Agloco - some thoughts

November 28th, 2006 by Kenric

At first I had reservations on posting the information about Agloco but ultimately I decided to.  As with any offer where you get something for seemingly doing nothing I was very cautious.  I always weigh the risk vs. reward.  In this case the risk was virtually nil and you can say that the reward may be the same.

My brain immediately goes into its ‘how does this work?’ mode and comes up with different ways in which I think this company can make money.  Through this thinking logic I’ve come up with a few thoughts on how they might make money and also on how they can screw you in the end.  How would I figure out if I was correct?  Well, the only way would be to sign up and see how this pans out.  I didn’t want to initially post my thoughts but I figured what the heck…

How would they make money?

  • Advertisers pay them in to put ads on the banner.  Probably measured by time units.
  • Advertisers pay them only when someone clicks on their ad
  • They are banking on people not shutting off their banner once they’ve met their 5 hour limit.  Thus getting their advertising channel for free yet still charging the advertisers.

In both cases I’m sure the ads will be targeted depending on the webpage you are viewing.  Maybe it will look up keywords on the page like Google Adsense does.

How could they screw us?

  • You accumulate hours only.  These hours have no value.  You can convert hours into shares.  These shares have no value yet either.  That’s two hoops and still no cash value.
  • You can only convert hours into shares once you have reached a minimum number of hours.  They can set these hours so high that you can only reach them if you’re network is huge, thus making you continue to recruit or leaving you with unless hours.
  • As time goes by, hours keep accumulating.  This would mean that outstanding shares would keep increasing.  If everyone keeps converting shares into hours, the shares get diluted and become worthless.
  • Their active surfing definition could be real strict.  Maybe it will say that a minute of surfing is equal to viewing a new webpage.  If I go 5 minutes between a click because I’m reading a blog, would that count for 5 minutes?
  • The company never makes money and nobody gets anything

This company will fail if all its members concentrate on surfing the 5 hours and recruiting and never click an ad.  I think this is their biggest problem.  How do you get a non-referral seeker to put this bar on at the bottom of their webpage?  I think it’s fairly obvious that a person with no referrals will not get paid by Agloco.  So how do you market this to someone who is just a regular surfer.  From what I’ve seen, the bar does not add any value to the user.  It’s the same as a Google or Yahoo toolbar on top.  I’m sure many people refrain from install even their toolbars and they are both internet giants.  So why would someone install the Agloco toolbar, if not for making money?

With everyone getting referrals and nobody clicking ads, the advertisers will stop their campaigns and nobody will get paid.  I think that at some point, members with large networks under them may begin a campaign to get their referrals to click ads and generate revenue for the company so their shares may eventually become worth something.



  1. One Comment to “Agloco - some thoughts
  2. Kenric, I like your post about agloco. It’s important to do your own research before signing up.
    However, I don’t agree with your statement that the Viewbar does not add value to the user. Look at the description at http://www.agloco.com/web/guest/viewbar
    The Viewbar will provide functions like podcast, search, IM etc.
    If it’s done well it really can add value for the user.

    muges

    By muges on Nov 30, 2006

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