Agloco directory

You might have noticed the AglocoDirectory button under "Vote for this blog". Their website has a list of everything Agloco-related. There are separate categories for blogs, websites, Squidoo lenses, etc. and separate lists for each country (if yours isn't there yet, they will add it). Their support is friendly and answered all my questions.

I recommend adding your sites to this directory. It's quick and easy. You don't even have to link back to them - but then your site won't get higher ranking because your visitors will be unable to vote.

My only complaint with their site is the design - it's too dark and gloomy. Am I the only one who thinks all Agloco sites should be in green? :)

Viewbar™ update

According to the official blog of Agloco, the revised release date for Viewbar is between April 2nd and April 16th. These news are not surprising because Agloco delayed their launch before (we had been expecting it on February or March). However, now that we have a date set, it should be released on time.

On other note, I got my 100th referral today:

Compared to stats I posted a little over a week ago, I got +23 direct referrals and +7 indirect ones. Not too bad! I expect this is mostly thanks to my lithuanian website about Agloco, and perhaps this blog as well. I hope to see an increase in my indirect referrals because I still have more on my first level than on all others combined.

Agloco's referral system

As I mentioned in my previous post, I'd like to express my views on Agloco's referral system. I will try to outline it's pros and cons.

Agloco's referral system
As you probably know, Agloco has 5 referral levels. That means you get rewarded for people you refer - you get a percentage of their surfing hours (of course, they don't loose anything either). You also get rewards for the referrals of your referrals, and so on - 5 levels "deep". What makes it a bit confusing at first is that Agloco adds up all your referrals from levels 2 to 5 and shows them as "extended" referrals. So, you'll see "direct" and "extended", while there in fact are 5 levels of them.

Does that make Agloco a pyramid scheme?
While it's true that Agloco has 5 referral levels, it can't be called a pyramid scheme for the simple fact that you don't have to pay anything to join. You don't have to pay anything to make money, either. In addition, it doesn't matter when you join. You can start building your referral network at any time. However, I have to agree that users who joined earlier have better chances to get more referrals. Also, it's very likely that users without any referrals won't make much money. To conclude, there are some similarities, but the main point is that Agloco is free, so you can't loose anything.

Too many levels?
Referral system is a good thing; when you refer someone to Agloco, everyone wins. It makes sense that you get rewarded for the people you refer. It also makes sense that you get rewarded for the second level. After all, you are communicating with your direct referrals and helping them build their own downlines. However, you have very little control on the third level, and next to none on the 4th and 5th. You can't even track them on your Agloco account, because all you see is a total number of your "extended" referrals. Does it make sense that you get rewarded for the work of people that signed up through a chain of 4 other members? Theoretically, you could have 1 referral on each level, and 100 on the 5th, and still make the same amount of money like if you had referred that 100 people by yourself. And the problem here is that more money is needed to pay the referral rewards, and less money is avalaible for surfing rewards.
Agloco's income comes from showing you ads on the viewbar - but will top recruiters use it for 5 hours a month, when they get thousands of "hours" from their referrals? Will people with no referrals use it, if it will only make them less than $5 a month?

I realize that a lot of people will disagree, but I would be happy if Agloco had just 1 or 2 referral levels. This way you'd be rewarded for your own efforts. I also believe a bigger emphasis should be put on rewarding your surfing activity.

All comments are welcome - if you think that my opinion is wrong, please let me know.

My new site about Agloco

I have started a new site about Agloco today. It's in lithuanian so it won't be useful for you english readers, but I just have to brag! We have a news section there, and plenty of information about the company. I also added a link exchange and I'll swap links with Agloco-related sites in any language. It includes a neat little flag near your link as well. Here's the URL for those who are interested:
http://www.AglocoLietuva.com

I'll use the site to publish unbiased (hopefully!) information and news. However, the reason I started it is getting more users to join my network (surprised?). I've been really enthusiastic about Agloco lately. There are so many sites about it starting up, Google finds over 2.1 mil results already and their Alexa rating is climbing. So, I decided that I can't miss this.

Speaking of referrals, you can see my stats here:

I am far from being a pro recruiter - however, March certainly is a good month for me. As you can see, I got +18 extended referrals in 14 days. That's a big improvement, because I was getting mostly direct referrals before - and extended levels are more important. Take the guy who has 124 referrals in his first level and over 20k(!) in extended as an example. If you manage to recruit some active, dedicated people, you can get hundreds of referrals from there on, without doing much yourself. Which, I believe, might actually be a problem. I am going to analyze referral levels in Agloco in my next post, after I discuss the issue with some of my friends.

In brief, you saw my current stats, and you saw my new website. Let's see how much it will help me in building my downline.

Banners for promoting Agloco

I've made some 468x60 banners for Agloco, and you're welcome to use them freely. I'm not good at design, so these don't look professional, but they're quite original if I might say so :)

#1:

#2:


For more (and better looking) banners of various sizes, visit http://www.aglocobanners.com.

Finally, I'd like to invite all Agloco-related Squidoo lenses to my newly created group, called "Own the Internet". All new and recently updated lenses will be listed on the group HQ page.

Squidoo - a great place to promote Agloco

Squidoo is a handbuilt catalog of interesting online stuff. It's made of little cute pages called "lenses", and each one of them describes a single topic. You can build one in minutes with their module system. You can even make money by placing pre-made affiliate modules (for example, Amazon or eBay product links), and everything you make with them will be paid by Squidoo. Nice!

There's also the social networking aspect of the site. You can have your lenses listed in the directory, lensrolls, top lists, groups and so on. That means getting free, targeted traffic. I suggest you check Squidoo out. Create a lens about Agloco, add some content, link back to your blog or site. Don't forget to join Agloco group on Squidoo - yep, we have Agloco members everywhere!

Finally, take a look at the lens I just created:
http://www.squidoo.com/andrew-owns-agloco/
It has an RSS feed module, which links to the 3 latests posts on this blog. I also added a list called "Great sites about Agloco", where you can submit your own link (please do!) and vote for the best ones.

Viewbar™ release date announced

You might already know that Agloco announced the time frame for their Viewbar release. That's when company will actually start paying you for surfing the web. According to Agloco's blog the date is between March 26th and April 16th.
Personally I think they'll delay it until April. I'm waiting eagerly, but I also appreciate the fact that we have another half a month to promote Agloco before people really start rushing in.

Agloco's interview video

This interview features two of Agloco team members: Ray Everett-Church, Chief Privacy Officer (have you heard about such job before?), and Akshay Mavani, who coordinates strategy.

They explain the concept behind Agloco's Viewbar and how it will work. They also talk about making money from blogs. Now that's a hot topic for us, isn't it?

Introduction to Agloco

I would like to start off this blog by posting an introduction to Agloco. It should give you a pretty clear picture about what it's all about. All information is accurate as it's taken from Agloco's official site.

You might already know that almost everything you do on the Internet makes money for someone else. And that’s not just when you spend money. Just about every time you view an ad, click an ad, search, buy something, download something, join a community, or post a story, picture, or video, some person or some company is making a fee, commission, and/or sale from your activity.

If you want to join as a Member, you download a piece of software called the Viewbar. It’s like a toolbar that sits at the bottom of your desktop, and it will be available soon. Essentially, it collects on your behalf some of the revenue you would usually generate for other people while you conduct your everyday browsing. Then, it returns most of this money to you.

Why does this work? You win because you now get your share of the money for doing what you would normally do. AGLOCO management wins by keeping a 10% cut of this revenue (like Brad Pitt pays his agent a 10% fee). And the companies win, since they get your business. All you need to do is have the Viewbar up on your screen while browsing the Internet like normal.