Always Read the TOS Before Joining Any Site

I know some people have the habits of not reading the TOS (Term of Service) before joining or signing up at any site. They might hear about the sites from someone else, they would just get interested in joining the same sites (especially those ones that give them the possibilities of making some profits).

So these people would just hit the sign up or register link, enter in the requested personal detail, turn on the check box containing “I agree with the term of this site” right away, without even bother to spend some time to read it first, and then hit the submit button. Few minutes or even seconds after they got the “sign up succeeded” confirmation, they started using the service right away. Still, without reading the TOS.

I hope my readers didn’t do the same mistake they did. If you did, then I would recommend you to start reading the TOS of every sites / services you have joined from now on to make sure you understand the sites better than none. And if you are planning to sign up for any site, from this moment, read their TOS, always, before you sign up.

Why?

I keep reading that some people were questioning the importance of reading the TOS. They often said that it was just for the formality.

I would say that the TOS actually serves more than what we had ever thought of. And now, I would explain why we will always have to read their TOS before we sign up. Even when we have already become their members, we will always need to read the TOS again after sometimes, in case you would break the term unknowingly, or in case that they have changed it.

Read the TOS So You Would Not Break the Rules.

Just think about it, just take this example:

• You were seeking for a site that enabled you to store files on their servers and to share your files with your friends or anybody that ever drop a visit to your links.

• You read some information out there, about one certain site (let’s call it the “XYZ service”) offered this, and when you read about how great the speed of downloading from the site, you found that it would be great to sign up for your own.

• Later, you came to XYZ site. The site looked great, you were impressed, and you signed up right away and not even bothered to read their TOS (Term of Service) first.

• So you hit the sign up link, entered all the needed details for registration, when it came to a check box saying “I agree with the term of service”, you just turned on the check box and never even bothered to open the TOS link first to read it.

• You submitted the registration right away.

• A confirmation of your registration appeared; you logged into the site right away and started using the service.

• And you uploaded all the files you could upload to your account at that server, and promoted it everywhere, you put the notification in your own blog, in forums, in emails, everywhere you could use to promote the files sharing.

• And later, suddenly the files were gone. You might not notice it yet, until some complaints coming to you, flooding your blog’s comments section or anywhere you have promoted the sharing back then.

• And you wondered a lot. Why? Why they said that the files couldn’t be downloaded?

• Later you checked back to your account at the XYZ service, perhaps you could still log into the account and you found that the files were gone. Or, the worse condition was you were no longer able to log into your account. The site either said “your account doesn’t exist” or “this account is suspended”.

Wondering about what was going on; you decided to use the contact form of XYZ and asked them about the reason behind their deletion towards your files or even your account. Soon, you would find yourself getting response back from XYZ team that you had violated their term of usage / term of service.

In fact, there were some points inside the TOS that were clear enough for those who cared to preview the TOS before they started using the service. These are the small examples:

• You are not allowed to upload ‘copyright infringement’ related files.
• You are not allowed to upload files containing nude or adult category.
• You are not allowed to upload any warez or cracks or any illegal software or files.

And so on. The next point warned you about the suspension of your account and deletion towards all the files if you broke their term of service. At the bottom of the TOS, it stated that by signing up you understood these points mentioned in their term of service and you accepted all the consequences if you happened to break any rule.

So if you happened to upload any kind of files mentioned as “the prohibited files” in the TOS, no wonder that your files were later deleted from the site and you might have experienced the suspension of your account.

With all these conditions, would you dare to ask them which point you had violated, if you had never cared to read their term before then? Well, some people did that, and well … just imagine how the XYZ team (or the other people) would react towards this kind of ex-member?

Nobody would blame XYZ team, but a lot of people would call you as an ignorant. So hopefully, you have never experienced this and you did learn the TOS of every site you have joined.

Read the TOS to Find Out the Legitimacy of the Site.

I keep hearing that many participants of “get paid to” (GPT) programs being scammed many times by some sites, for example, by certain “paid to read” (PTR) or “paid to click” (PTC) sites.

I have to warn you that mostly those people have fallen into the scam scheme because they didn’t learn the TOS of the sites when they decided to participate in the online earning sites.

Let me tell you some small examples:

• You read some recommendation here and there about one certain GPT site (let’s take a PTC site as example). The people just boasted about how great the site was, about how many ads they got daily (20 or even 30 daily ads to click). They also told that the payout was low, you could cash out immediately after you reached $1.

• So you made your own visit to the PTC site. You read at their main page, really stated like some people claimed, “Payout: $1.00″.

• You checked their FAQ to make sure. You noted some “how it works” explanations and some other points you thought to yourself “Okay, I know it now”. You also noticed how the FAQ stated that you could cash out through Paypal, E-Gold, (and perhaps the FAQ also stated some other online payment processors) after reaching $1.

• Since you have a Paypal account, you signed up right away, without reading the TOS.

• After the sign up confirmation appeared, you logged in immediately and started clicking on the advertisements. You went to the site daily, you noticed that the number of advertisements were lower than some claims back then. You wondered but you kept clicking.

• Later, when you were almost at the minimum payout value, suddenly the minimum payout increased to $2! You started questioning about the site’s legitimacy, but you kept trying because you read how some ‘members’ stated that they ever got paid back then when it was still $1 minimum payout.

• But later, when it was almost $2 for you, the site was down. You couldn’t click to reach the remaining 30 cents to get your $2.

• Later the site got back online again. The PTC site stated in their own forum, gave announcement to the members that they would raise the minimum payout to $3 because they had to cover the new server costs.

• Perhaps you became panicked; you almost reached the $2. You could log into the site, but the ads were even fewer, you couldn’t even make 10 cents per day.

• The next day you accessed the main page, the minimum payout had become $4!!!

• And you also noticed that they would soon switch to a new payment method.

The site became very suspicious for you. Now would you care to check various information sources about the legitimacy of this site? Well, I have to tell you, at this state, it is actually a bit late. But it is better than none.

A very wise action if you later decided to stop clicking for a while. Later you got information from some friends in another forum you had just joined that they also started questioning the legitimacy of the site (perhaps you also want to check the article “Why We Would Always Need the Community” to know why a community is needed to exchange some information). One member in the forum told you that he had stepped back after he learned the TOS of that site before he signed up. He told you that if he hadn’t read the TOS, he might have fallen into the same trap.

You might say that the FAQ back then stated that minimum payout, you found nothing suspicious back then, you just wondered about why the ads number was different for some members. But there was not about the FAQ, your friend stated. It was within the TOS.

So later, this friend would tell you that he found the TOS and the FAQ and the main page statements had contradicted each other. One thing that you finally understood: 20 ads per day were for upgraded members. You were a free member, no wonder you got less ads. You started guessing, so those people claimed they got 20 ads up to 30 ads per day might have purchased the upgrade and became premium members.

Now there was more information shared by your new friend that brought you into sudden awareness. The main page of the suspected site stated “Payout: $1″. The FAQ stated “the minimum payout is $1″ through various online payment processors. But this new friend you just met in the forum had noticed something you never read back then.

It was within the TOS, and the TOS stated that the payout would be done via Paypal (no other online payment methods being mentioned within the TOS) and the minimum payout was $10.00!

Got it yet?

You quickly went to the site again, to check their TOS. But you didn’t find the point mentioned by your friend there. You assumed that the friend was mistaken this site to another one. But you didn’t ever think of the possibility that the TOS might have been changed before you finally read it on your own. You might go back to your friend, sent some private message telling the person that you didn’t find the point he said within the TOS. The person told you that “then they must have realized the contradiction and changed it as soon as possible.”

Are you aware of the importance of reading the TOS and to re-read the TOS again now?

So if some people stated that Term of Statement (TOS) was just for the ‘formality’, they were absolutely correct if it was about the site I mentioned in the example above.

Later, you found that the site changed the minimum payout again, to $8.99. If you had stopped clicking on the ads back then, you would be glad that you didn’t fall into the trap for the third time.

And if later the site really turned out to have “$10.00″ minimum payout, and later a lot of people stated that it was scam, there’s no need to be surprised.

I guess my example above was enough to make you aware of the importance of reading the TOS of every site you are joining, and to re-read the TOS again, often, after you become one of their participants.

It’s better to stay informed, than being ignorant and stumbled on the consequences of whatever that might come as the result of not learning the points within their TOS. The latter pain will hurt you more, really. So make sure you always read the TOS.

Good luck!