May 2008 Archives

BondRewards, the shopping rebate program that has had the best overall rates for the past two years in my annual shopping rebate comparison analysis, has always had one downside: you could only cash out your rebates in the form of savings bonds.

But now the company is trying something different. On Wednesday they announced they would be allowing members the option to receive their rebates by cash deposit into a savings account, money market fund, 401(k), or college savings fund.

Because the site continues to give its shopping rebates in terms of savings bonds, which are bought for half their face value, you'll still need to halve their rates in order to compare their rates to other rewards programs. For example, BondRewards' site lists 34% rebate on purchases at Flower.com, but since a $100 savings bond only costs $50 for them to buy, it's actually 17% (still amazingly high). And that's also how much you'll actually earn if you choose the cash option.

To encourage members to give the program a try, they're offering a bonus of ten BR dollars ($5 cash) if you make any purchase by June 30th!

There are almost $40 worth of surveys up on the site now, AND they have a selection of merchants offering double rebates including PETCO at 30.6% (cash value 15.3%) and Shoes.com at 57.8% (cash value 28.9%)!

Now is a great time for you to try this program out if you haven't already. I have (I cashed out for a $100 savings bond last year; made an impressive Christmas gift for my niece)! Please join here (aff)!

DotRebates is offering a bonus 10% on all cash back earned through their shopping portal through the end of June -- just enter code 1ten0 when filing your rebate!

DotRebates offers cash back from hundreds of merchants, with no minimum to request payment by PayPal ($1 for US checks, $2.50 for international checks). No membership is required; after making a purchase through the site's links, return to the site to File Rebates -- enter your name and payment information, and the merchant, date, and amount of the order. You'll get paid in 15 to 25 days.

If you've never used the service before, they're doing an additional cash back offer of up to $5 for new US users. Limit one bonus per IP address. See the site for more information.

Please visit DotRebates here (aff)!

The Borders bookstore chain has had some headaches in the past with their Borders Rewards program, to the point they had to revamp the program entirely last year after the program "failed to deliver" as they had hoped.

How's the new program doing? The company's quarterly financial results conference call (transcript courtesy of SeekingAlpha.com) shows that they are a little happier with this version but that it hasn't yet been used to its full potential.

A few days ago, Borders went live with its own website, Borders.com (they had previously been in partnership with Amazon), and now Borders Rewards members can earn and redeem online as well as in stores. Members earn $5 in Borders Bucks for every $150 spent online or in stores. Borders reports more than 26 million members in the program, and says the program gets around 140,000 new members a week. Ed Wilhelm, the company's CFO, said that they "continued to leverage the valuable customer data from the Borders rewards loyalty program to improve the effectiveness of our promotional discounts." Borders occasionally sends members discounts on specific titles, as well as percentage-off coupons.

Too often, what'll happen is that a merchant will set up a rewards program but not use the data collected in an effective way to market to their best customers. It sounds like Borders is actually trying to capitalize on their members' purchasing habits to figure out how to motivate them to buy more and more often.

I'm sure that Borders will get more useful information now that they can send out their promotional emails and actually have the members click through to their own website -- they can monitor not only their emails' open rate (which they say is around 25%, a number they're happy with), but they can also see how many of these convert into actual sales.

It sounds like the jury's still out on the success of the new Borders Rewards, but they're hopeful that with the launch of Borders.com, they'll be able to really capitalize on their program to drive sales.

Yesterday, Boomertowne announced that as of June 1, they would raise the points cost of their redemptions -- but only to members joining the site on or after June 1. If you're a member before that point, your cost to cash out will stay the same.

This is an unheard-of move in the rewards program biz -- yes, points programs do raise their cashout costs all the time, but it's very unusual that they not only are giving members a heads-up that it's coming, but they also are making existing members exempt from the change.

This means that the time is now to join Boomertowne. If you've heard people talking about the program and you thought, well, I'll just hold off a while and see if it sticks around -- you may want to go ahead and join now! I'd be happy to send you a referral invitation -- send me an email and let me know your first name and what email address to send it to, and if you join and confirm your account by 5/31, I'll even send you $1 in cash and a calendar magnet!

A notice is posted on ClubMom's website that it will shut down its online shopping mall effective June 1, 2008. Members can continue to earn points for shopping through that date. It's not clear how long members will be able to redeem those points. It's also not clear if ClubMom Rewards will remain open for earning points in ways other than shopping. I haven't received an email about the change and the Terms of Service doesn't mention it, either. I hope more information will be forthcoming.

I was concerned about ClubMom Rewards' future when they discontinued their affiliate program last year. That's never a good sign.

If you're close to having enough points at ClubMom to cash out, you may want to go ahead and make a purchase or two to get you over the hump. See my weekly-updated list of double-rebate merchants here.

The BzzAgent word of mouth marketing program has been promising a change to their points system, and today the change went into effect. Through June 9th, BzzAgents can log into their accounts and request to have their points converted into MyPoints at a rate of 8 to 1. The points can either be deposited into an existing MyPoints account or they'll create a new one for you if you're not already a MyPoints member.

On June 9th, BzzAgent will roll out their new rewards program, BzzPerks. The new system will include ways to get access to campaigns you would ordinarily not be eligible for (Golden Keys), Early Invites, and Bonus BzzKits.

It's an interesting partnership...and with the 8:1 conversion, I'm pretty happy with the value of my BzzAgent points. I had banked up over 1000 BzzAgent points over the years, which will net me around $50 worth of MyPoints gift cards. Nice.

Don't forget to log into your BzzAgent account and transfer those points over before June 9th!

Banned from NetWinner Central, the official forum of NetWinner, for speaking your mind about the changes? Or maybe you're just irritated that you can't post freely there without fear of repercussions?

A new NetWinner forum has been set up to help keep members and former members of NetWinner in touch -- for commiserating with others who lost money, for discussing options, and just for fun, games, and camaraderie.

Here's the link: http://www.freepowerboards.com/theopenforum/index.php

Note: AOL members, please use an alternate browser such as IE; there are compatibility problems with AOL's browser. If you're having trouble creating an account, or if you had one and it's suddenly become disabled, please email support for the Open Forum here.

And if you're just joining us, be sure to visit this master list of resources for assistance on who to contact about what happened at NetWinner.

On Monday, SeekingAlpha.com posted its transcript of United Online's quarterly conference call with stock analysts, held on May 6th. As you know, UNTD owns MyPoints (along with Classmates.com, NetZero, and its most recent acquisition, FTD).

Classmates Media, the segment of the company that includes Classmates and MyPoints, had a "blockbuster [first] quarter," said UNTD CEO Mark Goldston. It sounds like the majority of this was due to Classmates increasing its paid memberships by around 215,000 people. When it was time to talk about MyPoints, Goldston described its first quarter performance as "solid," but showing a loss compared to the same quarter last year. He said part of it was that MyPoints had an especially strong first quarter last year due to a big ad campaign on MyPoints for MyCokeRewards, and part was due to "pockets of weakness in the ad market that affected many companies."

Goldston was happy with the growth of emailable members at MyPoints, which he called "the lifeblood of the MyPoints program." Most of MyPoints' ad campaigns charge the advertiser based on the performance of the ad, versus just the number of clicks, "so if you're a client of MyPoints, you can take comfort in the fact that you paid for measurable metrics that demonstrate a much clearer return on investment..."

He said that UNTD does still plan to spin off Classmates and MyPoints into its own IPO possibly in the fall if market conditions are good.

Well, it's no big surprise that MyPoints didn't blow everybody away with outstanding profitability in the first quarter of 2008. Rewards programs are cyclical, and people just don't spend a lot of money right after the holidays. Hopefully things will improve, and as long as MyPoints' success is tied to Classmates.com's, and Classmates is doing well, MyPoints has room to slip from time to time.

Don't slip too far, though, MyPoints. Rumor has it that you've run an ad campaign for NetWinner. Your marketing department may want to do a little research on that company before aligning yourself with them.

If you're not a MyPoints member and would like to join, please click here (aff) -- thanks!

SearchEngineWatch is reporting that Microsoft will make an announcement tomorrow of the official launch of Microsoft Live Search Cash Back, their re-branding of the Jellyfish cashback shopping site.

The switchover already started today, which I can attest to by virtue of receiving an account update email today from Live Search Cashback (versus Jellyfish.com).

Smack Shopping, the reverse auction side of Jellyfish.com, is still up and running. If you're not familiar with the way it works, an item is put up for sale at a set price that includes tax and shipping, and as the seconds tick away, the price drops until the item is bought. Smack Shopping always has an item up for sale, but during live events hosted by Jellyfish staff, the quantity of an item may be (and usually is) more than 1. You never know until the item sells out, though, so it amounts to a game of chicken: buy it now, or hold off and hope there's more than one for sale so the price will drop lower.

On Thursday, there will be a 24 Hour Smack Attack starting at midnight central time. I would assume this would mean it's a hosted show with possibly more than one of each item up for sale. And as always, you can chat with other members while you watch the price drop!

Go straight here for the Smack Reverse auction, or if you haven't created an account on Smack Shopping yet, you'll want to go here first.

Today, QuickRewards.net went live with a new blog program for members of its rewards program. The new blog does not require registration for posting (one of the drawbacks of the Blogger platform). In addition, the new blog categorizes posts similar to a forum (Announcements, Shopping Deals and Coupons, etc.), making it much easier to find the content you're looking for. Members receive 5 tokens daily for leaving a comment on the blog, too.

So, QR members, be sure to check it out! And if you're not a QR member yet, please see this post about my exclusive QR Signup Bonus promotion!

Since its inception, NetWinner.com used YouTube videos as a tool to advertise their program to potential new members. Now that medium is being used against them, as members who were shafted by the program's May 12th decision to simply NOT PAY WHAT THEY OWED are creating their own videos, and they paint a far less rosy picture of the program.

Yesterday, another irate NetWinner member posted a video. "NetWinner: Know More," to the tune of Three Dog Night's "Liar," explains poster pkb143's personal experience with NW. A former NetWinner VIP member, pkb143 is owed $200 by the site. "You play NetWinner...they'll play you!" her video says.

I contacted pkb143 for an interview about her video and she most graciously agreed.

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me. Should I call you pkb143 or do you want to share your first name?

My first name is Patty.

Is this the first video you've ever made?

No, actually the first one was one I made for a Netwinner Addict video contest!

I would ask why you decided to make this video, but it's pretty clear -- you are very steamed about this program and how it treated you and others. Tell me about your experience as a NetWinner member: Were you a member for a long time? Did you play the games a lot? Did they ever pay you?

I became a member of Netwinner in September 2006 and yes, I played their games a lot (my husband would say, "obsessively"). They paid me four times for point redemptions and a cash prize. The last prize I won in October 2007, and I waited 5 1/2 months for that.

The signs were there as far back as last fall that NetWinner was getting behind in payments. Did you think, back then, that the site would ever just...REFUSE...to pay their members? Why did you continue playing?

No, I had absolute faith in Netwinner (as many loyal/"VIP" members did) and as I commented above, I knew they were really behind in fulfillment -- my last prize took 5 1/2 months, but I got it. Knowing they had paid me and others before, although very late, and hearing constant reassurances on the forum from the administrator and mods that we would be paid kept me playing. Plus, I enjoyed the interaction, socializing and contests on the forum, too. I made many friends there over the almost 2 years I played.

Your video takes direct aim at NetWinner's paid forum moderator, mjp65, by quoting him just 3.5 weeks before the site canceled all cashouts as saying, "Netwinner pays all members," and by asking viewers to be the judge of whether he was a "liar." Do you think NetWinner's moderators and staff knew this was coming?

I'm still debating that one, really. mjp65 (Mike) often stated that Netwinner was the best place to play on the net, "bar none"; also that everyone would receive their prizes. I hope his superiors kept him better informed than he says he was - but who knows? At any rate, he represented the company to us. I don't really think the mods knew, maybe one or two did...I'm just not sure.

What do you think of the program's claims that the decision to cancel cashouts was a result of fraud and/or the economy? What do you think the company should have done?

There was undoubtedly fraud....game sites should expect that in general, I would think, especially if the prizes are lucrative, but 40% of your players? That's hard for me to imagine. Whatever the number is, Netwinner made a commitment to its players, many of us the same people who helped them become the popular site they were. Then when they should have honored their commitments, they took us, chewed us up and spit us out, without a second thought, so that (in my opinion) they could balance the books.

What would you say to people considering joining NetWinner, or to websites considering partnering with the program?

Although I enthusiastically recruited new members for Netwinner in the past, I certainly can't now, and can't support someone who decides to join on their own. Look how they treated their longtime loyal players! Have you seen any evidence that their SOP has changed; can you trust them now? I can't support any Netwinner partners now, either; if they don't care what their "partner" did to their players then they don't deserve my support.

Thanks for talking with us, Patty! I hope you're able to recover the funds NetWinner owes you.

I'm not counting on getting that $200, but since Netwinner got the benefit of my prior video via the "addict contest," I made the new video to set the record straight now.

Thank you, Becky, for giving us a voice! I wish I would have believed you the first time you predicted things weren't right in NetwinnerLand!

Updated Weekly!
Every week, ClubMom doubles their shopping rewards at a couple of their merchants. Here are the merchants with double rebates through May 18:

The Children's Place -- now 10 points per dollar (5%)
DisneyShopping -- now 10 points per dollar (5%)
Ebags -- now 18 points per dollar (9%)
Leaps and Bounds -- now 16 points per dollar (8%)

ClubMom's redemptions include gift cards starting at 2,000 points (for a $10 GC), or 1500 points and up for merchandise including magazine subscriptions.

NOTE: ClubMom Rewards will shut down on 6/1/08. You can earn points through that time.

As you know, on Monday, NetWinner decreed that it would cancel all outstanding redemptions for gift cards and Ecount debit Mastercards and simply return the points (doubled) to their members' accounts for use as entries into prize drawings. Many members have since posted their dismay at this turn of events, as evidenced in the nearly 1500 comments combined between my original post on Monday and the follow-up on Tuesday.

Many NetWinner members have found their way to this site in their search for avenues of recourse against NetWinner. I've put together a one-page blog that contains a list of over a dozen things NetWinner players can do to try to recover their winnings, report possible illegalities, or at the very least tell others about their experiences so that potential new NW members are adequately informed of the site's history.

One very creative young lady came up with another way to tell the public about NetWinner -- YouTube. Using the member name disneydisasters, the daughter and granddaughter of avid NetWinner players whose cashouts were canceled created a YouTube video response to the last NetWinner Spin Report (the PR videos created by NetWinner starring Chad and (swoon) Anthony). In her video, disneydisasters cries, saying, "Thanks a lot, NetWinner! I won't be getting a birthday present 'cause of you, and thousands of kids will not be getting Christmas presents because of you! It's not fair!"

She goes on to say that her grandmother played NetWinner's games for hours and it was unfair, even evil, for the company to rip off innocent little old ladies. The video concludes with a montage of other people and images that remind her of NetWinner, including Hitler, Benedict Arnold, and dog poop. (I laughed out loud at that one.)

I was able to contact the poster of the video, Jocelyn (aka disneydisasters), through her mother, who has been following my site's coverage of the NetWinner debacle, and she gave me this exclusive interview.

Hi, Jocelyn! Thanks for talking with us today. Your video has created quite a buzz! I want to hear all about your story. First, how old are you?

I'm 13 years old.

How long have you been making videos?

I have been experimenting with videos for about a year.

Who else helped you make this particular video?

It was just me and my sister, Kaylee.

Did you script out what you were going to say beforehand or was this completely ad-libbed?

I kind of went with the flow and ad-libbed. I didn't write a script.

What made you decide to make this video?

I saw my mom and my grandmother getting frustrated over not receiving their money, so i decided to tell Netwinner how I felt. My mom was going to give me her winnings to go shopping with for my birthday.

What did your mom and grandmother think about your video?

My grandmother thought it was hilarious but, my mom was not so sure at first.

What do you hope to accomplish by putting the video up on YouTube?

I want to let people know about Netwinner and how they are scamming people. It's just not right for them to do that after people spent so much time on the Netwinner site.

NetWinner has threatened me with legal action quite recently for my reporting on the company. Are you concerned that they might try to come after you? I mean, comparing NetWinner to Hitler was kind of bold!

Are you serious, they want to come after you because you spoke the truth? I'm not concerned about it because if they can't afford to pay the players then they can't afford to get a lawyer. I don't think comparing Netwinner to Hitler was bold at all because there are so many worse things I can compare them to.

Do you plan to make any future videos about NetWinner -- maybe with your grandma as the star?

This was kind of fun. If they can keep coming out with videos on how good they are, I can keep coming out with videos on how bad they are.

Last question: What would you say to someone considering joining NetWinner as a member or partnering with them as an advertiser?

I would say don't waste your time. My mom plays on other sites that pay her. Netwinner is just internet fraud.

Those are all the questions I have for you -- thanks so much for the interview and I love your video!

Thank you!

I received an email today from RewardTV saying that they were going to become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Nielsen Company. RewardTV does research on the effectiveness of TV ads, and Nielsen estimates TV viewers, so this makes perfect sense. RewardTV.com is owned by IAG Research, who sent out a press release on April 7th to announce its purchase by Nielsen for $225 million. Not too shabby.

No idea how the purchase will affect the RewardTV program. I would only hope that they will improve the points redemption process. I haven't tried to redeem in years (I was one of the beta testers WAY back in '02), but I've heard horror stories about how there are few prizes and they go out of stock as fast as they're added.

If you're not a member of RewardTV and would like to join, click here.

I wanted to share with you one of the comments left on my blog just minutes ago. "Get a life," it said. Here's the comment and please note the IP address from which it was left: http://www.comparerewards.com/getalife.jpg

I plugged in that IP address to find out where the comment originated from, and guess who left it?: http://www.comparerewards.com/netwinnercomment.jpg

Yes. NetWinner. This was not a volunteer mod, this was an employee of NetWinner posting from NetWinner's headquarters, on NetWinner's own IP address in Charlotte, NC. One day after announcing to its members that it would not be paying them what they owed, they tell the complainers to "get a life."

Adding insult to injury... as if the comments left last night by forum moderator Cuffedaddy weren't bad enough, calling the NetWinner members, some of whom lost hundreds of dollars, "a bunch of people whining cause they lost nothing but a little bit of time they were not forced into playing anything." He continued on urging complainers to "grow up...Im not crying over something free," and "Honestly what have you people lost but time????"

These responses were left anonymously by another NetWinner forum moderator, lisa6948146: "You all seriously need to get a job...do any of you losers have jobs apparently not...It only takes a foot in front of another to get your a$$ away from your computer and get a job and get a paycheck." Proof that she was the anonymous poster is in a lookup of all comments left from her IP address -- see them here and the most recent ones she left are here.

I'm freezing my post about NetWinner from yesterday and asking that you continue commenting here. The blog software isn't really set up for having over 500 comments on one post and this is resulting in some errors including post duplication. Hopefully a fresh post will fix this.

If you leave a comment and get an error, please refresh the page to see if your comment was posted before resubmitting it; thanks!

Now, I'll step out of the way and let the discussion continue.

Update, 5/13: According to NetWinner's Terms and Conditions, "Your continued use of the Service following the posting of any changes to the terms and conditions contained in this Agreement shall bind You to acceptance of those changes." If you don't agree to the changes, don't play! Asking yourself what to do about this? Please see the bottom of this post and start by contacting the NC Attorney General's office. This will get the issue in front of prosecutors and prompt an investigation into whether NetWinner's actions constituted fraud.

NetWinner emailed members today to tell them they would not be paid for outstanding redemptions. Instead, members' cashouts would be cancelled and the points refunded to their accounts... but they would be doubled. From now on, points are only good for raffle entries.

Sometimes you hate to be right. :(

I'm sorry, y'all. I'm really, TRULY sorry.

In a message to partner sites, NetWinner's Wendy Warner today stated that only about 10% of you would be unhappy with this move. "Some will see it as I do—a great opportunity for most of our players and then you have the 10% that are hard core that will not be happy at all."

Just 10%? Head count, anyone?

Continue Reading if you didn't get the email, or feel free to vent as needed in a Comment.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with Tyler Derheim, owner of FusionCash. He graciously took time out of his day to talk about some of the challenges his site has faced recently and about the future of his program.

First, can you tell my readers who aren't members of FusionCash what your program is about? What's the type of person who would really enjoy FC?

FusionCash is a loyalty and rewards community site. We offer anybody over 13 in the US an opportunity to earn some extra spending cash by taking surveys, entering contests, and trying free and nearly-free trials. We're also expanding our shopping cashback offerings, including many products that are "As Seen On TV". You can earn rewards quickly, but many of our members find the real value in returning to the site often for the forum community and daily survey opportunities.

Now, let me jump in and ask about the big question many people had recently: what happened to FusionCash a few weeks ago? The site was down and there was some concern that you might have closed for good! What really happened?

An unknown individual utilized a Distributed Denial of Service attack to overload our servers with fake traffic - preventing legitimate traffic from getting through to the site. Although we did not receive any communications from the attacker, some other sites in the industry reported emails attempting to extort "protection money" from them in exchange for stopping the attacks. Although it took an unfortunately long 6-7 days, we were finally able to configure our server and firewall to effectively block the attacks. Fortunately, these improvements have made the site faster in general, and more resistant to this type of attack for the future. Naturally, we extend our deepest apologies to our members for the extended inaccessibility - we were doing everything we could.

As for the allegations that we were shutting down or having internal difficulties, financial or otherwise -- they are completely unfounded. FusionCash has an on-time payment record that leads the industry, and we have no plans to do anything but continue to improve.

Why do you think FusionCash was one of the victims of this attack?

As a high profile rewards site, the attacker probably perceived that we would be more willing to pay him to stop. Naturally, we never have and never will negotiate with anybody who is breaking the law.

Are you working on some kind of feature to stop future attacks?

As mentioned, we have beefed up our firewall and server already. Based on the current numbers, an attack would have to be at least an order of magnitude larger than the last one to have a negative effect on our ability to stay online.

How has this impacted FusionCash?

It caused us minor inconveniences as our advertising partners adjusted to the first extended downtime in our (nearly) 3 year history, and of course the incalculable loss of faith that some of our members endured. However, there was no damage, and no data was compromised or lost. Once we completed the refinements to the firewall and server, it was back to business as usual.

We haven't talked in a while -- what kinds of changes have you made to the program in the last year or so?

Since we've been established in the space for some time, we've lately been focusing on making FusionCash the best loyalty program around. Some of our recent changes include:
- The addition of a community forum
- Hiring and training of support staff and refined support procedures to create a better member experience
- A hard-nosed approach to offer selection and monitoring - internal policies to ensure that we only present offers that credit consistently. This means that while we do not have the widest selection of offers, you will be properly rewarded when completing one. Don't get me wrong, though - we still have over 120 consistently crediting, quality offers, including two survey opportunities which can be completed once per day.

Are there any upcoming changes or promotions that you might want to share with my readers?

Glad you asked! We just recently finished our first raffle. Three lucky members walked away with prizes of $100, $50 and $25. More importantly, over two hundred members participated - and all of them walked away with some extra cash in their FusionCash account just for completing the qualifying offers. We are soliciting feedback on the raffle so that we can do even better next time (links to surveys are in that thread above).

Is there anything else you'd like to say to FC's current members or to people considering joining your site?

To our members: Thanks for your participation, your enthusiasm, and your patience during our downtime.
To prospective members: Give us a shot! We have over 1.2 million members already, who have been paid some $1.5 million to date. We know that your time is valuable, and we have created an opportunity for you to earn real money without much effort. You might even meet some interesting people on the forum :)

That's all the questions I have for now! Thanks so much for taking the time to talk with me!

Thanks for your time - I hope we don't have to wait a whole year to do this again.

FusionCash has been around since June 2005, and I joined shortly after that. They give you $5 just to join, and they have surveys, some shopping offers (like $10 for making any purchase at ShoeBuy), and other offers that pay you just for trying out a product or service. Some don't require a credit card at all, and for others you have to provide one but the trial is free or cheap ($5 to sign up for a free 14 day trial of Emusic, for example), and you can cancel if you don't want to continue. Don't sign up for something and immediately cancel as soon as you're credited at FC or else the advertiser will tag it as being fraudulent -- if you sign up for a trial and don't want to keep the service, give it a few days or even a week before you cancel. And don't do an offer you've completed on another website -- also considered cheating.

FusionCash is very hardcore about weeding out cheaters (people joining multiple times, referring themselves, completing the same offer more than once, etc.), so if this describes you, find another place to scam! But If you're conscientious and follow the rules like I do, FC is a great site. They pay on time as promised, every month, and I've found their customer service to be very prompt and courteous.

Thanks again to Tyler for the interview, and if you're interested in joining, I'd appreciate your supporting me by clicking through the banner below.

I read an interesting article today that said that eBay is having a select number of members beta-test a new rewards program called eBay Bucks. It rewards shoppers based on the total dollar amount spent on qualifying purchases paid for by PayPal during the period of May 15 through August 14th. At the end of the period, members will receive eBay Bucks. The FAQ on the program is here.

Right now the membership is closed to new members while they iron out the kinks with their pilot group, but you can get in line for an invitation to join here.

This is not eBay's first attempt at a rewards program. In May 2003, eBay launched a rewards program called Anything Points. Here's a link to an interesting article about it in CIO Insight. It allowed members to trade in airline miles, through Points.com, for eBay credit when paying by PayPal. In June 2004, they partnered with MetaReward to provide more opportunities to earn points. As I reported in July 2005, eBay announced that they were discontinuing the program in the U.S., giving members until August 2006 to redeem their points. The Canadian program was kept in place.

What happened to Anything Points? Their official explanation: "The decision to discontinue the eBay Anything Points program was made after receiving input from U.S. members and assessing the benefit to the U.S. Community. We believe the decision to discontinue this program will allow us to channel our resources into other areas that will better serve the U.S. Community."

I'd interpret that to mean that the cost outweighed the benefit. The program as it was laid out, didn't serve to reward or encourage the use of eBay, it was just another rewards program. Hopefully the new program will have more success. I know I'll use it.

Steve,

In response to your recent letter regarding CompareRewards, which included inaccurate and misleading statements, I urge both you and my readers to read this entire response.

You were absolutely right about my inaccurate description of Dragon*Con. I truly appreciate your bringing this to my attention. I corrected my post and apologized to Dragon*Con privately. Dragon*Con did have several adult-oriented discussion panels in 2006, and former porn star Traci Lords was a featured guest.

I'm not sure if it's relevant whether Xpeeps and NetWinner each sponsored one adult-industry panel at Dragon*Con 2006 or if they sponsored both of them jointly. That both were sponsors of one or both discussions is not an "unfounded insinuation" but a direct quote from a porn industry newsletter. NetWinner.com was listed by name in the article I excerpted in this post. The link is here for anyone who doesn't mind viewing adult content. Re-read the source. If the source is inaccurate, your quarrel is with them. Provide me with a source for what NetWinner's panel really was about, one that contradicts the source I already have, or go on the record personally with an explicit denial that NetWinner's panel was adult-oriented and a description of what it WAS about, and I will happily append my post.

The article that I excerpted has been posted online since 2006. Why am I the bad guy for providing the same information on this website? Have you threatened that website with legal action, too?

I'm not sure how you can say that sponsoring an adult industry-related panel discussion is insulting and damaging to NetWinner. You admitted that NetWinner is financed, at least in part, by the Adult Entertainment Broadcasting Network's founder, Scott Coffman. I noticed that Xpeeps, the sponsor of the other adult-themed panel, is owned by AEBN.

You offered the movie "Pulp Fiction" as an example of "adult content." You call NetWinner's connection to the porn industry "loose." We must have different dictionaries, Steve. This is what I see:

• You admit that Scott Coffman, founder of the Adult Entertainment Broadcasting Network, is an investor at NetWinner. (I'd love to know what percentage of the company's stock he holds. Care to disclose?)

• You admit that you and Coffman go way back, that you had interviewed him about his porn business and that you admired him, before being offered your position at NetWinner.

• You didn't deny that NetWinner VP Matt Coapman, the self-described "Porn Peddler," was a former Global (International) Divison Supervisor for AEBN/Coffman.

• You didn't deny that Coffman is the registered agent for process service at both AEBN and NetWinner, LLC.

I wouldn't call these connections "loose."

In fact, I would add that:

• NetWinner's CTO, Arion Hardison, is the CEO [sorry, former CEO; also edited to remove the dates due to conflicting information] of CameraPhonePorn.com,
• AEBN registered AdStreams.com,
• and that AdStreams, in turn, registered NetWinner.com.

How can you have connections like these and then get indignant when they're pointed out? (Oh, by the way, when you changed the WHOIS information for AdStreams to get AEBN's name off of it, you forgot to update its Alexa page... it still shows AEBN as owning the domain. You might want to get on that.)

In your letter, you said, "NetWinner is a game that gives people a chance to win. There are no 'earnings' here; playing a free online game is not a job." What exactly do you call the money you owe your members? Winnings? Okay, then, are you denying that the members' "winnings" are a debt that your company owes and is extremely delinquent in paying? Saying that this wasn't "earnings" and that it came from "playing a free online game" doesn't get you off the hook for paying people what you owe them in a timely manner.

I was thrilled to see yesterday and today that some members are reporting finally receiving some of the payments (sorry, "winnings") owed them by NetWinner. I have two sources that tell me they received a phone call from Matt Coapman asking them to keep the their conversation confidential, in which one was offered a partial payment on her account, and another was offered full payment when it was clear that partial payment was unsatisfactory. One source said that Mr. Coapman admitted NetWinner was paying the vocal, "disgruntled members" ahead of everyone else, and not to tell anyone. This source feels guilty for being paid out of order, which is she they told me. While I'm happy for those who are getting some or all of what they were owed, is this fair to those who have been waiting longer?

You stated that the delays are "primarily due to the company's growth and continued diligence towards fraud protection." But fraud has been a concern of NW since the beginning, as seen in this post by your Chief Technical Officer, Arion Hardison (aka "Netwinner"), as far back as July of 2006. Your head forum moderator, mjp, also posted about fraud at NW in July 2006. That was almost two years ago. What's the holdup in getting this problem addressed?

My post regarding the status of Ecount payments was neither false NOR misleading, and I didn't see you deny that NetWinner had made no payments to Ecount between March 13 and the time of my post, April 27. Did I miss that? Or were you just trying to deflect attention by saying that Ecount would have had to break their contract with you in order to divulge it? Not only did I have a source for that information (who emailed me personally in great detail), but I went a step further and talked to Theresa Wabler, Ecount's VP and Marketing Manager. She told me that when Ecount receives funds from a client, they pay it out in 24 to 48 hours. If NW's members haven't been paid, she said, it's because NetWinner didn't pay us. That sounds like good enough confirmation for me, when you put that together with the payment reports (or lack thereof) that were on your own forum at the time. Are you accusing Ecount of being the holdup in your payments, or are you just upset that they told your members THEY weren't?

"What is NetWinner?" Good question; glad you posed it. The definition seems to have changed. Formerly, members won not just instant-win prizes, but also points that converted to gift cards, merchandise, and more recently, Ecount credit. Now, it sounds like you're saying that people should only play it for fun, not with the expectation of getting anything out of it. Did I misunderstand you, or is that the new NW model? I'm sure your members want to know.

Lastly, the email to which I'm responding (attached below for reference), which was posted on my site, yours, and all around the internet, appears to have been made not to address your members' concerns, but to cast aspersions on my website and my personal reputation, as it was addressed "Company response to Compare Rewards" and "Becky." If the true intent of NetWinner was to address its members concerns, some sort of email communication would have been sent to your members directly. My legal counsel has advised me that your characterization of my articles on NetWinner as "unsubstantiated," "misleading," "biased," "[not] presenting the whole truth," "unfounded insinuation," "false and misleading, "insulting and damaging," posted all over the internet, may constitute harassment, libel, defamation, and wire fraud.

While it will not repair the damage you have already done, I DO NOT expect a retraction, but I do expect that you will instead take the time and effort to communicate directly with your members so they don't have to come looking to me, or at other websites, for the answers to questions like, "What's going on at Netwinner?" "Why did they change their games?" and "Why haven't I been paid?" I would also request that you change your terms of service to reflect the current, more realistic time frame of 180 days. Further, I would recommend that NetWinner close its doors to new members until it can pay the ones it has right now. These actions would help me and your current members restore our faith in NW and serve as a good faith example of your company's ethics and fairness.

In closing, I suggest that you please consider carefully before making any further misrepresentations about me, my website, Ecount, or the members who have stepped forward as information sources.

Oh, and by the way...I also reserve the right to take further action as necessary.

I am very proud to announce that CompareRewards.com is now a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. This organization fights for the right to free speech on the internet by various initiatives including providing a library of legal information on the rights of bloggers, organizing activists to fight for internet privacy laws, and by funding attorneys to represent those whose rights have been threatened.

"EFF defends the Internet as a platform for free speech and believes that when you go online, your rights should come with you."

Contributions to the EFF are tax-deductible. I strongly urge all bloggers and webmasters to consider membership.

In a press release today, Volkswagen of America announced it's offering Upromise members $1500 if they pre-order VW's new minivan, the Routan. It's kinda cute, really, starts at $24,700 with seven-passenger seating, a two-screen entertainment system, two power sliding doors, and "no less than thirteen cup holders." Wow...they should've included a restroom! ;)

The way the Upromise promotion works is, you log in to your Upromise account -- join here (aff) if you're not a member already -- then go to http://www.upromise.com/vw where they'll give you a Upromise VW Savings Code. Take the code to your dealer, and make a deposit on your new Routan by 8/31. Complete your purchase or lease and take delivery by November 30th...and 6 to 8 weeks after delivery, they'll deposit the $1500 into your Upromise account. You can then request a check from Upromise, you can transfer the money into your (or another person's) 529 plan, or you can apply it toward an outstanding student loan.

Not sure what "Routan" means. I did a German-to-English translation on it and it just meant "routan." Not helpful. It reminds me of Roatan, which is a terribly poverty-stricken city in Honduras. Who picked the name? Anyway, VW's website for more info on the van, is here.

Hallmark is doing a promotion for its Gold Crown Rewards program through May 11th: show your card when you make any purchase and they'll give you a bonus 200 points to your account. Limit one bonus per person, and the offer's good in the U.S. only. 3000 points = a $10 Hallmark certificate, so 200 points is worth around $0.67. If you were going to buy a Mother's Day card there anyway, it's a nice bonus to your account.

If you're not already a member, you can join for free here.

If you're a member of Best Buy's Reward Zone, you can print this coupon for 12% off regular priced in-store purchases through May 12. (The coupon's also good for non-members, but only for 10% off.) See the coupon for all of the exclusions.

The Best Buy Reward Zone program is free to join. My review of the program is here.

I received the following via comment and email from the director of communications for NetWinner, Steve Goldberg. In this message, he requested that I issue a retraction regarding my incorrect characterization of the Dragon*Con conference. Here, in part, is Mr. Goldberg's statement:

With more than 25 years experience as an investigative reporter/writer, and now under contract to NetWinner, I do my fact checking with great diligence. If you had done your research properly, you would have let your readers know that the annual Dragon*Con in Atlanta with more than 30,000 attendees does not have anything to do with "porn" but is actually, according to their site, "the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing on science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film in the U.S." It's a family friendly event with fans dressing as Klingons, Superman, Harry Potter, and other characters. More information can be found at www.dragoncon.org

And here is my response:

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 "science fiction and fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film" convention. My deepest apologies to Dragon*Con and its many fans and attendees.

In an email to members today, Jellyfish said that it had been assimilated by integrated into Microsoft Live, and that members would need to log in with their Microsoft Live accounts or create one if they didn't have one. I did, and it appears they're still working on transferring over data from the old system. I was really quite confused by the new platform (this is Microsoft we're talking about...anyone surprised?).

It seems they plan to separate the cashback shopping -- which now features PayPal as a payout option -- from the Smack Shopping reverse auction.

I need to do a little playing around with both sites to better understand the changes and will update this post when I do. Stay tuned!

In an email to members yesterday, Freeride.com announced that it would be eliminating all $10 gift cards from their redemption catalog, "due to rising costs." The lowest cashout available is now a $15 GC, for 18,500 tokens. Members will have to "ride" a little longer before they can redeem their points, it appears. You can click Continue Reading to view Freeride's email.

p.s. NetWinner, take notes -- this is how it's supposed to be done. ;)

Wellness360 Review -- Update, 1/28/10: Site is down; see the latest here

Date Launched: 2008
Minimum to Redeem: No minimum, checks are sent quarterly upon request
Prizes Offered: Check
Earn Points For: Many activities including 2 points for every page view of at least 10 seconds, for entering or updating your vitals, medications taken, family medical history, workout calendar, or food diary, for watching exercise videos, reading health-related articles, and more

Limit One Account Per: U.S. resident 18+

Notes:
This morning I spoke with an employee of Wellness360 named Heather, who gave me some great information about the program. Wellness360 is owned by a company named Aperture Health. Previously, the site was offered exclusively as an employee benefit to employees of the cities, counties, hospitals, and other small business with which Aperture had a contract. Two or three months ago they decided to open it to the public.

The goal of the website is to offer a small cash incentive for the public to access free health information and other health-related website features. The site offers some interesting features like a health risk assessment, a food diary that calculates your caloric intake, exercise diaries that calculate calorie expenditures, and the ability to upload your medical records if desired to ensure they, for instance, aren't lost in a fire. The site is in compliance with all HIPPA health care privacy regulations.

While technically there is no limit on what a member can earn, the site examines accounts for abuse. They don't expect members to spend, on average, more than 10 to 15 minutes a day on the site. Average expected monthly earnings would be between $10 and $20 a month (more if you refer a lot of friends because you get a percentage of the points they earn). They strongly encourage legitimate use of the account to receive health information and to track progress toward your health goals.

Earnings are paid by check quarterly, upon request. Members have 15 days after the quarter ends in which to request their check, otherwise their points roll over to the next quarter. Taking this and processing time into account, expect your check 3 to 6 weeks after the quarter ends.

Related Posts: Wellness360 Down, Wellness360 Acknowledges "Difficult Times," Wellness360 is Sickly; Doesn't Pay Members as Promised, Request Quarterly Payment at Wellness360, Wellness360 RV Contest, Double Points Weekend at Wellness360, Request Quarterly Payment at Wellness360, Triple Points Weekend at Wellness 360

Yesterday, United Online (MyPoints.com's owner) announced it was buying FTD for $800 million. Among other reasons given by United Online's CEO Mark Goldston for the unusual acquisition, UNTD wants to diversify its revenue streams. Also interesting: "We will explore opportunities to encourage repeat purchases of FTD products using reward programs based on our MyPoints loyalty marketing service."

I just wanted to say hi to all my new website visitors -- thanks for stopping by and I hope you find some useful information here! I'm always happy to answer questions or recommend programs based on your own circumstances (whether you shop online a lot, if you want to earn cash or gift cards without spending anything, if you prefer programs that pay in PayPal or Amazon or by check, etc.). Also, I send out a twice-monthly newsletter by email summarizing the latest news, giving an advanced heads-up on new programs I intend to review here, and sometimes even sharing some spicy gossip you won't see elsewhere. ;)

It's also a good reminder for you if, like me, you tend to find an interesting website, bookmark it, then forget to visit it for the latest. So, if you'd like to sign up for the Insider newsletter, send an email to me here with "Subscribe" in the subject line! You can also email me there if you have other questions. And thanks for visiting CompareRewards.com!