I can’t think of a better deal than one that pays you to do something you would do anyhow. If you have an existing Internet business, you spend a lot of time online, and probably spend much of that time searching. Now there is a new social media style search aggregator that adds a simple new twist: they reward loyal users with cash.

This new player in the social media field is called SCOUR and it works something like this:

You join, and earn points for referring friends, using their search engine, voting in favor or against sites in the search results, or leaving comments about those sites. Since the site aggregates results from the major search engines (Google, Yahoo and MSN), you are getting the best results from all of those at once, which is a convenience to begin with. But also, by rating sites, you and I and all the other users have a say in how the sites rank, so in time the sites that really are best will rise to the top (rather than just those with the best SEO).

Now I like the idea of having real people involved in ranking sites, rather than just computer algorithms. I’m sure the concept will draw scammers, but the site claims to have controls in place to detect and discount any problematic users. With enough honest input, the junk that gets in should be overwhelmed, one hopes.

Not only do you get credit for each action you take on the site (with results shown in real-time by a counter in the corner of the page), but if you refer others, as I am doing, you will also get 25% of points they earn. That should add up fast if you produce a lot of referrals.

You only get one point for searching, two for rating and three for commenting, but if you are active in your searching it should be easy to wrack up a hundred points a day. If you have ten referrals doing the same, that is another 250. You need 6,500 points to earn $25, so at that rate you would get $25 every  18-1/2 days. Even if you get no referrals you get $25 every couple months. Certainly not a way to make a living, but it’s like free extra pocket money, since you earn it doing something you would do anyhow — searching the web! Go forth and SCOUR…