PublisherSpot

Updated - 08/03/2008

Go to www.agloco.com

AGLOCO, which stands for A Global Community, is a new advertising company that uses the model of Revenue Sharing, where they pay the network members to display ads in their computers.

While it's not a brand new concept (the company existed before with the name of AllAdvantage), this time they refined their business model in order to avoid the mistakes that led to the closing of AllAdvantage, during the dot com crash in 2000. Instead of simply paying a fixed hourly rate of cash, with the risk of running out of cash to make the payments, they pay with company shares, that is, they pay only the money they make.

The ads are displayed by a software that shows a small bar called Viewbar, located just above the Windows taskbar (it can be moved to the top of the screen). Besides the ad space, there is be a search feature and a Tools button that launches the Windows Caculator and Calendar, and also the imported favorites from your browser. AGLOCO claims that the Viewbar is spyware free, although it collect s navigation habits in order to display relevant ads to the members.

To download the Viewbar, sign in to your AGLOCO account and click the Download Viewbar button, just below the network statistics table. The installation file is about 2 Mb in size and the Viewbar takes about 20 Mb of memory when loaded.

The Viewbar is now available only for Windows, but AGLOCO will release versions for Mac and Linux. It can be used by multiple accounts on the same computer, and it feature s an automatic self-update (you can configure if you prefer to update manually). Currently, AGLOCO allows 5 hours of Viewbar usage per month, but that can be changed at any time at Agloco's discretion. That's only 10 minutes a day, which seems pretty reasonable. However, the member must be actively using the computer. Just turning the Viewbar on and going to sleep will not work for the purpose of accumulating hours. To check if the Viewbar is active, look at the AGLOCO logo at the left end of the Viewbar: if the second "o" is green, it's active. If it's red, just resume surfing to reactivate it.

The 5-hour limit is country-specific. Right now, all countries have the same limit. If a member may have any restrictions to be issued shares of AGLOCO due to country legislation, AGLOCO will convert it to cash, once it goes public.

AGLOCO generates revenue mainly by selling ad space in the Viewbar. So far they have deals with 17 ad networks and some direct advertisers. Also, AGLOCO participate s in affiliate programs of online retailers, which generate a commission for sales made through the Viewbar. As AGLOCO gets bigger, it will be able to negotiate better commissions with these retailers.

Searches made with the search tool of the Viewbar also generate a commission to Agloco. Finally, there's the commissions generated by distribution of software, products and services through the Viewbar.

The AGLOCO management team takes 10% of the Viewbar revenue for their service, and the other 90% are distributed among the members, in the form of shares. Management won't be given shares, so Agloco's shares go 100% to the members.

The value of the shares depends on Agloco's profitability, which in turn depends on how big the AGLOCO network can become. The bigger the network gets, the bigger the revenue and the bigger the value of the shares. Once the company goes public, these shares can be exchanged for cash. Currently, AGLOCO is in the process of being listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Besides the shares owned, members benefit from the positive cash flow AGLOCO generates as it grows. That excess cash should be distributed monthly to the members proportionally to their Viewbar usage.

Joining AGLOCO is a pretty simple process. The sign up form only asks for Name, Email, City, State and Country. There's a confirmation by email, with a password and a link. Clicking the link and logging in with the password will complete the process. Changing the password is mandatory. After completing the sign up process, the new member receives the Member ID by email. Signing up to AGLOCO is free, and each person can sign up only once. If you don't get the confirmation email, be sure to check your spam folder.

Like AllAdvantage before them, AGLOCO has a referral program. Members can refer new members and earn also by the time they navigate using the Viewbar. These are called direct referrals. Also, a member's referral can recruit others. These are the extended referrals. This goes down 5 levels (direct referrals and 4 levels of extended referrals). There is no limit as to how many people a member can refer.

The referral's surfing time is credited to a member based on the member's own activity: if the member surfs only 2 hours a month and their referrals surf all the 5 hours, the member will only be credited 2 hours from their referrals. To be fully credited for the referral's surfing time, the member must surf the 5 hours.

Each surfing hour equals 1 AGLOCO share. So a member may make 5 shares a month for using the Viewbar. Each surfing hour of a member's referral equals 1 share for the referral and 0.25 share for the member who referred him/her. The 0.25 share is not deducted from the referral's 1 share. So if a member surfs 5 hours/month and has 10 referrals, this would account for a total of 17.5 shares (5 from the member's own surfing and 12.5 for 10 referrals, each one surfing 5 hours).

The easiest way to refer other members is by a URL in the format: http://www.agloco.com/r/AAAA9999, replacing the AAAA9999 with the member's ID. While simply navigating with the Viewbar won't generate much money, the referral program can considerably leverage a member's earnings. Just don't spam, since AGLOCO has an anti-spam policy.

Many people take AGLOCO as nothing but a pyramid scheme. While their referral program does show a multi level marketing structure, there is actually no risk, since membership is free. Members don't have to risk any money to become part of AGLOCO.

AGLOCO wants to be the first Economic Network, where members get paid to participate. Their success will be directly related to their ability to get advertisers and to grow the network. The referral program can help increase the network faster. The average member who does not refer others won't be making a lot of money, but those who take their time to build a network may reap the benefits later.

There is some resistance in installing the Viewbar, mostly by people who fear it may install spyware on their computers. But that would only ruin Agloco's chances to succeed. Besides, AllAdvantage didn't seem to have used spyware, so there's no reason to suspect AGLOCO uses it.

The great appeal to AGLOCO is the fact that it's free to join. If it fails, you lose nothing. If it succeeds, you may win some beer money or some nice cash, depending only on your own efforts to build your network.

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