mylot.com Review

My friends referred me to MyLot saying it was a fun site to chat at and earn some extra cash.  It is sometimes fun, but overall it's not a big money maker.

How does it work?
It's easy, you earn money from posting discussions and responding to other people's discussions.  The way you earn is based on some secret formula depending on how much you participate in a day.  Some how or other they judge that certain discussions will make more money and others less, I have no idea how.  Adding pictures to your discussion adds a few more cents as well.

You add people to your friends list that you like talking to and then they can easily find your new discussions via the "discussions my friends started" link.  You also add interests to your interest list such as "i like ice cream" or "I live in Michigan".  Then you can find discussions that are based on your interests whenever you want.  This is good for me because now I can find who else likes Big Brother and discuss the show with them since my husband doesn't really watch it.  It's nice to know I can find people to discuss almost any topic with.

Sounds easy, so what's the problem?
Well first off, I have no idea what will earn me money and what won't.  Some days I start and respond to what feels like tons of discussions and I only earn pennies.  Other days I post only a few, but they get a lot of responses and I make up to 70 cents.  I don't see how I could make more than 70 cents a day which isn't really worth the time it takes to get it.

Another reason it's hard to earn is because the site is slow and on some days I'm sitting there tapping my fingers waiting for a discussion to load so I can respond to it.  This is frustrating because I will forget what I was going to say by the time it loads.  They should really expand the memory and size of their servers to handle all the users that are there.

Even if discussions load fast, there are too many steps involved to reply.  First, you have to hit reply, then wait for the comment box to load, then if you want to add a picture that's another few steps.  After you post the response, you then have the option to "tag" it which means add keywords that people might search for to help them find the discussion.  I feel like this should be combined with the comment box in the first place.  Finally, after you add tags or say no to this step, you sometimes have an option on the screen that says something like "I am also interested in Category x" and lets you add category x to your interests list by hitting a button.  That is just a lot of steps for 1 response!

A final downside is that a lot of people out there will start crazy, lame, or made up discussions just to earn money.  Some will post something obviously wrong to get a reaction out of people and it usually works.  They will make outrageous claims about what's going on in their lives such as "My boyfriend got my best friend pregnant but I still love him, what should I do".  To me, it's obvious that is not true, but they want the reaction from people and they want the tons of responses!  I avoid those discussions if I can tell up front they are just too out there.

So why do I visit?
Even though I have only earned $59 since I signed up in the start of 2007, I still visit.  I try to stick to discussions that truly do interest me and try to find friends that have common interests.  I enjoy returning to the site to discuss the latest episode of my favorite shows and find people who actually want to talk about it.  The money has become more of a bonus than a reason to visit.  If you are looking for people to discuss a few of your favorite things, it is worth checking out, just don't expect a huge payload. Hope to see you there!!