A Review: Making Money Online With Redgage

I signed up for RedGage over 2 years ago, and honestly didn't do too much in those 2 years. It seemed like just another revenue sharing site that would take a long time to make any money at, if any. 2 years later, I saw that my earnings had not even reached the minimum payout threshold of $25.00, confirming my suspicions. As of March of this year I had only accumulated $2.41 in revenue from over 2 years at RedGage.

Before you go thinking, I knew I was right, RedGage is a rip-off... I have to in all honestly disclose that in those 2 years I did VERY LITTLE on the site. I rarely uploaded photos, rarely commented on others links or photos nor did I engage in the RedGage community.

And as a former small business owner, I knew that it was MY OWN lack of contribution to the site was that had caused me not to earn any money. As in any business, cultivating relationships, contributing and sharing are vital to growing a business, and sustaining it.

So I decided to try an experiment after 2 years on RedGage.

In April of this year, I had some time on my hands and was researching the several ways people make money on the Internet. For me, my Internet revenue comes mainly from writing here at HubPages - and my very part-time "reporting" position for the San Francisco Examiner, writing about climate change and green living, HubPages being number #1.

I do have a few websites that aren't earning me any money but that's OK for now, I am still learning how to do that.

So back to my RedGage experiment. I got involved at RedGage. I started posting more photos, leaving comments on others photos and links and also learning more about how RedGage works. I made some nice friends there, became acquainted with other fine photographers, and started really enjoying using my "free" time browsing wonderful photos by contributors there.

Because I am also a photographer, this seemed the most natural thing for me to do. And a point I'd like to make here, RedGage is an AWESOME site for photographers to post their photos and meet and see others photographers work. I have found this to be the most enjoyable part of being a RedGager.

So lol and behold by July of this year I hit the $25.00 payout with Redgage, 3 months after the start of my "experiment". I was mailed a RedGage credit card and $5 was taken out for the initiation of the card. I received my card by mail pretty quickly and had an extra $20 to spend (hmmm... not too shabby when you're pinching pennies in this yucky economy)

How did I earn that $25 so quickly? Well a few times I was a "featured user" with certain photos that earned me anywhere from $2.00 to $5.05 a piece for being "featured". The featured photos also earned me more viewers since they were elevated to the front page of RedGages featured photos sections, so I also earned more money on those featured photos through viewers clicks.

My featured photos were: "Teeth" (a photo I took at the zoo through a window showing an alligators teeth) which I earned a bonus of $5.05 for and $4.95 for a photo of one of my art students fine art paintings. I also had a video that was featured that earned me $3.95 for "Grandma Dressing a New Born Baby", and my hub from HubPages was also featured: My Fathers Survival Story: Battleships of World War 2 - The USS North Carolina BB-55, which earned me an extra bonus of $2.00 for being featured.

RedGage also has a daily $25 contest that you can enter (as of yet, I haven't done this though) that has certain criteria for entering. I have seen people win the daily contest and that's pretty cool too.

So now, since I've been so busy working as an chlldrens art teacher and am also in the 6 month HP apprenticeship program, I have not had much time to contribute at RedGage. My pennies and bonus dollars keep adding up though, although much slower.

So my feelings about RedGage are this, yes you can make money at RedGage. Yes, it takes time, just like any other online endeavor (sorry folks but there are just no real get-rich-quick schemes out there) and yes, RedGage is a great way to get your HubPages articles out there in the world in addition to blog postings, links, videos and photos.

There are some people there that are making quite a bit of money on RedGage, but I know they are probably working their butt off promoting their links through Twitter, Facebook and other social sharing sites. A few there have actually made over $7,000 in 2 years (yes I checked to make sure this was real - it was kind of hard to believe but it is) so the answer is YES, you can make money at RedGage. But like any other business, building relationships is key.

So my final thoughts on RedGage: It's a great social networking site that does indeed earn you money. The amount you make will be determined by the quality of the content you upload and how active you are on the site (btw all the content you upload most be your own) It's a great place for photographers to share their photos and a good way to get more exposure for your hubs. In this day and age, every little bit helps. The other thing I really like about RedGage is that they have a feature that makes it impossible for others to steal your work (if you try to save someones photos it pops up and let's you know you can't steal!)

My only complaint about RedGage is that they seem to have more than their normal share of technical glitches on the site, which is irritating sometimes. Besides that, it's an easy to navigate site with some interesting content and users.

And oh yes, and I forgot to mention, RedGage has a daily raffle for $25 that you are automatically entered into when the people that you refer sign up at RedGage. I haven't won a contest (yet) - but here is my referral link if you'd like to join RedGage: Dorsi on RedGage.