October 2009 Archives
QuickRewards.net (aff) has brought back their popular 7% cashback on Home Depot gift cards promotion, through 11/1. Members will receive 3% cash back on GC purchases, plus $1 bonus for each $25 gift card purchased, which works out to 7% cash back. These make great Christmas gifts or stock up on them to use yourself in-store for a future project or appliance purchase. See more details on the promotion here.
Borders Rewards, the free-to-join rewards program for the Borders and Waldenbooks bookstores, has a promotion going on through Saturday where they're basically tripling your rewards earnings -- you'll get a $5 Borders Bucks GC for every $50 you spend online or in-store (versus the usual $150 requirement). More information, including how to sign up for Borders Rewards membership, is here.
Upromise is offering a Spin2Win game that you can play daily through October December 31st (contest extended!). You have to be a Upromise member to play (please support CompareRewards by signing up here).
In addition to the requirement that you must be a Upromise member, the contest is only open to US residents 18+. Instant-win prizes include $100 GCs to Exxon, Chico's, and Soma Intimates, $50 GCs to Cabela's, $25 Aeropostale and Gap GCs, and other prizes including merchandise from Dell, Canon, Reebok, Lancome, Popcorn Factory, and more! The best odds of winning are 1 in 160, for a $20 Snapfish GC. In all, 2,808 prizes worth a total of $97,945 will be given away between the updated dates of 11/1 and 12/31.
Ebates (aff) increases their cashback rates at several merchants every week. They're offering the following cashback increases through 10/31:
12% @ Half Price Costumes (was 6%)
10% @ Coastal Contacts (was 8%), Costume Supercenter (was 5%), Giant Party Store (was 5%)
8% @ WBShop (was 4%) and Star Costumes (was 5%)
7% @ Candy Warehouse (was 5%)
5% @ Disney Store (was 3%) and OneStep Ahead (was 3%)
If you're not a member of Ebates yet, they'll give you a $5 bonus when you join and place your first order through their links to any of their hundreds of merchants. Please join here -- thanks!
Just a quick note to commemorate the eighth year in operation of CompareRewards.com. My husband registered this domain for me on 10/19/01, so I could separate out all of the rewards program content from a personal website where I'd been discussing it for some time prior.
Eight in internet years is like 40 in offline years. I've seen a lot of programs come and go...and just a handful come and stay a while.
I was cleaning out a junk drawer today and found an old notebook with logins and notes I had scribbled down on rewards programs including FatShoe, Trocamania, SuzyKats, Milespree, Qool, CashIC, Giant Rewards, Blink, BonusTree, Prima Rewards, Milesource, and Netflip...long gone and mostly-forgotten rewards sites. Judging from some other notes I'd jotted down in the book, this would have been from early 2002...probably 3 to 6 months after CompareRewards started.
The sites in my notes that are still in business? Memolink, MyPoints, and SearchCactus. Wow.
There are other programs that have been solid performers for all or most of my 8 years in analyzing these sites, don't get me wrong...but the duds have outnumbered the keepers by a ridiculous multiplier. You see so many programs come and go that, after a while, you see patterns develop -- a life-cycle model of a rewards program. Some fizzle before they really hit their stride. Others start off fast but go downhill just as fast. Right now, who do you see surviving? The programs that have economies of scale, that have grown so large over time that they can negotiate higher cashback rates and build in higher profits... and those that have remained relatively small (by choice or by budget limitations), with overworked but dedicated staff and highly loyal membership. These are the extremes, and there aren't many programs that operate in-between.
I don't think there will be a need for a site like mine in eight more years (if the internet still exists at all the way we know it now). The big players will consolidate and the smaller ones will fade away. But you can be sure that I'll be here to turn the lights out...unless, that is, Microsoft, Google, or Oprah wants to write me a big check before then. ;)
Thanks for tolerating my self-indulgent nostalgia. Back to business!
There will be an annual birthday chat again this year, once again co-hosted by my good friend Ginger of AttentionTargetShoppers! Mark your calendar for Saturday, November 7th, at 6pm central time. If you're on staff at a shopping, search, survey, or other rewards program and you'd be interested in attending to answer questions (and hopefully give out some prizes to attendees), RSVP here! If you can't attend but would still like to sponsor a giveaway or two to be sure your name's mentioned in what will no doubt be another 4-hour-plus marathon chat session, you can also contact me at the RSVP address.
More details, including where to go to chat, who's coming, and a partial prize list, will be coming soon! Thanks for reading, and I hope you can be a part of this eighth birthday celebration!
Extrabux has always had a great rewards program -- they ranked third overall in my annual shopping rate comparison last year -- and now they've made it even better!
They announced in a 10/6 press release the introduction of their new and improved comparison shopping engine! I got a sneak peek at this a few months ago and was REALLY impressed at how it works. When you search for a specific product, it ranks the results by lowest price after factoring in a merchant's available coupons and cashback, plus the tax and shipping (based on your zipcode)!
To see a glimpse of how it works:
What's interesting here is that if you just looked at the product price alone, you'd buy from Home Depot ($338). If you looked at just price less coupon, Home Depot would still win out, at $328. They'd still get the nod if you looked at price, coupon, and cashback. Shipping's free from all three stores, but when you factor in Home Depot's tax: Ouch! Taking all of that into consideration, PlumberSurplus gets the edge, over $21 cheaper than Home Depot!
I really want this faucet, by the way... in case Delta Faucet Company's reading this. ;)
Back on subject, though: You'll notice that for Improvement Direct, tax is listed as "See Site." That's something that Extrabux needs to improve. Also, there are some issues with products not being included in the comparison with other merchants if the product is listed slightly differently by the merchant... so the more specific you can be with your search term (for example, including a model number), the more likely you'll get a better conglomeration of results. Extrabux admitted in their press release that they did have some refinements to make and said they were working on it.
I think this is something we've really needed in the rewards program community, and kudos to Extrabux on the outstanding effort!
Alice.com (aff) is doing another Neighborhood Chat tonight at 6pm ET -- all attendees that RSVP here, add chat host Rebecca as a friend here (click here first to join Alice.com if you're not already a member), then send Rebecca a private message in chat tonight with your mailing address and preferred size, will get a free Alice.com t-shirt! Three RSVP'd attendees will also win $10 to their Alice.com account!
Here's my original post about Alice.com. They're an online grocery store with an electronic database of all available manufacturer's coupons which they take off your total at checkout automatically...and they ship orders of 6 items or more for free. There aren't any rewards programs paying cashback for Alice.com purchases yet... but I hope this will change soon!
The topic for tonight's chat is All Things Halloween! Hope you can come by and say hi -- friend me first, if you'd like, here.
I just learned that Upromise has added a Daily Double increased cashback merchant, so today I went to their site to see who it was to post about it. Twice in the process of getting from login to finding out who the Daily Double was, Upromise prompted me to download their TurboSaver toolbar.
Screenshot #1: After entering my Upromise password -- can't even get logged in without clicking the small, hard-to-read "close X" link to say I don't want the toolbar.
Once I closed the box and it allowed me onto the Upromise page, I clicked the red box behind the pop-up to see the Daily Double, and I got this -- Screenshot #2: Uh-oh, RED text saying that I need to take action!
Note the text after "No thanks. Continue." It makes me acknowledge that "...I'll be missing out on the college savings." This is a blatantly misleading statement. You do NOT have to have TurboSaver installed to participate in Upromise (just start shopping at the Upromise.com website)! You also do not have to have TurboSaver installed to participate in the $50K Pre-Holiday Giveaway that they're advertising here.
I've posted before about why I think you should avoid installing TurboSaver or any other toolbar. (More here and here.) It's very logical from a business standpoint why Upromise is becoming even more aggressive about promoting it as we enter the fourth quarter -- it's the most profitable quarter for retailers, so it's huge for shopping rewards programs, too. And by getting this piece of software onto your computer, they're that much closer to being sure they get a piece of the fourth quarter action...even if, perhaps, you wanted to get your shopping reward from a competing cashback program.
From the fine print at the bottom of this second screenshot (emphasis mine): "By installing the Upromise TurboSaver, you give Upromise permission to direct your visits to Upromise online retailers through your Upromise account and, if you are not cookied as a Upromise member, to request that you log in to your Upromise account before proceeding to the retailer's web site."
A) Do you want a piece of code on your computer watching what websites you go to so it can report your activities back to Big Brother? And B) Do you want to have to give Upromise permission to redirect your cashback through them if you might earn more from another rewards program?
Upromise is a decent rewards program overall, and I'll continue to recommend it to others (my link, in fact, if you want to join). It has pros and cons like most rewards programs and it does have some neat features that other programs don't have, like "eCoupons" that provide cash back to your Upromise account when you shop at a grocery or drugstore using a registered store loyalty card.
However, their constant and aggressive pushing of the TurboSaver toolbar is a SERIOUS negative for the program, IMHO, and I'm not going to promote their Daily Deal here while they continue to require members to walk the TurboSaver gauntlet to get there every day.
In watching the life cycle of rewards programs, as I have on CompareRewards.com for 8 years this month, there's something I've noticed that happens to every program when it's on the downhill slide: it shuts down its affiliate program. Examples?
Netwinner
- Shut down its affiliate program in early 2008,
- made all earned points worthless in May 2008,
- completely disappeared in April 2009.
ClubMom Rewards
Freestyle Rewards
MyPoints
So when I found out that SunshineRewards sent out an email on Monday announcing the closure of their affiliate program through the ShareASale network, I was very concerned. In the email, SunshineRewards stated that the reason for the closure was that the traffic it generated was "not what we had hoped."
This could actually mean one of a couple of things. ShareASale tacks on 20% to whatever a merchant (in this case, Sunshine) pays its affiliates (webmasters, mommy bloggers, whoever's promoting SR through ShareASale's links), with a minimum monthly charge of $25. So it could mean that SR wasn't getting enough new leads to justify the $25 a month cost.
It could also mean that the new members coming into SunshineRewards were joining (thus the webmasters were being paid for referring them), but they weren't sticking around to generate revenue for the site.
Neither situation seemed to be a good indicator for the company. If it's the former, how bad off do you have to be to not be able to afford $25 a month? Or if it's the latter, what is it that makes people check out Sunshine, then run away?
I voiced my concerns in an email to SunshineRewards' founder and CEO Tricia Meyer, who was gracious enough to write back almost immediately explaining her reasons for the decision.
She said that the affiliate program's closure had "absolutely nothing to do with finances" and was more related to a desire to have more control over where the site was advertised. She noted that the refer-a-friend program was still in place and generated more traffic, and more active members, than the affiliate program had. She also noted that the reward to members for referring a friend had not changed. (Although I have to point out that the refer-a-friend program only pays when a referral reaches a particular minimum activity level, versus the affiliate program that paid immediately after a new member joined.)
To those concerned about the timing of their affiliate program's closure, in the traditionally-profitable fourth quarter, Ms. Meyer stated that the company was continuing to spend on advertising in ways that provided better results and more control, including targeted Google ads, Facebook contests and Fan Page ads, and other promotions including an Amazon gift card giveaway the site is offering this month for Halloween.
Will SunshineRewards buck the trend of rewards programs discontinuing their affiliate programs and then closing down or selling off within a year's time? I certainly hope so! I've referred many people to SunshineRewards and will continue to do so (in fact, here's my link if you want to try them out). But yes, the news of the affiliate program's closure did make me nervous and I'd be doing my readers a disservice to fail to report about it.
I want to thank Tricia Meyer of SunshineRewards for taking the time to so graciously respond to my concerns...and I wish her, and SunshineRewards, the best. Please click "Continue Reading" to view the full text of Tricia's email, reprinted with her permission.
In the interest of full disclosure, I am a shopping blogger for two of Sunshine's competitors, Ebates and QuickRewards.net.
Five years ago, I made the decision to advise members against using Memolink because of a variety of reasons including slow payments, changing point values, and unprofessional business practices (including sending undercover Memolink employees to CompareRewards to pose as happy Memolink members and criticize actual members who were voicing concerns about the program). At that point, Memolink had an "Unsatisfactory" rating with the BBB. I feel my decision to warn off potential members at that time was 100% justified.
Five years is a long time in Internet Years, though, and in that time Memolink has outlasted quite a few of its would-be competitors. You have to respect them for sticking it out, catching up with their outstanding redemptions, improving their BBB rating to its current status of A+, and expanding to the point of being recognized as one of the fastest-growing private companies in America. That's one hell of a turnaround.
Last year, Memolink sent a representative to attend my annual chat (co-hosted with my good friend Ginger of AttentionTargetShoppers). Nicki Hayes (Director of Consumer Marketing) was a good sport, taking some ribbing in stride, answering questions about Memolink, and even awarding prizes and Memolink swag to chat attendees.
After my 2008 annual shopping rebate comparison was released, Ms. Hayes voiced surprise and concern at Memolink's performance compared to their competition. In reaction, Memolink immediately increased its shopping rates to offer members a better value.
These and other interactions I've had with Ms. Hayes over the past year and a half have led me to the conclusion that Memolink is making an honest effort to embrace, and make amends to, the rewards program community. Because all of the reports I had heard on Memolink recently were positive, I decided to give them another try...and I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised.
Points offered for shopping at Memolink were competitive when calculating their real dollar value of the points, and my points were credited to my account quickly after I shopped. I played Memolink Lotto a few times and won a few points that way, and when I redeemed my points, I received my reward quickly.
I've asked around and my recent experience is not unusual. Things have improved dramatically at Memolink and I feel confident in once again recommending Memolink to others.
I've updated my Memolink review if you want to read it through but here's what you need to know in a nutshell: You'll earn a minimum of 25 points per day from clicking email links, a daily onsite For Your Info click, and by playing lotto and answering a trivia question. You can also earn "hundreds" of points if you qualify for a market research survey. And of course, you'll earn points for every dollar spent in shopping through Memolink's links to hundreds of popular online stores. 19,200 points = a $10 redemption, and there are many redemptions to choose from including Walmart, iTunes, Best Buy, Amazon, PayPal, and cash (check). Charity donations can be made for as little as 1,600 points (for $1).
Shopping rates -- assuming redemption costs remain constant -- are fair and as I said above, it's a pretty quick turnaround from shopping to cashing out to receiving your redemption.
"Is Becky going soft? Is she selling her soul to the devil for a few measly referrals?" If you're a long-time reader, you know me far better than that. I'm going to watch these guys like a hawk because my reputation is at stake here. I stand behind my program recommendations, and I'll pull this or any other program in a heartbeat if they start mistreating their members.
I'm willing to give Memolink another shot. They've paid their dues and I think they deserve a second chance. If you agree with me, join Memolink here (my referral link) and forward me your confirmation email (make sure it doesn't display your password -- I don't need that!) and your mailing address, and I'll send you a free surprise package of Memolink swag.
If you have recent experience with Memolink, good or bad, and you'd like to share it in a comment here, I'd love to hear from you!
