let the advertisers pay you for your time

Today, I added a nifty little program to the sidebar of my blog. I’ve been using YouData for about 2 months now (after hearing about it through kirtsy), and since I completely believe in its mission, I’m proud to have it on the site!

Here’s the basic idea of the site: (explanation courtesy of Gwen Bell):

1. You are matched with ads based on your interests through something they call a MeFile. You tell them what you’re interested in, they match you with ads. Sorta like eHarmony. If you were going to date an ad.

2. You control when and where you see the ads. On your desktop, at your favorite sites, on your own blog. Wherevs.

3. If you decide to look at the ads, a wee bit of cash flies straight into your PayPal account. This part is totally addictive — even though it’s just small change (21¢ here, 54¢ there), there’s something so gratifying about hearing the little cha-ching sound it makes after you look at an ad. Like, you’re getting paid for your attention. It’s pretty cool.

What’s even better, is that if you have your account linked to paypal, you’ll see the deposits drop in within a day or so, completely unlike every other rewards program that requires you to reach a certain threshold in order to cash in. So you could literally have a new song on your ipod within a couple of minutes!

And the best part of it all… finding awesome site and advertisers!  Today I just discovered foodzie.com and I can’t stop devouring the site and putting the products on my wishlist! All you need to do is sign up for a MeFile, answer the questions, then when you happen to visit this blog, just log in and collect your ads! Super simple and easy!

And just in case you don’t think it’s time to “break up” with the old way of web advertising, check out this wonderfully cheeky short film starring my friend Claire: