The way you should use PROPAGANDA spy mission.

[Wardog]

To me propaganda is just a way of wasting money. It never worked for me.

 

[USMC]

Like you Overlag, I rarely have more than a few thousand $. Every time I try to sell/ trade tech, everyone is broke and hates me. I can't even get a territory map for flight half the time.

 

[Paalikles]

I ve recently done a bit of successful propaganda.
Playing kittenofchaos world map mod. I waged war against the aztecs (correctly placed) from my french empire in Europe, Africa & sentral-Asia.
Ending the war for a short period (to harvest peace-treaty) I tried out propaganda. Found that I could flip5 out of 7 cities. (7 attempts). Would have tried more - but lacked cash -> it is hard to fight continuously whilst in a democracy, paying 30% lux and being #1 in research. This was a warlord game....
Right now, I am at war again. Cheap cities flip easily, but when you abandon them - the already furious AI gets mad

 

[Aonghus]

Ive hade a LOT of difficulty planting spies in the first place. I normally have to try about 10 times before one doesnt die. By then the other civ is probably at war with me, or at least went from being Gracious to Furious. Thats when i have to revert my game.

 

[Moulton]

I have been lucky posting spies, but havent tried to flip cities yet... good idea taking them while or during the war when they go communist... have to try that. Gettng money is no problem... I have been at war almost continuously in this picture for about120 turns. It takes big cities, but also productive ones.

My total income here is 3200 gpt.