You've heard about it in recent months, and its popularity seem to grow in leaps and bounds with each passing day.

Paid to surf programs have been on the rise and with the monetary promises that have become the stalwart of their systems, more and more people are joining the bandwagon.

Autosurf programs actually pay you for surfing 40 to 200 sites per day. Don't let the numbers mislead you though, because this task can be done in less than 15 minutes.

Regardless of the speed of your Internet connection, through a system that would allow you to surf sites automatically, hence the name.

Think of autosurf programs as cooperatives. Members can advertise and get paid at the same time. Here is an outline of how it works:

You will sign up for the program.

You will be given an initial capital for free, either $5 or $10.

You will be asked to autosurf 150 to 200 sites everyday, before the timer restarts.

For every day that you do your task, you will earn 1 to 2% of your invested capital.

At any time you wish, you could upgrade your membership and increase your capital, so that you will be able to increase your earnings as well.

You will also earn credit points for each day you autosurf. These points are the equivalent of currency in the program's built-in economy.

You could trade these points for fellow members, or exchange them for goodies like free web hosting, banner ads, or ad spots on the windows that appear for every autosurfing session.

A mere user finds autosurfing programs quite lucrative. In three short months, he would have earned back the capital he invested, and every earnings hence would be net profit.

Additionally, he could find really good deals for the products and services offered by the program, for as long as he uses his credits well.

An Internet marketer can look at autosurfing programs as free advertising opportunities. Most of the people who participate in autosurfing are on the lookout for moneymaking opportunities online.

They are good targets for affiliate programs and the likes. Additionally, the Internet marketer can also earn while availing of the free publicity.

As earlier mentioned, there are a lot of autosurfing programs in existence today, and more are being created everyday. Choosing the right one for your needs, whether you are a marketer or someone who just wants to earn some extra cash, can be a little difficult.

Here are some guidelines to help you choose a reliable autosurfing program:

? As much as possible, stick with the programs that have been in existence for the longest time.

A lot of the new establishments are offering a higher percentage per session, but you have to study if such a setup is sustainable for them. It would be sad if you'd invest a lot of money on a program that would be gone by next month.

? If you want to capitalize on the advertising opportunities that autosurfing programs offer, try to choose one that has many enrollees. You wouldn't want to spend so much effort in advertising to a handful of users, after all.

? Choose autosurf programs the weed out excessive images or bandwidth huggers. Remember, you will have to autosurf everyday, so a program that would pave the way for faster loading of the pages you're tasked to view would save you a lot of time.

Bear in mind, however, that there is no rule that prohibits you from joining as many autosurfing programs as you like. The more programs you enroll in, the more earning opportunities you will be making for yourself.

Autosurfing has been an Internet staple for a mere three years. It is a relatively new area that marketers can exploit to their advantage.