You could earn money by choosing to receive direct marketing messages via your mobile phone. Cell-Ads, a start-up operating primarily out of Stellenbosch, offers its members a percentage of cash deposited directly to their accounts, for reading messages sent via SMS promoting special retail and entertainment offers.
The model takes into account both direct and indirect referrals, and expands up to seven levels, where level one comprises direct referrals, and levels two to seven encompass indirect referrals. There is no limit to the number of people a user can have in his or her network.
In terms of the current referral structure, level one users earn the primary referee 10% of each rand earned. The percentage earned decreases with each degree of separation.
One proviso, off the company`s Web site, is: "Cell-Ads only pays a member if his earnings have accumulated to R100 or more. So if by the end of the month, a member has made R230, R230 will be paid into his account. If a member has only made R60 this amount will stay with Cell-Ads until that member has met the limit of R100."
Sounds complicated, and suspiciously like a pyramid scheme. Not so, says company MD Christo Smeda. He terms it a multi-level network system, and says the paramount difference between this and a pyramid scheme, is that there`s no cost to the user.
The product, which was launched officially early this week, has been in development since September. Smeda says the company started attracting registered users around mid-October.
"We had a database growth rate of an average of 100 people a month, with a minimum of 20 people registering per day. There are now 2 350 people on the database."
Although there aren`t many advertisers using the service yet, Smeda believes the model will work. "We successfully tested it in Stellenbosch, with a few local restaurants and a branch of Spec Savers. Our main focus is not to spam people - it`s to provide them with a valuable service, and give them the benefit of discounts."
Smeda expects to be sending about four messages per person, per day by June. The maximum number of messages, he says, will probably not exceed six.
"With a good referral system, members can earn between R3 and R4 per message, although the average is generally 50c. With a substantial referral network, users may be able to average R400 per month by July."
Plans for the next quarter include implementing a system where non-contract mobile phone users gain before signing up, and a telephone line, which will allow access to the initiative to people who do not have Internet access.
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