Lets make something clear

[Cryptopher]

You would be better off joining a signature campaign and getting paid for posts. If you can muster 50 quality posts per month then I recommend going for one that pays generously for low volume posting.

[Josepht]

5k satoshis is something like 30 cents. That means you make $1.80 in a hour.

I think you'd better work a little more, and buy BTC with that money.

[CoinDiver]

This thread got me thinking... so I signed up for one of those signature post campaigns. The only other time I did it, I won 1 BTC in a raffle.

[Zebra]

Ok, since everyone here says that fucets are useless, they may give out some small amounts but if you use them right it may give some considerable amounts to start with.

First of all not everyone can just buy BTC, like myself. I'm a student and have a part time job as a waiter. Average wager in Serbia for waiters are about 140e, so I can't buy btc because I need to pay off school and live of something, so faucets come as a good alternative. Faucets gave me enough amount to start with untill I've got into it enough to come here and start with signature posts.

Second, they may give a fair amount as I said, like coinurl, coinad or visitbit (you can open multiple tabs with same btc adrress and watch ads that are about 10s 5x times faster, I've got about 5k satoshis in 10min) or dailybitcoins where you can adverstise or sell vouchers.

Also can provide enough amount to register at some cloud mining site like CEX.IO.

So don't just go around bashing how faucets are bad and spam with "Just buy them" because not everyone is able to like you. So let's all help beginners and people who need help. Thank you.

You may be able to get a little amount of bitcoin from faucets, but the point is there are lots of better alternatives.

You could have earned much more bitcoin for selling goods (everything from t-shirts https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=627292.0 to beef https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=504965.0) or services (everything from translation to designing to writing articles to sig advertising).

[Trading]

If you want to make money, don't work on faucets (actually, we should call them pay to do, offers, etc.), make a faucet and let the others work for you.

Because it's that you are doing when you work on a faucet, making money to the owner that then will give you back some satoshis to make you happy and come again.

[Mobius7]

Second, they may give a fair amount as I said, like coinurl, coinad or visitbit (you can open multiple tabs with same btc adrress and watch ads that are about 10s 5x times faster, I've got about 5k satoshis in 10min) or dailybitcoins where you can adverstise or sell vouchers.

You are now a member, meaning that you could earn 0.00075 btc per constructive post from Updown.
So, you can compare that with the amount of bitcoin you got from those faucets, and decide if it is better to join a signature deal and make a few constructive posts everyday here on bitcointalk.

[alistar]

So if faucets are a waste of time. And being a member or whatever takes time obviously.

What are my choices besides buying btc, and mining the damn thing (buying a expensive bitcoin hardware) - hopefully not get ripped off or in a damn pre-order stage.

I feel the bitcoin race is gone.

[Trading]

Bitcoin race gone? Bitcoin race probably will never end, as more and more people start joining, the race will go on and on. But it might take time, have some steps back. Anyone entering in the wrong moment, can be burnt for some time...

[Mobius7]

So if faucets are a waste of time. And being a member or whatever takes time obviously.

What are my choices besides buying btc, and mining the damn thing (buying a expensive bitcoin hardware) - hopefully not get ripped off or in a damn pre-order stage.

Forget about buying sha256 ASIC, it is hard to get your investment back IMO.
Apart from signature deals, you could sell goods or services to earn some bitcoin.

[Mobius7]

Anyone entering in the wrong moment, can be burnt for some time...

True, but it will be just temporarily.
Those entering in Apr2013 need to wait for almost 8 months. We will see how long will those entering in Dec2013 need to wait.

[bitbaby]

Ok, since everyone here says that fucets are useless, they may give out some small amounts but if you use them right it may give some considerable amounts to start with.

First of all not everyone can just buy BTC, like myself. I'm a student and have a part time job as a waiter. Average wager in Serbia for waiters are about 140e, so I can't buy btc because I need to pay off school and live of something, so faucets come as a good alternative. Faucets gave me enough amount to start with untill I've got into it enough to come here and start with signature posts.

Second, they may give a fair amount as I said, like coinurl, coinad or visitbit (you can open multiple tabs with same btc adrress and watch ads that are about 10s 5x times faster, I've got about 5k satoshis in 10min) or dailybitcoins where you can adverstise or sell vouchers.

Also can provide enough amount to register at some cloud mining site like CEX.IO.

So don't just go around bashing how faucets are bad and spam with "Just buy them" because not everyone is able to like you. So let's all help beginners and people who need help. Thank you.

Faucets are not at all useless, especially for people starting up, I had my struggle with making bitcoins when I was starting up but the best and easiest way to make bitcoins at that time for me was faucets. I use to go to (still do sometimes) at landofbitcoin and use micro wallet faucets there to get to 5500 approx and I would use the deposit address of any dice site and try my luck with that faucet money.

I also used mastercoin-faucet and faucet.bitcoin.st , they give out a good amount of free btc for any newbie to get started.

[DolanDuck]

Faucets are not at all useless, especially for people starting up, I had my struggle with making bitcoins when I was starting up but the best and easiest way to make bitcoins at that time for me was faucets. I use to go to (still do sometimes) at landofbitcoin and use micro wallet faucets there to get to 5500 approx and I would use the deposit address of any dice site and try my luck with that faucet money.

I also used mastercoin-faucet and faucet.bitcoin.st , they give out a good amount of free btc for any newbie to get started.

Faucets aren't useless but I think that the amount of btc/cryptos gained is too much low, it's better and quicker to invest a couple of $ directly in an exchange.

[bitbaby]

Faucets are not at all useless, especially for people starting up, I had my struggle with making bitcoins when I was starting up but the best and easiest way to make bitcoins at that time for me was faucets. I use to go to (still do sometimes) at landofbitcoin and use micro wallet faucets there to get to 5500 approx and I would use the deposit address of any dice site and try my luck with that faucet money.

I also used mastercoin-faucet and faucet.bitcoin.st , they give out a good amount of free btc for any newbie to get started.

Faucets aren't useless but I think that the amount of btc/cryptos gained is too much low, it's better and quicker to invest a couple of $ directly in an exchange.

You are absolutely right, Infact I have myself starting to trade with a little amount but for somebody who is just starting with bitcoins and want to get it know it better before actually purchasing and trading, faucets provide them with just a little of something to understand things.

[eternalgloom]

Ever considered a job? I know it's old fashioned and all... but hey, those old fuckers got things right once in a while. Fuck, you could pick up aluminum cans and sell them for at scrap prices and get more BTC than from a faucets. Get smart about it and have people bring you the cans in exchange for some small amount of btc. Like there is a shortage of beer cans in college!

Stop thinking about how you can get free money, and figure out how you can provide something of value most efficiently.

OP has a job, in Serbia, he stated that he earned about 140 Euro per month.
I guess a few dollars per month is a lot of money for some people, but I think there are better ways to earn more than a few dollars on the internet.

[Kprawn]

eternalgloom, feel free to share that other options on the internet with us. 

I have been looking for something that actually pay more than $2 a day, and found none. Most have ridiculous "specifications" or "prerequisites" before they want to
pay.

See this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=594783.0

People talk about these opportunities, but when you go deeper into it, they look for ways not to pay you. If I take some of my time to do something for someone,
and you made an agreement to pay me for that, do not come with excuses, not to do it.

We have families and work, and the little free time we do have, is very valuable.

[Trading]

As is stated in that thread, renting your signature as soon as you reach member status is the easiest way to earn much more than 2 usds a day.

[eternalgloom]

eternalgloom, feel free to share that other options on the internet with us. 

I have been looking for something that actually pay more than $2 a day, and found none. Most have ridiculous "specifications" or "prerequisites" before they want to
pay.

See this thread https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=594783.0

People talk about these opportunities, but when you go deeper into it, they look for ways not to pay you. If I take some of my time to do something for someone,
and you made an agreement to pay me for that, do not come with excuses, not to do it.

We have families and work, and the little free time we do have, is very valuable.

On the top of my head, I can think of starting a blog for example and earning some extra money through certain affiliate programs.

You can earn a couple of hundred dollars per month with that, even as a beginner.
I am not talking about starting a dozen of spammy blogs, I am talking about writing about stuff you are passionate about.

It will however take some hard work, especially those first weeks/months setting everything up.

Another option would be doing quality control for Bing or Google search but I don't really know how to get into those programs (they contacted me).
I got into that myself because I was a member of Elance (freelance network) and someone contacted me about it.

I had to go through a lot of paperwork, scanning my ID etc. But I can work around 25 hours a week, making 11 euro an hour.

I mentioned Elance before, that's always an option, but it requires some skills like programming/writing/graphic design etc. Then you can do small freelance work for pretty decent pay, once you have gathered enough reviews ofc.
Or Fiverr, I actually made good money with that before I quit due to the unfair rating system (your competition will order gigs from you and leave a bad review, Fiverr does nothing about that, even with proof).

I hope this actually helps.

[ashe]

Hey do'nt bash can picking 

My son made decent money from can collection and selling scrap metal. Try doing that for a day, and see how tired you will be.

It's good for the environment {Less trash} and it's getting re-cycled. And it's a source of income, for a lot of unemployed people in this world.

Just a pity, some people take "trash 4 cash" to far, like stealing copper plumbing pipes to sell at scrap yards.

But I am going off topic {sorry}

If it was not for faucets, lots of poor people would have never been able to get into bitcoins imho.

Just curious how much did your son usually get out of that.

I know the scraping industry is a billion dollars for a reason.

[Cryptopher]

I think that faucets are more of a novelty buzz now for those who are new to cryptocurrency and want to experience it first hand without fronting any funds.

[Kprawn]

ashe, to answer your question, not enough to eat 3 meals a day.  But enough that you do not starve.

eternalgloom, yea you gave viable options for people who have a specific skill or knowledge. {I was more thinking on people with no specialized skill set.}

Unfortunately, it seems, that most faucets are actuality moving away from the initial goal of helping people, and greed took over. They pay less over time, and
people turn their backs on them. Then they fold, and complain, that it's not a profitable system.

Sad, when greed win.