Does Readbud Really Pay to Read & Rate Articles?

At Readbud.com the internet sojourner and erudite can become a member of Readbud (FREE membership) to read and rate articles for earnings that are payable via PayPal.

Upon joining, the user selects up to 50 interest topic categories and/or sub-categories from from a very extensive list of topics, which they will receive invitations to read targeted articles.

At the end of every articles, the reader can rate the article on a 1-to-5 stars basis for whatever criteria they feel the article deserves. Criteria such as conciseness and thoroughness of topic, depth of coverage, -even spelling and grammar can be a determining factor.

How the reader rates the article does not affect the rate of pay offered or continuance of article invitations given. The rating is used as a measure that you the reader have in fact invested enough time in the article to be able to give an honest opinion of the content.

Upon closing the article, the earnings for that article are added to your daily totals and the next article in queue is presented. Articles on readbud offer a rate of pay based upon the length of the article. The possible earnings typically range from several cents to perhaps twenty cents is fairly common for most articles.

I have accepted several greater-than-20-cent articles but have yet to be offered an article with a payout of under 3-cents. Everyone's results will vary dependent upon the categories of topic they choose. Here is a breakdown of how much Readbud offers per article based on word count:

• Under 100 : 1 cent
• Between 101 and 200 : 2 cents
• Between 201 and 300 : 3 cents
• Between 301 and 400 : 4 cents
• Between 401 and 500 : 5 cents
• Between 501 and 600 : 6 cents
• Between 601 and 700 : 7 cents
• Between 701 and 800 : 8 cents
• Between 801 and 900 : 9 cents
• Between 901 and 1500 : 10 cents
• Between 1501 and 2000 : 15 cents
• Over 2000 : 20 cents

Payout is cited to have a low $50.00 minimum whereby the member can either request a PayPal payment immediately or continue to accrue earnings by reading more articles. For the new member, earning over a dollar a day is fairly typical which quickly builds enthusiasm for the program. Enthusiasm that hopefully will not wane when the number of articles dwindles. More about this shortly.

The entire Readbud business model seems to be summed up here:

• Read, then rate an article to get paid
• Relevant articles are delivered to you
• Earn at least $50 to redeem cash via PayPal
• Participate in our well paid Affiliate Program

There is an affiliate program whereby you earn a cash bonus ($5.00) when your downlevel affiliate referral reaches his or her first payout.

The articles on Readbud come from an array of many writers covering a very wide list of topics. Most articles are quite well-written, some are exceptional and are enjoyable for the factual content they contain.

Seldom do the articles display the name of the author unless incorporated directly into the article via some internal backlink but to date I have not seen any article that explicitly declares copyright. Nor have I seen any articles from fellow writers from other writing sites that I might recognize by name or subject.

Readbud May Not be Legit!

For the new member, the articles tend to be numerous at first. Receiving over a dozen invitations daily is not at all uncommon. The site appears to be ad-driven, with monetized ads supporting the site. These days, -who doesn't have AdSense attached to their blog or web sites?

When I became a Readbud member in mid-August I was receiving a dozen or more articles daily and accruing anywhere from $1.20 to $1.50 each day. This seemed to rather encouraging at first and reaching the $50.00 payout minimum seemed quite tenable.

But as soon as I reached the $30.00 threshold the number of articles being presented to me dwindled to just a quarter dozen daily, -if any were available at all. There are days when I receive no articles to read and rate.

I have been told about this from other users of Readbud whom were becoming discouraged with the service when their article invitations fell so sharply. A quick check on the internet about Readbud seems to hold this model true. Most members upon reaching approximately the $30.00 level suddenly are not receiving as many paid articles as they were before.

There are people whom claim to have reached, requested and received their payouts as well.

I find myself wondering how much ad revenue can X-many articles earn for any one reader to reach the minimum $50.00 payout? Probably not enough. In some likelihood, there would in addition to having new members joining there would be some attrition of existing members who feel that Readbud is no longer worth their time. Anyone that gives up around halfway point likely forfeits their their account and earned monies, and the site benefited from their participation without mandate of remuneration. This would fund the more dedicated Readbud member, the person(s) that stays with the program despite receiving the scant 3 or 4 articles daily.

I notice that occasionally on Readbud attempting to view an article returns the following message: