Making money just by shortening links and sharing them sounds easy, right?

One of the websites that claim to make this possible is Smoner.com.

But is Smoner a scam or really an easy way to earn?

I have joined and tested the site thoroughly – let me just reveal right away that you can, in theory, earn as a member BUT there are also some big disadvantages you need to be aware of.

This Smoner review will give you an inside look and give you all the details so you can easily find out if it will really be worth it for you or not.

What is Smoner.com and what does it offer?

The concept of Smoner.com is quite simple.

You just sign up for a free account, you shorten links, and you then share these links online and earn when people click them.

There are quite a few platforms like this online today and it works very much the same as all other sites. But there are also some differences you need to know to find out if it is the right option for you or not.

So let’s go over exactly how you can use Smoner to earn.

Option 1 – Earn by shortening links

The whole idea of Smoner is based on you being able to shorten links and then get paid for this.

It is very easy to get started with this. You just sign up for a free account and then you can shorten links.

You just simply paste the link you want to shorten as you can see above. Once you hit enter, you will get a shortened link from Smoner.

You can also download the Smoner app and do it all on your mobile if you prefer this.

It does not have to be a link to your own website you shorten so you do not actually have to own a website or any other channel for that matter to earn on Smoner.

There are just some types of links you are not allowed to shorten.

So stay away from these types of links if you do not want to risk getting your account banned.

Once you have your short link, you can share this wherever you want. When people click it you will then earn.

The reason for this is that they will be taken to a big page with ads so you will earn from advertisers paying you to send traffic to their offers.

The idea is then that the person clicking the link and getting to the ad can choose to interact with the ad or choose to continue to the original URL/website address.

The idea can sound like an easy way to earn at first. But after having tested it, I have some big concerns about the way it works and do not necessarily think it is the best way to earn online.

But I will go more into detail about this later in this review.

For now, let’s focus on the ways you can earn on Smoner and shortening and sharing links is the main way.

Option 2 – Invite people to join Smoner

Another way to earn on Smoner is by inviting other people to join.

If someone joins through your invitation link, you will earn a 10% commission of whatever they earn.

They will earn the same so your commission is not taken from their earnings but is paid by Smoner.

This definitely can be a way to earn extra passively if you know how to get a lot of really active members to join.

But remember that you will only earn if they are active, so it is not necessarily easy to get a lot of referrals.

And to find out if it will even be worth it, you need to know the earning potential of Smoner. Because it is only if the people you invite can earn decently that your percentage will make you money.

And only if it is a good place to earn, people will actually stay active as members.

So let’s now look into the earning potential of Smoner.

How much can you earn on Smoner?

According to Smoner.com itself, it is the highest paying link shortener.

But I have tested quite a few link shorteners, and it seems all of them claim to be the highest paying:-) So whenever you see this, just take it with a grain of salt as it is mostly just marketing.

The best way to find out what you can really earn is by looking at their rates and comparing them. And then look at what you need to do to earn significantly to find out if it will be worth it.

So let’s start by looking at the rates you get on Smoner. They are very transparent about this and you can see these rates even before signing up.

The image above shows the highest rates possible.

The way to understand it is that you, for example, for the US will earn $5 per 1,000 visits to an ad page through a link you have shortened.

So you need to generate quite a lot of traffic to earn any real money. If you are new to generating free traffic, it is not as easy as just spreading your link.

It takes skills to get this much traffic naturally.

And you are not allowed to get bot traffic, use traffic exchange services, and similar – if you do this, your account will be banned.

So you need to generate natural quality traffic to earn just $5. And the $5 is just for the US. With traffic from all other countries, you will earn less.

Overall, I have seen sites like, for example, ShrinkEarn that pays more for US traffic. So I can say that, in my experience, Smoner is definitely not the highest paying.

But the rates are actually not the only thing you need to look at to see if a link shortening is worth using or not.

You need to look at the payout methods also, and especially how realistic it is people will click the links so you can earn.

So let’s go over these two important aspects below.

Recommended: See How I Make $6K+ Online Every Month

How will you get paid?

How you can get your earnings out is very important to know before joining any platform where you can earn online.

On Smoner, you actually have quite good payout options, in my opinion.

You can get your earnings out as cash through PayPal or get them as Bitcoin.

Once you have requested a payout, you should receive the money within 7 days so the wait is not too long.

The payout threshold is fairly low as you only need to earn $3 to get a payout.

Even though the payout is fairly low, it can, however, take some time and patience to reach this is you are new to generating traffic.

But overall, the payout methods and conditions on Smoner are pretty good.

Is it safe and worth it?

The really big questions when it comes to deciding whether you should join Smoner or not is if it is safe and if it is even worth it.

This honestly depends on how you define safe and it being worth your time. When I tested Smoner, I found some things that worried me.

That does not mean it cannot be worth it for you and that you cannot earn. It is just something you have to be aware of so you know exactly what to expect.

Let me explain exactly what I mean.

Is it safe for you?

The first aspect you need to consider is whether it is safe for you to sign up for a Smoner account or not.

When you sign up, you agree to their privacy policy. I took a look at this and saw something that I did not really like and I think you need to consider this.

As you can see in the image above you agree that your personal information may be used to contact you and notify you about the products and services offered by smoner.com and trusted affiliates, independent contractors and partners.

What worries me here is that you have to agree to also be contacted by their trusted affiliates, independent contractors, and partners.

What does this really mean?

They do not mention anything about who exactly these partners are and how many there are.

This means that they, in theory, could have a long list of hundreds of partners they share your personal details with and you agree they can do this by signing up.

If I have to agree to something like this, I want to know exactly who and how many it will be shared with. If they do not mention this, it just becomes a little suspicious, in my opinion.

This is definitely something you have to consider before signing up. You will at the same time allow Smoner’s partners (whoever they are) to contact you.

If you do not mind that, then there are no problems. But if you would like to know exactly who your personal details are shared with, then Smoner is probably not for you.

Is it safe for people clicking your links?

The next aspect is to think about the safety of the people clicking the links you share.

You do not want to end up sharing links that are not safe and that can harm the people clicking them.

As already mentioned, luckily Smoner has some rules about certain types of websites that cannot be shared and ads that cannot be advertised there.

However, when I tested the links myself, I saw quite a lot of pop-ups that asked for permission to my browser, extensions I had to download without knowing what it was, etc.

I always look at it from a user perspective as well, and as a user, I would very quickly close down any browser where I got pop-ups like this.

And I would never trust links form the person that shared them with me again – but maybe that is just me.

One extra aspect that really annoyed and concerned me was that even though I clicked continue several times on the ad page, I never managed to get to the actual destination URL.

It might just be because I was not patient enough or did not want to download what the browser asked me to download.

But not being able to easily get to the destination URL and instead just keep getting pop-ups is a big issue for the user.

And it will also be for you if you are trying to build a sustainable income online as I will explain below.

Is it worth the time?

Yes, you can earn on Smoner, but I think it can be a waste of time depending on your goals.

If you want to build a real online business from home, you need to think long-term.

You need to focus on creating value for the users and your audience.

In my opinion, clicking links that take them to confusing ad pages with a lot of pop-ups is not giving them value and that is the reason I am not going to use Smoner myself.

Instead, it can hurt your audience’s trust in you which will hurt your chances of building a long-term business.

If you are brand new to making money online, I, therefore, believe you should spend your time on learning how to build a business focusing on quality instead.

And if you have experience enough to generate traffic so you can earn decently on Smoner, there just are way better places to send your traffic to earn, in my experience.

Final verdict

As you can see from this review, it is possible to earn on Smoner.

But depending on your goals, it might not be the best way to spend your time.

So let’s finish by summing up the pros and cons so you can get a better overview before making your final decision.

Pros:

• Free to join
• Easy to get started

Cons:

• Very low earning potential
• Takes a lot of effort just to earn a few dollars
• You have no control of the ads shown
• You agree to be contacted by unspecified partners when you sign up
• Users might lose trust in you as it is difficult for them to get to the destination URL

Overall, I am not impressed with Smoner.

Yes, you can earn a bit by shortening links there. Personally, I would, however, never share any links I have shortened there, after having tested it.

The ad pages people are taken to are just not user-friendly and it is extremely difficult to find out how to get to the destination URL.

Also, when signing up you agree to be contacted by their partners without having any idea about who they are or how many they will share your personal details with.

For these reasons, Smoner is not a platform I recommend if you want to make money online. There are just so many other better options, in my experience.

Are there more effective ways to earn online?

There are quite a lot of other more effective ways to earn online than Smoner.com, in my experience.

If you want to make real money online and potentially build a full-time income, this is definitely possible. It will take time and effort but it can really be worth it and it is possible to learn no matter your background.

Personally, I have had the most success with affiliate marketing and am now able to make a living from this that makes it possible for me to work from anywhere completely on my own terms.

So if you are interested in earning in a more effective way and are willing to put in the time it takes, you should definitely learn more about affiliate marketing.

 

If you have any comments, questions, or have any experiences with Smoner.com yourself, I would love to hear from you in a comment below.