April 2008 Archives
Update, 5/5: I'm not a journalist; I'm a stay-at-home mom. Although I do try to think like a journalist when I do the research for my posts, I did make a mistake on this one: I posted earlier that Dragon*Con was a porn convention. I was wrong. It's a gaming-related convention. My deepest apologies to Dragon*Con and its many fans and attendees.
Update, 4:42pm: Despite this information surfacing, two NW mods today insist, "This is a family game site." The info below is being dismissed as "gossip" and irrelevant and members are being warned they will be banned if they discuss it. While I appreciate everyone's support, please don't violate NWC's forum rules! This website has a much wider reach than their forum and the public IS being informed. Please see my response to this post below. Thanks, and best wishes to all unpaid members.
Someone sent me a very interesting link today, to a porn industry newsletter. Because I've always prided myself on being a (mostly!) family-friendly website, I won't post the link but it's available upon request. This is a cropped screenshot of the relevant part. Please note the part that says "sponsored by...Netwinner.com."
I found this to be a very odd business decision. NetWinner doesn't show porn ads during its games. I looked and couldn't find where NetWinner had sponsored any other types of discussion panels...why a porn industry one? What was the significance of the porn industry to NetWinner?
I did some digging and found the following:
According to the North Carolina Secretary of State's office, a guy named Scott Coffman is NetWinner LLC's registered agent for service of process (he's the person you'd have to physically hand papers to if you intended to sue NetWinner). Whoever this guy is, he's got a huge responsibility, so he has to be someone NetWinner trusts to stay in close contact.
So, who is this guy? According to his LinkedIn profile, Scott Coffman of Charlotte, NC is the president and owner of AEBN.
This article, originally in Business North Carolina, says that AEBN.net "sells pay-per-minute porno online." The article was co-written by a Steve Goldberg. Steve Goldberg is also the name of NetWinner's Director of Communications, the PR guy (see the credits below their 4/15 press release) who also contributed to my February post on NetWinner. Coincidence?
What about the VP I talked to? Does he have a connection to AEBN? Yep! Google Matt Coapman AEBN and you'll see that he used to be AEBN's Global Marketing Manager.
What does all this mean? First of all, I'm not making any moral statements about porn; I'm a firm believer in a free market and staying out of the business of what's done among consenting adults. I just question the business logic in having NetWinner co-sponsor a porn industry discussion panel as a PR event rather than, say, a NASCAR race. I don't know much about porn discussion panels but I'd imagine that there aren't many Fortune 500 companies sponsoring them.
It's a shame that NetWinner's not as successful as AEBN -- according to Alexa.com, it's the 255th most visited website on the internet with somewhere between one and ten million dollars in revenue.
Well, as they promised last year, you'll no longer find those little Kool-Aid Kool Points on their packages anymore: Kraft Foods confirmed with me this morning that they have discontinued their Kool-Aid Points program. You can still cash in your points while supplies last. The prizes are limited and are available on a first come, first served basis.
Update, 5/09: By popular demand, Kool-Aid will allow you to redeem any accumulated points using this form, until June 30, 2010! They also say the 800-367-9225 is still the number to call if you have questions or concerns. They've removed their catalog from the Kraft website, but you can request one by calling 1-800-367-9225.
This news makes me sad. I collected points as a kid and cashed them in for, among other things, a really neat Kool-Aid Stand. My dad used it to teach me about supply and demand, "cost of goods sold," and marketing (I earned lots of dimes that summer)...which sparked an interest in economics that led me to pursue a degree in it and eventually a master's in business administration. So in a way, I am who I am because of Kool-Aid Points! Oh, yeahhhh! ;)
Today I got an email from MrRebates.com reminding me to request my cashout by the 30th in order to receive my payment next month. I've been a member of many rewards programs over the years (I started using them in '97) but I've never had a program REMIND ME to cash out! Now THAT is a sign of conscientious management with their member's best interests at heart!
If you shop online, I can highly recommend these guys...great rates (fourth highest out of 21 I analyzed last October), payments when promised (they paid me quickly last month, my first month to cash out), and a staff that really cares. Click here (aff) to sign up!
Click here for the latest update (4/29).
I know all of NetWinner's members would like some sort of update but there isn't much to tell and what I do have isn't good.
First of all, yesterday a NetWinner member named Sue called the number on her Ecount card to find out the status of her payment and was told by Jessica, an Ecount manager, that NetWinner had not sent them any funds since March 13.
Second, on Friday two NW forum posters reported receiving emails from NetWinner requesting copies of their IDs by fax in order to process their raffle prize. This isn't all that unusual and has been done occasionally in the past. HOWEVER, the company committed a huge privacy violation by sending out the email by publicly addressing (versus BCC'ing) the message to what was described as around fifty member email addresses.
Third, members need to be aware that the site's Terms of Service have been changed in regards to referral earnings. Formerly, members would receive 100 points for referring a friend, then another 400 after the friend completed 100 game plays. Now, that has been changed to be after their friend wins 100 contest entries. You do still get 10% of your friends' winnings, but if you didn't notice, now that the 10-point prize has been removed, you don't get anything if your friend gets the most likely win, a raffle entry.
What can players, some waiting nearly six months for their payments, do about the situation? Here are some suggestions, proposed by fellow players, an attorney friend of mine, and yours truly:
1. File a complaint with the Attorney General for the state of North Carolina. The instructions on how to do this are here. If you have a printer, you can print the complaint form here. It includes their mailing address and a toll-free number, 1-877-566-7226. I'm not sure if they accept complaints by phone; I confirmed that they definitely don't accept them online, so mail may be your only method.
2. File a complaint with the BBB for Charlotte, NC. Start your complaint process here and it will redirect you to the Charlotte BBB. Note that the BBB "does not act as a collection agency." They do, however, "work closely with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies," should they determine that fraud is involved.
3. File a complaint with the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, Division of Marketing Practices. Their website is here, and you can file a complaint here. I think this would need to be complaints along the lines of, they advertised one thing and that's not how it worked.
4. Contact the local (Charlotte, NC) media. Wikipedia says that TV station WBTV "is the largest television news department between Washington and Atlanta," so they may be the best ones to approach. Information on how to contact them (including their assurance of confidentiality) is here, or go straight to the story tip submission form here.
5. Contact Ecount. Last year, members of the Freeride rewards program waiting for Ecount GCs called Ecount directly, and they were able to tell the members whether the delay was due to the rewards program not paying Ecount, versus some other reason like the program sending Ecount an old email address for the member, or the member's ISP blocking Ecount's email. You can contact Ecount at 1-800-522-7458.
To read other members' experiences with NetWinner, including the latest payment (or non-payment) reports, you can visit their forum at NetWinnerCentral.com.
Lastly, as an aside, do you remember the video about the NetWinner Fairy? Take note of the costume and the background (red walls, white paneling). I found these other videos interesting: "Netwinner Dog LOL," "This is how we stamp our mail! LOL," "bright eyes crazy dancing," "eyes," and www.netwinner.com Dogs!!! sooooo cute!!!." I think these show behind the scenes at NetWinner far better than the "Spin Report" PR video released a few days ago.
Boomertowne.com Review -- Update, 9/22: BoomerTowne is down for good. Read more here.
Date Launched: April 2007
Minimum to Redeem: 5,354 for merchandise; GCs start at 12,500 (for $25 Target or BestBuy)
Prizes Offered: GCs, merchandise
Earn Points For: Many activities including logging in; submitting or rating jokes, recipes, or quotes; playing games; watching videos; chatting; posting to the forum; requesting or adding friends; signing up for and reading the newsletter; recommending a restaurant or other attraction in a specific city and more
Limit One Account Per: Person 18+ with a unique email address; maximum of 4 accounts per mailing address. If you are caught using more than one account regularly, the accounts will be frozen. US and Canadian members are welcome.
Dollar Value of a Point: Approximately 1/5 of a cent
Daily "Free" Points: About 1500
Value of those Free Points: About $3 per day
Notes: 100 points to join. Points per activity vary and some activities have daily or weekly maximums. Add boomernews@boomertowne.com to your address book to ensure delivery of newsletters.
My Take:
BoomerTowne was founded by a Wisconsin entrepreneur Herschel "Buzz" Peddicord (a baby boomer himself) who recently sold a healthcare company to Honeywell for an undisclosed amount (which means it was probably quite a bit). BT generates income from ad revenue including Google ads and an optional paid dating section. A dozen celebrities have partnered with the site to provide exclusive content as their "Towne Council" -- including Dr. Bob Arnot (medical expert and foreign correspondent aka "Dr. Danger"), Dr. John Gray (relationship expert and author of "Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus," Dr. Steven Covey (marketing management expert and author of "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,"), Denise Austin (fitness expert with over 20 million videos/dvds sold), and Gary Player (Golf Digest's third Greatest Golfer of All Time in 2000). Talk show host Montel Williams has also donated content to the site.
I am very skeptical that a site can continue to pay out the equivalent of $3 a day in free points to members over an extended period of time. However, I do know that site reportedly only had 9,000 members last October, so they're still in their growth phase and this is probably being written off as advertising expense (to aid in word of mouth marketing) and it's also a necessary incentive for them to initially build up content on the site.
So: I suggest we all enjoy it while the ride lasts, but that we not expect it to last forever. At least with the ability to cash out for a $25 gift card about every 8.5 days, we won't be TOO much in the hole should the site begin to dry up.
Please email me for an invitation if you'd like to join!
Update, 8/08: Because this program promises points redemptions in 6 to 8 weeks, and it is currently at 3 months, I can't recommend this program as a points-earner. It's still a nice social networking site, however.
Related Articles: [Update: Boomertowne.com Down!] Despite an Unsatisfactory BBB Rating, BoomerTowne Brags of Success, Plans for the Future, BoomerTowne Newsletter Omits Mention of Points, BoomerTowne GCs Backlogged, Boomertowne to Raise Redemption Costs for Members Joining After 6/1
According to a post on the BeenPaid.com Forum, both CreationsRewards.net and SunshineRewards have been suspended from the BeenPaid Seal of Approval program as of Monday, 4/21. BeenPaid contacts its approved programs once a year as a "quality control check" to be sure that their payouts are current. Out of around 80 programs, Creations and Sunshine were among the only 4 to have not responded to any of BeenPaid's three emails. As a result, they've been suspended and would have to reapply for the Seal of Approval if they wanted the designation again.
I don't know if this was an oversight or if the program owners no longer feel a need for the Seal of Approval distinction. In their defense, as far as I know, both Creations and Sunshine are current in their member payments. If you're interested in checking them out, please consider joining with my referral links: CreationsRewards.net / SunshineRewards
Along with many others, I've been concerned about how Jellyfish's buyout by Microsoft would affect the company. There's a core group of employees at JF that have become like a second family to its members (okay, sometimes they're the "weird cousin you only see during the holidays," but still...). Would Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, fire the Jellyfish staff in Madison, Wisconsin, or force them to relocate? We'd already lost Smack Daddy -- would we lose Jake, Amanda, Jyll, Trixie, Keith, Greg, and the rest of the gang, too?
Fear not, Jellyfish fans -- or at least fear LESS: Microsoft announced today that it's opening the Jim Gray Research Lab in Madison, and will staff it with grad students from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The purpose of the group is to do advanced research on databases and database technologies.
Does this affect Jellyfish directly? Probably not, but it does show Microsoft's committed to maintaining its presence in Madison, and hopefully they'll continue to keep our favorite Jellyfish staff members around for a long time. With big raises. (Ya listening, Bill Gates?)
Click here to join Jellyfish if you're not already a member.
I know a lot of people are frustrated with the changes at NetWinner or are concerned about FusionCash's disappearance, or you just may be looking for another program to add to your daily routine.
I spoke with Dmitry, the owner of QuickRewards.net, and he's agreed to offer my site visitors an EXCLUSIVE promotion:
Get a FREE $3 bonus when you join the site with my link, confirm your email, and complete just one survey or offer...
OR,
Get a FREE $5 bonus when you join with my link, confirm your email, and make just one shopping order through the site's cashback portal.
QuickRewards.net, in business for 5 years now, pays its members for reading emails, completing surveys, signing up for contests or newsletters (be sure to use an email address for these where you don't mind receiving spam), playing games like Guess My Number and trivia (today, 4/28, the answer is "K"), answering polls, visiting websites, signing up for trial offers, AND for shopping!
Cash out your QR earnings for PayPal with NO MINIMUM to cash out, or save up for emailed gift cards like Amazon or Barnes and Noble, or snail-mailed gift cards like Home Depot and Disney. Their customer service is OUTSTANDING. Have a question? Get a fast answer by email or get help from others on their blog. Want them to add a merchant to the shopping section? They'll do it! Shopping orders are credited to your account within 36 hours in most cases, and unlike most shopping sites, you can cash out your rebate IMMEDIATELY -- no waiting 30 to 90 days! Surveys, signups, contest entries, and offers usually credit in 24 to 48 hours, too.
But don't take my word for it -- go to the site, then click on Member Feedback and read what others are saying about QuickRewards.net...then join and see for yourself!
Here's my link to join for the bonus offers -- and be sure to email me with your QR account name after you do a survey or offer or make a purchase so I can personally ensure your bonus is credited. If you have any questions about QR before you join, I'd be more than happy to answer them!
If any other rewards program would like to offer my visitors an exclusive signup bonus, please email me and let's talk!
CompareRewards has learned that Ebates' Founder and CEO Alessandro Isolani has named Kevin H. Johnson as the company’s new CEO, replacing Isolani as head executive this week. Johnson was most recently the General Manager of Acxiom Digital, a division of Acxiom Corporation (ACXM on the Nasdq) and a top 25 interactive agency. Johnson comes to Ebates with decades of experience in digital marketing with particular specialization in targeted marketing. This is the last of a number of senior management hires made by Isolani over the last year and was the result of an exhaustive six-month search.
By email, Isolani informed me that he will remain at Ebates and will continue to help guide the vision and direction of the company as it manages its record customer growth experienced throughout 2007 and into this year. The changes we can expect at Ebates? All for the better, Isolani promised. He wouldn't share too many details but assures that they have a number of initiatives in the works which will result in better rewards, higher quality customer service, and faster order tracking for its users.
To read the new CEO's biography, as posted on Ebates' site, click Continue Reading. If you're not a member of Ebates and would like to join, please click here (aff) -- thanks!
According to an email sent out today, Jellyfish.com's cashback service will be down from 4/25 through 4/30 "to perform necessary service upgrades and enhancements." There will be another outage in May. The ever-popular Smack Shopping reverse auction section will remain up "with some minor interruptions." The program promises your earnings and other account information will remain intact.
I've been expecting some site changes since Microsoft bought Jellyfish last year. I hope this will mostly be cosmetic changes, or if anything, it will involve improving the product search engine. Guess we'll have to wait and see (unless some JF employee wanted to, say, ahem, anonymously give us a hint in a comment here...).
Click Continue Reading below to see the full email.
Just a note if you haven't checked either of these sites lately -- both LuckySearch and QuickRewards have new looks. In addition, LuckySearch added some ways to earn points besides by just searching and winning: you can now complete several offers on the site for points (Netflix and the Entertainment Book are the ones I see right now). QuickRewards' new look is streamlined, reducing some of the redundant links it had before. But as always, they anticipated the needs of some of the site veterans and put up an option to use the old format and colors if you don't like the change.
Ryan from LuckySearch and Dmitry from QuickRewards are a couple of good guys. They pay and pay fast, and they care about their members. If you're not a member of their programs yet, please join with my link: Join LuckySearch here, and join QuickRewards.net here. Thanks!
The FusionCash rewards program has been down since Friday. There's no word on why or whether this is just a temporary outage. I have an email in to one of the site's owners and will post an update if I receive one.
**Update, 4/23: Today I was forwarded an email from one of FC's members (thanks, Megan!) who had gotten an email from FusionCash support on Tuesday. "We are currently working on the issue, it is something to do with the server overloading. We do not know if this was an intentional attack on FusionCash, or simply something that was done due to poor maintenance of the server itself. We are working very hard to get the server back up and running, and we are not going anywhere anytime soon." I then emailed the same address and just now got this response: "The site appears to be back up and going strong -- no idea how long it will last. Sorry for any inconvenience, we had no way of even emailing all our members." The site is still down for me but it may come up for you. (fingers crossed)
**Update, 4/24: Site's back up and fully functional. Staff confirms they were down due to a denial of service attack that tied up their servers and left them unable to email members about the problem.
Update, 4/18 - 12:07am: A post on NetWinnerCentral that contained a link to this article was just deleted. They don't want you to read it. That should tell you something.
In a press release on Tuesday, "Casual Games a Winner for Both Consumers and Advertisers," NetWinner claims to have paid out over $1.6 million to members since the site's inception. They say that in February, they served 50 million video ads to players of their games.
The press release states that "the company works hard to build the consumer connection by giving them what they want, not just in the games they play, but the prizes they win..." [emphasis mine]
Ask a long-time NetWinner player if they agree with this. First, gift cards and magazine subscription redemptions were taken away and replaced with Ecount gift cards, which was met with huge player resistance. Players were indifferent to the redemption of points for raffle entries, so the company "forced" the redemption by replacing ten point game wins with raffle entries. $25 Ecount redemptions were removed. As of this writing, no one has been paid for any prize redemptions made after November 5, 2007.
CompareRewards has learned that the same day that NetWinner took drastic measures to decrease the amount of member earnings and the frequency of their payouts, they gave their AdverGame Network partner websites a 50% raise.
Click here to see an excerpt of the email sent to their partners (cropped, and with the partner's website name removed). The email cited "tremendous response" to the prize drawings, touting the fact that NW dropped the points required to buy an entry. It mentions the addition of the $100 Ecount redemption for 100,000 points...but neglects to mention the removal of the $25 Ecount redemption. And it spins the substitution of the ten point prize for a daily drawing entry as a positive.
Then comes the kicker: "Because of these changes [emphasis mine], we will now be able to offer all partners 15% [formerly 10%...a 50% raise]..."
I heard from two AdverGame Network partners in the past week who shared their viewpoints on the changes at NetWinner but asked to remain anonymous. One, echoing my own concerns when NW asked me if I wanted to be a partner site, said that he was worried that the frustration and outright anger many NW members are expressing because of last week's changes would result in ill will toward him and his website. I asked him whether he was concerned about being paid and he said no...HIS payments were guaranteed by contract.
The other partner I talked with said, "This move is an attempt to reduce the amount of money spent on prizes and to increase their partner payout. They'll get more traffic from partners since they are able to pay more - but they'll lose a lot of dedicated members because of the changes."
In other words, NW knows the changes will tick off existing players and that perhaps some of them will leave. While this is good for NW because those members won't be around to cash out their earned points (keep in mind that points earned but not redeemed are considered a liability, accounting-wise, for any point site)... it's bad for NW, too, because no members playing = no members watching ads = NO INCOME. When you've p*ssed off your existing membership, what else can ya do but find new members? And the newbies won't know how good NW used to be...they may be content to play for raffle entries and for points that will take a year or more to accumulate to cashout minimums. NW obviously hopes to bring in new members by offering its partners more money to promote the program.
This AdverGame partner went on to say, "The REAL problem with netwinner is that they don't have a strong business model. They drive traffic by partnering with sites on a rev-share basis, but the rev share is so small that many sites won't give them much attention or placement, since there are more lucrative offers always floating around. I myself have made threats to reduce exposure because they just don't pay enough for the traffic that they're getting." He said that the high-bandwidth video ads were a relatively new market and it's not valuable enough (yet) to advertisers...so there's not much money to be made right now.
So, what's the next logical thing for NW to do? Get their affiliate partners to buy their own prizes! Which is exactly what they're now trying to do.
In an email today titled, "A new opportunity with NetWinner," (click here to see an excerpt) NetWinner urged its partner websites to buy their own prizes, in return for 20% of the ad revenue instead of the just-increased 15%. NW creates a page customized for the partner's giveaway (which can be changed weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly), the partner provides the prize, and NW gives the partner site 20% of the ad revenue. The partner can put ads for their own main website into the ad rotation if they choose. You can see an example of these customized campaigns here -- note that this is a raffle-only system, with NO points involved, only drawing entries.
This business model at least gets the prize burden off of NW's back. Whether or not the partners get sufficient return on their investment (the prizes they're ponying up) and whether NW can afford to customize campaigns and host the traffic while giving up 20% of their earnings remains to be seen.
Will NetWinner ever catch up with its outstanding redemptions? Who knows. But it's my guess that a raffle-only model will be the way of the future for NW and their partner sites.
In a press release today, SallieMae, the owner of the Upromise rewards program, reported a net loss in their first quarter earnings for 2008 of $104 million, compared to a net INCOME of $116 million in their first quarter last year.
SallieMae's CEO, Albert L. Lord, said, "Today’s environment is the most difficult we have seen in our 35-year history of student lending...It has become obvious that we can only meet the enormous student credit demands we are seeing at Sallie Mae if there is a near-term, system-wide liquidity solution.”
Liquidity solution? Upromise's CEO just up and left two weeks ago? Hmmm.
Jellyfish announced that on Wednesday from noon to midnight Central time, they will be doing their Smack (reverse auction) live and hosted by Jellyfish employees, with the Smack Wheel (chance to win prizes) in-between deals, and with increased quantities and speed throughout! If you've never had the opportunity to enjoy a JF-employee hosted Smack Show during the week at noon central, here's your chance since they'll be going after hours as well. You don't want to miss this -- mark your calendar and I'll see you in Talk'n Smack, the member chat area, during the show!
Not a member of Jellyfish.com yet? What's wrong with you? ;) Join here!
In mid-February, I had a couple of interesting conversations with folks over at NetWinner.com, which I put together into a post here on CompareRewards. One of the program's VPs was kind enough to address some of the concerns I'd been hearing about the program, and I found the exchange enlightening and reassuring.
However, it's been about 8 weeks since then, and some things have changed, and at this point I'd say NetWinner is facing the beginning of the end...unless they do something and fast.
1. Despite NetWinner's insistence to the contrary, it does appear that criticizing NetWinner, even on outside websites, can get your account frozen. Three weeks ago, a member was told that his NW account would be frozen if he didn't remove posts critical of NW on outside websites by a certain date and time. The only website this member had posted on was mine, and my site settings don't permit commenters to delete their own comments. The member's account, as a result, was frozen. I interceded on his behalf, appealing to the folks I had spoken with at NW in February to investigate, and the member did eventually get his account back. What if I hadn't stepped in? Would the member have been out of all of his points and all of the redemptions he's been patiently waiting for? How many other people has this happened to? I've heard the complaints before and believed NetWinner when they said they were untrue, but now... I don't know.
2. When NetWinner eliminated all redemptions but raffle entries and Ecount certificates, the rationale given to me was that Ecount certificates would help reduce fraud, would help better use NW staff since it was outsourced, and that it would help speed up redemptions. This is not the case either. Eight weeks have passed since I spoke with NW and the site is only five weeks further along in their redemption backlog. In other words, they're not catching up at all...the backlog is actually growing.
3. Today, NetWinner eliminated its 10 point prizes on their games and put in their place a raffle entry, for one of ten $100 Ecount GCs (and with surely tens of thousands of players, those odds are rather paltry). While 10 points was the smallest points prize a player could win, before, with the occasional points multipliers it could add up to 250 points. Now, regardless of any multiplier in place, it amounts to just one raffle entry. Because your odds were better at winning the 10 points (now the raffle entry) than anything else, this GREATLY limits the number of points a member can expect to earn in a day. And this, obviously, impacts your earnings from referrals as well.
4. Which brings us to the biggest, reddest flag of 'em all: NetWinner eliminated its 25,000 point ($25) Ecount redemption and all that remains is 100,000 points ($100 Ecount) and raffle entries. This will in essence make the program raffle-entry only because, with odds of winning 25 points 1 in 29, the average member will earn 75 points per day -- okay, give them the benefit of the doubt and say 100, which would require 1,000 days, or almost 3 years, in order for a member to reach cashout.
Now, consider all these points along with the fact that NW first limited players' daily wheel spins, THEN they increased the length of time in the Terms of Service that they had to pay people when they cash out (not that they're actually paying them in that time frame)... Well, you don't have to have an MBA to read the writing on the wall.
NetWinner has fun games and a great user interface, but if the site isn't properly monetized, doesn't pay on time, isn't properly staffed, has lousy customer service, freezes accounts on a whim, and changes the redemptions and TOS when they can't keep up... what's it matter?
Sorry, NW members. I'm as disappointed as you are; I feel just as much deceived as you do. :( I hope you can find some other places to spend your time and hopefully earn a little something in the process. Check out other programs mentioned here on CompareRewards, or shoot me an email if you'd like personalized recommendations.
Everybody loves free GCs, especially when they're from Amazon! Amazon is a favorite merchant of a lot of online shoppers because of its great promotions, including free super-saver shipping on $25 orders, and because it doesn't charge sales tax. While there are no rewards programs that can (legally) reward you for shopping at Amazon, there are several programs that will pay you in the form of Amazon credit, without you having to spend a red dime (unless you want to, that is)! Here's a recap, in no particular order:
QuickRewards: http://tinyurl.com/2ck7nj -- Earn for reading emails, visiting websites, completing surveys, entering contests (use a "throw-away" email address because these will spam you!), trial signups, shopping, completing polls, playing trivia, Guess My Number, referring friends
CreationsRewards: http://tinyurl.com/266mrk -- Earn for reading emails, visiting websites, completing surveys, entering contests, trial signups, shopping, playing trivia, referring friends
MyPoints: http://tinyurl.com/2h8drg -- Earn for reading emails, visiting websites, completing surveys, trial signups, shopping, completing polls, referring friends
QuizPoints: http://tinyurl.com/cfsmy -- Earn for completing surveys, entering contests, trial signups, shopping, referring friends
Winzy: http://tinyurl.com/2dhkp7 -- Random searchers win $5 Amazon GCs (max of 30 searches per day per member); if your referrals win, you win, too
LuckySearch: http://tinyurl.com/2hhomy -- Random searchers win points redeemable for prizes including Amazon (max of 25 searches per day per member); if your referrals win, you win, too
BigDevil: http://tinyurl.com/ypk529 -- Random searchers win $5 Amazon GCs (or $25 Restaurant GCs) (max of 30 searches per day per member); if your referrals win, you win, too
Blingo: http://tinyurl.com/24tpt6 -- Random searchers win $5 Amazon GCs (or Fandango tickets) (max of 25 searches per day per member); if your referrals win, you win, too
Swagbucks: http://tinyurl.com/24sshw -- Random searchers win Swagbucks redeemable for Amazon GCs and other prizes; if your referrals win, you win, too
iRazoo: http://tinyurl.com/54fzpt -- Random searchers win prizes including $5 Amazon GCs; all searches (and referrals) earn points redeemable for prizes
Lightspeed Panel: http://tinyurl.com/344dsb -- Complete surveys for points redeemable for Amazon GCs and other prizes
Testspin: http://tinyurl.com/2gcuw8 -- Complete surveys for Amazon credit
Survey Exchange (formerly called OTXsx): http://tinyurl.com/24uxde -- Complete surveys for points redeemable for Amazon GCs and other prizes
Mturk: http://tinyurl.com/c5ny4 -- Earn credit to your Amazon account by performing short "HITs" (tasks)
GoFreebies: http://tinyurl.com/2g9ktv -- Subscribe to a daily email and click the link each day for a chance to win one of 8 $10 Amazon GCs
Saturn Devotion to Motion Instant Win Game: http://tinyurl.com/27wmez -- Play once daily through 1/5/09 for a chance to win prizes including 12 $500 or 1,000 $5 Amazon GCs
This was originally published in my Amazon Shoppers newsletter, sent out about twice a week from YahooGroups. If you're interested in receiving it by email, please click here -- thanks!
And since you can't earn rewards on your Amazon purchases, please shop through my link to help support CompareRewards; thanks!
I don't know about you guys, but I am really turned off by survey sites that just offer you a drawing entry in return for your time. If I'm going to sit still and give a survey site my full attention for 10 minutes or more, giving thorough and honest answers to their questions, I expect more than just a one in a thousand chance of winning ten bucks, or some other such nonsense.
I was really happy to hear that the Ipsos i-Say program just added points as a reward for every survey completed. They will continue to hold a quarterly sweeps for $5,000, and to offer an instant win game play after every completed survey, but in addition, you'll receive points you can cash in for merchandise (starting at 150 points) or GCs to a TON of merchants.
Interested in joining? Please use my affiliate link below -- thanks!
Upromise is running a promotion through April where they'll deposit $10 into your Upromise account when you join and make just one purchase through their site. Order 22 issues of Parenting through Upromise's link to Magazines.com for $4.97 and get 25% cash back ($1.24) plus $10 into your account... you profit $6.27 (plus you get the subscription to enjoy for 22 months)!
Interested? Please join with my affiliate link below -- thanks!
DigitalTransactions.net is reporting that Greenpoints has been sold.
The new owner, YT Acquisition Corp., is a newly formed company made up of lenders of the former owner, Solidus Networks, Inc. The purchase price, which includes several other assets of Solidus, was $4.4 million plus a "credit bid" (whatever that is) of $50 million.
Oh, really? Did I not call this?
Okay, the facts as I can discern them: Last week (again, while I was on vacation), Jackpot Rewards sent out an email to its members saying that they had decided to eliminate their weekly "guaranteed $1 million winner" sweepstakes drawing, one of the biggest appeals of the program (the ONLY thing they have going for them, as I said here). As reported in Xconomy.com today, the email promised that the Sunday $1 million drawings would continue, though without any guarantee of a $1 million winner. If no one wins the $1 million jackpot, the company will choose one random entrant to win $1,000.
The email to members said this change would somehow "create more winners." (How, exactly, isn't clear to me or to Xconomy reporter Wade Roush... it seems to me like this would create the same number of winners, only instead of a guaranteed $1 million winner, there's a guaranteed $1 thousand winner.)
Jackpot's CEO Jim Miller told Investors Business Daily on March 5th, "Even if we grow at a snail's pace, 10,000 to 15,000 subscribers a month, we can still afford to do this for as far as the eye can see."
He went on to say that, "If you refer one person, you double your chances of winning a million bucks...Refer two and you have tripled your chances. It's a strong incentive to send an e-mail to your entire contact list." He told IBD Jackpot also intended to do some online and radio ads. I've seen banner ads for Jackpot all over the internet, and I understand that Jackpot was offering webmasters a bounty of $16-19.50 (depending on the affiliate network) for each new paying Jackpot member they brought in.
What's slower than a snail's pace? A dead snail's pace?
On February 27th, in a comment to my original Jackpot Rewards review here, I warned that the "charge a membership fee but give all shopping commissions back" setup was a "model [that] just doesn't work here in the U.S."
In the 3/5 IBD article, Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence said that, "This model is dead on arrival...It's too tortured and too complicated and the $3 a week is really a big red flag. In the beginning, people will participate. But over time they won't, unless they do constant advertising to get people to go there."
Jackpot's CEO Miller has said on more than one occasion that he wants the jackpot wins to change people's lives. From the Metrowest Daily News, 3/16: "We got together looking for new and innovative ways to raise money to educate poor and at-risk kids...There were two types of people at that meeting. Those whose lives were transformed with one big moment like the college scholarship or the job break that changed their lives. But the majority of people in the room, their lives changed more gradually, incrementally...Coming out of that meeting, I liked the idea of that transformational message - building a company that enabled its customers to change their lives all at once or gradually but everybody getting ahead...The jackpots are transformational. In that instant, it changes your life forever..."
So, how's that been working out?
Five weeks, five jackpot winners. Karen Fink of Otis, MA was working three jobs and needed a new roof. Winning a million bucks will definitely change her life. So score one for Jackpot.
Deborah White of Wilmington, MA, was another million dollar winner. She had been with her current employer, a bank, for less than a year. She planned to use the money to pay off her car note and to fund her retirement. Hmm...maybe not life-transforming, but like most of us, she could use the money. I might chalk this down to another score for Jackpot.
Now the other three Jackpot winners' lives, would they be "transformed," meeting Jackpot's goals?
Frank Santo, from Wellesley, MA, has owned a restaurant for many years and was all set to move into a house BEFORE the win. Transformational? I doubt it. He did say he planned to donate some of his winnings to charity, though, which was nice.
Bill Tomicki was another $1 million winner. He either publishes or edits two travel magazines and was traveling in India when he was notified of his win. He was once VP of Tiffany's and Sotheby's, has traveled to over 100 countries, and was knighted twice. Will this transform his life? Somehow I doubt it. But again, he does promise to donate some to charity.
The last $1 million winner was Jeremy Fiske of Charlton, MA. Jackpot is quick to point out that he's a recent college grad, but they go on to say that he's making a movie with Martin Scorcese right now (Ashecliffe) and that he'll use some of his winnings to finance a NEW movie he's starting work on in October. How much is this going to really transform his life, I wonder? The guy's chillin' with Scorcese! I doubt he's living on mac 'n' cheese and wondering how to pay his baby's doctors' bills.
Here's a thought: perhaps the kind of people whose lives would be most transformed by winning a million dollars are those who can't afford to pay $156 a year to play. If these investors really want to change the world, to "educate poor and at-risk kids," maybe they should be creating scholarships or funding internships. Maybe they could build some inner-city schools, do a "cash for A's" rewards program, or set up free babysitting services for teenage moms so they can finish their high school education. Maybe they could offer incentives for all their employees to donate time tutoring at-risk kids or becoming Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
Maybe it's my brain that operates at a "snail's pace," but I'm not 5 million dollars poorer today and no closer to meeting my goals.
You'll have to forgive me for the delay in reporting this; I've been on vacation.
On 3/31, InvestmentNews.com reported that Upromise's president and co-founder James Fadule had left the company, as had their senior VP of marketing and client management, Bernard McNamara.
It's not clear why these guys left, but the article says some have speculated it could be because of Fadule's strong personality, or because Upromised missed out on some big contracts to run state-wide 529 plans for the states of California, Michigan, and Illinois. Analysts expect some shakiness during the transition to the new management (which includes former general counsel Mark Chapleau taking the helm in place of Fadule).
The article quotes Peter Mazareas, CEO of Strategic Advancement Group, Inc. and vice-chair of the College Savings Foundation: "This is a very significant event for Upromise...Jim was the visionary behind developing Upromise's business plan and cultivating and winning state contracts. His absence leaves a knowledge vacuum at the company."
Chapleau says there will be no strategy changes within Upromise and that they will continue to try to grow market share, and that they remain committed to the college savings/529 business.
