July 2005 Archives
On Sunday, July 31, CompareRewards.com is holding a huge Chat Event in honor of our daily TriviaAnswers newsletter's second birthday. Program owners scheduled to attend include:
Bonnie of ClickToTheMagic.com
Chris of CreationsRewards.net
Vince of Giving2Gether.org
Charlie of PointPool.com
Dmitry of QuickRewards.net
James (or Marc) of QuizPoints.com
President of Sploofus.com
...and several other owners may pop in as well!
Ever wanted to talk to someone "behind the scenes"? Have questions or suggestions for the bigwigs? Like getting free prizes? :) Please mark your calendar for 8pm Eastern on Sunday, July 31 and visit the CompareRewards.com Chat Room then! It may be a benefit to join these sites ahead of time in case they give out points for that program or if they ask you a question about their site in order to receive a prize.
Note: AOL users must load IE to enter the chat room due to compatibility issues. Also, I'll be monitoring email during the chat if you have any technical problems or questions about getting into the chat room.
Hope to see y'all there!
And -- it's not too late to get in on the birthday celebration if you're not a newsletter subscriber: every day this week I'll be giving away "birthday gifts" to subscribers of the TriviaAnswers newsletter! Get more info on the newsletter, including how to subscribe, here! And thanks to all for your kind support!
I've mentioned the MyPoints2000 YahooGroup before -- if you're a big MP fan you may want to consider subscribing.
Yesterday a member there claiming to be a MP employee said, "I work at MyPoints and I've been catching up on your reactions to our
new website. We are still trying to get all of our offers and
redemption options up on the site. Rest assured..nothing has gone
away. It may just take a few more days to get everything up. We've
had to test extensively to be sure that everything works properly."
Of course, anyone could claim to be a MP employee for kicks, but another user confirmed that she got the following message in response to an inquiry about Hilton HHonors points being missing as a redemption option: "Thank you for contacting MyPoints Member Care.
We are currently working out some issues with some of the rewards through our site, but rest assured the Hilton Honors Points award will back up soon. Thank you for your continued patience and support. Please feel free to contact us with any further inquiries.
Have a nice day. Best Regards, Melanie B. MyPoints Member Care"
MyPoints sent out an email with the suggestion to add this email address to your address book: BonusMailReply@MyPoints.com -- Here are their instructions on how to do this:
� For Yahoo!: click "Add to Address Book," located in the "From:" line.
� For Hotmail and MSN: click "Save Address," located in the bar above "To:" and "From:"
� For AOL using the AOL software: Click the "Save Address" icon.
� For AOL users on AOL.com: Click the "From" line of the email "BonusMail from MyPoints" and save BonusMailReply@MyPoints.com to your contact list.
QuizPoints has added some new features recently you might be interested in. The site's got more emphasis on social aspects -- for instance, members can now create a profile visible to others (and earn points to do it... though you are required to upload a real picture of yourself to get the points), you can search for member profiles by various criteria including city and state, and there's an area with ready-made code for entering your referral link into your AIM profile.
They've also added a section with coupon codes, and they've added MANY more merchants in their shopping section.
And this is pretty cool, too -- they're guaranteeing to ship out "in stock" (marked as such) rewards within one business day. They currently have 7 different stores' GCs in stock (some with multiple denominations available).
This program has definitely improved since I originally reviewed it last year. If you haven't joined, go take a look!
We had a great chat last night -- for about 2 hours -- with Giving2Gether.org owner Vince Martin. Thanks to all who were able to make it, and for those who couldn't, here's a summary:
Vince described G2G as "a shopping-based site that gives you cash back for your purchases (up to 35%) and generally higher than most sites online and we give you the opportunity to keep all of that cash back or donate from 10 to 100% of it to a registered non-profit or any k-12 public school in the country."
Payout is quarterly, by check, with a $10 minimum. This, Vince says, is to make sure that any purchases that are returned are accounted for properly before the rebates are paid out. If you choose a charity to receive a part of your rebate, they're also required to meet the $10 threshold to be paid. Any amounts under $10 are of course carried over to the next quarter. Payments over $10 are made within 30 days of the end of the quarter.
Vince stressed, "We DO pay," and went on to say, "at the end of the day, you've got more cash...even if it takes a little longer to receive it." I confirmed this, by noting that in my recent shopping comparison, I found that Giving2Gether.org paid the highest rebates for 11 out of 13 merchants, compared to 5 other rewards programs (including Fatwallet, Ebates, and MyPoints). G2G currently has about 160 merchants.
We talked a good while about the "community" side of G2G. "We just launched a host of features to build out the community side more," Vince said. "We want people to connect with each other and start creating real solutions to real problems." Vince said that he started this rewards program because he wanted to "empower people to make a difference." He feels that people are made to feel powerless these days, but that if we come together for a common purpose we have tremendous potential.
A list of nonprofits already enrolled in the program is here. But ANY nonprofit can enroll in the program -- your church, private school, fireman/policeman organization, health support group, you name it. Then their purchases made through the site will earn rebates, and other folks can choose them as a charity to support with THEIR rebates. "Seriously, this has the potential to put hundreds of millions of dollars into good causes every year...without costing givers a penny. That is mind-boggling," Vince said.
We discussed some of the ways that G2G members could connect with others who had the same passions. Members can create a profile visible to others in which they discuss what causes they support. The site has a forum for givers to talk about their causes, to share information and to work with others. Vince said, "That's what G2G is about...connecting people who've been affected similarly or share common concerns."
Giving2Gether is having a referral contest right now where the winner will get a prize package worth over $3,000 and 10 runners-up will receive a $25 GC! Details are here -- right now first place is VERY attainable (18 first-level referrals would get you 1st!; you earn points on multiple referral levels, though).
I think those were the major points that we discussed. Huge thanks to Vince for taking so much of his time to talk with us about the program, rewards programs in general, and some of his personal favorite causes. He stressed that he was open to suggestions and was interested in hearing user feedback. I have his email address if anyone wants it.
The main thing I want to stress about this program is that it enables you to give to your favorite cause just by making purchases you'd make online anyway. And if you're not a big online shopper, you still have the potential to make a difference: just share the site link with any non-profit organizations that you know of that need help in fund-raising (don't they all?). Please help spread the word about this site, because working together we CAN make a difference.
As the 2005 Shopping Comparison that I posted the other day revealed, G2G is offering some fantastic rates for shopping right now. They're doing this as a limited time promotion to attract attention to their new program. Giving2Gether is set up as a community of givers, with a focus on supporting worthy charities with your rebate dollars; however, if you're, umm...selfish?, like me and want to keep your rebate for yourself, that's cool, too! If you're affiliated with a non-profit, like a church, a school, an animal support cause, a disease research cause, etc. -- you can sign your organization up and promote your link to your members.
Got questions on how this works? Check out the program and come back tonight at 8pm Eastern time and enter our Chat Room to talk with the program owner himself! Vince Martin has graciously agreed to join us then to field questions and share information about his program! Hope you can make it!
MyPoints' new site went live today. Looks very different, but it's pretty intuitive and the pages load a lot quicker. Not sure why they needed a separate tab for Great Deals (seems like that oughtta go under Shopping, IMHO).
Go to My Account, My Profile and get 5 points for each of 12 profiles you complete -- and if you complete all 12, you'll get a 40 point bonus (total of 100 points).
While the costs to redeem for a particular GC do not appear to have gone up, the variety of redemptions has gone down. These are no longer available: Webcertificates, Omaha Steaks, Suncoast/OnCue/Sam Goody/Media Play, Olive Garden but Red Lobster, owned by the same people, is still there... maybe the RL GC is good at OG...not sure), Hollywood Video, BDalton, Mrs. Fields, Applebee's, Pizza Hut, and BassPro. I'm sure others are missing, too -- these are just the ones I noticed.
So, what's your take on the new site? Like it, hate it, just need time to get used to it? Leave a comment!
If you have any unread Bonus Mails from MyPoints, make sure you read them NOW because they all expire today (July 22). This is probably in preparation for the change to the new site.
Huge thanks to Vera for bringing this to my attention.
Yesterday I contacted MyPoints' Corporate folks about their affiliate program, as they discontinued their program through Commission Junction in early July. Today I heard back from them and they said they'd be relaunching their program soon, but in the meanwhile, they gave me the link to their beta site and said "this will actually become the new MyPoints next week." You may need to clear your cookies to see it:
It appears at first glance that they're not increasing redemption costs but of course you know they can change that at any time.
Ebay announced on Monday that they were phasing out the Anything Points program in the U.S. (it will remain active on their Canadian site). Apparently it wasn't the marketing tool they expected. Sellers can offer them in new listings through August 14; points will be honored through August 2006.
See Ebay Anything Points (5/27/03), Anything Points Article (3/17/04), and Ebay to Expand Anything Points Program by Partnering with Metareward (6/9/04).
Getting motivated to do this year's rewards program shopping rate comparison was pretty hard -- last year's took a lot of time and effort -- but people are asking, how do Memolink's new rates compare to their old ones? And how does THAT compare to the other programs? So, I started putting together some information and I wanted to share what I had so far. This is a work-in-progress; I'll be adding a lot more merchants and other rewards programs as time permits. Currently the programs listed in the chart (with links to my latest reviews of the sites) are: Memolink, Ebates, FatWallet (I don't have these guys officially reviewed yet but have referred to them before), Giving2Gether.org, MyPoints, and QuickRewards.
I have to make the typical disclaimers (read this section really fast like the disclaimers on a car sales commercial, hehe): because rewards programs often change their rates without notice and due to the possibility of errors (I make typos like anybody else!), please double-check before making your purchase. I convert points to percentages based on the best $25 redemption (and again, these values change sometimes, as we saw with Memolink this week). Also, the rates shown for Giving2Gether.org WILL be changing; these are the rates they're offering to members who join in their introductory period. G2G's rates sometimes were given as a range as they depend on volume of sales; I used the lowest value in the range. Memolink's old rates listed were those from last year's comparison in February '04; they may have been changed between then and the site revamp last weekend.
What I've put together so far is here: 2005 Rewards Program Shopping Comparison
Read the chart across first -- the best rates offered for a particular merchant are highlighted in green; the worst, in red. Then scan downward to see how often you see red or green within a particular reward program -- to give you an idea of overall which programs to use or avoid for shopping.
Some initial findings:
1. About half the time Memolink upped its rates for shopping, but about half the time they dropped.
2. Memolink remains a poor choice for shopping (see last year's report here).
3. MyPoints' points-per-dollar offers remain poor payers. As I expand the analysis I think we'll see that their flat-rate offers for purchase (i.e., 500 points for any purchase) are often good values compared to their competitors.
4. Giving2Gether.org right now has FANTASTIC shopping rates. While these are limited-time only, they can afford to drop their rates some and still be a serious contender.
Yesterday, in reviewing recent comments on my website, I found that three of them -- one posted yesterday and two on 7/14 -- were posted by someone from Memolink's IP address. The comments, posted by "Josh" and "Peaches" purported to be made by regular ol' Memolink members defending the site and attacking its critics. You can see the comments here (look for "Josh"), here (look for "Peaches"), and here (scan way down and look for "Peaches" again).
Aside from trying to generate fake good-P.R. by saying things like, "Memolink is doing so much better. I got my prize in 2 weeks", the employee posted crude attacks toward the site's critics, like, "petty," "idiots," "stupid," and "get an education."
Then the poster continues, revealing some interesting insights into what the employees really think about their members. "Members who do nothing but want something handed to them...on a silver platter." "Do you expect [Memolink] to work 24/7 to fix problems just for you???" "Perhaps if people stopped selfishly complaining to the BBB..." "You want a better Memolink - you should be a better member!!!"
The IP address these comments came from was 69.15.95.154, if you have a site or forum of your own and want to see if Memolink staff's been posing as happy members on your site also. I'd bet the farm that this post made on MyCoupons (by a new member who only posted the one item in support of Memolink) was also made by Memolink staff.
Meanwhile, according to a post on BigBigForums, Memolink is currently being pursued by the Colorado Attorney General's office for fraud, with 6 cases due in court over the next 2 months. (I'm going to check into this myself.)
Memolink people, if you're out there reading this: just send me an email and I'd be more than willing to do an email interview with you to post on the site so you can give your side of the story. If you'd like to be a guest in my chat room so you can have some live interaction with your members, I'd be more than happy to host it. But enough with the fake "I'm really just a regular member at Memolink and they're so great, you should give them another try" BS. Not at my site, not at BigBig or MyCoupons or anywhere else.
It's probably WAY too late to earn back any credibility or respect from the rewards program community. But I'll tell you something that might help, if you'll just sit still and listen for a second: Users want the truth. And they don't want it as a last resort, when other schemes to placate or confuse (Memogold, changing the points system, etc.) don't work out. Just come out and say, "We wanted to keep the site of the day and the trivia because it's a way to keep users coming back to the site every day, in the hopes that they'll do something to earn us money. We're a business -- you can't fault us for wanting to make a profit. But those free points were costing us too much, and we'd already dropped the point value as much as we could, so the only option we had was to devalue those free points. That's what we did."
THAT is honesty. THAT's what your members and the interested onlookers like me really want to hear. Enough with the subterfuge and the song-and-dance about the great new "dazzling" site. Come clean. Be honest. And enough with the sneaky posts, guys. :)
"C'mon, give 'em another chance! They're catching up on their redemptions! Why are you so hard on Memolink?"
THIS, my friends, is why.
I've tried to warn y'all. They've got no respect for their users. They've mistreated you again and again.
And the "New, Improved, Dazzling Memolink" unveiled yesterday proved my point.
As the site came back up, everyone found that their points were worth 10% of what they were before. A $25 GC that used to cost 4300 points is now 43,200 points. OMG!
There was melee, rioting in the streets, women burning their bras, and...
Wait! Users logging in today found that their old balances had been multiplied by 10. "Oh, isn't Memolink great! They gave us more points! They love us, they really love us!" ALMOST enough points to make up for the increases in the cost to cash out. Almost.
The smoke-and-mirrors trick also tries to hide the fact that the New Dazzling Memolink is now paying less for the offers on the site. An illustration --
Earlier this week:
A $25 GC cost 4,300 points
Netflix signup gave you 1,750 points (worth $10.17)
AOL Call Alert signup gave you 625 points (worth $3.63)
uPromise signup gave you 375 points (worth $2.18)
StarClub signup gave you 1000 points (worth $5.81)
Disney Movie Club signup gave you 600 points (worth $3.49)
NOW: A $25 GC costs 43,200 points
Netflix signup gives you 12,400 points (worth $7.18 -- 29% less than before)
AOL Call Alert gives you 5,000 points (worth $2.89 -- 20% less than before)
uPromise gives you 3,300 points (worth $1.91 -- 12% less than before)
StarClub gives you 7,200 points (worth $4.17 -- 28% less than before)
Disney Movie Club gives you 4,000 points (worth $2.31 -- 34% less than before)
Now, the obvious question -- to me -- is, why did Memolink put its site back online with everyone's point values all messed up?
The obvious answer -- to me -- is that it was part of their planned subterfuge to divert attention from the fact that they upped cashout costs values and dropped offer values, making it harder to reach cashout.
Lookit, guys, here's the bottom line: there are other rewards programs that pay you more for offers and shopping, that send out rewards faster, and that have faster and friendlier customer service. PERIOD. But don't take my word for it. Ask around.
Read their Better Business Bureau report (click Get a Report and search for Memolink).
Read what others have been saying about them at PlanetFeedback.
Then there's the 2004 Email Subscription Spam Risk Audit (see page 2, Spammers Caught in the Act).
You could refresh yourself on their past misdeeds by taking a little trip down memory lane: Memolink to Send Recent Redemptions Before Older Ones (2/02), Memolink Estimates 26 Weeks For Old Redemptions (2/02), Memolink Deactivated (9/02), Memolink Promises Redemptions (6/03), MemoGold Unveiled (8/03), Memolink Says a Couple More Months (10/03), Memolink "Isn't Sure" When Redemptions Will Be Sent (1/04), Memolink CEO Says Site is Profitable (1/04), Memolink Deletes Accounts Due to Site Glitch (2/04), Memolink's Latest Stall Tactic (4/04), Memolink's New Formula For Sending Payments (5/04), Memolink Violates CAN-SPAM Act (7/04), Memolink CEO's "Other" Company Sold (10/04).
Yesterday, MyPoints sent out an email saying that THEY are planning a site redesign. Expanded categories, expanded survey pages, earn more points for your dollars (uh oh...does that mean pay more points for your prizes?), more detailed account activity, redesigned pages including one-click transaction inquiries to Member Services.
I don't want to sound like Henny Penny here, but more often than not "site design" = "more points for the same prize." If you're carrying a large point balance there, it might be a good idea to go ahead and cash out just in case...especially in light of this news item from late May.
Last night, Bonnie posted on CttM that the site had just been migrated to a new server and that we should see a big increase in the site speed. Points earned during the time that the server switched over are in the process of being credited, and (good news to those of y'all waiting) redemptions will be caught up by this coming Friday (July 22)! She also says she's in the finishing stages of completing a site redesign to be unveiled soon. The new site will contain a blog which sounds like it will mostly be personal items (distinct from news items on the site). Bonnie reiterated her commitment to the site, though of course her family will remain her top priority.
I've always enjoyed CttM but found the site navigation a little confusing. Looking forward to seeing the new site!
According to Chris at CreationsRewards, one of the causes of users not being credited for signup offers made through his (and probably other) websites is a feature in Norton Internet Security called Ad Blocker. Ad Blocker 'blocks' links and images loading from sites in its database, including a vital pixel image required for offer tracking. Because the pixel isn't loaded, the signup can't be tracked to whichever rewards program sent them the user. And since the rewards program isn't paid, they can't pay the user.
If you're having problems getting credited for offers, through Creations or any other rewards program, check to see if you have the Ad Blocker option turned on in Norton Internet Security -- and turn that sucker off! That'll help you get credited in the future, though any past offers you completed will not be tracked and paid for. :(
BestBuy RewardZone members -- print this coupon and bring it with you to a BestBuy store this weekend to receive double points on a single item purchase up to $500. See the coupon for limitations.
As mentioned here on June 22, Memolink's been working on a new look for their website and it appears they're actually implementing it today -- the site is down with the following note:
"Pardon our mess! The Memolink team is hard at work preparing to bring you a brand-spanking-new memolink.com! So check back with us later and prepare to be dazzled!"
How will this impact the sites they license out as PCHPoints, LuckyPoints, and SavingsRegisterRewards? Will Memolink be raising redemption costs as they make this change? Nothing to do but wait and see.
I've heard from several people lately that the "Forgot Password" option at SixQuestions does not work. I just tried it and it worked fine 'n' dandy for me. It sends an email from "info@sixquestions.com" which includes a randomly generated password to use on your next visit. If you click "Forgot Password" and you don't get the email from SQ, going back to SQ's site and trying again to guess your password is going to be a total waste of time. Unless you're like incredibly psychic and can guess the random password. ;)
So... if you've requested a password reminder and you're not getting anything -- check your spam or bulk inbox, add "info@sixquestions.com" and try again, and if that doesn't work, send an email to that address at SQ with something catchy in the subject line ("SixQuestions is on CNN.com!" might work, hehe) and hopefully their tech folks can get ya fixed up.
Through August 15th, members of QuickRewards' Frequent Shopper Program are eligible for extra rebates when they shop at QR!
The more you shop, the more you save! If you place 1 order, you will get a 5% reward bonus (5% bonus to your cash back rebate, not overall order) and then for each additional order you place you will earn 1% (maximum 10%). In other words -- you can earn up to an additional 10% cash back bonus on top of the rebate cash back rate. Here's the basic idea:
Order 1: 5%
Order 2: 6%
Order 3: 7%
Order 4: 8%
Order 5: 9%
Order 6 and up: 10%
Couplea notes: Promotion can’t be combined with commission matching, special cash back bonus rates, or other specials. To qualify for the % bonus, your order must earn you at least a $0.25 cash back rebate.
QuickRewards has some of the highest shopping rebates out there as it is...so this is really an awesome promotion! Not a member of QR? Read my review here.
Use a "loyalty card" to participate in an in-store rewards program like CVS ExtraCare, the Winn-Dixie Customer Reward Card, the Albertsons Preferred Savings Card, or the GNC Gold Card?
We all love saving money, or earning perks from our purchases, but this article talks about some of the negative aspects of these cards -- higher prices for non-cardholders, customer profiling, and the potential for security breaches of private information.
Worth a read.
It's not much we didn't already know, but there was a mention of MyPoints in Forbes online a few days ago. The gist of it was that junk snailmail ain't going anywhere since sites that pay people to read email (using MyPoints as an example) used to be huge business but there's not much left anymore. (Obviously they're not aware of the humongous "PTR" industry. But I doubt that "Big Business" would want to finance paid emails from fly-by-night PTRs like we have everywhere now.)
What was interesting were the stats they shared on MyPoints: 5 million members, 2 billion emails a year, and only about 13% of them get clicked on. (!?!)
The full article is here...FWIW.
SuperProgrammer Alex is at it again! Yep, the author of the invaluable (MyPoints) MaxFinder program has struck again, this time releasing a program that goes through a huge database of search terms to find paying search words at SearchCactus.com! Yup, it's a little slow (it has a lot of words to go through!), but it is very thorough.
Remember that you can only get credited for clicking each unique SID (look at the destination URL when you mouseover the link before clicking it) ONCE per 48 hours. The program does pull up duplicate terms that point to the same SID.
Here's the link -- please support Alex by joining one of the sites he links to if you can!
SixQuestions announced that they're adding a redemption option (either a straight-forward redemption or raffle ticket purchase) for members to support The ONE Campaign, which fights AIDS and poverty globally.
The full press release is here.
The big news going on in "the industry" right now is that PayPal has frozen a couple of paid-to-read-email programs' PayPal accounts, claiming that they are MLM (multi-level marketing, aka pyramid or ponzi) schemes. This happened to a few sites a while back and created quite a hubbub. "It's the end of PTRs! The sky is falling!" It blew over without affecting other programs, though, and life went back to normal. What makes this scare a little different, though, is that not only did PayPal freeze a couple of PTR sites' accounts, they also froze a few of their users' accounts. Ewww. Now it's getting ugly. Some interesting reading on this (thanks for the link, Val!) is here: http://tinyurl.com/97azx It's a huge post, but if you read the first couple of pages and the last couple, you'll probably know all you need. Bottom line: although it appears they're going after programs that have paid upgrades, and primarily the programs themselves and not the users, JUST IN CASE, it might not be a bad idea to transfer any "excess" PayPal in your account to your bank account until this situation plays out.
Hi, all! Just wanted to plug my other website, TipBlog.com -- devoted to all of the freebies, deals, and miscellaneous useful websites that I've featured in the daily TriviaAnswers newsletter for the last almost-two years. I hope you'll find some useful tips there, and if you like it, please tell a friend!
