Thursday, November 29, 2012

Not Cycled Yet

So yesterday I thought I would cycle sometime today or tonight, but now I realize I was was mistaken.

The short version is that I will probably cycle sometime Sunday or Monday.

The long version is that I failed to realize that where people at the bottom had cycled was old--they cycled on the 25th, getting that $.10 each, and then it started back at the top again. Everyone that has yet to cycle joined after the bottom people got their $.10 and the revenue sharing started back at the top again. I figured out that I could browse the pages by changing the number at the end of the url to reflect the pages I wanted to see, and thus see any page much faster.

I'm currently on page 44. Page 50-something last cycled on the 25th. The $.10 cycles are coming down between the 450 and 500 pages. I estimate that they are cycling around 130 pages a day. That means that it will take 3-4 days for them to get to me, then on down until they start back at the top again.

Those who got in early cycled out in around 9 months. However, for those who do not recruit actively, it could take several years to cycle out. Think 300 cycles ($.10 x 300 = $30) with at least a week between cycles, and you get about 50 per year. That's $5 a year. So it has definitely slowed down, and will probably only get heavier.

So I'm not too excited on the cycling thing. I put in $10 to upgrade--or rather my sponsor did--but I don't think I'll put in another dime from my own personal money. The big money to be made is in the profit units. They will keep the cycler going, which is the only reason I haven't written this program off as a pyramid scheme, but they will get you cash in 60 days, and way more than any other savings program out there!

So the question is... invest more money in profit units, or just work with the internal money that's there? Well, I don't have to decide tonight, but I do have to get the kids in bed, so that's what I'm going to do!

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

And Now I'm Upgraded

My sponsor is a really nice guy. He and I communicated a lot last year about different things and worked in another online opportunity for several months, so even though we've never met, I consider him a friend, and I know the feeling is mutual. He wanted to help me out, so he offered to upgrade me--that is, pay the $10 for a cycler spot for me. So he did. He even enrolled his son and upgraded him first, so that he would roll up to his enroller, so that he could keep me under him. I'm much more likely to be active with it than his son is.

That happened on Monday. Today is Wednesday. Once I was upgraded, I used $20 to purchase two profit units. Just as I suspected, I can't purchase a partial unit, so I've got the $5 left over. In 60 days when those units mature, I'll have $36. Of that, 30%, or just over $10, will be siphoned off to be used in the cycler, and the other 70% will be mine. If all goes well, I should have $25 cash that I can add to the $5, and then buy 3 profit units for $30. I'm just going to keep doing that for a while.

I also learned that each ad credit equals one impression. $10 buys 1,000 impressions, so I started out with 3,000 (my $20 plus my sponsor's $10). I uploaded a banner from a site I own and allocated 1,000 credits. It used all 1,000 credits over the last couple of days, and I got one click out of it. So I'm going to allocate another 1,000 and see how it does. I didn't get into this for the ad space, but I figure there's no reason not to take advantage of it, since I do have a primary business that I could be advertising. Over time, I will probably experiment with different banners, and later with writing text ads. But having put in my first bit of money, I want to give it 60 days before I even consider putting in any more; and once I get to a point, I think I will not put in any more cash, unless I use it to buy profit units.

So how is it going? Predictably, I have moved up slightly in the cycler since Monday, but my spot has not cycled. Now remember, there is cycling and then there is cycling out. The latter happens when a spot earns 300%. However, because each time someone joins they put 10% into the next 10 spots, and keep doing that all the way down, eventually I should be cycling with $.10 each time it makes it to my spot. I think in a minute I'll explain how this works; but first I want to tell you about my profit units.

I purchased two profit units two days ago for $10 each. As of today, they have earned a combined total of $1.20. That's 3% for 2 days, or 6%. That is already way more than I would have earned in a year if I had put that $20 in the bank! Granted, I lose the original $20 (that purchased ad credits), so it's not exactly like a real investment, but in the long run, it should be as good. However, there is a small fee for withdrawal, especially if I withdraw to Solid Trust Pay--but it's only 4%. But I'm not going to be withdrawing anything for a while.

Also, apparently I can withdraw cash from my profit units before they mature. I'll have to test this someday, but it allowed me to get to the withdraw page for the $1.20 I have, but then I saw there is a $5 minimum, so I didn't bother. As I said, I'm not planning on withdrawing anything for a while, so it was more a curiosity than anything else.

Out of curiosity, I decided to see where I was on the list. There are almost 1,000 pages of spots in the cycler, with 50 spots per page. I found my name on page 29, which means I've moved up almost 3% of the way up. The first page where the 10% that gets divided among 10 accounts is page 41, and those accounts were purchased on Sunday, so I would expect to cycle sometime tomorrow--or at the latest, tomorrow night while I sleep. Then I'll have all of $.10! But it's a start! Obviously, if I recruit, it would be much more lucrative much faster. But I want to see how it works without recruiting, so I'm not actively recruiting people to this site yet. I'm still skeptical.

But apparently they have been putting some safeguards in place to make it better, including getting rid of duplicate accounts that were opened on purpose (I opened a second account, but I requested they close the first account--you can read about that in a previous post). It doesn't make sense to open multiple accounts; it would be more cost effective to simply buy more cycler spots. You can purchase as many as you want, so why go through all the trouble to buy all those spots? It's simply not fair to cheat like that, and they are cracking down, so don't try it!

So now I'm going to try to verify my checking account. I wonder if there is a way to do it other than sending them a voided check (since I don't have any checks with that account). But of course, that has nothing to do with Fast Cash Mega!

Friday, November 16, 2012

How Long Does It Take to Cycle?

How long does it take to cycle? That seems to be the #1 question on everyone's mind. You have to buy at least $10 in the cycler to be able to buy profit units (where the quick cash is). So if you buy that $10, how long will it take to cycle?

I hope I don't get in trouble for this, but I'm not an upgraded member yet, so the worst thing they can do to me is close my account. If they do, that's it. I may or may not try again with another email. But I am all for transparency, and I believe people need to know what they are getting into. And what I'm sharing here is nothing that a free member can't find if they know where to look.

So here are the top several people in the $10 cycler line:

No. User Line / Type Spot Cost Spot Earned Buy ON Last Cycle Num Cycled
1 normie $10 Line / NP $10.00 $17.80 2012-02-05 2012-11-10 08:31:01 31
2 borismos $10 Line / NP $10.00 $2.80 2012-02-05 2012-11-10 08:31:01 28
3 dessie $10 Line / RP $10.00 $12.80 2012-02-05 2012-11-13 11:40:19 30
4 Passies $10 Line / NP $10.00 $2.80 2012-02-05 2012-11-10 08:30:31 28
5 Passies $10 Line / NP $10.00 $2.80 2012-02-05 2012-11-10 08:30:31 28
6 muhamu1978 $10 Line / NP $10.00 $2.80 2012-02-05 2012-11-10 08:30:31 28
7 valemis1986 $10 Line / NP $10.00 $2.80 2012-02-05 2012-11-10 08:30:31 28
8 natalya201158 $10 Line / NP $10.00 $21.90 2012-02-05 2012-11-16 15:07:06 45

Normie is in the first position, so she (can I assume that's a she?) gets a portion of every new purchase in the line until she cycles out. Then borismos will be at the top. Notice the bought-on date. It's been more than 9 months since they joined. They will probably cycle out soon, though. So at this point, 10 months seems to be a realistic time frame at this point. I'm not sure if it will go faster or slower the more people join. Probably faster for those at the top, but it could take longer for those who join later. I'm just guessing on that. I guess I'll have a better idea in 10 months.

[UPDATE: From the time I copied that chart, natalya201158 cycled out and valemis1986 has a balance of $11.70. So once you get to the top, you cycle pretty fast, apparently. And natalaya201158 is already second from the bottom on the $20 line list.]

However, I have a suspicion that this is actually reversed, and that natalya201158 is actually in the first position. Notice the latest cycle date--today, as opposed to #7, who cycled last 6 days ago. And I have confirmation of this. Notice the $5,000 cycle line:

No. User Line / Type Spot Cost Spot Earned Buy ON Last Cycle Num Cycled
1 pipteam $5000 Line / RP $5000.00 $200.00 2012-10-15 2012-10-15 05:28:02 4
2 mizrakucu $5000 Line / NP $5000.00 $400.00 2012-04-19 2012-10-15 05:28:02 8
3 liudmi $5000 Line / NP $5000.00 $9600.00 2012-03-09 2012-10-15 05:28:02 20
There are only 3 people in that line. It's going to take a while for them to cycle out!

Now, here's why I think that the bottom higher number is actually the top position: Look at the "Buy ON" date. liudmi bought on 3/9/12, whereas pipteam bought just last month. Also, liudmi has cycled several times more than the others (cycle meaning whenever their spot earns, as opposed to cycling out, when their line matures at 300%). I don't know how they were able to cycle so many times with only 3 spots in the line, but it's what it is. Then again, maybe I do. The first one would have gotten the whole 10% that was to go to the next 10 positions, so there's $500. Then there's the 50%, which is $2,500, or $3,000. Then 50% of the other two would be $5,000, or $8,000. Then there would be the 10% cycling through the first to at 1% each, or 5% for him, so there's $250, then 10% cycling through all three, or 4% for him, or $200, making a total of $8,450. He probably got some referral bonuses in there too. If that didn't make any sense, that's okay; you'd have to like math to understand (and I like math). What I know is that for sure I am not going to be buying any $5,000 lines anytime soon!

I'm going to buy into the $10 line to upgrade, then I'll buy some profit units. As those mature, I'll use them to buy more lines, either $10 or $20 or whatever I can, and then reinvest all 70% of my cash earnings in profit units for a while. I'm not sure if I will ever put in more cash out of pocket or not. If I do, I'll cap it at probably $100 total, maybe less. I want this to be sustainable internally as much as I can, because I don't want to have to deal with funding my payment accounts to get the funds from me to FCM.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Payment Account Hassles and Info

Since Fast Cash Mega doesn't use pay accounts like PayPal, I had to sign up for another account. I decided to try Solid Trust Pay. I chose to verify my account with a scan of my driver's license, but I started and cancelled the process, then did it again. There is a charge of $1.15 per attempt, so I now have a balance of $2.30. This means that when the money from my card gets deposited, I will have less than $30. So I'm not sure what to do about that. If I can buy into the profit units with any amount (ie, $18), then I will just do that.

Otherwise I may buy only 1 $10 unit and wait until I can get around to verifying my checking account to add more cash to STP (kind of difficult, since I don't have any checks--I never use them, and can instantly transfer funds to another checking at the same institution that does have checks, so I don't need to spend money on checks from two different accounts. So I need to come up with another way to verify it. Too bad they don't verify like PayPal does--by a small deposit or withdrawl that you would get from your statement and enter into the system. If they did, that would be much simpler, even if it cost me a few cents.

So I'll wait until the money gets there. I guess I can afford to lose the $1.15. It happened because the lighting was not adequate to scan my ID with the webcam (even though I had a light right above me--not sure what the deal was there), so I had to go scan it on the scanner. I should have not cancelled the process--they warned me it would cost per attempt--so I'm not blaming anyone. Just wanted to make you aware of that.

I should also mention that I had to make 3 attempts to get money into my account. First credit card was declined. Second was also declined, but I got an email from my credit card company telling me there may have been fraudulent activity, so I called the number, verified that the charge was indeed known to me, and then retried it and it went through. Capital One is good that way. I'm glad it's in my wallet. (Have you heard the commercials too?)

And while I'm here, I thought I would indicate the withdrawl costs for the different programs. Solid Trust Pay charges $2.30 to withdraw to a bank, $5 to withdraw to a credit or debit card, and $4 to send a check. That's not too bad. There is some cost to add money from a credit card (they inform you of the cost before you add it). It costs $20 to add funds from a checking account, so I don't think I will ever do that!

Then there is Payza. According to their Fees Page, it costs $15 to get money deposited to your bank account. That's pretty steep. But you can have it deposited to a prepaid Visa for $1. That's pretty good, except that prepaid Visas aren't accepted everywhere. They are accepted most places, though. You can get a check for free, which is even better. I think I just might open an account with them. It is also free to add money from a bank account, and they only charge 3.5% (about what it costs them) to get money from a credit card. You can also add money by check or money order for free. I like that. I think I should have researched better and opened a Payza account. But then again, FCM has a warning that says,"PLEASE BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU BUY PAYZA FUNDS BECAUSE THERE ARE MANY FRAUDULENT EXCHANGERS!!!" so then again, maybe not.

The other option is Liberty Reserve. This one just seemed too complicated. For instance, you can't just add a bank account; you have to send the money some other way, such as through Moneygram or Western Union. I didn't like that idea at all. And indeed, FCM says that many hackers use LR, because all payments are final and irreversible, so I'm not sure I would ever use it.

So that's where I'm at. I'll post again when I upgrade.

Lisa Reynoso
mrs [dot] reynoso [at] gmail.com
503-919-2145

Starting Out - About Me

My name is Lisa Reynoso. I am not completely unknown online--just google my name and you'll see that I own several blogs and have reviewed at least one other scam before. I have videos on YouTube too, and you are welcome to go watch them to find out a little about me. I am a stay-at-home/work-at-home mother of 3 children, currently ages 6, 3, and 4 months. My husband works full time and goes to school, though that may change in a few months, depending on how my home business goes. I live in Oregon.

Okay, enough of that. About a year ago, I was in contact with a guy who was interested in making money online. We bantered ideas back and forth and worked at one company for a while until it was shut down. I recently got in contact with him again, and he told me that he was doing Fast Cash Mega.

After reviewing the scam I mentioned above, I have made it my mission to 1) help people avoid getting taken by scams. In fact, the first video I ever uploaded to YouTube had to do with a mystery shopping scam I had discovered. And 2) to help people find legitimate ways of making money. I learned that most programs online, legitimate or otherwise, were too difficult for the average person, or too time-consuming, or too expensive--or all of the above. The program my friend and I were in, ZeekRewards was, or so I thought, the perfect online business. But then it was shut down by the SEC, and for good reason. I was glad I hadn't contacted more people about it, because most of those who came in this year lost everything they had invested. I actually made a small profit, but I had been in early.

And I don't like that. I don't like the "get in early to make it big" because that means that getting in late means you lose. I wanted something where anyone could win, where recruiting was not required, where one could just do a little something, where one could spend just a little to make money, not hundreds of dollars. Where someone willing to risk $10 or $20 or $30 could still come out ahead--instead of a program that cost a lot of money with no guarantee of return on investment.

When my friend told me about Fast Cash Mega, I was skeptical. But because he was making money with it, I figured I'd check it out. So I did. I read everything, watched the videos, slept on it many nights, and read it again. I'm one of those people that needs to know exactly how something works.

So here are several positive aspects that I can see right off the bat:
  • Free to join
  • No large investment--upgrade for as little as $10
  • Not time intensive
  • Payout within 24 hours
  • Monies paid into the program are used for investments, which are then used for payouts
  • There is a way to earn cash within 60 days
 Of course, you're not going to make anything joining for free, but it does allow you to browse the back office, see how many people are ahead of you in any given line, etc. $10 is pretty much pocket change nowadays, so almost anyone could afford to invest $10 in a program, win or lose, and not care if they lost. They pay out immediately, which means they must not be short on cash, so that's a good sign.

There are several red flags, which is why I am blogging about this in detail. This blog is kind of my "Try at your own risk" notice. I value transparency, so I will be updating this from time to time, telling how things are going. You are welcome to email me at mrs [dot] reynoso [at] gmail.com to remind me to update it if it's been too long, or if you have a question.

Anyhow, the red flags that come to mind at the moment are:
  • 1-up system
  • Cycler feels like a ponzi scheme
  • Value given for cash (ie, product or service) is advertising credits, which many people will not use
  • Earnings must go through financial programs similar to PayPal, but PayPal is not one of them. These programs all charge for withdrawls, which means the small-time investor will not be able to make a profit for a long time (needing to reinvest earnings several times before earning enough to justify the withdrawl fees).
  • Less than 5 years old--indeed, it's only about 1 year old, as best as I can gather
Let me elaborate more on the first two items.

The 1-up system means that the first person one refers will go to their sponsor, not to their own downline. This is good for good recruiters, bad for someone who only refers one person, indifferent to those who never refer anyone (unless they joined to help a friend and suddenly found themselves in someone else's downline). There is a way to bypass the system, but it costs the sponsor $50. That's only worth it if you sponsor someone who is going to put in a lot of money.

I said the cycler feels like a ponzi scheme. Notice I didn't say it is one. First, the money they pay on Profit Units (more on this later) comes from investments, such as ForEx, not from the money other people pay, so that is definitely not a ponzi scheme. However, you have to buy into the cycler (at least $10) to take advantage of the profit units, and 30% of your profit from the profit units must go into the cycler.

Now, some of the money that is used to buy a spot in the cycler is used to add money to the other spots in the cycler, which is why I said it sounds like a ponzi scheme. But not all of it. And that money is also used for investments, if I understand it correctly. And all of the money buys you advertising credits.

I wasn't going to comment on that, but I think I will. most people will probably not spend the credits. I will, for sure. I have a business I would like to promote, so I will make a banner and spend the credits! But most people don't and won't bother. And I don't think it's ethical to advertise your Fast Cash Mega link on their site, because all you would be doing is stealing potential referrals from others.

Anyhow, it seems that the more people that join, the harder it will be to cycle. They do have things in place to speed up the process, such as putting 1% of every purchase into 10 accounts, working their way through all the spots in each line until they get to the bottom and starting over. If that doesn't make sense, go watch their video or call me at 503-919-2145 to ask me to explain it. I don't have time now. Maybe I will later.

Now, you may have figured out that I'm assuming you know something about the system. I'm not here to reinvent the wheel. You can go to my referral link and read the info and watch the videos yourself. Then what I have said will make more sense. I'm not asking you to sign up at this point; I don't know if it's a trustworthy business or not. Being so new, there's no telling how long it will be around. If you sign up, my recommendation would be to not put in more than you can afford to lose, and do so at your own risk without my endorsement or encouragement.

So I'm going to just post my progress over time and my conclusions at some point.

For now, I have set up a Solid Trust Pay account and am in the process of adding $35 to it. $5 is to cover the fees they charge to put money in from a Visa, as well as to pay the $1-something they charged to verify me. I plan on putting in $30 into Fast Cash Mega--$10 into the cycler and $20 into the profit units. Then I will reinvest all my profits from the profit units for a while. I'm not sure whether I will set a dollar goal or a date before I take anything out. I want to watch how it works first. I could have avoided some of the fees if I had waited for my checking account to be verified, but I don't have any money there right now (won't until I get my deposit from Google Adsense in a few days), so I decided to just lose that $5. Hopefully I'll recover it later, but if not, I can afford to lose $5.

I also signed up for a free Fast Cash Mega account. I will be verifying the account by buying a place in the cycler sometime next week, probably.

So there it is. Please subscribe for updates. And please ask me questions, either in the comments, or better, via email (mrs [dot] reynoso [at] gmail.com). And if you have tried this program, please share your experience!