Ordering a giant crate of mexicokes online: $28
Getting 6% cash back through Memolink for it: Priceless $1.68
What? I can do maths, OK?
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
A Note About Offerwalls
As you browse many PTC sites, you'll see a handful of names appear again and again— Peanut Labs, RadiumOne, Matomy, and so forth. These are called "offerwalls" by PTC sites and any site that deals with them. But what exactly are they and how do they work?
Well, you know how Google Ads works. An advertiser has a product to sell and wants to drive traffic to their site. They pay an ad network to drive the traffic, and the ad network pays a host to rent ad space for their ad. The advertiser usually pays by the impression, where they pay for each time the ad is viewed, or by the click-through, where they pay every time a user clicks on the ad to visit their site.
Offerwalls work the same way, but with two key differences.
First, rather than pay by the impression or by the click-through, advertisers pay by the conversion, where they pay for each user who clicks the ad and buys the product, signs up for the mailing list, or does whatever other action the advertiser specifies as the purpose of the ad.
Second, offerwalls introduce an additional step to the payment process. As with Google Ads, the ad network pays the host to rent ad space (with the pay being per conversion), but then the host then pays the consumer a percentage of the revenue earned. While Google Ads typically piggy-back on existing traffic to a site, offerwall traffic is driven almost entirely by these payouts.
Because the offerwalls are the ad networks, they, like Google Ads, rent space from many hosts for the same ads.
Additionally, because the fees they pay to their hosts are per conversion, low-traffic and high-traffic hosts receive the same fee for any one conversion. You will likely see the same ad appear on the same offerwall on many different PTC sites. Each and every one of those sites is being paid the same amount by the offerwall if you complete the offer; if one PTC site seems to be offering a higher payout for the offer, that's because that PTC site has elected to pay out a larger percentage to its users.
I haven't done exhaustive research on the matter, but in my general experience, I believe InstaGC offers the highest payout to users and keeps the smallest percentage for itself. Here's hoping they'll be able to continue offering free gift cards for many years to come!
Advertising disclaimer: I was paid 25 Points (25¢) by InstaGC for this post. This payment was made exclusively for the link in the previous paragraph and did not influence its contents.
Well, you know how Google Ads works. An advertiser has a product to sell and wants to drive traffic to their site. They pay an ad network to drive the traffic, and the ad network pays a host to rent ad space for their ad. The advertiser usually pays by the impression, where they pay for each time the ad is viewed, or by the click-through, where they pay every time a user clicks on the ad to visit their site.
Offerwalls work the same way, but with two key differences.
First, rather than pay by the impression or by the click-through, advertisers pay by the conversion, where they pay for each user who clicks the ad and buys the product, signs up for the mailing list, or does whatever other action the advertiser specifies as the purpose of the ad.
Second, offerwalls introduce an additional step to the payment process. As with Google Ads, the ad network pays the host to rent ad space (with the pay being per conversion), but then the host then pays the consumer a percentage of the revenue earned. While Google Ads typically piggy-back on existing traffic to a site, offerwall traffic is driven almost entirely by these payouts.
Because the offerwalls are the ad networks, they, like Google Ads, rent space from many hosts for the same ads.
Additionally, because the fees they pay to their hosts are per conversion, low-traffic and high-traffic hosts receive the same fee for any one conversion. You will likely see the same ad appear on the same offerwall on many different PTC sites. Each and every one of those sites is being paid the same amount by the offerwall if you complete the offer; if one PTC site seems to be offering a higher payout for the offer, that's because that PTC site has elected to pay out a larger percentage to its users.
I haven't done exhaustive research on the matter, but in my general experience, I believe InstaGC offers the highest payout to users and keeps the smallest percentage for itself. Here's hoping they'll be able to continue offering free gift cards for many years to come!
Advertising disclaimer: I was paid 25 Points (25¢) by InstaGC for this post. This payment was made exclusively for the link in the previous paragraph and did not influence its contents.
Friday, October 19, 2012
I Bid 2 Save
Yes, the number is actually in their name and URL.
Ibid2save (yes, it's all one word) is a penny auction site, an entity very different from, yet I feel related to, a PTC site.
So, what's a penny auction site? Simple. At its core, it's an online auction site, but all products are being sold by the site owner and are typically new-in-box merchandise. Participants can't enter the amount to bid; each new bid raises the auction price by one penny and only one penny. Bidding in the last few seconds of an auction adds a few seconds to the clock, so it's impossible to snipe. And while each bid raises the auction price by one penny, it costs between $0.60 and $1 to place each bid. Bids are typically bought in advance, in multi-packs, and must have already been purchased before they can be placed.
Fundamentally, penny auctions are a form of online gambling, though many of them have a "buy it now" option where non-winning bidders can buy the item at retail price minus the cost of all bids wasted; this is because many penny auction sites are based in the United States where online gambling is illegal, and coupled with an admonition to only bid on the items you're intending to buy anyway, giving losing bidders the right to apply their losses to the purchase price circumvents that prohibition.
Ibid2save is fundamentally different from many other penny auctions. On IB2S, there are two classes of bids; "cash bids" that are purchased as normal and count against "buy it now" prices, and "promo bids" which are handed out like candy and don't count towards "buy it now" prices.
Given the frequency with which they hand out promo bids (300 for joining, 10 for liking each individual Facebook post, 100-500 for entering near-weekly coupon codes, etc), it is highly unlikely that you will win any good auction without a substantial bid expenditure, making it a very bad idea to buy bids (though I've "won" auctions on promo bids alone). The vast glut of free promo bids is exacerbated by the fact that there are only 2-3 good auctions at a time at most; IB2S, unlike most penny auction sites, charges "auction fees" to the winner. The auction fee is supposed to be 10% of the auction item's retail value, but every single auction comes with an award of promo bids that are valued for auction fee purposes as if they were substantially more valuable cash bids. A careful perusal of the site (and some double-checking with Google) will reveal that for the vast majority of auctions, the promo bid award is calculated so that the auction fee will exactly equal the retail price of the item— and keep in mind that you will be expected to pay the closing auction price and an exorbitant shipping charge on top of this fee.
As such, the small handful of auctions that are potentially worthwhile given the value of the item relative to the auction fee will be so glutted with people expending cheap promo bids using the site-provided autobidder that the final closing price may well be higher than retail. (Autobidders don't stop until they run out of bids, so their owners may find they have won a $100 for $150 the next morning.)
I personally won a $200 Visa gift card for total price of $198.44 including final auction price, "auction fee" and shipping, offering me a net profit of $3.84 once credit card rewards are included. (Credit card rewards programs, however, are currently beyond the scope of this blog.)
Paying $198.44 to gain $200 in two weeks and $2.28 in a month is not something most people would consider worthwhile; I consider it a good deal since anything is better than nothing (and the $198.44 was charged to my credit card, which acts as an interest-free loan for the two-week shipping period).
And some lucky sod managed to reap a $65 profit on a similar auction; it's all based on luck of the bidders.
In any case, Ibid2save is unusual by penny auction standards but with a pile of free promo bids you might get lucky!
Ibid2save (yes, it's all one word) is a penny auction site, an entity very different from, yet I feel related to, a PTC site.
So, what's a penny auction site? Simple. At its core, it's an online auction site, but all products are being sold by the site owner and are typically new-in-box merchandise. Participants can't enter the amount to bid; each new bid raises the auction price by one penny and only one penny. Bidding in the last few seconds of an auction adds a few seconds to the clock, so it's impossible to snipe. And while each bid raises the auction price by one penny, it costs between $0.60 and $1 to place each bid. Bids are typically bought in advance, in multi-packs, and must have already been purchased before they can be placed.
Fundamentally, penny auctions are a form of online gambling, though many of them have a "buy it now" option where non-winning bidders can buy the item at retail price minus the cost of all bids wasted; this is because many penny auction sites are based in the United States where online gambling is illegal, and coupled with an admonition to only bid on the items you're intending to buy anyway, giving losing bidders the right to apply their losses to the purchase price circumvents that prohibition.
Ibid2save is fundamentally different from many other penny auctions. On IB2S, there are two classes of bids; "cash bids" that are purchased as normal and count against "buy it now" prices, and "promo bids" which are handed out like candy and don't count towards "buy it now" prices.
Given the frequency with which they hand out promo bids (300 for joining, 10 for liking each individual Facebook post, 100-500 for entering near-weekly coupon codes, etc), it is highly unlikely that you will win any good auction without a substantial bid expenditure, making it a very bad idea to buy bids (though I've "won" auctions on promo bids alone). The vast glut of free promo bids is exacerbated by the fact that there are only 2-3 good auctions at a time at most; IB2S, unlike most penny auction sites, charges "auction fees" to the winner. The auction fee is supposed to be 10% of the auction item's retail value, but every single auction comes with an award of promo bids that are valued for auction fee purposes as if they were substantially more valuable cash bids. A careful perusal of the site (and some double-checking with Google) will reveal that for the vast majority of auctions, the promo bid award is calculated so that the auction fee will exactly equal the retail price of the item— and keep in mind that you will be expected to pay the closing auction price and an exorbitant shipping charge on top of this fee.
As such, the small handful of auctions that are potentially worthwhile given the value of the item relative to the auction fee will be so glutted with people expending cheap promo bids using the site-provided autobidder that the final closing price may well be higher than retail. (Autobidders don't stop until they run out of bids, so their owners may find they have won a $100 for $150 the next morning.)
I personally won a $200 Visa gift card for total price of $198.44 including final auction price, "auction fee" and shipping, offering me a net profit of $3.84 once credit card rewards are included. (Credit card rewards programs, however, are currently beyond the scope of this blog.)
Paying $198.44 to gain $200 in two weeks and $2.28 in a month is not something most people would consider worthwhile; I consider it a good deal since anything is better than nothing (and the $198.44 was charged to my credit card, which acts as an interest-free loan for the two-week shipping period).
And some lucky sod managed to reap a $65 profit on a similar auction; it's all based on luck of the bidders.
In any case, Ibid2save is unusual by penny auction standards but with a pile of free promo bids you might get lucky!
Friday, October 12, 2012
How To Make A Lot Of Money Online
Short answer: You can't. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you know it's true; after all, if you could earn $88/hour from the comfort of your home just by clicking things on teh intertoobz, then no one would actually work any real jobs.
You can, however, make a little money online.
How much? Well, less than minimum wage, to be honest. This isn't something to consider as a career. Think of it instead as something akin to coupon clipping; it saves a bit here and there, because why not?
For example, if you were to use Memolink to shop at Macy's, you would earn 32 points, or $0.02 per dollar you spent. Obviously, that's not going to earn you a living, but you're not shopping to make a living. You're shopping to buy something you were already planning to buy anyway. And so, you get 2% cash back for free. If you were already searching for coupon codes to try and save money, why not use this?
The videos available from sites like Swagbucks easily blend into the background; keep the volume low and you can easily let them drone in the background while you work. The maximum you can earn is $1.50 per day, but if it takes no effort on your part, that's $1.50 for free.
Bing isn't quite as good as Google, but it's probably functional for most searches; why not sign up for Bing Rewards and earn $5/month with absolutely no effort since you already needed to search anyway? And if you aren't comfortable letting Microsoft track your search history, there's always the Bing Bot to make searching easy. Microsoft doesn't mind!
And if you can't work but would like to supplement your social security cheque any way you can, why not earn the occasional amazon gift card for free ? InstaGC has low cashout thresholds; given their 10 point joining bonus, it's quite possible to earn enough to cash out a $1 Amazon gift card by completing only one offer!
I use coupon codes. I have a rewards credit card. I belong to every points-based loyalty program I've heard of. I'm sitting on foreign currency because I refuse to pay fees to exchange it. When I eat out, I always order to-go so I don't have to pay restaurant prices for drinks. I pinch so many pennies, it's only natural I'd take advantage of these sorts of things.
Advertising disclaimer: I was paid 25 Points (25¢) by InstaGC for this post.
You can, however, make a little money online.
How much? Well, less than minimum wage, to be honest. This isn't something to consider as a career. Think of it instead as something akin to coupon clipping; it saves a bit here and there, because why not?
For example, if you were to use Memolink to shop at Macy's, you would earn 32 points, or $0.02 per dollar you spent. Obviously, that's not going to earn you a living, but you're not shopping to make a living. You're shopping to buy something you were already planning to buy anyway. And so, you get 2% cash back for free. If you were already searching for coupon codes to try and save money, why not use this?
The videos available from sites like Swagbucks easily blend into the background; keep the volume low and you can easily let them drone in the background while you work. The maximum you can earn is $1.50 per day, but if it takes no effort on your part, that's $1.50 for free.
Bing isn't quite as good as Google, but it's probably functional for most searches; why not sign up for Bing Rewards and earn $5/month with absolutely no effort since you already needed to search anyway? And if you aren't comfortable letting Microsoft track your search history, there's always the Bing Bot to make searching easy. Microsoft doesn't mind!
And if you can't work but would like to supplement your social security cheque any way you can, why not earn the occasional amazon gift card for free ? InstaGC has low cashout thresholds; given their 10 point joining bonus, it's quite possible to earn enough to cash out a $1 Amazon gift card by completing only one offer!
I use coupon codes. I have a rewards credit card. I belong to every points-based loyalty program I've heard of. I'm sitting on foreign currency because I refuse to pay fees to exchange it. When I eat out, I always order to-go so I don't have to pay restaurant prices for drinks. I pinch so many pennies, it's only natural I'd take advantage of these sorts of things.
Advertising disclaimer: I was paid 25 Points (25¢) by InstaGC for this post.
Superpoints
As of 7 November 2012, Superpoints has closed operations. There is currently no indication that the site will resume, however the company Superpoints LLC appears to remain in business. The information below will be preserved.
The site name: Superpoints
The Currency: Superpoints
Their Value: 1 Superpoint = $0.008 - $0.005 depending on redemption choice.
Redemption Options: Paypal, Amazon gift cards, myriad other gift cards, merchandise.
Reliability: I have not yet cashed out. Reliability will be updated once I attempt to cash out. Allegedly reliable.
Earning: Offerwalls, Surveys, Bonuses.
Surveys: Yes.
Offerwalls: Trialpay, Peanutlabs, RadiumOne, Virool, SuperRewards, Paymentwall.
Cash Back Shopping: No.
Crowdflower Tasks: No
Bonuses: Daily use of the "Super Lucky Button," at least 30 clicks/day. Typically awards at least 1 point/day, may award as many as 50. Platinum users earn 1 point/day just for clicking regardless of wins. Superpoints also sends random "Lucky Mails" that offer free points (usually 1-5) for clicking email links.
Cashout Threshold: 600 Points (earns a $5 Amazon gift card)
Cashout Fees: None
Cashout Limits: None.
Referrals: Unlimited referrals. 25 superpoints/referral. After earning Gold status (after the second referral), the referring user earns matching points on referrals' Super Lucky Button wins ONLY and 5 superpoints for each survey completion, up to a maximum of 1,000/referral. This site is invitation-only and requires a referral to join; use the link at the top of this post or type "feefiifoofuum" (without quotes) into the invite code box.
Tricks: Allegedly, redemption items regularly go "on sale" but I've never seen this.
PTC Recommendation: Good
Your host has earned nothing from Superpoints thus far.
InstaGC
The site name: InstaGC
The Currency: Points
Their Value: 1 InstaGC Point = $0.01
Redemption Options: Amazon gift cards, myriad other gift cards.
Reliability: I have not yet cashed out. Reliability will be updated once I attempt to cash out. Allegedly very reliable.
Earning: Offer walls, Tasks, limited shop & earn.
Surveys: No.
Offerwalls: Peanutlabs, RadiumOne, Virool, SuperRewards, Matomy, BLVD, Supersonic, native/proprietary.
Cash Back Shopping: Limited. Includes Amazon!
Crowdflower Tasks: Yes
Bonuses: Offer contests and referral contests, held weekly and monthly. Occasional bonus codes released. 1 free point per day used to be offered, this has now been discontinued. Occasional free Amazon gift code released outright; available to the first person to successfully claim it. 25 point bonus weekly for blog posts.
Cashout Threshold: 100 Points (earns a $1 Amazon gift card)
Cashout Fees: None
Cashout Limits: None, though some redemption options are occasionally out of stock.
Referrals: Unlimited referrals. 10 Points per referral, plus 10% of all referral earnings. No invite necessary to join.
Tricks: InstaGC's native offerwall does NOT have any means of manually crediting offers, and so SHOULD NOT BE USED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Offers on any wall will only credit ~50% of the time at best; a manual credit option is required. Lately, the site tech has allegedly been implementing a manual credit option for the native offerwall, but this is currently unavailable.
PTC Recommendation: Good
Your host has earned $23 in Amazon gift cards from InstaGC thus far.
The Currency: Points
Their Value: 1 InstaGC Point = $0.01
Redemption Options: Amazon gift cards, myriad other gift cards.
Reliability: I have not yet cashed out. Reliability will be updated once I attempt to cash out. Allegedly very reliable.
Earning: Offer walls, Tasks, limited shop & earn.
Surveys: No.
Offerwalls: Peanutlabs, RadiumOne, Virool, SuperRewards, Matomy, BLVD, Supersonic, native/proprietary.
Cash Back Shopping: Limited. Includes Amazon!
Crowdflower Tasks: Yes
Bonuses: Offer contests and referral contests, held weekly and monthly. Occasional bonus codes released. 1 free point per day used to be offered, this has now been discontinued. Occasional free Amazon gift code released outright; available to the first person to successfully claim it. 25 point bonus weekly for blog posts.
Cashout Threshold: 100 Points (earns a $1 Amazon gift card)
Cashout Fees: None
Cashout Limits: None, though some redemption options are occasionally out of stock.
Referrals: Unlimited referrals. 10 Points per referral, plus 10% of all referral earnings. No invite necessary to join.
Tricks: InstaGC's native offerwall does NOT have any means of manually crediting offers, and so SHOULD NOT BE USED UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Offers on any wall will only credit ~50% of the time at best; a manual credit option is required. Lately, the site tech has allegedly been implementing a manual credit option for the native offerwall, but this is currently unavailable.
PTC Recommendation: Good
Your host has earned $23 in Amazon gift cards from InstaGC thus far.
Swagbucks
The site name: Swagbucks
The Currency: Swag Bucks
Their Value: 1 Swagbuck = $0.01 for cash and gift cards.
Redemption Options: Paypal, Amazon gift cards, myriad other gift cards, merchandise.
Reliability: I have been paid consistently and on time.
Earning: Swag bucks can be earned by watching videos (max 75/day), playing games (max 10/day), using their search engine (search wins vary), and trading in old electronics, as well as the usual options.
Surveys: Yes, via Surveyhead.
Offerwalls: Trialpay, RadiumOne, Paymentwall, Superrewards, Peanutlabs, Sponsorpay
Cash Back Shopping: Yes.
Crowdflower Tasks: Yes
Bonuses: 4 Swagbucks daily via poll/toolbar/ad-click path, 2-30 Swagbucks free on occasion through redeemable "swag codes," bonuses for meeting daily earning goals, occasional random awards for social network posts.
Cashout Threshold: 450 Swagbucks (earns a $5 Amazon gift card)
Cashout Fees: None
Cashout Limits: 2 redemptions per day, limit of 5 $5 Amazon gift cards per month.
Referrals: Unlimited referrals. Referrals earn matching swag bucks from search wins ONLY up to a maximum of 1,000 Swagbucks. No invite necessary to join.
Tricks: Video and game rewards are both calculated by the amount of time the page is open without regard for whether it's interacted with or even whether the flash file actually loads. However, timed-refresh autoloaders are easily caught and the resulting account banned, and some rewards may require surprise CAPTCHAs so it's impossible to earn these swagbucks without some babysitting even if you don't actually watch/play.
PTC Recommendation: Excellent
Your host has earned $415 in Amazon gift cards and $150 cash from Swagbucks thus far.
The Currency: Swag Bucks
Their Value: 1 Swagbuck = $0.01 for cash and gift cards.
Redemption Options: Paypal, Amazon gift cards, myriad other gift cards, merchandise.
Reliability: I have been paid consistently and on time.
Earning: Swag bucks can be earned by watching videos (max 75/day), playing games (max 10/day), using their search engine (search wins vary), and trading in old electronics, as well as the usual options.
Surveys: Yes, via Surveyhead.
Offerwalls: Trialpay, RadiumOne, Paymentwall, Superrewards, Peanutlabs, Sponsorpay
Cash Back Shopping: Yes.
Crowdflower Tasks: Yes
Bonuses: 4 Swagbucks daily via poll/toolbar/ad-click path, 2-30 Swagbucks free on occasion through redeemable "swag codes," bonuses for meeting daily earning goals, occasional random awards for social network posts.
Cashout Threshold: 450 Swagbucks (earns a $5 Amazon gift card)
Cashout Fees: None
Cashout Limits: 2 redemptions per day, limit of 5 $5 Amazon gift cards per month.
Referrals: Unlimited referrals. Referrals earn matching swag bucks from search wins ONLY up to a maximum of 1,000 Swagbucks. No invite necessary to join.
Tricks: Video and game rewards are both calculated by the amount of time the page is open without regard for whether it's interacted with or even whether the flash file actually loads. However, timed-refresh autoloaders are easily caught and the resulting account banned, and some rewards may require surprise CAPTCHAs so it's impossible to earn these swagbucks without some babysitting even if you don't actually watch/play.
PTC Recommendation: Excellent
Your host has earned $415 in Amazon gift cards and $150 cash from Swagbucks thus far.
Welcome
A blog reviewing my experiences with PTC sites. Emphasis on my experience; your mileage may vary. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. If you don't know what a PTC site is, you're probably not interested go away. All viewpoints expressed in this blog are solely the opinions of the blogger, unless they're the opinions of the people who paid me to post them. Remember, this is a PTC blog; obviously, the links are referral links and I will be posting stuff here to get paid. You are warned and so I can't be responsible for regret, buyer's remorse, or other negative emotions or wasted time because you assumed my word was perfect in every respect. That said, I will be as honest as I can. Thank you for reading.
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