PJCNET

ScreenSwarm uses virtually the same system as Free Traffic Bar, except instead of viewing Ads using an Ad bar on your Internet browser, you view Ads using a ’screen saver’ provided. As with Free Traffic Bar you view Ads in exchange for other people viewing your Ads.

As a free member you only get a 4:1 ratio, meaning you have to view 4 Ads to get just 1 of your Ads shown, but with 171,000 (1×100,000 and 7×10,000 plus a 1,000 sign up bonus) free Ad views that would normally cost a total of $155.90 (Corrected) if brought individually, it’s certainly well worth your while signing up. Okay, in my opinion I think the cost of buying Ad views is rather expensive, especially if only buying 10,000 at a time, but who cares if your not paying a penny? If you want to, you can use the free credits without even bothering to install the ’screen saver’, then when the credits have gone, you can simply close your account owing absolutely nothing.

Here’s your FREE CREDITS (Tested on the 20/07/2009 – Some might expire over time so be quick):

To claim your totally free credits, sign up to ScreenSwarm. Now login to the members area and click on “Buy Views”, now click on the relevant amount of free site views and fill in the relevant coupon code. Finally click on the “Paypal” button and you won’t be charged. Repeat this with all your free coupons and you will get 170,000 free screen views plus a 1,000 screen view sign up bonus making a total of 171,000 totally free screen views.

You might decide to continue using the system afterwards as you’re earning credits while your away from your computer anyway, even if it is only a 4:1 Ad ratio as a free member. I installed and tested their screen saver Ad system and I can’t say I like having to have a process named SCREENSWARMBRIDGE.EXE loading permanently when my PC is on, I suppose it only uses 2MB of memory, but I don’t see how this is necessary? I don’t think it’s spyware, but at the time of writing I can’t be 100% sure. I doubt if your Ads will be very effective as most of the time no-one will even be around to see them while shown on a ’screen saver’, but I suppose you’re still likely to get a few genuine views per thousand Ads on average.

BE CAREFUL USING A CRT MONITOR:

What I will say is I wouldn’t use the screen swarm system is you are using a CRT monitor as their so called ’screen saver’ doesn’t truly act as a screen saver at all. If the same image is left on a CRT monitor for weeks, eventually it will be permanently burnt in the monitor and you will see a permanent shadow, this is why screen savers where originally introduced, okay more modern CRT monitors don’t burn as easily, but they will still burn eventually if the same image is left on-screen long enough. The ScreenSwarm ad ’screen saver’ leaves a status bar at the top of the screen permanently and also scroll bars which eventually could burn into a CRT screen after continued use. You can work around this problem by setting up power-saving or by remembering to turn you monitor off when before leaving it for long periods. LCD / TFT monitors don’t suffer from burning problems and screen savers have since become more of a gimmick than a true screen saver.

DON’T USE IF YOU HAVE A LIMITED INTERNET USAGE ALLOWANCE:

Using the screen swarm ’screen saver’ uses bandwidth as it emulates surfing. Okay it’s not that heavy on bandwidth, but I wouldn’t use it unless you have an ‘unlimited’ amount of bandwidth / usage allowance, but remember most Internet Service Providers have a Fair Usage Policy even when they say they are ‘unlimited’, so keep an eye on your usage. At the time of writing, Sky is the only truly unlimited mainstream ISP in the UK. Mobile dongles in the UK usually have quite low usage allowances at the time of writing, so I most definitely wouldn’t install the ScreenSwarm ’screen saver’ in this case.

IS PAID MEMBERSHIP WORTH WHILE?

Paid membership improves your referral commissions from 10% as a free member plus it gives you extra Ad views and increases your Ad ratio, but in my opinion paid membership is rather expensive for what they offer, especially lifetime platinum membership at a whopping $247, but this does give you a 1:1 Ad ratio, 50% commissions and screen views per month for life. You have to really use to system a lot to make paid membership worth while.

SUMMARY:

Screenswarm is a good idea and it works fairly well although it’s disappointing that you only get a 4:1 Ad ratio as a free member while membership and paid Ads are in my opinion rather expensive. The Ad ’screen saver’ works okay as long as you are careful with a CRT monitor and don’t have a limited Internet bandwidth. Most Ads will be wasted while no-one is near the PC, but it’s worth signing up even if it’s just to get loads of free Ad views as a small proportion of Ads are still bound to get seen. All these free hits can help with your search engine optimisation if nothing else.

(Yes I am using an affiliate link for what little it’s worth, I only get 10% commissions of any paid sales which are unlikely and you can see by my review that it’s not biased in any way!)

(Please use coupon code: PJCNET for an exclusive discount>

Disclaimer:

The coupon codes can be found by simply performing a Google search, the information is therefore freely obtainable across the Internet and no hacking has taken place in any way what-so-ever. This article includes my own personal opinion and it’s without prejudice to ScreenSwarm or any other organisation. My full legal disclaimer applies to this article and all other articles on this website.

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