MrRebates (aff) is running a great promotion called "It's Your Lucky Day." Each day through March 17th, your first 25 click-throughs to visit one of MrRebates' merchants will double as instant-win entries into a contest for five $100 prizes!

In addition, they've bumped up their shopping rates for nearly 200 of their stores for this same time period. MrRebates' shopping rates are already among the highest out there (if not THE highest), and these increases make them even MORE impressive!

Some of my favorites in this promo: Buy.com at 3%, Cafe Press at 17%, 35% cashback on the Entertainment Book, Vera Bradley at 8%, and Yves Rocher at 34% (up from 10%). MrRebates maintains an extensive list of updated coupons for all of their merchants, too.

If you haven't joined MrRebates yet, this is a great time to check them out! I've been offered a special link for a $7.50 signup bonus for joining MrRebates -- it's $5 elsewhere, so you'll get a little added incentive when you join here to support CompareRewards. I highly recommend MrRebates, but don't take my word for it: I urge you to do the research and you'll see that this rewards program is one of the industry leaders and a can't-miss for diehard online shoppers!

Today, March 12th, earn 4 points per dollar (worth approximately 3%) at Tire Rack!

If you're not a member of MyPoints.com and you'd like to sign up, earning points redeemable for gift cards for doing things like reading emails, answering surveys, completing polls, and shopping, please click here (aff) -- thanks!

In addition, MyPoints is doing a sweepstakes with one winner in March and one in April each winning a million points. Many actions on MyPoints qualify for entries into the sweeps including playing the Spin n' Win Game, completing a "frog" in the MyPoints Frog Pond, registering a credit card with MyPoints In Store, referring friends who join the program, completing your MyPoints profile, downloading and using their Point Finder toolbar (you'll want to avoid this -- toolbars are evil), redeeming points, or making purchases through MyPoints, with bonus entries if it's their Merchant of the Week or Big Points Offers. See the rules for the exact amount each of these activities will earn toward the sweeps.

Basically the one million points sweepstakes is meant to drum up activity across the board on MyPoints.

You can earn the most points toward the sweeps if you make purchases at MyPoints...but you know, if you've read my shopping comparison analyses, MyPoints consistently offers the WORST overall shopping rates out there once you do the math on what a point actually equals, compared to a dozen plus other competitors. Are you willing to get paid significantly less for shopping, in exchange for chances at ONE prize a month of a million points? For me, the answer is abso-freakin'-lutely not!

So, once again MyPoints comes up with a completely underwhelming promotion. Why not do something that would benefit ALL of your members, like increase your shopping rates, even for a limited time, like they do at Ebates, MyPoints, Upromise, Memolink, and MrRebates? Heck, MyPoints could DOUBLE all their shopping rates and they still wouldn't be the best overall shopping site!

MyPoints' best selling point is its point-earning opportunities that don't require you to spend anything, like points for reading emails, points for printing coupons, points for answering polls, and points for searching. To the extent that the Spin n' Win game gives members free points -- it's great. But for shopping, my recommendation stands: AVOID.

One other important thing I want to mention: MyPoints monitors member participation in these games very closely and in the past, they've used gameplay (I believe, by IP) to detect members violating their Terms of Service by having multiple accounts. If MyPoints thinks you are ripping them off by having multiple accounts, they can delete your account immediately, you'll lose your balance, and you'll have NO RECOURSE. I strongly suggest that you play fairly, and I'll go one further and strongly suggest that if you and a spouse both have MyPoints accounts, that only ONE of you play the game each day. They are VERY MILITANT about prohibiting fraud. Do NOT try to rip off MyPoints!

And last of all, MyPoints, if you're reading this -- and I know that you do -- there should be two apostrophes in the contraction for and, one before and one after the n. My 9 year old knew that. ;)

Through March 12th, you'll earn 11% (vs. the usual 4%) at Under Armour!

Upromise has great ways to earn for college or cashback for yourself both online and off. Be sure to check out their dining program and their eCoupons! Not a member yet? Join UPromise.com here! (aff)

"Cashback has been interesting. I would say it has worked; it hasn't worked fantastically in the sense that it has completely changed the economic structure of the business, for the user or anybody else...but it certainly has had positive results. So, I'd expect to see us continue Cashback, continue to kinda rethink it, morph it, try to do some things around the basic Cashback concept to try to make it a more potent and important thing for the merchant as well as for the user."

In other words, while Microsoft intends to keep Bing Cashback, at least for now, we're likely to see some sort of revamp of the program in the months ahead.

I cashed out my Bing Cashback account over the weekend and had my payment in my PayPal account on Monday (see below). Hope that any changes they make to the program involve expanding the program, for example, to include more big-name national merchants, rather than limiting it in some way.

Seeing is believing: I cashed out on Sunday, Feb. 28th, and got this in my PayPal account the next day:

MrRebates has chosen CompareRewards as one of the few websites to offer a special signup bonus to new members: $7.50 (versus $5 elsewhere)! If you're interested in trying them out for yourself, please join MrRebates here (my referral link; thanks)!

You can select up to 15 stores and up to 15 categories of products, and choose your desired frequency of emails, either daily or weekly. Upromise will then email you "coupons, deals, sales, and clearance offers." You can modify your selections by logging into Upromise, clicking My Account, then My Deal Alerts.

Just remember, if you click through Upromise's email or use the coupons they provide, your cashback will go to your Upromise account. If you get a heads-up on a great deal through Upromise's Deal Alert but you can get better cashback elsewhere, don't click through the email -- go directly to your preferred rewards program and click through THEIR link to the store where you want to shop.

Neat feature -- great job, Upromise!

Today, on the occasion of Swagbucks' second birthday, the program launched Swagbucks 3.0, which promises some VERY rewarding new features soon, but first you need to know about their change in points structure and why they did it.

BOTH the Swagbucks in your account, AND the Swagbucks required to cash out for each prize, were multiplied by 10. So you didn't lose ANY value of the Swagbucks in your account. But what this does is, it gives Swagbucks a lot more leeway to give away more smaller amounts of points in other ways (which is coming soon; in fact, two new ways to earn Swagbucks daily are supposed to be announced later today, and Swagbucks games are in development). You just have to keep in mind that, GOING FORWARD, if you win a single Swagbuck for something, it's not worth as much as it was yesterday.

So the big question I had was, "Swagbucks made everybody's account equal today what it was yesterday by multiplying our balances by 10, the same amount as the prize cost was multiplied. But will we earn the same amount for searching, or will our SEARCHES be worth 10x as well?" I asked that question of Swagbucks' CEO Scott Dudelson in email, and he responded this morning to say that your odds of winning/prize value should be the same (see my win image from this morning below -- what would've been a one SB win was today a tenspot), the major difference is that we can accumulate SB in new ways now...to be announced. ;)

Another big change for Swagbucks is that you now HAVE to be logged in, in order to search and win. My guess is that they want to tie Swagbucks wins directly to a member's account to circumvent abuse by non-logged-in members going to multiple computers or using proxies to generate new IP addresses, making frivolous searches, being triggered as a random winner, and then logging in to claim the SB. This change will help make sure Swagbucks doesn't give away more bucks than they can afford and helps wipe out a huge contingent of cheaters. Please note that if you're a Swagbucks toolbar user (groan, I hate toolbars!), it's not enough to have the toolbar visible on your screen, you MUST be logged in to earn Swagbucks.

That covers the biggest of the changes. Although you'll notice a new logo and a few cosmetic differences, pretty much everything's the same except that 1) balances AND prize costs both went up by 10 times, and 2) you have to be logged in to earn Swagbucks. Now, here's the scoop on the Swagbucks birthday celebration!

There will be Swagbucks giveaways all day long! Instead of having an hourly random winner of 10 (now 100) Swagbucks, they're selecting a winner every 30 minutes -- make sure you're on top of it and click the link to claim your prize within the time limit! They're kicking off some Swag Code giveaways around noon CT today -- be sure to keep checking their blog, Facebook, and Twitter! And later today they're going to announce two new ways for members to win Swagbucks daily! Today is going to be a Swagbucks giveaway day of epic proportions, according to The Swag Guy, so strap on your party hats, folks, today's going to be FUN!

Now if you haven't gotten swept up in Swagbucks Mania yet, you're in luck: CompareRewards has been given a special signup bonus Swag Code for 60 Swagbucks for new members: It's COMPAREREWARD (nope, no "S" on the end) and you enter it when sign up for Swagbucks (that's my referral link; thanks)!

Swagbucks is a GREAT program, very reliable payer, super-receptive management, and I highly recommend them. You're not going to earn a fortune with them, but it all adds up -- with the help of the friends I've referred to them, I've earned well over $2,000 in the past two years (because up to a certain maximum, when your friends win, you win, too)! I haven't updated my Swagbucks payment proof screenshots on Flickr in a while (lazy! Uh, I mean, busy!) but they're there if you want to see 'em! A+ program, check 'em out!

Sometime earlier this month, Best Buy issued certificates to members with over 250 points in their account (which equals a $5 reward certificate). The remainder of the points, earned prior to December 31, were forfeited. I lost around 65 points, or just over $1.

According to a December 2009 Best Buy press release, the company currently has 19.9 million members. If every one of those members lost as many points as I did...well, you can see their reasoning in wiping out those points.

This is a good time to remind those of you who use your RewardZone card in-store that you can also earn RewardZone points for online purchases...and you can earn cash back IN ADDITION when you click through a rewards program's link to Best Buy. For example, you'll earn 2% cashback on most Best Buy purchases PLUS a $5 bonus on your first order through MrRebates (aff). And you can choose in-store pickup, too, so you don't have to pay shipping charges.

The Bing Cashback Valentine's Day Gift Guide features cashback increases running through the 10th including direct links to receive 10% cashback at Ebay and Sears, 20% at Sephora and Drugstore.com, 25% at Teleflora and Ghirardelli Chocolates, and more.

In addition, the deal forums are buzzing about the return of 20% Bing Cashback at Walmart, accessed by doing a Bing.com search for exercise equipment and clicking through the Walmart sponsored link with the gold coin beside it. Remember, the 20% rate will apply to ALL products you buy during that shopping session, not just exercise equipment! Choose site-to-store shipping and you'll still earn the cashback but will avoid paying shipping.

Ebates has a link on their main page to click, "Fall in Love with Double Cash Back! Shop now". Clicking it takes you to a page featuring 12 Valentine's-themed merchants offering increased cashback. The only problem is that although the banner touts, "Double Cash Back," only ONE of the twelve merchants actually has their cashback rate doubled (Blue Nile, with 6% instead of 3%). The other ELEVEN are increased, yes, but NOT DOUBLED.

Love you guys, Ebates, but CompareRewards is a no-BS zone. Increasing a rate from 6% to 8% isn't even close to doubling it. What say we back down on the hype just a notch and call these "Cash Back Increases You'll Love" or something to that effect? That'd be a little less egregious of a claim.

As of this writing, go to Bing.com, search for HDTV, and click through the Tiger Direct sponsored link for 15% cashback on your entire order (you'll also get sponsored results offering 8% cashback at Ebay and 10% at Target).

You can also search for Macy's cashback and you'll get a result to click through for 25% cashback there.

Note: the search terms and cashback rates change frequently; use of coupon codes (even those provided on the landing pages when you click through) may invalidate your Bing Cashback.