Back during the first dot com boom there was substantial money thrown at odd targets - like getting paid to surf, search, or play games. This all died out with the first dot com bust. But now there is a new dot com boom - sometimes referred to as the web 2.0 boom as compared to the web 1.0 boom (or bubble). These fads are coming back. I think that some of them will continue to fail but I think some - such as Moola's model may succeed. A much larger portion of the population now uses the internet and advertisers are more willing to spend money on the internet as compared to back in 2000-2001.

    In any case, Moola is pretty nifty. Right now it is invite only, but if you want an invite they are free. Just leave a comment and I'll give them away till I run out. Moola operates around a simple idea - make games that are like the games we are used to on television game shows available on the internet and offer the same sorts of monetary prizes. Its a working model for Jeoporady,  Wheel of Fortune, The Price is Right, Who Wants to be a Millionaire?, and many others - so why not on the internet?

     When you sign up with Moola you are given $0.01. You can then play one of several fun games. They aren't complex, but they are also based partially on luck - making it difficult to repeatedly win. You play these games against other human online opponents. The games take maybe five minutes. Before every game you watch a short commercial and answer one question about the content of the commercial (e.g. was it about motorcycles or baby clothes?). If you win the game you double your money ($0.02) and so on. After thirty consecutive wins you would have nearly $11,000,000. Of course, its very hard to do this. I've never made much money off of it (a few bucks, that I haven't cashed out). But if you already play online games, why not? Even better, if you have a gambling addiction this might be a good way to start the recovery - by stopping your monetary losses.

    If you lose a game they give you another $0.01. You never pay anything. Who can argue with free games that you can win money from? Especially since the games are high-quality.