MyPoints

I was having a rough time earning points on MyPoints. After you fill out their Preferences and surveys, it's slow going unless you want to sign up for a bunch of offers that generally require some sort of financial involvement on your part (even the "free trials").

However, that was before I discovered all of the BonusMails that Gmail was shunting into my Spam folder. Arrgh. I quickly went from around 210 points to 335 points. Later that day, after digging up more long-lost BonusMails and receiving a few BonusMails and SurveyMails, I had hit 365 points.

On March 2nd, I received 2 BonusMails. I didn't complete either offer, but I still received 5 points each for clicking the link and at least looking at them. One was for a sort of neat Tidycat Litter System that I really wish they'd had when my old cat was still alive. I also considered buying it to see if I could train my pet rabbit to use it, but considering the fact that she tipped her last litter box over and wore it as a hat, I decided against this. In any case, my point is that the offers are worth checking out even if you don't generally complete them or buy anything, because you do occasionally find something neat.

I also received 2 SurveyMails. I didn't ultimately qualify for either, getting "kicked out" about halfway through each - which kind of sucked, but I think I may have still gotten 10 points apiece just for attempting to take a survey (and not qualifying). That's pretty nice, considering the fact that another website, SendEarnings doesn't give you anything at all if you don't qualify. In any case, I also attempted to qualify for another survey... also disqualified. Man, I suck at qualifying for this stuff. I have a sneaking suspicion that if I'd claimed to drink more beer, I would have qualified for at least one of those surveys. That'll teach ME to not be a raging alcoholic.

Anyway, that totals up to about 20 definite points that day. I would have gotten 30 more, had I qualified for the surveys.

Doing the Math:

So how "worth it" does that make my MyPoints efforts? As of March 5th, I am averaging 10 points per day. At an average rate of 10 points per day, and my current total of 365, in order to get a gift card with a value of approximately 2,000 points, it will take approximately 164 days (6 months).

But let's be more specific. Let's set our sights on a specific reward card with a specific value. One that I, personally, would actually use: a $50.00 Staples gift card, for 6750 points. At this rate, that would take nearly (but not quite) a year... 640 days, or slightly under 22 months.

That's a long time!

So why not do the other stuff? Why not complete a bunch of offers and stuff? Well, because I'm trying to accomplish these goals with the minimum personal investment. I consider every offer I sign up for to be a "risk" in some way. Some of them want some sort of financial investment... some of them want me to divulge information I consider none of their business at best, or dangerous at worst. The surveys I consider to be marginally safe.

That doesn't mean that I won't consider buying things from Offers that I actually want, just that I'm not going out of my way to buy a bunch of junk for a few points. If I do any online shopping, it'll likely be using their website as a gateway, in order to accrue points for the money I spend. I consider that to be a pretty good deal, especially for places that award amounts like 4 points per dollar spent. I'm going to spend the money anyway. Why not get a kick-back for it? So if you do a lot of online shopping at places that they have deals with, you'll probably be doing pretty well for yourself.

That's if they pay out, which I have not yet verified. They have gotten a ton of great reviews from members, so we'll see. To that end, I'll select a "cheaper" gift card to go after. Something I'll still like and use.

The Game Plan:

The American Red Cross Donation looks interesting, and I'd love to do that... unfortunately, I don't know a way to verify it since I don't think it would be a physical card in my hot little hands. So I'll go with something else. I happen to know that my aunt loves Bath & Body Works, so I'll aim for a $10 gift card there. $10 at Bath & Body Works doesn't go far, but hey, it's $10 more than she had. Anyway, it costs 1400 points.

At my current rate, that will take 104 days. I may be able to speed it up a little bit with a survey here and there (if I ever qualify for one!). So let's plink along for another 4 months and see where that gets me. 4 months for one $10 gift card? Well, I'm certainly not in this to make a living, just to see if it works - even if it works slowly.

It is important to note that so far, MyPoints has not taken away points for what I like to call "bullsh** reasons". It's early in the game, but this is still important. I don't have my hard-won earnings yanked away for reasons I can't understand, and I'm not worried that they're going to go down the tubes. This is a good sign.

My Progress:
March 2nd: 365 points
March 5th: 395 points
Average: about 10 points per day.