Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Paid to Click Sites: Viable Source of Extra Income?

Given there are already who had benefited from them despite of their spam-like ability to wind up in our e-mail inboxes, are Paid to Click Sites an economically viable way to earn extra income?


By: Ringo Bones


Aside from those notorious Viagra and Cialis ads and the odd Nigerian prince or two in need of your help, Paid to Click Sites or PTC Sites are probably already well known for supplementing the income of some and the quitting of their day-jobs of the lucky few. Despite their spam-like ability to wind up in your e-mail inboxes – probably their only inconvenient quirk – the messages and adverts are replete with testimonials of early adapters who are now using PTC Sites as a source of extra money / extra income. Some of the lucky few have already quit their day-jobs to work on their work-at-home PTC Sites business schemes full time. But are PTC Sites really an economically viable source of extra cash?

Paid to Click or PTC Sites are companies that pay you for viewing their websites. These companies get paid for showing the pages to their members. Usually, these sites often pay almost 100% of that money to their members. A typical Paid to Click Site work as a method of earning money online by clicking on the “paid” link – i.e. “paid” link is a link sent along with the advertisement which pays the members money or points – which can later be redeemed for their monetary value – by clicking advertisements that are purchased by the program advertisers. The value of money and points that a member earns vary from program to program.

During the early days of PTC Sites, early adapters almost couldn’t believe the amount of money they are earning given the relatively light workload required. As the members / signees of these PTC Sites increased, a point of “diminishing returns” manifested itself to the members via reduced earnings for a given workload or online advertisements being clicked.

Back then, some members / signees even resorted to the use of botnets and related auto-click malware programs / cheating programs to “automate” their click workload and thus increasing their PTC earnings. This form of cheating / online computer fraud worked so well I the early days of PTC Sites where botnet detection programs were still in its infancy. Even today, PTC members / signees still resort to “sophisticated” botnets since they can manage to earn several hundreds, even several thousands of US dollars, before they get caught and their PTC Site accounts are terminated. Though these days, PTC Site operators will sue you for online computer fraud if they caught you resorting to using botnets on their PTC Sites – assuming that you gave them your true home address and home phone number.

Fortunately, you can also boost your PTC Site earnings in a legally acceptable manner. One of the legitimate methods often used to boost one’s PTC Site income and earnings is by visiting the forum sites. Basically, all PTC Sites have forums where you can find precious info, tips and to be able to ask questions. A PTC Site’s forum site is also a way of making sure that the PTC Site you are signing into is legit. Also, don’t forget to make sure to regularly switch your earnings between PTC sites. Withdraw your money / earnings from PTC sites that are not giving you a good earning rate or referral click ratio and send it to better sites to buy more referrals on those instead. Remember PTC Sites based work-at-home business schemes still need the same hard work and dedication as a typical CFD work-at-home business schemes.

Are Rare Earth Metals Mines Still Economically Viable?

Given that they tend to elude accurate valuation by conventional and established mine valuation methods, are rare earth metals mines truly economically viable?


By: Ringo Bones


Even though Mainland China had more or less resumed its import quotas to Japan and the rest of the globe back in November 24, 2010, Beijing’s current unrivaled monopoly of the commercial mining and production of rare earth metals can easily make anyone wonder why the United States or any other nation in the world can’t seem to be able to start their very own economically viable rare earth metals industry. But is the reason just down to economics or do we have to look back why in the previous 20 or so years how America and some other nations managed to make a profit in the commercial mining and production of rare earth metals.

It is no coincidence why America’s very own home-grown rare earth metals mining industry was abruptly shut down 20 years ago – right about the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the then Soviet Union. America’s rare earth metals industry was subsidized by the uranium industry – or more accurately the nuclear fission power generation and the nuclear weapons industry. It is now common knowledge that most uranium ores also contain commercially viable amounts of rare earth metals. Nuclear weapons used to safeguard the United States against the then Soviet Union so the nuclear weapons industry was the primarily subsidizing America’s rare earth metals industry before their closure around 1989 and 1990 since construction of new civilian nuclear fission power plants on American soil was frozen by the US congress after the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant accident of 1979.

Compared to mainland China’s relatively low labor costs, America’s rare earth metals industry looks like a losing proposition when this factor is taken into account in a typical mine valuation calculation. Typically, the ability of a mining property to earn is a measure of its value. Many factors including the natural resources and the plant and the equipment must be taken into account. Consideration must also be given to operating efficiency, labor costs, taxes, and to the critical factors of supply and demand and the purchasing power of money – i.e. the currently prevailing economic conditions. In order to determine the commercial viability of a certain mining operation, the present worth and the prospective possibilities must be determined; the risks must be recognized and evaluated. Such determinations are made to the maximum extent possible on the basis of the factual information that can be assembled as amended and weighed in the judgment and experience of the examining mining engineer.

In the final analysis, every mine valuation is a considered estimate as opposed to an exact appraisal. It would be a rare accident of coincidence if the actual outcome of operations was in accord with the predicted result of prior examination. Despite the certainty that the results of examination will be inaccurate, the greatest possible care must be exercised in making an evaluation in order to measure the degree of risk. The determination of value of a certain mine starts when the examination has been completed to provide ore-reverse data, mining costs and profits, financial requirements, and future prospects, mathematical calculations may be made to establish the present dollar-and-cents value of the ore deposits.

These computations are made on a gross basis so that the result is a single figure. This one sum represents a compounding of the capital required to equip the mine, the realization from sale of product less cost of sales, and amortization of plant as well as interest on invested capital. The remainder is the profit or true value and must be reduced to present worth by giving effect to the time period in which the profit is revealed. A variety of formulas have been developed for use in the valuation of this kind. The present value of the annual dividend to be paid out over the “estimated” 20-year life of a specified mine can be determined by use of one or the other number of mine valuation formulas.

It is somewhat evident that the 20-year lifetime assumed for a typical rare earth metals mine could be changed but a number of factors bear on establishing mining rate. These include the additional proven ore reserves that can be established – which is a little difficult since the difference of the percentage concentration of an economically viable rare earth metals mine and the one that’s not is not that large. Then there are equipment costs which increase with the size of the plant, the mechanical efficiency of the plant, the market for the product – which could be depressed by overproduction – and the security of the investment. Shares of a mine with a long life typically are more preferred by investors.

Given that there are no new nuclear fission power plants being constructed in the US since the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear fission power plant accident and the most recent Will Lyman narrated science documentary about nuclear fission power plants that mentions dysprosium and holmium nuclear poisons was probably produced between 1992 and 1995, it seems that the civilian nuclear power generation industry and the US DoD’s nuclear weapons program are no longer subsidizing America’s rare earth metals mining industry to make them economically viable enough to continue operating in the austere fiscal environment of a post Cold War world.

And given that the current main use of rare earth metals is in the consumer electronics industry and low carbon energy generation from renewable sources, it seems that the high labor costs and lack of government sourced subsidies spelled the death knell of America’s rare earth metals mining industry in the post Cold War world. Even the profitability of the Mainland China’s rare earth metals mining industry is walking on a thin line indeed when valuated using established mine valuation methods.