web has proven to be a tempting offer for AllAdvantage.com's six and a half million members, who receive 53 cents for each hour they're online (with a maximum of 15 hours per month). No one gets rich from using AllAdvantage.com all by themselves though: the maximum payout is only $12.50 per month. The real cash lies in its pyramid-like referral system. For each new member that existing AllAdvantage.com members sign up, the original member receives 10 cents per hour that his or her referral is surfing the Web. For what AllAdvantage.com calls "extended referrals" - new members referred by the original member's referral - the original member receives five cents per hour.

Target practice

Started in February 1999 by Discovery Zone co-founder Jim Jorgensen, AllAdvantage.com has a simple formula for making money: build up key demographic information on its vast membership, and use it to attract clients interested in more effectively targeting their advertising campaigns. Many advertisers, including eBay and Microsoft, love AllAdvantage.com, and it's easy to see why - the AllAdvantage.com Viewbar literally tracks Web surfers' movements wherever they go, making it easy to customize an ad campaign for each member. Viewers' behavior online, as well as basic age, gender, and other demographic data, is also gathered for advertisers' benefit. The catch for the AllAdvantage.com users? A one-inch banner of advertisements that runs constantly along the bottom of the computer screen, changing ads every 20 seconds.

Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide

AllAdvantage.com's practice of collecting so much data has alarmed members and privacy advocates alike - so much so that the company appointed a chief privacy officer in the fall of 1999. But it certainly hasn't scared away investors - in September 1999 venture capitalists including Information Technology Fund, Times Mirror TMCT Ventures, and Walden Media awarded AllAdvantage more than $31 million in funding. The company maintains that its role is to help consumers protect their privacy and reap the benefits of their data.

After conquering the World Wide Web, it's on to the rest of the globe

AllAdvantage.com has been so successful in the United States that in 2000 the company released versions of its Viewbar in France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, and Australia/New Zealand. In order to support its new worldwide span, AllAdvantage.com also introduced five local-language versions of its web sites. Now web surfers across the globe can earn money for the time they spend on the Internet, and may soon be able to reap the other benefits available to AllAdvantage.com users. For example, the company has an option for automatic updates of McAfee anti-virus software for 50 cents per month, which is deducted from the user's AllAdvantage account.