Pigsback.com is the first
Irish "cash-for-clicks" website, launched in 1999. It derives its name from the old Irish expression "
On the pig's back", meaning that someone is doing well in life, usually
financially. The site encourages you not only to view small GIF advertisments for a reward of 10p (roughly 13 cents?), but also to sell your soul to its "corporate partners", filling in myriad personal details and registering for websites for a reward of 2 pounds (roughly $3?)
This cash is not given to you directly of course; rather you can claim free gifts and other items from video rentals to mobile phone cards to holidays (after years of saving, presumably). However, it's debatable how many people ever actually return to the websites they so eagerly registered for, for the sake of a few pounds. Many people on the site become reduced to a level where they'll do anything for a few more 'piggypoints'.
Some of the more clever promotions require you to give them a mailing address, whereupon they send a holiday brochure or some such material out to you. A more drastic approach would have to be taken to register for the free trial of a water cooler in your workplace, for which you can earn 5 pounds, with no obligation of course!
Nevertheless, the site has proved quite popular, with a recent marketing splurge on national billboards sending the number of users heading to 100,000 (this is in a country with a population of under 4m).