mailround.com

Are you one of those people who has signed up with every paid-for-email scheme around only to find that they don’t send you any emails and thus you don’t get a penny. Well, at last I have found a scheme that not only pays but pays quite well.

I actually signed up with Mailround in October as I was lured by the offer of 150 free beenz. In the past five months I have made £22. Doesn’t really sound much but you can make money each month for doing, well absolutely nothing. You continue to send and receive emails the way you usually do. Sounds too good to be true? Well that’s what they all say...

So how exactly does it work then?
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* To join Mailround, you have to download the mailround program (not very big and doesn’t take too long) which then places adverts (stamps) on incoming and outgoing emails. You get paid for the amount of stamps that you send and receive each month

* Unlike other paid-for-email programs, you do not get paid for the amount of emails that Mailround send you because they don’t send you any! Instead you send and receive your own personal email as usual and the Mailround program inserts the adverts.

What do I need to do?
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* Firstly, it only works with email programs such as Outlook Express or Eudora and thus you need a POP3 account. (Note: it doesn’t work with web based mail accounts or with some servers.)

* Secondly, go to their website at: www.mailround.com and fill in a few questions. You then have to download the mailman program (only takes minutes) and you are ready to go. It would also be worth reading the FAQs first as they are able to advise you on technical requirements and the like.

Do they really pay out?
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* Yes, they pay out each month but don’t expect to become a millionaire overnight. However it does have quite a good pay rate depending on which kind of user you are:

GOLD - Heavy users (top 10%) Worth up to £100 per year
SILVER - Regular users (next 30%) Worth up to £70 per year
BRONZE - Light users (next 60%) Worth up to £50 per year

* If you are a very heavy user, you can earn Platinum status which Mailround say is worth £500 per year if you get the Platinum award every month. But this would probably mean that you would have to be sending hundreds of emails each day.

* There is also a referral program whereby you get £2 added to your account for every friend that you refer. I haven’t managed to refer anybody yet but this would be a good way to build up your total.

* The money that you get can be converted into vouchers (minimum of £10) or you can save it up and Mailround will send you a cheque (minimum of £50). The vouchers that you can get include Amazon, Marks & Spencers and Tesco.

Are there any disadvantages?
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* Well, I would be lying if I said it was all good because there are a few disadvantages. Firstly, it takes a lot longer to collect your email. My computer is very old and quite slow at the best of times but it takes at least twice as long to collect and send my mail. Checking mail frequently and sending them in chunks of three or four does help a bit.

* It has a hatred for Norton Antivirus 2000 email protection. Sometimes these two programs do not like to work together and can cause Outlook Express to freeze. I have found that this seems to be more likely if you have over 25 emails to collect as it takes so long and you can end up being timed-out. Again, checking email frequently helps.

* For those of you with more than one ISP to dial up, if the Mailround program detects that you have changed ISP then it has to reconfigure which takes about 30 seconds. It can become annoying if you frequently dial up with a different account as it won’t stamp your mail until it has reconfigured. However, I have found that after using it for a few months, it doesn’t seem to mind as much as it used to as I chop and change between two ISPs and it doesn’t seem to notice.

Generally, I’ve found Mailround to be quite a good program. I have reached Bronze status for four months and silver for one. As far as I know, the minimum requirement for bronze status is that you have to receive at least ten emails a week but they do not specify anything about the other awards.

For those of you who are worried about sending adverts in serious emails (eg Job applications) there is a facility to turn off outgoing stamps. After you have sent a mail to a certain address for the first time, a pop-up appears to ask if you want it stamped or not. If, in the future, you change your mind about what addresses to stamp, you can log onto the website and change your options there.

So if you want to make some money then why not try it out. After all, if you don’t like it, you can always uninstall it.

**UPDATE**

I have been informed that they have altered their payments as one user was only paid £2 for her month as a member. As my payments have been increasing rather then decreasing, I was unaware of this and upon checking the Mailround homepage, have found that they no longer state a monthly rate but say you can earn "up to" £XXX in a year depending on your status.

Nevertheless, it is still easy money and most other members that I have spoken to have not had less than £4 paid out to them each month so it is still worth checking out.