Within only hours after I retract my recommendation on BusinessLikeSurf.com, I received an email announcing the birth of a new “Paid to Surf” program:

Hello!

Today new surf was launched: Adverise-surf.com

Adverise-surf.com is a paid to surf and traffic exchange site that allows members to make money and advertising credits just by watching a short slideshow of 10 sites in surf rotation.

Advertise with us and reach the most people you can, while spending as little as possible. Our members have the unique ability to advertise their sites to people that are interested in their products and sites. Not only do they have the ability to advertise their sites or products, but they also have the opportunity to receive a amount of commissions from their daily advertising viewings.

Program features:

• 100 credits every month
• Upgrades $1 only
• 6% for 30 days
• 8% referral commission
• Advertise up to 3 sites
• Cashout at $1
• 20 second timer

Come Advertise and Earn with Advertise-surf.com

This is when my spider-sense tingling, they didn’t even spell their own name correctly! The email reminds me of Businesslikesurf’s offer on their launch a few months ago since they read exactly the same. Look at their features and these are the things I found similar to Businesslikesurf’s:

• Upgrades for $1 only
• 8% credits and cash referral comission
• Cashout at $1
• 20 seconds timer
• 100 free credits

They also have the same limitations and conditions as applied to Businesslikesurf. According to their FAQ:

• Can I use my earnings to upgrade?
  No.
• How many sites can I add and advertise at once?
  Free member can add 1 website and upgraded member can add up to 3 sites.
• Why was my account deleted?
  Your account is deleted if it remains in free status for 8 days or more, or committed a serious breach of Advertise-surf.com terms. You can sign up again if you wish to continue and upgrade your membership.

I think the reason they delete your membership after being 8 days as a free member is to force you upgrading. By not allowing you to use your own earning to upgrade, they make sure themselves a steady flow of cash they can escape with after a few hundreds of days running the site.

And how come anybody comitted a serious breach can sign up again as they wish and upgrade the membership? If they weren’t aware of members trying to abuse them, it’s more likely because they’ve done their members first.

I ran a whois check to both BusinessLikeSurf and Advertise-Surf and they are both owned by the same person. A continual check on the owner’s email and name shows corresponding results. This person has at least 11 more domains can be used for similar purposes as BusinessLikeSurf’s. Another info on it’s expiry date suggested that Advertise-Surf.com expires 05 Apr 2008 10:05:23. That’s about next week!

What to learn, then? All their features seem sustainable at first. But I’ve should noticed the disability to use my own earning to upgrade is something to look for. Again, forcing a member to upgrade is not likely a fair webmaster would do. Does this mean I neglect my own guidelines to signing up with GPT programs? No, I just learned new signs open my eyes wider.

Judging the above factors, how they look similar to the previous program that suddenly dissapeared, the same person who owns both domain names, the exact limitations as the program before, I’m not saying that Advertising-Surf will definitely scam you. But, chances are high!

Update 27 April 2008: Just did a check o advertise-surf.com and guess what? That’s right! The site has been parked! I hope you guys didn’t join 

Another site, blueskysurf.net, although appears to be owned by a different owner, has a similar term where your account will be terminated if you don’t upgrade within 8 days. Just be careful!

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