Archive for the 'Bored Money' Category
Friday, September 7th, 2007
Paid surveys can be a reasonable source of additional income for the right people. On a per-hour basis, they are rarely a great deal and can get tedious. But hey, you can do them during downtime on the job or late at night while watching Leno, and they can add up to hundreds of dollars over a year. I find myself being more and more picky about them as time goes on.
Accordingly, my preference is to stock with sites that offer regular surveys and are upfront about payouts. I’d much rather know I’m getting $5 for a 20-minute survey than be entered in some vague sweepstakes drawing for $500. Here are the sites that I think best fit this criteria:
Pinecone Research is one of the more elusive paid survey companies, as they pay $5 for each and every survey you complete, as well as give some neat products to try out. With them, I used to* make a steady $10-$25 per month. Thanks to Kathy for sending me the most recent recruitment e-mail, which states that they are looking for new members who are male and 18+. Here’s the Pinecone sign-up link. I’ve anonymized the link, but this still won’t last long!
*Two important tips to keep the Pinecone gravy train running:
1) These guys are very strict. Whatever info you sign up with, you must always keep it up to date and follow it exactly. For example, if your profile says you’re 35 and in a later survey you state that you’re 46, you may mysteriously stop getting any new surveys. It’s best just to be honest.
2) Fill the surveys out as soon as you get them. I think this is why I was kicked out. For some reason they stopped e-mailing me survey alerts (multiple e-mails to Ms. Scott trying to fix this went unanswered). By the time I got the notices in the mail, the survey had expired. If you miss enough surveys, they boot you. I’m still a bit grouchy over this… 
NFO MySurvey is another site that always tells you exactly what you’ll get before you do the survey. The payout rates are a little lower, but you can get a steady stream going. Some examples are 10 points (10 cents) for a 1-question survey to 250 points ($2.50) for a longer 10-minute survey. Occasionally you get a big one for more. You request payout svia check, and they send it out promptly. MySurvey sign-up link.
These folks are more laid back. You can miss several of these surveys, but you have to do one every few months to keep your points alive. They’ll send you an e-mail reminder to do so.
Other Surveys Sites
Here are some other ones, sorted in decreasing order of how often I get survey opportunities: American Consumer Opinion, SurveySavvy, Greenfield Online, Lightspeed Panel
Posted in Bored Money | 26 Comments »
Wednesday, April 25th, 2007
» Bank of America has a new promotion called Museums on Us for cardholders:
During the month of May, your Bank of America ATM, check or credit card or MBNA credit card will get you and a guest free admission to more than 85 museums across the Northeast and in California.
» Free subscription to PC Magazine via one of my Bored Money staples, StartSampling. If you haven’t stopped by in a while, I just also picked up a Florida travel magazine, free shampoo and Pledge dust wipes.
If you aren’t a member or don’t want to become one, you can try this link instead. (Looks like a certain magazine needs to up their circulation numbers to keep advertisers happy!)
» Lots more free samples of personal items from Wal-mart Samples: Dial Soap, Advil PM, Tylenol, deodorant, diapers, shampoo, and toothpaste. Even if they are trial sized, they’d be perfect for my travel bag.
» I also just received another check for doing paid surveys from MySurvey last week (another Bored Money mention). I like that their surveys are relatively short, and they pay cash reliably. I know that if I do a 150-point survey I’ll get $1.50. Good thing too, as it seems that Pinecone has forsaken me. I’m now in the same boat as everyone else, waiting for one of those elusive new sign-up links.
We’ve also been sent a huge box of shampoo from them to try out and provide feedback on. Is anyone else starting to realize that shampoo is a big-profit item?
Posted in Bored Money, Deals & Offers, Frugal Living | 11 Comments »
Saturday, February 3rd, 2007
Manufacturers often give away free samples of their new products that will soon be on Wal-mart shelves. Even if you don’t shop there, you can sign up for those free samples here.
Currently available:
- Dove shampoo for color-treated hair
- Digestive Advantage for lactose intolerance
- Sunsilk shampoo
- Viactiv calcium and vitamin supplements
My favorites are the free razors. You know how they add a blade every few months. (Next up… the Gillette Ocho!) For some reason I’ve been seeing a lot of free shampoo recently. Did anyone else get a big box of Pantene from MySurvey?
Posted in Bored Money, Frugal Living | 2 Comments »
Saturday, January 27th, 2007
I’ve been getting a steady stream of e-mails for months now about a company called AGLOCO. Apparently, they are starting an application that shows ads on the bottom of your computer screen (screenshot). They make money off the ads, so they pay you to run it. So why do people keep e-mailing me? Because you also make money if you refer other people, and if those people refer more people, and so on…
If you remember a company called AllAdvantage from years ago, this is very similar. I remember making about $100 a month from AA. Of course, they went bankrupt! The only way I see this company making money is if the payouts are much lower, perhaps in the $20 per month range for running it a few hours a day. Now, I have no idea what the actual payout will be, I’m just saying keep your expectations reasonable. It’s kind of like MyPoints is with e-mail, and fits nicely in the Bored Money category.
To be clear, I am neither a proponent or opponent of this application. I’ve done my due diligence and it appears to be legit with no spyware or other nasties, however, nobody will know for sure until the application is actually released. I went ahead and signed up and will see what happens.
Posted in Bored Money | 14 Comments »
Tuesday, December 26th, 2006
Another survey company that I’ve gotten paid out for and that I have heard other positive experiences about is MySurvey.com. Like other programs, they offer you rewards points for taking surveys. They let you redeem the points for cash, which is nice. 1000 points = $10, so think of it as $0.01/point. The payouts tend to be smaller per survey (from 10-300 points), but the surveys are also shorter. Occasionally I have been offered to receive test products and then provide feedback on them for points as well. I also like that they seem to have a steady stream of paying surveys every month.
MySurvey joins Pinecone Research, E-Rewards (both currently not taking new members), and SurveySavvy as the paid survey programs that I’ve used and liked so far.
You can also try Greenfield Online, but they offer less good-paying surveys.
Posted in Bored Money | 11 Comments »
Sunday, December 17th, 2006
I got some reader requests for more Bored Money entries. Remember, this category is for stuff that I feel has a relatively low reward-to-effort ratio. This usually includes things that involve taking surveys or that involve smaller or non-guaranteed payouts, as compared to the fatter rewards like $100 signup bonuses or free iPods that I put in the Deals & Offers posts. They also tend to be things that are always available. In other words, you can save them until you’re bored!
Coincidentally, I just got another e-mail from StartSampling.com. As the name suggests, you give them some of your demographic information and they match you up with manufacturers that are looking for feedback on their products. You pick what you like, and it gets sent to you free in the mail. I’ve gotten things from food to soap to various coupons (nothing worth over $10). I just picked up a sample of Swiffer dusters. Just stick to the “Select Samples” area and avoid everything else. The “Tryer Miles” points system is largely useless, as there is nothing to redeem them for.
Posted in Bored Money | 4 Comments »
Friday, November 17th, 2006
One of the perks of this blog is that publishers send me free books to review (which I then give away). While that may be nice, I still wish I was a successful gadget-blogger. They get free electronics to review! Anyways, the whole point of this is that companies are perfectly willing to send out free stuff in order to generate “buzz” or word-of-mouth. It’s a powerful idea and potentially way cheaper than conventional means like television advertising.
Enter BzzAgent, which brings this concept to the public. Based on your profile and little surveys that you fill out, they will send you products that companies are interesting in giving out. You basically get a reviewer’s kit consisting of a free item, some coupons for your friends to buy that item, and some pamphlets about the item. You have no obligation to say anything nice or sell anything. You just openly admit that you got the item for free and give your honest opinion.
Things I’ve gotten from BzzAgent for free: (signed up in April 2005)
Read the rest of this entry…
Posted in Bored Money, General | 14 Comments »
Sunday, July 9th, 2006
There appears to be a new sign-up link for the online survey panel at Pinecone Research. If that one doesn’t work, the last sign-up link I mentioned is also working again. For some background, check out my brief Pinecone review here. Keep in mind these links tend to appear and disappear quickly. I just realized that I haven’t received one of their $5 surveys in a while. Maybe it’s because I moved? Or it just me? Link via Blueprint for Financial Prosperity.
Another online survey company that has paid out is Greenfield Online. I don’t they are quite as good as Pinecone, but there’s nothing wrong with signing up for both.
Posted in Bored Money | 4 Comments »
Tuesday, February 14th, 2006
There appears to be a new sign-up link for Pinecone Research $5 surveys the mentioned previously, via commenter Grant:
[link is dead]
If you are looking for some paid surveys that are looking for new members, check out MySurvey (see my experiences) and SurveySavvy.
Posted in Bored Money | 15 Comments »
Saturday, December 3rd, 2005
Amazon.com recently released a beta program called Mechanical Turk for using human intelligence to solve problems that are very difficult for computers to do. For example, you figure out the name of a band from the album cover, and you get paid 2 cents. Focused people end up making a few bucks an hour. I tried some tasks, but it was pretty mind-numbing. From a money point of view, it’s classic Bored Money. From a programmer’s point of view, it’s very neat.
For more information, also see the Wikipedia entry.
Posted in Bored Money | 10 Comments »
Thursday, November 10th, 2005
Time for more Bored Money… Although frequent flyer miles are getting watered down by the second, they are still worth something if you fly as much as me. And if they are free, why not get them? Whenever I have some free time I stop over to Gary Steiger’s excellent website FreeFrequentFlyerMiles.com. He sifts through all the current miles deals and filters it down to a easily manageable level. It’ll take a while to get caught up with all the goodies there, but after that I just always check the ‘What’s New?’ section.
There are always airlines giving out miles here and there for surveys, switching long-distance carriers, signing up for e-mail newsletters, and so on. It all adds up! Together with this site and my Starwood AmEx Card earning 1.25 miles per dollar spent on it, last time we flew to visit the parents it was with 50,000 miles for two free cross-country flights, saving us over $1,000.
Posted in Bored Money | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 25th, 2005
Next up in the Bored Money arena is e-Rewards. It’s similar to MyPoints in that the make you fill out a big long profile and then pay you to receive e-mails, sign-up for offers, and fill out online surveys. They differ in that instead of Points and gift cards, e-Rewards uses e-Rewards dollars (not actual cash) and gives out some pretty random stuff. It’s pretty easy to earn money though, sometimes I get $5-$10 in one day.
For $25 in e-Rewards dollars, examples of what you can get include: 500 American or Northwest Airline Miles, $25 off any purchase at FTD.com, or 1,000 Hilton Honors points. However, my favorite reward is $25 for 6 free Blockbuster rentals - you get one movie free each month for six consecutive months. Here’s how I use it instead of NetFlix:
Read the rest of this entry…
Posted in Bored Money | 10 Comments »
Monday, October 24th, 2005
Pinecone Research is a consumer opinion research group that polls people via online surveys and occasionally by actually sending you out product samples to review. In exchange for your feedback, they mail you a $5 check for each online survey you complete for them. Each survey takes about 15 minutes. It has a homegrown-feel to it, so I try to answer all the questions honestly (although I still don’t give out my home phone number).
The catch is that they are usually closed to new members, so it is really hard to join their panel. But this week happens to be Open Recruitment Week, so sign up right now if you’re interested! I’ve probably gotten around $100 from them, the $5 checks seem like nothing but you get one about every two weeks and it adds up! I’ve also received a bunch of free food items to review.
Posted in Bored Money | 14 Comments »
Sunday, October 23rd, 2005
I’ve decided to add a new category called Bored Money. Be forewarned that these are not an efficient use of most people’s time. But if you have a desk job or any job with some downtime and internet access (or are just bored), why not eek out a little money?
The first one I’ll talk about is MyPoints, since it has been around for a while and has always delivered the promised goods. First, you sign up and give up all your personal information. Well, that’s the idea. I actually have an entire separate alias for all these Bored Money sites. The only thing you have to get correct is your name and address (use a fake phone number, they never check). I also use a free Yahoo e-mail.
You’ll get ‘Points’ for filling out surveys. I recommend having lots of interests. Accordingly, you’ll get the equivalent of requested spam in your e-mail box. You click on a link in each of them, most of which give you 5 Points. I get about 3-5 a day. When you accumulate enough Points, you can redeem them for gift certificates to various places like Wal-Mart, Red Lobster, and JC Penney. You can also get Points directly on their website for signing up for trial offers, buying things through their shopping mall, or signing up for clubs or mailing lists. I only do the free stuff, though.
So what’s a Point really worth? I usually redeem my Points for a $10 Target Gift Card, which is 1,500 Points. A $10 Starbucks Card is 1,350 Points. So that’s 0.67 cents a points. Or 3.3 cents an e-mail. Like I said, not a very efficient use of time. But I keep on doing it, because it’s mindless and lots of times you can sign up for sweepstakes, etc. for extra Points. The points actually add up really quick if you pay attention to it, I get about $10-20 in gift cards every couple months. I’ve earned 25,000 Points since joining according to them, worth about $165, without spending a dime. No telling how much time I’ve wasted on it, though. Shrug.
Posted in Bored Money | 18 Comments »
Tuesday, April 19th, 2005
I recently joined this interesting site called BzzAgent. Basically, you sign up to try new products, and you spread the “Bzz” to others and let them know the reactions that you get. It’s better than simply taking surveys, as you actually get the product to try and they get better feedback than “yes, that might be something I’d buy”. The first product that I got to try for free was YourMusic.com. It’s similar to those music programs like BMG and Columbia House (who hasn’t joined one of those at least once), where you have to buy one CD per month.
Read the rest of this entry…
Posted in Bored Money | No Comments »
