February 2009 Archives

I got a nice email update from Tyler Derheim, CEO of FusionCash.com (aff), and wanted to share it with you. I've been a member there since August 2005 and can vouch for these guys -- it's easy to earn by completing offers (some of which don't even require a credit card), and they pay on time every time. Honest, conscientious owners; great way to earn cash. Here's Tyler's note:

"In case you were thinking of doing a writeup on FC, we have a few things worth mentioning:

• Two survey opportunities which are available once per day. One pays $0.75 and one pays $1.00 - thats over $50/month in potential recurring earnings.


• Forum promotions: you get paid $3 each month you make 30 contributory posts; you get $1 for each payment proof picture you post; you get $1 for becoming our "Fan" on Facebook.


• Referral bonuses: $1 when they confirm email, $2 when they complete their first offer, $5 for each cashout that gets approved. No limits.


• Expiration: policy changed to 180 days rather than 90 days for offer and bonus expiration

Perhaps its also worth mentioning that we've been around, and haven't missed a single payment, since June 2005. With three great payment options and our long (well, for the internet) history, FusionCash is the safe, convenient and profitable place to be in these uncertain economic times.

--
Regards,
Tyler Derheim"

If you'd like to give FusionCash a try, please join with my link -- thanks!

It's no big secret that number one, the fourth quarter is the time when most retailers get "into the black," and number two, the U.S. economy is struggling which is impacting retail sales. So, it's not much of a surprise that according to United Online's quarterly conference call with stock analysts, published yesterday on SeekingAlpha.com, MyPoints reported lower earnings than usual for Q4.

United Online's chairman Mark Goldston noted that, despite revenue growth in the first three quarters of the year, "During the fourth quarter, we experienced our first year-over-year revenue decline at MyPoints since we acquired the company three years ago." It wasn't unanticipated, he said, knowing that the economy was sluggish and MyPoints uses an advertiser-based revenue model (as opposed to Classmates.com, which derives its revenue from paid subscriptions). He said that MyPoints deliberately underspent its budget to account for this.

MyPoints is part of United Online's Classmates Media segment of the company, which did very well overall, so no worries. (If you want to join MyPoints and kick back a buck or two to CompareRewards, click here -- thanks!)

Goldston goes on to talk about MyPoints' new President, Matt Wisk, who was promoted to this position in the last quarter. "One of the strategies that we expect Matt and his team to pursue further is to go beyond where we are and further expand the product offerings such as internet search, market research, and the gains that leverage the strong demand for the MyPoints currency, which is points, and this is across all of our active members."

In discussing another of UNTD's companies, FTD, Goldston mentioned the cross-marketing that's been going on between MyPoints and FTD, even referencing the now-infamous "free $15 FTD gift cards" being given away with every MyPoints redemption. Wonder if the investors will fall for that gimmick like the MyPoints members did. ;)

In summary -- no big surprises on the call. MyPoints struggled through its traditionally strongest quarter with lower earnings than it had in the last few years, but since they're in a business unit with Classmates.com, which is (strangely enough, imho) doing strong, there's no real cause for alarm...yet.

In an interesting development, the judge presiding over the Source, Inc. rewards program patent infringement lawsuit in the Eastern District of Texas Federal Court recused himself from the case last week.

The Source, Inc. civil lawsuit, filed in January of last year as I reported here, has been dragging on...and ON...due to Source's slow service of process against the 38 defendants, which include some names you've probably heard of including Ebates.com and FatWallet.com. Source claims that they're using this time to negotiate settlements out of court and that, to date, they've accomplished this with all but 10 of the remaining parties to the suit (see "II. RESPONSE TO MOTION TO DISMISS") .

Judge John Ward, famous for being plaintiff-friendly and unwilling to allow changes of venue out of his jurisdiction, has presided over the case since it was filed. No reason was provided for why he stepped down, and it's unclear who will replace him and whether this will delay the proceedings further.

I've been mulling this over for a few days and I'm having trouble grasping the logic of it. Maybe somebody else here can help me figure it out.

FTD and MyPoints are both owned by United Online. However, you can earn a better rebate on FTD purchases through MyPoints' competitor, Microsoft Live Cashback.

Live Search offers 40% cashback on FTD purchases. MyPoints offers a flat 750 points, worth about $5.77. Doing the math, as long as your flower order is over $14.43, which, c'mon, it HAS to be, you'd earn more by shopping through Microsoft's cashback site instead of through FTD's own sister site, MyPoints.

Why would United Online want this? Do they realize one of their business units is giving a better deal to an outside company than to another business unit? Or maybe FTD *is* giving greater than 40% to MyPoints, but MyPoints isn't passing it along to their members...?

Hmmm...

Update, 12:04am, 2/16: The last night of live chat was lively, with a rare appearance by Jellyfish co-founder Brian Wiegand, as well as several other employees (Heidi and Keith). It appears that the honor of Last Commenter in JF Chat goes to Logansdaddy_O as seen in this screenshot, the last before chat froze and a page refresh redirected to this page. JF will be missed. Thanks to Brian and Mark for the fun and the deals; I look forward to the launch of Alice.com.

Or, "They Shoot Jellyfish, Don't They?"

It's a sad day: Jellyfish.com, once a rewards program, then bought by Microsoft and turned into Microsoft Live Cashback, leaving Jellyfish to simply offer a once-weekdaily hour-long reverse auction, is finally being put out of its misery. Members of the program received an email late yesterday announcing that the final hourly "show" would be on Friday the 13th (fitting). All interactive services including chat will be disabled on Monday, 2/16. Members will have 90 days to cash out any remaining coins in their accounts.

The reaction to the news of the site's closure in Smack Chat today was that of sadness, though not surprise. Members discussed other venues to stay in touch with one another, including http://www.jellyf1sh.com, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=123100715042, http://jellyfish.ning.com, http://www.sazze.com/chat, and http://netmisfits.com.

A chronology of my coverage of Jellyfish.com, from its opening to present, can be found here.

R.I.P., Jellyfish.com! (Not my pic, but a fitting tribute.)

Continue Reading to see the email sent to members. Many in chat today reported theirs going to their spam folder (as did mine), which where yours may be if you didn't receive it. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. :(

Feel free to add your condolences in a comment.

Remember those sweet hidden cashback rates we got from Live Search last fall for Ebay, Drugstore.com, HP, and Target? Live Search Cashback's doing it again, this time with flowers from FTD.

If you go to the main cashback portal for Live Search, they're offering 25% cashback on FTD orders. Not bad at all. However, if you do a search on Live Search for "send roses" (among other things), you'll get a sponsored link for FTD offering 40% instead!

Keep in mind, this is NOT combinable with any coupon codes out there for FTD. Use a coupon code and it'll invalidate the cashback.

Not a member of Live Search Cashback? Use your Hotmail account (click here to create one) when you sign up here.

A couple of years ago, I heard about a rewards program called uTango which was targeting newly married couples. The basic concept was, married couples sign up, shop through the site, and their earnings go toward a savings plan they can only access if they stay married. I think. I didn't review it for CompareRewards because I found it way too convoluted -- this great article on CreditCards.com from December (page down and see the right sidebar) agreed with me and provided many specifics. "You don't have to be a skeptic to question this program," said author Jeff Beneke.

He definitely called it right: I read today that uTango decided to call it quits, citing the "dismal economic climate." (Read the announcement on uTango.com.) Of course it was the economy, and not a poor business model. ;)

Here's how the site looked at its launch in December 2006. Here's an early story on the company, from January 2007, and another, from February 2008. They launched their own co-branded credit card last March. This article, a few weeks ago, says uTango was sued by its PR company for being A YEAR BEHIND in paying them $10,000 owed for their services.

Hate to see any rewards program shut down. This program's downfall (aside from being too niche-oriented, appealing primarily to newlyweds) was, IMHO, a poor understanding of what drives consumer behavior. People want more attainable rewards. Not only is it a matter of not wanting to wait 30 years to get your reward (even a great one like $1 million), but it's also a clearly justifiable concern that the rewards program won't be around that long.

We're going to see more shopping-only rewards programs going belly-up in the next year or two due to the economy, even those programs offering more attainable rewards. Rewards programs in it for the long haul should be looking for ways to allow members to earn without having to shop. There are some programs doing this right now, paying for survey completions, watching videos, visiting websites, etc. Looking out for your members by seeking out these money-earning, non-spending opportunities, will be rewarded by the loyalty of those members with shopping commissions again when the economy bounces back.

Every day through the 8th, MyPoints.com (aff) is giving away free $50 FTD GCs to the first 100 U.S. members to click through a "Get My Flowers" link on their website. (Sorry, Canadians...you're excluded from this promo.) The "day" for this promo begins at 12am PT, so either stay up late or wake up early!

Hopefully, this promotion will work better than the Free $15 FTD GC with Any Redemption holiday promo MyPoints ran in December and January. Rather than real $15 gift cards (or gift card codes), they simply gave members a publicly accessible link to take $15 off the regular prices at FTD.com...and the purchases through it weren't even eligible for MyPoints shopping points! (An interesting story about a MyPoints member who cashed out for lower-value MyPoints GC at a loss in order to receive multiple $15 FTD "GCs," which turned out to not be stackable or even GIFTABLE, is here, with a follow-up here. While MyPoints' Member Services originally told the member to kiss off, pretty much, they did act immediately after I emailed a MyPoints VP to complain, awarding me Goodwill Points and either changing the promotion's wording or removing it entirely.)

Good luck to all with this giveaway -- hope you don't just win a URL to a publicly accessible website! Please post a comment if you win! If you're not a member of MyPoints and wouldn't mind letting me refer you, please click here; thanks!

Consumerist links to a great article discussing the changes being made to the MyCokeRewards program.

If you're a member, you probably received the same email I did yesterday about the "big improvements" being made to the program. They're eliminating the 10 code per day limit as of 2/16, but are capping weekly points at 120. Before, you could enter 10 codes a day at up to 10 points each, for a max of 700 a week How exactly is that an improvement?

Further, they're eliminating all rewards over 2000 points. No real sense in keeping high-point rewards when you can now earn fewer points in a month than you could before in a week.

All of the details are in their FAQ here. Click on the section, "What is new for 2009."

Lame, lame, lame. Max out daily if you can between now and the 16th.

MrRebates (aff) unveiled the details of their Valentine's Day promotion today, increasing their cashback rates for shopping at over 70 stores from now through 2/14.

A couple of notable rates: 1-800 Flowers at 12% cash back (best rate elsewhere is 10%, and they have a coupon for an additional 15% off when paying with PayPal), Ice.com at 12% cash back (again, best elsewhere is 10%, plus they have a 20% off coupon), and Zales at 7% (best elsewhere is 5%, plus they have several coupons including $10 off $100 or $50 off $200).

Great time to give MrRebates a try if you're not already a member. New members get $5 for signing up, too -- please join with my link here; thanks!

Ebates.com (aff) announced yesterday that it would be doubling its usual great cash back shopping rebate rates for five of its gift-related merchants. Not all of the 5 are doubled, however, so I think the promo was a bit misnamed. Anyway, here are the merchants, their prior rates, and their rates under the promo:

Teleflora -- 13% (was 6%), ProFlowers -- 13% (was 10%), GourmetGiftBaskets.com -- 7% (was 5%), Crabtree & Evelyn -- 12% (was 6%), and RedEnvelope -- 12% (was 6%).

The site didn't spell out that these increases were good through the 14th, but one would assume. Also note-worthy: Ebates has coupons for all five merchants, making the deals even better.

If you're not a member of Ebates, you'll also get a nice perk when you sign up and make your first purchase: a $5 bonus added to your account! If you'd be so kind as to join with my link, I'd appreciate it!