Spotlight on Varolo: Scam or Steady Income Opportunity?

Varolo is a work-at-home opportunity where you get paid for viewing advertisements online. It was officially launched this past April after testing. The ads are similar to those seen on regular television and sign-up is free with no attempt to get you to upgrade to better ads.

With DVRs, and a lot less patience, people no longer spend their time watching commercials (Superbowl aside). Even worse, readership for magazines and newspapers has waned as more people get their information online. This is why Varolo has offered money for simply watching commercials. Other companies like Swagbucks, Hits4Pay and Clixsense offer the same type of deal. So far, it seems to be working for them.

How Does Varolo Pay its Participants?

Unlike other companies like InboxDollars and Hits4Pay who send you an e-mail to visit their site and then click on an ad to get your one or two cents, Varolo operates in a very different way. You do get paid for watching the videos, but most of the money is earned by creating a “village” of friends who also watch and then they invite their friends to join and so on. The more people in your village who watch the ads, the more money you make. However, getting people to join your village is difficult. If you do not have the time, or energy, to recruit people into your village, your earning potential will be nil.

However, there is another way to earn money through Varolo. A weekly jackpot is held and every time you watch an ad, you get one entry into the jackpot. If someone in your village wins the jackpot, you stand to earn about ten percent of what they won. One jackpot in late April was three hundred dollars. But remember, this is not guaranteed money by any means. Either you or someone in your village is lucky enough to win the jackpot or not. There is nothing you can do, aside from viewing the ads as usual, to increase your odds of winning. Varolo claims that there are nearly one hundred and forty ads to view per week—including duplicates which you will still earn credit for watching.

Payment

Twenty dollars is the threshold which is not too bad and usually a good sign. Payment is made via PayPal and only comes when you ask for it. So the longer you hold out after you reach the threshold, the bigger your payment will be. There is also a status bar to let you know how much you and your village have earned thus far. Unfortunately, there is no automatic system for payment built in to the program which is a bit strange. No complaints regarding payment have been made, but the company is still fairly new and there are certainly complaints regarding other aspects of the company.

Like any money earned, once you hit the six hundred dollar mark (or what the new tax amount is) in one calendar year, you will receive a 1099 from Varolo and have to fill out a W-9. This is standard practice, and the law, for any legitimate company operating in the United States.

What Will You Earn and How Does Varolo Calculate Your Village Earnings?

Earnings are dependent on your village so the more ads they view, the more money all of you make. Varolo gets paid one to two cents by the advertisers for each viewed advertisement. You will get eight percent of all viewed ads on your first level, six percent on the second level, four percent on the third level and two percent on the fourth level. Varolo’s system keeps track of what you earn so there is no guesswork involved. Their status bar also lets you know how many available sites there are to view and what your percent is for the week. This information will help when trying to determine how many more ads you need to watch in order to get full credit, or close to it.

Keep in mind that your earnings are always directly dependent on the people in your village and how much ad viewing they do. If you enlist people who are not as gung ho as you and are just casual ad viewers, this opportunity will not be very rewarding.

The Cons

Like any business, especially work-at-home ones, there are pitfalls and problems. Varolo has its fair share of these as well, including:

The payment structure requires way more than a basic understanding of general mathematics. An MBA may not even be enough to understand fully how payment is accrued and doled out. Nothing as simple as getting paid for watching ads should have this complicated of a payment distribution process. If you are fortunate enough to find someone who understands it and can explain it to you, you may be better off than most who have thrown their hands up in the air and surrendered.
If you are unable to recruit people to your village, you may as well just not bother with this program. Unlike some at-home based business opportunities, your success with Varolo is solely built on referrals and recruitment. If you have dozens or even hundreds of friends, family and coworkers who are willing to be in this with you and participate on a regular basis, you may score big. But not everyone has a wide network or has people they know willing to commit the time to doing this. Varolo seems to punish those who cannot keep up with the program which does not seem all that fair. For those people, this is a wasted opportunity and they are better off finding an alternative opportunity.
When you initially sign up with Varolo, you are asked to fill out a profile so that you get ads that are of interest to you. This may mean, depending on your profile and interests that you may not be getting as many ads to view. It makes sense that advertisers do not want to waste time showing a dog food commercial, for example, to someone who hates dogs, but you may also be getting shut out of a lot of potential views just by what your profile says and how it is interpreted.
An issue that has come up with Varolo and is unclear if it is a technical one or a rule relates to credits for referrals. If someone is signing up and is either interrupted or wants more time to think about joining, when they finally do decide to sign up and use your link, you may not always get credit for that referral. Whether this is just a glitch in their system or a procedure they have remains unclear.

Varolo: Is it Legit or Should You Quit?

The company is still new so there is wiggle room for technical glitches, procedural changes and other issues that may arise. It does not appear to be any type of scam as they never ask you for any money to sign up. Joining is absolutely free. However, payment is not as easy and can easily become a frustrating issue for some who spend a lot of time watching these ads and getting very little or nothing for it. They are completely built on the idea of getting new people to sign up and even with that, your viewing money gets pooled with your village’s viewing money lessening your overall income.

Again, check out the company first through research and see what others who have already signed on have to say about them. It certainly does not cost anything if you want to try it out and then decide it is not for you. At the same time, do not go into it expecting quick and easy money. It’s certainly easy, but it’s anything but quick.

Check it out for yourself now!
http://www.varolo.com/village/kellyland@charter.net