Again, for the sake of argument, let's say I contact numerous businesses (hereafter referred to as ?business?) and indicate I am willing to work on commission. It will be my job to bring traffic to their site, and for every individual that signs up I get a commission.

Surely there must be a catch for the business owner. No, the proprietor requires no fee beyond the commission for each sale. The proprietor is such a nice person they even throw in the extra traffic at no cost. Businesses are very happy with this arrangement.

OK, the proprietor has made a big promise, but how will they live up to the hype? This is where a unique business idea comes into play.

The proprietor creates an online business promising cash for reading emails. The only thing required is for individuals to register and set up an account. The individual is even promised a few dollars just for signing up.

The online presence starts off with enormous success. There will be hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals (hereafter referred to as ?individuals?) signing up for their free cash.

OK, so how will those individuals be paid?

Well, remember the commitment to the businesses I talked about in the beginning of this article? The money will come from them.

If you're playing along at home you may realize that so far the proprietor in this scenario hasn't paid anything.

Here's how this works.

1) Business owners agree to pay a commission for every sign-up.

2) Business owners do not agree to pay an advertising fee.

3) Proprietor offers cash to those willing to read emails.

4) Individuals sign up for free cash.

5) Proprietor sends emails to customers featuring the businesses they want a commission from.

6) Individual reads emails and click a confirm button and a few pennies are credited to their account.

7) Individual is sent to a squeeze page that, if filled out, signs the individual up for whatever the business owner is either selling or offering.

8) Business owners pay proprietor and proprietor gives the individual a portion of the commission.

In many cases the proprietor will award a certain dollar amount if the individual will sign up. Many will do so to earn the extra money even if signing up will ultimately cost them more as a new member or customer.

In order to keep the individual interested in sticking with this idea the proprietor sets a payment threshold that is not easily met. If an individual tires of the process before they reach the payment they essentially forfeit any cash remaining in their account. If they rely solely on reading emails it will likely take months to reach the payment threshold ? and that's taking into account the reality that you will read at least two paid emails a day.

The proprietor knows there will be many individuals that will leave, but before they do the hope is that they will sign up for a few offers and essentially allow the proprietor to retain all commissions. Both the business and the proprietor get what they want.

This is the scenario often referred to as Paid Email. This is a case study in effective marketing, but the end result often leaves the individual less than enthused about their participation.