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Emailcash extends give-away program

Online marketer Emailcash has so far given away $100,000 to people willing to read online advertising, and this week it extended the program.

In December, Emailcash began paying Internet users randomly, sending $5, $20 and $50 notes to people who agreed to read online advertising. This week the company began offering reward points for opening e-mails, taking part in market research and visiting the Emailcash site.

Points are then exchanged for e-cash (which can be spent online as Australian dollars or redeemed for real money as cheques, paid in $20 denominations) on a varying rate depending on the demand for exchange.

Opening an e-mail earns about 10 e-reward points. Yesterday 100 points were worth $3.22 in e-cash. Consumers can spend the e-cash shopping online, redeem it as cheques or give it to charities.

Emailcash's business development director, Mr John Fenech, said the site had seen a significant increase in subscribers since the change, with 700 people joining on Tuesday alone.

Mr Fenech said on a "conservative estimate", Emailcash would have given away $100,000 since it started the program in December.

However, Mr Martin Lindstrom, former executive of Internet marketing agency Zivo, said Emailcash's success could be short-lived.

"It's still such a new trend that people think, 'wow, that's cool'," Mr Lindstrom said.

"In the long term, it starts to get a little bit uncomfortable to open so many e-mails."

Emailcash directs some e-mails according to user profiles but Mr Lindstrom said these profiles would probably be too broad to determine specific preferences.

"To survive, these services have to very quickly monitor what the reader wants," he said.