Lately it feels like the number of articles on how to and what are some good avenues/ platforms to generate passive income have been flooding various publishing platforms. Be it on medium.com, publish0x, read.cash, noise.cash or even here on leofinance. Today I am going to break some of the myths peddled by these articles related to passive income. I will also be painting a true picture about some of these platforms, which people have passionately sung songs about, based on my personal usage for past month or so.
Myth vs Reality
- The biggest of the myths floating around is that people can earn passive income in their 'free time' and that this income is free. The reality is that on most of these websites/platforms you need to spend a lot of time. So, it's true that one does not need to spend any money to start earning some dollars/satoshis/points on these websites, but remember the amount of time one spends or need to spend in itself is not free. For example, on 'timebucks' you need to spend an insane 6-8 hours on a daily basis to earn around $10-12 (more if you can have few referrals and they too remain active). This is peanuts when compared to even the daily wagers in most 3rd world countries. I once filled a survey on it for more than an hour to receive 25 cents. On other occasions it's anywhere around 25-30 minutes for 30-40 cents. Then there are the PTC ads that one need to watch to earn 0.001 cents/8-10 satoshis/10-15 points on various platforms. The above are average rates per PTC ad which one needs to watch for 5-10 seconds generally.
I will take the example of 'adbtc.top', which pays in satoshis and in Rubles, to calculate what one can really earn. After using it for more than 3 weeks now, I was able to see that on an average one can earn 100-150 satoshis on a day (max for me was 120 satoshis in 1 day).
So one can see, even if we take the best scenario wherein one will earn 150 satoshis (highest possible earning) daily for rest of his life without break, he/she will earn around 0.03 Bitcoin in his/her life. If he can get 6 referrals (if possible!) and those 6 referrals to perform the ad watching task daily for their whole lives then the earing will be 0.065 Bitcoin.
Another famous BTC faucet pays around $18-20 yearly (when daily BTC earned is converted to US dollar).
Myth 2 - The earnings on these websites are free! -
No they are not. Let's continue with the above example of 'adbtc.top' itself. One needs to spend on average 35 minutes per day in these ads. I am extrapolating here, as for 120 satoshis I spent around 25 minutes (watching ads, solving captchas to be able to receive ads, etc.) That makes it 35 x 30 x 12 x 55 = 480+ days of your life spent to earn 0.03 BTC. This becomes really ridiculous when it comes to your 6 referrals earning amount of 0.065 BTC. In that scenario total of 7 people including you will have to spend 3300+ days or more than 9 years of their lives in total. WHAT !!
When we see these articles or posts favoring these menial tasks, we never stop and think what we will actually spend and how much we will earn in return. It's Just Not Worth It!!
One can use this humongous amount of time to learn some skills relevant to his/her industry and work. Let me assure you, that will pay much much more. In addition, you will be using some of it to spend quality time with your family and loved ones or for networking. Again win-win for everyone.Myth 3 - Shady practices of passive income websites/platforms -
Apart from the time spent there is another massive roadblock between you and your passive earnings. These roadblocks, most of the time, are created by these websites only.
Let's take survey filling as an example, every single time you will have to fill the same basic information, even for the same survey company. The kicker comes next, majority of times when you will be suddenly disqualified when close to finishing the survey. Or, the survey company will proclaim that it will take 20-30 minutes to complete the survey but in effect you will find that it takes easily 10-15 minutes more. One survey company says that it will pay only after verifying your answers and that may take around 30 days. Good luck keeping track of your completed surveys.
Another practice which I dislike is the minimum amount that one needs to reach to withdraw one's earnings. For example 'adbtc.top' needs to have 5000 satoshis earned to activate withdrwal. That is almost 40+ days of daily task completion. Most people loose interest and you know where does the free money for the ads watched goes.
'Cointiply' has a threshold level of $3 (30,000 coins) for withdrawals. Again, without good number of referrals it's very time consuming to earn those many coins.Myth 4 True intentions of these passive income articles and posts-
When I read these articles it's as if only the positive part of the 'coin' is shown, i.e. of earning money that too 'free'. No one explains what actually will be needed to earn that 'free money'. Most of these articles have referral links to these and other websites, so that people after reading about such great passive earning sources join using those referrals.
Final Thoughts
There are lot many websites/platforms available with free faucets, surveys, PTC ads, videos, etc. In addition, there are people who are trying to lure others to increase their referrals. One needs to be wary of all of them and before jumping head in should decide/ calculate whether it's really 'free earning' in your 'free time'.
Many a times it feels like a ponzi or a pyramid scheme where it depends how many suckers one can accumulate to increase one's own earnings.
Note:
The above is based on my personal usage of the websites/ platforms mentioned and other similar websites. Hopefully many people will be able to understand the mechanics/ working of these websites and will be able to undertake their own research to take informed decisions.
What is worth or not worth for them.