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Send Files and Make Money Online with Speedy Share

written by Michael Kwan on October 10th, 2007

The sharing of files and information has become critical not only for business professionals, but also for individuals. Web-based email programs typically limit the size of attachments and sending files over instant messenger can be quite a tedious process, not to mention that both of you have to be online at the same time.

You’ve probably seen services similar to Speedy Share in the past, but this could be the first that actually pays you to refer new users a Premium account. Yes, you can make money online by sharing files, maybe even more than writing paid reviews like this one.

Speedy Share For Speedy Sharing

The user interface at Speedy Share file sharing is about as clean as it gets. No messy advertising. No useless widgets. Hitting up the main page, all you’ll see is a single “browse” field to select the file you want to upload and a series of text links at the bottom for navigation.

speedyshare-mainscreen.jpg

The look and feel of the site, in this respect, is very similar to Google. You want simple? You want white space? You want Web 2.0? Speedy Share delivers and, if the name of the site is to be believed, they deliver it quickly. Upload and download speeds will obviously vary with the speed of your Internet connection, but it took me 15 minutes to upload a 22MB file. And yes, you can upload more than one file at a time (by clicking on the link just below the browse field).

Basic and Premium Accounts

speedyshare-premium.jpg

Like most other file distribution websites, Speedy Share offers two kinds of accounts: basic and premium. There are several advantages to subscribing to a Speedy Share premium account, the most notable of which is the ability to upload much larger files.

With a basic account, you’re restricted to files no larger than 30 megabytes. That’s nowhere near enough to send a movie file or a full album of music. If you’ve got an extra beefy PDF or PhotoShop file, that’s a no-go as well. With a premium account, your file size limit gets upgraded to 1.5GB. In addition to larger file sizes, other niceties include:

  • Instant downloads. Basic accounts have waiting periods.
  • No intrusive advertising whatsoever.
  • Account history.
  • Files stay online forever, even if nobody downloads them.
  • Search through all files hosted at SpeedyShare.
  • Affiliate program

speedyshare-search.jpg

The search tool is interesting, because it grants you access to all files hosted at Speedy Share, including those uploaded by other users. This could lead to the sharing of pirated content and stolen information, so I wouldn’t upload anything too personal. I’m personally not a fan of this feature, because I value my privacy. It would be useful to make it not possible to search through other user’s files or, even better, make it possible to tag any files as private.

The non-expiry of uploads means that you can use Speedy Share as a remote backup solution. Just upload a zipped backup file every month or so. Again, privacy is an issue and until that is established, I’d avoid uploading any personal files. Backup your financial information elsewhere.

A premium account costs $5.95 per month and this can be done with automatic subscriptions through Paypal.

Make Money Online with Speedy Share

Looking at the feature set listed above, I have a hard time recommending Speedy Share unless you opt for the premium account. With expired uploads and a maximum file size of 30MB, the basic account isn’t all that useful for most people.

Thankfully, there is a very easy way that you can recoup that $5.95 monthly fee. The affiliate program represents a 50% commission. Every subscriber that you refer results in a $3 payout into your account. This isn’t a one-time payout either, because “you will get paid for every month your referred friend stays subscribed.”

speedyshare-earnings.jpg

In this way, if you refer two people and they stay subscribed to SpeedyShare as long as you do, you can basically make use of the premium account for free. More precisely, two referrals will result in a $0.05 profit each month. Anything more than two sign-ups and you’ve scored some more profit.

When do you get paid? Here’s another nice feature. There is no minimum payout level. You can cash out your account at any time, whether you have $3 or $3,000 sitting in your balance. There is an advantage to saving, however, because if you cash out $300 or more to your Paypal account, you receive a 3.5% bonus payment to cover your Paypal fees (and then some).

Sign up for Speedy Share here

Teejay said on October 10th, 2007 at 10:03 pm

I love the low cash payout!

Reply to this comment
FiveDollarWiki said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:20 am

you LOVE the low cash payout?!? This isn’t even worth a comment… :shock:

Reply to this comment
SEO Optimization said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:34 am

Well if a $3 is what it is called a low cash payout than yeah it is worthless (add the fees). But it is good to be able to get paid even for $10 in case you need those $10 for the next days.

Reply to this comment
FiveDollarWiki said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:43 am

Well…I’ve had better days with other bidvertisers and tla… I am just not feelin’ positive about any affilliate stuff… I never seem to get any results… has anyone? (with moderate traffic? 6000 unique/day?)

Reply to this comment
SEO Optimization said on October 11th, 2007 at 6:32 am

I have to be honest and affiliates have worked for me better than PPC. Tho it did took me a long time to find the right affiliate that works for me, this might be happening with you.

And to be honest, the site on which the affiliates worked best have way much less traffic than what you consider moderate traffic.

Just look at it this way, you refer 10 person and there you get $30 month if they continue to renew their account, while with PPC that same company might be advertising on bidvertiser (in your case) where you will maybe get the same amount of clicks and the same amount of referrals just that, in the PPC case you get paid for the clicks only (probably not even a dollar per click) but no income of those that signed up.

Reply to this comment
Blogging Success Journey said on October 10th, 2007 at 10:07 pm

Sharing and earning.. not bad ei

Reply to this comment
BlogSoc.com - will You join John? said on October 12th, 2007 at 2:15 am

I like it too :)

Reply to this comment
Blogging Success Journey said on October 10th, 2007 at 10:08 pm

John chow dot com will become he largest money making “directory” soon.. :idea:

Reply to this comment
FiveDollarWiki said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:17 am

Good idea!
John, maybe you should just make a small directory based on MediaWiki and sell each page for $100 like MDW… :p

Reply to this comment
Michael said on October 12th, 2007 at 4:46 am

If john makes his own wiki directory thing, then he will no longer be a dot com mogul who owns a private site called Johnchow dot com. It will more be like Shoemoney.

Reply to this comment
Blog Contests said on October 11th, 2007 at 2:01 am

Maybe that is his evil plan.

Reply to this comment
Teejay said on October 11th, 2007 at 2:39 am

Maybe It’ll be called MCDW. Million Canadian Dollar Wiki. :p

Reply to this comment
soccer dvd said on October 11th, 2007 at 4:47 pm

agreed, john site is resourceful but i wouldn’t call it a ‘directory’. i’m not into his fine dining anyway :mrgreen: makes me hungry always

Reply to this comment
FiveDollarWiki said on October 10th, 2007 at 10:09 pm

Hmm… sounds interesting… maybe I will try it out…

Reply to this comment
BlogSoc.com - will You join John? said on October 12th, 2007 at 2:26 am

He he good idea :wink:

Reply to this comment
Chris Jacobson said on October 10th, 2007 at 10:12 pm

A file sharing service that pays you. I like it! :razz:

Reply to this comment
FiveDollarWiki said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:19 am

you like everything… i’ve noticed… but that’s good… be positive…

Reply to this comment
Chris Jacobson said on October 11th, 2007 at 8:44 am

Anything that can make me money. :)

Reply to this comment
BlogSoc.com - will You join John? said on October 12th, 2007 at 2:44 am
Karol Krizka said on October 10th, 2007 at 10:29 pm

Ohh, seems like a great site to host the files for the PSP upgrading tutorials that I write.

Reply to this comment
FiveDollarWiki said on October 10th, 2007 at 10:32 pm

I will use this if John Chow does too… :)

Reply to this comment
Michael said on October 12th, 2007 at 4:49 am

Lets play follow the leader! :mrgreen:

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alexander Batista said on October 10th, 2007 at 10:33 pm

the low cash payout is good but don’t like that it seems like alot of work just to make a little bit of money your’s truly thegeekboys.com

Reply to this comment
FiveDollarWiki said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:22 am

yeah, we want real programs that bring in real cash!
How about some pyramid scheme with money making wikis?

Reply to this comment
sambay said on October 10th, 2007 at 10:35 pm

“Yes, you can make money online by sharing files”
Really? Do you stand behind that statement Michael Kwan?
You DON’T make money by sharing files online with SpeedyShare.
You potentially make money by being an affiliate of theirs and sending a referrer to their paid service. A big difference.

You guys push the envelope, well, tear the damn thing often, but this goes right into being deceitful, not clever.

Reply to this comment
Tomas M said on October 10th, 2007 at 11:36 pm

Actually, you CAN make money by sharing files.
All files uploaded under your Premium Account will set a special TRACKING ID on every computer where your files are downloaded. If anybody signs up for Premium Account from ANY of that computers then you get paid as well!

Reply to this comment
sambay said on October 11th, 2007 at 12:22 pm

If you pay me 5 cents for every file I upload, then it’s making money by sharing files.
If I need to refer someone to your paid service in order to make money, that’s affiliate marketing, regardless of the way the paid service is promoted.

Reply to this comment
KingJacob said on October 11th, 2007 at 8:04 pm

thats still an affiliate program not getting paid for uploading the files,

Reply to this comment
FiveDollarWiki said on October 10th, 2007 at 10:37 pm

Hmm…. how about a post about money making wikis again? :grin: :grin: :grin: I liked it so much I had to make my own… :oops:

Reply to this comment
BlogSoc.com - will You join John? said on October 12th, 2007 at 2:46 am
Online Cash Flow said on October 10th, 2007 at 10:59 pm

I like the payout, but I’ll have to see what happens with it in the future.

Reply to this comment
vmammoth said on October 10th, 2007 at 11:56 pm

Make money through file sharing? There’re quite a few offers in the market. depositefile, easy-share.com, just to name a few.

Reply to this comment
BlogSoc.com - will You join John? said on October 12th, 2007 at 2:49 am

Thanks for info!

Reply to this comment
KingJacob said on October 11th, 2007 at 12:01 am

Thanks to me being an early adopter of box.net i have unlimited premier service so I think Ill stick with them also their CJ affiliate pays better

Reply to this comment
Making The Money said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:23 am

A CJ affiliate program that pays better than 50%?

Reply to this comment
Googlelady said on October 11th, 2007 at 2:19 am

he is talking about box dot net speedy share is not on cj :)

Reply to this comment
Making The Money said on October 11th, 2007 at 4:36 am

That’s what I was asking, does the box.net CJ affiliate program pay better than 50%? Speedy Share is offering 50%.

Reply to this comment
KingJacob said on October 11th, 2007 at 8:10 pm

Box.net pay $15 for each registration for a 14-day free trial which is a much better deal than this speedy share is offering. Also Box.net is established and protects your privacy though really I dont see why people dont just go and pay the 6/month for a shared host.

Reply to this comment
BlogSoc.com - will You join John? said on October 12th, 2007 at 2:51 am

Sounds like good deal…

Reply to this comment
Making The Money said on October 13th, 2007 at 2:21 am

$15 is nice, I was just querying the precentage because at most my CJ programs pay 5%.

Second the view on shared hosting, you’ve got total flexibility to do what you want then.

Reply to this comment
SEO Optimization said on October 11th, 2007 at 8:19 am

I’ll second Pauls question. How much better than 50% pays ?

Reply to this comment
Etienne Teo said on October 11th, 2007 at 12:32 am

that is a good source of money for sharing.. :roll:

Reply to this comment
BlogSoc.com - will You join John? said on October 12th, 2007 at 2:56 am
Poker said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:15 am

I don’t see the advantage of paying for this service and having a server to host your files on. But hey, we will try the affiliate program again :)

Reply to this comment
FiveDollarWiki said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:18 am
Making The Money said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:24 am

Why not just buy some cheap hosting?

Reply to this comment
Googlelady said on October 11th, 2007 at 2:24 am

Is not the same, and remember that cheap hosting will not allow you to use what they promise.

Reply to this comment
lyricsreg said on October 12th, 2007 at 8:35 am

What host did you go to ? Only use established hosting company’s, no no-names

Reply to this comment
Neil Duckett said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:34 am

Good idea letting others make some coin from it too. Incentive to use is greater … obviously.

Reply to this comment
FiveDollarWiki said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:45 am

Why not buy a super dedicated server and sell it instead of “re-selling” it? Aren’t you losing a lot of money to the guy who’s selling you this “reseller” stuff? I mean, a quad Intel CPU from Cari.net costs you about $315, and you can host like 100 websites without any downtime…

Reply to this comment
FiveDollarWiki said on October 11th, 2007 at 1:50 am

If you can change a stubborn mind like mine by words, then this could be a good affilliate program…

Reply to this comment
Teejay said on October 11th, 2007 at 2:37 am

Hey! I didn’t say I liked it because I’d want to get 3$. If I got 50$ that’s the only time I’d get it.

Reply to this comment
Davion - Secrets of Affiliate Marketing said on October 11th, 2007 at 2:38 am

Hey, the payout is too low and there are quite a number of competitors out there going for free. I wonder if anyone would be interested in using the paid version.

Reply to this comment
lyricsreg said on October 13th, 2007 at 2:58 am

They would if they knew thew are paying for a quality service. That’s the difference between free and payed : quality

Reply to this comment
Home Recording said on October 11th, 2007 at 2:58 am

I do not need any financial inducements to avail of this kind of service. The timing could not be more perfect. Exactly what I have been looking for and if in the bargain, I gain a few dollars, so be it. The service can not be faulted.

Reply to this comment
BlogsTheme.com said on October 11th, 2007 at 3:00 am

Nice clean website! Great review! :razz:

Reply to this comment
BlogSoc.com - will You join John? said on October 12th, 2007 at 3:05 am

I like it too. :)

Reply to this comment
Blogging Success Journey said on October 11th, 2007 at 3:01 am

you can possibly share everything on the internet now.. :roll:

Reply to this comment
Justin said on October 11th, 2007 at 4:16 am

Yea the whole thing with this being available for anyone to get a file isn’t so great. Especially if you want to store something thats copyrighted.

Reply to this comment
Tomas M said on October 11th, 2007 at 5:58 am

The review is ENTIRELY WRONG at all in this point. Everybody can mark his files ‘private’ so others will NOT be able to find them by the search function.

Reply to this comment
Shams said on October 11th, 2007 at 4:26 am

John you are advancing very good. It’s very encouraging. Hope I will follow you soon :razz:

Reply to this comment
Liberty and New Creation said on October 11th, 2007 at 5:59 am

There are many sites that do this for free. I wonder what they do to stand out from the pack.

Reply to this comment
Richard Miller said on October 11th, 2007 at 7:17 am

The BOGOF method seems to work pretty well. Maybe they use something in that sense.

Reply to this comment
Starfeeder said on October 11th, 2007 at 7:35 am

hmm sounds interesting, I’m still waiting to hear back from that “Sharing is about to change” beta thingy I signed up for…

Reply to this comment
BlogSoc.com - will You join John? said on October 12th, 2007 at 3:07 am

Could You give us some more info about it?

Reply to this comment
JoeTech.com said on October 11th, 2007 at 8:16 am

I thought RapidShare (or maybe someone else) incetivized their file storing service in the same way, paying members when they refer a downloader who becomes a premium member. Either way, it’s a good idea because people often post the latest controversial videos (Paris Hilton) and link to them from all over. I haven’t tried it, but there’s ways to turn a lot of profit with a site like this.

Reply to this comment
Blogging Success Journey said on October 11th, 2007 at 9:05 am

Still have to watch out if this is really going to work

Reply to this comment
Technobuzz.net said on October 11th, 2007 at 11:11 am

Sharing and earning.. not bad…

Reply to this comment
Klaudio said on October 11th, 2007 at 3:18 pm

I’ll try it
it sounds coool

Reply to this comment
BlogSoc.com - will You join John? said on October 12th, 2007 at 3:22 am
Israel said on October 11th, 2007 at 3:43 pm

nowadays all you need to do is take a concept and tweak it.

Reply to this comment
Clement said on October 12th, 2007 at 12:56 am

Israel

Good point!But you have to make sure that as you are in the process of tweaking, you do not share the concept with anyone else.Otherwise some fast tweaker will launch it cash in on it before you. :

Reply to this comment
Carlo Selorio said on October 11th, 2007 at 7:17 pm

I’ve come across a few sharing sites but none with earning from it.

Reply to this comment
constructicle boy said on October 12th, 2007 at 2:35 am

i think we have to wait and see how the payout goes.IF they start o pay.well,this indeed could be a good site to invest 5.95 monthly

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