August 2007 Archives

Through September 18, members of the MyPoints rewards program can play the Winning Combination instant-win game up to three times a day. Members look for a combination lock icon on the site, click it, and click on all 3 virtual lockers to see if they've instantly won one of 8,000 instant points prizes (more on this below), plus every game play earns the member an entry into a sweepstakes drawing for a $10,000 prize or one of four $1,000 prizes.

The 8,000 instant win (points) prizes and their values are as follows:
2,000 Second Prizes of 1,000 points (worth around $8, according to their math)
2,000 Third Prizes of 750 points (worth around $6)
4,000 Fourth Prizes of 500 points (worth around $3.90)

The prize-winning times are computer-generated, and the first person to play on or after that time will win. The site says that instant-win points will be credited within 8 to 10 weeks. The contest is open to legal residents of the US and Canada (excluding Quebec) who are 18 years or older and members of MyPoints. (To join, please click here.)

I'll do my best to post the locations of the MyPoints combination lock (entry) icons daily here on CompareRewards, but the site does offer hints to help you find them on your own.

A word of caution: In the past there have been stories about MyPoints members having their accounts frozen after winning a contest on the site, and the most obvious these members had in common was that there were multiple accounts in that household. MyPoints allows one account per individual but they are VERY strict about account sharing or outright fraud -- people who set up multiple accounts claiming "Oh, that was my husband's account, or my daughter's account" just to get multiple game plays. Don't do this, people. If you try to cheat the system, you will get caught. My advice is, just play the game on one household member's account. You may have less chance of your household winning, but you've got better chances of EVERYBODY'S account not getting frozen.

Best of luck to all -- please post a comment if you win anything!

Update, 9/5: Congrats to tbase, Jellyfish member and super-nice guy, on his winning purchase of a new Toyota Prius during tonight's Smack reverse auction! At 28.06% off, the car's selling price (excluding tax) was $18,781!

Last week the details were released on Jellyfish.com's promise to sell a car via Smack Shopping, its reverse auction.

Let me pause for a second to once again explain how the Smack reverse auction works: an item is put up for sale. Each second, the price drops....until someone commits to buy. When the auction is hosted by a member of Jellyfish's staff, there typically are more than one of each item up for sale. On off-hours (and this has changed on occasion, recently), there will be just one. You don't want to wait too long and miss out...but you do want to get a good deal.

Jellyfish promised its members that at some point, they would put a new car up for sale during its reverse auction. The company tied this into their referral program, so that only members who have earned 50 "Quest" points by the date of the auction will be eligible to buy the car. More on how to earn Quest points in a second.

Mark your calendar now: the car, a 2007 Toyota Prius hybrid, will be sold at reverse auction at 8pm central on September 5. The first person to commit to buy it by placing a non-refundable $1,000 charge on your credit card will be the winner. He'll have 30 days to come up with the remaining cash or otherwise get financing. State sales tax and license/registration fees are extra, but Jellyfish WILL deliver the car to you for free. If for some reason the buyer is unable to come up with the financing, the car will be re-auctioned.

Now, back to Quest points. In order to have a chance to buy the car, you'll need at least 50 Quest points by the time the event starts. You earn Quest points by referring friends with a special personalized link. When your friend joins Jellyfish with your link, voila! You get 10 points. If your friend shops through the site, you get 5 points for every dollar they spend (plus your friend gets the great cashback rebates Jellyfish members get every day!). The first time your friend makes a purchase through the Smack shopping (reverse auction) side of the site, you get 250 points. You can't refer yourself or your cat, so get those evil thoughts out of your mind and start hitting up your neighbor, your babysitter, your granny, or any other REAL people that don't live with you, have an email address (and preferably a credit or debit card), and are US residents aged 18 or older. Don't spam your link or otherwise be obnoxious about it or else JF will disqualify you.

Even if you don't have five friends (poor you! Now that's just sad!), you can at least come by Jellyfish on September 5 at 8pm Central and watch some other lucky dog buy a cheap Toyota Prius! How low will it go? The chat room is bound to be very lively and it'll be fun to watch even if you're not able to try to buy it.

Here is MY Quest link if you're thinking you'd like to join Jellyfish! It will sign you up for all the great benefits of JF membership including access to great shopping rebate rates and lots of games where you can win free money and prizes: http://www.jellyfish.com/smack/signup/CompareRewards

Last September, I put together a little list of how some of the popular rewards programs stacked up traffic-wise, according to their rankings at Alexa.com. Alexa ranks websites based on the number of site visits they receive, on average, in a 3 month period, along with some other factors like the average number of pages on that site that the visitor views. (More info here.)

This does NOT mean that Alexa ranks the sites based on the number of active members or profitability. People could visit the site for a promotion, like MyPoints' current Back to School Find the Lock game or Jellyfish's Outwit the Smack game, and not do anything to financially contribute to the site by shopping. A site might have more traffic if it's currently running ads, too -- people could visit the site and not even join. And I do want to stress that just because a program has high traffic, that doesn't mean it's necessarily *better*; some of my favorite rewards programs are those that are smaller and can give more personalized service.

So, for what it's worth, here are the Alexa traffic rankings for the rewards programs I checked today:

1. MyPoints: 3,731 (vs 1,025 around this time last year)
2. Ebates: 15,339 (4,468)
3. Memolink: 22,207 (6,671)
4. Upromise: 23,264 (7,016)
5. Jellyfish: 30,900 (didn't survey last year)
6. FusionCash.net: 42,352 (46,829)
7. ClubMom: 49,216 (10,994)
8. BondRewards: 73,571 (didn't survey last year)
9. CreationsRewards.net: 75,658 (61,002)
10. Freeride: 81,356 (27,357)
11. SunshineRewards: 103,838 (didn't survey last year)
12. QuickRewards.net: 118,130 (54,972)
13. MrRebates: 118,779 (didn't survey last year)
14. Milesource: 303,576 (62,201)
15. ClickToTheMagic: 1,097,404 (1,698,676)
16. LittleGrad: 1,039,506 (didn't survey last year)
17. Greenpoints: 1,077,416 (234,813)
18. BabyMint: 2,700,407 (429,701)

As a side note, two rewards programs included in last year's comparison have gone under: FreestyleRewards (was 225,515) and PointPool (was 812,863).

For comparison's sake, CompareRewards.com comes in at 832,035 (vs. 403,014 last year). Same as last year, I continue to receive around 300 site visits per day and about 2 pages per visitor on average. From this all I can assume is that other sites have become relatively more busy while my site has remained pretty steady. You could assume from this that ClicktotheMagic, LittleGrad, Greenpoints, and BabyMint get fewer visitors and/or fewer page views than my site does on an average basis.

Another comment: Nearly all of the sites I pulled traffic numbers from last year dropped traffic-wise this year, and by a multiple of 3 or 4. As long as they all dropped consistently, you can assume that it's just a matter of OTHER types of sites becoming relatively more highly trafficked (or that the rewards programs all improved at the same rate). What's interesting is those that don't fit that 3 to 4 multiple criteria.

FusionCash.net actually improved its ranking slightly. That's interesting. I will contact their management and see if I can get a comment from them about why they think that would be (a big marketing push, for instance, or if last year's ranking was skewed for some reason).

ClicktotheMagic's ranking increased as well, and I do think this was also because of a skewing of the prior year's number. The site had been down due to some technical problems for a good while last year, during the time period in which Alexa collected ranking data.

Creations dropped only slightly, but I know that they're doing some marketing campaigns (I've come across a couple and went, hey! I didn't know he was doing that kind of advertising!). I'd say that QuickRewards has been a success story, because it only dipped by a multiple of 2, and I know that that is without any marketing budget at all.

As for Greenpoints and Babymint...I'm really not sure why those rewards programs are still up and running. I think these guys are going to be off the canvas by this time next year. I have some sincere doubts about ClubMom as well, at least their rewards portion of the site, as their owners eliminated their referral program and instead are focusing on growing another one of their (non-rewards-related) websites.

But I can't end this article without once again gushing over Jellyfish.com. This time last year I didn't bother ranking them -- they had only recently launched in late July and the site was VERY slow to grow. However, through non-traditional advertising methods such as word-of-mouth, partnerships with other websites, the introduction of the Smack Shopping reverse auction, and so many in-between-deals games that it makes your head spin, newcomer Jellyfish.com has catapulted itself into an Alexa traffic ranking of under 31,000. As of June 1, it was estimated that the average Jellyfish member visited the site 18 times a month and spent 50 minutes there. And I can tell you from vast personal experience, for every person who only visits once or twice a month, there's quite a few who go there multiple times a day, or even stay logged on all the time. The site is very addictive, to say the least.

So there you have it, for whatever it's worth. Let's check back next year around this same time and see how it's shaking out.

NetWinner Program Review -- update, 4/19/09: Netwinner is down, hopefully for good!

As NetWinner is 6 months behind in member redemptions (as of 5/08), I do not recommend this program to anyone at this time. See the Related Articles below for more info.

Date Launched: October 2006
Reward Per Dollar Spent: No shopping reward
Minimum to Redeem: 100,000 points (for a $100 Ecount GC); less for contest entries
Prizes Offered: Ecount GCs, contest entries, other instant-win prizes
Earn Points For: Playing games, referrals

Limit One Account Per: US or Canada citizen or resident aged 18+ with a valid email address, one account per person (they check for cheaters and playing in multiple windows isn't allowed)

Dollar Value of a Point: 1/10 of a cent

How to Play MoneyWheel: Either click Quick Pick or select 4 double-digit numbers and one single-digit number, then click Win! If the numbers you picked match those generated by the program at random, in the same placement and order, you win points. (It's important that you validate your email address when you join otherwise your prizes may be forfeited.)

Nine different games will be played with each set of numbers that you choose. The prizes available range from $25 to the over $1 million progressive jackpot, points in the amount of 25 to 5,000, or one entry into a daily prize drawing (for one of two $250 prizes, or one of 10 $100 prizes). The odds of winning $25 is about 1 in 281,000. You can play MoneyWheel 100 times a day. Your odds of winning any points at all is one in 29. In other words, with 100 spins (approximately 50 minutes of game time) you can expect to win 25 points an average of 3 times, for 75 points a day (not including the occasional multiplier). To get enough to cash out for a $100 GC, the only sure cashout except for drawing entries, you'd have to play daily for 1,333 days (3 years and 9 months). This does not include the ten games of Banko you're allowed to play daily.

The thing to remember is that you can cash those easier-to-win points into GCs. Plus, you can play over and over all day long if you want (you have to wait 20 seconds between games).

How to Play Banko: Press Play and wait for the computer to generate a pattern (matching this pattern will result in a win). The computer calls the balls and highlights them when it matches a space on your card. You win for a bingo, four corners, pattern, or banko (which I assume is a "blackout"). Every 5 calls the prize for the four ways to win changes. The most frequent win is for a drawing entry, next most frequent is 25 points. When you win you can either cash out, or keep playing and take a chance on losing what you won if you don't win on another game before the calls stop. There's no way of knowing when the calls will stop for that card (it will be between 30 and 70). The full rules for Banko are here. Many people report winning more on 10 daily plays of Banko than on 100 of MoneyWheel.

This site is optimized for broadband. If you're a dial-up user, you'll probably want to pass on this site.

Note: Because of problems related with NetWinner's ability to pay members in a timely manner, I do not recommend this site to anyone as of this time (5/08).

Related Articles: Netwinner.com Down for Good?, Netwinner in the News Again: Makes BBB List of Worst Companies, Netwinner Boycotted, Named Worst Business in Charlotte by BBB, BBB "Inundated" With Netwinner Complaints - Says Site "Should Have Halted" Games, NC Residents Ripped Off By NetWinner Needed for TV Report, New NetWinner Forum -- Alternatives to NetWinnerCentral.com, Another Anti-NetWinner Video Maker Interviewed, Interview with Maker of Anti-NetWinner Video, "Get a Life," Says NetWinner, NetWinner "Refunds" Points in Lieu of Payments, Response to NetWinner, NetWinner Sponsors Porn Discussion...at a Dragon*Con Convention, NetWinner Updates: No $ to Ecount, Major Privacy Violation, Referral Policy Change, NetWinner Gives Partner Sites a 50% Raise; Asks Them To Buy Prizes, Beginning of the End of NetWinner.com?, NetWinner VP Addresses Concerns, Win Netwinner Points in New Forum

Like Netwinner? You may also like: BoomerTowne, SpotWinner, LuckySearch, BigDevil, Blingo, Winzy, PromoSquad, or Kiwibox

On Sunday, MyPoints.com went live with their long-planned new website. In an email to members, MyPoints said that, "You'll have all the same Point-earning opportunities that you love, plus a new format to allow you to browse more easily."

I like the new, lighter colors of the site and (showing my age here) the larger fonts. It seems that they've done some work on the product search function -- will play with it some more as time allows and report back. But my initial reaction is positive -- lighter, brighter, and just as easy to navigate. Good work, MyPoints!

There was an interesting article on Forbes.com yesterday called, "A Penny Pincher's Guide to Office Supplies". Forbes put together a shopping list of commonly used business supplies like toner, paper and pens, envelopes, stuff like that, and then compared prices at the big three office supplies stores: Office Depot, OfficeMax, and Staples. This is what they found:

"The winner: Office Depot (see slide show). While Staples' 10% discounts on printer paper and toner made it a close race, Office Depot's low prices and 5% overall discount pushed their prices below the other retailers.'

Note: For some items, there are alternatives to the big three. Most neighborhood stores can't compete on price (sorry, Mom and Pop). Sam's Club offered the best deals on garbage bags, toilet paper and paper towels, but charged more for pens, file folders and toner. For the best overall penny-pinching strategy, try an Office Depot/Sam's combo."

Note that, in the slide show, you can press the forward arrow at the top to manually advance the slide show page, or you can adjust the speed using the slider bar.

I don't know whether these stores will allow you to combine their loyalty programs (like Office Depot's Work Life Rewards) or credit card points programs with online shopping rewards programs, but if so, the article neglects to factor that in.

I did some digging and here are the programs that will best reward you for purchases at these office supplies stores, along with links to join these rewards programs if you're not already a member:

Staples: Jellyfish.com offers the best cash rebates for Staples purchases, at 2.2%.

Office Depot: Their best rewards are from MyPoints (the number of points, convertible to gift cards or United Mileage Plus miles, varies based on your order amount...but 4,000 points for a $400 order, or 1,000 points for a $100 order, would equal around 7.5%). If you'd prefer to receive a cashback check than a gift card or miles, 2% seems to be about the standard, available from a variety of rewards programs including Ebates, QuickRewards.net, and Upromise.

OfficeMax: The highest cashback reward for OfficeMax is 4%, from Ebates.

Again, I can't verify that you can combine these online rewards with other loyalty programs offered by the stores themselves, but you're welcome to give it a try!

As announced in April, SallieMae -- Upromise's parent company -- is in the process of being bought out by an investor group that includes JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America. Just as an update, SallieMae's shareholders approved the sale yesterday. I don't see any estimates of when the sale will be complete, and of course nobody knows how (if at all) the sale will impact the Upromise program.

As you know, MyPoints.com is now owned by United Online, a company with stock that's publicly traded as "UNTD." They hold a quarterly conference call with stock analysts and SeekingAlpha.com posts the transcripts to their website so we can all see what they were talking about. (Love it!)

Anyway, the August 7th conference call transcript is up if you'd like to take a look. In it, United Online CEO Mark Goldston says that MyPoints "continues to perform very well and expand its member base." He goes on to say that the promised site revamp will be live "in a matter of weeks." This is how he describes the purposes for the redesign:

"While the benefits of our new website design are plentiful, I would say the three most notable improvements would be: one, significantly enhanced user navigation and search functionality, and that will allow members to locate products and shopping merchants far more efficiently; secondly, there is a new reward center on MyPoints that will showcase more than 60 merchants available for points redemption, which represents the heart of any loyalty program; and third, there are new personalization options on MyPoints that allow individual members to customize the layout of the MyPoints website to suit their personal interests."

As an aside, if you'd like to put a face to the name, you can see CEO Mark Goldston on the NetZero commercials currently running on TV, or on their website here.

When one of the stock analysts asked about the possibility of spinning off their Content and Media section (that's Classmates and MyPoints) into their own publically traded subsidiary, as was mentioned as an option in last quarter's conference call, Goldston quickly cut him off and said that they were still exploring the possibility but couldn't say any more than that. Which to me said, hello, they're pretty serious about doing it. And guess what? They were. 6 days later, on August 13, UNTD announced they were spinning off Classmates Media, which includes MyPoints, planning a $125 million IPO, to be traded as "CLAS". Motley Fool had an interesting analysis of this here.

Last thing from the conference call that I think is noteworthy is that the UNTD execs say they're planning to make a big acquisition in 2008. I would highly doubt that it would be another rewards program. I heard the suggestion recently that Ebates might be a good buy for the right company, but MyPoints isn't UNTD's big money-maker -- that'd be Classmates.com through their paid membership upgrades, taking advantage of the social networking craze -- so I can't see them wanting ANOTHER rewards program. No idea what kind of business they'd buy next but it would have to be something that would have some synergy with Classmates and MyPoints.

Many thanks to SeekingAlpha for the always-fascinating conference call transcript.