I Do The Work, You Reap The Rewards!

So, I'm learning to become internet-money-making-ideas savvy. Way back when, I kept seeing ads for making money doing surveys and working from home. The ads looked so good, dammit, that I finally sent away for the 'kit'. I believe it was $19.95. Before you could say 'pyramid scheme', I got the kit in the mail. It was a couple of sheets of paper telling me how to advertise to get other people to send me 20 bucks. I sent it back and demanded a refund (FULLY GUARANTEED!!!) although I don't even remember if I got it or not.

Now, a decade or so later, I am much older and somewhat wiser and more internet intelligent. Since I can't really work down here yet, I do a lot of stuff that I think could potentially earn me money or gifts online; like starting advertisements on this site, entering contests and sweepstakes, requesting free samples and doing surveys. Here is what I have learned after a year or so of doing this stuff (I have the time on my hands so I do it for you, in return, you love me!).

Free samples sound good and they take only one or two minutes to ask for. I have, however, received two of the hundred of so I have requested. If I ever find a site that actually sends me my samples on a semi regular basis, I will let you know. Contests and sweepstakes...well, I have to assume that they are legitimate, but I have yet to win even a dollar. Mostly I enter only on big name sites that I trust somewhat.

Surveys, oy vey. What a murky swamp that is. I have looked at about 20 sites so far. I don't even join if they only enter you in a contest. If they promise to give you actual money or points that can be redeemed for merchandise then I check into it. I enroll, try everything and then give it a month or so to see if they live up to their claims. I have about a dozen left to check into and four currently on the go. If I enroll and they do not live up to their promises, I re enter all my info as vastly incorrect and then stop logging in so they have wrong information. There is one good one that I have found so far though. After about three months of doing surveys for that company (about 15 surveys, none more than 5 minutes) I got a check for $25 and already have $5 more banked. That is not a lot, I'm fully aware. But, if you happen to be someone like me who has a fair bit of time. Or, someone who just wants to earn little bits of cash for very, very little effort while you surf the web, well then hey, $25 is better than a kick in the pants. If you want to enroll in that company, send me an email and I will send you a referral, that way if you register I get an extra buck. Gotta take cash where I can get it, folks :)

Most of these companies about which I'm talking do business in the US and Canada. One that only works in the US is http://mcr.us.icoke.com/ where you enter the codes from your Coca-Cola caps to earn points which can be redeemed for prizes. This takes no time at all. Maybe five minutes to register and then one minute to enter a code each time you drink a Coke. The prizes are mediocre, but after a couple of months of entering codes I just redeemed my points for a year long subscription to Good Housekeeping and another year's subscription to Cosmopolitan! (Not my favourite magazines, but still they're good and they're FREE!)

Another good thing that you may want to consider is Vonage. My phone bills when I lived in Canada were regularly $100 to $150 a month. With Vonage, we pay $25 a month for unlimited calls to Canada and the US and I think parts of Europe. No extra charges ever and every feature you can think of is included free. I swear I am not advertising here! It's just a really great system. The only two problems that I have with it are that 1) it uses your computer not phone lines, so if your power or internet go out, you are phoneless and 2) sometimes I find that there is a second or two delay when I am talking to people in Canada. So, I highly recommend Vonage, it is as good as they say. And, ahem, if you ask me to, I'll send you a referral email which will give you your first month free and give me a month free too ;)

Another thing that I found very useful was this article about opt-out options (US only, sorry). It tells you how to opt out of preapproved credit card offers, telemarketers and even some junk mail. Since I signed up we have not gotten one single telemarketing call and the credit card offers have slowed to a trickle. The junk mail thing is a bit more complicated so I haven't tried that yet. In Canada I just had a sign on my mailbox saying ' no flyers please' and they had to abide by that. That doesn't work here. I'll let you know if I have success with the opt out of junk mail when I try it. There is even helpful information in this article about reducing email spam. Gmail is REALLY good for that in the first place, I get very little (email me if you want a gmail account too ;), but this article helped me too. There is a law that says there must be a 'remove me from your mailing list' link at the bottom of each email you are sent. It used to be that that link was almost always fake and that if you clicked on it you got more email because it proved your email address was active. Now, though, there are strict laws. All but one time when I clicked on the 'unsubscribe' link, I was removed from the list and did not get one more email from that company. If you still find that you do - the article tells you what to do to report them.

Oh, another thing. Today, we got that $25 in the mail from the survey place and we also got another check, this one from the treasury office (again, a US thing, sorry). Paul had a half of a hundred dollar bill and we were told that if you send it to the treasury department, they will give you usable currency for it - and they did. I dashed off a note explaining what we had been told and giving our address and then enclosed it and the bill in an envelope and sent it certified mail. If you have 51% or more of the bill, you will get a 'mutilated currency refund'. We did and it was darn exciting.

I swear, I am not trying to advertise to you here! This stuff is all stuff that I love or that I have spent a LONG time sorting through to determine its legitimacy. Email me if you want more info on any of it or if you think I'm full of shit!