September 2004 Archives

As BestBuy's RewardZone rewards program nears its one year anniversary, its top competitor, Circuit City, prepares to introduce a rewards program of their own. No details on the program are available yet, but the program will begin sometime around October 2, when a new ad campaign begins. Will post the details when they're announced.

Thanks to those who were able to attend Sunday's chat with Bonnie of ClickToTheMagic.com and MagicClickClub.com! Also in attendance were Dmitry of QuickRewards.net and Chris of CreationsRewards.com - that's right, three program owners in one chat!

If you weren't able to make it, here are some of the things that were discussed:

Bonnie is working on changing the colors at CttM as well as eliminating some redundancies on the site. She's also going to be changing some of the graphics to make the site faster to load. And, trivia will be coming back to CttM very soon!

Bonnie noted that there is no longer a requirement of 3000 points for your first redemption. The cheapest redemption is now 1100 points (for a $5 Disney Store GC)...and 200 different redemption options (nope, that is NOT a typo!) will be added soon! She admitted that redemptions are backlogged but says she is working feverishly to catch up and hopes to be caught up in the next week.

One of the neat features on her site that you may not have been aware of is the Wish List. You can receive points for mailing in items like Kelloggs Kash, Healthy Choice UPCs, ePloids, Pillsbury Points, BoxTops for Education, and much more!

All three program owners discussed the problems they're having with user purchases not crediting. If they don't get credit for the user's purchase, they can't pay the user his shopping rebate. Here are some of the causes the owners gave:

1. The user may have used a coupon he received from another site. Sometimes these coupons will attach your sale to a different affiliate than the rewards program...so you would get the coupon savings but not the rebate from the rewards program - Solution: Always email the program owner to see if they have access to a similar coupon to what you found elsewhere.

2. The user may have a cookie from another rewards program or deal site on his computer that may have precedence and override his sale going through the rewards program - Solution: Clear cookies before you make your purchase through a rewards program.

3. The user may have "scumware" or "parasiteware" on his computer, like Ebates' MoeMoneyMaker or MyPoints' PointAlert. If you have those programs installed, and you try to shop through a different rewards program, your rebate may go elsewhere (or nowhere at all) - Solution: Uninstall this junk asap! Run the program AdAware (the newest version of this free download, released on 9/17, is here) or PestPatrol (a free download available here) to remove this junk from your machine.

I think those were the highlights -- I'm forgetting something, please add a comment! Thanks muchly to Bonnie, Dmitry, and Chris for taking the time to talk to us, and thanks also to the users who came with their comments and questions! It was fun and informative!

Suzette from ReadersWritersRewards announced today that the site will be closing at the end of September. Some of the reasons she gave were low user participation and the cost of upgrading to a new script and new server. Suzette stressed to me in email that she was NOT shutting down the site because of problems paying people. (Note that she paid my PayPal cashout request almost immediately yesterday.) She will honor all redemption requests made through 9/30 - you can either redeem on her site or request that your earnings (at a corresponding equal value) be transferred to her traffic exchange program, surf4theearth.com.

It's refreshing to see a rewards program agree to pay its users before shutting down. I think it's a sign of Suzette's integrity to do so, I wish her good luck with her other program.

Sorry to see another rewards program go. :(

Hi, all! Here's my review of a new rewards program out called QuizPoints!

The Promotion Marketing Association says that last year $3 billion was saved by using coupons...and that just 20 minutes a week could save you up to 20% of your grocery bill. (Last year the average was 11%...which obviously adds up over the course of a year!)

To learn more about couponing, including clipping tips and where to find coupons, here's the PMA's Coupon Month site.

Some useful sources for coupons:
ValuPage - Scan at register for credit on future grocery purchase
CoolSavings - Grocery coupons and more!
Keycode - Print coupons for groceries AND offline retailers!
RefundSweepers - Get free coupons by newsletter!
CouponSurfer - Grocery coupons for your favorite brands: Sara Lee, Diet Coke, Hershey, All, Maalox, Pam, Peter Pan and more!

I've read a couple of interesting articles lately and thought I'd share.

First - Cruise companies Carnival, Celebrity, and Royal Caribbean have made some serious changes to the way they're allowing agents to sell their cruises. This is a great article about it, and about how these prices are going to affect consumers.

Second - Wal-Mart is THE place to shop for discounted food and merchandise, we all know that. But the pressure they put on their suppliers is driving some of them out of the country for cheaper labor. A very interesting article on this is here.

Third - This article examines a few of the case studies of women claiming sex discrimination in pay and promotion at Wal-Mart. (The official class action site is here.)

Big "DUH" there, huh. Anyway, there was a survey done by Maritz Loyalty Marketing about why people leave rewards programs, and the results were released yesterday. The primary reason given, by 70% of the people, was the length of time it took to earn points.

Some of the other reasons folks gave were: not being rewarded properly, disliked the fee (am assuming this refers to credit card rewards programs that require a fee to join), disliked the reward options, program rules kept changing (ahem, Memolink and Milesource), poor customer service (ahem, ditto), other programs seemed better, or the program sent too many emails.

The conclusion they came to was that RPs need to offer rewards that are both appealing AND attainable. Again, big "DUH." But the full article is here if you want to read it.

Our scheduled chat last week with Bonnie Corso, the owner/CEO of ClickToTheMagic.com, had to be rescheduled due to a conflict in her schedule. We're going to try again this Sunday, 9/19, at 7pm ET. If you have questions or comments about ClickToTheMagic, or if you want to know what makes it unique before you join, c'mon down with your questions and comments on Sunday night!

Hope to see y'all there!

Hi! If you're coming back for the chat tonight, you may be confused to see a different chat room client than what you're accustomed to.

What you need to do is enter a username (and they're limited in length), but you do not have to enter a password. You do not have to select a chat room (leave "Default" selected). Just click on "Chat"!

If you're having trouble, I'm on AIM as mothergaladriel; just send me an IM and I'll walk ya through it!

Adam, whose title at SixQuestions is Partner, spent about 1.5 hours with us in chat last night, and despite continuous technical problems (screen freezing, 'net connection dropping) he persisted in logging back in until no one had any further questions! He was very gracious and patient with our complaints and offered a lot of information.

He says that SixQuestions gets around 8,000 logins a day, putting it on Alexa (the site popularity ranker) at around the 17,000th most popular internet site. (Considering the millions of sites out there, this is pretty significant.)

The big topic of the evening was quiz submission: how are quizzes submitted, who picks them, what is more likely to get a quiz accepted. Adam said that ALL quizzes you see on the site are submitted by users -- and that the site receives around 200 a day. There is one person responsible for choosing the quizzes – this person primarily picks which ones to accept based on the title. This person is male, 27, and "a guy's guy." He doesn't so much look for quiz topics that would appeal to all, just topics that appeal to him personally. We voiced frustration with this and while he didn't come out and say it, I feel strongly that Adam's going to pass this along to the quiz accepter.

He said many duplicate-themed quizzes are submitted. Many quizzes are thrown out, he said, because they were opinion-based and not fact-based. He said quizzes are kept for around a month; if you’ve submitted one in the past and didn’t hear back in a month, you’re welcome to resubmit it. (Remember, the title is the key, so you may want to retitle when you resubmit!)

We talked about fact-checking – we’ve seen quizzes come through that had some wrong answers; does SQ verify the answers at all? Adam said that they do check but that sometimes those errors do slip through. He said that they’re finding a good number of quizzes are submitted with all the answers correct except one – which they think is intentional on the purpose of the quiz authors, so that they’ll be the only one with all 6/6 (and thus will win more points). We talked about the possibility of them requiring sources for each answer and Adam said they did not want to require the extra effort on the users’ part, but that they are working to ensure no more “bad questions” make it through. Adam says that if you find you got 5/6 due to an incorrect (on their part) answer, to contact them and they will adjust your score.

SQ is aware that quiz answers are shared on BigBigForums.com and on Chrissy’s YahooGroup (send an email to Chrissy if you want to join). He also is aware that people hold multiple accounts and Google correct answers. Membership at SQ is not limited to one account per IP – Adam said there were some serious difficulties in trying to verify that each account has a different IP so they’re currently not limiting accounts that way. He did acknowledge that sharing answers, and holding multiple accounts, was responsible for such a diminished return for antes on 6/6 quizzes. Adam said they had checked and they feel that a great number of users are getting perfect quizzes and thus are probably getting their answers from BBF (he feels this is the main source people are using), Chrissy’s YG, or from holding multiple accounts and googling.

Who writes those often-silly and sometimes bizarre polls?? Adam and one other guy.

A question was asked about whether the SQ program is considered gambling. He said he didn’t think so, because a) it involved wagering points, not money, and b) SQ is a game of skill, not luck.

I asked about customer service problems, specifically about emails going unanswered, and whether they would be adding someone just to handle email or maybe getting an automated system to respond with answers to common questions. He said they knew this was a problem and were looking at ways to improve it.

Someone asked if he was aware that some users were unable (perhaps due to browser type) to access the Polls. He said yes, and they were working on a fix for this.

Someone asked about the new user profile system. Adam said they were aware that people were unhappy with certain personal data (like sex and age) being visible to all, and they are working right now to change the user profiles. He said that if you want to see how the higher-ranking folks are getting all their points, you can view their profile and click to see their transaction history.

Discussion turned to finances. Does SQ earn money simply by people taking quizzes? No, says Adam. But will the company be able to pay those of us who reach cashout by just doing quizzes? He confidently said yes, of course. He said that “plenty” of people are doing activities in the Earn Points section that do generate revenue for the site. Shopping is also a money-maker for SQ and the shopping section will be expanded soon as SQ is partnering with an additional affiliate program.

I asked if we could complete an offer on SQ’s site if we’ve done it for another rewards program. He said that we could as long as we used a different email address. You can change your email address in the Update Profile section.

Most of us haven’t reached cashout yet. How long should we expect to wait after we request a redemption? Adam said 4 weeks – they had been sending them sooner but it had caused problems (with fraud or some other abuse, I wasn’t clear on that). He said they had already sent out one I-Pod and were about to send another. The I-Pod winner (I think he said) had gotten a great number of points from winning at the SQ Games.

He said another game would be coming out soon. He wasn’t sure what it was going to be yet.

...That's about all I can remember from the chat. I had meant to post the full transcript but had technical problems. If you were there and remember it differently, or remember something I didn't mention, please respond! Thanks to all who came by last night, and a TREMENDOUS round of applause for Adam for taking so much time out of his Labor Day weekend to visit with us! Great guy, great program!

Hi, all! I'm tickled pink to be able to tell you that the owner of one of my favorite new rewards programs, Adam of SixQuestions, will be my guest in the chat room this Sunday evening. We'll get things started around 7pm ET/6 Central. Just click on Chat Room at the top of the page here to enter. You don't need to log in, but you can change your name at the top left of the screen. You'll need Java enabled. Please feel free to enter the chat room now or any time before the chat to make sure your browser's settings are compatible.

So, lets get ready with OUR OWN questions for Adam! And comments and suggestions are welcome! See ya then!

I have to admit, when I found out they were phasing out their in-store ClubMom card, I was a little concerned about ClubMom Rewards. It looks like I was worrying for nothing, though! ClubMom Rewards, which I found to be one of the three best rewards programs for shopping in my 2004 Shopping Comparison, is now offering more ways to earn!

1. You can earn by shopping in-store with a registered credit card at Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Nine West, Radio Shack, and Easy Spirit. (Radio Shack earns 3pts per dollar, the others earn 2.)

2. You can earn up to 15pts per dollar by shopping at one of many merchants in their online mall.

3. Buying or leasing an '04 or '05 Dodge vehicle? Earn 20,000 points on a Caravan, Grand Caravan, or Dorango...or 5,000 points on any other! (see the site for details)

4. Earn 2000 points (that's $10) for signing up for a new Verizon Wireless account with the link at ClubMom!

5. And this is my favorite: Earn for purchasing GCs! Yep, I know I just recently posted that rewards programs generally don't do that, but ClubMom does! Earn 5 to 15 points per dollar (that's 2.5% - 7.5%) when you purchase GCs through ClubMom! Minimum order size is $20. Christmas is coming up, y'all...buy your GCs online for points, then use them in-store or give 'em as gifts!

Plus, ClubMom Rewards members get occasional coupons by mail from select retailers (I got a $10 off $100 ToysRUs discount last Christmas)... and many online retailers offer special ClubMom Rewards perks when you use the "CLUBMOM" coupon at checkout!

If you haven't joined yet -- why not? ClubMom Rewards rewards you for the things you do every day as a mom...oh yeah, and dads can join, too! ;)

BabyMint today announced an update to their reward program, now called BabyMint 3.0. You can now choose to have your shopping rebates directed to the repayment of your student loans. They will continue to allow you to cash out by check if you'd prefer or to have your rebates deposited into a college fund.

"For the past four years BabyMint has been helping families generate incremental college savings and -- through our 'Tuition Rewards' program -- qualify for guaranteed scholarship credits. Now, BabyMint 3.0 further enhances our leadership position in the college savings arena by allowing parents and families to direct their shopping rebates towards the repayment of their student loan debt," says Peter Davis, President and Chief Executive Officer of BabyMint. "No other college savings program offers this three-pronged solution to the challenge of educational funding."

The full press release is here.

Not a BabyMint member? Please see my review and consider joining -- you get a $100 scholarship credit just for signing up!