Points2Shop Has Shipped My Prize...

I received this email from Points2Shop today:

"Your order is approved and ordered at Amazon.com. As soon as we receive the tracking number we will update the status of your order. You will receive notification of this by email."

This means I should get my CD soon. I haven't received a tracking number yet.

Unfortunately, many of the offers and surveys I've taken on Points2shop recently seem to be stuck in "approval limbo". I hope that it doesn't turn out to be the same situation as GamingLagoon all over again. From the announcements, though, it looks as if they are doing a major site overhaul. Hopefully, the 'approval limbo' is linked to this, and things will get better once they're done updating the website.

Anyway, Points2Shop is also linked to something called Cashle. Instead of Amazon points, you earn cash. Cash can be converted to Amazon points on Points2shop, but Amazon points cannot be converted to cash. I mainly ignored Cashle since many of the offers only give you a few cents, but some of the Daily Surveys look like they have a decent payout, so I may switch over to Cashle for a little while and see what my experience with that is.

As for Reviewstream, I got burnt out on review writing and let it rest for a little while. Part of the problem is that they only want to pay the full rate for certain kinds of reviews. I'm not sure about some categories, but I know that makeup and electronics reviews are in demand. And I was sort of sick of reviewing makeup and shampoo. Right now, my opinion is to only review things such as food if you're willing to accept the bulk rate. Nonetheless, I'll be writing a few more reviews over the next few days while picking my brain for more ideas for Associated Content articles.

Neobux Paid Me

I finally reached the $2.00 minimum payout on Neobux and cashed out. They paid me almost instantly. By the time I opened a new tab and logged into Paypal, my payment was already there:



It's $1.98 because Neobux apparently takes fees out when they pay you. They inform you of this when you go to cash out, though.

I would like to stress that this was done WITHOUT a premium account, without renting referrals, and with no actual referrals (nobody clicked my referral link, nobody loves me... *sniff*).

You'll also see a payment from Ciao - my final payment, actually. Took them about a month, in comparison.

I also recently requested a prize from Points2Shop. It was a pretty cheap price - a CD from a band I happen to like, used, for about 3 bucks plus maybe another dollar or two for shipping. It didn't come up in the Points2Shop searches, I had to manually enter the product ID, but I wasn't told it had to be specially requested or anything, so hopefully the request will go through normally. If so, it should arrive in a few days.

I've been plinking away at Swagbucks, as usual. Swagbucks and Neobux are favorites of mine, by now. I like ReviewStream but I've been having difficulty thinking up new reviews (that they'll accept at full price, anyway). Same with Associated Content. Those two definitely take more time and energy, although they pay a lot better.

Regarding Surveyspot, I have not yet qualified for a single paying survey. Regarding Opinion Outpost, many of the surveys they offer seem to be surveys I can also take through Dollar Surveys. I'd rather get the 1 buck (transferred to my Paypal within a week) than "points" I have to save up, so it's not hard to guess why I tend to go with Dollar Surveys. That, and they don't ask for tons and tons of personal information about myself.

Progress, Monday June 22.

Associated Content accepted another article. It's currently processing, and I hope it posts later today.

I redeemed my third Swagbucks prize, another $5.00 Amazon gift card.

MyPoints - I finally have enough points for the $10.00 Bath & Body Works gift card, however, some of those points are still "pending" and I can't order it until they officially post.

Sendearnings - up to $16.93 (cashout is $30.00)

ReviewStream - Writing several reviews a day and up to $18.80 (cashout is $50.00). A dozen more are still pending. You can find links to posted reviews here.

Neobux - up to 50 whole cents!

Points2Shop - 764 points. Not really a 'minimum' cashout, but it's the equiv. of about $7.64 on Amazon. Got my sights set on a $25.00 pair of 'pirate' boots. It's gonna be a while. Some offers I completed last week are still 'pending' but others post almost immediately - I'm hoping this doesn't turn into another GamingLagoon situation.

Survey Spot - As of yet, I have not qualified for any paying reviews.

MyLot- have been signing in and posting every few days, I'm up to $2.54 (that only took, what, 6 months?).

Gaminglagoon - What's that? My pending offers are still pending? Surely, you jest.

I have found a few other places to join but won't be discussing them until I have an idea of how they may pan out.

A relative also emailed me a list of paid survey websites. The list is incredibly long! I don't think I could ever evaluate all of these, although I'm sure some will clearly be garbage the moment I look at them. I plan on leafing through it over the course of this week, however.

I have a lense on Squidoo, predictably called Shiny Little Pennies.

Up To Speed

Sites I Have Hit Payout On, And Have Paid Me:

Associated Content - Another article awaiting review.

Swagbucks - Roughly 10 points away from another gift card.

Sites I Am Close To Payout On, But Have Not Yet Gotten Payment:

MyPoints - I have nearly accumulated enough points to request my first gift card. That only took a few months, eh?


Sites I Am Not Close To Payout On, But Are Good Prospects:

I have not personally cashed out on any of these sites yet, and therefore cannot vouch for them in good faith. You are still welcome to join them if you want, but I won't give them my endorsement yet (so to speak).

Survey Spot - Still haven't qualified for any paid surveys.

NeoBux - Surprisingly, one of the best "get paid to click ads" websites I have encountered. I started out with only 4 ads to click per day, at 1 cent each, but am now up to 6 ads, and one of them counts for a cent and a half (which hardly makes sense, but ok).

SendEarnings - Yep, it's still slow as slow gets. I don't waste much effort on SendEarnings, lately. In any case, NeoBux is looking much more promising.

Points2Shop - The daily surveys are the only real way I get points. Honestly, I don't feel like giving away all of my personal information or signing up for stupid "free trials". That's about 50 points (50 cents' equivalent, I guess) per day, when I qualify at all. So it's going to take me a while. Assuming I only qualify half the time, that's roughly 150 points a week. But I guess it's not bad if you're saving up points for something special.

ReviewStream - I'm not a big fan of ReviewStream for regular reviews, they'll gyp you out of the full review rate and give you the Bulk Rate whenever possible. Nonetheless, I get the sense that it's fairly legit. I have recently submitted several ReviewStream reviews for the full rate, and one has gotten approved so far. You can find links to them here.

Scour - 183 points so far. I don't focus on Scour, but run my searches in it when I remember to.

Sites I Have Looked At But Haven't Really Touched:

Textbroker


Sites I Have Doubts About:

GamingLagoon - My Completed Offers are still pending. Big surprise.

Hits4Pay - Yep, they still want my SSN. A reader recently commented in defense of Hits4Pay's request for a Social Security number. I already understood that this was for tax purposes, but I'm not comfortable giving my SSN out to every Tom, Dick, and Harry. I've been poking around PTC sites for a while and honestly, since I am not an aggressive recruiter, it is highly unlikely that I will be making more than $600.00 from them.

Hits4Pay's BBB report can be found here. It's an A-, actually not a bad report. However, it is ultimately up to individuals whether or not they wish to divulge such information.

Legitimacy Verified - Associated Content and Swagbucks

I actually got my Associated Content payment deposited in my Paypal account several days ago, but a lot has happened since then in my personal life. I had to put a few things on hold for a while, and I have not been able to update this blog.

Here's the screenshot of the payment. It's only $3, but it's $3 more than I had, right?





As for Swagbucks, I got my first Amazon gift certificate code today. I actually redeemed the Swagbucks a few days ago, but it takes some time for them to post the code (my guess is that they request codes from Amazon either in batches every week, or else they request them on an individual basis, I don't know). You don't have to worry about missing it - they send you an email when the code is ready. When you go to My Account and check under My Gift Cards, there it is. I think it's clever - this way, you don't have to worry about your spam filter causing you to miss a gift card code that was emailed to you.

Here's a series of screenshots, from putting in my request for the gift card to actually entering it into my Amazon.com account. I have pixelated anything that might compromise the security of my account or otherwise cause problems (including the gift card code, my last name, and order numbers). Please do not email me asking for these things "as proof". I'm not going to send them to you, because I'm not stupid. Anyway:




And now the actual redemption of the gift code:





So there you go. I'm now $5.00 richer, which isn't a whole lot but it's free money so I can't really complain. You won't be rolling in dough but if you're a gamer looking for a way to support your monthly WoW habit, or you're trying to figure out how to buy birthday or Christmas gifts that you otherwise can't afford, just run a few searches a day (some in the morning, some at night) on Swagbucks.com. It's not that hard to win, and it's somewhat useful as well. I haven't downloaded the toolbar because I generally loathe toolbars, but I've heard that it's quite handy, so maybe I'll change my mind.

As for this $5.00, it's going to help pay for my brother's birthday present.

Associated Content

The article I submitted to Associated Content was reviewed (it took about a week) and is currently processing. I now have a $3.00 payment pending, and have submitted another article.

Update:
The article was published. You can find it here: Budget Beauty For An Ugly Economy