We reported on a company called HooHaa recently that pays it’s user for receiving SMS messages, but now it’s been taken a step further. What if you could get paid every time someone called you?
Brring! does just that. It gives you a free local phone number that you can give out to your friends and family and when they call you, they hear a short 10 second advertisement. For that, you receive $.05. After the ad, they’re forwarded to you on your LAN line or mobile phone. Once you reach $10 or more in earnings, they mail you a check.
It raises the question again of whether or not this is too intrusive and annoying, but if you keep it focused on people you’d rather not give your personal number to, it’s really no skin off your back. It’s actually easier than receiving several text messages throughout the day to earn a little cash. As you sign up, you do select a few categories of what you think your callers might want to hear, so while this isn’t the best targeting, some people might actually find some of the offers useful.
They offer an affiliate program that pays $1 per sign-up, so undoubtedly, you’re going to see large groups of friends signing up as many people as they can to receive commissions, and then calling one another to rack up their earnings. I couldn’t find anything regarding whether there’s a limit to the amount of ad-plays per day, but I’m sure they’ll monitor the quality for their advertisers.
Personally, I would set up a Brring! number to give away when signing up for things that require a phone number, that way when they call you to try and sell you something, they in return hear an advertisement and you get paid!
It’s another interesting service, and we’ll have to see how it catches on. Would you use it?
