Here we go again! The end of the month means another "digest" reviewing everything I've worked with so far, however my monthly earnings will be addressed separately...
Grab a drink and relax while you read about how things are panning out with each program.
Please note that some of the Proof of Payment links have not been updated yet, but will be today.
__________~*~Gift Cards and Gift Sites~*~These are the sites I've been working with that offer their rewards in gift cards and prizes. --------------
iRazooReview: iRazoo is a simple GPT site that rewards user that use their search engine. You can earn 300 points per day, and a $5 Amazon card only costs 3000 points. Without ever referring another person you can earn $15 a month which totals up to $180 a year which is a pretty hefty chunk of Amazon cash.
How it Works: Earn 300 points daily for using their search engine. Get 8 points when you write a brief comment about the site and another 8 when you tell them whether you would recommend the site or not.
Tips: When I do my searches I pick a random location and act as though I am doing research or planning a trip. This makes it really easy to come up with search terms. Basically I would search the following terms: France, French Food, French Hotels, French Landmarks etc
Referral Bonus: 50 points per referral!
Earnings: Since 10/16 I've have cashed out 4 times for a total of
$20 in Amazon cards (received two of them so far), and will be cashing out for a 5th time today. Each card has taken roughly 3 weeks to process through and arrive in my email inbox.
Proof of PaymentReview: Every time I think about Swagbucks I kick myself for being an elitist and a disbeliever. Not signing up with them as soon as I heard about them was a huuuuge mistake. Like iRazoo the majority of your earning occurs through utilizing their search engine, but they offer other ways to earn as well. You can easily earn 3 $5 Amazon cards a month here as well, or more if you refer your friends.
How it Works: Each time you use their search engine you have a random chance to win a random number of SwagBucks which can be redeemed for cash, gift cards or other prizes. I opt for the Amazon cards since they are a fraction of the price of the Pay Pal cards though. You can also earn through referrals, special codes found on their blog/social networking accounts, by donating old cell phones to them for recycling or even by using their special shopping links for stores like Walmart.
Referrals: They have two ways to earn through referrals. You can become an affiliate and earn $1 per referral or you can just refer members to the site and earn Swagbucks every time they earn Swagbucks - up to 100 from each referral. Overall that's a far better reward, but that's only true if your referrals stick with the site long enough to earn more than 9 Swagbucks (equal to $1 worth of a $5 Amazon card.)
I prefer the standard referral method to their affiliate program, but it's nice to have an option.
Earnings: Since 10/17 I've cashed out and received two $5 Amazon gift cards from them, totaling
$10. I also have 215 SwagBucks sitting on my account which is enough for another 5 cards. Why am I saving them you ask? The answer is simple, they announced that from Black Friday to New Year's Eve they will have different cards at discounted rates so I'm holding out to see if the Amazon cards go on sale.
If they do, then great, if not then I'll just order a bunch of cards at once! Depending on what type of gift card you order the wait time to receive them may vary. With Amazon cards you generally get them around the 16th and 30th of the month.
Proof of PaymentI have been slacking a bit with Lockerz, mostly because I have just been forgetting to visit! The site is really picking up speed though. They are still in their beta stages but are having drawings several times a month for really nice prizes and are sending out shirts to some members as well
How it Works: It takes less than 30 seconds to take advantage of this site on a daily basis. Just log in and earn two points, then answer a daily survey question for another two points. That's it!
Prizes are limited at the moment, but as the site grows more will be available. Getting in early just means you'll be ahead of the curve when the good stuff comes out!
Referrals: 2 points per referral, once you refer 20 members you get double points for a year! The downside to
Lockerz.com is that you have to be invited through their website by a current member so if you'd like an invite please
request one from me here.
Earnings: 200 Points since 10/7. (I spent a few on contests entries haha)
ClubBing.com is a site that I really touch base with here and there. Right now they have an electronic Monopoly game up for grabs though so I'm trying to earn enough tickets before it goes out of stock! The basic premise is that you play their games (which are tied to the Bing search engine) and you get points as you play.
Initially I wasn't impressed, but it's really grown on me lately.
How it Works: Play games, earn tickets, trade them in for prizes! You can earn up to 1000 tickets a day and many of their prizes (like video games) can be purchased for under 6000 points which is pretty neat. My main complaint is that the seek and find games don't seem to reset ever which is annoying.
Tips: Use an
Anagrammar to help you figure out what words you are missing on scramble games.
Earnings: 2,877 tickets_________~*~GPT Sites~*~GPT sites require patience! The money adds up slowly, but I believe that every little bit helps. These sites will also offer quicker earnings if you are able to round up a few referrals.-------------
TrekPay TrekPay gives members instant credit for visiting sites. There is no 30 second viewing period, but you do have to keep your eyes peeled for the TrekPay symbol to click if it appears on the page. Each week the credits are converted to cash, but there's no way to tell how much you'll earn. I've made any where from 49¢ to $1.34 in a week with them.
It took me 7 weeks to reach the level needed to cash out with them, but I haven't yet made my request.How it Works: Visit sites, click the TrekPay logo if you see it and let your credits accumulate.
Referrals: You get credit for advertising purchases made by your referrals (10%) and you also get extra credits when they sign up. As far as I can tell it's just 15 credits per referral once, but I could be wrong - the site doesn't really disclose it either.
Earnings: $5.57 since 10/1/09 in the following breakdown (70¢, 70¢, 71¢, 94¢, 69¢, $1.34, 49¢)
Cash out Req: $5.50
I still haven't really invested any time in
CashCrate, so I haven't cashed out yet, but I think I'm going to try to put some effort into their "offers" soon. They can be a decent source of income, but it takes a lot of organization to remember to cancel before the trials charge through. If you are good at that kind of thing I'd definitely recommend it.
How it Works: They have hundreds of "offers" available on their site and pay you varying amounts to complete them. They also offer two surveys paying 80¢ each daily and have a referral program as well.
Tips: When you sign up use a back up email address not your primary email. You will end up seeing a lot of spam come in after completing their offers, but if you use an alternate email, that won't matter.
Referrals: They pay you 20% of your level one referral earnings and 10% of your level two earnings. On top of that, when your direct referrals reach $10 you earn $3! It's a pretty great referral set up over all if you can get folks to sign up.
Earnings: $7.42 since 9/24 but I haven't made an effort here yet.
Cash out Req: $20
NeoBux has been a pretty decent experience. It's slow building but I don't mind since it takes such minimal effort on my part.
Referrals: As a regular member you get a 1/2¢ per referral click, but this quickly adds up and multiplies. If you choose to become a paying member (which I have not, and probably will not) you earn 1¢ per click.
Earnings: $6.73 earned since 9/21 (I reinvested $5.70 for additional referrals though.)
Cash Out Req: $2
__________
SuperNovaBuxSuperNovaBux was a PTC that was very similar to Neobux, I tried it out because I thought it would be fun to get in on the ground level of a site like that.
They have recently been shut down though. Live and learn... luckily I rarely had more than 2 ads to click there anyways so I only spent a few seconds a day on the site.
To those who signed up under me, I apologize!
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ClixSenseClixSense is also a very standard PTC program. Their ad values vary but I've never seen one that paid more than 2¢. Occasionally the add will "break out of the frame" as well which means you don't get paid for it and have to wait 30 seconds anyways before viewing the next ad. Aside from that it's a solid site though.
How it Works: Sign up, click ads, wait 30 seconds and move to the next ad. You can also pay $10 to upgrade and get more ads but I don't intend to do this. I may however earn the $10 then use it to upgrade if I feel that it's worth it to do so after that long.
Referrals: You don't really earn for your referrals as a regular member (you get 1¢ when they sign up). You do however get $2 if your referrals upgrade their account. If you upgrade your account then you receive 10¢ for each referral, $2 if they upgrade, $1 if their referral upgrades, commissions on clicks made by your referrals, and so on.
Earnings:
$1.48 since 10/28
Cash Out Req: $10 by check only, however when you cash out they charge a $3 processing fee so I suggest waiting until you've accumulated much more than $10.
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YouData is what I consider, the highest quality PTC out there. You get paid to look at the list of ads available, and you get paid to actually follow through and click the ads, which is really innovative. They pay every week no matter how small your balance is, directly to your paypal.
How it Works: Same as any other GPT of this sort, you view ads and get paid. They pay significantly better than other sites do and do not require a minimum cashout. As a matter of fact they send you whatever you have earned, every Friday like clockwork. The downside is that there are not a lot of ads available, but every bit counts.
Referrals: You get 1¢ per ad that your referrals view, until you've earned $1.00 from that particular referral.
Earnings: $3.04 earned since 9/21 (I've already deducted the processing fees.)
YouData Proof of PaymentCash Out Req: None, sent automatically each week.
__________~*~Misc Programs~*~This includes review sites, snail mail sites, and much more.--------------CloudCrowd CloudCrowd is a new up and coming program that is accessed through FaceBook (don't worry it doesn't actually show anything on your FaceBook page). They pay you the next day for all work completed by 5pm Pacific the prior day (weekends are paid on Monday). They're currently experiencing a lot of growing pains though that are upsetting some of the early users. I personally haven't experienced anything negative though, and I feel that they should be given some slack since they're only a month old.
I still consider this one a good egg and I'm looking forward to seeing them get the bugs worked out so that work will be up 24/7 again.
How it Works: Workers do random tasks that are posted for the payment listed. It's similar to Mturk but on a much smaller scale and the work only comes from CloudCrowd, it is not posted by external providers.
Referrals: The referral system has some great potential. It goes three levels deep and you earn a percentage of what your Crowd does on each level. Level one is 10.1%, level two is 3.2% and level three is 1.5%.
Earnings: $39.89 earned since 10/6
Cloud Crowd Proof of PaymentCash Out Req: None, sent automatically, the next day.
Do you get paid to read the junk mail that comes to you door each day? I do because I am a member of
PeopleString!
How it works: Sign up, answer a few questions and then wait for your survey card to arrive in the mail. It took about 3 weeks for me to get mine, but it's necessary so they can confirm your address. After that you'll begin receiving other pieces of mail from them. Just visit the site and enter the code to collect your earnings.
Referrals: As a standard member you get 50¢ per referral plus 5% of their earnings. You also get 2% of the earnings from folks on the 2nd-6th levels of your down line. This is another one of those programs where you can pay to upgrade your status and earn more, but it's rather costly so I won't ever do it.
Earnings: $21.36 earned since 9/29 (not including the mail that's on it's way to me)
Cash Out Req: $25, sent automatically once a month for standard members.
IMReportCard has great earning potential, but it can be a bit of a rough start. The site is all about rating online marketing sites and programs, and things of that nature so that users can utilize the information to make decisions about whether or not they should get involved in a program.
How it Works: You get paid for doing different things on the site such as commenting on programs, grading sites, and reviewing other comments. The hard part is that you can't do anything until you've had one of your own comments posted and approved. You have to have first hand experience with one of the programs, and most of the easy ones like TrekPay are closed for commentary.
Once you get a comment approved though, you can take advantage of all the other ways to earn on the site and it really adds up quickly - plus it's a really informative site.
Referrals: Their referral program is great (if your referrals get a comment posted) because you earn 100% of what they do. That means if they leave a comment and earn 50¢ so do you!
Earnings: $4.86 earned since 10/3, but I haven't put a lot of time into it.
Cash Out Req: $20.00
LiveWork is a freelance site run by LiveOps. They've had a lot of hiccups in their development but they finally seem to be getting back on track.
How it Works: Sign up, create a profile, and start applying with whichever jobs you'd like.
I worked on the query projects writing 5-7 sentence answers in response to search queries. Each answer was paid 64¢ and once I got the hang of it I was able to do 12+ an hour giving a decent $7 or more an hour. They just posted a new batch recently and I joined the project, but I was disappointed to see that it was not a full batch and was nearly completed already.
Earnings: $68.48 earned since 9/24
Proof of PaymentIMShopping is a site that allows you to ask and answer questions about shopping suggestions, pricing, product quality and much more.
I became a paid guide earlier this month and am sad to say that I haven't been able to commit as much time to it as I would have liked, but I have been paid twice!
How it Works: As a regular community member you can earn money by answering questions that have a green tip box on them. If multiple answers are made on the question, and you are selected as the "best answer", you win the tip!
The great part of this site though is that they hire Paid Guides from the community. Once you have answered 25 questions you have the chance to be selected to start getting paid for every question you answer, so long as it falls within your expertise categories that you select and you are the first Guide to answer it.
As a guide you earn 35¢ for answering a question, an extra 65¢ if the person who asked it gives you a thumbs up and another $1.00 if you are selected as the "best answer" to the question. Payments are made on Mondays.
Earnings: $58.25 earned since 10/3
Proof of Payment
Cash Out Req: $40 if you are a community member, $20 if you are a Paid guide
Wanelo is a great community for parents to share their experiences on products of all types through reviews. They previously paid for reviews, but have recently stopped doing so. You can still earn by winning random contests with them that have rewards of $5-25.
They have also recently launched the Super!moms team which I am a proud member of thanks to nominations from you guys (hugs). I'm really excited to be a part of the team and it's a real honor since only 5 were selected.
How it works: Register with Wanelo and sign up for their newsletter. Your best bet is to visit the blog to get updates on contest categories so you know what types of reviews you need to do and how to submit your reviews to the contest.
Earnings: $135 earned since 10/15
Wanelo Proof of PaymentCash Out Req: None, automatically sent if you win.
__________~*~Surveys~*~Surveys can take a bit of patience and a lot of dedication. The key is to not give up on them... it's like a seed - you have to plant it and nurture it and then it will give you fruit, shade, and happiness as it grows!--------------Survey Spot SurveySpot has proven to be my worst survey experience so far. I did at some point magically meet their $10 cash out minimum BUT I made it on their old system and just happened to realize it now as I was double checking my information for this post!
Their organization is still terrible but they seem to be stepping in the right direction (slowly). I've decided not to write them off yet, but this could change at any moment.
How it works: Take surveys and earn points, each point is worth 1¢ and 1000 points are required to cash out.
Earnings: $10 since 9/26.
Greenfield Online is one that I considered giving up on but they redeemed themselves in a big way. I've only qualified for a few regular surveys, but I have qualified for three
$30 90 minute Interactive Surveys.
Aside from the obvious downside of having issues qualifying for their surveys, it can take a while for the Interactive Surveys to post to your account... up to 6 weeks to be exact, but I haven't had any problems yet. I was nervous about the second survey because I had some technical difficulties and missed a few minutes of the survey, but it turns out that it wasn't a problem.
How it Works: Sign up, take surveys, earn cash!
Earnings: Since 9/26/09 I've earned
$92.00 and cashed out
$62.
Greenfield Online Proof of PaymentCash Out Req: None
LightSpeed Panel has been a disappointment this month. In October I earned 2100 points which is almost enough to cash out a $20 PayPal deposit, I haven't received a single survey this month though which is really disappointing.
How it Works: Sign up, complete surveys, instantly earn your reward points, cash them out for whatever you'd like. Surveys credit immediately and you can cash out for different amounts in $5 increments.
Earnings: Since 9/30/09 I've earned
2100/2300 points required for a $20 PayPal deposit.
Cash Out Req: None, just accumulate enough points for the prize you want!
Opinion Outpost seems like a pretty solid site. Most of the surveys you complete with them credit immediately and the pay is pretty decent.
How it Works: Sign up, complete surveys and earn points. Each point is worth 10¢ and once you reach 50 points you can request an instant Amazon gift code or you can request a check.
Referrals: Opinion Outpost is one of the few sites that offers referral credit. You earn 20 points (or $2.00) for each member who joins the site and successfully completes a survey which is pretty impressive.
Earnings: Since 10/15/09 I've earned
$23.30 but I haven't actually requested a payout yet, although I probably should have!
Cash Out Req: 50 points
HCD Surveys has potential but it seems to be pretty slow. I've only been offered two surveys since I started with them and I disqualified on one of them. I'm not impressed, but I'm not completely disappointed though since their site is pretty well designed. I'm optimistic on this one.
How it Works: Sign up, complete surveys and earn points. Each point is worth 1¢ and once you accumulate 1000 points you can request a check.
Referrals: HCD offers 50¢ for referrals. Unlike Opinion Outpost, your referrals don't have to complete a survey, they just have to complete their profile.
Earnings: Since 10/15/09 I've earned
$5.60.
Cash Out Req: 1000 points or $10
